More than 50 African leaders have gathered in Beijing for a summit aimed at increasing the influence of China in the developing world. President Xi Jinping pledged to direct nearly $51 billion and increased military aid over three years, stating that the Western approach to modernization has inflicted immense sufferings on developing countries.
Olúfémi Táíwò, professor of Africana studies at Cornell University, says it’s ironic that the same African leaders who have denounced colonialism, might now find common ground with the People’s Republic of China.
Táíwò says: “This is less about China and more about the lack of self-respect from Africa's leaders. What is Africa being defended from? It is unbelievable that the same people who deride colonialism think that they are better off putting themselves in the care of another who poses a serious threat to their sovereignties.”
“African leaders, some of whose antecedents were original contributors to the political and philosophical discourse of modernity, now sit down to be lectured at by a Chinese president whose country set on the part of modernization a bare 44 years ago, at least twenty years after so-called modernization in Africa post-independence.”
For interviews contact Adam Allington, cell: 231-620-7180, aea235@Cornell.edu.
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