This weekend Japan holds the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) VI in Nairobi, Kenya. Technically, this means, Africa hosts TICAD for the first time since its inception in 1993. But why so, and why now? One theory is that it was Africa's initiative.
This may be true but is not any more adequate as an explanation than the claim, for instance, that the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was a purely African initiative.