Time to play the soft power card



The increasing presence of China and India in Africa is an issue that is yet to be fully understood. As their roles in the continent begin to unfold, there is a concomitant interest in understanding how different each country's engagement will be in comparison with previous hegemonic forces such as European colonisers in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are crucial questions that need to be answered as the entrenchment of China's and India's interests in Africa consolidates. What are the conditions that turned each country from being relatively poor agrarian societies to major world economic players in a relatively short space of time? What are the conditions that arose within each of these countries to instigate an outward drive towards Africa? And what is it that Africa has to offer China and India in this era of globalisation?

Anand SinghAnand Singh
There are at least two opposing views about the value of Africa's connection to the global economy. One is an optimistic and favourable one that points towards significant upward economic mobility across at least 10 of the countries; the other is a patronising one that still places the continent in the throes of sheer darkness. Energy issues are of such dire need that the Africa Progress Report 2015 estimates two out of every three Africans, totalling almost 600 million people, are without access to electricity.

The situation is glum in even countries considered promising investment destinations. For instance, the cost of energy in Nigeria is astronomical even when compared to conditions in the northern hemisphere. Similar conditions prevail in other oil-rich states such as Gabon, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In some of the bigger economies, conditions are widely perceived as inhibitive at best, and almost prohibitive at worst. The abiding threats by Boko Haram in Nigeria and the endemic crime in South Africa coupled by the lack of capacity to generate electricity uninterrupted in a 24-hour cycle even in the most developed of industrial and commercial areas in South Africa have become major hurdles to greater potential for investments.

Yet, the continent is endowed with significant mineral deposits, fossilised energy reserves in countries such as Nigeria, Angola and Congo, and growing middle-class segments with increasing purchasing power. While the US is reeling back towards its own resources for fossilised fuels and depending less upon Africa, China and India are beginning to show an increasing interest in the continent-India is already the biggest purchaser of crude oil from Nigeria. Both see sustainable relations emerging over time in ways that will gather even greater momentum over the next few years.

But there is another reality gaining momentum in Africa: while China enters the continent on largely its own terms, publicly with little or no interest in domestic politics of the countries down south, India is often judged, in South Africa for instance, by magnate investments-the Mittal Group in steel and engineering, the Tatas and Mahindras in the automobile industry, and the Guptas in Sahara Computers. All these companies are known for their presence, but not for service or product quality. Africans know little about India's so-called "soft power" approach in training and empowering members of the civil service. If India wants to win the hearts and minds of the African masses, and capitalise more on the presence of NRI and PIO populations, more needs to be done to popularise their "soft power" engagement with the continent.

The author is anthropology professor at the School of Social Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban

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