Many Africans seem ambivalent about Putin's attempts to recreate Russia's empire, even though colonialism caused the African continent so much personal pain and injury, and seeded state dysfunction. Liberation struggles should be worthy of support, in Europe as in Africa.

'No nation has the right to make decisions for another nation; no people for another people." These were the words of Tanzanian President Julius Kambarage Nyerere on colonialism in January 1968. Such perspectives have apparently been forgotten in responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Amid confusingly contrarian reports how Russia is "about to run out of steam" in its invasion of Ukraine, how Russia is openly no longer "limiting its war aims" to Ukraine's eastern areas, and the grain shipment deal agreed on by Kyiv and Moscow followed immediately by Russian missile-strikes on the Odesa port, one African contradiction stands out: Why, in the face of an obvious abrogation of human rights and international law by Russia, do many African states refuse to take the side of Ukraine?

The answer may have to do with opportunism.

The South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation has examined how South African businesses can profit by plugging the holes created by...