Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:02 am
Africa and the US have a long and multifaceted relationship. The biggest African influence in the US has risen since black President Barack Obama took office. Obama, a black origin African president, created closer ties between Africa and the United States and reached a positive milestone.
At the same time, projects such as the YALI project, in which the Obama administration trained thousands of young Africans in leadership, began. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has maintained some ties with Africa and the United States.
With the election of the new US President Joe Biden, all African leaders congratulated Joe Biden on his election victory, and expressed optimism that his presidency would enhance relations between the continent and the United States. They saw him as a leader who could change the course of relations between Africa and the United States.
Because Donald Trump has never visited a sub-Saharan African country since taking office in January 2017, and many observers agree that the president has effectively overlooked the continent as the continent earns a lot of money from donors and the US humanitarian agencies. Donald Trump seemed to be pushing China to invest in Africa and as a result China has the upper hand in the competition for Africa’s resources.
Biden will be different from Trump, as Barack Obama was different from George W Bush, because Biden is taking a different path than Trump. Biden wants to restore the agreement that was terminated by the World Health Organization by Trump. That could be a great opportunity for Africa if Biden recovers the support funding for WHO, as Africa is in dire need of medical services at this critical time in the world of COVID 19.
Although Biden has not yet clarified his policy towards Africa, he is expected to come up with a new policy that will bring Africa and the US closer together. For example, there are countries like Somalia where the United States has been banned from accepting refugees. Biden has authorized the lifting of travel bans on those countries, which is in the best interests of families seeking to enter the United States.
