Emerging Markets Find Their Voices

Brazilian President, Lula Da Silva, gave a fiery speech at the opening of the UN General Debate in September, in which he criticized developed countries for not doing enough to support developing ones. Ghana’s President joined the chorus the following day, calling for reparations to be paid by colonial powers for slavery. In response, UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, suggested the West must become better at listening to developing nations.   

The Brazilian President covered a range of issues in his speech. He said that the West’s promise of $100 billion per annum to fight climate change remains “just a promise” before going on to criticize Western multilateral funding agencies such as the IMF. Lula decried the IMF making $160 billion in special drawing rights available to European nations, but only $34 billion for the whole of Africa.

“The unequal and distorted representation in the management of the IMF and the World Bank is unacceptable” stated Lula, who is a strong advocate for a joint BRICS currency. The Brazilian leader went on to say that the BRICS were forced to create their own structures after developed countries failed to create a new model of economic governance.

This is likely to be a recurring theme over the coming months and years, with developing countries taking advantage of an expanded BRICS bloc to press wealthy nations for financial support and trade concessions while concurrently developing their own alternatives.  

The Brazilian President also accused the West of capturing the WTO and conducting “authoritarian nationalism”. Considering the imminent ascension of several authoritarian states to the BRICS bloc this may seem hypocritical. However, the BRICS have made a point of building consensus in contrast to the democracies of the developed world which tend to demand their lead be followed.  

Lula also criticized the West for detaining Julian Assange, saying he should not be jailed for sharing information with the public, having previously referred to the Wikileaks co-founder as a ‘hero’. Lula then blasted the UN Security Council and its members who wage “unauthorized wars of territorial expansion and regime change”. The Brazilian President did not clarify whether he was referring to the United States or Russia, before reaffirming his denunciation of the US embargo against Cuba.

Ghanaian President Demands Reparations  

The following day, Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, delivered a passionate address of his own, taking the podium at the UN General Assembly and directing a harsh rebuke towards former colonial nations. He stated that Africa could never be properly compensated for the horrors of the slave trade but stressed that reparations should still be paid in recognition of this historical crime.

Akufo-Addo urged the world not to overlook the contemporary economic and social challenges facing the African continent, emphasizing their deep-rooted connection to historical injustices. Speaking to global leaders in New York, he stated, “The economic and social challenges faced by Africa are intricately tied to historical injustices that have shaped the world.”

He went on to highlight how much Europe and the US had prospered from the immense wealth derived from the suffering of millions during the transatlantic slave trade and the era of colonial exploitation. Akufo-Addo asserted that the struggles African countries face in building prosperous societies was a direct consequence of having their natural resources plundered and their people treated as commodities for centuries.

Acknowledging that modern-day Europeans and Americans were not directly involved in the slave trade, Akufo-Addo underscored the deliberate and state-sponsored nature of the forced transfer of Africans across the Atlantic, emphasizing that the benefits reaped from the slave trade were still deeply entrenched in the current economic structures of the West.

"Reparations must be paid for the slave trade," he insisted, receiving applause from the audience.

This follows a recent UN report that underscored the lack of accountability among Western states in addressing the historical and contemporary impacts of forcefully uprooting an estimated 30 million Africans through the slave trade. The report stressed that the passage of time and challenges in identifying perpetrators and victims should not serve as a basis for nullifying these legal obligations.

Cleverly Responds Cleverly

Leaders of the Global South are growing irritated by what they perceive as lecturing by the West, the UK’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told The Guardian on the sidelines of the UN general assembly following the Brazilian and Ghanaian President’s speeches. The official warned that “the West will be in trouble unless it learns to listen better to the Global South” and stated that many foreign ministers from developing countries feel that all Western leaders talk about is Ukraine.

“We have got to be sensitive to that,” stressed the Englishman. Cleverly went on to note that it was important to listen to what other countries are saying and communicate that the West is committed to “helping the developing world deal with their pre-existing challenges”, while continuing to support Kiev amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The Western powers have clearly been surprised by the reluctance of leaders from developing countries to condemn Russia, as states like Brazil, South Africa, and India, assert their political independence. But developing nations want to shift global attention to their own priorities, such as poverty, inequality, and debt relief. If these recent speeches at the UN are anything to go by, this will remain an on-going trend, with developing countries seeking to leverage their increased influence in world affairs to re-center global debates around their own unique challenges.

As the outbreak of renewed hostilities between Hamas and Israel threatens to divert attention and military equipment away from the Ukraine war, emerging markets have once again called for peace, hoping that one day all the financial resources committed to fighting wars might be used to alleviate poverty, which is still the cause of more deaths each year than all the world’s conflicts combined.

By the looks of things, developing countries may have to wait a while longer before their dream of a war and poverty free world can be realized. In the meantime, they will continue to pursue lucrative trade and investment opportunities with the West, so long as they do not come at the expense of their political independence and endeavors to increase beneficial co-operation among themselves.