America, You Better Believe That Africa Matters.

AuthorRay, Charles

American Diplomacy

May 1, 2022

www.americandiplomacy.org

Title: America, You Better Believe That Africa Matters

Author: Charles Ray

Text:

In the minds of most Americans and Europeans, the continent of Africa has long been seen as peripheral to world affairs, looked at either as a source of natural resources ripe for extraction or a place of poverty and violence requiring massive amounts of aid. This is a shortsighted and distorted view of a diverse continent and is long overdue for a reset.

The truth is that Africa is home to some of the planet's most strategic minerals and other resources, and that natural and manmade disasters plague the continent. It is far more diverse and dynamic than popular culture, mainstream media, and even many foreign policy makers portray it. For a lot of reasons, some of them existential, it is far from peripheral; it matters.

Rich in Resources, but Mired in Poverty

Africa's resources, its strategic minerals such as gold, copper, diamonds, cobalt, and oil, as well as its human resources during the height of the global slave trade, have always been as much a curse as a blessing to the continent. With a significant percentage of global reserves of some of the world's most strategic minerals, Africa has often been, and in some places still is, a pawn in the struggles between powerful nations out to gain access to and/or control over minerals that are vital to modern industry. To name just two examples, Africa is thought to have 21 percent of the world's total gold reserves and 85 percent of its platinum.

The competition to obtain these minerals is often waged with complete disregard to the impact it has on the countries or upon the lives of the average Africans who get little or no benefit from their extraction.

While living standards and wages vary from country to country, and often from region to region within individual countries, the average salary across the continent is less than US $400 per month; one in three Africans (more than 400 million people) subsist on less than US $2 per day, representing 70 percent of the world's poorest people.

Troubles--Natural and Man-made

Across the continent, but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, climate change causes significant environmental problems. In addition, overfishing, deforestation, mining, and intense climate-unfriendly agriculture compound an already serious situation. Addressing Africa's climate problems is hampered by lack of resources, poor governance, corruption, and lack of respect for the rule of law by the governing elites. All this combines to exacerbate a dire situation. While the lion's share of the blame for this dire situation rests with Africa's rulers, the devastating impact of European exploitive colonization, the Atlantic slave trade, and the US-USSR Cold War competition that used African surrogates against each other's interests must not be ignored.

In 2020, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State provided $8.5 billion of assistance to 47 countries and 8 regional programs in sub-Saharan Africa. And yet, far too many foreign assistance programs, as well meaning as they are, create dependence on foreign aid, prop up autocratic rulers, and feed into corruption, failing to alleviate the pervasive...

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