Implications of the 2012 U.S. Election for U.S. Policy in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

While Africans are generally satisfied that a person of African descent was reelected to the White House following a campaign in which vicious and racist attacks were made against him, the U.S. Africa policy under President Barack Obama will continue to be guided by the strategic interests of the United States, which are not necessarily compatible with the popular aspirations for democracy, peace, and prosperity in Africa. Obama's policy in the Great Lakes region provides an excellent illustration of this point. Since Rwanda and Uganda are Washington's allies in the "war against terror" in Darfur and Somalia, respectively, the Obama administration has done little to stop Kigali and Kampala from destabilizing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and looting its natural resources, either directly or through proxies. Rwanda and Uganda have even been included in an international oversight mechanism that is supposed to guide governance and security sector reforms in the DRC, but whose real objective is to facilitate Western access to the enormous natural wealth of the Congo and the Great Lakes region.Resume: Bien que les Africains soient en general satisfaits par l'election d'un citoyen d'heritage africain a la Maison Blanche a la suite d'une campagne pendant laquelle des attaques racistes avaient ete faites contre lui, les relations US Afrique sous la presidence de Barack Obama continuent d'etre guidees par les interets strategiques des Etats-Unis, qui ne sont pas necessairement compatibles avec les aspirations populaires de democratie, de paix et de prosperite en Afrique. La politique d'Obama dans la region des Grands Lacs offre une excellente illustration de cet argument. Puisque les nations du Rwanda et de l'Ouganda se sont ralliees a Washington dans la guerre contre le terrorisme au Darfour et en Somalie respectivement, le gouvernement d'Obama n'a pas fait grand chose pour arreter Kigali et Kampala dans leur destabilisation de la Republique Democratique du Congo (RDC) et leur pillage de ses ressources naturelles, soit de maniere directe, soit par procuration. Le Rwanda et l'Ouganda ont ete inclus dans un mecanisme international de supervision suppose guider la gouvernance et les reformes du secteur de la securite en RDC, mais dont les objectifs reels sont l'acces aux immenses richesses naturelles du Congo et de la region des Grands Lacs.Key Words: 2012 presidential electionFor the second time, I share the satisfaction of most Africans that a person of African descent was elected to the White House, and one whose domestic agenda is generally progressive. Compared to my feelings in 2008, this satisfaction is all the more plentiful in view of the great maturity shown by the American people in reelecting Barack Obama in the face of a barrage of vicious and racist attacks of which he was a victim during the electoral campaign, and even before. His opponents alleged, inter alia, that he was not a natural-born citizen of the United States, in what became known as "birthism," a definitely racist phenomenon; that he was a "Kenyan anticolonialist"; and that he did not "understand America" or share "American values."In short, these attacks were clearly racist and beyond the bounds of propriety, as many of the statements made against the President would never be leveled against a white incumbent of the White House. And I can say this without fear of contradiction, since I have lived in this country since 1962, and have seen how the nine white presidents who came before Obama were treated by both the news media and political opponents. The usual deference to the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces was cast aside.At the same time, as shown in my contribution to the ASR Forum on "Africa in the Age of Obama" (Nzongola-Ntalaja 2010), I do not agree with President Obama's Africa policy in general, and his policy in the Great Lakes region in particular. For like his predecessors, this first U. …