The United Kingdom is resetting its relations with Africa and other countries in the global south after more than a decade of neglect. At the United Nations in September, British prime minister Keir Starmer promised his government was
returning the UK to responsible global leadership.
This should include reconnecting with the countries of the global south which feel they have been neglected and among whom Britain’s voice is now at a discount.
The new Labour government’s recently launched reviews of Britain’s global impact and its international economic and development policies provide an opportunity to reevaluate and relaunch these relations. The opportunity must be seized for the sake of global stability.
The post-cold war order is fraying. America is increasingly reluctant to act as a global guarantor for a multilateral system governed by international rules and respecting human rights and freedoms. China, Russia and emerging middle powers such as Iran, Turkey and the Gulf States seem happier with a multipolar system based on the exercise of military and economic power. Meanwhile, the accelerating impact of climate change adds to the challenges to regional stability in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
I have followed these questions for nearly 50 years, as an academic and diplomat. Much has changed in those years, but recent British governments have been slow to adapt to these changes. To reconnect with countries in Africa and the global south, Britain needs a new attitude as well as new policies; and, paradoxically perhaps, the Commonwealth can play a constructive role in achieving this.
Britain’s problem
Distracted by its domestic political and economic difficulties since Brexit, recent British governments have neglected both Africa and the Commonwealth.
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Aid has been cut, and policy incoherence exacerbated by the merger between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development.
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An investment conference with Africa due earlier in 2024 was scrapped at short notice.
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Successive prime ministers gave little time to meeting African and other leaders from the global south. They had no answer to the questions being asked about Britain’s relationship with the south.
Yet Britain’s links to these countries remain strong. Not least through the growing diaspora communities in the UK that are now an integral part of Britain’s social and political fabric. With 5.5 million people of Asian heritage and 2.5 million of African or mixed heritage in the UK in 2021, these bonds need to be politically recognised.
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Most of those Britons come from Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth as an organisation is no substitute for closer engagement with individual countries. But it provides a forum where connections can be made and a new, more equal relationship built.
Though British governments have neglected it, King Charles, the ceremonial head of the Commonwealth, has not, as his visit to Kenya in 2023 showed. And other countries are still seeking to join, as Gabon and Togo did last year.
Commonwealth heads of government meeting
From 21-26 October Samoa will host the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Chogm), which will choose a new secretary-general – this time from Africa. The summit brings together representatives from every continent: from G7 members to least developed countries, from the most populous country (India at 1.45 billion people) to the smallest (Tuvalu with under 10,000), from major greenhouse gas emitters to small islands at risk of disappearing beneath the sea.
Despite its imperial origins, the Commonwealth is an international network that cuts across the multi-polarity that risks dividing the world. It includes countries from the global south, the global north and the global east. The diversity makes it an ideal forum for honest conversations on difficult issues like climate change and multilateral institutional reform.
Unlike the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) in Beijing, the Commonwealth is an organisation run by its members. They share common values and interests as well as a common language. They come together to exchange ideas, not pledges of investment or aid. Its traditions of democracy and equality between members make it unique and valuable. It provides, for example, a ready-made network of global influence for any member state. For small island states, particularly in the Caribbean and Pacific, it is one forum where their voices can be amplified.
This is important. With the community of nations struggling to address global challenges of the scale of climate change and pandemics, or to resolve regional conflicts, opportunities to build consensus are needed more than ever. The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa are a portent of things to come if we fail to sustain a global structure that can resolve rather than exacerbate such conflicts. UN peacemaking efforts might then be crowned with success rather than with futility and frustration.
What Britain needs to do
Britain is only one among many voices, so it needs a persuasive narrative that will help preserve a world order that can tackle humanity’s challenges, rather than one that simply fights over what is left. The Commonwealth, like the UN, is a place where the UK can start building support for a more equal and more effective global system.
A new narrative, and a new relationship with Africa and the global south, should be based on four elements.
Firstly, repentance for sins past. Britain’s empire played a central role in making the modern world, for better and worse. While the better is often taken for granted, the sins of empire still rankle, and – like a stone in the shoe – will distract relations. Best therefore to acknowledge them, and move forward.
Secondly, the new relationship must be based on mutual respect and partnership. In particular, the age of traditional development programmes with their paternalistic tendencies is past. What countries in the global south are seeking, as many feel they do get from China, is a genuine partnership of equals that recognises the relationship as a whole and focuses on the political as well as economic sources of growth.
Thirdly, Britain needs to work with African and other southern governments to amplify their voice in multilateral institutions such as the UN and international financial institutions, so that those institutions genuinely protect their interests and those countries defend the institutions.
Finally, Britain needs to engage with the public as much as with governments in these countries. The BBC World Service, the British Council and Britain’s education sector are becoming more important in challenging disinformation as the battle of narratives hots up. Now is the time to reinforce them, not let them fade away.
A new narrative along these lines at Chogm, and incorporated into the government’s reviews, could be the start of a genuine reset in Britain’s relationship with the global south, to the benefit of all.
