What’s behind Italy’s Africa initiative? Gas, cynicism and an unspoken colonial past
Not so long ago, Giorgia Meloni was calling for naval blockades along the African coastline and regaling her millions of supporters with whitenationalist conspiracy theories. Now, just over a year into her mandate, Italy’s far-right prime minister has radically sanitised her discourse. Last week, at a summit in Rome, Meloni declared that Europe’s “paternalistic” approach to Africa had failed. From now on, she promised, Italy would be pursuing a “mutually beneficial” cooperation “among equals”, free from the “predatory impositions” of the past.
As a gesture towards this new approach, the government has pledged more than €5.5bn (£4.7bn) to fund energy, education, healthcare and agriculture initiatives in Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Mozambique, Egypt, the Republic of the Congoand others. In exchange, Meloni hopes African nations will take measures to help stop irregular boat crossings in parts of the Mediterranean, which last year rose by approximately 50% on 2022.
The government labelled the summit “a great success” and “the most historic such meeting in 200 years”. The reality, of course, is more fraught than such vainglorious PR suggests. After all, Meloni had already signed an agreement with the president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, last summer, requesting assistance for cracking down on people smugglers. Despite his assurances, boat departures from the country have so far continued to rise and the new plan contains no formal guarantees that could seem to alter the situation.
Neither does the proposed investment look particularly beneficial for Africa. While Italy’s commitment to funding schools and water purification facilities is welcome in principle, there’s nothing to suggest a sustainable policy is suddenly on the table. On the contrary, when you consider that part of the promised €5.5bn was sliced off the budget that was supposed to be dedicated to climate resilience projects, that future payments will be limited to €2.8m a year until 2026 , and that European companies could ultimately profit from the scheme, the investment starts to look less like a historic policy shift than a hastily organised backroom deal.
The more one looks into the details of Meloni’s “Mattei plan” (named after Enrico Mattei, founder of the state oil company Eni), the clearer it becomes that her vision is not about co-creating new paradigms for intercontinental cooperation at all, but increasing the Italian government’s influence over EU foreign policy.
For months, the PM has been courting the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in an effort to convince her that, despite her populist past, she is a safe and reliable pair of hands. From her staunch support for Nato to her withdrawal from China’s belt and road initiative, Meloni has worked tirelessly to align Italy with EU allies on key strategic issues. This week’s summit was another part of that charm offensive. By bringing 45 African leaders to Rome just ahead of the European elections, Meloni aimed to showcase Italy’s ability to secure new agreements not only on migration but also on energy imports. Her message on this front was clear: as the continent scrambles to compensate for a shortfall in Russian gas, her government is perfectly positioned to help the bloc gain a competitive advantage over other powers in the region by setting up new deals with Algeria, Egypt and Libya.
If you’re reading this and thinking that such a resource-greedy conception of EU-Africa relations sits uneasily with the Italian government’s newfound egalitarian rhetoric, well, you wouldn’t be the only one. Moussa Faki, chair of the African Union Commission, offered some particularly strong reservations about Meloni’s proposals, warning her about “promises that can’t be kept” and reminding her that Africans are not “beggars”. NGOs and civil society groups have also voiced concerns about the top-down nature of the proposals, complaining that the Italians have so far made no effort to consult local governments and communities regarding the investments and that there are no guarantees in place to prevent the exploitation or theft of natural resources that has been a structural feature of past relationships.
For all the pomp and ceremony, and all the pretty words, the power dynamics latent in the Mattei plan are all too familiar. Italy is throwing Africa some pocket change and expecting the continent’s governments to accept its proposals without fussing too much over the details. Does that sound like “cooperation among equals” to you? Of course not.
The fact remains that until Italy takes meaningful steps to decolonise its institutions, any talk of fair partnership is doomed to hypocrisy. And that effort needs to start closer to home. From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, Italy committed horrific crimes in present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and Somaliland, yet public knowledge of this history remains scant. Most are simply unaware of the facts. Some, including prominent politicians, actively celebrate those years of dominion.
This has a direct impact on politics today. Right now, thousands of Africans are working in slave-like conditions, picking fruit and vegetables in Italy for criminally low wages. Government after government has turned a blind eye to this situation, treating it as a natural state of affairs. Thousands more African-Italians are stuck in “citizenship limbo” without full access to public services due to jus sanguinis(unlike the UK, the right to citizenship at birth is still unapproved in Italy).These people have been demanding a voice for decades, but their calls have repeatedly been ignored. It is simply not a priority for any political party.
Meloni’s presumption that colonialism can be solved with the click of a finger is a patronising and ultimately racist fantasy that negates the inequalities that persist in Italian society. As her government scrambles to sugarcoat its self-interested, extractivist policies abroad, it’s as clear as ever that no real justice will be possible until Africans on both sides of the Mediterranean are empowered to dismantle systemic forms of oppression.
Jamie Mackay is a writer and translator based in Florence