Last week's ousting of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was interpreted by many African countries as being a military coup d'état, and the African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC), ironically set up in Cairo by the 1993 Cairo Declaration, voted on Friday to suspend Egypt temporarily from its activities. The swift action by the African Union, of which Egypt was a founding member and is a major financial donor, has raised eyebrows in Cairo, underlining the fact that Egypt's relationship with the African continent has long been contentious, with the country's interest in African affairs waning over the last four decades and since the death of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser. For many, the golden age of Egyptian-African relations is over, but this could also mean that the time is now ripe for turning over a new leaf. The suspension of Egypt from the AU's PSC is widely regarded in Africa as a distraction, and giving up on Africa would be a mistake for Egypt, as the country now needs Africa as it has rarely done before. The suspension should be used to give a new sense of urgency for Egypt to re-establish closer ties with African countries south of the Sahara. The countries suspected of being the prime movers behind Egypt's suspension from the PSC are the North African and Arab states that had ideological sympathies and close political ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Libya, Sudan, and to some extent Tunisia, all governed by Islamist parties akin to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, are thought to have joined forces against Cairo at the AU, being determined to punish Egypt for its ousting of Morsi in the African diplomatic arena. Algeria, the only North African nation to escape the uprisings of the Arab Spring, also looked on with trepidation at the spectre of Egyptian “people power” ousting a democratically-elected president. The PSC decision to suspend Egypt will likely also be seen as adding legitimacy to the outrage felt by Morsi's supporters. Ethiopia, whose capital Addis Ababa houses the headquarters of the African Union, is another country that views Egypt suspiciously. While Addis Ababa did not have close relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, it nevertheless has realised that whatever government rules in Egypt the contentious issue of the Blue Nile waters and the construction of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia is bound to be raised. “I believe the AU acted prematurely. Unfortunately, several African countries are prone to adopt decision-making processes based on international media organisations such as CNN and Al-Jazeera, which have been biased against Egypt's 30 June Revolution, calling it a coup d'état,” veteran Egyptian Africanist Mohamed Fayek told Al-Ahram Weekly. Fayek was Egypt's chief emissary to the African countries in the 1960s, and he has also been deputy head of the Cairo-based National Council for Human Rights. He has extensive relations with African political figures. The PSC's decision to suspend Egypt pointed to a deeper political unease and suspicion regarding Egyptian motives in the African continent, he said, and what was needed was for ties to be cemented between Egyptian and African civil rights organisations. It has been rumoured that Fayek has been nominated as special presidential adviser on African affairs by Egypt's Interim President Adli Mansour, though Fayek has denied the reports. Egypt is an integral part of the African continent, and the River Nile, the nation's lifeline, originates in the Ethiopian Highlands and in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Fayek said that he believed that Egypt should now rekindle its special relationship with the African nations as a whole and not just those in the Nile Basin. He added that the PSC's decision to suspend Egypt could be seen as adding legitimacy to the indignation felt by Morsi's supporters. “The longer Egypt keeps itself apart from Africa, the lonelier it will become on the international scene and the more it will undermine its own identity as a nascent democracy,” Fayek said. Instead, Egypt should work on cementing ties with Africa, he added. It was against the backdrop of Egypt's suspension from the PSC that Al-Jazeera's Azad Eissa spoke to Al-Ghassim Wane, director of the PSC, about how the AU viewed the political crisis unfolding in Egypt, Wane claiming that the PSC had had “no choice” but to suspend one of the PSC's founding members. Most African countries have expressed the hope that Egypt will now embark on a rapid return to democracy. Egypt is the fourth country to be suspended from the PSC after the Central African Republic, GuineaBissau, and Mali. The suspension of Egypt from the PSC is a measure that is automatically taken under an AU instrument whenever an unconstitutional change in government occurs. In response to the AU move, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti said that the ouster of Morsi had come in response to the massive protests on 30 June. Some 33 million people, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry official declared, had protested against the former president. “What more proof does the world need to accept that what happened in Egypt was a popular demonstration of people power?” he asked. Instead of now giving up on Africa, Egypt needs to change its way of dealing with African affairs. The suspension crisis could be viewed as a golden opportunity to mend fences with African countries, especially since, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, the country's armed forces moved only in response to the popular will and to implement a road map adopted by Egypt's political forces. Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr had made extensive and intensive contacts with several African leaders in order to explain the political situation in Egypt, Abdel-Atti stated. “Egypt has clung too long to the dogma that Africa is its backyard. This is no longer true,” Fayek concluded in his comments on the present crisis.
