Dancing kwasa kwasa in the African Bush

There was one moment during President George W Bush’s recent visit to Africa that grabbed my imagination. It was the sight of the leader of the world’s most powerful nation dancing kwasa kwasa to some African rhythm. My initial reaction was wow! Welcome to Africa Mr President and its good to see that you are enjoying it quite a bit! And for a moment I even imagined that with all those fancy moves President Bush, who is due to leave office at the end of the year, could be a worthwhile candidate for the presidency of the much muted United States of Africa.

For all the misery and suffering that the continent has endured and continues to endure, there is still one thing that it retains in significant abundance – its rhythm and dance. From Cape to Cairo, Africa is one big music and dance party. Go to any country on the continent and if you are important enough to have a large welcoming party, you can bet there will be young scantily dressed things doing their thing on the tarmac to the accompaniment of drums, horns, marimba and other exotic musical instruments. If you are not important enough but have the courage of some sort, you could visit any of the shanty towns which are often mistaken as cities and towns dotted around the continent and you can be sure to come across a gathering or two of our citizens whiling away their time gyrating to some music of some sorts.

This is Africa for you - a land of magnificent sights and even more wonderful sounds. Yet somehow behind the bonhomie there lurk real big and daunting challenges and even greater potential and prospects. I suspect that George Bush’s visit was less about tackling the challenges than it was about exploring and exploiting the opportunities. The Americans are well aware that Africa is there for the retaking, well sort of. After the euphoria and disappointment of independence, Africa has began to offer itself, maybe not as a colony but certainly as a partner state, to those who are willing to become its friends. So far the Chinese have been quick to take the bite and are doing decent enough business across the continent in such interesting spots as Sudan.

While the economic and fellowship support from China has largely been welcomed by Africa, more so as it comes with very little or no strings attached, there remains deep seated suspicion on the motives of the Chinese benefactors in the short term and significant doubt about the long term benefits of the relationship. After all, its not just the business that they are getting, but the Chinese are also becoming a strong political influential force. They are making many good and bad friends on the continent and have become something of big brother to the continent on the international stage. The failure of the international community to force change in Darfur has been largely attributed, rightly or wrongly, to the Chinese unwillingness to apply pressure on Sudan. The Chinese have upped the stakes in Africa, not only by laying claim to a significant base of mineral resources, but by providing financial aid and political support to partner countries.

The attitude of China seems to be not to let the little matters of human rights get into the way of the real big matters of commerce and industry. This would not be such a bad idea if the commerce and industry also helped to develop the African economies. Unfortunately and at least for the time being, the benefits accruing to Africa are not that evident. Thus it is in Africa’s interest to keep its options open and continue to court friends from far and wide. To help their cause, the Americans are realising that it is not in their long term interest to let China have a free run on the African continent. In my view, the Americans want to engage Africa not just to neutralise the Chinese influence but in order to gain the following advantages.

Firstly, there are economic rewards to be realised from Africa. Africa provides both a vast market for goods and services generated in the US and a great source of raw materials to power its economic development. Trade agreements such as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) are intended to facilitate the entry of African manufactured products into the American market but, by the same token, open a wide avenue for the American goods to enter the African markets. With Africa’s teaming population, it is not difficult to imagine the prospects and opportunities for marketing goods and services to the continent.

The second benefit which the Americans seek to gain from Africa is improved security. The very controversial idea of Africom is premised on protecting American security interests much more than it is about promoting stability on the continent. The Americans need to site their military bases in Africa in order to create the capacity and capability to respond quickly to security threats emanating from Middle East. It does not take a lot of reasoning to appreciate that American military bases on African soil will significantly enhance the former’s response time to any security threat emanating from the Middle-Eastern or, indeed, the former Soviet regions.

The third benefit for the Americans will be to establish a sphere of influence to promote its democratic principles and ideals. The US missed out on the partitioning of Africa jamboree and although they had small pockets of influence in countries largely occupied by former slaves, Liberia and Sierra Leone, they were left out of the larger chunks of Africa where the British, French and Portuguese held sway. These colonial influences were swept away by the independence movements of the sixties through to the eighties. The resultant influence vacuum was filled-up by the manoeuvrings of the super power during the cold war but these relationships never really gained any significant traction because they were very opportunistic, circumstantial and short-termistic in nature. To a large extent Africa continued to drift in isolation within its own sea of crises caused by civil wars, dictatorships and the AIDS pandemic.

Much of the interest which remained on Africa was dictated by limited and specific economic interests such as the exploitation of oil resources and precious minerals. Only in the period leading to the millennium transition, the late nineties and early two thousands, was some interest in Africa rekindled. The interest took many forms but was predominantly premised towards economic development, charity and humanitarian aid. The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) which is an African-led initiative and the Tony Blair inspired Commission for Africa represent some of the more visible and broad attempts to positively influence events in Africa.

The current moves of the US can be viewed as an attempt to counter the gains by the Chinese. I think the question which begs for an answer is whether the US should be welcomed to Africa or it should be eschewed. Historically, the Americans have shown more altruistic motives in their interventions especially in Europe where they joined the fight to repel Nazism and, in the aftermath of the war, provided financial resources (through the Marshall Plan) to rebuild Western Europe.

The US is a rich and powerful nation and it can, with sufficient political will, make real and positive contributions to the improvement of the situation in Africa. In this regard, it is my view that American interests in Africa should be encouraged. In the circumstances, a bit of kwasa kwasa dance in the African bush by President Bush may not be misjudged exuberance.