Africa Up Close

By Steve McDonald

So, here we are.  We have weathered one of the most divisive American election campaigns in recent memory.  What does this mean for Africa?  Current signals coming from high level administration officials are that the President will pay a great deal more attention to Africa in his second term than he did in his first.  The White House is already beginning to plan for a major Africa trip that will most likely be scheduled in the spring of 2013.  While dates and countries are far from being set, a great deal of thought will go into this trip in terms of what the focus will be, and what signals or messages the President wants to impart. Even though the trip alone will be an important statement, the key is going to be in finding the substance behind the rhetoric and fanfare.  No doubt, as Africa welcomes back the first U.S. President of direct African heritage, the ceremony and celebration will be exceptional.  However, if the June 14, 2012 Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) on Sub-Saharan Africa continues to maintain its status as the ruling policy document towards the continent, not much will change.

By Steve McDonald

We have just finished our first two months on line with the Africa UP Close blog.   That month has been eventful, with a number of wonderful postings from our wide and diverse network of friends, associates and colleagues in Africa and with whom we work on Africa.  We have just begun to tap our immense potential for Africa UP Close to bring unique views, unconventional insights, and new “voices” to issues about Africa and US policy towards it.  Postings ranged from a discussion of peace education in Burundi secondary schools, to the dire situation in Mali and the Sahel, to lessons learned on capacity building and training programs, to Africa as a testing ground for US security interests, to a comparison of African and European integration.  We featured other news items, but did not, and will not, regurgitate American and European reporting on Africa.  Rather we will feature African reports from sources such as the Kenyan Standard, South Africa Business Day, and AllAfrica.com.  We will continue this coverage of alternate, Africa based sources for our American readers, sources normally not available to them.   Finally, we list coming events.  For the most part, at this stage, these have been Washington and East Coast based events, but we will continue to research and expand the list, to include other American and international events of interest to our readers.   We would ask you to contribute announcements of events that your organizations are staging, or about which you have heard and feel we may not be aware.