Will Italy’s Africa plan be a colossus?
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Will Italy’s Africa plan be a colossus?
The links between Italy and Africa is easy to find once you start scratching beneath the surface.
By Leon Louw founder of WhyAfrica and editor of the WhyAfrica magazine
Rome was certainly not built in one day. The rise of monumental structures such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum took centuries to complete.
Similarly, the foundations of Italy’s new Africa roadmap, dubbed the Mattei Plan, will need some time to solidify under a shaky geopolitical landscape.
The plan (named after Enrico Mattei, the founder of the Italian energy company Eni) and initiated under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is a comprehensive strategy aimed at fostering economic development in Africa and establishing Italy as a key energy hub connecting Africa to Europe.
Cementing the future
To unearth the historic links between Rome and Africa is not an archaeological puzzle and to connect the dots doesn’t take more than scratching the surface.
However, to cement the future, one needs to dig a little deeper. And what better way to start than to dissect the past and to find clues in the solid foundations of the gigantic Colosseum in Rome.
Whether Meloni’s Mattei plan is as sturdy as the Colosseum’s walls (which has stood the test of time for 1945 years) remains to be seen.
Several African leaders and academics have expressed concerns that it could benefit Italian companies more and might not fully address Africa’s development needs.
WhyAfrica spreads its wings
This month, WhyAfrica is venturing further than the African continent into the ancient city of Rome to find clues about the past, the present and the future.
Regardless of Italy and Europe’s current economic predicament their interest in Africa is at an all-time high. Meloni’s plan is testament to a country desperate to press the restart button and rekindle African relationships.
Both the Colosseum and the Mattei Plan symbolise Italy’s strategic use of resources to elevate its stature – ancient Rome through military might and modern Italy through diplomatic and economic cooperation.
Earlier this year Meloni announced the expansion of the Mattei plan to include Angola, Ghana, Mauritania, Tanzania and Senegal. They join African nations already included in an earlier draft namely Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.
Continue following WhyAfrica this month as we dig a little bit deeper to determine the impact of Melony’s African plan and to start building and cementing future Italian and African foundations.
Read more about Africa and Italian relations and the much talked about Mattei Plan for Africa on the WhyAfrica website.
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Will Italy’s Africa plan be a colossus?
