Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T14:43:47.634Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obama’s Africa Policy: The Limits of Symbolic Power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2013

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza*
Affiliation:
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is the Presidential Professor of African American Studies and History and the dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He previously served as director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and as head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has published scores of essays and more than two dozen books, including, most recently, In Search of African Diasporas: Testimonies and Encounters(Carolina Academic Press, 2012). E-mail: Paul.Zeleza@lmu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The election of Barack Obama as the first African-descended president of the United States in 2008 was greeted with euphoria in the U.S. and around the world, including Africa. Little, however, changed in the substance of U.S.–Africa relations. This underscores the limits of the symbolic politics of race and presidential personalities in the face of the structural imperatives of U.S. power and foreign policy in which African interests remain marginal and subordinate to U.S. interests. The article explores the structural contexts of foreign policy-making in the United States and what might be expected from the second Obama administration.

Résumé:

L’élection en 2008 de Barack Obama comme premier président américain de descendance africaine a été accueillie avec euphorie aux États-Unis et dans le monde entier, y compris en Afrique. Presque rien cependant n’a changé dans les relations USA Afrique. Cette situation souligne les limites de la politique symbolique contre le racisme et du pouvoir des personnalités présidentielles face aux impératifs structurels du pouvoir américain de sa politique étrangère dans le contexte de laquelle les intérêts africains restent marginaux et secondaires aux intérêts américains. Cet article explore les contextes structurels du façonnement de la politique étrangère aux Etats-Unis et ce à quoi on pourrait s’attendre lors du second mandat du président Obama.

Keywords

2012 presidential election
Type
ASR FORUM: THE 2012 U.S. ELECTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S.–AFRICA POLICY
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , September 2013 , pp. 165 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adebajo, Adekeye. 2003. “Africa and America in the Age of Terror.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 38 (2–3): 175–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akukwe, Chinua. 2009. “Obama Administration and Africa: Great Expectations, Practical Realities.”http://worldpress.org.Google Scholar
Akukwe, Chinua. 2012. “Obama’s Second Term: Expectations.” The African Executive, November 14–21. www.africanexecutive.com.Google Scholar
Aning, Kwesi, Jaye, Thomas, and Atuobi, Samuel. 2008. “The Role of Private Military Companies in US–Africa Policy.” Review of Africa Political Economy 35 (118): 613–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bah, A. Sarjoh, and Aning, Kwesi. 2008. “US Peacekeeping Operations Policy in Africa: From ACRI to AFRICOM.” International Peacekeeping 15 (1): 118–32.Google Scholar
Bendavid, Eran, and Bhattacharya, Jayanta. 2009. “PEPFAR in Africa: An Evaluation of Outcomes.” Annals of Internal Medicine 150 (10): 688–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burgess, Stephen F. 2009. “In the National Interest? Authoritarian Decision-Making and the Problematic Creation of US Africa Command.” Contemporary Security Policy 30 (1): 79–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“China–Africa Trade.” 2013. African Business, February 8.Google Scholar
Cohen, Herman. 2010 “A Perspective on Fifty Years of U.S. Africa Policy: The Nixon Legacy.” The Journal of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy 32 (4): 209–18.Google Scholar
Dietrich, John W. 2007. “The Politics of PEPFAR: The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.” Ethics and International Affairs 21 (3): 277–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edozie, Rita Kiki. Forthcoming. “Rethinking US–Africa Democracy Relations in the Obama Era.” In US–Africa Relations from Clinton to Obama, edited by Veney, Cassandra R..Google Scholar
Forsythe, David P. 2011 “US Foreign Policy and Human Rights: Situating Obama.” Human Rights Quarterly 33: 767–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huliaras, Asteris. 2008. “The Evangelical Roots of US Africa Policy.” Survival: Global Politics and Strategy 50 (6): 161–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornegay, Francis A. 2008. “A Barack Obama Presidency: Implications for US–Africa Relations.” Africa Institute of South Africa, Policy Brief No. 6. www.ai.org.Google Scholar
LeMelle, Gerald, and Stulman, Michael. 2009. “Africa Policy Outlook 2009: The Obama Administration Must Overhaul U.S. Policy toward Africa.” Africa Policy Outlook 2009. http://issuu.com.Google Scholar
Lee, Margaret. 2011. “Humanizing the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): A Peek Inside Apparel and Textile Factories.” Paper presented at the symposium, “U.S.–Africa Relations from Clinton to Obama, ” Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, March 7.Google Scholar
Levin, A. Carl. 2010. “The Political Economy of African Responses to the U.S. Africa Command.” Africa Today 57 (1): 3–23.Google Scholar
Martin, William G. 2004. “Beyond Bush: The Future of Popular Movements and US Africa Policy.” Review of African Political Economy 31 (102): 585–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesfin, Berouk. 2009 “The Establishment and Implications of the United States Africa Command.” Institute for Security Studies Paper 183, April.Google Scholar
N’Diaye, Boubacar, and Africa, Sandy. 2009. “AFRICOM and the Interests of Africans: Beyond Perceptions and Strategic Communication.” Contemporary Security Policy 30 (1): 62–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okumu, Wafula. 2007. “Africa Command: Opportunity for Enhanced Engagement or the Militarization of U.S.–Africa Relations?” Testimony given to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, August 2. www.africaportal.org.Google Scholar
Prendergast, John, and Norris, John. 2009. “Obama, Africa and Peace.” Enough Strategy Paper, January 13. www.enoughproject.org.Google Scholar
Ruge, T. M. S. 2013. “How the African Diaspora Is Using Social Media to Influence Development.” The Guardian, February 6.Google Scholar
Schneidman, Witney. 2008. “Africa: Obama’s Three Objectives for Continent.”http://allafrica.com.Google Scholar
United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 2013. “Global Climate Change.”www.usaid.gov.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicolas. 2009. “US Policy Towards Africa: The Bush Legacy and the Obama Administration.” African Affairs 109 (434): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vines, Alex, and Cargill, Tom. 2010. “Sub-Saharan Africa: Providing Strategic Vision or Fire Fighting?” In America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership, edited by Niblett, Robin, 49–70. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The White House. 2012. “U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa.” June 14. www.whitehouse.gov.Google Scholar
The White House. 2013. “President Obama’s Development Policy and the Global Climate Change Initiative.”www.whitehouse.gov.Google Scholar
Wiley, David. 2012. “Militarizing Africa and African Studies and the U.S. Africanist Response.” African Studies Review 55 (2): 147–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. 2012. “The African Struggle Continues: The Awakening of North Africa.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 46 (1): 129–37Google Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. 2012. “Africa’s Renewal: The Challenges and Opportunities of Sustainability and Leadership.” Colloquium, The Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa, Pretoria, June 14–15.Google Scholar