JOHANNESBURG—The scene on the computer screen is a rubble-strewn street in Ouagadougou, the capital of the tiny West African country of Burkina Faso.
Troops amass on one side, holding automatic rifles and rocket launchers, their uniforms emblazoned with the Burkinabe national flag—two equal horizontal bands of red and green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the center.
Behind them, there’s another group of soldiers wearing different military fatigues, with their faces covered with black balaclavas and an insignia clear on their chests: two swords on a black background bisecting a gold star—the symbol of the Afrika Korps (Africa Corps), its members being former mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group.
As the video game unfolds, using sophisticated animation and graphics, the players’ objective becomes clear: These two forces, collectively called the “Patriotic Movement for Salvation and Reconstruction” and led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, must free Burkina Faso from the “neo-colonialist, imperialist and racist” grip of President Paul-Henri Damiba, branded a “puppet” of his American and French “masters.”
To achieve this, the “liberating” forces, supported by Russia, must destroy anything displaying an American or French flag, including soldiers, military vehicles, and buildings.
Bullets and bombs fly; blood spatters across the screen.
The outcome is a foregone conclusion, and crowds of people—some waving Russian flags—pour into the broken, body-littered roadways to cheer for Traore, his soldiers, and the Africa Korp fighters.
The masses celebrate the “victory of the Pan-Africanists, the creation of the Sahel Confederation, its own currency, and the withdrawal of all Western military from the territory of the state.”
This path of Pan-Africanism, according to the outline of “African Dawn,” leads to Burkina Faso receiving “military-technical and economic support” from Russia.
The onscreen explanation continues: “As is known, as a result of the coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, as well as the withdrawal of the French and American military, the African countries, tired of being robbed by the West, began to actively increase co-operation with Russia in all areas.”
Karen Allen, an information technology expert at South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, describes the “African Dawn” computer game as “the newest tool in Moscow’s foreign information manipulation and interference playbook.”
Allen told The Epoch Times that “African Dawn” is an online “geopolitical game” designed to “manipulate and influence” Africans against the West and anyone perceived to be “friendly” with the United States and its European allies.
Analysts say China and Russia on the one hand, and the United States and European Union on the other, are locked in a “new scramble for Africa,” a geopolitical rivalry widely seen to be about access to the continent’s vast mineral resources.
These critical minerals and metals, such as cobalt, lithium, and manganese, are needed to manufacture products essential to the world’s future, including clean energy systems, computers, and communications technology.
Both the United States and France recently withdrew from the conflict-ridden Sahel region at the behest of the military juntas now governing Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
According to Allen and other experts, this happened after Russia incited anti-Western public protests and violence using its misinformation and disinformation weapons, including Kremlin-controlled websites and social media.
“African Dawn” is a re-enactment of Traore’s successful coup on Sept. 30, 2022; players do, however, have the added “bonus” of eliminating Western soldiers.
African Initiative, headquartered in Moscow with offices in Burkina Faso and Mali, is funded by the Kremlin and headed by a former Wagner Group operative, Artem Kureev.
“Both ‘African Dawn’ and African Initiative are Moscow’s latest efforts to fight fire with fire with the United States in projecting power and influence on the continent,” Herman Wasserman, head of media studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, told The Epoch Times.
“Many other powers, including America, have used media and films to further their geopolitical interests for ages. ‘African Dawn’ is taking that into the popular territory of online gaming, as part of the growing trend of ‘militainment.’”
Grigory’s gamer name, they write, is GrishaPutin, “famous for his active pro-Russian stance” during Moscow’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.
The African Initiative report describes the teenager’s work as a “cyber nightmare” about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting West.
On the website, Grigory, arms folded across his chest, is photographed in Russian military fatigues decorated with Wagner Group badges.
Kureev and Zamaraeva describe the rationale behind “African Dawn” as follows:
“Computer games are perceived by NATO strategists as a training ground for future tacticians, and the Western game industry has become an important element of propaganda.
“The antagonists there are increasingly often either bad Russians or ‘bearded Muslims.’
“However, Russian cybersports players have learned how to skilfully destroy such propaganda narratives with their talent and charisma.”
As an example of “aggressive Western propaganda and disinformation” in the gaming industry, the African Initiative report refers to “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” an online game made in the United States that pits Americans against Russian forces, a battle that eventually evolves into the Third World War between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allied nations and “ultra-nationalist” Russia.
In one of the “Call of Duty” games, Russian troops massacre “innocent, defenseless” refugees on a so-called “Highway of Death,” said South African gaming content creator Thea Booysen.
“So, in creating ‘African Dawn,’ the Russians are arguing that they’re doing exactly what the American gaming industry has been doing for decades,” Booysen told The Epoch Times.
“The Russian argument is that when America creates online games and presents its enemies as evil and barbarous, it’s celebrated as fact. But when a Russian gaming genius makes a game where forces oppose America and its allies, then that game is evil propaganda.”
Booysen said the “African Dawn” message is that “the Russians are rescuing Africans from being re-enslaved, re-colonized, by the oppressive, racist West.”
In their article for African Initiative, Kureev and Zamaraeva write that Grigory is also a “young political scientist” who “considers strengthening Russia’s position in Africa” and “expelling former colonizers” from the continent to be the “most important geopolitical tasks.”
The report implies that the West is actively destabilizing Africa and is responsible for poverty on the continent.
“Through the computer game Korolev wants to show in detail how the situation in African countries is developing, who is ordering instability in the region, what economic difficulties the countries that have become Russia’s partners are experiencing,” the article reads.
On African Initiative, Grigory is quoted as follows: “Russia should develop its video games as the most effective tool to communicate with young people around the world.
“Russian history is rich in military glory, the plots can be the exploits of heroes of the Great Patriotic War or the heroes of special operations. Today video games are the new carrier of world history, just like books and films.”
Scott Timcke, a political economist at Research ICT Africa, a thinktank specializing in communications and digital issues, told The Epoch Times that “African Dawn” has the potential to reach “many millions” of Africans, as internet activity and gaming is growing exponentially on the continent.
“Like elsewhere in the world, gaming is becoming bigger than movies in Africa, and it engages the minds of a lot of very young people,” Timcke said.
“The messaging in ‘African Dawn’ certainly could sway young African minds toward sympathizing much more with Russia and its allies, and that’s very dangerous because that messaging condones military takeovers and all sorts of anti-democratic behaviors.”
Timcke said the objective of influence operations is to change the way people behave.
“What better way to achieve this than to put them inside a fictitious scenario where the ‘correct, honorable’ choices are rewarded,” Timcke said. “And often such fictitious scenarios are duplicated in real life.”
“Only a small percentage of gamers are currently in Africa, because internet access is limited and expensive,” Booysen said. “But gaming is increasing day by day, especially because of Chinese investments in ICT infrastructure.”
Using online gaming to influence young Africans is “very strategic,” said Allen, given current trends.
“Limited access to traditional banking in Africa presents a unique opportunity for fintech innovations. Mobile money facilitates digital payments and expands the gaming industry across the continent,” the WEF researchers said.
“The growth of direct-to-consumer strategies in gaming allows game developers and companies to increase margins and engage more directly with consumers by bypassing app stores.”
The economic forum branded Africa the “final frontier” for the video game industry.
It said gaming has become the dominant form of entertainment globally, grossing nearly $350 billion worldwide in 2023.
“With the last decade’s rise of mobile gaming, the sector is now bigger than movies, music, and streaming combined, moving the industry’s audience beyond former archetypical customers of U.S.-based adolescent boys who could afford the relatively pricey gaming console,” the WEF study said.
In 2024, Africa has solidified itself as the fastest-growing market for online games, the group said.
The WEF said this is “hardly surprising” given demographic trends in the region. The continent has the fastest-growing population, with more of it classed as millennials or Generation Z than the United States and China combined.
“Combine that with the rapid adoption of smartphones and you can see strong organic growth of new gamers,” the WEF said.
Wasserman said Russia’s recent forays into gaming, podcasts, and films show it’s looking to establish itself in “virgin markets,” rather than in established gaming communities in Africa’s more developed economies, such as Nigeria and South Africa.
“The impact of games like ‘African Dawn’ in poorer, less stable countries could be very significant,” Wasserman said.
“Russia is looking to sow propaganda in fertile ground, in weak economies where youngsters don’t have jobs, where democracy is weak and where freedom of expression is even weaker.”
Allen added: “Russia wants to cultivate minds it can manipulate well into the future when the era of great power competition will really be raging.”
