Why Africans must become more Machiavellian The Africa Report
IN a world where digital lynch mobs hunt in packs and where anonymity unleashes the worst in people, to the point of forcing many frightened leaders to become followers, I highly recommend those who lead us to read (or reread) Machiavelli. Out of the long list of terms that are poorly used, the word Machiavellianism is top of that list, along with cynicism, whose definition has completely changed from its original meaning (all wisdom and freedom).
Nicolas Machiavelli was an outstanding realist and political thinker, and what he tells us in The Prince deserves to be engraved on every presidential palace’s frontispiece: “Fallen princes are those who, during the calm, did not worry about the storm.”
In other words, explains philosopher Roger-Pol Droit: “If the prince can only have one virtue, it should be the ability of knowing how to anticipate. When one foresees evil from afar, which is a gift only given to men possessing great sagacity, it is soon cured; but if, for lack of light, one has only been able to see it once it has stricken all eyes, then it is impossible to cure it. And there is nothing more to be done.”
How many of our leaders are able to spot the signs and act accordingly before the storm comes? I wish that African leaders would become Machiavellian! Without limits
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Mao’s most powerful successor, draws his inspiration not from the 16th century Italian theorist but from a much older general and strategist, Sun Tzu, whose famous treatise The Art of War teaches us how to win without fighting.
Xi’s China is no longer that of Deng Xiaoping, the skilful “little helmsman” who — at the end of the last century — discreetly and pragmatically liberated China’s economy without provoking anyone. Xi exudes a self-confidence that borders on hubris against a backdrop of paranoia. Furthermore, he was at the head of a nation that is both bright red and wildly capitalist, a synthesis that the West thought would be impossible to achieve between these two seemingly incompatible ideologies.
In fact, it marked the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on July 1, amid a climate of ideological orthodoxy and unbridled nationalism. These celebrations were held in all of the world’s capitals — particularly in Africa — and consisted of numerous ceremonies, conferences and commemorations led by zealous diplomats, the famous “wolf warriors.”
The message dispatched from Beijing throughout the continent on this occasion has been the same for more than 20 years.
Unlike the West, China has never been a coloniser, it was dominated and humiliated for a century and a half by the very people who subjugated Africa. But thanks to the CCP, it has been able to rise up and become the world power that it is today.
Despite this, it neither nurtures nor will it ever nurture imperialist designs towards its “brothers” in the South for the very simple reason that this kind of ambition is neither in the genes nor in the culture of the Chinese people. Especially since, as Xi repeats, China will “forever” be considered a developing country — “with Chinese characteristics.”
This last clarification is important. It means both that the Chinese model does not pretend to be exportable — unlike the Western model — and that, in essence, Xi has few illusions about his country’s image, especially in Africa.
Despite the best efforts of the Confucius Institutes and Mandarin schools that are spreading across the continent, Beijing’s leaders know that their soft power will never be able to compete with the multi-faceted cultural attraction of Western liberalism, especially among the youth.
All the more so since — in addition to the stranglehold of debt and the degraded image of Chinese companies, many of which have no regard for environmental and social standards — African opinion is fully aware of the fact that the “diplomacy of masks” has only partially succeeded in concealing a vital piece of information: that COVID-19 originated from a market in Wuhan. Therefore, China does not aim to seduce, but rather to impress and captivate. And above all, it is becoming more and more influential on the world stage.
A recent US study has estimated that Beijing exerts a decisive economic, and, therefore, diplomatic, influence on around 80 countries. Among them are a majority of African States, which systematically align with China’s position in all international forums as soon as sensitive issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet are brought up.
“There will be no external limits to Chinese power in the 21st century,” writes Hubert Védrine in his enlightening Dictionnaire Amoureux de la Géopolitique (published in May by Plon/Fayard), just as there are no limits to Xi’s presidential terms.