Africa is juggling rival powers like no other continent 

AFRICA’S WILLINGNESS to break with the West has been flaunted in recent years. After Russia invaded Ukraine 17 African countries abstained from a UN vote condemning the invasion. Last year, as the West refused negotiations with Russia, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and three other African presidents led a peace mission to Russia and Ukraine. This year South Africa’s case against Israel’s actions in Gaza in the International Court of Justice was a public act of defiance (America decried it as “meritless” and “counter-productive”). Mr Ramaphosa has also attended meetings with the presidents of China, Iran and Russia over the past eight months.