Ian Boyne
LAST YEAR was dubbed 'The Year of Africa' and an estimated two billion people viewed the 'Live 8' charity concerts headed by Bono and Bob Geldoff.
Developed country leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland, put Africa at the top of their agenda, pledging to double aid to the region in five years. And British Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired an important commission on Africa which recommended increased attention and aid to the region.
But beyond all that humanitarian concern lies some very pragmatic reasons for being concerned about Africa.
Africa is becoming increasingly important as a source of oil and other minerals badly needed by the United States, China and Europe.
Now, the most influential and prestigious think tank in America, the Council on Foreign Relations, has issued a major report bluntly titled More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic U.S. Approach Toward Africa.
The 130-page report, issued last month, urges the American foreign policy establishment to look beyond sentimentalism in assessing its relationship with Africa.
WIELDS INFLUENCE
"The Council on Foreign Relations organised the Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Africa because it is important for Americans to recognize that Africa has become of steadily greater importance to the United States and its global interests."
That's plain communication, for which the council has become known to U.S. policy-makers and scholars. The council wields considerable influence in Washington, and its journal, Foreign Affairs, was last year rated the most influential of all publications in America. (It was that journal whose famous Mr. X article by George Kennan launched the Cold War policy of containment in 1947).
After noting the 'Live 8' concerts and the attention to Africa given by the Rich Man's Club gathering in Gleneagles, the Council report says plainly that "The point that was missing amid the music, the communiqués and the commitments (to increased aid) is that Africa is becoming steadily more central to the United States and the rest of the world that transcend humanitarian interests. Africa now plays an increasingly significant role in supplying energy, preventing the spread of terrorism and halting the devastation of HIV/AIDS."
The council also notes that Great Power rivalry has something to do with the new attention to Africa. "Africa's growing importance is reflected in intensifying competition with China and other countries for access to African resources and influence". After noting the increased attention paid to Africa since the Clinton Administration, the report bemoans the fact that "At the same time the public rhetoric surrounding Africa policy has continued to emphasize humanitarian concerns more than other multiple and rising US stakes."
The Council notes that the US has not followed through on some commitments to African aid and that Congress has cut back on the President's request for increased aid. Get with the programme, fellows, the influential scholars on the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force says in effect to the Congress and other lawmakers. This is not just a matter of helping some poor black people far away from home: Your vital interests are connected with their welfare and interests.
Warns the report: " The United States must recognize and act on its rising national interests on the continent through a far higher mobilization of leadership and focused resources that target Africa's new realities. A business-as-usual approach will squander historic opportunities to change the course of Africa's development and advance US interests". You can't be plainer than that.
Much of the concern over Africa concerns what is being called the Gulf of Guinea which comprises a large group of countries from West and Central Africa: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic , Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo . This area has a market size of 300 consumers and a gross domestic product of US$112 billion.
In a paper also issued last month by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and titled Emergence of the Gulf of Guinea in the Global Economy: Prospects and Challenges, Damian Ondo Mane addresses the growing importance of the area for energy supplies. Given the current uncertainties over Middle East oil supplies and especially instability in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf of Guinea is expected to occupy even greater strategic importance to the US, Europe and Asia, principally China, in the future. It is projected that the US will invest more than US$10 billion a year over the next ten years in oil activities in the region.
Says the IMF paper: "The Gulf of Guinea bears numerous advantages for Western countries. First, the crude oil from the region is of better quality than that from Latin America. Second, the region's oil contains little sulphur by international standards, an appreciable characteristic for US companies. Third, oil in the region is mostly extracted from offshore fields, far from ground political instability and wars and as such can be easily protected from turmoil".
Also, the region is relatively close to the main markets of Europe and the Americas. The area has also substantial natural gas reserves. The United States faces a shortage of natural gas as reserves have steadily declined in the past years, reaching their lowest level in 2003. Nominal prices of natural gas in the United States have skyrocketed by a phenomenal 700 per cent between 2000 and 2003, leading to impassioned calls from petrochemical and steel companies for the US to pay attention to "the other energy crisis".
Says the IMF paper: " It is more convenient and less costly for these companies to import foreign natural gas--that is broadly deemed cheaper and more accessible--than to pursue domestic exploration and production. Another factor in favour of natural gas importation in the United States is the lack of infrastructure and pipelines to extract and channel gas in the United States".
Africa now supplies the US with 15 per cent of its oil imports and Africa's production is expected to double in the next decade. Says the Council on Foreign policy report, More Than Humanitarianism: "In the next decade Africa could be supplying the United States with as much energy as the Middle East". The Council recommends a "geopolitical shift in US energy policy", suggesting that the US establish a US-Africa energy forum at the Cabinet or sub-Cabinet level.
The highly regarded Council urges the US to upgrade its diplomatic presence in the energy-producing countries. "Cabinet-level visits should be undertaken more often .There has been none in Angola in more tan a decade". It calls on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to reverse its decision to close its missions in Niger, Chad and other African states now critical to the war on terrorism.
Then the Council report deals with the US' latest global challenger: China. In a chapter on "The New Playing Field: China's Rising Role", the report notes that, "China has emerged as a significant world player on the economic scene with an ever-growing demand for oil, timber, minerals and other natural resources. China comes to Africa in the twenty-first century not only with a need for these natural resources, but also with financial resources and political influence to pursue its objectives vigorously."
Laments the report: "All across Africa today, China is acquiring control of natural resource assets, outbidding Western contractors on major infrastructure projects and providing soft loans ands other incentives to bolster its competitive advantage. China's demand for resources is driving up the world price of several commodities such as copper, gold, aluminum nickel and timber, reversing a long decline, giving African exporters of these materials a welcome economic boost", and hence increasing China's clout in the continent. The US influentials are clearly worried at the soft power of China.
What also disturbs the well-placed Independent Task Force members is China's political manoeuvrings, most pointedly its willingness to use its coveted seat on the United Nations Security Council to protect some of Africa's well-known human rights violators from sanction, primarily Sudan and Zimbabwe. "China offers an alternate source of support even for some of the United States closest allies, when they chafe under Western pressure for economic and political reform". Ethiopia has been backed in its border dispute with Eritrea, and the Kenyan President, under pressure from Western donors because of the corruption of its regime, simply led a high-level delegation to China for aid.
The Council also observes that other Asian countries with growing economies are also looking to Africa for oil and other natural resources.
The Council report pays attention to Africa's role in stemming terrorism as well as the spread of HIV/AIDS, two of the biggest international challenges. The US had better wake up to its responsibilities and put a premium on relations with Africa, the report, More Than Humanitarianism: A Strategic US Approach Toward Africa suggests.
The Council suggests that the US lobbies for Africa to bring down Western barriers to African exports and that it makes good on its pledge for increased aid. "Americans must pause and reflect on how Africa has become a region of growing vital importance to US national interests. It is outdated and counterproductive to assume tat Africa is simply the object of humanitarian concerns or a charity case". The Left and the militant black nationalists have always maintained that view, and cynics have frequently scoffed at the supposed humanitarian interest in Africa, dismissing it as a ruse for the rape of Africa's resources.
