As the Cold War II witch-hunt against China within the Anglo-American world has led to a purge of Huawei equipment — an electronic Iron Curtain — in the United States and United Kingdom and Australia (and now India), the same cannot be said of Africa. In fact, just the opposite is true. In just this year, Huawei has made significant inroads into the two most technologically advanced African nations, South Africa and Kenya, both on the verge of “rolling out” limited 5G networks within their nations. In South Africa, Huawei has teamed up with local data-only mobile network, Rain, and regional wireless carrier MTN Group, to establish 5G networks in the port cities of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, and the interior population centers of Johannesburg/Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
Kenya telecom Safaricom is expected to close a deal with Huawei for a similar roll-out by the end of the year. According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, a politically diverse assortment of other countries — Lesotho, Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon are named — are said to be in advanced stages of 5G network development.
A big reason: price. “Huawei’s mix of affordability and reliability on the one hand, as well as the fact that they are a leader in telecoms, means Africa will continue to rely on Huawei,” says Kenyan analyst Peter Wanyonyi, adding that African countries are not as “concerned” about China hacking. Readers will remember the hysterical January 2018 charges that China was spying on African nations through the headquarters of the African Union — a $200 million building that China both built and paid for in 2012 — which, although occasionally dredged up by the Pompeo types in the intervening years, has generally fallen on deaf ears in Africa.
