The year 2023 on the African continent has seen the opening of many global construction agendas that deserve attention and much implementation work. There are at least three international events that can be significant turning points for pan-African projection in global dynamics.

The first is the United Nations General Assembly, which in February 2023 voted overwhelmingly for a resolution calling for the “immediate” withdrawal of Russian troops that invaded Ukraine a year earlier and a “just and lasting” peace. The text received 141 votes in favor out of 193 member states. Seven countries voted against, Belarus, Syria and North Korea, traditional allies of Russia, as well as Nicaragua, Eritrea and Mali.

In general, among the countries that abstained, many were African, including Angola, Ethiopia, Algeria, Guinea and Mozambique. These positions can be explained by the traditional relationship between some African states of socialist tradition and the Soviet Union, and thus Russia. However, these abstentions signal the return of a form of “multi-alignment” in an international context where partnerships are multiplying and diversifying.

However, in an article published after the first vote, Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), qualified the reasons for the African states' abstention. He said that it was not only the result of “Moscow's influence and the decline in the popularity of Europeans and Americans,” but “also and above all a reflection of prudence and safeguarding by a multidependent Africa.”

The second development of note is the entry of the African Union (AU) as a permanent member of the G20. This is another key moment that puts into practice one of the goals of Agenda 2063 - The AU’s (African Union) long-term plan to transform Africa into a global powerhouse -, which is to end the continent's geostrategic subalternity and bring its specific weight to bear more.

In terms of demographics, according to United Nations forecasts, Africa will have nearly 2.5 billion inhabitants by 2050. In other words, more than 25 percent of the world's population will be African. Thereafter, growth will slow, but Africa will remain by far the main driver of global population growth: it will account for nearly 40 percent of the world's population by the end of the century.

Economically, Africans represent a total GDP of $3 trillion and constitute a market of 1.2 billion people from 2021. The African Free Trade Area (Afcfta) is expected to increase intra-African trade by more than 50%, with a major impact on trade with the rest of the world, 29% of exports and more than 7% of imports, respectively. A significant 10% increase in average real GDP per capita is expected. It is now up to the AU to drag the continent toward the necessary reforms that can realize these potentials and expectations.

In short, it is not enough to aspire to sit at the table of the big boys, it is necessary to prove that we are by implementing structural governance reforms and economic models capable of breaking up the multisecular predatory economy so dear to extra-African exploiters and off-shore elites of the impoverished people.

The third development is the entry of Egypt and Ethiopia into the club of emerging Brics countries, to which many others (Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco...) aspire. The planned partnership between the African continent and the Brics is geared toward three specific areas: trade, foreign direct investment and development aid. In each of these areas, Africa has the necessary experience not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Cooperation with the Brics - if the priority areas are well identified and targeted - can foster economic growth, create jobs and accelerate the continent's inclusion in global value chains. It is unfortunate that Ethiopia and Egypt are playing the game individually instead of with the AU. A unity deficit that betrays the proclamations of wanting to transcend the borders drawn by the colonizers. “Africa must unite,” wrote Nkrumah, the father of Pan-Africanism. However, when it comes time to play together, nationalist reflexes return. We have plenty of time to rethink our membership in Brics and put in place an Afro-African agenda that integrates with them, so that we do not suffer new paracolonial influences.

See, Le sfide dell’Africa nel mondo globale