Abdoulaye Konaté and The Economy of Influence
Last week, I had the pleasure of introducing Dr. Abdoulaye Konaté, a visiting artist from Mali, to my French class. I was able to speak with Dr. Konaté about a range of subjects from his artistic process to the embedded critiques of socio-economic issues that define his artwork, but what struck me most about his visit was a statement that he mentioned off-handedly as the talk came to a close. Dr. Konaté said that although Mali was a secular nation, it was increasingly clear that Muslim religious influence due to Saudi Arabian investment was shaping the collective thought of the nation. The subtext of this seemingly innocuous statement was significant: Saudi Arabia was wielding money to define the future of Mali's religion and potentially restructure its entire belief system. By building private Muslim schools and creating vast Muslim media networks, a nation with no clear ties to Mali had used propaganda to buy influence and control the cultural zeitgeist; Saudi Arabian money enabled the proselytization that in turn defined Mali's future.
As I began to mull over the ramifications of this idea, I realized that this relationship is not unique. Around the world, burgeoning powers such as Saudi Arabia and China are vying for control of the most valuable asset in the 21st century: influence. Infrastructure projects have provided a new facade for the centuries-old colonization that has shaped our world, and as projects like the Belt and Road initiative conceal their insidious nature under the guise of platitudes about modernization, we turn a blind eye to their effects. Simply, these actions are a predatory way of establishing cultural or economic influence in a region that evolves into a state of permanent dependence. Perhaps this isn't shocking. After all, America has a complex history of prosperity borne out of these exact relationships. But that shouldn't serve as a justification for the continuation of exploitative investment in the future. Dr. Konaté was right to be indignant. Globalization is increasingly reflective of the colonialism of the past, except countries are now spreading influence through infrastructure and economic development instead of propagating their power through military force and conquest.
SOURCE: https://www.bothogroup.com/research-articles/2018/9/19/saudi-expansion-africa
As I began to mull over the ramifications of this idea, I realized that this relationship is not unique. Around the world, burgeoning powers such as Saudi Arabia and China are vying for control of the most valuable asset in the 21st century: influence. Infrastructure projects have provided a new facade for the centuries-old colonization that has shaped our world, and as projects like the Belt and Road initiative conceal their insidious nature under the guise of platitudes about modernization, we turn a blind eye to their effects. Simply, these actions are a predatory way of establishing cultural or economic influence in a region that evolves into a state of permanent dependence. Perhaps this isn't shocking. After all, America has a complex history of prosperity borne out of these exact relationships. But that shouldn't serve as a justification for the continuation of exploitative investment in the future. Dr. Konaté was right to be indignant. Globalization is increasingly reflective of the colonialism of the past, except countries are now spreading influence through infrastructure and economic development instead of propagating their power through military force and conquest.
SOURCE: https://www.bothogroup.com/research-articles/2018/9/19/saudi-expansion-africa
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