Article
What Harris and Trump can’t fix in Africa
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
WITH the United States (US) presidential election now two months away, the mainstream media, both in America and South Africa, have already picked their preferred candidate for next US President. They support Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, a “woman of colour” of course.
On Business Day recently, fellow South African columnist Claire Bisseker, argued that the Trump presidency will be bad for the world since Trump wants to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. Her argument was weak.
Joe Biden has carried on with tariffs on Chinese goods. In fact he has carried on with most of Trump US China policy. Last week, Biden was expected to announce “significant tariffs on some Chinese imports”, NPR reported. “The taxes are a continuation of Donald Trump’s tough-on-China trade policies. Both men have touted these kinds of tariffs as a way to protect American jobs.”, NPR reported. This week, Voice of America reported that the Biden administration has delayed the announcement of these tariffs on China. So, tariffs on Chinese goods are not just a Trump policy, Biden and Kamala Harris also favour tariffs on Chinese goods.
Let’s wish the mainstream media luck. They will need it. It seems they never learned anything from the 2016 Clinton-Trump presidential campaign.
The US’s Africa policy has always been bipartisan in recent decades. There are virtually no disagreements on Africa policy in Washington DC. Unlike policies on Europe, the Middle East, Korea, Cuba, where there are often contentious debates. I doubt there’ll be any significant change on US Africa policy.
What Kamala and Donald can’t fix in Africa
Having said the above, let me emphasise that to Africans, it should not matter who wins this US election. We must work with whoever wins.
However, it must be understood that no American president can resolve Africa’s socioeconomic problems. It is Africans themselves who can make a meaningful, long-term change in Africa.
Good, clean, effective governance is what Africa lacks and no foreign leader can provide that.
One of the particularly important references is the state of democracy and freedoms in Africa. It is a dire, unsettling state, as shown by The Economist’s Democracy Index 2023. Africa ranks at the bottom in the Democracy Index. We have a continent that has not embraced democratic values.
In his excellent book, The Capitalist Manifesto, Swedish economist Johan Norberg writes, “Sub-Saharan Africa is not the poorest part of the world because the region lacks the economic conditions needed for growth but because it has lacked freedom.”
Johan also argues that African liberators became “occupiers who continued to plunder their people.” According to Johan, the democratic political system is a better political system for economic development. He argues that Africa is the poorest continent because African leaders chose statism, instead of pro-market reform.
Very few African countries have had good governance in Africa over the past decades. Norberg argues that Botswana and Mauritius have done well. I would add Namibia. I think Namibia has also done well on governance.
The argument that Africa lags behind because of colonialism is not convincing to people who study the world and its history.
After World War II, Germany and Japan were in ruins. Yet, these countries managed to rise to the riches in a few decades. Why? Well, it was good governance, strong human capital.
In 1965, Singapore was one of the poorest countries in the world, with a GDP per capita of $500. The country is now one of the world’s richest countries, richer than its former colonizers.
How did Singapore do it? It was good, effective governance with good institutions, and good pro market policy in the business sphere.
There is also Taiwan and South Korea. Both these countries were dirt poor in the 1960s. Today they are rich.
It can be done. Africans can do it and must do it themselves. No Kamala Harris or Donald Trump can do it for them.
Africa is a continent with immense potential. If its people were to make right decisions on governance, the continent would flourish.
Despotic leaders tend to have support in Africa and that’s not helpful. These despots amass wealth at the expense of the impoverished. Abject poverty plagues most countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Repressive regimes around the world – from Venezuela to Iran, to North Korea, to Russia, to China – are supported by many in Africa.
At the recent protests in Nigeria, some protesters carried the Russian flag. Chad and Central Africa Republic (CAR) has also had protesters waving the Russian flag. The military junta leaders who took power through coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, have severed ties with the West, and got closer to Russia.
The pro-Russia behaviour is not helpful, in my opinion. It damages Africa. We may be dissatisfied with the West, nothing wrong with that. There is a lot to criticize about Western policy in Africa. However, moving closer to Russia and China at the expense of our relations with the West is ill-thought. There is no need to severe ties with the West. What is needed is reform, reset of our relations with the West.
The reason we are not pursuing the reset of our relations with the West is because we are short-sighted, and our leaders lack a vision that puts the interests of Africans first.
Western nations led by the likes of Harris and Trump don’t owe us anything. They left political power long time ago. The focus must be on how to work with them. African countries do not have to choose a side. Working with all continents is what is in the interest of Africa. PM
© PHUMLANI M. MAJOZI