These safari jokes didn’t go down well with everyone.
With a tweet, the Federal Foreign Office under Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (42, Greens) caused diplomatic upsets in Africa.
On the occasion of the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (72) in Africa, the English-language account of Baerbock’s Foreign Ministry tweeted on Tuesday:
“Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is in Africa, not around [Leoparden] but to bluntly claim that Ukraine’s partners ‘want to destroy everything Russian’.” Lavrov’s “evidence” will be listed in the next few tweets.
The leopard emoji – not referring to the big cat living in Africa, but to the leopard-type tanks – did not arouse amusement at the African Union, but outrage!
The AU is an association of 55 African countries. Its chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat (62) only met Baerbock in mid-January in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the seat of the AU.
Ebba Kalondo, Faki Mahamat’s spokeswoman, wrote angrily on Twitter on Wednesday about the leopard posting: “Hi GermanyDiplo (Account of the Federal Foreign Office, ed.). Her boss Baerbock visited the African Union, which is based in one of the more than 20 African countries with which Germany maintains bilateral diplomatic relations. Did she come to see animals? Or is the continent of Africa, its people and wildlife just a joke to you?”
Africa just a joke for Germany’s foreign minister?
Kalondo’s reference to “mutual” diplomatic relations should be read as a reminder that African countries are equal partners for Germany – and not a safari cliché.
African politicians and diplomats often react sensitively when, in particular, Western politicians from former colonial powers (allegedly) leave this eye-to-eye level.
Foreign Office apologizes for Africa tweets
Particularly unfortunate: the Federal Foreign Office tweeted a second joke after his first tweet. In it, it did not list the “evidence” of lying Lavrov, but wrote: “There is none [Beweise]’ – ‘garnished’ with a clip of an empty desert.
For some a harmless Internet GIF, for others a pejorative Africa cliché.
A day later, the Foreign Office apologized for the tweets: They wanted to denounce the lies with which Russia “justifies an imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine”.
Kalondo simply replied: “Don’t apologize. Just be careful. And respect us as we respect you.” Foreign policy is “neither a joke nor should it be used to score cheap geopolitical points by illustrating an entire continent with colonial tropes on any subject.”
Others also lacked sensitivity
Baerbock’s party colleague Robert Habeck (53, Greens) also lacked sensitivity during his recent stay in Africa – at least that’s how it was felt in some cases.
The fact that Habeck in Namibia, where Germany wants to get so-called green hydrogen, was skeptical about the development of the country’s newly discovered gas and oil reserves caused frowns among representatives of the former colony. They have high hopes for their discoveries.
Any hints that are understood as interference run the risk of being interpreted as “neo-colonial”. All in all, Habeck’s visit was received very positively, but such trifles, which are supposedly small for Europeans, are precisely registered.
A few months earlier, it had also been noticed that Habeck had initially appeared all too contrite to Namibia’s self-deprecating President Hage Gottfried Geingob (81) – probably in view of Germany’s colonial guilt. That, too, quickly violates the eye level among statesmen.
Relations between Germany and ex-colonies are sensitive
In 2018, Norbert Lammert (CDU), Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, caused a diplomatic upset in Namibia. He spoke too openly to Namibia’s President Geingob about rampant corruption and China’s growing influence in the country. He forbade the interference. He was “not a puppet,” Geingob ranted.
In neighboring South Africa, Habeck offensively praised the “energy transition” and the move away from fossil fuels as the right path during his trip to Africa. Partly to the displeasure of local politicians. Such German certainties are by no means uncontroversial here, and some even see them as a prosperous misguided path. In coal-producing South Africa, there is growing skepticism that Germany wants to “help” the country to phase out coal, but at the same time is importing large quantities of coal itself due to German energy problems.