Viewpoints Africa When South Africa was excluded from the 2026 G20 summit in Miami, many saw it as an insult. It was. But more importantly, it was a reminder. In global politics, respect is not pleaded for, complained about, or morally asserted. It is manufactured through economic strength, technological capability, and the ability to defend interests. Africa’s absence from the room is not accidental. It is structural.
This is an uncomfortable truth. Africa commands moral authority, demographic relevance, and strategic geography. It supplies the minerals that underpin the green transition and the labour force global industries increasingly seek. Yet it remains marginal in the forums where decisions are made, rules are written, and power is exercised. Potential, it turns out, is not power.
The global order is brutally consistent. States that shape outcomes do so because they produce things the world cannot function without and can protect the systems that create them. Manufacturing depth, technological ecosystems, and credible security capacity form the foundation of influence. Without these, diplomacy becomes performative and protest becomes noise.
Africa’s persistent weakness is not a mystery. The continent remains trapped in an extractive economic model, exporting raw materials and importing finished goods at a premium. Infrastructure is unreliable, electricity expensive, logistics inefficient, and markets fragmented. Intra-African trade remains low because it is often easier to trade with Europe or Asia than with neighbouring countries. Policy inconsistency, weak institutions, limited skills, and underinvestment in research and development deepen the problem.
The consequences are predictable. Africa depends on external supply chains for energy, food, pharmaceuticals, technology, and security equipment. It pays in foreign currency for basic goods that should be produced locally. When global politics turns hostile, as it often does, dependence becomes vulnerability. No actor that cannot secure its supply chains, data infrastructure, or industrial base negotiates from a position of strength.
If Africa seeks global respect, it must stop confusing inclusion with power. The path forward is not symbolic representation. It is structural transformation.
First, Africa must take its internal market seriously. The African Continental Free Trade Area is not a slogan. It is the most important strategic tool the continent possesses. Making it real requires dismantling non-tariff barriers, harmonising standards, digitising customs, and coordinating industrial policy across regions. No African country is large enough to industrialise alone. Together, they are impossible to ignore.
Second, industrialisation must become non-negotiable. Africa does not need to produce everything, but it must dominate selected value chains. Agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, textiles, electric mobility components, battery value chains, and digital infrastructure are not futuristic ambitions. They are achievable priorities. Industrial policy must be targeted, time-bound, and enforced.
Third, energy and logistics must be treated as matters of security. Power shortages and broken transport corridors are not merely development failures. They are strategic liabilities. Regional power pools, cross-border rail, efficient ports, and reliable broadband are the quiet enablers of power. Without them, industrial ambition collapses.
Fourth, Africa must finance itself more intelligently. Long-term development cannot be built on short-term, high-cost capital. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance pools, and diaspora savings need credible, well-governed vehicles that channel African capital into African productivity. Financial dependence always constrains political choice.
Fifth, the skills equation must change. A continent of consumers will remain marginal. A continent of builders will not. Technical education, engineering, data science, applied research, and vocational excellence must be prioritised over credentialism. Every major foreign investment should be leveraged for genuine technology transfer and capacity building.
Finally, economic power must translate into security capability. This is not a call for militarisation. It is a requirement for credibility. Africa does not need global power projection, but it must be able to secure its borders, airspace, sea lanes, data systems, and critical infrastructure. A modest, coordinated defence-industrial base built around maintenance capacity, surveillance technology, drones, and cyber defence anchors sovereignty. Without security, economic gains remain exposed and reversible.
Africa’s exclusion from elite forums is not driven by malice alone. It is driven by calculation. In global politics, attention follows leverage. Respect follows capability.
The choice before Africa is clear. Continue appealing to conscience in a world governed by power, or undertake the disciplined work of manufacturing relevance. The room will not open out of courtesy. It opens when those outside build something the world cannot ignore.
