Africa and Brazil: differing viewpoints from differing interests

In a wide-ranging discussion of the circumstances behind President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil’s 2007 official visit to Burkina Faso some twenty years after the assassination of Thomas Sankara by the west African nation’s incumbent, Carlos Moore in conversation with the publication Ìrohìn reviews the state of the African continent and the role of nations’ leaders in countries’ development. As Moore cogently argues, in their dealings with Western powers most of today’s African elites function in a self-interested manner entirely consistent with dominant relations of exchange seen as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, representing the same obstacle to improved livelihoods, wider development and equitable distribution of power they have always done.