Washington Post: Africa’s leaders consider a future when the U.S. no longer cares
“In Barack Obama’s landmark speech before the African Union in July 2015 — the first by a sitting U.S. president — he told the assembled heads of state and delegates that the United States was ready to be a development partner with the continent, while warning that would come along with American promotion of human rights, whether they liked it or not. … Now a year-and-a-half later, the African Union is grappling with a new U.S. president who has said very little about Africa but looks set to step away from decades of bipartisan investment in Africa … Starting with the Bill Clinton administration, the United States began to increasingly focus on Africa. Aid quadrupled under the George W. Bush administration, particularly with his PEPFAR program aimed at stamping out AIDS in the continent. … Many experts believe those programs will come to an end under the administration of Trump, who has been skeptical about international aid and suggested that the money would be better spent on Americans…” (Schemm, 1/31).