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They Never Colonized Africa; Now They Want A Piece

They Never Colonized Africa; Now They Want A Piece

Twenty-five years after politics forever changed Central Europe and the former Soviet Bloc, governments that never colonized Africa seek to re-engage or be more visible on the continent in the name of economic cooperation.

Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland – the so-called Visegrad Four – have several things in common. None was a colonizer in Africa, but all developed friendship ties with many African countries and have been active in development and exchange programs. Thousands of African students, for instance, could study and earn university degrees at
higher education institutions in all these countries in the 1970s and 1980s.

Czech Republic in Africa

In 2009, during the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union which was held for six months in 2009 by the Czech Republic, a document entitled “Preparations for strategic debates on the Czech approach to Africa” was published.

“Czech-African cooperation was seen through positive lenses,” said Jan Zahorik, head of the Center for African Studies, Department of History at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

Like other ex-Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe, the “Czech Republic
can still use its very good name in Africa for a number of things,” Zahorik said in an interview with AFKInsider. “In many countries, the Czech industry has a good reputation and Czech products are still exported as part of bigger investments in hydroelectric dams, power plants, breweries, or as military equipment, including aircraft to Nigeria, which is still in discussion.”

Aero L-29 Delfin, a single-engine, midwing jet trainer was used as a lead product in the
entire Warsaw Pact. Many L-29s were exported to Syria, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam and Uganda.

Slovakia in Africa

Although Slovakia does not have an individual Africa policy or strategy, Slovakian development assistance has focused on a number of African countries including Kenya, South Sudan, Tunisia and Egypt.

“Nowadays, Slovakia has quite vital relations with Kenya thanks to our embassy in Nairobi and our active ambassador,” said Katarina Bajzikova, Africa expert and project
manager at the non-governmental organization PDCS in Bratislava. The Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs adopted a country strategy paper for Kenya.

Hungary In Africa

Hungary also had good reputation dating back to its expertise, technical assistance and products during the Cold War, and today has the potential to reformulate its past image as an exporter of technologies, especially in the fields of agriculture and water purification and management. In the past, numerous African countries bought Hungarian-made Ikarus buses, Hajdu washing machines, Elzett locks or Globus canned meat. Egypt bought large quantities of the MAV M40 series streamlined diesel rail cars –the so-called Humpbacks, at the end of the 1960s.

Since 2013 there has been a boost in Hungarian economic activism. Hungarian Trade and Cultural Centers were opened in Accra, Kampala and Rabat. This is connected to the
new foreign-policy doctrine of the Hungarian government, known as “Global Opening,” which contains relevant policy reference for re-engagement with Northern and sub-Saharan Africa. An analytical overview of Hungarian-African relations was published in the journal African Studies Quarterly by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida in November 2013.

Poland In Africa

Poland’s Africa policy is in the making. It is now waking up to see Africa’s potentials and an important catalyst was the financial crisis in the Eurozone which provided additional impulses to look for business opportunities beyond Europe, said Dominik Kopinski, assistant professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of Wroclaw, and vice-president of the board of the Polish Center for African Studies.

“Many Polish entrepreneurs found Europe sluggish, not dynamic enough, lacking fresh opportunities and increasingly felt that it is not wise to put all the eggs in one basket, so they started thinking beyond what is traditional, well-known and safe,” Kopinski said in an AFKInsider interview. There is no particular sector that the Polish business community favor, or sectors that the Polish government would support, he said. “Businesses are trying to get their feet in the door wherever it is possible.”

Although Poland has no clear and cohesive policy toward African countries yet, a Polish-African Economic Forum was organized for the second time in May (the first was held in 2013), as a kind of platform to exchange views on Polish-African cooperation between businessmen and academic scholars, according to Robert Klosowicz, associate
professor, head of the Institute of Political Studies and International Relations, and African politics expert at Jagellonian University of Cracow.

Poland has two Polish Members of Parliament of African origin (one from Nigeria and one from Zambia), who “play a very important role in helping to place Africa on the global business map for Polish companies,” Kopinski said. “They organize regular events in the Sejm (lower house of the parliament) (and) participate in conferences, seminars and panels.”

In terms of diplomatic presence, the Visegrad Four vary in their number of embassies in Sub-Saharan Africa, regardless of the size of their home population.

Poland (population 38.3 million) maintains five Afrian embassies: Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The Czech Republic (population 10.6 million) has six African embassies: Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and an office in Kenya.

Slovakia (5.4 million people) has four African embassies (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa).

Hungary (population 9.9 million) has three African embassies: Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. Its Nigerian embassy closed in 2010 and re-opened in 2013.

“Embassies and consulates and their personnel do play a strategic role in development cooperation,” Kopinski said in a scientific paper. Therefore well-trained, trustworthy and
active diplomats with good communication skills are needed to win the hearts and minds of the partner country.

It is not new for any of the Visegrad countries to play a role in African development. Under former communist regimes they managed linkages under the cloak of solidarity and ideology. Today, the intensification of Central European–African bilateral relations also needs to be seen and understood in light of a changing global setting, in which the African continent can offer tremendous opportunities for old, new and re-emerging actors simultaneously.

Istvan Tarrosy is assistant professor of political science and director of the Africa Research Center at the University of Pecs, Hungary. He was Fulbright Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for African Studies, University of Florida in 2013 and early 2014. He is co-editor of “The African State in a Changing Global Context. Breakdowns and Transformations,” (Berlin, 2010) and editor of the Hungarian journal of African Studies (Afrika Tanulmanyok).