Actualité Posté le 15:25 02-07-2024, modifié le 15:25 02-07-2024 par Tournons La Page
In an interview with Laurent DELCOURT from the Centre tricontinental (CETRI) and coordinator of the book "BRICS: An Alternative for the Global South?", Agnès Adélaïde METOUGOU, a member of Tournons La Page Cameroun (TLP-Cameroun), shared her thoughts on the theme "BRICS+ and Africa."
In her analysis of the geopolitical and economic implications of the rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), Agnès Adélaïde METOUGOU recalls the extremely asymmetrical conditions in which the world found itself. For her, "the countries of Western Europe, the United States and Japan represented barely 20% of the population, but controlled three-quarters of the world's wealth". "The BRICS have put this hegemony into perspective by creating new, more open poles scattered across the globe. With these new memberships, the BRICS bring together countries from all continents and diverse cultures, ensuring a more balanced representation of all segments of humanity. The cosmopolitanism of the BRICS makes it possible to emerge from the unipolar world in which a single civilization imposed its cultural and ideological refrain without the slightest possibility of negotiation or choice", she added. Agnès Adélaïde METOUGOU believes that, politically speaking, Africans can seize this opportunity to escape, in part, from the diktats imposed by the West.
As for the question of whether African countries can deal with the BRICS at equality, the interviewee's answer is clear. It will be up to Africans to strengthen their negotiating skills. And to achieve this, African countries must unite. Even with this union, they need to diversify their partnerships by forging links with other international partnairs.
While the BRICS Development Bank offers more room for maneuver for the authorities of African countries to avoid being accountable to their populations, Agnès Adélaïde METOUGOU considers that there is no need for alarm. "On this issue, it could be argued that the conditionalities imposed by Western donors have not saved these countries from dictatorship, let alone from debt crises", she declared, before adding: "In our view, the adaptability of this new bank gives it the opportunity to better negotiate political and social reforms with its African partners, and to better take account of specific contexts".
Before bringing her remarks to a close, Agnès Adélaïde METOUGOU spoke about the rebirth of Pan-Africanism, a subject that is the focus of much debate among Africans. PPan-Africanism, she emphasized, is a "movement full of hope for a united and prosperous Africa".
