Like all U.S. presidents, Joe Biden took workplace in January 2021 with a decidedly low bar to clear for engagement with Africans. However his rapid predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had lowered that bar even additional. Trump referred to African states as “shithole nations” and imposed visa bans on Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Tanzania. And in its closing months in workplace, the Trump administration blocked the choice of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala—a twin citizen of Nigeria and the US—because the World Commerce Group’s first director-general of African descent.
Given the contempt and hostility that characterised Washington’s engagement with Africans throughout Trump’s presidency, even the slightest enchancment by his successor would seemingly point out progress within the relationship. And for a time, it even appeared like Biden may surpass that naked minimal.
Lower than a month after taking workplace, in a recorded message to Washington’s African companions forward of the African Union’s annual leaders’ summit, Biden expressed his administration’s dedication to “rebuilding our partnerships around the globe and re-engaging with worldwide establishments just like the African Union.” On the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022, Biden declared that the US was “all in on Africa and all in with Africa.” He promised at that very same gathering to go to the African continent earlier than the completion of his time period and is predicted to meet that pledge with a belated go to to Angola in December, in the course of the transition interval from his administration to that of his successor.
