Recent reports of the US President, Donald Trump’s derogatory comments about Haiti and some African countries caused ripple effects around the globe, prompting a wave of protest from most African leaders. Trump has since denied the allegations and has repeatedly responded by stating that he is “the least racist person that anybody’s going to meet”, when asked whether he is a racist or not.
Mr. Trump is known for what could be descried as a boorish demeaner, however this does not mean that he minces his words. Trump is somewhat of an unorthodox politician who speaks in absolutes, unequivocal terms and a hallmark tautology complemented with erratic gesticulations. The media’s response to these allegations ran the story focusing mainly on whether he is a racist or not, and to a greater degree ignored the essence of his alleged outburst pertaining to the conditions of the countries he supposedly referred to in an immigration meeting with both Republican and Democrat lawmakers.
On 26 of January in an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan in Davos Switzerland, Trump maintained yet again that he is the “least” racist person that anybody will ever come across. It does not take a philologist to figure out the lexicological difference between “I am the least racist person…” Vis-a -vis “I am not a racist.” The former statement infers that he implicitly concedes to being a racist while the letter would express an emphatic denial of being one.
Judging by his previous documented expressions and his response to the Charlottesville incidents in 2016 and the NFL football protests, we can thus deduce that Trump’s gripe is really with the degree of race prescriptions and not about either being emphatically for or against racism.
However, out of all the reactions from the African leaders, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni goes against the grain. He opined, “America has got one of the best presidents ever.” Mr. Museveni said during the opening of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in the Ugandan capital of Kampala; “I love Trump because he tells Africans frankly. The Africans need to solve their problems, the Africans are weak”. He grasps the issue raised by Trump’s perhaps more firmly than the others who conveniently assumed a somewhat sanctimonious stance, really an obfuscation on what Trump allegedly said and tried to get at by focusing on racism and ignoring the real issue that Trump raises in his question of “Why are we having all these people from shit countries come here?”
The fact that the Trump has since categorically denied having uttered these expletives is a shame, simply because this disputed question has the potential to open up a meaningful debate with regards to why it is that people from African countries migrate to the United States. However, the blowback from mainstream as well as social media and protests could have motivated him to flip-flop on his spirited pronouncement, so much so that his tone was subdued when addressing Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum in Davos ahead of the African Union’s Annual Summit in Addis Ababa where amongst other matters Trump’s speech would feature on the agenda or at the very least on the sidelines.
Be that as it may, Trump’s attitudes and slogan of “America First” further gives African leaders motivation to reject the Washington Consensus in favor of the Beijing Consensus and provides further impetus for the South-South Cooperation amidst a new wave of decolonializing in many parts of the developing world. The Beijing consensus has in recent times seemed more attractive to African leaders, not only does it offer an alternative to the traditional global institutions such as the International Monitoring Fund (IMF) and the World Bank of which the Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP’s) are regarded as the main grave diggers of the developmental ambitions of Africa and the rest of the former third world countries.
Senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Dr. Cobus van Staden, points out that under the leadership of Donald Trump, there is a concerted effort of unraveling the legacy of former US President Barrack Obama by scrapping initiatives such as the Power Africa electrification project and the African Leaders program. These initiatives include George Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), popular in Africa as well as on both sides of the US political spectrum – could be facing cuts. This includes the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and its function of being the provision of tariff-free entry into the US market. Under this Act some 6, 000 products. AGOA still supports about 120, 000 jobs in the US and 300, 000 in Africa.
Compared to the combative approach of the US president on foreign policy, the Communist party of China has adopted a mature strategy that is sprinkled with catchy phrases such as a “peaceful rise of China, win-win cooperation, noninterference in domestic affairs of partner countries etc. China has been successful in courting most countries in both the developed and developing world. In essence, the western world is still in disarray following the 2008 financial downturns. The prospect of democracy seems to be under a tremendous strain since the European Union could see yet another referendum on the UK’s membership of the union—a third one since 1975.
While the western world is at odds with itself, the Chinese Silk Road initiative is fast gaining traction, with it cementing partnerships spanning from Asia, Europe as well as Africa. Many African countries have bought into the agenda of counterbalancing world power through the newly created BRICS bank and a number of regional and bilateral agreements at the behest of China and the Eastern block and hence bolstering its ideological viewpoint while at the same time creating partnerships that transcend ideological prescriptions and based mainly on profits and China’s ascension to the position of the biggest economy in the world in the not so far future.
Amidst the Trump tenure, the US-Africa relations are becoming unstable than ever before, since a tabula rasa has become even more impossible down the rabbit hole. This will most likely have a lasting effect regardless of whether the US president will manage to rally the American people for a second term. Donald Trump’s belligerence has antagonized the Middle Eastern countries as well, while China has been making good rapport with almost all regions of the world—except with Japan and its immediate neighbors as a result of the cantankerous issues surrounding territorial disputes in the South China seas. It would appear to us that Trump’s belligerence is a boon for China as an emerging super power.
Itumeleng Makgetla
i.makgetla@politicalanalysis.co.za
Yes. General Museveni, like any dictator and or any aspiring life president, it is not only a duty, but certainly an obligation to like, prise and accept not only what Donald Trump says, but also any other American president and presidents from other super power. Museveni has at least three time publicly said how he loves the man and has said the same about the Russian and Chinese leaders.
And one can’t blame the man. Why? Because he no longer think and rightly so that his mandate comes from Ugandans. He knows very well that he his now an agent of foreign powers and individuals.
Even if Trump belittles African, Museveni can wake up and hand over Ugandans to save his interests. Maybe as the slave traders did. An action Museveni himself loves to condemn and abuse our fore fathers for.
If one looks around Africa and latin American, all president, who have managed to condemn and call on Trump to retract his words. They all have a completely different profile. ie How the came to power; the time table of when they came and how they will leave is well defined; What they were before they came to power; Where they got their mandate and so forth.
Talk about presidents like Ian Khama of Botswana in Southern Afraica; to Mark Sall of Senegal Northern African, who once told off former American president Barack Hussein Obama face to face on the other issue not worth mentioning again here.
On the contrary, when the Museveni’s meet Donald Trump in America shortly after coming to power, he embarrassed them by telling them that, “I don’t anything about your countries, I only know that my friends just come there to make money and get rich quick” to which they simply laughed and clapped.
Funny enough, whereas Ugandans in general welcomed the coming of and supported the Donald Trump campaign, for one reason including me. That was going, as he promised, to deal with long time African dictators. We now know he cut our “pocket money” as ghetto boys would say.
On the other hand, General Museveni was one of the rulers, who was opening opposed to Donald Trump becoming president of American. In fact, the were some credible rumours, that Museveni was one of those African dictators, who secretly, financially, supported the Clinton campaign directly and or indirectly through the Clinton foundation.
Well Museveni changes as day and night, as long as that helps him to stay in power and so is the man.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between right wing and left wing politics. One can not point at an issue without being labeled, as though only one side of the political spectrum has ownership and monopoly on what constitutes truth. This tendency stifles any attempt at a meaningful debate as one finds oneself having to tip-toe around obvious problems for fear of being politically incorrect. I submit that facts are facts, regardless of who says them. It is indeed possible for people whom we disagree with fundamentally to be right from time to time, in the same way as truth oft comes from the mouths of babes.