US-Africa Summit lives up to its billing as a unique event

WASHINGTON DC

The US-Africa summit produced political and economic results sufficient to justify President Barack Obama’s description of the three-day extravaganza as “an extraordinary event”.

But the unprecedented gathering of 50 African leaders in the US capital was also criticised as an exercise in “business as usual”.

The summit did partly succeed in shifting US perceptions of Africa as a hopeless continent wracked by poverty and violence to a beckoning frontier of opportunity and accelerating modernisation.

The Obama administration paid particular attention to the “demographic dividend” Africa derives as the continent with the youngest population.

Prior to the summit, the State Department awarded six-week fellowships at US universities to 500 young African leaders who, the Obama administration hopes, will develop friendly future relations with the United States.

Relentlessly touting Africa’s economic growth and profitable potential for investors, the Obama administration orchestrated sizeable new commitments at the summit from private businesses as well as the US government.

Mr Obama announced $7 billion in financing by federal agencies intended to facilitate US exports and business deals. Included in these initiatives is $250 million in US government insurance for investments in the construction and operation of a 310 megawatt wind power project near Lake Turkana.

CLEAN ENERGY

Washington is also using its leverage to expand Mr Obama’s year-old Power Africa project that now aims to bring electricity to 60 million African homes and businesses in the coming years. Kenya is one of six countries chosen to benefit from this public-private undertaking.

A few of the best-known US corporations also announced Africa initiatives at the summit totalling $14 billion. (READ: US companies plan $14b in Africa investments)

These investments in clean energy, aviation, banking and construction include a commitment by Coca-Cola to derive more ingredients for its products sold in Africa from local suppliers.

In Kenya, for example, Coke said it will focus initially on mango and tea production.

The US denies it is “playing catch-up” to China, which has greatly surpassed it as Africa’s largest trading partner, but officials suggested that African countries should recognise and act on the advantages of doing business with the United States.

“We do believe we bring something unique to the table,” US national security official Ben Rhodes said in the run-up to the summit. “We are less focused on resources from Africa and on deepening trade and investment.”

“That sounds nice, but it’s not actually true,” commented John Feffer, director of a Washington-based group that critiques US foreign policy from a left-wing perspective.

“Strip away all the modern PR and prettified palaver and it’s an ugly scramble for oil, minerals and markets for US goods,” he wrote. “Everyone wants a piece of Africa: drooling outsiders, corrupt insiders, cynical middle men.”