Africa

South Africans, like people the world over, are beginning to take a great deal of interest in the primary campaigns taking place in the United States. According to a story on NPR (Click on the link to hear the full report.):

South Africans have been consumed with crippling nationwide power outages and other issues closer to home, such as a much-condemned racial incident involving four white students and some black university employees. But when asked about the U.S. presidential race, the name they seem most familiar with is that of Barack Obama.

This brief report does not portray the election, or South African views of it, with a great deal of depth. It is a man-on-the-street series of brief interviews. Nnetheless, it is probably not a bit surprising that South Africans a) Do not have much regard for the Republicans, and b) Support Obama in light of his African roots. However, Bill Clinton was a popular figure in many parts of the continent, and one wonders if that does not redound to Hillary’s benefit. In the end, South Africans will almost certainly be rooting from afar for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

The Council on Foreign Relations has a useful primer on American policies toward the five countries President Bush is visiting this week.

I am going to make a controversial assertion: Although President Bush has, by just about any measure, been a pretty bad president, he ranks among the upper echelons in terms of policy toward Africa. Now this is not much of an accomplishment, to be sure. American policy toward Africa has ranged from the loathsome to the negligent to the indifferent. And I’m not certain that the United States has ever had an administration with an even passably good foreign policy toward the continent. So Bush is among the best of a bad bunch, despite essentially countenancing genocide in Darfur, the lack of delivery on some grand promises, and some questions about intent with regard to AFRICOM. Still, both President Cinton and President Bush at least had Africa within the periphery of their vision, which is a far cry from the noxious “Constructive Engagement” that preceded them.

All this tells me is that Americans must demand more when it comes to United States policy toward Africa. If Bush is among the best we’ve had, we have a pretty shameful record.

One does not usually look to Vanity Fair for gravitas, much less for edifying coverage of Africa. Nonetheless, the July issue, including the VF website, invited U2’s Bono to be guest editor of a special issue devoted to Africa.

There is more than enough pop ephemera contained within this special edition, to be sure, but there are also several worthwhile articles, interviews, features, sidebars, and the like. Specialists won’t find much new, but finding something new for specialists shouldn’t really be the point, right? Contributors include Bill Clinton, Christopher Hitchens, William Langewiesche, Binyavanga Wainaina, Sebastian Junger, Chris Rock, and many, many others.

On the newsstand you’ll find that the issue has been produced with many different cover options. Annie Liebovitz contributed twenty different cover shots, all of which are available on newstands and online (mine has Don Cheadle on the front, but you can see a slide show of all of the covers here) and she also contributes photographs to Brad Pitt’s (yes, that Brad Pitt — as I said — the magazine does not move too far from its ambit)  interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  Naturally the magazine cannot help itself — the issue concludes with an unrelated feature on HRH Diana, Princess of Walesv– but that jarringly inapt juxtaposition aside, the issue is an engaging and important one. 

(Tokyo Sexwale Pictured With Nelson Mandela.) 

Tokyo Sexwale is an ANC Stalwart, former premiere of Gauteng, and multimillionaire businessman. The chairman of Mvelaphanda Group has been in the news a great deal lately. He recently drew headlines for joining the Washington, DC-Based Brookings Institution’s International Advisory Council (IAC).  The IAC is a “group of 24 distinguished individuals from around the world who helped to provide the US think-tank with global insights on its mission and research agenda,” established by Strobe Talbott, the Brookings Institution president and former deputy secretary of State under Bill Clinton.

As the ANC succession battle heats up and the procedural machinations follow, Sexwale has not exactly been quick to dismiss rumors that he has his eye on the ANC presidency, which in turn would likely assure that he would succeed Thabo Mbeki as the country’s president. The timing of his recent criticisms of “silent diplomacy” toward Zimbabwe certainly indicates that Sexwale has serious political aspirations.

On Tuesday Bill Clinton announced that his foundation has brokered a deal with Indian pharmaceutical companies to provide generic AIDS drugs in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Afria will obviously provide a huge market for these drugs.

There are perhaps a few of lessons to learn here. The first is that it is unlikely that these Indian companies, Cipla and Matrix, would be doing this were it not in the long run going to be profitable. Doing good and doing well do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts. The second lesson is that serious global leadership — from Clinton, from France — clearly played a significant, deciding role in brokering this deal. In an era when debates over the efficacy of development policies are strident and harsh, it is useful to see a clearcut example of policies that almost assuredly will have some direct positive effect in Africa and elsewhere. Finally, good for Bill Clinton. If this is the sort of thing that his foundation does, this might be a sign of a long and successful post-presidential career.