By Isseu Diouf Campbell
African heads of states were in Washington DC for the first U.S. Africa summit hosted by president Barack Obama in the nation’s capital on August 4-6, 2014.
Themed “Investing in the next generation” and starting a few days after the conclusion of the Presidential Summit for the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the summit focused, according to Obama, on building a new model of partnership between America and Africa- a partnership of equals.
Surprisingly during a roundtable with the fellows, President Obama downplayed the impact of the debts imposed on African countries by challenging “the notion that the primary reason that there’s been a failure of service delivery is because of onerous debt imposed by the West”, and considered the nature of trade “developed in the ‘60s and the ‘70s, so that value was never actually produced in country, but was sent somewhere else” as a thing of the past.
President Obama didn’t stop there, he also suggested young fellows “to look to the future and say, okay, we didn’t get a good deal then, but let’s make sure that we’re not making excuses for not going forward. “
Many Western countries including the United States have always seen Africa as a treasure trove of human and natural resources and have planned accordingly to get from Africa the resources needed for their development “by any means necessary” and subsequently at a very high cost to Africa.
It is undeniable that bad leadership has to blame in some cases, but that bad leadership was often implemented with the help of Western countries like the US.
More recently, the intervention led by the US in Libya to “protect Libyan civilians” has caused a very high death toll leaving the citizens of this Northern part of Africa still struggling to recover peace.
So, it is refreshing to see the United States invested in not only providing young Africans leadership training and skills building but also demonstrating its commitment to the sustainable economic growth and development in Africa.
Is that commitment genuine and will it create “a partnership of equals” that will benefit African people? Only the future will tell.
Meanwhile there is a rule African leaders should be aware of. That rule was reminded to me a few days ago when I jokingly said to someone getting into the elevator I was in, that I would offer him a ride to the floor he was going to. He asked me in a humorous tone if the ride was free. When I nodded, he responded: “there is nothing free in America”.
So, I hope that heads of States will remember that rule during their negotiations.
