This is mainly because of that country’s cultural hegemony not only in Africa but also across the rest of the world.
It is an empire since the end of the Second World War in 1945. It dominates many cultural spheres of perceptions of existence and therefore is always in the limelight about its own internal political, cultural and econcomic events.
Never mind the fact that its national currency transcends borders in relation to its wealth recognition and retention value for many of us in the global south.
So it is important to talk about the USA and whatever happens within it. In the contemporary as in the past.
Its wars of aggression and its dominance in the economic sphere of global human existence.
But to be quick to the point. The current American president, Joe Biden recently announced he is no no longer seeking re-election for a second term in the same capacity.
This was after an arduous and drawn out process in which he was reported in the mainstream media and circles of his own Democratic party as being either too old or incoherent to run the most powerful country in the world.
What has been happening since his announcement and endorsement of his own deputy president Kamaala Harris as a presidential candidate nominee, has been interesting to watch from an African lense.
Mainly because the USA’s cultural dominance over Africa is self evident in the cultural products we consume and the mimicry of specific lifestyles as evidence of material arrival.
Even if they are not considered the same in their place of origin. This in many forms. From music, through to fashion and internet/social media mediated memes.
The key political question however for many an African is that should it matter that USA president Joe Biden has decided not to run for a second term in office. Even if reportedly reluctantly so?
The most basic answer is that yes it matters because USA foreign policy is the sine qua non of global relations. Even if now it is counter-challenged by that of China and Russia as if we were back to the Cold War period.
But it remains imperative that as Africans we watch and know what is happening in the USA in order to not only understand our placement in global international relations but also try and glean lessons from not only the internal political dynamics of the USA but also how they play out globally.
Joe Biden’s political departure from the presidency (not necessarily the reduction of his own personal influence on his chosen successor) is probably unprecedented in USA presidential electoral history.
Three key issues emerge in this conundrum of North American politics.
The first being the fact that his immediate rival, Donald Trump is not only a convicted felon but also a close equivalent of an ‘age-mate’ who wants to get a second bite of the presidential cherry. Thy are quite literally age mates, but one was accusing the other of senility.
In Africa, sadly, age is almost considered an ideology. Your age is supposed to make you eligible for political office, which in reality is a political fallacy.
But the establishment in for example the USA choses not age but ideological prevalence and agreement as the key priority for leadership. Hence Biden’s departure from office come November 2024.
The second key point from an African perspective is the fact of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. As a person of colour, it would be easy to say we support her through and through. The reality of the matter is that she would not change USA foreign policy in the immediate.
Nor would she have the power to do so even if she wished it. She is a product of her time and politics. From the Ukraine-Russian war through to the Israeli genocide in Palestine, there is not much ‘change’ she would either represent or implement.
For lack of a better phrase, she represents the epitome of ‘celebrity politics’. But it is what it is.
The third point about this Biden decision not to run for a second term relates to the fact of Donald Trump. Which is also linked to celebrity capitalist politics. That is a politics of cultural, economic and consumerist impressionability.
I regrettably know many black African colleagues who admire Trump. Most of whom assume that to be some sort of cut throat businessman is a CV for a good political career. Including the possibility of becoming a president of a country like Zimbabwe.
This is a false assumption about Zimbabwe’s political realities. But sadly it prevails.
Entrepreneurship ala carte Trump is assumed to be a key to political success in a country that originally waged a leftist liberation struggle against imperialism and colonialism.
And now has to wage one against World Bank and International Monetary Fund sponsored neoliberalism.
But back to the key point, the resignation of Joe Biden from the most powerful presidential position in the world, for now, is not a laughing matter. It is a reflection of the fact of a changing USA.
One in which assumptions of age, race, political correctness and ideological ambiguity take centere stage for an elitist continuity of global control of specific neoliberal narratives.
We could argue that the centre cannot hold. What is apparent with Joe Biden’s move is that the centre is trying to hold. And a decent majority in Africa, save for newfound West African Pan Africanism, will probably hang on its coattails.
The reality of the matter is that USA foreign policy in Africa never changes, Ever since the Cold War.
No comments:
Post a Comment