At a meeting with representatives of the "Sub-Saharan Africa Initiative," Merkel reiterated Germany's direction of march in Africa: "Africa has so much market potential, but we need to make better use of it."
Members of the "Sub-Saharan Africa Initiative" are capitalist associations such as the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA). Renewable energies were mentioned as a sector in which special investments should be made in the future. As usual, the whole thing is cynically dressed up as a service to Africa's development, while the vaccine patents continue not to be released.
The "market potentials" that the imperialists see in Africa lie in sales markets, labor, raw materials and land. Above all, high-quality industrial products are exported, while cheap raw materials are imported from Africa. Ideally, German companies also earn money from the production and extraction of the products. Surplus German capital is to be increasingly invested in Africa in the future in order to realize high profit rates. So far, however, African countries play a relatively minor role in German foreign trade. In 2019, German goods worth 23 billion euros were exported, which is roughly equivalent to exports to Turkey or Japan. In the wake of the global overproduction crisis and restrictions imposed by "Corona policies," exports to Africa fell by 18% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year. Less steeply, however, than imports of African products, which fell by 25%. All in all, this is a state of affairs that the imperialist lobby groups are not willing to accept. They want again also "a place in the sun" by playing a big role on this "growth market".
For some time now, Germany has been trying to establish itself as a "power of order" in Africa by means of military missions that create order for German capitals. The main target is the region south of the Sahara, since the volume of trade with the countries there is much lower than in North Africa. The missions in Mali and in the Horn of Africa are in the same vein.
