What Africa may learn from Trump presidency

President-Elect Trump successfully ran under the banner of making America first, reducing foreign 'interference' and trying new ways to work with partners on the international scene to solve some intractable challenges. The first tenet, in my opinion, is something that should interest African nations, because of the collective acknowledged viewpoint of making Africa work for Africans.

Looking back at the powers that scrambled for Africa more than 125 years ago to present day, we see challenges that have been brought about by the fact that Africa still remains a playground for western powers. The Democratic Republic of Congo fails to move forward due to the strong interests that keep fueling violence in order to continue the parasitic extraction of the vast resources with little benefit to the people of Congo.

The CFA countries of Central and West Africa still depend on precolonial arrangements with France to manage their monetary policies, stealing the initiative from these countries, their ability to control their own currencies. Other African countries have regressive arrangements with their 'former' colonial masters guaranteeing land leases of up to 999 years in some cases i.e. a millennium of land utilization in a foreign country! It is no wonder then that land tenure is such a crucial and emotive issue in a lot of countries.

If anyone is unconvinced of the power of these interests, then just observe what happened to Gaddafi after his plans to rid Africa's dependent on the western powers through an African-centered bank. An illegal no-fly zone was instituted, followed closely by the overthrow of the regime and the murder of Gaddafi. And thus came crumbling down the dream of an Africa-led coalition to solve its own problems, to maintain its prerogative in its own matters.

Therefore, the coming into power of Trump would perhaps signal, a departure from disastrous interventionist policies in Africa. We should also be keen to see how Trump addresses the large disparity that he talked about as far as trade policies with the Chinese and Mexico are concerned. We will learn, I hope, how he tackles the balance of trade and loss of jobs. And perhaps, we can use some of his tactics to dig ourselves out of the current predicament of exploitation and poverty.

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