Dr Eid,
Excellencies,
Members of the Bundestag,
Distinguished guests, especially:
Professor de Oliveira
and Dr Moyo,
It is almost one year to the day that the World Health Organization was notified of a new coronavirus variant in South Africa called Omicron. We’ve just heard all about this at length. I remember this so well because the negotiations on a new coalition government were taking place here in Germany at that time. The government still in office and the one that was in the process of being formed looked together for a way to spare our country another major surge in the pandemic.
At that time, a German tabloid newspaper led with the headline: “Die Lockdown-Macher” (The lockdown makers). The newspaper was not primarily referring to politicians but to scientists who had advocated a cautious approach to the new variant. The article made the sensational claim that harsh measures had been secretly devised by experts.
Of course, that was nonsense. But many accusations and attacks were directed against scientists at that time. You, Professor de Oliveira, and you, Dr Moyo, had a shocking experience of this kind. Following your pioneering life-saving discoveries, you did not get the gratitude and respect you deserved for your scientific achievement. Instead, you were blamed personally for the travel restrictions and border closures which many states imposed after new variants were discovered – with grave consequences for your countries, the tourism sector and economic performance.
It was perhaps the biggest paradox of the pandemic: on the one hand, the public’s interest in scientific findings had never been so great. From Alpha variant to zoonotic disease, terms normally only used by experts suddenly became part of common parlance. On the other hand, there had never been so much scepticism, indeed vehement rejection of scientific evidence as well as of the men and women who presented it to us. But we not only have to thank you for what you found out about the virus and its variants. For we also have to thank scientists for the vaccines, tests and drugs developed in record time – and thus for a way out of the pandemic at all.
One of the greatest achievements is that scientists around the world didn’t allow themselves to be thrown off course – including you, Professor de Oliveira, and you, Dr Moyo. It is thanks to your scientific excellence and your courageous actions that the Beta and Omicron coronavirus variants were discovered and reported early on. That enabled the world to be better prepared. It helped save lives. With you, the German Africa Award has gained two richly deserving laureates. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our world during this crisis!
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not just presenting the German Africa Award to two outstanding scientists today. For this award and the back stories of its two new recipients prompt us to question our view of Africa, a view which is still often shaped by old, long outdated ways of thinking. This includes the division of the world into a rich, supposedly always more progressive North and a supposedly poor and needy South, which is always lagging behind. I think today’s awardees show once more that Africa is not lagging behind.
It’s no coincidence that you, Professor de Oliveira, and you, Dr Moyo, a bioinformatician and a virologist, are being honoured. Cutting-edge research in this field has been taking place in Africa for years. That, too, is proof of the progress African countries have made. And it’s also good for Europe if Africa develops its resources. After all, no two other continents are linked as closely, as inextricably, as Africa and Europe.
Yes, colonialism has left deep scars. This is reflected in the borders of African states delineated on the drawing board with a ruler – in some cases due to a lack of knowledge, in others out of wilful ignorance. They divide peoples and cultures. It is also reflected in place names and linguas francas, as well as cities, ports and transport routes, which ultimately had one purpose over many centuries: to bring Africa’s riches to Europe as efficiently as possible.
In my view, the only right way to deal with this legacy is to look in a much more nuanced way than hitherto, with greater curiosity, respect and genuine interest at our closest neighbouring continent – a continent which from Tunis to the Cape of Good Hope, from Dakar to the Horn of Africa, is a kaleidoscope of very different peoples, languages and cultures, histories, as well as social and political organisational forms. You would think that we Europeans would have a special understanding of this – after all, Africa and Europe are more alike when it comes to diversity and the variety of voices than any other continents.
I know, Uschi Eid, that you and the German Africa Foundation champion this understanding every day with wholehearted dedication and commitment. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you most sincerely for that!
Ladies and gentlemen, the world of the 21st century will not be a world with just one or two strong centres of power. It will be multipolar: a world in which Africa, too, will become a global centre of gravitation due to its demographics, its growing economic strength – thanks to its numerous countries and states – its considerable influence in the multilateral order and its cultural significance.
Others have also long since recognised Africa’s growth in importance – and are taking advantage of it in their own way, for instance China through its investments or Russia with its military activities. But, of course, that’s not what really matters. That’s why it was so important to me – as you kindly pointed out – to make contact with African colleagues early in my term of office and to travel straightaway to the Niger, Senegal and South Africa. That’s why I invited the Chair of the African Union and the President of South Africa to the G7 summit in Germany. And that’s why I exchanged views with my African colleagues during the UN General Assembly, and particularly intensively during the last few weeks – at the Climate Change Conference in Egypt and at the G20 in Bali.
The fact that the G20 Summit sent such a strong signal of unity in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which is also an attack on fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Charter, was also a result of this close coordination between Africans and Europeans. Incidentally, this reflects something else our two continents have in common: we are not big and powerful enough to stand alone in a world without rules. We therefore have to direct all our energy towards defending the strength of the law against the law of the strong and, beyond that, develop new opportunities for cooperation.
When I talk of an inextricable link between Africa and Europe, I’m therefore not only talking about our past and present. I’m thinking of a genuine African-European partnership for the future, whose first contours we outlined at the summit between the African and European Unions in February. It’s not difficult to find shared interests to define such a partnership. For instance, we have the field from which today’s two laureates come: a pandemic such as COVID is just one example which shows that all the major global crises of our time can only be resolved if we work together. After all, the virus did not stop at borders despite all the containment measures.
When it came to dealing with COVID, it has become clear how much we Europeans can learn from Africa. Hardly any other region of the world has as much experience with vaccine rollouts for infectious diseases as Africa. Conversely, together with the African Union, the EU and BioNTech we ensured that new mRNA vaccines can be manufactured in South Africa or Rwanda, for instance. What’s more, Germany is the second-largest supporter of the international vaccine rollout, within the framework of which millions of people have been vaccinated in Africa, too.
This approach – converting African and European interests into joint action – can also be put into practice in other fields. For our over-dependence on Russian energy has shown us Germans how fundamentally important diversified supply chains and trade relations are.
With its large reserves of natural resources and its huge potential for renewable energy and the generation of green hydrogen, Africa is our partner of choice when it comes to diversification and the move towards a climate-neutral future. And European companies which attach importance to sustainability as well as humane and decent production conditions can ensure value added and good jobs in Africa.
What’s more, Africa is the youngest and fastest growing continent. If we manage to provide Africa’s young people with a high level of training, that will bring incredible opportunities for development – first and foremost in Africa itself, of course – but also for an ageing Europe which already relies on skilled workers from abroad. In my view, security for both our continents can only be achieved through African-European cooperation. Because our fates are bound so closely, for example when it comes to scourges such as terrorism, drug trafficking or organised crime. The national security strategy we’re currently working on will reflect that.
And when I talk of security, that includes food security as well as, for example, resource security. Not least, we’re working on ever more intensive political and economic integration between our continents. The European and African Unions both stand for that. Europe has the greatest possible interest in doing everything it can to help Africa establish a transcontinental free trade zone. I can only encourage our companies to take advantage from the outset of the opportunities provided by this visionary development.
Ladies and gentlemen, it goes without saying that a African-European partnership for the future which transforms shared interests into joint action doesn’t only develop at intergovernmental level. As important as the agreements between states are, they cannot replace personal contacts between our societies – in the sphere of culture, in academia or in business. That is one of the reasons we’re here tonight. The German Africa Award also stands for contacts of this kind.
Professor de Oliveira and Dr Moyo, you inspire and motivate us to broaden our outlook, to leave behind old ways of thinking and seek new partnerships. I congratulate you most sincerely on the German Africa Award 2022!