On his final stop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Barack Obama focused on Africa's need for energy. Reuters reports that Washington plans a $7 billion initiative to help tackle Africa's crippling lack of electrical power.
Besides that, the U.S. President pledged that the U.S. wanted to help Africa without being simply a provider of aid. "Ultimately, the goal here is for Africa to build Africa for Africans," he told a news conference.
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This remark is seen as a covert attack against China's policies towards Africa. In latest years, China has built roads, airports and other infrastructure in Africa. But many critics point out that China's sole need is the intensive exploitation of its Africa's mineral wealth to feed its giant industrial base.
In fact, the President's remark is not the only reminder of the ongoing scramble for Africa. For decades, Africa was regarded as a "lost" or "forgotten" continent by the West. And prior to that, the West had been doing exactly what China is doing now, that is exploiting the mineral wealth of Africa to cater for its own needs.
This year, soon after new Chinese leader Xi Jinping took office, he paid a visit to Africa, which became one of his first foreign tours as China's President. By coincidence or not, his itinerary also included a stop in Tanzania where China is in talks on plans for a new port.
China's penetration to Africa, based on tactics of soft power, is not solely aimed at ensuring the uninterrupted flow of mineral wealth. It is part of a greater strategy dubbed in English-language literature as "string of pearls" aimed at establishing China's presence (if not dominance) in the vast region of the Indian Ocean.
Since the strategy has always been based on "soft power", the West at some point overlooked the moment when China's presence became a factor threatening its interests. Barack Obama's belated visit only highlights the fact that today it is China who is the favorite in the scramble.
This may look strange. In fact, Africa was the region that greeted Barack Obama's election back in 2008 more enthusiastically than any other. The emotional inertia of that enthusiasm is still there – but already mixed with disappointment. During his first tenure, Obama visited Africa only once – making a fleeing stop in Ghana on his way back home from Europe.
Against such background, Obama does not look favorably when compared with his predecessors. Bill Clinton, for example is still considered by many Africans as "our President". And even George W. Bush, with all his preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan, did more for Africa, launching a wide-scale program to fight HIV/AIDS, which shrank considerably during Obama's tenure.
The just-finished tour is aimed to reverse the trend and restore the enthusiasm once felt by Africans over the election of the first black U.S. President. But it also highlights certain handicaps the U.S. faces in its scramble with China. Obama and his team were more than careful in selecting the three countries he visited, selecting only those where the state of notorious "human rights" and "democracy" is not contrary to America's standards – Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. Obama even omitted Kenya, the country of his ancestors, due to the fact that the Kenyan regime is not up to the standards.
Needless to say, the fact only added to the sense of disappointment (at least, in Kenya) and comes in a sharp contrast with China's attitude which primarily seeks practical benefits and lets African nations decide for themselves what kind of rule and social order they prefer.