While Western media focused on criticizing the election of their nemesis Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as African Union (AU) Chairman for the next annual term, there were far more important issues emerging from the organization's 24th summit held in Addis Ababa at the end of January. Many observers sagely noted that the position, now occupied by Mugabe, is largely ceremonial. The true executive muscle in the AU is exercised by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

China's role in supporting the continent's macro development in areas like the promotion of peace and security and combating the Ebola pandemic was a seamless backdrop to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) by Zhang Ming, Vice Foreign Minister of China, and Dlamini-Zuma. Basing cooperation on three pillars of the infrastructure web - high-speed railways, highways and aviation - the MOU showed clear mutual understanding of an immutable fact. If goods, services and people cannot be moved around and out of Africa quickly, then all other good intentions are futile. Dlamini-Zuma said the cooperation with China is attaining a "different height, a different level, and a different dimension."

But that different dimension was not enough to prevent the perennial question about the raft of China-funded infrastructure projects across Africa being a form of neocolonialism. Speaking to Xinhua at the summit, Elham Mahmoud Ibrahim, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, refuted the accusation. "For colonialism, I think one is benefiting and the other is losing, but China-Africa cooperation can benefit both," she said, adding that Africa is developing its continent while China is doing business.

And to do business China needs stability just as much as Africa. Already the AU's key partner in peace efforts in Somalia via its integral role in the African Union Mission in Somalia, and increasing the number of peacekeepers to South Sudan, China's mature stance on helping with Africa's security challenges has not gone unnoticed. Being one of the first countries to reopen its embassy in Somalia was a further show of solidarity. 

Africa needs new strategies and policies to combat ongoing extremism and violence as propagated by the militant movement Boko Haram. In this regard a start has been made - albeit with financial limitations. A 7,500-strong African intervention force set up to fight Boko Haram was mandated at the AU summit, but its financial sustainability is questionable. The AU's budget is an ongoing concern to the organization. Ironically, Mugabe admitted while chairing the summit that more than 70 percent of the AU's approximate $500,000 budget is foreign-funded - led by the United States and Europe. The elephant in the room is that donor funding ought to be linked to Africa's interests and not the donor's interest, which is not always the case. Another bone of contention is that currently only a handful of the 54 member states pay the close to 30 percent balance of AU contributions.

On a positive note and perhaps as a creative way to source funding for the AU, heads of state at the summit proposed new taxes on text messages, airline tickets and hotel stays. They estimate this could bring in more than $2.3 billion by 2016. While it remains to be seen how effective these tax collections will be, as long as the AU is bankrolled by international funding it remains somewhat disempowered in its ongoing clarion calls for independence and sovereignty.

THE EDITOR