Originally published on the CGS blog on July 2, 2013.
President Obama is currently in Africa with his family, making a three-nation trip (including Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania) in hopes of bolstering a partnership between the United States and the African continent. However, the tour has provoked some reproach that his administration has not focused on Africa as thoroughly as it should have during the past several years of his respective terms.
As the President’s trip winds down today in Tanzania, we should consider the significance of his journey both in terms of his personal outreach to the home of his forebears, as well as U.S.-Africa relations as a whole.
Many believe that the trip is an excellent effort by the Obama administration in demonstrating our country’s interest in the continent’s future development while solidifying diplomatic and economic relations with individual African nations.
President Jacob Zuma of South Africa stated this about Obama’s stop in his country: “This is a significant visit which will take political, economic and people-to-people relations between the two countries to a higher level, while also enhancing cooperation between the U.S. and the African continent at large.”
However, as is bound to happen with any high profile presidential action, Obama has received much criticism for various aspects of his excursion. One such criticism is that even with Obama’s travels, U.S. engagement with Africa is weak compared to that of China’s. Current Chinese President Xi Jinping has already signed 16 trade, cultural and diplomatic agreements in Tanzania alone, while former President Hu Jintao visited 17 African nations between July 2006 and February 2007.
In my opinion, Obama has had plenty of things to deal with for the past four and a half years, including a deep recession and a resistant Congress unwilling to support much of his agenda. To criticize him for neglecting Africa as he is actively working to improve U.S.-African relations seems off the mark.
There has also been some controversy both over his choice of countries to visit, and of the visit, itself, for not being comprehensive enough. One major critique is the fact that he is passing over Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia. But considering the expense and security concerns surrounding his expedition in the first place, his agenda could not possibly include every country on everyone else’s wish list. Had he gone to more places, there probably would have been more criticism about his trip being too long and expensive. It is very likely that a great deal of thought was put into the choice of countries he did visit, taking into account the multiple factors of time, cost, and safety.
In regards to magnitude, while Obama only visited three countries, the impact of his trip will be extended far beyond their borders. For example, the Trade Africa partnership he initiated plans to focus first on member states of the East African Community – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. This arrangement aims to increase trade both within Africa and among African nations, the U.S., and other global markets. Also during this trip, Obama pledged $7 billion to help combat power blackouts in sub-Saharan Africa through a program called Power Africa that will involve the partner countries of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Mozambique.
Also notable is the fact that Obama did not limit his trip to purely economic matters. He spent time touring Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years as a prisoner of South Africa’s apartheid regime and his speech at the University of Cape Town, fifty years after a similar address by Robert Kennedy from the same podium, celebrated Mandela’s successful struggle for political freedom. In Tanzania, he joined former President George W Bush for a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating the August 1998 attack on the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam.
Overall, I think we should view Obama’s trip to Africa as a success. As Tanzania’s President, Jakaya Kikwete, said to Obama, “the people of Tanzania love you…there has never been a visit by a head of state to Tanzania that has attracted such big crowds.”
As the ancient saying goes, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Certainly President Obama has more than begun the long walk that will ultimately lead to a future of friendship and economic cooperation between our cultures.
