British Foreign Secretary David Lammy seeks to reset relations with Africa

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is coming to the end of his first African tour with the aim of reviving relations with the continent consisting of 54 countries.

“Our new approach will offer respectful partnerships that listen rather than tell, deliver long-term growth instead of short-term solutions, and build a freer, safer, more prosperous continent,” he said while setting the agenda of his visit. The continent’s two biggest powers are Nigeria and South Africa.

Lammy’s visit follows his appointment as foreign secretary in the incoming Labor government earlier this year, the first visit by a UK foreign secretary to the continent since 2013.

Since then, relations between African states and other world powers have changed greatly.

Today, China is the largest trading partner of many African countries, while Russia has made increasing advances, including offering military support to West African countries fighting jihadists.

Oil-rich Gulf countries are also increasing their influence on the continent by making business and military agreements alongside Turkey.

By contrast, UK-Africa relations are “much more lackluster”, says Alex Vines, head of the Africa program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

This is particularly the case between Britain and South Africa, its biggest trading partner on the continent, he adds, and this trip is “an attempt to restart that”.

“I want to hear what our African partners need and improve relationships so that our friends and partners in the UK and Africa can grow together,” Lammy said.

Britain is no newcomer to the continent. A long and sometimes checkered history underpins most of its relations with African countries.

Almost all of the continent’s former colonies are part of the Commonwealth; However, countries that do not have this historical link with the UK have joined the group, including Rwanda, Togo and Gabon. Angola also applied to join.

“The Commonwealth will probably continue to be an important platform,” says Nicole Breadsworth, an academic at Wits University in South Africa.

While its former colonies gained independence in the middle of the last century, Britain continued to play a sort of “big brother” role.

But this is now changing.

Dr Vines said Africa did not feature prominently in a major document published last year outlining the UK’s priorities on the global stage.

“There were name checks in countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, but there wasn’t much in writing,” he says.

Dr Vines adds that he expects South Africa-UK relations to improve under the Labor Party because of its historic links to the anti-apartheid movement that fought against white minority rule.

“This comes from the anti-apartheid struggle and the solidarity of people in the Labor Party and the Labor movement to fight apartheid,” he says.

However, Dr Breadsworth notes that former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May tried to strengthen ties with Africa, but those efforts “collapsed” after she resigned following turmoil in the ruling party in 2019.

The UK has experienced an unprecedented change of prime minister, who has subsequently had to deal with internal crises, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and the Covid pandemic.

Dr. “Africa has fallen out of favor,” says Breadsworth, adding that the exception was the controversial and now shelved deal to send some asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.