On November 13-14 2024, South Africa’s Johannesburg hosted a landmark event not only for its continent, but also for its country – the forum “African Unity in a Multipolar World,” organized by the International Russophile Movement. The forum brought together participants from many countries of the world and became a kind of milestone, marking Africa’s path to liberation from Western colonialism on the basis of the principles of multipolarity. For Russia, this forum became a part of the great work on rapprochement with the countries of the “Black Continent”, and also marked the realization of Vladimir Putin’s instructions on the special importance of such cooperation.

A New System of Coordination

The International Russophile Movement (IRM) is an organization actively gaining strength in many countries of the world. De facto it has existed already for some years, however de jure it found its final form and received recognition on March 14, 2023, in Moscow, at the Constitutive Congress of the Russophile Movement in which 87 participants from 42 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America took part. The Congress was preceded by a Multipolarity Forum held the day before, which demonstrated broad support for Russia from virtually all countries of the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the participants of the Congress, noting that our country highly appreciates the strong determination of the organization’s members to oppose the Russophobic campaign from “NATOstan”, the desire to develop dialogue and mutually beneficial humanitarian cooperation. It’s no joke, all these guests from different countries came to Moscow amid unprecedented pressure from the West, showing great courage.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, LDPR Chairman Leonid Slutsky, Federation Council Vice-Speaker Konstantin Kosachev and other high-ranking individuals were also among the participants. The founder and the head of IRM is the leader of the Bulgarian National Movement “Russophiles” Nikolay Malinov, and in Russia the activity of IRM is actively supported by the founder of TV channel Tsargrad Konstantin Malofeev and the director of Institute “Tsargrad” and also the head of the Ivan Ilyin Higher Political School, as well as the renown Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. MDR members all over the world are well-known politicians and officials, scientists, artists, public figures, political scientists.

Following the Congress of Russophiles in Moscow, already in May 2023, an unprecedented event took place – a 24-hour online marathon of the “Multipolarity Forum”, which was attended by more than 100 participants from countries around the world, the headquarters of which became the Tsargrad TV channel’s studio.

Decolonization of Africa

Very famous people gathered in Johannesburg for the new large-scale MDR event. For example, the world-famous Brazilian political scientist, author of the books “Globalistan” and “Empire of Chaos” Pepe Escobar, professor of Fudan University, director of China Institute Zhang Weiwei, former American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for five convocations Cynthia McKinney and others came there.

In general, the level of the conference was as high as possible – it was attended by political leaders of many African countries, prominent spiritual and intellectual figures of different civilizations, actively immersed in the problems of a multipolar world.

On the first day of the forum three sections were held – “Problems of Racism, Fascism, Russophobia and Other Forms of Discrimination”, “Practices of Building Ties: Russophiles, Solidarity Networks and Alliances against Hegemony” and “Civilizational Aspect of the African Continent”. The second was a roundtable discussion on “African Unity in a Multipolar World”.

The participants before the opening of the sessions were welcomed by the head of Tsargrad Konstantin Malofeev and the leading “voice” of Russophiles in Russia, Alexander Dugin.

“We Russians and Africans are brothers in arms. Why can I say that at this moment? Because Russia is now leading the global struggle against the new colonization. It is solving the task of protecnting this world, which has been colonized by the international Western Internet giants – Google, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft – from digitalization and globalization,”

-remarked Konstantin Malofeev

He pointed out that now, by conducting the Special Military Operation in the Donbass, Russia is fighting not only for its own freedom, but also for theirs. The founder of the “First Russian” TV Channel reminded that Russians and Africans fought for this freedom in the 60s and 70s of the last century dreaming they could live independently from the influence of Western hegemony:

“But – no. The IMF, the World Bank and the internet giants prevented this from happening. They began to dictate how we should live, began to penetrate into the minds of our children and infect them with a new fashion and a new concept of what is good and what is bad, what to do and what not to do, what is incitement to hatred and tolerance. And now the Russian World, as we call it, is faced with the task of fighting this globalization.”

He stressed that Russia supports Africa’s struggle for decolonization from the West and that we will not abandon friends in need.

“You are free politically, but you are absolutely enslaved economically. We can help you become free. Africa’s future should be magnificent. It is a vast continent with a large population, there is no demographic problem. It’s full of natural deposits that will allow you to live in a better world, a multipolar world where you would all be respected by the other part of the world. And, believe me, Russians respect you very much,”

– summarized Malofeev to the applause of the audience.

The Battle for Africa’s Consciousness

Alexander Dugin’s address was no less vivid. Our foreign friends know him as one of the originators of the entire concept of a multipolar world. He observed that multipolarity has a multiplicital nature and does not fit into the framework of the generally accepted notion of sovereignty. “It is something more,” Dugin said. “It should be about ‘states within a state,’ which are the new civilizations – Russia, India, China, Africa, the Arab world.” Each of these civilizations is characterized by a blossoming diversity of cultures, ethnicities, faiths and distinctive values that have organically coexisted for centuries within a separate supranational entity.

But where in this system of coordinates do countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany and so on belong? The answer is simple: all of them individually have already lost their sovereignty by joining NATO and pursuing policies to please Washington. Thus, they have once again formed a Western civilization that has proclaimed its rights over the entire planet, although de facto it is only one of the civilizational centers, along with Russia or China and, of course, Africa. However, this continent, according to Dugin, is captured by Western civilization not only economically but also in terms of consciousness.

“You know that your people, the African people, have suffered from Western colonialism for many, many centuries. So many dead, so many enslaved people, so much suffering, violence and humiliation of African identity. And now it is time for revenge. To free Africa from its colonial legacy, you need to take the final step – decolonize consciousness,”

– he said.

The Mayflower Messenger

Speaking of voices from across the ocean, the moderator of the second session, “Practices of Building Ties: Russophiles, Solidarity Networks, and Alliances Against Hegemony,” was the well-known American writer, pundit and blogger Jackson Hinkle, who was extremely vocal. He began his speech by mentioning that his family ancestors were at the origin of America, as they crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower in 1620 and founded the first American colony on the North American continent. However, America, since the first freedoms it received when it ceased to be a colony of England, has itself begun to turn into a harsh colonizer and oppressor.

“We are living in a time of extraordinary geopolitical transition on a global scale, as the West has taken the lead in globalization since the fourteenth century. The West opened the world’s sea lanes, dominated, colonized, and exploited the people and resources of almost the entire planet. The strength of Western civilization lay in its technological superiority, its first form of power, and its conquests driven by the economic system of capitalism,”

– Hinkle observed.

But Africa, in his view, was now being presented with a golden opportunity to undo the colonization of the continent by Western civilization. He drew attention, for example, to the boldness with which Ibrahim Traoré, a captain in the Armed Forces of Burkina Faso, took full power, liberated his homeland from French hegemony and began nationalizing the country’s resources. But this example, Hinkle argues, is not yet typical for the whole of Africa, as it needs to “wake up” first.

“Africa needs to decolonize consciousness before anything else can be achieved. If you look at the revolutionary awakenings that took place in the Soviet Union or China with its Mao, you will realize that China and Russia did have this true awakening in their minds before they achieved prosperity and development. And then China and Russia built countries from the ground up. And I truly believe that Africa can do the same,”

– said the moderator of the discussion.

At the same time, Hinkle called for fear of Western retaliation, because Washington, he believes, has long been “out of its mind,” and the administration of newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump is no exception. People in Trump’s entourage want to wage war on Iran, a nuclear power, and they want to lead a campaign of maximum pressure on China, the country that has been the most successful in fighting poverty in the world, as it has lifted 840 million people out of poverty over the past 40 years, Hinkle said.

“Most importantly, the people Donald Trump surrounds himself with are people who want to keep the Global South in chains. Donald Trump is surrounding himself with people who want to limit Africa’s ability to sovereignly industrialize,”

– he warned.

Russia and Africa: The Way of the Future

If we take into account the fact that Russia is one of the main civilizations at the forefront of multipolarity, the intensification of interaction with Africa can only speak of one thing: the Black Continent is gaining additional importance in the world.

In 2023, a real breakthrough occurred in Russia-Africa relations: the Second Russia-Africa Summit took place in St. Petersburg, attended by African heads of state and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A year later, on Africa Day, May 24, 2024, he said:

“Russia is united with the countries of Africa by the desire to build a just multipolar world order based on equality and the rule of international law, free from any form of discrimination.”

It is this scenario that multipolarity offers Africa. At its core, it excludes discrimination as such, because it postulates equal dialogue and does not accept master-slave or colonizer-colony relations.

And then, in June 2024, at the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), the Russia-Africa panel discussion was held. Leading Russian and African authorities and organizations discussed the priorities of bilateral relations – for example, Africa’s achievement of food independence. After all, it is no secret that it is the “food whip” that is used by Western colonizers to influence Africa.

On October 3-4, 2024, the International Conference “Global Challenges of Food Security” was held in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. In November, the First Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was held at Sirius University in Sochi, where all aspects of relations between the two civilizations were discussed in panel discussions. Finally, from November 4 to 8, 2024, the African Energy Week was held at the Cape Town International Convention Center.

And these, we note, are events within the framework of one year only.

So What Should We Take Away From This?

Returning to the words of Alexander Dugin, we can say that civilization matures when it realizes itself as such, awakens and cleanses its consciousness of alien attitudes. Jackson Hinkle, in turn, gave examples of the formation of the Russian world and China as separate civilizations, and Konstantin Malofeev “multiplied” this meaning by the severity of geopolitical challenges posed to multipolar civilizations by Western hegemony, which does not recognize their independent path of development.

Undoubtedly, Vladimir Putin’s emphasis on the importance of the African continent, rapprochement with it and support for it now plays with new colors. The issues of economy, food, energy and industry are at the top of the agenda in the large-scale events that Russia is undertaking for the sake of Africa. However, that very “awakening” depends primarily on consciousness and meaning, which is exactly what the forums of the Russophile Movement are dedicated to. To debunk myths, to support African ideas, to inspire strength and say: “You are not alone” – this is the true task of such forums, which worthily crown all the efforts of our state in the African direction from the ideological point of view.