Namaste, Mr Modi, what took you so long?

WHEN Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi touches down on African soil later this week, it will be for a visit long overdue. As a frequent flyer, Modi visited all of Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal and the US in the first six months after taking office in 2014.

Yet, strangely, he has never set foot on the African mainland.

This despite India having sharpened its Africa focus and policy in recent years, and exponential growth in two-way trade between India and Africa.

Some observers believe this is mainly because India has shown a preference to host African heads of state, rather than make trips to the African continent – perhaps an oversight on its part.

Modi’s five-day African safari – taking him to Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya – is a welcome indication that India now places a high premium on bonding with African countries, for both geo-political and economic considerations.

When Modi visits South Africa, he will be renewing his friendship with his Brics partner, President Jacob Zuma, and the two heads of state will use this opportunity to strengthen bilateral and historical relations that go back to the times when India championed the international campaign against apartheid.

But perhaps the most emotional leg of Modi’s African mission will come when he lands in Durban to visit historical sites like the Phoenix Settlement, the Pietermaritzburg railway station where Mahatma Gandhi was once thrown off a train for demanding his rights, and the Gandhi Memorial Museum in the Grey Street complex.

Walking through the streets of Durban, he will encounter South Africans across the spectrum, including a vibrant community of over 1.2 million Indian South Africans who are descended mainly from indentured labourers who came from India more than 150 years ago, and now play an integral role in South Africa’s development and socio-political transformation.

Most may have few direct physical links with India today and see themselves as full-fledged South Africans.

India nevertheless still features prominently in their daily lives through films, music, food, culture, aesthetics, fashion, religion and a growing tourism and pilgrimage industry.

Welcome to South Africa, Mr Prime Minister. We hope that your visit here will help reinvigorate and strengthen the long-standing relations between our country and yours, and cement growing partnerships between India and the African continent as a whole.