The operation in Mali, directly supported by the European powers is actually a regional reflection of global power competition. Western media has prepared the psychological ground and therefore a reason for an intervention considerably increasing islamofobia by exaggeratedly portraying the rebels as left alone and asking for foreign powers to intervene, and the “Islamists” – the word used as an insult in Western media – as easlily getting the country under their control.

The military presence of the US in Africa under the United States African Command (AFRICOM) is widely known. But it was France, not the US, to intervene directly into Mali. Moreover, they managed to do it under the socialist anti-colonial regime… Just ike it was with Libya, France has led the military intervention bringing out their altruism (!) in the name of “the bright future of the dark Africa”. It can be stated that the US preferred France to lead the intervention. France, being far from the NATO military wing, has thus returned to the military cooperation and at the same time cleaned the image of the US as an intervening occupier. The USA thus will have controlled the region with looser alliances and when a military power is needed it adopts the strategy of establishing an alliance with old African colonial powers. It is not even necessary to remind that in all this tumult China is America’s main global competitor.

This China competition in Africa will inevitably get the European powers involved. America needs to involve all the arguments that would help to balance China. European colonial powers are obliged to step in under these circumstances. The English and the French had to establish a power union with the US as a strategic preference in order to bring the almost dried-up river to life.

However, the fact that the old European colonial powers have to create a strategic alliance against China reveals their strategic vulnerability. It is already the historical truth that Germany, today’s most dynamic EU power, has not had its part of the colonial pie and was late in the race. It is very clear that Germany has no intentions to stay behind France and England when colonial powers are involved. The same is true for the Middle East. It makes sense to follow German strategy, preferences and intervention in regard with the solution to the Kurdish issue, which interests Turkey firsthand.

When will this competition over Africa, remindig of the balnce of powers n the 19th century, end? Will the Europeans row in the same strategic boat against the “Islamic threat” in order to protect their economic benefits? The Europeans have already paid the price of two world wars for their historical divisions and conflicts. Will the European project of rebuilding the “holy Rome” under the EU umbrella be possible when it comes to Africa? Especially considering that Germany is coming back to the historical scene now stornger than all the old colonial powers…

All these questions are legitimized by a statement made bu the German Energy Minister Dirk Niebel. The minister, talking to Die Welt newspaper, said that Germany had to cooperate with China in order to “help” their partners in Africa. Niebel stated that many African countries have realized that China is aimed at increasing economic benefits by bringing their “values” to the region, and that in this case German “values and experience” can be of help to Africans.

It is clear that Germany is not only after the economic benefits, like China, but is also trying to bring their value system to the region in order to “enlighten the dark Africa”.

Even though the traditional colonizational approach is not surprising, Germany by establishing alliance with France, other EU countries and the US is winking at China rather than coming into a new colonial share, which indicates a strategic fault line. It is also a sign that though they are able to equalize in spite of the competition in Europe, Africa might well become a battlefield.

The EU countries ar experienced enough no to start a war in Europe. But it does not mean they would not bring their conflicts to Africa. The competition in Africa might expose a deep crack in the EU.

In spite of all these strategic benefit conflicts, the plans to take the future of Africa on mortgage might be disturbed by the noble actions of Africans, whose personalities were historically formed as Muslims.

Ýlgili YazýlarEnglish