guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 July 2009 (Salim Lone ) Despite the constraints he faced in fulfilling pledges he made as a candidate, Barack Obama has succeeded in offering avenues for co-operation to Cuba, Iran, the Muslim world in general, and now Russia. This weekend, Obama will be in Ghana, and there is intense speculation about what this son of Africa, who electrified the world by so improbably taking the helm in America, will say about what he expects from, and will offer, the continent.
The president’s personal knowledge of and interest in Africa, his charisma and his grassroots support mean that he could be a major player here. This is particularly true since Africa’s low profile among the American political elite allows US leaders a lot of leeway in formulating policy towards it.
But as Obama devises US approaches to African challenges, he will face difficulties from an unexpected quarter – the US military. George Bush and his war on terror, and his reliance on force as a first resort, gave the military extraordinary power in shaping African policy – symbolised by Bush’s creation of the United States Africa Command (Africom), in the misguided notion that the military approach was the best way to tackle terrorism. Thankfully, African governments overwhelmingly resisted the siting of Africom bases.
But Africom is a reality, so it is vital that Obama move to curtail one of its most dangerous mandates: its involvement in economic development and humanitarian actions. This risks the militarisation of Africa’s political and social life – areas that remain the best hope for a better Africa.
Africom apart, a number of Obama’s political appointments are also hawkish, among them the Africa specialist who is now a member of his cabinet as the US ambassador to the United Nations – Susan Rice. She is inclined to the use of force, as evidenced by the threatening language she used about Sudan and Eritrea before joining the cabinet. It is this influence that would explain Obama’s risky decision two weeks ago to escalate US involvement in Somalia and ship arms to the isolated government – by obtaining a waiver from the longstanding UN embargo. Somalia’s tottering government has no public support, and runs just a few blocks of Mogadishu, despite the support of 4,300 Ugandan troops.
This new intervention is a continuation of the ruinous Bush policy in Somalia, which resulted in the militant al-Shabab Islamists – a previously negligible group – emerging as the country’s dominant force after large numbers of Somalis were radicalised by US air strikes and the 2007 invasion by Ethiopia, Somalia’s arch enemy, to topple the popular and moderate Union of Islamic Courts.
While attention will be heavily focused in Accra this weekend on what Obama says about Africa, what is even more important is for the US president to begin hearing from Africans. He must confer with civil society leaderships that have finally come of age across the continent.
One thing he would consistently hear from our civil society leaders would be that good governance – democracy, inclusion, respect for human rights and the rule of law – is non-negotiable. He would also hear that some of the significant gains made in expanding freedoms in multi-party Africa are being rolled back. This is not surprising, as the strategy of the US war on terror reverted to the cold war model of supporting dictatorial allies, which in east Africa included the Ethiopian and Ugandan leaderships.
Obama would also hear that there can be no compromise on free and fair elections. In too many countries recently – including America’s close allies Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, as well as Zimbabwe – elections have been seriously tainted, and have been followed by violence, the loss of liberties and the strengthening of state security organs.
Algeria and Ivory Coast also saw flawed elections take them down the bloody road to national chaos in the 1990s. The US must work with countries to ensure that elections will be honestly conducted. Without that, democracy is meaningless and instability inevitable.
One of President Obama’s most important priorities for Africa must be to work with and encourage the emergence of a progressive group of African leaders who can become indigenous models for democratic, accountable and inclusive governance – which alone will ensure African, as well as global and American, security.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Nothing he can do.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
The most important thing is what we do to bring an end to ethnofascism in our own country. We are disorganized and weak in the face of ethnofascism and our call on the west to support our struggle for democracy, freedom and justice are not being heeded. Without the financial and political support of the west, especially the United States, the life span of the ethnofascistic regime in Ethiopia could have been shorter. So we have to be clear and smart when we ask the United States or any other country to support our just causes. We should do our homework and strengthen our opposition forces so that they can have enough power to challenge and shake the ethnofascists. When the genuine Ethiopian opposition forces have mustered enough force, then the west would rush to talk to us. The west believe in power or show of force and would never take the disorganized and weak Ethiopian opposition seriously. However, we can gear our diplomatic activities by pointing out the west the folly of their support for ethnofascism and racism in Ethiopia. We can cite examples or parallels of the fiasco of western foreign policy in supporting the Apartheid rule in South Africa which is similar to the ethnofasctsic one in Ethiopia now.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I have not red this article,but just seeing the heading made me feel to puke. Why on earth are we wating for someone to help us get our freedom. It sad, sad, sad to leave a life of a begger. We africans particularly Ethiopian are cursed and good for nothing generation.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I think obama will do nothing special to africa.He will be just like other us presidents. I like also to say that Bush has been good as far as africa is conerned.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
nothing just kill one or more woyane. period
July 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Nada! we must get organized and united together to ask that Q. Please take a look at the past history for granted, how ethiopians fought w/fascism italian when trying to occupied Ethiopia. We can do that now too w/o asking for help from others. If we united and get about 40,000-60,000 fighters in ethiopia land, if we start to do that at the same time all dirctions, weyane can get his ass kiked off form our mother land. In addition, over 90% of ethiopians are with us if we really got the gotts to do that. Belive me! Nothing will stop us from getting weyane’s ass kiked off from our beloved country.
July 10th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
እስካሁን በአገሩ በአሜሪካ ላይ ብቻ ሳይሆን በዓለም ዙሪያ ሁሉ ከፍተኛ ዝናና ተወዳጅነቱ ያልቀነሰ ነው:: ባራክ ኦባማ ካለፉት የአሜሪካ ፕሬዚደንቶች በተለየ ለአፍሪካ የሚያደርገው ነገር ገና ወደፊት የሚታይ ነው:: መቼም የተለየ በጎ አስተሳሰብ ያለው መሪ እንደሆነ ስለሚታዎቅ ነው እስካሁን በተለየ ሁኔታ በዓለም ሁሉ እንደብርቅ የሚታየው:: የሆኖ ሆኖ ለአፍሪካም ሆነ ለአገራችን ምንም አደረገ አላደረገ እንደ አፍሪካዊ በመመረጡ ብቻ ልንኮራ ይገባናል:: ኢትዮ ሚዲያ ግን ኦባማን ከቡሽ ጋር በማመሳሰል ሰውየውን ለማጣጣል መሞከሩ እጅግ የቸኮለና የሚያሳፍር ተግባር ነው:: በአለም ላይ (በእርግጠኝነት በአፍሪካ) የዚህ አይነቱን አሳፋሪ ትችት ቀድሞ የሰነዘረ ድረገጽ ስለሆነ እንደ ኢትዮጵያዊያን ሁላችንም አፍረናል::
July 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
ኦባማ የሚለውጥው ነገር የለም
July 10th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Do not expect anything from outsiders to bring change in Ethiopia, Americans went a long and challanging struggle to bring about its democracy,human rights and the rule of law governing the country.And also America is not governed by an individual(presidant) it is governed by a well established never ending system that in any case prioritizes the nations interest. He may say so many things even by name calling Ethiopia but can do nothing practically, its our part to give democracy, respected humanrights and the rule of law for ourselves. Paease do not put your mind in salvery way of thinking. start and act today individually and in groups your journey to freedom. Remember as each vote counts during election each minor action contributes a lot to freedom.
July 11th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Obama tells African hippos to get their houses in order:
http://www.abugidainfo.com/?p=10297#more-10297
July 11th, 2009 at 5:35 am
I think there is stark differences between Bush and Obama vis-a-vis accountability of african leaders for their own people! As obvious as it might seem, the bush era’s foreign policy which focuses on anti-terrororism has resulted in unimaginable human right abuse, corruption and abuse of public office in many so called “allied countries”…woyane being a classic example! Coming to obama…u can smell an air of freshness towards his approaches. First of all, He has abondened the old anti-terrorism policy which rewards tyrants indifferent to their acheivements in building national democracy! Secondly, obama is likely to attach the democratic progress string to US aid for african countries. Thirdly, under Obama’s foreign policy upholding democratic values recieve the highest priority in its foreign relations with african countries than for instances the level of a country’s submissiveness to execute anti-terrorism policies! Given these changes, I hope we will see a more pronounced push by the Obama admin. directed towards african despotic regimes such as woyane to expedite democratic changes! Expecting more than this will be political naivity.
Coming to our main agenda which is how we can oust the despotic, ethnofashist, corrupt and dictatorial regime of meles zenawi the only vailble alternative is armed struggle and/or massive public uprising…which brings me to the point that…unless we start to kill the COWARD tigray-woyanes, they will continue to ride themselves (the tigre region and the tigres) into absolute dominance and prosperity and the rest of country into destitution… for a long spell of time to come! The only honest way that we can get rid of the tigray-woyane famias is using AK-47! Now ask yourself the following foundamental question “what did I contribute to this end?” After a deeper refelection on this question i have come to the conclusion that unless i do my part, and even worse if i continue to expect others to do my part, the status quo perpetuates and we will end up being swamped up with a locust of tigre-turned-woyanes controlling every aspect of our life! If you analyze the intention and purpose of recent “laws” being baked in the “parliament”, the tigray-woyanes are heading towards that direction. The woyane-tigre locusts must be stopped from abusing and dictating our ppl and they must be stopped now…and there is no one else that can stop these despicable acts execpt me and you!
July 11th, 2009 at 11:21 am
This article by a foreign correspondent is the most perceptive, and incisive point of view/report, regarding the US african policy. If I understood it correctly, he is suggesting, that the Obama Administration, need to emphasise on the non-negotiable, qualitative, not quantive political elements such as-”good governance, democracy, inclusion, respect for human rights, rule of law”and the “non-negotiable fair and free election”. He further touched upon the “expanding freedoms in multi-party Africa”, which I believe refers to individual freedom and/or human rights as basic rights empowering the individual for the process of democritization of African States, I presume, as opposed to the hawkish approach of the President Bush approach by Susan Rice, US Ambasador to the United Nations, referring to the United States Africa Command (Africom), which reflects the politisization of Afirican social and political life. If I understood it right this hawkish approach strengthens the dictatorial regime and would be in conflict with the legislature underway in the Senate As HR2003/S3457 on Human Right, democracy, and accountability, shaping the foreign policy of USA to Ethiopia in particular. The latter revitalizes, the democritazation process with the freedom of individuals, human right and instituting/promoting fair and free election process in place.
July 11th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
just looking at the title of the article, i understand how much we r depending on out siders to solve our problem.
he, himself, obama teach us the most important word in english and amharic’ that is… yes, we can’. so, what r we waiting for. we africans know our problems , tribalism and reginalism. so if we have to solve these two big problems, we r there where we want to be.
July 11th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
obama can do nothing to Africa. Africa has its own brave sons and doughters. Lemagn, temberkakiwoch
July 12th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
ethiopian. be aware of weyane carde
in our website who tries to confuse us.
http://www.eppfonline.org/
http://eastafro.com/
July 12th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
ethiopian. be aware of
weyane carde
in our website who tries to confuse us.
http://www.eppfonline.org/
http://eastafro.com/
July 12th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
ጅግንው ህይሉስ
ክነዚህ ያንሳል
ወይ ክነዚህ ያነሰ ሰርቶአል