African reactions toward Russian invasion of Ukraine is not monolith - it is divided, and fractured between racial and cultural problems - and yet it can be very dangerous to let Putin have his hand

When we look at various internet websites, notably YouTube or Twitter, about the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the surprise supporters of Russia invading Ukraine come from Africa. To be precise, many Africans, in particular, support Russia from the first days because of historical involvement in the continent.

Yet, it is too easy to judge that the Russian assault on Ukraine is echoed by Africans, if you are too blind of geography. The continent is not monolith, and Africans are not just the dark-skinned. It also included the Afro-Malay sea surfers in East Africa, Arabised Blacks from Niger-Congo delta, the lively Southern African tribes with their warrior mentality, and even the North Africans of Amazigh, Arab and partially Turkish/European origins.

Failure to understand that not all Africans supporting Russia may have exacerbated the differences, not just between Africa and the West, but also between Africans themselves. Sadly, these divisions have been long, if not saying prolonged, for centuries.

The biggest boundary of division lies in the Saharan desert, where North Africa separated from the rest. North Africa is where two ancient civilisations, Egypt and Carthage, existed. For once, these nations even terrified the Romans. Morocco then emerged from the ashes of Roman and Carthagian rules, thanked to the Arabs, while the rest, from Egypt to Algeria, exchanged rulers from the Arabs to the Turks, but North Africa's unique identity fosters their own way to go.

The rest of Africa is different. Various African empires did exist in there, rivalling North Africa, but unlike the North, failed to attract greater attentions. Some empires like the Ghana, Mali empires, or the Kongo kingdoms and Zulu states. but neither these empires were capable of fostering a sense of nation-state for their domains. Except for Ethiopia that shared a great ancient civilisation rivalling North Africa, the rest of Africa could not unite in terms.

And then, linguistic differences also come to life. North Africa had their ancient background, older than the rest of Africa. However, the Arabs brought Islam and even Arabic to their culture, resulting in a long-sustaining influence of the Arabs in there. The Arabs also penetrated to modern-days Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, bringing its Islamic and Arabic heritages. The Ottomans only strengthened the Arab influence while bringing the Ottoman Turkish aspects to life in there. The rest of Africa was spared of Arab conquest, but by then, another boundary was set: North Africa and several East African nations have become Arabised; the rest is not.

But that geographical boundary, alongside with the eventual Arab and Turkish advances, reaped the future of Africa. When the Europeans began their expansionist agenda in the continent, the North Africans were the first to take up weapons fighting for their survival. The Algerian Emir Abdelkader waged decades-long war that the French even admired him. The Moroccan Alawite dynasty also led a mass resistance and France only managed to control the country by early 20th century. Omar Mukhtar and the Senussi order also campaigned for Libya's existence against Italian colonialism for 20 years. Egyptians revolted against the British rule during WWI demanding their independence. Tunisia was where an Ottoman Bey officially abolished slavery, the first in the world, as the mean to avoid Tunisia from falling to French rule, with little avail.

This trend of resistance could also be seen in nations like Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia, which are East Africans. The Mahdis of Sudan launched a bloody war trying to expel the British, the Somalis also sought to prevent Somalia from being carved by France, Italy and Britain. Ethiopia was the most successful by far, defeating the Italians in late 19th century and secured its independence. By contrast, no renowned resistance movement in the rest of Africa existed or stood long last. Except for the Zulus, almost every remaining Sub-Saharan African kingdoms, except for Liberia (gifted by the United States) fell immediately facing the powerful European empires.

The way how different Africans treated European colonialist control in history had a profound impact when it comes to mid-20th century. When European rulers departed its African colonies from 1950s onward and the Soviet Union came portraying as the saviour of African independence, North Africa and East Africa agreed to form the African Union, but at the same time, benefited from the connection to Middle East, the North Africans and East Africans drifted away from the Soviet crusade. Egypt would initially side with the Soviets, but after Gamal Abdel Nasser's death in 1970, Egypt entered a new phase of normal relations with the West. Libya was mercurial at best due to the Gaddafi leadership itself. Somalia initially got a pro-Soviet regime, but with USSR supporting Communist Derg in Ethiopia, Somalia switched to American side.

By comparison, the remaining West and South African nations had struggled to cope with the new history as most of these countries were just created by European border draws. Lacking any major independence movements strong enough like that of North and East, these nations were quick to be drawn in a battlefield of influence between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the end, these West and South African people, tying with the idea of liberation, sided with the Soviets and many of these governments accepted Soviet aids, in exchange for sending students across USSR. Even countries where it had no Soviet contact like Apartheid South Africa, the Blacks there still considered USSR an inspiration. No secret, in these countries, still have a lot of people grieving for the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The division could also be explained with another issue: racism. Anti-African sentiment, by far, is mostly dictating against the negro tribes in Sub-Saharan African nations, rather than those Arabised North and East Africa. As such, when emerging from independence, most North and East African countries drove to a different path, letting them exposed with racist fervours, both for and against. They returned adapting the same narratives directing against the Black Africans, and racism against Blacks are frequent in North Africa.

Modern political development does little favour to close the gap. Most North and East African nations, by close tie with the Middle East, notably with the likes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have become increasingly wary of growing Iranian influence and Iran's ambitious expansionist agenda. Tehran is a close ally of Moscow, and this sometimes shakes these countries and prevents them from leaning closer to Russia, even though they are far from being radically against Russia like the West. West and South African states, lacking the same experience, do not consider Russia the same, hence they are sympathetic to, at some level, to Iran. Note that in these countries, religions barely play any role in contrast to North and East.

This helps explain why African nations so divided when Russia launched a bloody invasion on Ukraine on 23 February. At the recent vote, half of Africa chose either condemning Russian aggression or abstaining, with only Eritrea voting against. Almost every countries belong to the Arab sphere of North and East Africa overwhelmingly stood with Ukraine while those choosing to abstain and stay out belong to the rest. However, some African nations, when they chose to abstain, meant they quietly support Russia. This is well witnessed in Central African Republic or Mali, where Russian mercenaries play a key role in establishing pro-Moscow and pro-Beijing regimes, and were among the earliest to respond to Putin's call for mercenaries deployment to Ukraine as Putin's army is struggling.

To be frank, again, not all Sub-Saharan African nations are pro-Russian, and not all Arab African nations are pro-Ukrainian. There have been encouraging process: Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda have emerged as the strongest forces condemning Russian invasion, and they belong to Sub-Saharan sphere. The Kenyan ambassador to UN, Martin Kimani, delivered a thoughtful speech reminding that Russia should not try to reconstruct its empire. Meanwhile, Morocco, a long-standing ally of the United States from North Africa, has strangely chosen to not take part in the vote, unsettled the United States, a long-term ally.

Still, the underlying issues that constantly made African states unable to get along are many. To summarise:

First, because of diverging colonial control, and the fact that many North African nations, as well as some countries in East Africa, stood valiantly against Western imperialism (and previously Ottoman and Roman conquests) and even resisted fiercely, these countries have cemented their own heroic myths while at the same time understood the cost of war and the mentality of the aggressors. Most of Sub-Saharan nations lacked this development, with their nations only got independence for granted, hence they still have their skewed understanding, a strong anti-Western resentment but biased favouritism toward imperialist states like Russia and China.

Second, because of North Africa and East Africa's connection, which is stronger in the former, to the powerful oil-rich Middle East, these countries tend to have a wider perspective. For instance, as told above, these Arab nations, while not all-out anti-Iranian, are still very distrustful toward Iran because of its wars and occupation in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, hence these countries tried to shut down Iran several times. The rest of Africa does not have the same issues, hence they do not perceive Iran as an enemy in the manner like that of North Africa and somewhat East Africa.

Third, economically, North Africa and East Africa, again, are benefited by location, something most seem do not have. North Africa is pretty close to Europe and Middle East, hence they can freely trade and make better money. These governments here are not perfect, many are also corrupt, but by far, they are more effective than the rest of Africa.

Fourth, racism has dominated North Africa for most of its restoration of independence. This also alienates North Africa from the rest, people from countries below Sahara tend to believe that North Africans are xenophobic and arrogant, typically indifferent from their once European overlords. This racist sentiment is also seen in Ukraine as refugees of Black origins struggled to be admitted to train leading to cries about racism.

In the end, this guides us a clearer insight about African reactions toward Russian invasion of Ukraine and how outside factors play key roles in facilitating their response. This really shows a grave danger: Putin has been trying to exploit this to gather supporters in Africa and to breed the Africans a new radicalism. Putin also uses racism against Blacks as the weapon, while at the same time, he is encouraging his client Iran to widen these frictions, with a significant level of success. Alongside his ally Xi Jinping in China, Russia is also aiming to reshape Africa to make it part of his imperial fan bases.

In order to rebuild trust with Africa, save for long-time African allies, the United States and Europe must take leading steps in making reconciliation with most of African nations, by making apologies for the war crimes, slave exploitation and its supports for previous dictators during the Cold War, and at the same time, making inroad economic reconstruction to most of Africa. If not, the world will be more dangerous than ever - the West must get Africa on their side with their honesty or it will be a painful pay. Figures like Barack Obama and Lloyd Austin reveals how far the United States has gone from a symbol of xenophobia to slow progress of repatriation in relations with Africa, but it must do more. Simultaneously, Asian allies of the United States must also make moves to Africa immediately, since they never have the colonial history against Africa like the West, to counter growing Chinese and Russian disinformation.