The main player of The Golden Game – Gold. The biggest threat to the current global reserve currency, the US Dollar, is Gold once again. Amid great geopolitical turbulence and shaky international relations, many states and their central banks have resorted to acquiring as much gold as possible to back their national currencies, but one has not – the United States. Lack of anything but thin air to back its currency, coupled with an enormous piling debt, the United States is setting itself up for failure.

The US Dollar used to be backed by gold, just as many national currencies are today. However, the US President Richard Nixon ended the Gold Standard in 1971 in order to address the country’s inflation at the time. The monetary policy was seen as limited under the gold standard, because any time the US wanted to print some more money and increase the quantity of bills in circulation, they needed to ensure there was enough gold in the reserve to match it. Now, there are no such restrictions, hence the uncontrollable printing of money taking place currently. And, the worst part, it’s backed by….well, thin air. Former US President Donald Trump, during his time in the office, stated at one point: “Boy, would it be wonderful to bring back the Gold Standard.” Apart from something like this not being very feasible, many economists agreed that it would not be something beneficial to the United States. For all the money that the government has been printing, they would need to purchase an equal amount of gold, and at the rate US has been printing dollars-there would be a very small likelihood of this becoming a reality.

Currently there are 2.3 trillion US dollars in circulation, all of these would need to be backed by an equal amount of gold. Although the US has the largest gold reserves in the world, 261 498 926 ounces as per US Treasury, equaling to just over $420 billion, it still is far away from the amount of dollars in circulation today. In order to achieve the Gold Standard, US would need to purchase five times the gold it currently has, if the reports by the US Treasury of US’ gold reserves are correct. The BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), however, have increased their purchases of gold by several thousand percent over the years! And it is not just BRICS member states purchasing gold only, but many other countries have increased their gold reserves significantly over the years, and as per The Conversation magazine, central banks have added 650 tons of gold to their reserves in 2019 alone! National currencies of the BRICS states, largely backed by gold now, are widely being used in trade among the BRICS members and other Eurasian, Asian and African partners. This shift has a negative impact on the dollar, weakening it with every additional large trade contract signed and settled in national currencies. BRICS members have also discussed creating a basket of reserve currencies at the last summit a couple of months ago, which would be decentralized and consist of several currencies, therefore not imposing the hegemony of a single currency on the rest of the world as is the case now with the US dollar.

This is very appealing to many and Beijing’s and Moscow’s independent foreign policies attract support from a wide range of African countries in particular, which see the two as a counterweight to the neocolonial policies of the European countries, or the one-side, warmongering policies of the United States. Russia’s influence in Africa has grown significantly over the years, as has China’s. Both have been investing into development of the African continent and continue to support peace efforts without taking sides in ongoing conflicts. US, on the other hand, tends to promote its Military Industrial Complex and sell arms to rebels causing havoc across the continent. It is not surprising that even though so very rich in natural resources, African countries remain among the poorest in the world. The Western powers’ years of colonial rule and exploitation of Africa’s natural resources have only benefited the development of the Western world. For example, 14 countries on the African continent still pay taxes to their colonial master, France! They are not typical taxes, per se, but rather when they were granted independence a Colonial Pact was signed between them and France obliged its former colonies to keep 50 percent of their foreign reserves in the French Treasury, yet they can only access 15 percent of their reserves each year! How democratic! Afritech News reported in 2020 that France has benefited greatly from this pact as African countries have been contributing $500 billion to its treasury every year! Among other points agreed upon in the Pact, one states that France has the first right to purchase any natural resources discovered. Freedom, they all say, but is it really? Is that what freedom and democracy are supposed to look like?!

Therefore, recent announcement by the Ugandan ambassador to Russia that the two countries are discussing possibility of trade in national currencies is of great importance. Uganda recently discovered enormous gold reserves, valued at $13 trillion! However, this has largely gone under the radar in Western media. Why? Was the United States Secretary of State, Blinken, unable to secure US’ foothold in the Horn of Africa during his recent visit to Uganda in August? It certainly seems like that may be the case, despite renewed US’ Africa Strategy which seeks to strengthen US relations with the continent. China, actually, is the one who has been granted a 21 year license to mine the gold discovered. The benefit of granting China the license: China does not seek to promote unrest in the country, nor does it seek regime change, as is often the case with the United States. The notion of “democracy and freedom” which the West promotes through wars and destruction are becoming less appealing to many states around the world. “The jungle”, as Joseph Borrell recently called everyone else outside of the West, which he referred to as the garden, seeks to live independently, freely and to utilize its partnerships with powers such as Russia and China in further developing their economies.

Russia has been playing a leading role in making Africa energy independent. Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, provided a loan in the amount of $25 billion to Egypt, one of its main trading partners in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, in order to support it in constructing its first nuclear power plant. It is also negotiating with seventeen different African countries to provide them with necessary support on their path to energy independence. It already has preliminary nuclear deals with Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan and Zambia. These deals do not come with the attached demand to impose Russia’s form of governing structure in the states receiving support. There is no request to impose external ideas or values which may not be suitable for African societies. This has made both Russia and China very valuable and appreciated partners continent wide.

If you ever wonder why people throughout the continent are waving Russian flags at protests, just remember that Russia supports development of societies as they are, within their own ethnic and cultural lines, as opposed to the West and their “democracy and freedom loving” wars. It is not a surprise at all that the “barbaric” East is standing shoulder to shoulder, fiercly supporting each other and celebrating each other’s successes, while French, Italian and other Western leaders return empty-handed from Algeria, the Gulf States, etc. from their gas and oil begging trips. And little do they know that Africa has an enormous potential, with its natural resources, growing economy, large young workforce-all ideal indicators to be a vital partner! Therefore, as geopolitical realities shift, Africa’s development will continue to be supported by its BRICS and Eastern partners to achieve its full potential for the benefit of all.