The United States is increasingly looking to Africa after decades of neglect. Joe Biden, also following the acclaimed Chinese and Russian expansionist aims, has recently decided to concentrate every diplomatic effort to bring the needle of regional influence back to the American side.
(To Massimiliano D'Elia) The document “US strategy towards sub-Saharan Africapublished last August clearly places China as its main global rival for influence in the 21st century. But this is a limited view that ignores the power of the dark continent and the vast economic potential. By 2050, Africa will be home to a quarter of the world's population, half of whom will be under the age of 25. Africa is already the largest free trade geographic area in the world and its gross domestic product is expected to catch up $29 trillion by 2050.
The US Secretary of State, Antony blinken he was twice in Africa, last August, crossing the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, officially launching in South Africa the restoration of relations between the two governments. The alarm was also sounded by American diplomats by the reluctance of some African states (26 out of 54) to vote with the West in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
American fears
Since the beginning of the century the China it has grown from a fringe player to a major investor and trading partner for many countries, from Angola to Ethiopia. Much of the infrastructure that has sprung up across the continent has been built by Chinese companies.
La China he therefore chose another strategy with immediate impact, building sumptuous presidential palaces, parliament buildings, football stadiums, military academies, railway lines and convention centers across the continent. The seat of theAfrican Union in Addis Ababa was built by China. Last month, groundbreaking broke ground for a new $32 million headquarters built in China for theECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
In the recent past the Russia has implemented a different policy, managing the sale of weapons and sending i Wagner mercenaries in Mali and in the Central African Republic to support local dictatorships in exchange for privileges in the extraction of gold and diamond mines. According to intelligence sources, however, there is also the underlying Russian interest in increasing its regional influence to destabilize the West by opening and closing the taps on migratory flows.
Also Turkey India ed United Arab Emirates they build mosques, hospitals and ports.
The internal debate in Africa is very heated on aid from foreign countries. Many criticize the structures, calling them "palace diplomacy" even if in the medium-long term they could still favor relations between governments.
The Washington Summit
The various American presidents who have followed have made many promises but made, very few. George W. Bush made three trips to Africa coordinating an emergency plan to combat the spread of AIDS. President Obama he traveled to the African continent four times and took what turned out to be a disappointing initiative (improving Africa's energy needs. Donald Trump he has never traveled to Africa calling African countries “assholes”.
The American president Joe Biden during the summit in Washington at the end of December, with the major African authorities, he spoke for the first time of the need to develop a credible partnership between the two countries, because "the United States is with Africa“. The promise is a $55 billion commitment over the next three years, an announcement that has not, however, warmed the spirits that much for a continent of 1,4 billion inhabitants, spread over 54 countries.
As the WP writes “paradoxically, it may have been a good thing that Biden did not offer any new flagship initiatives“. The president's apparent preference for small-scale initiatives reflects America's domestic political situation. A promise of important money would not have been credible at the moment because the upper house will soon be controlled by Republicans who do not offer guarantees in terms of approvals of over budget significant in favor of initiatives abroad. In recent months, some fringes of Republican senators have vehemently obstructed aid (financing and arms) to the Ukrainian cause.
Another reason that prevented Biden from showing greater generosity is that other significant programs are already underway. Among these is theAfrican Growth and Opportunity Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 2000, which was supposed to shift US interests towards growth and trade.
Beyond the proclamations (we will see if Biden's words will have a sequel) the various American administrations that have followed one another, in order to guarantee a certain form of stability, have often closed their eyes to the autocratic tendencies of some African states where they have perpetrated, in the light of day, systematic human rights violations and heinous genocides.
The US focuses on democracy and modernization
The United States, on the other hand, aims to help Africa in a new modernization process to address the age-old problems of food and health security. Biden, in his speech to African leaders, underlined the full support for democracy, respect for the rule of law, commitment to human rights. A tangible example, of the course acceptable to the Americans, were the peaceful presidential elections in Kenya, which saw William Rutho to swear in his first term. They happened thanks to the use of new biometric vote registration systems, electronic scans and immediate transfer of the results to the national counting centres. This allowed for less room for suspicion and error during the voting process. Kenya has an independent electoral commission and a Supreme Court.
Among the leaders present in Washington were the presidents Paul Kagame, Paul Biya, Yoweri Museveni and others who have been accused of having come to power through dubious elections. Their exclusion from some of the higher-level events with Washington dignitaries was a strong signal that relationships will only exist with those who have been democratically elected.
The immense African resources
The only sure thing about Africa is its extraordinary natural resources which include oil, gold, uranium, diamonds, rare earths and coltan, very useful materials for building high-tech products. Coltan hides in our mobile phone, in our computer, but also in surgical materials, photovoltaic cells, cameras, air bags and optical fibers. Three-quarters of the world's gold mines are located on this continent. More than half of manganese, chromite and cobalt are extracted in Africa as well as a third of radioactive uranium and phosphates, in addition to the large existing and unexplored hydrocarbon reserves.
In Africa, natural resources are enormous and could alone constitute a great wealth for African nations with immense benefits for many citizens who work hard in the mines. In Congo, men, women and children work tirelessly to extract coltan and cobalt from the bowels of the earth, needed to build the batteries of our electric cars.
80% of these extracted resources are then exported to other continents for further processing, thus dispersing new opportunities to encourage domestic work.