TRANSFORMATION OF CONTINENT
Barack Obama’s policies failed to uplift Africa
The outgoing US leader’s four pillars have crumbled on rickety foundations of crass self-interest and empty symbolism, writes Adekeye Adebajo
In 11 days, Barack Obama’s eight-year presidency will be over. When the Kenyan-Kansan was elected the first black US president in 2008, a wave of "Obamamania" swept across Africa and its diaspora. By the time Obama visited Africa in 2013, the magic had worn off. The unrealistic expectation that he could transform the continent’s fortunes had not even come close to fruition. Obama’s Africa policy was based on four pillars: democratic governance; conflict management; economic growth and development; and access to quality health and education. But these crumbled on rickety foundations of crass self-interest and empty symbolism. Obama continued several of the truculent George W Bush’s most egregious policies, which militarised the US’s engagement with the continent. About 2,000 US soldiers remained in Djibouti to track terrorists; autocratic regimes in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea as well as in Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia remained staunch US allies or clients, rendering Ob...
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