(by Andrea Pinto) The United States is increasingly looking to Africa after decades of disinterest. Joe Bidenrecently, also following the overt Chinese and Russian expansionist aims, it has decided to concentrate every diplomatic effort to bring the hand of regional influence back to the American side.
Since the beginning of the century the Chinain fact, it has gone from being a marginal player to being the main investor and commercial 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. Excluding the extractive industries, American companies have been slower in reading new business opportunities than those in emerging countries such as Turkey and India.
In the recent past, Russia has pursued a different policy by sending Wagner mercenaries to Mali and the Central African Republic to support local dictatorships in exchange for gold and diamond mining privileges. At the bottom, however, there is also the Russian interest in increasing its regional influence to destabilize the West by opening and closing the taps of migratory flows.
The alarm to American diplomacy was the reluctance of African states (26 out of 54) to vote with the West in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Washington then organized a US-Africa summit next December and overturned the Trump administration's decision to withdraw US troops from Somalia and the Sahel.
The US Secretary of State, Antony blinken he has been to the Black Continent twice, last August he crossed the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, officially launching in South Africa the restoration of relationships.
Africa increasingly influential
By 2050, one in four people on Earth will be African, one third of the minerals needed for the transition to sustainable energy are found under African soil. Africans, and not just their elites, will have to try to take advantage of the potential earnings of these immense resources by implementing the processes of transformation of raw materials on the continent itself in favor of the creation of many jobs and thus improve the quality of life of the its citizens.
In the rainforest of the Congo Basin, the states of Central Africa are home to the second largest lung in the world. African capitals control a quarter of the United Nations votes. A Nigerian is the head of theWorld Trade Organization and an Ethiopian heads theWorld Health Organization.
The new American strategy
The programmatic document underlying the new American approach defines general strategic objectives. Washington will support societies open to democracy, economic recovery after the tragedy of the pandemic and a modern and sustainable energy transition.
However, US interest is at odds with what it calls China's "narrow commercial and geopolitical interests" and Russia's view of Africa as a playground for private military companies.
At the moment, however, the new American course in Africa has not warmed the hearts of the heads of state and government who, at the moment, are watching trying to gain from all the actors in the field, showing no interest in a longer-term vision that can lead the Continent to reverse its destiny by 360 ° in favor of growth and prosperity for the benefit of its population.
The immense African resources
The only certain thing in 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, airbags and optical fibers. Three quarters of the world's gold mines are found on this continent. More than half of manganese, chromite and cobalt are mined in Africa as well as a third of phosphates and radioactive uranium, in addition to the large existing reserves of hydrocarbons and those still to be explored.
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 favor domestic work.