By Mafa kwanisai Mafa
IN a world dominated by imperial narratives and Western military hegemony, the people of Africa, long bruised by centuries of slavery, colonial plunder, and neoliberal subjugation are rediscovering their voice. That voice now echoes in the Sahel winds, dances in the streets of Moscow, and roars in the revolutionary songs sung in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe.
The Sahel is a vast, semi-arid region of Africa located between the Sahara Desert to the north and the tropical savannas to the south. It includes parts of 10 countries: Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria, as defined by the United Nations strategy (UNISS). Additionally, parts of Sudan and Eritrea also fall within the Sahel region. The growing camaraderie between Africa and Russia represents not merely a diplomatic gesture, but a tectonic shift in global resistance against imperial domination.
On the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, a continent battered but unbroken was honoured: the map of Africa was proudly raised in Moscow. This symbolic act — deeply resonant — struck at the heart of Western attempts to isolate revolutionary states and muzzle African sovereignty. For those of us in Zimbabwe, whose Land Reform Programme has drawn ire from the same Western forces that pillaged our soil, this act by Russia is not simply diplomacy, it is an affirmation of our right to exist on our terms. The message of gratitude to Russia is not just about Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. It’s about all of us.
It’s about Congo, looted for coltan and cursed with war. It’s about the Sudan, torn by Western-fuelled divisions. It’s about Libya, once the richest state in Africa, bombed into medieval ruins by NATO lies. And it’s about Zimbabwe, punished for daring to take back stolen land and stand defiantly against the IMFWorld Bank yoke. Russia’s solidarity with Africa, especially with the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES), represents the reawakening of a multipolar world — one where African dignity is no longer held hostage by French neocolonialism, British arrogance, or American exceptionalism.
The AES is not a puppet bloc; it is a spearhead of African resistance, born out of necessity and driven by survival. That Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré walked the streets of Moscow during Victory Day celebrations is not just a diplomatic gesture, it is a prophetic vision of Africa refusing to bow. As pan-Africanists in Zimbabwe, we draw inspiration from this. Just as Captain Thomas Sankara once declared, “He who feeds you, controls you,” so too must we declare in this age: “He who arms your enemy is your enemy.” The so-called ‘war on terror’ in the Sahel is nothing but a disguised war against sovereign African leadership.
These so-called terrorists are often trained, funded, and armed through covert channels by the very powers who claim to be defenders of democracy. Let us not be fooled by their double-speak. Today, the African youth is no longer blind. From the corridors of the University of Zimbabwe to the markets of Niamey, we see clearly. The same countries that looted our gold, diamonds and uranium now parade themselves as our saviours.
The same Europe that cries human rights rains bombs on Gaza. The same America that lectures us on democracy turns a blind eye to police lynchings of black bodies on its own streets. The AES’s creation of a united Sahelian army should serve as an inspiration to Zimbabwe and all other African nations to fortify continental defence against foreign aggression. We, too, must forge our military independence. Our borders should not be porous playgrounds for foreign intelligence, mercenaries, and missionaries of destabilisation. But military strength alone is not enough.
As China has shown, development and sovereignty must walk hand-in-hand. Strategic investment in critical infrastructure, education, agriculture, and renewable energy must become the new pillars of our resistance. Zimbabwe must not rely solely on extractive industries but must build an economy that serves its people. We must reject structural adjustment programmes that hollow out our public services and instead craft a socialist path to national prosperity. Russia’s support comes at a time when African leaders who dare to be different are being targeted for assassination, sanctions and sabotage.
Zimbabwe knows this pain intimately. Since the historic Land Reform Programme of the early 2000s, we have endured economic strangulation, international demonisation, and relentless propaganda. But we are still standing. And now, we are not standing alone. What is unfolding is a renaissance of African defiance, one that aligns with global South-South solidarity. We remember the USSR’s role in supporting the liberation struggles in Southern Africa. It was the Soviet bloc, not the West, that trained and armed liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
That revolutionary solidarity is not forgotten. It is reborn. Let us not forget: When Rhodesia was raining fire upon Zimbabwean liberation fighters, it was not London or Washington that stood with us. It was Havana, Beijing and Moscow. Today, as the ghosts of empire try to resurrect themselves in new forms, military bases, digital colonisation, economic strangulation, we must remember who our true allies have always been. Africa no longer wishes to be the bleeding ground of the world. We seek dignity, sovereignty, and development based on justice, not debt. We salute the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger who, like modern-day Lumumbas and Sankaras, have chosen the people over profit, sovereignty over submission.
To Zimbabwe, let this moment be a lesson. Our revolutionary past must become our revolutionary present. We must revive the ethos of Chimurenga and stand boldly with movements that reject Western hegemony. Let us deepen relations with nations that respect our sovereignty, Russia, China, Iran and others willing to treat Africa as a partner, not a pawn. We must also build media sovereignty. The colonial press is alive and well, now disguised as global ‘objective’ journalism. But its purpose remains the same: to misrepresent, vilify, and demonise those who resist imperialism.
Zimbabwe must invest in its own narrative powertelling our story through our own lens, in our own voice. This is not about romanticising geopolitics. It is about survival. The enemy has many faces corporate, military, media, diplomatic but its goal is singular: the suppression of African agency. We must rise above tribalism, artificial borders, and elite betrayals. We must embrace unity, African ideals and revolutionary pan-Africanism.
African unity must not remain a theoretical aspiration. It must manifest in the practical spheres of trade, technology transfer, cultural exchange, and defence. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) must be shielded from neoliberal infiltration.
Our universities must teach African philosophy, African science, African history, not colonial relics in African classrooms. From the Sahel to Harare, from Moscow to Maputo, a new dawn is breaking. The African lion was not asleep it was only resting. And now, it walks with friends who understand our scars and are not afraid to stand with us when it matters.