AFRICA: THE SCRAMBLE FOR A CONTINENT (Financial Times (UK)) A century ago European nations were competing to carve up Africa, establishing spheres of influence that last to this day. But now the familiar pattern is starting to unravel, writes Mark Turner When France and Britain met in St Malo last December and launched a joint approach to Africa, many observers doubted that more than a century of competition for economic and political influence could suddenly be replaced by co-operation. Yet this week Robin Cook, the British foreign secretary, and Hubert V�drine, the French foreign minister, are paying the first joint visit to Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In Abidjan, French and British ambassadors to Africa will discuss how to put into practice the St Malo call for policy harmonisation, information exchange and even joint representation where only one partner boasts an outpost. The new message has yet to get through to everyone. Businessmen and diplomats from both sides of the divide in Africa remain as joyfully suspicious of each other as ever, and take an almost childish glee in each other's difficulties. This is well demonstrated by the underlying sense of competition which has characterised recent inroads by France into Kenya, the heart of British influence in East Africa, and a parallel British push into the Ivory Coast. The newly revamped Maison Fran�aise in Nairobi - a temple to Parisian chic - is an eloquently high-profile testament to France's push for more influence in East Africa, and is home to large new regional development and research centres. "We are promoting a real image of contemporary France," says Mehdi Drissi, the centre's energetic director. "We promote our culture through plays, singers, university exchanges. The Alliance Fran�aise [language school] here has 5,000 students, making it second worldwide: only New York is ahead." President Jacques Chirac underlined his country's move beyond traditional boundaries in no uncertain terms when nearly all Anglophone African leaders attended the recent France-Africa summit. France claims that although its commitment to French Africa is as great as ever, it wants to move away from its old concept of the "backyard" and take a more holistic view of the continent. Half a continent away, the British are making a less colourful but equally vigorous push into the Ivory Coast, West Africa's most vibrant economy. The UK last year was the country's second largest investor, after France, with companies from British Airways and Framlington to Crocodile Machetes moving in over the past few years, and has been raising its profile with trade missions and fairs. "We want to get away from the idea that somehow there are countries that are outside our interests in West Africa," said Tony Lloyd, the Foreign Office's minister for Africa, on a recent trip to the country. At the heart of each country's efforts is a recognition that they could be missing out on some big commercial opportunities on the other's patch. France and Britain (to a lesser extent) continue to dominate trade relations with their former colonies, but are making inroads across the divide. In Kenya, exports from both countries have risen considerably over the past five years, with the UK up almost 80 per cent and France up 40 per cent from 1993 to 1997. In the Ivory Coast British exports almost doubled over the same period, albeit from a much lower relative base, while French exports rose by a little over 30 per cent. The St Malo meeting, however, appears to mark a recognition by both governments that a new scramble for Africa would both be damaging and difficult - especially at a time when the US is making increasing inroads into the continent, and new competition emerges from East Asia and South Africa. The question is why they are taking a bilateral rather than an European approach, when the EU is becoming more assertive in commerce and politics. The answer seems to lie in the hands of technocrats who are suspicious of sharing influence with countries with little or no history on the continent, and which hope to capitalise on Franco-British networks to promote their own trade and development strategies. Despite recent cutbacks, France and Britain retain substantial and privileged links to the continent and are loath to see them eroded. Paris in particular has maintained a strong role as benevolent guardian of former colonies: by direct, although declining, military support (with bases in Djibouti and Chad), unwavering political support for Francophone African leaders, and a guarantee for the currency of 14 countries in central and western Africa, the CFA franc. There are 114,000 French nationals living on the continent, French culture is dominant in West Africa, and Paris is the world's largest contributor of aid to Africa, devoting FFr18.7bn (E2.85bn, $3.1bn) in 1997. Britain also boasts almost 140,000 nationals in Africa, gave �348m ($560m) in aid from 1996-7, and has improved its ties with African members of the Commonwealth considerably since the days of dispute over how to end apartheid in South Africa. Educational links are strong, and the UK maintains a small military force in Kenya, backed by regular exercises. If the old rivals do manage to set aside a hundred years of history, and pool their resources on an increasingly troubled and isolated continent, they would offer a formidable opponent to any new upstarts looking for a piece of the pie. But given the mutual suspicion that remains, it may take more than a few joint visits to cement the alliance. -----------------------------------------------
