Day: February 24, 2023

With former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in hospice care at home, people around the world are reflecting on the 98-year-old’s achievements and failures. Outside of the U.S., historians say one place where Carter paid close attention was Africa.

Carter has a unique relationship with the continent. He had a long-lasting connection to Africa, both during his term in office from 1977 to 1981, and in the many decades afterwards.

John Stremlau, honorary professor of International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and former vice president for Peace Programs at the Carter Center, remembers Carter’s passion for the continent.

“Jimmy Carter told me on several occasions that he spent more time during his presidency on southern Africa and trying to liberate the populations down there than he did on Middle East peace,” said Stremlau.

Analysts say his interest in Africa was influenced by his upbringing in the rural southern U.S., which first made him aware of the evils of racism.

Carter’s presidency came at the height of the Cold War, but his handling of foreign policy in many ways differed from his predecessors, says Nancy Mitchell, historian and author of the book “Jimmy Carter and Africa: Race and the Cold War.”

For example, Carter made African-American U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, who had been active in America’s civil rights movement, his point-man on the liberation struggle in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

Mitchell says the U.S. administration then spoke directly with Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, who were leading the guerilla war against white minority rule.

“So, it’s a really unusual example — I would say, in my knowledge, a unique example in the Cold War — where the United States treated leftist rebels who were either Communist or were certainly considered to be very left-leaning and supported by Communist states, with respect. Fully into negotiations from the beginning,” said Mitchell.

Zimbabwe won independence in 1980.

Where Carter had less success, analysts say, was in South Africa, where he might have taken a harder line on the apartheid regime, which he opposed morally, but needed on his side in Cold War considerations.

However, David Monyae, associate professor of political science and international relations at the University of Johannesburg, says Carter is generally appreciated in Africa as a progressive who had a human rights centered foreign policy and was more focused on African issues than many U.S. leaders.

“One would not compare him to Mandela, but, I mean, the two were friends, and they became members of the Elders team on African issues and global issues,” said Monyae.

Like Mandela, Carter spent his post-presidency focused on health issues in Africa, achieving great success in efforts toward the eradication of guinea worm disease. His Carter Center was also instrumental in monitoring elections and promoting democracy across the continent.

Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for that work.

Source: Voice of America

One year after Russia invaded Ukraine, aid-dependent Somalia is still feeling the effects, as escalating prices for wheat and the long-running regional drought put millions at risk of starvation.

According to traders in Somalia’s main markets, the price of a local food basket has increased by 49 percent over the past 12 months. Fuel prices have nearly doubled, increasing 92 percent compared to a year ago.

Shoki Hayir, a lecturer at Mogadishu’s SIMAD University and a conflict researcher, told VOA that Russia’s war in Ukraine cut off Somalia from one of its main international food sources.

“Somalia had sourced more than 90% of its grains from Ukraine and Russia before the war and since it has been suffering from a shortage of food supplies in a difficult time, when thousands of people are on the verge of famine and the world largely focuses on Ukraine,” said Hayir.

Humanitarian aid has helped, but contributions are falling short, in part because Ukraine is commanding donors’ attention, said Somali economic analyst Ali Mohamed Osman.

“Somalia’s crisis hasn’t been at the top of donors’ minds since the beginning of the Ukraine war because the humanitarian attention has shifted to the greater Ukraine devastation,” Osman said. “Therefore, the impact of the severe drought that came on the heels of the COVID-19, have largely continued, pushing Somalia closer toward famine.”

Because of Somalia’s chronically shaky security, political and environmental conditions, many nations and organizations have contributed generously over the years to help the country and its people survive. But Hayir says when those donors shift their attention elsewhere, countries like Somalia suffer.

“A nation cannot fully and always be dependent on international aid,” Hayir said. “Somalis with the help of the international community need to focus more on agricultural development and to produce their food because bigger crises can always unfold elsewhere in the world and push it deep into humanitarian crisis.”

Last week, aid workers in Somalia said they were concerned about a likely reduction in humanitarian support. They said donor fatigue, compounded by multiple crises around the world that also require humanitarian support, could reduce the level of funds Somalia’s appeal received.

“The main reason why there’s a donor fatigue is because, as you can imagine, Somalia has been receiving humanitarian assistance for over three decades now and the situation has not been changing,” said Mohamed Abdi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The Somali government and humanitarian agencies recently appealed for $2.6 billion to assist about 7.6 million people in 2023. The appeal comes amid warnings that famine is a strong possibility if rains in the spring underperform and if humanitarian assistance is not sustained.

Source: Voice of America

United States first lady Jill Biden on Friday ended her first visit to Namibia on a hopeful, encouraging note, stressing the power of youth in a nation where youth unemployment hovers at an alarming 40%.

“Each generation inherits the world in their time,” she said, standing before 1,300 students who packed into a shady courtyard at the public Namibian University of Science and Technology.

“We often tell young people that you’re the future,” she said. “And it’s true. But sometimes, that message can sound like: ‘wait.’ Wait for some far-off finish line that makes you wiser or more powerful. Wait for your communities to listen to what you have to say. Wait, while others build the future around you. I know, however, that these things you want to change now. There are problems that you can solve now. And you have gifts to offer the world now.”

It has been a whirlwind three days for the first lady, who landed in the southwest African nation Wednesday and used her time to focus on women’s empowerment, children and education.

She also praised the nation’s vibrant democracy, established and run by the same party since independence in 1990.

“I’m proud to be standing here, standing with a strong democracy. And as [Namibian first lady] Monica [Geingos] said yesterday, a young democracy working together. As Joe [Biden] said at the summit, African voices, African leadership and African innovation are all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges and realizing the vision we all share: a world that is free.”

But this gentle nudge toward Western democratic ideals may not cause governments to budge from their deep ties to the East, said Ndumba Kamwanyah, a lecturer at the University of Namibia. Like many African nations, Namibia’s independence struggle had support from the former Soviet Union. And the war memorial Biden visited shortly after landing, along with the imposing State House, were built by a North Korean company.

“Of course, officials they said that, you know, they don’t want to choose a side, but deeply I think, from an analytical perspective, I think that they are leaning toward the Russian position,” he told VOA.

Still, Katherine Jellison, professor of U.S. women’s history and gender history at Ohio University, says Jill Biden’s soft touch could steady U.S. relations with African nations.

“I think it’s important that some high-profile member of Bidenworld visit Africa right now because we need to shore up our friendship with African nations and our relationships with African nations at a time when the Chinese have an eye on cultivating more of those relationships,” she told VOA. “So it’s an excellent idea if we want to maintain a good working relationship with African nations that we put out that friendly hand.”

And Kamwanyah says, watch this space:

“It will depend on the outcomes of that engagement, in terms of what other initiatives that will follow suit after her visit. So, I think it’s important that, you know, in a day or two days after she leaves, it will become clearer in terms of the concreteness of the engagement.”

Biden will spend two more days in Kenya, promoting women’s empowerment, children’s issues and the hunger crisis afflicting the Horn of Africa.

Source: Voice of America