Al Jazeera Wonders If Africa Can Choose, Ignores US History of Choice-Making
Al Jazeera's 'Counting the Cost' segment poses, "Can Africa choose economic partners on its own terms?" This intellectually dishonest framing ignores a historical pattern of Western intervention that consistently undermined African self-determination, reducing nuanced geopolitical dynamics to a mere 'competition for influence' between China, the US, and Europe. This isn't a new phenomenon; it's a
continuation of colonial and post-colonial policies where resource control dictated alliances, often with painful consequences for African nations. One might recall the long shadow cast by Cold War proxies, structural adjustment programs, or recent AFRICOM expansion, none of which suggest 'choice' was ever truly on the table. To genuinely address the question, one needs to examine the IMF and
World Bank's conditional loans, which frequently forced privatization and austerity on developing nations, crippling nascent industries and leaving states vulnerable to external exploitation. The question isn't whether Africa can choose, but whether the West allows it to choose partners that don't serve predetermined geopolitical or resource extraction interests. It's not a competition; it's a
continuation of historical economic hegemony disguised as concern.