Obama: Into Africa

[Figaro]

Don't be fooled by all the talk of Obama's special relationship with the continent or all the snazzy new entrepreneurial initiatives or the commitment to democracy reflected in his statement in Ghana a few years ago that "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions." Most of U.S. policy toward Africa, alas, is business as usual. Yes, the President is "into Africa." But more often that has translate into facilitating the entry of U.S. businesses into Africa so that they can do what outsiders have done for centuries: extract the continent's wealth.
Strip away all the modern PR and prettified palaver and it's an ugly scramble for oil, minerals, and markets for U.S. goods. Everyone wants a piece of Africa: drooling outsiders, corrupt insiders, cynical middle men. "We kind of gave Africa to the Europeans first and to the Chinese later, but today it's wide open for us," General Electric chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said at the summit, inadvertently providing a compact definition of neo-colonialism. And for all the talk of good governance and transparency, the political status quo of "guided democracy" with a sprinkling of genuine dictators provides the presumed stability and secure access to resources that the U.S. government, the Pentagon's Africa Command, and businesses like General Electric value.