Can We Expect More than Symbolic Support?

Africa and the Obama Phenomenon

When I think about the extraordinary writing and speaking phenomenon by the name of Barack Obama, who also happens to be the President of the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world, I can't help asking myself, what can he do for Africa? I ask this not only because he is a son of Africa, but also because I hear in his speeches the words of a man deeply committed to human values, and therefore concerned with the predicament of Africa's people in this age of globalization.

As the first African American elected to the American presidency, Obama represents an extraordinary symbolic change in American politics. No one can underestimate the symbolic significance of his election. Nor should it be considered purely a matter of symbolism; a changing of the guard at the top necessarily involves—or should involve—implications of substantive change. There is the rub—can we expect substantive change of any significance from his election, given the nature and structure of American politics and society?

In connection with that question it is fair to ask: what does the Age of Obama portend for Africa? Two related questions arise concerning this: first, what should Obama do for Africa, and second, what can he do for Africa? As to the first question, what Obama should do for Africa is linked to Africa's need; and we can spend a whole day talking about that and not exhaust it. On the basis of Obama's speeches, including especially his Accra speech of July 11, 2009, and our own sense of Africa's needs, I offer three primary talking points that embrace a set of values or goals upon which all government systems should be based. The first is peace and stability, the second is sustainable economic development and social justice, and the third is democracy and good governance—not necessarily in that order.

These core values or primary goals are related and interdependent. Peace is a primordial requirement for human life and for sustainable development, as are democracy and good governance. To be sustainable or enduring, peace must be based on justice. And we may fulfill that requirement by reference to good governance: by expanding the meaning of good governance. In his Accra speech Obama expressed his firm belief that progress depends on good governance—that progress on good governance is what can unlock African's potential. Good governance speaks to the integrity of those who govern: it means the absence of corruption and the meticulous response to the needs and aspirations of the people. Linking the absence of corruption to development, Obama contended that no country can create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers. "No person wants to live in a society," Obama said, "where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery." Calling for an end to corruption and tyranny, he charged that "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions."

With regard to peace, Obama said that Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. Peace, of course, is not simply the absence of war, but the absence of the threat of violence. "But...for far too many Africans," Obama declared, "conflict is a part of life.... And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes." For those of us from the Horn of Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo, that statement certainly hits home; it is a painful reminder of the harsh predicament faced by the peoples of our region.

Obama's Critics, Africa, and Globalization

Some Obama critics have faulted him for not highlighting the role of the West in the spread of corruption in Africa. They contend that the greed of corrupt African leaders was imported from Wall Street and the City of London. They also fault him for not sufficiently underscoring the historic wrong committed by Europe in regard...