A regional tour for global ambition
At the heart of Congo-Brazzaville’s current foreign-policy calendar lies an enterprise that is as symbolic as it is strategic: securing the helm of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for a Central African statesman. Since late July, Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso has embarked on a carefully choreographed tour of Southern African capitals to promote Firmin Édouard Matoko’s candidacy. The mission, conducted under the direct aegis of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, illustrates Brazzaville’s belief that multilateral leadership can amplify national influence well beyond the oil-rich banks of the Congo River.
The Mozambican and Botswanan legs of the journey were intentionally prioritised. Maputo, the tour’s inaugural stop, offered a historic resonance layered with contemporary pragmatism. Gakosso’s meetings with his counterpart Verónica Macamo Dlhovo were hailed by local dailies as a “dialogue of convergence” (Maputo Times, 2023), underscoring mutual interest in educational technologies and marine science—two portfolios UNESCO prizes.
Botswana’s receptive corridor
From Maputo, the ministerial convoy moved to Gaborone, a city whose quiet diplomacy has long punched above its demographic weight. Botswana hosted in 2014 a landmark conference on youth transitions, cementing its credentials as an advocate for inclusive education. In conversations with Foreign Minister Lemogang Kwape, the Congolese delegation highlighted Matoko’s decades at UNESCO headquarters, where he supervised programmes on institutional capacity and youth engagement (UNESCO, 2022). Observers present at the closed-door session report that the Botswanan interlocutors “listened with an attentiveness befitting close partners” (Botswana Daily News, 2023), a formulation hinting at favourable inclinations without revealing a formal endorsement.
Diplomats in Gaborone noted the Congolese tactic of coupling Matoko’s professional dossier with arguments of continental equity. With Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus heading the WHO and Togolese Gilbert Houngbo leading the ILO, Central Africa currently lacks comparable multilateral visibility. By foregrounding this regional gap, Brazzaville seeks to transform a personal candidacy into a collective endeavour.
Memory politics at the Samora Machel mausoleum
Congo’s campaign deliberately interlaces historical homage with forward-looking pledges. Before departing Mozambique, Gakosso’s team laid a wreath at the Samora Machel memorial in Matola. The gesture was more than protocol. It invoked a liberation lineage linking Brazzaville’s support for anti-colonial movements to contemporary claims of Pan-African legitimacy. Officials accompanying the minister framed the visit as “a reminder that cultural sovereignty and political emancipation remain inseparable” (Congolese MFA, 2023).
This rhetoric aligns smoothly with UNESCO’s General History of Africa project, an initiative Matoko has vowed to magnify. By situating his platform within a narrative of African voices chronicling their own past, the candidate taps into a reservoir of symbolic capital that resonates across ideological divides.
An agenda of partnership, not tutelage
Beyond ceremonial diplomacy, Matoko’s manifesto circulates in discreet briefing notes. He advocates an organisation that “speaks with Africa, not merely about Africa”, promising to expand Category II institutes devoted to digital literacy on the continent and to facilitate African membership in cutting-edge UNESCO scientific networks. The pledge squares with Congo’s domestic education reforms, where Brazzaville has been experimenting with bilingual STEM curricula in collaboration with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF, 2023).
African diplomats contacted in Pretoria and Windhoek caution, however, that budgetary stewardship will remain the decisive metric. UNESCO’s extra-budgetary funding gap exceeded USD 500 million last year (UNESCO Financial Report, 2023), and member states will expect any incoming Director-General to navigate competing donor priorities without alienating historical partners. In private, Congolese negotiators emphasise Matoko’s experience in UNESCO’s resource-mobilisation unit as proof of fiscal reliability.
Expanding the arc: from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Guinea
The Southern African swing is only phase one of what officials term an “arc of consensus” strategy. Mauritius is slated to provide an Indian Ocean echo chamber where cultural-heritage diplomacy carries considerable weight, particularly after the island nation’s successful campaign for the inscription of the sega tambour on UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage list in 2017. The Congolese team believes that shared advocacy for maritime-culture preservation can translate into vote alignment on the Executive Board.
Subsequent rallies will unfold under the stewardship of Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, who will canvas Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Djibouti. Each stop has been selected for its unique leverage: Libreville for Central African solidarity, Abuja for sub-regional heft, Abidjan for Francophone advocacy, Ouagadougou and Monrovia for precedent-setting transitional governments, and Djibouti for its pivotal role in the Arab-African interface.
Strategic outlook for Brazzaville
Should Matoko prevail at the next General Conference, Brazzaville would secure a vantage point to articulate developmental priorities ranging from forest conservation in the Congo Basin to cultural restitution dialogues with European museums. Even in the event of an unfavourable vote, the campaign itself functions as diplomatic rehearsal, deepening bilateral channels that can later underpin economic or security cooperation.
Congo’s leadership frames the endeavour as an illustration of constructive multilateralism rather than personalised ambition. In background conversations, a senior official close to President Sassou Nguesso argued that “multilateral platforms remain the most cost-effective amplifier of African agency; to neglect them is to surrender voice” (Presidential Adviser, 2023). Such positioning reinforces Brazzaville’s image as a state intent on shaping, not merely absorbing, global governance trends.
For seasoned observers of African diplomacy, the unfolding tour offers a case study in how mid-sized states leverage historical capital, regional geometry and an agile narrative to court influence. Whether these elements will converge into the requisite majority within UNESCO’s Executive Board remains to be tested in the secret ballot. For now, Congo-Brazzaville’s southern gambit demonstrates that in the complex theatre of multilateral appointments, the road to Paris may indeed pass through Maputo, Gaborone and Port Louis.
