Barack Obama’s visit to Ghana this weekend is being interpreted by many as a willingness to turn a new page on Africa. Unlike other American presidents, Obama was the first to visit Africa before taking office. He was 26 when he first visited Kenya, the land of his Luo father.
Obama’s intimate connection with Africa might give him a clear understanding of the slippery path of African politics. His father was blacklisted by president Jomo Ken-yatta partly because of his ethnic background.
Many analysts expect Obama’s policies toward Africa to reflect his knowledge of the continent. One can’t help but wonder if he will tame African dictators.
Zimbabwe has fired the first shot. In March, Zimbabwe’s deputy prime minister, Arthur Mutambara, criticized Obama for extending U.S sanctions on Zimbabwe by another year. He asked why “a U.S. president of African origin was making irresponsible decisions without consulting Zimbabweans.”
For Obama to make inroads in Africa, he must stand firm.
As Kenya was gaining its independence in the early 1960s, its gross national product was almost the same as South Korea’s. Today, South Korea’s economy is 40 times bigger.
This is certainly not due to the lack of effort on the part of ordinary Kenyans. The herculean sacrifices that ordinary Africans make are unquestioned. However, without democracy and the rule of law these sacrifices are futile. Countries like Zimbabwe or Somalia will continue to suffer self-inflicted wounds.
Addressing Kenyan students at the University of Nairobi in 2006, Obama said, “When African nations were just gaining independence, industrialized nations had decades of experience building their domestic economies and navigating the international financial system.”
What he didn’t say was that rich countries also had decades of nurturing – and continue to perfect – their democratic institutions. This is something alien in many parts of Africa.
Africans – regardless of country or ethnicity – are enchanted seeing Obama in the White House. What is lost in the feverish excitement is that had Obama been born in Kenya, the likelihood of him becoming president of Kenya through free and fair elections would have been close to nil. In Kenya, he’s Luo, an ethnic group that has for the most part been shut out of political power. The fact that democracy made it possible for Obama to become president needs to be imprinted in the hearts of many Africans.
The only way African countries can produce their own Obama is for mature democracies to encourage them through a foreign policy that recognizes the strength, intelligence and wisdom of Africans. U.S. foreign policy under Obama need not prop up dictators for the sake of America’s sometimes narrow self-interest. The problem with propping up puppets is that they don’t always jerk when the strings are pulled.
President George W. Bush was clear, passionate and persistent about the virtues and the need for democracy. The persistence with which he argued for democracy was sometimes perceived as neo-imperialism. In the name of fighting terrorism, many closet dictators abused his genuineness. To his credit, Bush repeatedly rejected the notion that non-white cultures are incapable of democracy. Obama needs to follow Bush’s spirit but he must be aware of the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Free, fair, transparent and regular elections are indispensable for democracy.
Likewise, Canada’s foreign policy for Africa must also promote democracy. The Canadian government may no longer be a major player on the continent, but Canadian mining firms are.
A report by the federal Ministry of Natural Resources indicates that in 2008 Canadian mining assets in Africa were worth $21 billion, an increase of 41 per cent from 2007. Canadian mining companies also held ownership in at least 50 different mining operations across Africa. Many of these firms trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This puts Canada behind only South Africa in terms of being a mining giant.
So even from a self-interested perspective, the Canadian government must re-engage Africa and encourage stability in Africa if Canadian mining firms are to prosper.
A foreign policy that rewards democracy and the rule of law will inevitably make it conducive for Canadian firms to do business in Africa. In turn, there will be an economic trickle down both in Canada and in African villages. Africa needs a foreign policy that gives hope and opportunity to its hardworking people, a foreign policy that is not afraid to confront leaders who abuse power.
The World Bank estimates Africa’s middle class will quadruple in the next two decades from its current level of 12 million people. This rosy picture is in serious trouble if democracy is left by the wayside.
On the other hand, African immigrants in developed nations must not stand by and wait for rich nations to spoon-feed Africa democratic nutrients. If inroads are to be made, the divisiveness among Africans in the diaspora must be put aside.
Through organized pressure groups, African immigrants can demand that politicians in their adopted countries deliver on campaign rhetoric. They must be the foot soldiers. The creation of serious foreign policy groups in Washington and Ottawa could be a first step. These groups could lobby governments, run think-tanks and commission African scholars in universities around the world to produce a blueprint for change in Africa.
The generals who have been allergic to democracy are being put on notice by post-dictatorship generations. This demographic is self-assured and exposed to new ideas. It is not afraid to assert its democratic rights. However, people want to know that when their votes are stolen, it will have the support of mature democracies.
As Frederick Douglass once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Kennedy Jawoko is a Ugandan Canadian journalist. He lives in Toronto.
