This is the final stretch of Saturday Vesti. President Putin's gesture today may seem unexpected. He sent a joint telegram of congratulations to all of his counterparts in Africa. Why? On May 25th, Africa marks the day of the deliverance of most of its countries from a degrading status — a status of being colonies, even of the most advanced countries.
For your information. People of the elder generation recognize the chronicle of the times of Patrice Lumumba and his like-minded contemporaries, whose efforts, with the active support of the Soviet Union, marked the peak of the declaration of independence for African countries in 1960: 17 of them flew their own flags that year. Then, Moscow used the following criteria — in fact, unlimited resources were taken over by princelings who, after another civil war or coup, proclaimed the so-called "socialist orientation". The result is well known: multi-billion dollar debts have been hanging for decades. After the Cold War was over, no one really cared about Africa. The fact that the Rwandan genocide took place only proved it.
And now — boom! Now, there's a separate US military command in Africa and, by the way, an avalanche-like development of Chinese business. It means that there are new possibilities. It means that Russia should be there too, on-time.
This week, the president of Russia received his counterpart from Congo in the Kremlin. A whole package of documents was signed on cooperation in the field of military affairs, nuclear energy, agriculture, the oil industry, and so on. It's clear that the ultimate goal isn't some kind of charity but creating jobs in Russia. In the fall, there will be an entire collective Russia-Africa summit. But, you know, there's a romance about it.
Today, we're going to talk to the oldest Russian Africanist, the academician Apollon Davidson. He's 90 years old and he has a gentle soul.
- Hello, dear Apollon Borisovich.
- Glad to see you.
- May I see the print on your T-shirt? Ah, you're a real Africanist.
- This is the South Africa national rugby union. It used to be a game played a lot by white people, and now by black people as well.
- History isn't something to talk a lot about. But I'd like to look into it as well. Apart from the Soviet era, how did Russia and Africa start the rapprochement?
- "Rapprochement" is a bit too strong word for it. I'd say "acquaintanceship" is more appropriate. It started in the reign of Peter the Great, at the beginning of the 19th century, with expeditions of our travelers. Then there was the Boer War. Then, Goncharov came to South Africa. He was obsessed with it later on. He actually started everything. He wrote: "the Boers are very similar to Russian men." This stuck in our mind. This is where the sympathy began. Our Anglophobia, if I may put it this way, contributed to this greatly.
- The Great Game, confrontation of the British Empire and the Russian Empire, and, hereby, the support.
- Absolutely right. As for black people. In 1884, the ruler of one of the tribes in South Africa wrote a letter to the tsar. He didn't know the tsar's name, so he wrote "Russia. Petersburg. To the tsar." It was delivered, by the way, I've seen it in the archives. He wrote that they were oppressed by the English. Help us, please! A black person wrote this in 1884.
- Apollon, it's Russia, there are birch trees, it's good here in May. Why do we need Africa?
- You know, Africa is the continent of the future. The population growth there is massive.
- Well, yes, there are more than a billion people there.
- Then, in terms of natural resources, they are explored immeasurably less than in any other continent. During the colonial era, there wasn't the necessary equipment for exploration.
- But then, they actually didn't have time for that. There were wars, revolutions, coups.
- My God, what terrible things are happening in Somalia. Let alone Sudan. But nonetheless, there are no such bloody wars that happened in the 1990s. And yet, even though South Africa has returned to traditional race relations mostly, there was no bloody war between white and black people.
- 4 million people keep living there.
- Yes, they live there. Even in the South African embassy in Moscow, their head is black, her deputy is white. Another thing I'd like to say. Europe now is scared by the fact that soon the modern world will become African-Asian. It will happen inevitably. White people aren't that fertile, among other things. We can learn things from South Africa. There are white people, black people, colored people, or people of mixed descent. Maybe not everyone is going to like or agree with what I'm about to say but this is the future of all mankind. We can't do anything about it. We'll have to mix together. So, we have the experience of this country where this mixing process began almost 400 years ago. We should study it. Another thing to keep in mind, African people have changed. Now there's a stratum of intelligentsia, a stratum of skilled people.
- Speaking about education, it includes those who were trained here.
- We used to send doctors and engineers there. We have the tradition to be present everywhere in global politics. And now, we're far behind China and America. We, when it was possible to begin communication with the African countries, began on political and ideological grounds.
- You mean the "socialistic oriented" countries?
- Yes, indeed. We didn't pay due attention to the economy.
- I've looked it up, there's something. For example, platinum extraction in Zimbabwe, Alrosa has business in Angola and in Zimbabwe. The Renova Group has business in South Africa, Rusal has business in Guinea. What would you pay attention to first of all? What countries are the most promising?
- I think that South Africa and Nigeria are the most important, of course.
- Why Nigeria? I can understand South Africa, we're in BRICS together, but Nigeria?
- You know, Nigeria has advanced a lot and not only in terms of population. The growth there is just colossal, but in terms of GDP, it's already surpassed South Africa.
- I feel a little bit unfair when we talk about Africa. We...how to say "we"... I mean we Europeans, perceive it just by the last century. They were colonies, now they're independent. But ancient African cultures can be richer than many European ones, right?
- Yes, indeed.
- Can we meet this old primeval culture in Africa? All the dances, hunting, jungles.
- You know, when I lived there, I witnessed a situation. Some filmmakers came from Europe. They wanted to film the Bushmen. Who should be running naked on the steppe? Right. The Bushmen called themselves the "San" people. The Bushmen took off their European clothes, put on some exotic clothes, then they were filmed, and they returned home and put their usual clothes back on. That's how it happens.
- It means we shouldn't perceive it as the edge of the world that is still in the 17th century. — Africa developed long ago.
- Indeed.
- What is that book you have there?
- We've written a book. I called it: "Africa in Russia's fate, Russia in Africa's fate". It's about the influence Africa had on Russia and vice versa. The main thing how Russia influenced Africa.
- It did, but will it influence it?
- The book or Russia?
- Russia.
- Oh, I think it will. We will move away from some old, wrong views a little bit, and take a practical approach, and we will get that we should understand it first of all. And this is what we're trying to do.
- In this case, we shall wait for the Russian-African summit this fall.
- Yes.
- Apollon, I never thought I would say this but, Happy Africa Day.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
