US-Africa relations: The Beginings

May 30, 2021     africa / African America / Agriculture / America / Black / Business / China / Crop / Diaspora / Economy / George Washington Carver / investment / leadership / mathematics / Nitrogen / Thomas Fuller / Trade / US

The presence of Africans in the America’s can be argued it predated 1492 though since the formation of the greatest experiment on Earth in 1776, the official United States of America – Africa relations began before World War II, when the United States only directly dealt with the former American colony of Liberia, the independent nation of Ethiopia, and the semi-independent nation of Egypt. The beginning of this official US-Africa relationship was not only reinforced by the need to internationalize American values but also due to the undying drive of African-Americans to reconnect to their roots. Although US-Africa dialogue and agreements to build on common grounds is a gradual process and progress that has yet to come to fruition, official US-Africa relations commenced with three countries that have proven to be critical for the US.

In the case of the American Colony of Liberia, the US established diplomatic relations with Liberia in 1864; 17 years after it declared independence from the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization that resettled free African-Americans and freed slaves in Liberia. The ACS was formed in 1817 to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the United States. Eventhough kidnapping and enslaving people from Africa had been abolished in the United States in 1808, the practice of keeping people and their children enslaved was still legal in many states. On February 6, 1820, the first group of formerly enslaved people in the United States departed from New York to resettle in Africa. While in 1821, the United States made a deal with local West African leaders to establish a colony at Cape Mesurado, the strip of land of only 36 miles long and three miles wide (today, Liberia stretches over 38,250 square miles); in 1822 the society was sending free people to the colony. Over the next 40 years, upwards of 12,000 freeborn and formerly enslaved black Americans immigrated to Liberia. In 1847, the established colony on the west coast of Africa became the independent nation of Liberia and given Liberia’s establishment, the first African head of state to visit the United States was in 1943 by the name of President Edwin Barclay of Liberia.

In the case of Ethiopia, U.S.-Ethiopian bilateral relations were established in 1903, after nine days of meetings in Ethiopia between Emperor Menelik II and Robert P. Skinner, an emissary of President Theodore Roosevelt. The first official Ethiopian delegation to the US was sent in 1919 as a goodwill mission to congratulate the Allied powers on their World War I victory. Moreover, it is said that the delegation also discussed the treaty of Amity between the US and Ethiopia that expired in 1914, which was later reinforced with treaties of arbitration and conciliation signed in 1929 at Addis Ababa. Later, Ethiopia opened a consulate in Washington DC in 1943 and in 1949 both countries agreed to upgrade their relationship to an ambassadorial level. Overall, approximately 20,000 Ethiopians moved to the West to achieve higher education and conduct diplomatic missions from 1941 to 1974 under the Emperor Haile Selassie’s rule. Today, it is reported there are over half a million in the US.

In the case of Egypt, diplomatic relations were established with the United States in 1922, following its independence from a protectorate status under the United Kingdom. The United States and Egypt share a strong partnership based on mutual interests in peace and stability, economic opportunity, and regional security in the Middle East. Being considered an ancient civilization like Ethiopia, Egypt’s tumultuous history has had various conquerors such as the Assyrians, the Persian Empire and the Ottoman Empire and later was colonized by the French and the British. In fact, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 visited Egypt to attend the first and second Cairo Conference and in the same year, the then Secretary of State Cordell Hull visited Egypt to hold meetings with the King of Egypt, Greece and Yugoslavia.

US officials have remained at bay from many African countries, excluding the three named here, though throughout the years, the US has courted a few African countries as a means to develop strategic economic relationships and continue geopolitical influences. Eventhough the former French colony was visited by US officials, it is the Secretary of State John F. Dulles who officially visited Morocco in 1958 as it was recognized as an independent country. It was, however, during Richard Nixon’s presidency, the Secretary of State William Rogers officially visited many African countries like Ethiopia as well as Liberia, in addition to the newly liberated African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Zaire (now known as DRC), Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is worth noting that the first official visit to an African country by a US seating president was an offshoot of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretive World War II trip to French Morocco for the Casablanca Conference, with another informal visit in Liberia and later stopping by the French West Africa specifically Dakar in route from Tunis.

It is also important to note that many Africans were indeed enslaved and brought by the Europeans who sought to build the New World called the United States of America. Many slaves who inherently came from various African empires and resourceful traditions included agricultural geniuses like George Washington Carver who developed the biological regeneration of the soil through the nitrogen cycle and crop rotation, and mathematicians such as Thomas Fuller who was known as the “Virginia Calculator”. In fact, African Americans who in 1865 gathered at the Charleston racetrack to commemorate their fallen soldiers apparently even started Memorial Day. Although Africa has complex relationships with other regions, the African continent has served as a source of life and growth for others even while it has struggled to build and change its image of resilience and dynamism.

All this to say, the US has to have a strong long-term strategy for Africa which is based on economic growth and nation building. US-Africa relations is long standing, and in the 21st century, African-Americans also known as the Black Diaspora and at times referred as the African Diaspora, with an overall understanding that it is an American constituency of African descent, has now a rising African immigrant population who are naturalized Americans or are first and second generation Americans who are pivotally positioned for greater US engagement in Africa. Being one of the strongest US assets in this time of global competitiveness for Africa’s resources and capital, having a focused a US strategy that is independent from externally influenced US interest groups, which includes a thoroughly developed African Diaspora strategy can be mutually benefiical.

US-Africa relations has come a long way and despite the turbulent and at times convoluted rapport, the US is strategically positioned to develop a privileged partnership with the African Continent that can be a mutually benefiting affinity with each African country. As it has been known to serve as the “moral compass” of the world, the US would need to chart its path in Africa based on economic linkages that would align with its international order and security.

Resilient and remaining strong allies of the US, African countries have sought out American respectful leadership. This is why cross-cultural branding in time of globalization is key to developing understanding, refining engagement and strengthening linkages. Contact us for further discussion.