Obama’s Charm Offensive in Africa

Washington has been the last capital to organize its summit with Africa. France launched its own over 40 years ago, and since then, the Africans have experienced deterioration in their relationships with China, Turkey, India, Japan and Brazil. It is now Barack Obama’s turn.

Just a few months ago, the guest list was selective, so Egyptian general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who ousted Mohamed Morsi, was not among them; he has, however, regained public support since his election, like the new president of Madagascar or Guinea-Bissau.

Looking beyond the heads of state, Obama is also targeting future African business leaders

Forty-seven heads of state were invited to Washington on August 4, 5 and 6. Only three were “forgotten,” namely those of Sudan, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, who are shunned by the international community because of their countries’ massacres (Sudan), ruthless dictatorships (Eritrea) or senseless election rigging (Zimbabwe). The heads of state of Sierra Leone and Liberia will be absent due to the dreadful spread of the Ebola virus, which has become uncontrollable in their countries. The epidemic will obviously be on the agenda for the meeting in Washington.

Barack Obama will have to make the Africans forget their disappointment after they pinned their hopes on him during his first mandate. They anticipated that the “dark continent” would be his priority. This was not the case, but has it become so? Obama is still looking toward Asia and the Pacific, but Africa is in fashion. It is the continent of the future, rich in raw materials (which may also be the cause of its misfortune, as these resources are exploited without the population seeing an increase in its standard of living), rich with its young and plentiful population – that needs to be educated – and with a significant middle class, a future market to which Westerners are paying close attention.

Obama is aware of the potential that the “dark continent” represents. On July 28, he gave the go-ahead for the weeklong African summit by gathering 500 young entrepreneurs from the continent in Washington as part of the Young African Leaders Initiative. He won them over with his jokes and earned himself a standing ovation. The topic of the meeting was investment in the next generation. The American president announced to his young and delighted audience that, in the next two years, 2,000 young African business leaders could come to American universities to improve their skills. Obama knows that securing the future generation of African entrepreneurs means building a captive market – they will be forced to give priority to the United States when they wish to import goods and machines from the West.

Building a basis for increased and enduring economic trade

Africa is of major economic significance for the United States, as well as its competitors, including France. Washington does not much like the fact that, for example, China is taking the lion’s share in large oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Algeria, who are close allies of the United States in the oil industry. In less than 10 years, trade between Beijing, Algiers and Abuja has reached almost $100 billion per year. China has multiplied its trading with Africa as a whole tenfold in just a decade. In this same period of time, the United States has only doubled its own. As for American capital invested in Africa, this only constitutes 1 percent of American investment in the entire world, at a time when Africa is beginning immense infrastructure projects that will span the next 20 years.

Barack Obama seems to want to make up for lost time. Admittedly, Washington will not be starting from scratch. In 2000, the United States established a system of preferential customs treatment – the African Growth and Opportunity Act – meant to facilitate the entry of products manufactured in Africa into the American market, if such products still exist. The AGOA did work well for Mauritius (in the textile and IT industries), but otherwise, the U.S. only buys crude oil or petroleum-based products (which constitute 91 percent of U.S. imports from Africa). This does nothing to boost the development of the continent. This legislation, which is due for a review in 2015, will also be one of the topics at the summit.

Take heed of the preacher’s words

Barack Obama took advantage of his audience of young entrepreneurs to provide them with a few recommendations. He said that the world needs “a strong and prosperous and self-reliant Africa,” adding that they should “respect the past and respect traditions while recognizing they have to be adapted to a new age.” The President clarified that “the African way is not that…you’ve been in office and then, suddenly, you have a Swiss bank account of $2 billion.”

Will he repeat these truths during his gathering with the heads of state? Unlike Franco-African summits, which are a long sequence of private conversations, the White House spokesman warned that there would not be any bilateral meetings – which heads of state would be chosen? – between Obama and his hosts, but a maximum of exchanges at three thematic meetings that the American president wishes to attend. On the menu: security in Africa, democracy and good governance in order to secure development. It is essentially a lesson in modernity. Barack Obama, among others, does not care for presidents who amend their Constitutions to stay in power a few extra terms, or even until their death.

The summit in Washington may well be a remake of the 1989 La Baule summit in France, when François Mitterrand announced to the astounded heads of state that France’s cooperation would be reserved for those who would choose the path of democracy. That was a quarter of a century ago; four francophone heads of state present in Washington were already in power then.