West Africa is now separated into two blocs with antagonistic ideologies, allied with foreign sponsors on opposite sides of the geopolitical divide.

Vladimir Putin's neocolonial adventures in Africa are unlikely to appear on the agenda as an example of "modern neo-colonialism practice" at the forum in Moscow this week to be attended by ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula and a delegation from his party.

Russia does not like to draw attention to its imperial meddling in African affairs, and many African commentators often steer clear of the subject, not wanting to stir old-style Cold War paranoia.

But ever since Wagner mercenaries popped up in the Central African Republic in 2017, irregular Russian forces have built an extensive military presence across Africa, mostly displacing the ailing French neocolonialists.

Moscow now plans to formalise these troops into a 50,000 strong Africa Legion.

But first, they need to clean up Wagner's image of thuggish mercenaries rampaging through the continent killing Africans in exchange for gold and diamond mines.

Though technically a covert operation of Russian military intelligence, Wagner grew into a freelance criminal enterprise which turned on its sponsor Putin when Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on the Kremlin on 26 June last year - and, to no one's surprise, died in an air crash exactly two months later.

Wagner's African mining and business operations...