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The Clinton Administration and Africa: Perspective of the Congressional Black Caucus and TransAfrica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Shelly Leanne
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Extract

Surprising to some, African American leaders have expressed a relatively high level of dissatisfaction with the Clinton administration’s policies toward Africa both before and after President Clinton’s historic journey to the African continent in 1998. Well-publicized protests against the administration’s Nigerian policy were supported by Trans-Africa, many members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and other organizations with large numbers of African American supporters, such as the Washington Office on Africa (WOA). Likewise, both TransAfrica and many members of the CBC were sufficiently unhappy with Clinton’s approach that they boycotted the 1994 White House Conference on Africa. More recently, the CBC refused to take an official stance on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and over 30 percent of its members voted against the act in the House of Representatives. Given the contrast between an African policy perceived popularly as innovative and supportive of Africa, and the fairly high level of dissension and disapproval among African American leaders toward that policy, it is particularly worth exploring African American perspectives about Clinton’s African policies.

Type
Foreign Policy Actors
Information
African Issues , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , 1998 , pp. 17 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998 

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References

Notes

1. For the analysis of African American views on U.S.African policy, this work has drawn heavily on primary materials, especially the writings of activists and publications produced by each of main Africa-focused organizations mentioned in the text.

2. Statement provided by office of William H. Gray.

3. Personal interview with Randall Robinson, 1995.

4. It is important to note that groups such as the National Summit on Africa strive to be perceived as multiracial and inclusive, rather than representative of an exclusively black American view on African policy. However, African Americans currently comprise a disproportionately high number of the supporters of these groups.

5. The CBC in particular has gained strength through its numbers. As of 1992, the CBC had doubled its size from the previous decade, and was three times its size when first established in 1970.

6. Personal interview with Mwiza Munthali, October 1998.

7. Human Rights Watch Report, June 1994.

8. U.S. officials also note Nigeria’s regional importance, given the fact that Nigeria presumably helped to halt a civil war in Liberia, by sending troops, and also tried to restore the democratically elected government in Sierra Leone.

9. See Nigeria Democracy Act text.

10. Letter to William J. Clinton, May 1998.

11. News conference, April 3, 1998.

12. Donald Payne, news conference, April 3, 1998.

13. Donald Payne, Statement of the chair of the CBC Task Force on Foreign Affairs, July 1994.

14. Ibid.

15. Susan Rice, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, June 25, 1998.

16. Multinational corporations and private enterprises have been welcomed in this atmosphere, which provides another explanation for why countries like Uganda are lauded by the United States.