In Focus is a refereed IGD blog spot providing snip analysis by IGD staff and external analysts on topical developments in Africa and the world. If you want to have your commentary considered, write an e-mail to info@igd.org.za. Older In Focus articles may be found in the Archives section.
Please note the views and opinions expressed in the In Focus Blog may not be shared by the IGD or its affiliates.
The 2012 US Presidential Election and US Africa Policy
Written by Geoff Pigman Thursday, 17 May 2012 12:38
Now that the contest for the Republican Party presidential nomination is effectively over, the implications of the upcoming US presidential race between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for US Africa policy become clearer.
At the broadest level, there is not likely to be a big divergence on Africa policy between Obama and Romney. US foreign policy interests in Africa’s economic development have been closely tied to broader US strategic objectives such as access to secure energy supplies and combating the spread of terrorism. Former President George W. Bush’s support for the PEPFAR programme, an emergency AIDS relief initiative, was indicative of US recognition of the interrelatedness of security, governance, global health and economic development in meeting US Africa policy objectives. This convergence of US interests is not likely to change dramatically, irrespective of who wins the White House in 2012.
France will not redefine its relations with Africa
Written by Siphamandla Zondi Friday, 11 May 2012 10:24
THE election of the socialist candidate, François Hollande, as the president of France at the weekend has triggered a lot of speculation about the wider implications of this development. Clearly, they will be far wider than the issue of the eurozone debt crisis. There are both fears and hopes for Africa. Hopes that Hollande will bring France closer to a non-paternalistic relationship with Francophone Africa have to be moderated because the relationship is founded in neo-colonialism, a system by which the power of an external state lingers on after nominal independence through linkages perpetuated by the nature of economic relations, a complex aid system, cultural linkages and binding legal agreements, among other factors.
Writing in 1965 in a publication entitled, Neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism, the late Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, decries, even at that early stage of independence, the fact that although many former colonies had all the trappings of national sovereignty in the community of nations, they were still controlled subtly from the old colonial capitals. He noticed that in most cases, economic decisions and political reforms were directed from outside. He thought neocolonialism was more complicated than colonialism because while in the case of the latter declared colonial powers were obliged to account, at least, to their own voting populations for their activities in the colonies and those in the colonies who participated in colonial rule could count on colonial powers to protect them against their domestic opponents, neither is true under neo-colonialism. Former colonial powers are willing to dispense of yesterday’s friends when challenged internally and substitute them for a new clientele elite.
Africa needs wise collective leadership as regression grows
Written by Siphamandla Zondi Friday, 11 May 2012 10:22
THE lofty statements about the leadership Africa needs made some of Africa’s heads of states at the World Economic Forum meetings in Addis Ababa this week are correct. As Gabon’s Ali Bongo and Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi put it, Africa needs a leadership that is tenacious, focused, impervious to disruptive external pressures and that is willing to sacrifice much for the common good. This is true even though both of these leaders are not particularly known for living up to the ideals that they are preaching now. They have not shown the ability not to transcend narrow national interests and to resist divisive external agendas.
This new leadership emphasis is needed all the same because of the resurgence of military coups, with the latest taking place in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, and the growth of political arrangements after disputed elections unfortunately coincide with a weakening of Pan-African leadership. The reversal of democracy, which needs a strong response from Africa’s major political actors, happens when Africa’s big states are not united and energetic.
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