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Jokowi reignites ‘Bandung Spirit’ in week-long Africa tour
President Jokowi is on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa and is bringing back dozens of deals from state visits in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique in the name of advancing South-South cooperation.
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President Joko Widodo inspects a guard of honour mounted by members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) before holding a meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto for discussions and ratification of bilateral trade cooperation agreements, at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 21, 2023. (Reuters/Monicah Mwangi)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo embarked on his maiden trip to sub-Saharan Africa this week, bringing with him the “Bandung Spirit” as well as dozens of bilateral deals from state visits in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique – all in the name of advancing global South-South cooperation.
The timing for Jokowi’s first tour of duty on the continent lines up with Indonesia’s quest to expand its trade and investment portfolio into “non-traditional markets”, while also dovetailing into the prevailing sense that the current world order dominated by wealthy Western powers has failed to champion the interests of developing countries.
The Africa trip is built around the 15th BRICS Summit, which is entertaining the possibility of admitting new member states to make good on a pledge to become a counterweight to status quo forums such as the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations.
But the Africa connection runs especially deep for Jakarta, due to the historical connection that many countries from the continent have with Indonesia as host of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, West Java, which galvanized the postcolonial movement and planted the seeds for nonalignment during the Cold War.
As a precursor to his attendance at a summit grouping together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Jokowi traveled to Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam and Maputo, where he announced new cooperation initiatives mostly in trade, investment, infrastructure and health.
Jakarta, which previously affirmed its commitment to become an active player in “Africa’s economic success story”, will only intensify its efforts going forward, the Indonesian leader said.
“Indonesia will walk the talk to realize concrete collaboration with Africa. We are currently finalizing an infrastructure grand design plan for Africa over the next five years,” he said on Tuesday.
