Time to claim our destiny

Abdelmonem Fawzi

In the wake of Yanis Varoufakis’s stark warning in Project Syndicate, the old dream of a co-operative G20 “global village” has crumbled.

What remains is a brutal gladiatorial arena where Europe and the United Kingdom drift without direction.

“A new, harder, colder world order has been erected on the grave of European ambition,” Varoufakis writes.

The enduring lesson of recent years: in this era of existential rivalries, strategic dependency spells irrelevance.

We have entered the age of empires reborn, not through outright conquest, but via sophisticated tools: sanctions, intelligence operations, narrative warfare, currency sabotage, elite capture, and engineered chaos.

Guns may follow later, but today’s battles rage over resources, currencies, supply chains, technology, and sanctions.

The true currencies of power are oil, gas, lithium, critical minerals, ports, population, and shipping lanes.

Africa stands at the epicentre, blessed with an “embarrassing surplus” of these assets.

The continent is no longer a mere spectator in global geopolitics. It is rather the ultimate prize.

Major powers vie fiercely for influence, not out of affection, but because leaving Africa unclaimed is no longer an option in a multipolar scramble.

A vivid example unfolded in Venezuela where the world’s largest proven oil reserves – approximately 303 billion barrels, representing about 17% of global totals – have become a flashpoint.

Since 2018, Venezuela has pursued aggressive de-dollarisation: selling oil in Chinese yuan, euros, rubles, and other currencies while bypassing the dollar-dominated system.

It built direct payment channels with China outside SWIFT, petitioned to join BRICS, and aligned with de-dollarisation leaders like China, Russia, and Iran.

This posed an existential threat to the petrodollar, the cornerstone of US hegemony since the 1970s.

The system mandates that global oil trades be priced and settled in dollars, forcing every nation to accumulate dollars for energy purchases.

This privilege allows the US to print currency freely while others labour to earn it, more vital than any aircraft carrier fleet.

As the petrodollar shows cracks, Russia now sells oil in rubles and yuan, Saudi Arabia explores yuan settlements, Iran trades in non-dollar currencies, and China’s CIPS system rivals SWIFT, Venezuela’s massive reserves could have turbocharged the shift.

BRICS offers a “Plan B”: parallel financial rails, energy corridors, commodity alliances, and deterrence networks, enabling nations to escape vassalage in a unipolar order.

Africa must heed this lesson to avoid becoming collateral in these wars.

The continent possesses immense leverage through its vast reserves of critical minerals essential for the energy transition, alongside oil, gas, ports, and a young, dynamic population.

However, potential alone is insufficient. Africa already has a bold blueprint in Agenda 2063 – “The Africa We Want” – the African Union’s 50-year vision for an integrated, prosperous, peaceful continent driven by its citizens.

Launched in 2015, it emphasises inclusive growth, political unity, democratic governance, peace, cultural renaissance, gender equality, and self-reliance.

Flagship projects like the African Continental Free Trade Area (now operational), high-speed rail networks, and institutions, such as the African Investment Bank aim to accelerate progress.

But execution demands a radical mind-set shift: transformative leadership, cultural renewal, and serious investment in human capital and systems.

We cannot recycle failed strategies, celebrate mere intentions, or excuse persistent underperformance while the continent lags far below its promise.

The rise of a colder world order, exemplified by recent events in Venezuela, underscores urgency.

Africa should chart its independent course, leveraging natural wealth and human potential to forge strategic autonomy.

No external power, whether under shifting US administrations or elsewhere, will hand us prosperity.

The time for bold, united action is now. By embracing this vision and transforming it into executable reality, Africa can shape, not just survive, the emerging multipolar future.