Obama Does Not Owe Africa Anything

By Dennis Matanda

Image/Sonido – Silencio

By Dennis Matanda

In their infinite wisdom, the Yoruba say that one who lives on the riverbank should not use their spit to wash their hands. And even if they are crippled or live in perpetual fear of drowning, children, the extended family and the community should provide water. In looking after our own, we blacks are a hardworking people. That heap of yams we reap depends upon the number of mounds we plow in the rainy season, and we preach that one’s hands decide what they eat for dinner. So, why are we looking to Obama to give us anything?

Contextually, when one of us does well, we rejoice and cannot wait to slaughter a cow, a goat, a hen or a cock in their honor when they come to visit. A Kiswahili saying tells us that when visitors come, we will benefit from presents, medicine or the momentary peace from everyone being on their best behavior. Perhaps we are looking to Obama because assume that if Clinton can give us AGOA and Bush can bring billions to fight malaria and HIV/AIDS, surely our very own brother will bring bread, meat and clothes!

So, maybe we are right to anticipate and even be justifiably disappointed in our brother’s tepid response to our hungry hearts. But why are people who should know better saying that Obama fell short in doing things for Africa? Even when he was facing white-hot opposition and a major global recession, Obama did things we have not even ‘thanked’ him for! He ensured that a major AGOA provision passed into law, he brokered peace in Sierra Leone, between the Sudanese and also in Somalia. Did we expect him to intervene when Uganda and Rwanda put their hands up Congo’s skirt again? Should he have torn the pants Mugabe super glued to the Monomotapa throne?

Instead, the man quietly launched his strategy for sub-Saharan Africa in June 2012 and then sent his Secretary of State on an unprecedented trade mission to various progressive African countries. He launched the Doing Business in Africa campaign and ensured that the Exim Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation and other American agencies had the wherewithal to finance those businesses seeking to trade with or invest in Africa.

Yet in late October 2012, just before Obama’s re-election, a comrade-in-arms, Jonathan Isaiah suggested that if Obama wanted Africans to ‘associate’ with him, he’d have to strengthen democratic institutions, increase trade and investments, fight for peace and security and also reduce the rise of terrorism in the region.

But don’t we Africans say that brothers will love each other when they are equally rich? Don’t the Ashanti even say that the poor man and the rich man do not play together? Thus, although he is our kinsman, Obama is going to have to be that brother that chooses if and when he can help since he does not owe us a thing. As long as we are mired in poverty, corruption and disease, we are at the mercy of sympathy and not in a position to bargain for empathy. If we want American investments, we must attract them by improving roads, repairing health care systems, education and social safety nets systems.

In frivolously referring to our good friend, Prof. Calestous Juma, we must look to Obama and use his transcendence to reinforce our own aspirations. This will increase our participation in the global economy. As Juma urges, we must diversify our product base and use the US as a role model – in shifting policy attention to industrial development – to adding value to agricultural and mineral resources, and using programs like AGOA as testing grounds to move towards expanding trade relations with the first world.

And to those who juxtapose Obama’s “paltry handouts” to China’s roads, schools, hospitals and stadiums, the U.S. president’s father’s countrymen caution them in saying a big goat does not sneeze without a reason. I could not agree more. Besides, like the Ethiopians say, as we eat the stranger, we need to get ready for our relatives. One day, Obama is coming home. When he does, he may bring more presents than we can hold in our small homes.

Dennis Matanda is an American Politics + Government scholar from Uganda. He serves as The Habari Network’s Editor, works in Manhattan and lives with his wife Rachel in Princeton, New Jersey.
Follow him @DennisMatanda or @thehabarinetwork