Prof. Mary Kinyanjui

1. Africa MustNeverBeAmerica’sResponsibility
After the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th
President of the United States of
America, African socio-economic and political pundits aresteering discourse on
how the Biden government will benefit Africa. It is interesting to note that several
vernacular electronic stations in Kenya have picked up this discourse. It is wrong
to ask howAmerica will benefit Africa.
Why should Kenya in particular and Africa in general sit like baby birds in a nest
waiting with their mouths open for America to fill them? It is true that the US
democratic governments have given a number of goodies to Africa.
The goodies include the Kennedy airlift where young Africans were sponsored to
study in America to acquire skills and knowhow that would be used to develop
their home countries. President Bill Clinton bequeathed Africathe African Growth
and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade program meant to establish stronger
commercial ties between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa and
establishes a preferential trade agreement between the U.S. and selected
countries in the sub-Saharan region. Thisallowed Africa to export goods such as
garments duty free to America. President Barack Obama’s “Power Africa”
initiative aimed at increasing access to electricity and spurring economic growth in
Sub-Saharan Africa. The target was to achieve 60 million connections with a
capacity of 30,000 megawatts of new and cleaner power generation across the
region.Africa was the largest beneficiary of former President George W. Bush’s
President’sEmergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.
Africa should change the paradigm of posing as a victim and helpless region.
Instead of asking how the Biden presidency will benefit Africa, let us ask what
agenda we have to present to America as partners in the 21st century global
development.
Some of the issues Africa should raise includeallowing African currencies to trade
in the global market, renouncing loan/bilateral agreements that enslave the
continent, ensuring that foreign companies enroll in African country stock
markets and allow locals to buy shares, the UN charter be revised to give Africa a
voice in the UN and global financial bodies, fair trade,diaspora
engagement,technology transfer etc. Others include a demand that trade with
Africa must go beyond extracting commodities from the continent and selling
finished goods in return. Foreign investors must capacity-build homegrown

2. businesses to become manufacturers and exporters themselves. Investors must
perceive themselves as stakeholders in Africa, as Africa eggs towards becoming a
stakeholder in the global economy.The discussion of these issues should be
carried out in the context of diversity inclusivity and equality.
Africa should use Biden’s goodwill to re-negotiate past interventions whose
interest was to advance America at the expense of Africa. Africa should not be
America’s responsibility but a partner in reciprocal relationship and
development.The continent should use history to become better as opposed to
bitter. It should be proactive, seek homegrown solutions and avoid surrendering
leadership to multilateral institutions that most often are detached from African
realities.We occupy a single universe and have a moral responsibility to work for
the welfare of all. We need to dialogue on models that respond to everyone’s
needs as opposed to ones that ostracize the rest.
By Dr Mary Njeri Kinyanjui
Author, Academic and Utu-Ubuntu Crusader.
mkinyanjui60@gmail.com