After decolonisation, New Delhi’s relations with the continent included some difficult moments when people of Indian origin were expelled from parts of Africa. Much like its past, India’s future in Africa is bound to be different from that of China.

While China’s purposeful engagement of Africa has caught the world’s attention in recent years, India has been quietly raising its own profile in the continent. India’s Africa summit can be traced back to the NDA government, which launched the “Focus Africa” and the Team Nine initiatives in the early years of this decade. India’s trade with the region has steadily expanded, although in a less dramatic manner than that between China and Africa. The Indian private sector, on its own steam, has been making major advances in the continent.

Over the last decade, India has also been part of the many recent international activities in Africa — including the UN peacekeeping operations and global development initiatives.

The comparison becomes especially facile when the Western charges of neo-colonialism against China are extended towards India. These arguments stem from the growing anxiety in the West that its domination of Africa might be coming to an end amidst the rising influence of China and India. Beijing and New Delhi have provided economic options that Africans did not have until now and promise to alter the geopolitical landscape of the continent.

The former European colonial powers and the United States tend to lecture the African states on human rights and good governance. Their aid is tied to a whole range of political conditionalities. Africans are fed up with Western paternalism in Africa and are eager for a diversification of their international relations.

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