From April 15 to 16, a two-day international political conference will be held at the University of Makerere, with the theme "Africa and External Powers: Shaping Conditions for Cooperation." The event aims to explore Africa's position in an increasingly competitive global order. Policymakers and analysts will discuss whether the African continent is proactively shaping the landscape or being influenced by intensifying external interests. Currently, strategic competition is resurging, as the United States, China, Russia, and Gulf nations such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar continue to expand their influence in Africa's economic and political systems. This deepening involvement in areas like infrastructure financing, trade, security cooperation, and energy partnerships opens new channels for capital and technology for Africa but also exacerbates long-standing concerns—such as debt sustainability, limited value-added from raw material exports, and asymmetries in partnership negotiations. The conference's analytical focus does not center on the presence of external actors (a well-established feature in Africa's political economy) but rather on the agency of African states: how much they can autonomously determine priorities, set conditions for cooperation, and derive strategic value from these external relations.
