You will never find India has worked negatively against any of the African countries. Never. That was India's attitude even before it attained Indpendence.

By Ahmed el Mansour Diop, High Commissioner of Senegal in India

I CAME to India for the first time in 1965 on an official visit when the late Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister. Later, I returned and spent time with a Senegalese who was researching on Dravidian languages. In 1974, I was asked to visit Delhi to assist the new Senegal Ambassador in India, because of my familiarity with the sub-continent.

In the same year, I returned to India with a ministerial delegation to sign a joint venture for chemical industries in Senegal with Indian cooperation. Even today, ships carrying phosphoric acid from that location reaches Cochin regularly. It is a good example of South-South cooperation.

By 1978, Senegal came under a severe drought spell, leading to serious economic problems at home. As part of belt-tightening measures, a decision was taken to limit our missions outside and the Indian mission was also to be closed down. I was not in favour of that decision and argued with my seniors that "India is a non-aligned leader and also a leader of the developing countries. Moreover, India is a staunch supporter of freedom struggles everywhere. So, we should have our presence in India. If necessary, we can close down one of our embassies in Europe". Perhaps, that was the reason why in 1987 I was called back to reopen the Indian Embassy. Since then, I am here in India.

I love India and respect India. Relations between India and Africa should be consolidated. Why? It is not a romantic notion, but a fact of life. Dip into the records of the United Nations, the Security Council or the General Assembly. You will never find India has worked negatively against any of the African countries. Never. That was India's attitude even before it attained Indpendence in 1947. Sometime around 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru met Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya in London and offered scholarship for African students in India.

India's support for the fight the Apartheid in South Africa is well documented. That's why the first thing Nelson Mandela as President undertook was a visit to India. During the premiership of late Rajiv Gandhi, the African Fund was created. P V Narasimha Rao, the then foreign minister, used to visit Africa regularly helping Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. During our freedom struggle also, India helped us. After Belgium left Congo in the 1960s, there was total chaos. The Secretary General of United Nations lost his life in Congo. We witnessed Indian people, Indian diplomats and Indian lawyers helping at different levels.

Then you come to West Africa - Ghana, Nigeria and others. After gaining Independence, India didn't stop there. It continued to help and transfer the money they had to the African brothers and sisters. India is helping them to build their infrastructures and to develop their agriculture.

Now it is developing interpersonal relations to meet the challenges brought by the globalization and WTO. If you sit back a while and ask why India is doing all these things, you will get to know the truth. It is just doing it because they have passed through these difficulties and problems.

Once I told late Rajiv Gandhi that I wanted India's help to eliminate middleman, who buy goods from India through different offices in Europe and sell to Senegal. On his advice, I met Dinesh Singh, the then commerce Minister. "What are you buying now?" he asked. I said, "We are importing rice from Taiwan, cotton yarn from Karachi and buying this and buying that. Now since I am the Ambassador of Senegal to India, and India has these things, I want to buy it from here." Today, there is direct trade relationship between our two countries. If you go to Karol Bagh (New Delhi) today, there is a hotel called Senegal's Hotel because Senegalese come here to buy goods in bulk. Go to Bombay to see containers leaving for Senegal every week.

Until recently, very few came to our High Commission asking for visa to Senegal. Today, at least 125 visitors are going to my country every month. For historical reasons, Indians know more about southern and east Africa and not much is known about the western Africa. Many nations on the western coast were under the French spell and those colonial ties are things of past now.

Since 1991, the world is changing. We Africans are expecting to have a new world - which we call the multi-polar world, perhaps in ten years' time. But some others would not want that to happen. They are putting pressure, putting their heads and impediments before everyone. They are trying to marginalize the United Nations. They are trying to intimidate the other nations, the medium level countries. But if you look at the way India or China are developing, the multi-polar world is coming up. India would be one of them.

So we will be in that camp. Yesterday when we were really suffering, India came to our rescue. And tomorrow when India becomes a major power in the multi-polar world, we would like to be on India's side. That's why we are trying to consolidate the relation between India and Africa. They have understood it because of their culture. They want to give. It's their nature. They don't want to harm anyone. They don't want to push you in the ditch; they want to raise you to the peak of the pyramid.