Obama's Africa visit draws mixed response

United States President Barack Obama concluded his five-day trip to Kenya, Ethiopia and the African Union headquaters on July 28, which also included a visit to his late father's Kenyan hometown of Nyangoma-Kogelo, his first since becoming president in 2008.

Obama was in Africa to attend the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit and to meet leaders from government, business and civil society. He also made speeches in Kenya and at the headquarters of the AU.

Critics say that the Obama administration has lacked a clear focus on Africa and that this visit, which has taken place toward the end of his tenure, is no more than a nominal gesture, and more importantly, that the US is only seeking to counterbalance China's influence in the continent with its own inconsistent policy.

But according to Liu Naiya, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China and the US in Africa are not in a zero-sum game. They are competitors and also partners in different fields.

He said each side has a different focus in Africa. The US is concentrating more on values and concepts such as human rights and humanitarian aid promotion, and that its common interest with China in Africa is to fight terrorist groups, for instance combating al-Shabaab in Somalia.

"China is more focused with the livelihoods of ordinary people and social development in Africa. It prioritizes people and how to match China's developmental advantages with Africa's real development demand, which is more sustainable to Africa's future," he said.

Scott Firsing, a research fellow at Australia's Monash University, said Obama's visit would strengthen ties with Kenya, Ethiopia and the AU in terms of the economy, energy and security.

He said these two countries were long-term partners with the US military through the Africa contingency operations training and assistance program, which Ethiopia joined in 1998 and Kenya in 2000.

"Ethiopia and Kenya both face challenges when it comes to domestic and regional peace and security, and they have been working with Washington to overcome the problem," he added.

According to Firsing, Addis Ababa and Nairobi both allow the US military to operate from inside their borders.

"The Arba Minch Airport in Ethiopia hosts Reaper flights for the fight against al-Shabaab in Somalia. The US military also has a base in Manda Bay, Kenya, which serves as an all-purpose location. The Pentagon, specifically the US Navy, recently paid to upgrade the runway."

A $1 billion fund to promote entrepreneurship, and other forms of assistance promised by Obama during his three-day high-profile trip in Kenya, have been hailed by some, but have drawn skepticism about whether the US program will make much of a difference, given lackluster performances of various US-backed aid projects for the continent.

In June 2013, Obama announced the Power Africa project, saying the US had secured $7 billion to provide 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa first-time access to electricity.

However, two years after the project was launched, little progress has been made on the ground, Les Echos, one of France's leading newspapers, said in a recent article.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

Contact the writers through lilianxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/31/2015 page3)