#KHive
Vice President Kamala Harris’s glamorous diplomatic charm offensive is now in full swing in Africa. But will it work?
The days of grotty, Nixon-Reagan era CIA “white mischief” on the Continent are, hopefully, left backwards in the rear view mirror of History.
Readers of this newsletter know that I have advocated, passionately, for the Vice President’s Africa visit. Already there is so much debate as to what the Vice President can do to strengthen the ticket. 2024 is going to be a competitive race. And then there is the matter of China and Russia’s increased influence on the African continent. It just seemed to me obvious. On March 16 I wrote:
I would suggest that Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, be deployed to the region as not only a direct representative of the President of the United States, but also as the first African-American Vice President. Why not deploy Kamala Harris in a monthlong “listening tour,” crisscrossing the Continent, from Morocco to Mozambique, from Alexandria to the library at Timbuktu …
Vice President Harris is, in my opinion, America’s greatest asset that has not yet been effectively used in our diplomacy in Africa. And I do not, for the life of me, know why this is the case. Why put so much of our efforts at diplomacy on the continent in the hands of Tony Blinken? Kamala Harris’s portfolio ought to have been as point-person on all African diplomacy — especially pulling South Africa out of the BRICS orbit and towards the West —and immigration reform. If Kamala Harris had come into the Vice Presidency with a hard portfolio of being the administration’s point person on Africa and India (her mother was born in Chennai), on securing the black vote for Biden, on raising campaign money from Asian-American donors as well the team’s expert on all things bipartisan immigration reform, there would be zero conversation about replacing her on the ticket.
The trip itself is not nearly so ambitious as my proposed “Morocco to Mozambique, from Alexandria to the library at Timbuktu …,” but, hey, I’ll take what I can get. If the trip is ultimately deemed successful — if the local press in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia portray the trips in a favorable light — there will, no doubt, be greater opportunities for the Vice President to showcase American partnerships on the Continent. This depends on the Vice President, on how much energy she wants to spend on this. Does she — or does she not — see the importance of Africa to the future of the world and, second, to America. Or is she looking for a more glamorous policy portfolio. Only time will tell.
Calling the history that exists between the United States and Africa over the last century shameful is a massive understatement. The so-called “Dark Continent” was, to the American foreign policy imagination, an asterisk during the Cold War. It was a region on the map for proxy battles against the Soviet Union and for human rights abuses and regime change with impunity.
The repercussions of The First Cold War, against the Soviet Union, on the Continent are massive. Post-Colonialist Africa remembers how their leaders were assassinated; post-Colonialist-Africa is profoundly skeptical of America’s extended hand at present. Witness: South Africa’s military drills with Cold War ally Russia (as well as China). And The Second Cold War, this time around with China, has resulted in another scramble for Africa, this time, curiously enough, not as an asterisk. “The scars of the first Cold War—which claimed millions of African lives and undermined both regional integration and economic development, with conflicts reducing economic growth in affected countries by about 2.5 percent on average—are still fresh, and the region cannot possibly afford to fall prey to a second," writes Hippolyte Fofack. Also, from Brookings:
Across all continents, Africa now has the largest number of foreign countries carrying out military operations on its soil—no fewer than 13, of which most have several military bases spread throughout the region. Per the most recent official estimates, Africa is home to at least 47 foreign outposts, with the U.S. controlling the largest share, followed by former colonial power France. Both China and Japan elected to establish their first overseas military bases since the Second World War in Djibouti, which happens to be the only country in the world to host both American and Chinese outposts.
President Obama, literally a “son of Africa,” attempted a reset in US-African relations. But he did so only in the last half of his second term, more of an afterthought than a forethought. It was, of course, too little, too late. China, taking full advantage, ran roughshod over the African Continent while the Obama administration slumbered. And ethno-nationalist Trump’s plan of countering China without offering anything in return to — quote, unquote — “shithole countries” was a wasted opportunity at best, an argument in favor of Chinese advancement on the Continent at worst. It should be noted that Obama’s informal reset was never meant to resolve in its entirety the history of US and Africa relations in one fell swoop. This is an ongoing conversation, one that could presumably take decades, if all goes well. Such, dear reader, is the glacial pace of diplomacy.
President Biden, by contrast, views the US-China competition as his most important foreign policy obstacle and, further, overseas alliances as the most important tool in his toolbox. Things are improving, clearly, by leaps and bounds between the US and the African continent since Trump. Biden carries some of the glissando of the Obama administration, where he served as a loyal lieutenant of a “son of Africa,” however disappointing. Africa, in 2023 as opposed to 2008, is regarded as the last frontier for future economic growth. The CIA no longer assassinates — or offers cover for the assassins of — African heads of state (the progress of history!). And America now competes, with newfound humility, with Russia and China, for the favor of many African nations. According to Brookings:
A “like-for-like” comparison is a worthy endeavor, but it is a narrow framework for evaluating the summit’s role in shaping the U.S. approach to Africa. A more useful assessment should take into account the evolution of American relations with the continent over the past few decades as well as more recent engagements with other low- and middle-income regions of the world, such as the U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit in May 2022 with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and the Summit of the Americas in June 2022 with Latin American countries. Evaluating the ALS in this light, the Biden administration’s approach to the summit ushered in a potentially seismic shift in the U.S. relationship with African countries.
It is worth asking, with gusto — Do the critics of the history of the United States in Africa think China will do any better? Or, for that matter, Russia? Russians have been taped giving bananas to African foreign exchange students in Moscow. And Ugandan exchange students are largely isolated in China. Say what you will about America — a multiracial democracy — but that sort of putrid behavior does not exist here. Still, Borborygmous is the America-bashing on Twitter, which I frequent and often find myself defending against. Granted, the history of America in Africa in the 20th century is far more problematic than the racism exhibited in China and Russia against African students.
But it is .. telling.
The United States has moved beyond that sort of toxicity. It speaks volumes that this sort of bigotry is still tolerated in Moscow, in Beijing. Africans should keep this in mind, held next to their idealistic, childish notions of Sino-Russian benevolence towards the African Continent.
Those that do not learn from history are bound to repeat it, said the forgotten philosopher — who? — George Santayana.
Chinese-owned apps are the big winners after Nigeria’s cash crisis (Alexander Onukwue /SEMAFOR)
"Germany's Christian Democrats, the country's largest opposition group, are planning to shift away from the pragmatic stance toward China that characterized Angela Merkel's 16 years as chancellor, claiming that maintaining peace through trade has failed." (POLITICO)
“Western officials say Moscow and Beijing are now wielding those bullhorns to promote a coordinated message blaming the Ukraine conflict on NATO, often while airing false anti-western conspiracy theories about the war’s origins." (SEMAFOR)
The Beauty and Blindness of Israel’s Popular Uprising (Peter Beinart)
US Christian right-wing groups raise big bucks, aiming to shape African morality (RiFi)
“Inside Jonathan Majors’ Scrubbed Army Ad Campaign The new recruitment initiative — iced after Majors’ Mar. 25 arrest for an alleged assault — had aimed to enlist Gen Z, for whom ‘patriotism doesn’t really play.'" (THR)
‘Ant-Man 3’ Crashed at the Box Office After a Trilogy-Best Opening. What Went Wrong? (Variety)