By Sir Ronald Sanders

In the year marking the 200th anniversary of the British act of parliament abolishing the trade in African slaves, representatives of African and Caribbean governments will hold a Conference in South Africa between Africans and their Diaspora in the Caribbean.

Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community. Reponses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com

The South Africa conference is a follow-up to an initial conference held in Jamaica in 2005 when it was generally recognised that there could be a benefit for Africa and the Caribbean if links could be developed in a wide range of areas.

It would be good for Africa and the Caribbean if the representatives of the wider African Diaspora in Latin America, North America and Europe are invited to attend the South Africa meeting. As an economic group within their own countries, the African Diaspora – meaning all people of African descent, not only recent African migrants - are significant, and their buying power, if managed and focussed, could have a marked influence on the scale of trade between Africa and major parts of the world.

The terrible underdevelopment that Africa suffered from the slave trade and continues to suffer today from disadvantageous terms of trade could be markedly improved by a deliberate policy of the African Diaspora to buy African.

But, that is another story.

When the conference is held in South Africa, it will have a proposed plan of action in a number of areas that could be beneficial for Africa and the Caribbean if they are implemented. Among those areas are the following:

· Economic cooperation, including commodity pricing, investment patterns and trade issues at the World Trade Organisation, and the impact of globalisation:

· Health issues, including dealing with Malaria/ Sickle Cell Anaemia/T.B and HIV/Aids; exchange programmes for nurses and doctors; and cooperation in the areas of medical research;

· Transportation and Communication Links to promote greater physical contact between Africa and the Caribbean.

These three areas alone would be a major advance for the people of Africa and the Caribbean.

In the area of health, medical research into diseases that tend to afflict only people of African ancestry, and cooperation in devising treatments would be of great assistance to Africans in the Diaspora in the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe.

With regard to physical contact, it is significant that Africans and the African Diaspora in the Caribbean are most closely linked only by the game of Cricket and then only to three African countries - South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.

Clearly, if Africans and their Diaspora are to strengthen their links and build a structure for cooperation over a wide area including commerce, investment, scientific research, health, education and sport the development of transportation and communication links will be a vitally important necessity.

Such a development will be a long time coming. Just as the triangular trade in slaves and goods demanded transit through Europe, similarly the economic transportation links – as they currently exist – are routed via Europe. Nonetheless, every journey begins with a small step, and the decision to talk about transportation links is, at least, a start.

In the area of trade cooperation, Africa and the Caribbean have some experience of this, garnered in the hard negotiations with Europe on trade, aid and investment which began in the 1970’s with the Lomé Convention. However, the two regions also have experience of falling prey to outside manipulation as has happened with the most recent negotiations with the European Union (EU) over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). Instead of negotiating as the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, the three regions allowed themselves to be separated, losing the strength of a common position against a unified Europe.

In preparation for the South Africa conference, a preparatory meeting will be held in London in April. The selection of a European Capital as the location of a meeting to carry forward the relationship between Africa and the Caribbean is itself incongruous, but it underscores the difficulties that this worthwhile project will face.

A Ministerial meeting is proposed for May to finalise the agenda for the Conference in South Africa toward the end of the year.

If these meetings are accompanied by a firm resolve to work painstakingly to build structures of cooperation and back them with resources, Africa and the Caribbean could right a few ancient wrongs and, at the same time, produce a model for political and economic cooperation that would counter the inequalities that globalisation has engendered for both regions.

Let’s hope the roots of the past can produce the fruits of the future.