Why is it that European leaders so totally fail to understand the relationship of their continent to Africa? This week’s African Union-EU summit provides a clue. The summit is designed to explore the possibility of Economic Partnership Agreements between Africa and the EU.

Instead it’s become an occasion for European moral preening, with the attendance of Robert Mugabe provoking stern denunciation of his human rights abuses, destructiveness and contempt for the people from… Angela Merkel. Yes, that’s right. A German is telling people how to respect human rights. All Comrade Bob has to do is make a reference to the, erm, unpleasantness of 1939-45, and the whole thing looks ridiculous.

But of course he could go further than that and point to the place where the Holocaust got its trial run – in Namibia, or German South-West Africa as it was before WW1, where Herman Goering’s father pretty much wiped out the Herero people in toto.

Mugabe has won again, making the conference about him, and de facto presenting himself as a champion of anti-colonialism, for telling these white hypocrites where to go.

UK PM Gordon Brown refused to go if Mugabe was there, thus letting this one leader among 80 nations (53 African, 27 EU) set the agenda. Of course, Brown’s move was partly domestic, since denouncing Mugabe is code in the Tory shires for “Ian Smith was right”.

Anyone who thinks these issues aren’t live for African people is a fool – but it’s the sort of foolishness only the period of military humanitarianism could encourage. Far from being ancient history, there’s a deep continuity between these EPAs – which are more about a fear of Chinese investment in Africa than anything else – and an earlier period of colonialism when African societies were converted to cash crops at the point of a bayonet. As Mike Davis notes in his book Late Victorian Holocausts, the death toll from the resulting famines ran into the tens of millions.

Whether the EPAs would be good for Africa remains an open question. Most probably it would benefit most from reverse protection – being allowed access to European markets, while being permitted a degree of protection of its own, which is, after all, the way in which 19th c Britain and Europe built themselves up – as now, via currency levels, does China.

But instead of a bit of latitude, sounds like Africa will continue to get platitudes. Given that sort of attitude. Dude.