The American standpoint on Africa: Some observations

TIA: This is Africa! This nomenclature and abbreviation happens to be the refrain of the Hollywood construct, “ Blood Diamonds” where in the male protagonist in a drinking joint cheekily admits the fact that he is a weapons dealer from America who supplies weaponry and warring equipment to all probable combat sides ranging from the Regime in the capitol and all the way to the myriad rebels and insurgents who are engaged in a military strife with the Government of the day.

It can be argued that why on Earth, the African continent is known or defamed as a, “Dark Continent”. The rationales and the reasons are myriad courtesy the arcane colonial overtones. Now, resources, seemingly in the contemporary context, have become the global bone of contention and the cause of geopolitical and geo-economic scuffles. It’s the thesis and the academically ordained differential of the “Core and the Periphery” that used to decide the larger fate and the geopolitical fortunes of nations all across the international comity.

In the light of the theme of, the “ Core and Periphery” dualism, it may be contended that the present day American standpoint towards traditional aid has witnessed a paradigm shift. The novae inclination is towards transactional exchanges and the related idiom of trade diplomacy, conflict resolution and the dominance of the critical minerals supply chains. Also, Democracy promotion no longer remains as an avowed objective of the US Foreign policy which has veered towards reciprocal market access and eliciting economic and commercial cess in a true-blue marketer manner.

The poser that the Africans used to ponder upon was that, “ Do we still matter” has become a relic of the past now with the Third worldism assuming a transformative role for the new world order with the decline of the traditional powers. Despite the presence of programmes of the order of Prosper America, the demand of depositing a fee of around 20,000 dollars for visa issuing, is a stricture, which has made the interface between the American market and the African entrepreneurs, a difficult ask. Harking back to the Hollywood construct, Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy as the African Prince arriving on the East coast for a time of revelry and experimentation, now, too, only the African elites and the larger businessmen can undertake the expensive travel to the United States of America.

The acrimonious Zimbabwe Democratic and Economic recovery Act (ZDBERA) was adopted in 2001 by US as an instance of deteriorating relations with Robert Mugabe, the Premier of Zimbabwe. Initially, the Mugabe Regime appeared efficient and people friendly with its radical land reforms, but, soon the Regimental mismanagement and nepotism made the African nation cut corners with nations of the order of America. Apart from Zimbabwe, a mention ought to be made of what the US President Bill Clinton Bill Clinton had to say about the 1990’s genocide in Rwanda. After the Hutus and Tutsis annihilated each other, the Western apathy become apparent to all the international actors. President Bill Clinton in his 1996 visit to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, in the aftermath of the genocide, has become an avid reminder where in the American President intoned that, “ While the genocide of mammoth proportions was unfolding in Rwanda, we in the Western Offices and Institutions, were, busy sipping coffee and typing away on our word processors, when they needed us.” Thus, it can be succinctly underlined that American apathy too had a role to play in the way the Rwandan misery unfolded. This was similar to the manner in which the French and the Belgian establishment, as former colonial masters of Rwanda, stayed away from the humanitarian crisis in Kigali.

One may also allude to the incident in the nineteen seventies, of the order of how victory was achieved and smoothly attained through the instrument of counter terror by the Tel Aviv regime at Entebbe. What actually transpired, was, that a passenger plane took off from Israel with its destination being, Paris. The flight to Paris was hijacked and was landed and blithely grounded in the Badlands of Dictator par excellence, Idi Ameen in Uganda. Thus, while the Tel Aviv regime housed in Israel bought time with the jehadi hijackers, the Mossad and the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) amalgamated their security operation as a key and seething anti terror conglomerate and brough back the stranded passengers from the air liner hijacked at the Addis Ababa airport. One cannot belittle and brush under the carpet, that, the larger context of Africa and its imprints on the West Asian political violence without delving inside the details as reconstructed about the nature and context of Entebbe.

One can fathom a trend where-in, the great powers of the order of the United States, United Kingdom and other nations which are part of the Euro-Atlantic consensus, have historically nibbled and then gobbled up the larger tract of undeveloped nations in Africa and South America. To be pithy, one may argue that this might appear to be a Marxist reading of global developmental and progression purposes, but the impact of the North-South divide does stand out as being the germinating theme of the struggles and the scuffles of the larger world.

Harking back to the colossal nation, United States of America still maintains a quaint idiom of Mount Sinai exceptionalism, where-in, the nation strives to domineer over the LDCs in Africa, which most of the nations are, a part of but not, Nigeria and South Africa. Nations of the order of Lesotho and Madagascar might face imminent danger from the recently imposed tariffs on their states and population, but countries such as Egypt and Kenya might not be heavily and adversely impacted by Trump’s tariff tirade. To look at the brighter side, the AGOA, African Growth and Opportunity Act, expired in September 2025, thus laying stress upon the free market access of African nations in the United States of America.

Still, efforts have been afoot to usher in a canny and convenient continuance and extension in the aid to Africa, which includes a modernisation and reauthorisation of the plan. As of now, the American establishment, on the lines of the grandiose Marshall and Truman Plans, dabbles in the twin instruments of regime change and post-conflict reconstruction. which it had hammered out for countries such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Largely, the political and economic instability of an ilk of African nations, too, has elicited a near-to-similar response by the White House.

Apart from it all, the US had initially utilised the modicum of aid as a tool of foreign policy and economic diplomacy, thus engendering dependencies in Africa. This has delivered an unobserved jolt to the decolonisation of the 1960s in Africa, where-in, self-reliance and independence of economics and industry would have been an ideal way out for Africa if the nations would have adhered to the neutrality paradigm in the Cold War era. But did they have another policy alternative?

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