Francia Marquez is the highest ranking Colombian authority to visit African countries in 26 years. “I am the first Afro-descendant woman vice-president of our country to come here today. My ancestors left these lands 400 years ago in slavery and today I am coming back in freedom, without chains, and as vice-president of the Republic of Colombia,” said Francia Márquez in an interview with the media outlet Noticias Caracol.
The first Afro-Colombian to become vice president of the country, Francia Marquez said last month at a hearing before the second committee of the Colombian Senate that her trip to Africa was part of a strategy to have “an unprecedented rapprochement with that continent”, including the opening of new Colombian embassies in African countries and vice versa to continue diplomatic relations, the increase of direct commercial flights from Colombia to African countries, as a strategy to create new tourist routes, the signing of agreements with African chambers of commerce in multiple commercial sectors, alliances with organisations and entities in the cultural sector to promote exchanges and new opportunities.
Her 8-day tour, which officially began on 12 May and ended on 18 May, took her to South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia. The Colombian vice-president and her delegation took more than 18 hours to travel from Bogota to Johannesburg. After leaving Bogotá on 10 May at 16:30 Colombian time, the delegation arrived on 11 May at 20:30 South African time. After a short stopover in Brazil, the Colombian vice-president also made a stopover in Gabon, where she was received by the country’s vice-president, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, for a protocol meeting at the military airport in Libreville, the Gabonese capital.
The two vice-presidents discussed for almost an hour the importance of building relations between Gabon and Colombia in order to promote opportunities for both countries. In this regard, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda expressed to Francia Márquez Mina the need for a future state visit to consolidate diplomatic relations between the two countries. During her stopover in Gabon, on her way to South Africa, Françia Marquez said: “We are already in Africa! It is a great joy for me to be, once again, in the land of my ancestors. This time with the aim of consolidating diplomatic, cultural, tourist, educational and commercial relations with the cradle of humanity. At the moment we are in Gabon”.
Finally, the Vice-President and her delegation arrived in South Africa in Pretoria and then travelled to Johannesburg, where the tour officially started on 12 May with a visit to the famous Freedom Park, together with South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Strengthening political, economic, trade and cultural relations
The aim of the African vice-president’s tour was to strengthen political, economic, commercial and cultural relations between Colombia and the African continent. “With my heart and with total pride, I am leading this #ColombiaInAfrica agenda, so that our country strengthens in terms of peace, diplomatic, cultural and commercial relations with a continent with which we share roots, and which currently is the region with the greatest potential for economic growth in the world,” said Francia Marquez.
During the tour, the Colombian vice-president was accompanied by a delegation of more than fifty people, including the Colombian Minister of Culture, Jorge Ignacio Zorro; the vice-minister of tourism, Arturo Bravo; and the vice-minister of higher education, Ana Carolina Quijano.
Meeting with the highest authorities
In the three countries visited, Francia Marquez was received by the presidents of the different countries Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), William Ruto (Kenya), Sahle-Work Zewde (Ethiopia) and the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. In Johannesburg, the first stop on her tour, Francia Márquez participated in the Colombia-South Africa High Level Forum with the President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mtho Xulu. In Kenya, she visited the UN headquarters, where climate justice and racial justice issues were discussed.
In Kenya, she also met the Chief Justice of Kenya, Martha K. Koome, the first female Chief Justice of Kenya.In Ethiopia, where she concluded her tour, she met with the Executive Director of NEPAD, Ethiopian Nardos Bekele-Thomas, and visited the headquarters of Ethiopian Airlines. She is also planning to open the Colombian embassy in Addis Ababa, home to the African Union (AU) headquarters, which will be the fourth Colombian embassy in sub-Saharan Africa, alongside those in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. She also met with members of the Pan-African Parliament and commissioners of the African Union, where Colombia has had observer status since 2008.
Colombia-Africa relations
According to a document from Colombia’s vice-presidency, Africa is an important continent for the country because it is not only the region with the greatest potential for economic growth in the world, but also a region whose population will double by 2050. The African Continental Free Trade Area, the paper says, is now the largest free trade area in the world, with 54 signatory countries planning to eliminate 90% of tariffs on goods over the next five years.
“The economic power is such that sales by Colombian companies to the African continent have increased by 158% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to DANE figures. In 2022, the main countries buying Colombian goods were Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Gabon, Nigeria, Libya, Senegal, Angola and the Republic of Congo.
Similarly, the document continues, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa have extensive experience in reconciliation and peace processes. “At the multilateral level, Colombia’s presence and participation in the African Union, where it has been an observer member since 2008, should be strengthened. Areas of common interest between Colombia and the African Union include climate change, peacebuilding, women’s empowerment and education. Colombia will seek to support the efforts of this regional organisation, framed by Agenda 2063 (a strategic framework of the African Union for the socio-economic transformation of the continent, as well as for progress in security, self-sufficiency and sustainability).
This visit, it is recalled, is not the first action carried out by Vice President Francia Márquez Mina as part of her presidential mandate to lead the development of relations between the Government of Change and Afro and indigenous peoples at the national and international level. “She has held several bilateral meetings with high-level officials from countries such as Nigeria as part of COP27, as well as with ambassadors from African countries to the UN as part of their participation in the UN Security Council in New York in January 2023. He also met with more than 30 ambassadors from Africa and the Caribbean during his recent visit to the Cuban capital. He also held a meeting with representatives of chambers of commerce from six African countries at the invitation of the chamber of commerce in the Colombian capital.
