Africa has an opportunity to reshape global power relations

FOR too long, Africa’s agency has been exercised defensively - managing expectations, preserving stability, reacting to external scripts.

- CARLOS LOPES

The continent has copied political systems from other countries and prioritised economic choices that would meet external obligations, such as repaying debt.

This posture was understandable immediately following independence in African states. At that time, the world was shaped by Cold War constraints and conditions imposed by those who provided aid and set up structural adjustment programmes.

But we are now in a different moment. The international order is shifting fast.

Multilateralism is fraying. Former rule-makers are bypassing the rules.

For instance, World Trade Organisation rules are no longer respected, and international law is questioned by powerful countries that helped shape it.

The narrative of “order” has collapsed into a contest of survival and influence. The most important drivers of value creation (turning basic resources into more valuable goods) are concentrated in a few powerful countries.

They use their influence to impose rules on more vulnerable countries on issues as diverse as tax regimes, data control or green taxonomy (the definition of what is considered to be green investment).

I’m an economist who specialises in climate change and governance, with a long background at the UN and the AU. I believe this disarray is a crack in the system wide enough to let new forms of agency through.

This is a moment that demands clarity, not consensus. It demands that Africa finally break with the legacy of managed dependency and embrace the messier, harder, but ultimately more liberating path of building for ourselves.

Africa, unlike many regions, is not anchored to legacy power. It has little institutional interest in defending the old order.