Obama’s message
He offered support to Africa, plus frank criticism
President Barack Obama’s special relationship with Africa, based on his Kenyan father, enabled him to tell African leaders some home truths about the continent and the U.S.-African relationship during his visit this week.
His primary forum was an address Tuesday to representatives of the 54 countries of the African Union at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. He was aware of, but did not attach too much importance to, growing American rivalry with China in Africa. It used to be that the former colonial Europeans and the Soviet Union were the United States’ chief competition there. Not anymore.
Increasing U.S. trade and investment is America’s chief policy mantra in Africa these days and Mr. Obama continued to stress that theme. The African population and market now stands at 1 billion strong and is expected to grow exponentially.
Mr. Obama just renewed for 10 years the African Growth and Opportunity Act, intended to favor increased U.S.-African trade. At the same time, that trade dropped last year to $73 billion after having risen to $142 billion in 2008. By contrast, China’s trade with the continent in 2014 was $222 billion.
During his visit Mr. Obama addressed some of Africa’s major problems with a frankness that its leaders themselves rarely employ; their usual approach has been that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. The president described the “cancer of corruption,” a barrier to trade and investment found in African countries which American firms find particularly objectionable. He mentioned certain countries’ phony elections, saying they deliver “democracy in name, but not in substance,” citing Ethiopia where the ruling party won all the seats in legislative elections this year and journalists and civil society representatives are persecuted.
He also ripped “presidents for life,” a frequent African phenomenon, and underscored the importance of respect for human rights, which have been violated commonly through female genital mutilation and laws against homosexuality.
The only major policy element that Mr. Obama avoided was the growing U.S. military role in Africa.
This son of Africa and America was right to promise continued attention to the continent and forthright in delivering frank criticism of Africa’s weaknesses.