Comment on the US foreign policy in Africa from an African point of view
By Katutu Sayila
March 5, 2025
AFTER President Joe Biden visited Angola three months ago, it has become clear that US-Africa relations will continue to be lukewarm for a long time to come until there is a drastic change in the way the American government crafts its foreign policy for the continent.
The tragedy is that the United States of America (USA) continues to look down upon Africa in its global relations, such that each administration that has come and gone has not prioritized its policies and has dealt with it as an afterthought.
One good example is the coming of the former US President Biden to Angola in the dying months of his presidency, even when he had promised to do so as soon as he was inaugurated in 2021. It is this seeming lack of interest in the affairs of the African continent by America that has given chance to China and Russia to take advantage of the geopolitical vacuum and to extend their influence.
President Biden may have had his own excuses for not visiting Africa in time due to other pressing domestic and international issues but then many African countries still looked at it from an indifferent point of view. The State Visit to Angola was seen as being more of a business-like trip than the US trying to mend fences in its relations with Africa.
Hence, African countries may not be wrong to think that President Biden’s visit to Angola was mainly to announce his outgoing government’s financial commitment to the ongoing multi-billion dollar Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor Project and also to counter China’s growing influence in Southern Africa.
The immediate former US leader declined to discuss the ongoing conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda but only talked about his early association with Africa when he served as head of the African Affairs Sub-Committee in the Senate almost fifty years ago.
At least Africans know too well that it does not matter which party wins or which person occupies the White House the American policy based on military and economic dominance does not change! This is whether you have a Democrat Biden going out and/or a Republican Trump coming in as President of the United States of America.
Hence, African countries were not moved by the single State Visit of President Biden who was more preoccupied with his outgoing government’s Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor which will create access for the US to the strategic minerals in Angola, DRC and Zambia. He did not hide the fact that the US is in competition with China over strategic minerals in Africa.
The US sees the Lobito Corridor as both an economic and political strategy to penetrate Southern Africa, while President Biden believes the future of Africa runs through Angola and that Africa is the future of the world. He confessed that although Africa has been left behind for quite a long time, it was no longer the case as Africans assert themselves internationally and adopt a non-alignment stance in their dealings with foreign powers.
Most of the African countries prefer a quid pro quo, which literally means ‘’scratch my back and I will scratch yours’’ kind of relations when dealing with outside powers. The moral question African countries are asking is US has an interest in the affairs of African countries? If not, why should they? They will only work and cooperate with world powers that exhibit non-exploitative trends.
Just as one Chinese Xi Jiaping put it many years ago, that it does not matter what color the cat is for as long as it can catch mice, African states will do business with whoever benefits them. In the same vein, it does not matter a tinker’s curse who wants to have relations with them as long as it is beneficial. It is here where China and Russia have found easy access to Africa.
The multi-polar position that Africa as a bloc has taken is partly to diffuse the political dominance by a single power bloc but to also check the resurgence of the cold wars that the African continent suffered over the years. In the words of President William Ruto recently, Africa does not want to look either to the West or East, but to look forward. In that statement, he summarized the prevailing political psyche of Africans.
The message that African countries are giving to the world is that those who want to do business with it should come out of cold war thinking and embrace an open developmental agenda through investments that benefit the people through sharing of their knowledge and downstreaming of their investments.
But then the re-emergence of another cold war between the East and West is possible as countries in Africa divide themselves in political camps of their own preference. In the Sub-Saharan Region, countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Angola favour either Russia or China due to the support they rendered to their liberation struggle for independence. Hence, it will take a robust and deliberate foreign policy for the US to win back those countries.
For some time mistrust and animosity has built up in the US-Africa relations, destroying the political and economic partnership that existed before. Some African countries still attribute the political problems that the continent is facing to America’s destabilizing policies, and Washington has to do a lot to undo the suspicion that has been growing for decades. Already, Angola may face problems with other African countries for opening up to US and its Western Bloc allies.
The fact is that the US cannot afford to ignore Africa in its foreign policy just because of its sheer size. Africa holds 30 percent of the world’s natural resources and 60% of fertile land, making it indeed the future of the world. In any case, and on the military side, the US has been able to network with several African countries thereby enhancing its presence on the continent.
In the case of Russia, according to its ambassador in Zambia, Mr Azim Yurakmedov, said his country views Africa as one of the continents in the world, which is crucial in the formulation of its global foreign policy. ‘’Russia views Africa as being crucial in its global foreign policy,’’ he stated.
However, individual African states exercising their sovereign rights have either aligned themselves with the West or the East, depending on their historical and bilateral ties. In this case, some are either with China, Russia, or the Western Bloc countries. Already, through the BRICS grouping to which the two countries belong, they have been able to increase their economic and political ties with African countries. China has won Africa to itself using concessionary loans, grants, and humanitarian aid in the past twenty-five years.
Unfortunately, the drastic measures which President Trump has taken since taking office and which include the cutting down of aid to developing countries, could be the last straw that will see many African countries not be keen on keeping their relations warm with the US. Already, the suspension of financial assistance through the United States of America Agency for International Development (USAID) has many countries in Africa who depended on it feeling the pinch.
Lastly for the US to make a mark in Africa once more there is need for it to make a fresh start in its foreign policy and desist tits divide-and-weaken agenda. Of course, there is no denying the fact that African countries have for years benefited from US grants, loans, imports, exports and foreign direct investments.