U.S. policy towards Africa in the Obama years has thus far been a tale of disappointment and failure. While he may have a direct link to Sub-Saharan Africa, President Barack Obama is not sympathetic to, nor does he understand the African continent or its people.
There is a saying in Yoruba for the very rare occasion where a younger individual can shame an elder: agba’ya. To call someone an agba’ya is to identify them as one who does not perform to their level of age or prominence. Considering his Sub-Saharan African policy (or lack there-of), this term is applicable to President Obama, who has not met even my most humble expectations.
For President Obama, Sub-Saharan Africa is an afterthought. The Administration waited until its fourth year in office to release an official Africa strategy and senior level positions in the U.S government tasked with driving African policies were left unfilled for years.
Those of us in the United States who care about the continent have allowed him to make Sub-Saharan Africa region non grata by shoring him up with the following excuses:
- America is a mess domestically. Obama inherited a failed economy, revamped the healthcare system, overhauled the banking system, and is now working on immigration reform, among other issues.
- Other regions take precedence. The Eurozone is in shambles, Syria is in the throes of a protracted civil war, and North Korea remains unpredictable, etc.
- If the President proposes more Africa-focused policy initiatives, his political foes will intensify their claims that he was born in Kenya and he cares more for Africa than he does America.
These excuses are without merit.
On the issue of domestic policy taking more precedence, two years after the worst act of terrorism on American soil, and two months before the misguided invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush unveiled a groundbreaking AIDS initiative. Bush II also launched and still actively supports the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the President’s Malaria Initiative. While the overall Bush years were blight on the world, and although PEPFAR is nowhere near perfect, Bush’s initiatives have saved millions of African lives.
Bush’s predecessor, President Bill Clinton, was also a passionate supporter of Africa. His ground-breaking economic initiative, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), while also not perfect , is still the cornerstone of Africa-U.S. economic trade relations.
On other regions taking more precedence, if economic priorities are Obama’s biggest concern, why focus primarily on failing economies in Europe when the US can look forward with the fastest growing economies in the world? A fact that is not lost on China, Russia, Brazil, India, Japan, and even Turkey. Further, if security and the spread of Islamist extremists are top priorities, what took the Administration so long to acknowledge the situation in Mali? Although in fairness, Obama’s response to other international conflicts are also inept (see Syria or Bahrain).
Regarding his political foes, here’s the thing: President Obama’s entire legitimacy as the leader of this country will always be questioned. As long as there are racists in America, there will be people who will try to invalidate any and all policy supported by the President due to the nationality of his father and the color of his skin. But, this has not stopped him from making the Affordable Care Act a reality, taking on Wall Street, or trying to pass gun control legislation. Don’t you think these issues cost him more political capital than any Africa-focused initiative would have?
Even more frustrating, on the sporadic occasions that the Obama Administration has engaged Africa, it has been in a patronizing manner, focusing more on grandstanding soap-box speeches on democracy than on actual policies.
For example, when the President wanted to discuss strengthening democratic institutions across sub-Saharan Africa in March 2013, he chose to invite Malawi’s Joyce Banda, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Cape Verde’s Jose Mara Neves, and Sierra Leone’s Ernest Bai Koroma to White House. No offense to the leaders of these great countries, but imagine if the President had a chance to invite democratic Asian leaders, and instead of meeting with Korea, Japan, and India, he met with the leaders of Bhutan, Timor-Leste, and the Maldives?
This meeting was not about upholding democratic institutions on the Continent, if it was, he would have included all African countries critical to upholding democratic ideals. The invitation was to reward them for their support for U.S. interest in Africa”.
By the way, the ever moralistic President is seen here, here, here, and here beaming with several gold star African autocrats. How’s that for contradiction?
While his condescending attitude and neglect of substantive development is bothersome, it is the expansion of AFRICOM (United States Africa Command) under Obama that is most distressing, possibly even threatening. AFRICOM is the military body that is responsible for overseeing US military operations across Africa. With the exception of Liberia, most African governments refuse to house a U.S. military base, as they see AFRICOM as just another frontier in American military expansionism. Even without a base, AFRICOM’s influence on Africa is intensifying.
Under the Obama Administration, AFRICOM performed its first inaugural combat mission in Africa in Libya in 2011, and earlier this year, about 200 troops from the 2nd US Army brigade began training Kenyan troops. These troops are not the only American military personnel in Kenya however, there were already between 100-200 troops in Manda Bay. In neighboring Djibouti, there is also a U.S. force of more than 2,000.
Then there is the case of 100 combat-equipped troops looking to capture or kill Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony in Central Africa. According to the United States, the troops are not currently actively looking for Kony, but they remain in Uganda, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as military advisors. By the end of this year, the United States government would have deployed military advisors/trainers into as many as 35 African nations.
Further, these advisors are also not the only part of U.S. military expansion strategy; we now know that there are drone operations focused on Somalia and Northern Nigeria. There are also counter-terrorism outposts in Niger, Djibouti, and covert bases in Ethiopia and the Seychelles; these outposts are launching pads for the U.S. military to carry out surveillance and armed drone strikes in Africa.
History has shown us how long it takes to undo the legacies of bad policy. Presently, our continent is in a continued state of undoing the effects of bad political and economic policy made decades ago. The path that this administration is paving for foreign policy directed to Africa is not only negligent but threatens to further suppress progress in Africa. By jointly militarizing developing countries in Africa and neglecting substantive development and diplomacy initiatives, President Barack Obama is only ensuring his legacy as the worst U.S. president on African Affairs in recent history.
In order to rescue his legacy, and for the sake of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa, I urge you, #ChangeCourseObama.
Jumoke is the co-founder of compareafrique.com
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