"Colonialism" gave negotiators finalising joint declaration for India-Africa summit a few tense moments

NEW DELHI: In the year 2015, decades after both India and Africa had beat back their colonial masters, negotiations for a joint declaration to be issued at the end of the India-Africa summit were stuck on, you got it, 'colonialism'. It needed deft language and negotiating skills of Indian diplomats to get around what was little more than an anachronistic debate.

Negotiations on the joint declaration stretched through the better part of Tuesday evening, after it was found that Algeria, supported by the African Union, had inserted a line in the draft statement saying India and Africa would together fight "colonialism".

The idea, it turned out, was to shame Morocco, which is not a member of the AU because the union accuses Morocco of being a "colonial" power over the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic(SADR). AU recognises SADR while Morocco says it's a part of the country.

India used to recognise SADR until 2000 when the Vajpayee government reversed that decision and recognised Morocco. For its pains, Morocco has supported India for the UN Security Council.

Indian negotiators, led by secretary (west) Navtej Sarna, asked the African nations to decide on acceptable language after Morocco and its supporter countries from western Africa objected to the term. This reportedly led to long debates among the African delegates — led by Zimbabwe on the one hand and Morocco on the other.

The issue of colonialism became a big one within African countries. Finally, the negotiators, ordered to find "acceptable language", relied on the English language skills of the Indians. From a prospective outlook, which was in the draft, the final document has clubbed it together with other 20th century ills, like apartheid etc. And placed it in the past rather than the future, averting a potential rift between visitors, and risking the goodwill of the summit.