Putting Africa's House in Order to Deal with Developmental Challenges

However proud Africans must be to have a person of African descent in the White House, they should have no illusions as to how much President Barack Hussein Obama can do for Africa. Africans must put their own house in order for purposes of dealing successfully with the major challenges facing the continent, the most important of which is that of democratic and developmental governance. Obama's priorities are not necessarily those of Africans. They have to do with the role of the United States as a superpower in a global system in which the American military and business corporations play a hegemonic role. In this context, Africa is relevant to American and Obama's global priorities when its resources are needed to strengthen this role, on the one hand, or its humanitarian crises are likely to affect them in an adverse manner, on the other.

What are these global priorities, and how are they likely to affect Africa during Obama's tenure? Following is a brief examination of four major priorities. The first is limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. Operating on the premise that nuclear weapons should be limited to the few countries now possessing them (U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan), the U.S. government has led an international campaign against the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by other countries, particularly those deemed hostile to Western interests, such as Iran and North Korea. Since South Africa destroyed the nuclear arsenal of the former apartheid state and Libya gave up its nuclear ambitions, the only relevant issue with respect to Africa's role in the spread of nuclear weapons is the question of who has access to Africa's abundant supply of uranium. Denying access to African uranium to "rogue states" and terrorist organizations is an important foreign policy objective of any American government, including the Obama administration.

The second priority is the fight against international terrorism. Even before the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the defining moment in the war between the United States and the Al Qaeda organization of Osama Bin Laden, Africa had already become an important battlefield in this confrontation—beginning with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Today the Al Qaeda conglomeration seems to be establishing a footing in the sands of the Sahel, with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb kidnapping and/or killing Western tourists in Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, and the militant Al Shabab ("the youth") of Somalia operating as an ally of Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Under these circumstances, U.S. policymakers' concerns that failed states like Somalia could become fertile grounds for terrorist groups can explain increased American military and intelligence presence in Africa. This is a major reason for the establishment of AFRICOM.

The third major priority is stabilizing the world economy in the interest of American businesses and consumers. This is perhaps the most difficult of the tasks facing President Obama, as he must at the same time ensure the profitability of major American corporations in the world economy and implement his domestic agenda for well-paying jobs, secure home ownership, and affordable health care. Here, as in the first two cases, the only benefits to Africans are indirect, in the form of payments for African goods and services and the infrastructure built for certain economic activities such as oil extraction. However, as a major source of small arms sold in Africa, the U.S. economy is also a factor of death and destruction rather than life and development in Africa. There is no indication that stopping the proliferation of small arms in Africa is a major policy objective of the Obama administration.

The fourth and final major U.S. global priority is dealing with humanitarian disasters in order to mitigate their adverse consequences for U.S. and Western interests. If it is true that history and tradition are instrumental in the role that the U.S. government plays in support of or alongside religious and charity groups in disaster relief, humanitarian intervention...