America’s ties with South Africa were recently shaken by the explosive but unproven allegation by the US Ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, that Tshwane had shipped arms to Russia. Nine months ago, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, unveiled a new “Strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa,” for which some African analysts have acted as cheerleaders. More recently, president Donald Trump described Africa as a “s**thole.”The new strategy explicitly warns Africans about China’s “malign” activities in Africa. Though Uncle Sam has been generous in rendering humanitarian assistance to Africa, poorly funded aid programmes like Prosper Africa have left Africa poor, Power Africa has left the continent in the dark, while Feed the Future is not even feeding the present. - Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 25, 2023 06:41 UTC