The Diplomacy of Friendship

Vakhtang Imerlishvili, Author – Africa, Arabia -

 The Diplomacy of Friendship: Silence, Fire, and Trust in Africa


A blog by Vakhtang Imerlishvili


In Africa, friendship often begins by the fire. Words are not required — it is enough to sit nearby, to share a quiet smile, and to listen as the night opens its own kind of dialogue. This silence does not conceal — it reveals. It creates a space where trust is not spoken, but simply lived.


I remember sitting in a rural Kenyan village for the first time, unsure of what to expect. There were no questions. No explanations. Yet something unmistakable was already unfolding. When someone pours water for you without asking if you're thirsty — that is Africa. When a stranger stops on the road and offers a hand, without a word — that is the language of trust.


Unlike in the Arab world, where diplomatic gestures are often refined through centuries of etiquette, African friendship moves with an inner rhythm — a rhythm that tells you: feel first, then speak. If you sense it correctly, friendship spreads around you like the wind — even carrying your name through distant fields.


Friendship in Africa is one of the continent’s most powerful diplomatic tools. It is political, too — when solidarity comes not through official channels but from the neighbor who understands you without a single word.


It is friendship by the fire — where presence means agreement. Friendship in movement — where a gesture says, “You are with me.” And friendship in silence — where the most reliable allies are often those who simply stayed.


In this continent, friendship might just be the most natural resource of all. It cannot be mined, exported, or spent. But for those who learn its value, it becomes a rare form of diplomacy — one that speaks without speaking.


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