Africa comes into play

United States President George W Bush's trip to Africa this week, which precedes the summit of African leaders in the Mozambican capital Maputo next week, comes at a time when calls for bolstering relations between the US and Africa are growing louder. US-African relations will not feature directly on the agenda of the African Union summit in Maputo, but relations between the world's sole superpower and the world's poorest and least developed continent is bound to be uppermost in delegates' minds.

Africa is endowed with enormous mineral wealth and its agricultural potential is untapped. Important economic considerations come into play. In order to diversify the sources of its oil imports, the US is looking south of the Sahara to reduce dependency on Middle Eastern oil. Western and central Africa have major oil reserves and countries such as Angola, Chad, Nigeria and Sudan are poised to dramatically increase oil production.

On the political front the US needs the cooperation of African countries to combat terrorism. Washington is especially interested in the cooperation of Horn of Africa countries immediately south of the Arabian Peninsula. The African countries of the Horn are among the world's poorest and least developed. Their populations are predominantly Muslim and they are geographically positioned astride important shipping lanes. They command the entrances to the Gulf and the Red Sea, and their strategic location has made them vitally important to the US in its fight against terrorism.

Topping the agenda of the African Union summit will be the continent's quest to quell the civil wars that still rage in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sudan. Great strides in democratisation have already been made in Africa. A majority of African nations today enjoy multi-party democracy. The problem is that democracy has not contained pandemics like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Nor has democracy curtailed unemployment and underdevelopment. African leaders meeting in Maputo will be challenged to find solutions to these problems.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 10 - 16 July 2003 (Issue No. 646)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/646/ed.htm