Special to US Africa magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
Attorney Ken Okorie is an Editorial Board member of USAfrica
Africa’s attraction to America is not without a significant foundation. Leading figures among Africans who pioneered the continent’s political independence schooled in America. That was as colonialism existed. They include Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (formerly Gold Coast), which was the first to gain independence in 1957. His peer at Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria (Zik), later attended Columbia and Howard. Nkrumah studied Sociology and Literature of Socialism, and Zik anthropology and religion. Zik later moved to Gold Coast where he founded the African Morning Post and mentored Nkrumah.
In the Cold War, Soviets also courted Africa. The contest was between Western democratic and Eastern socialist ideologies. Africa and other Third World nations were largely used as pawns. Soviet offering did not have much attraction to Africans. It certainly did not compare to America’s! The reality is that socialism and communism are both inconsistent with African tradition and value systems. These circumstances paved a ready-made ground for strong ties and partnership between Africa and the United States. Regrettably and for inexplicable reasons, America, through neglect or indifference, squandered the opportunity through lackluster policies toward Africa. That policy was evidently born of unwillingness or refusal in parts of the American turf to treat and deal with Black people as humans of equal value or rights.
As often is the case, nature usually finds a filler for every vacuum. President Nixon and his National Security Adviser (later Secretary of State), Henry Kissinger, pursued what I call Nixonger diplomacy that rediscovered China in the early seventies. Driven by the prospect to woo China away from its brother communist Russia, America promptly focused on China, through what became known as Ping-Pong diplomacy. Equally drawn by cheap labor, corporate America dove in with little restraint. A story in its right, little insight to this thawing event is relevant, and I will offer a brief survey.
At a ping-pong championship game in Nagoya, Japan, American player Glenn Cowan was going late to his match. The Chinese team offered him a ride on their bus. It was a stunning gesture in a period of frozen relations between the governments in Washington and Beijing. China was not even allowing its players to shake hands with Americans. In the bus, a Chinese player gave Cowan gift of a silk screen of a Chinese mountain. Cowan returned the friendly favor with a peace sign T-shirt. Ping-Pong was the national pastime of Chinese as Baseball is to Americans. The public relation impact was instant. Part of the reason was China’s need to repair its image globally impaired by notorious repressive antics of its system. China invited the US team to Beijing for friendly matches. Chinese visas, rarely granted, were given to reporters. This opened new door to the previously closed Chinese society to the world.
From Ping-Pong diplomacy, new warmth developed and America elevated China to the economic and manufacturing giant it has since become. Ironically, the revolutionary economic muscle that accrued to the Dragon of the East from America’s rediscovery propelled China to economic and military prowess that now competes with the United States. China used its new-found strength to court Africans and to mop up opportunities on the continent that were long neglected and abandoned by the United States. But China uses predatory style that is far from what Africans like or want. Having left behind the horrors and economic asphyxiation of colonial and neocolonial control, Africa has zero appetite to step into new economic bondage of any flavor, especially the Chinese brand.
In this context, I leverage nearly 20 years of my experience dealing with Chinese as lawyer, including living in Beijing part of the time, and can affirm that America still has the better chance if only it can find the will to do right by Africans. I know that regardless how presented, every corporate interest in China has some ownership, legal, or regulatory nexus to the Chinese government and the Central Communist Party. One is not entirely wrong to suggest that China’s corporate world is mere structural extension of its civil and public service. They are all under the direct control of the Communist Party. Even where privately owned, every Chinese company is directly monitored and supervised by the enormous state enterprise.
An experience on one of my several business trips to Beijing exemplifies this point. Developments during my visit outstripped my scheduled stay, and my visa expired a day before I was to depart. Early that morning, the hotel invited me to the front desk where I was informed that I could not be allowed one more night because my visa was expiring at midnight. I explained and pleaded to no avail. It took a friend’s contacts and connections to move and house me in another hotel for less than 10 hours before my flight. This is an example of the communist system’s ways Africans would dislike.
From any angle one examines the subject under discuss, America had ready acceptance and opportunity in Africa that neither Russia nor China can match. They don’t even come close. Like Europeans and Americans, China also sees Africa as the hotbed to loot and plunder cheap commodities and natural resources. They just do it in much cruder and disrespectful manner. I am also mindful that China officially mandates a strategy to maximize all possible dividends from every foreign investment to China’s advantage. For every dollar invested, China deploys terms, practices and conditions that flow every penny possible back to China. They will include provisions for Chinese to handle all minute activities usually reserved for the host county. They will insist on staffing all aspects of operations and logistics, clear and move all goods and equipment associated with the investment that arrive at the foreign port, cater lunch for personnel. The underlying goal is to create employment for Chinese citizens, and no individual company can deviate. In some cases, they will even set up their own police and security manned by imported Chinese in the foreign sovereign state. The intelligence and security implications of this policy is only imagined. Several African recipients of Chinese investment are already rattled by hard lessons from these practices. Unwanted and alienating strings and practices that come with Chinese investments have become a constant and growing irritant on the African continent.
All of these add up to my conclusion: America still has the numero uno standing from the African perspective. Africans would rather do business with America. The glowing intents and official characterizations of recent overtures notwithstanding, the big elephant, rather obstacle, on America’s road remains what America’s resolve can and will do.
I would argue that the near-insulting $50 billion commitment Washington made at the 2022 US-Africa Summit is not sign that America is serious or ready. I say insulting because it expressly underscores a mindset that continues to demean and underrate Africa. One would think that Washington’s policy makers learned from annoying repressive patterns and practices of the World Bank and IMF for decades. Aid and lending under the programs of both institutions came with strings that did not grow or develop Africa’s economy but drove deep wedges into the confidence of Africans. I see no sign that America has learned. It is one thing that the opportunities are in Africa, that Africans have appetite and preference for the Uncle Sam brand, but for America to harness any of these, it must do much better and more. Washington must develop robust, viable and sustainable African policy that is backed with commensurate quantum of resource commitment.
There are escalating global threats and military alignments lurking behind America’s new moves in Africa. Those are nursing toward a ballooning global cataclysmic conflagration. Call it Third World War or what you will, am believing it is becoming increasingly inevitable. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relations between Russia and China are tightening. Iran and North Korea are supporting Russia and using Ukraine as testing ground for their warfare technologies and capabilities. Growing instability with China in the Taiwan Straits, and China’s new encroachments in the South China Sea are all growing. Neighbors in that region are becoming alarmed and worried. All of these are incubators of challenges engineered to multiply Washington’s exposure and to splinter her attention. Other alignments are also shaping up globally. At the current pace, I would not be surprised if something comes to a head within a decade.
On another strategic front, Islamic extremists are surging in parts of Africa, especially the Sub-Saharan region. ISIS, Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists are making inroads into the region using Boko Haram and other local insurgents. With again as an example, a state of insecurity and anarchy of alarming proportions has rocked the country for much of the past decade. Although fully aware of the situation, America chosen to appear indifferent, unconcerned, and uninterested. The Buhari administration, actively enabled into existence by Obama’s Washington, has done everything but be a father of the nation or its unifier. In the long run, the true friend of Africa will be the capable, willing outsider that helps Africa to meet these security needs. By all indicators, America is the candidate singularly positioned and equipped to render the needed rescue. But will America?
Under changing and developing circumstances, America will need to do things differently to achieve an effective reset or reengagement with Africa. First it must, of its own, stop looking at Africa as merely a place to source commodities and resources. America must develop a proactive African policy, engage the continent with purposeful goals of economic emancipation rooted in industrialization. America must also persuade its allies in Europe to do the same. Africans desire, and must be enabled, to become productive from Africa’s natural resources, not just remain a shipping outpost for commodities.
Second, America must, of necessity, become more interested and sensitive to the security needs of Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria for instance, previously demonstrated a capacity to be reliable American ally in controlling security situations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and other African crises. Now is America’s opportunity to reinvigorate and reinforce this role for mutual benefits. America cannot continue to look the other way as ISIS and other Islamists destabilize Nigeria. A destabilized Sub-Saharan African cannot be good for America’s security. For that matter, I opine that America cannot afford to sit idly as the government in Nigeria mismanages its democratic heritage borrowed from the United States. Washington needs to act with deliberation and decisiveness regarding these situations already on the ground.
Thirdly, the anomalous colonial hangover whereby a country like France still actively strangleholds the economies of former African colonies is increasingly irritating and intolerable. Sovereign Francophone African states cannot even spend their own money except as permitted by Paris. It is a hangover no African of today has the appetite to sustain. International acrimony about this situation is growing, especially on social media. Pope Francis even spoke about it on his recent stop in South Sudan. America must take the lead to untangle this annoying stranglehold.
In sum, America will always find Africa the most valuable of allies. Africa has demonstrated the interest. But America must retreat from old, outdated playbooks. Africans are acquiring knowledge and know-how and no longer ready to be taken for granted or their resources carted away by foreign interests with hardly any residual local benefits. Africa’s realities are different in the modern era as are the expectations of its people. America’s good message is that the ball remains in its court. How Washington, DC plays will set the tone of its new game with Africa?
