The Wilson Center on Obama’s Africa Trip & Summer Directions for Africa in DC?

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Obama Africa, Senegal vs. Ivory Coast, Steve McDonald, Wilson Center

I’m often quick to offer my constructive criticisms to those in DC’s African policy circles (such as in my review of the Wilson Center’s blog), so I should not shirk from celebration when key figures make the right points.

In his Last Word blog column for May, the head of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, Steve McDonald, makes some great points about Obama’s upcoming Africa trip.  He further articulates some of my concerns on the visit, namely that Obama “is avoiding any difficult issues and going with a very “safe” itinerary.”  I personally would much preferred for Obama to have visited the Ivory Coast than Senegal.

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On an unrelated matter, Summer is now upon us, which means a decline in the number of local events pertaining to Africa (not only are the universities out of sessions, the think tanks also become less active).  I’ve got some ideas about different ways to make up for that and ensure a steady stream of new and interesting material for the blog.  In particular, I’m hoping to go more in the human interest direction – initiate a few interviews and run some more profile pieces.

Do you have any suggestions or comments about people/organizations/issues you’d like to see covered?  Specific topics are particularly welcomed.  Comment here or email me at africaindc at gmail . c om

Blog Review #1: The Wilson Center’s Africa UP Close

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Africa UP Close, DC Africa Blogs, DC Africa events, DC blog review, Derek Langford, Steve McDonald, Wilson Center

Africa is a Country recently ran a piece on the Guptagate scandal, in which the writer remarked that it is unique for the South African press to review/analyze its peer publications.  This has inspired me to commit to offering a periodic analysis of the blogs administered by organizations and individuals in Washington DC that pertain to African affairs.  My inaugural case study is Africa UP Close, the blog of the Wilson’s Center Africa Program, where I first gained Africa in DC experience as a summer intern several years ago.  Keep reading for my thoughts and my report card on the blog and please leave comments about which blog you’d like me to review next.

Why AGOA Helps the US More than Africa and Promotes Strong Men Over Strong Institutions

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African Development, AGOA, Blaise Compaoré, Burkina Faso, Steve McDonald, Thomas Sankara, Wilson Center

I recently wrote about the pat on the back that Congress gave itself for good work done with the African Growth and Opportunity Act.  One of the speakers at the Library of Congress event was Steve McDonald, who is the head of the Africa program at the Wilson Center.

McDonald was apparently inspired by his presentation at the event to pen a piece on the Program’s blog that calls for an ‘enhanced AGOA’.  McDonald expresses concern that US corporate interests are losing ground in Africa.  While I will vigorously promote the disclaimer that I’m not an economics expert, I am generally concerned by what I suspect is the underlying assumption behind McDonald’s writing.  Lowering barriers to trade that makes cheap African labor more attractive to Western/US interests is not particularly helpful for Africa.  Rather, it makes the African policy elites in DC more relevant and strengthens their voice as capital increasingly flows to Africa.  As I mentioned in my earlier post on the event, my most intimate experience with AGOA involved a tour of an apparel factory that had been established in Namibia to take advantage of its provisions.  The owners of that factory were Korean, not African.

While I’m not a fan of Ronald Reagan, I won’t argue with those who may say that AGOA will bring some trickle-down benefits to Africans.  But in response, I’ll ask why should the US invest so much in a policy with only incremental benefits?  Why focus on enhancement of AGOA and not look at other policy approaches?

While my location precludes me from being able to attend many events of the Center’s Africa Program, I have recently been to functions the Program hosted with prominent officials from the DRC and Burkina Faso.  These are both autocratic states governed by warlords turned politicians who have managed to garner a strong veneer of legitimacy and enjoy strong support from the US.

If the Wilson Center focused its efforts on advocating for a shift in US policy, instead of praising Burkina Faso, which played a prominent role in instigating the civil wars in Liberia and the Ivory Coast, as a “stabilizing influence in West Africa”, perhaps more factories opened as a result of AGOA would be owned by Africans and not Asians.

The previous administration in Burkina Faso achieved almost complete food self-sufficiency in a few years, now it is governed by a regime that presides over one of the least developed countries in the world and is primarily (and incorrectly) celebrated for its role as a mediator in regional conflicts.

Congress Honors Itself for a Job Well done with AGOA

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AGOA, Karen Bass, Rosa Whitaker, Stephen Hayes, Steve McDonald

I have previously voiced my skepticism of the trade agreement AGOA, which is often celebrated in US – Africa circles as one of this country’s biggest achievements in Africa.  This self-praise continued on April 25, as a range of public and private sector luminaries gathered (I was not among them) for an event in the Library of Congress on “Looking back at AGOA’s history to inform its future.”

An e-mail from Representative Karen Bass on the event lauds “our nation’s lead trade arrangement with African nations, [which has] helped create hundreds of thousands of jobs develop and strengthen new business sectors and lift million out of poverty.”  As a student in Namibia, I can recall touring a Korean owned apparel factory that had recently opened as a result of AGOA.  I mostly recall seeing a lot of not very happy looking women and a very cold building.

The Ambassador of Mauritius, the head of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, the President of the Corporate Council on Africa, and the President of the Whitaker Group were featured speakers.

A Flickr photo album of the event is available here.

Security & Development – the DRC’s Prime Minister at the Wilson Center

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Cynthia Akuetteh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, Joseph Kabila, M23, Matata Ponya Mapon, Rwanda, Steve McDonald

Today I attended a talk by the Prime Minister of the Congo, Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Cynthia Akuetteh (who arrived late with traffic as her excuse), at the Wilson Center.  While the comments by both were representative of typical sterile government speak (which in my DC experience has been best epitomized by Under Secretary Hormats), each were brief, allowing for a rather lengthy Q&A.  Several ambassadors were in the audience – Zambia, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, and most interestingly the ambassador of Rwanda.  The last three asked questions, so that presented a particularly striking opportunity.

The translation headsets suffered technical difficulties throughout (the PM spoke in French and most of the questions were in French as well), although my Peace Corps and high school French was generally good enough to keep me from getting lost (surprisingly).  The Director of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program, Steve McDonald (whose bio indicated that his undergrad specialization was French) struggled to translate on the fly and called into service the PM’s personal translator.

Aside from a celebration of the DRC’s ascendant economic prowess, most of the conversation focused on the precarious security situation in the east of the Congo.  Both the DAS and PM were relatively critical of Rwanda and the Ambassador (speaking in English) used his question time to rebut this assertion.  While he made a somewhat convincing argument that the détente from 2009 to 2012 (following the arrest of Laurent Nkunda) was the result of Rwandan efforts to support peace, there was no explanation as to why that peace deteriorated.  He may have eventually gone in that direction, but the numerous members of the Congolese diaspora in the audience (who had previously been rather critical of the PM) turned against him and shouted him down, despite McDonald’s feeble attempts to assert his own preeminence as moderator.

Ultimately, the talk revealed little of substance, however it certainly illuminated the high and intense passion surrounding DRC – Rwanda relations and the poor relations of the Congolese diaspora with the Kabila administration.  One of the more interesting nuggets (that came out in the bio sheet, not the talk) was that PM Mapon appears to have been educated exclusively in the DRC (at the University of Kinshasha).