Africa: Obama's Three Objectives for Continent
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GUEST COLUMN
29 September 2008
Posted to the web 29 September 2008
Witney W. Schneidman
Washington, DC
Witney W. Schneidman, an adviser on Africa to the campaign to elect Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States, sets out Obama's fundamental policy objectives for Africa.
Barack Obama understands Africa, and understands its importance to the United States. Today, in this new century, he understands that to strengthen our common security, we must invest in our common humanity and, in this way, restore American leadership in the world.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has engaged on many African issues. He has worked to end genocide in Darfur, to pass legislation to promote stability and the holding of elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to bring a war criminal to justice in Liberia and to develop a coherent strategy for stabilizing Somalia.
In 2006, Senator Obama visited Kenya where he spoke truth to power to the leadership about the corrosive impact of corruption, in South Africa he demanded honesty from the government about HIV/Aids, and he met with American military commanders in Djibouti at the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa to discuss the threat of terrorism to U.S. interests and to the interests of our partners in the region.
Obama also visited refugee camps in Chad, where he heard first-hand about the experiences of Sudanese women who had been forced from their homes and had their families torn apart, and worse, by Khartoum's genocidal policies.
Over the last 18 months, Barack Obama has worked with the Kenyan leadership to help resolve the post-election crisis in that country, and he has called for an increase on pressure on Robert Mugabe for stealing elections and sponsoring violence against his own people.
Barack Obama continues to speak out against Khartoum's ongoing war of genocide in Darfur, and has called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to walk back from the brink of war.
The Diaspora
There is another very important quality about Barack Obama that informs his perspective on Africa, and that is the fact that he is a product of the African diaspora, the son of a Kenyan father, whose grandmother still lives in Kenya.
In fact, this campaign is making a strong effort to reach out to African Americans across the United States country and to those first, second and third generation Africans who have become American citizens to encourage them to be part of the effort that will elect Barack Obama president of the United States.
It is a powerful reality that more Africans have come to the United States since 1970 than came during the middle passage. The more than two million African immigrants in the U.S. can be an important source of support in strengthening relations with Africa.
Through a more active dialogue with the various African diaspora communities and organizations, the U.S. will find itself in a better position to develop its agenda and accomplish its objectives on Africa.
For those who may ask why, there are several reasons for this interest in the African diaspora community.
- Africans are the most educated immigrant group in the country.
- African-born men and women have higher median earnings than all foreign-born men and women in the U.S.
- Remittances from Africans in the diaspora are on the rise, estimated to be in excess of $4 to 6 billion per year. Nigerians, as one example, remit more than $3 billion per year.
The Obama campaign is witnessing an unprecedented surge of support and excitement from African Americans as well as diaspora communities, and this support will be critical to Barack Obama's success in November.
Most immediately, the diaspora community has started to organize itself into groups such as Ethiopians for Obama, Eritreans for Obama, the African Immigrant Movement for Obama and the African Diaspora for Obama. In fact, one thing that Ethiopians and Eritreans clearly agree on is that they want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.
Most immediately, we want those 10,000 Ethiopian-Americans in Virginia to help turn that state blue on November 4th, we want all Nigerian-Americans living in Cleveland, Akron and elsewhere in Ohio to turn out the vote in their communities, we want the Somali-American community in Minneapolis to help win Minnesota, and we want African diaspora communities all across the country to come forward and exercise their rights as Americans. Even if individuals are not eligible to vote, they can still hand out leaflets, make phone calls and canvass their neighborhoods.
In the short-term, all those of African descent have the potential to be a key game changer in this election.
Moreover, the experience of Barack Obama underscores the values that many Africans and Americans share and the ties that bind us together.
Read comments. Write your own.
As an American Christian who has many friends in Kenya, Uganda and many other African nations I have spent many hours researching Barack Obama. Before I became a Christian over 25 years ago I had been a communist. This background has helped with giving me some insights during my research. I have, also, noticed that those African-Americans most involved in truly helping the poor are those that are most opposed to Obama. What I have found from my research is that Obama is nothing close to what people want to believe who he is. Let me give just a few… [Read Full Text]
Listen up John A, It's the American people that will put Barack Obama in the White House not your sorry opinion of him. 25 years is not enough time for a commie to change, still sound like one and a true Christian don't cast that kind of judgement. It is the American Christian who believe in Obama's vision and competence as a President, that means mainstream America, big America,little America, midwest America and rural America. You should research Christianity and what it means,happy hunting!
John, let's take the emotion out of it and make it about facts. The current global financial crisis was triggered by that phony make believe "real estate boom" of 2002-2005 in the US real estate market. John McCain was behind the deregulation of the real estate market. Insanity followed and only the wise ones knew what was coming. Hey, Washington take care of their "boys" first. Deregulation made so much dough $$$$$$ for them + their "boys", what do they care? They layman don't understand, who's looking? You can't Tie Barack Obama to scandal of that magnitude, (the one with… [Read Full Text]
Oilbaron there are no facts in your post whatsoever. The deregulation was done by Democrats....most of this country realizes this now. Key Democrats opposed the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, which would have established a single, independent regulatory body with jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie – a move that the Government Accountability Office had recommended in a 2004 report.
Top 3 recipients of campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie: Christopher Dodd (D)- $133,900 John Kerry(D)- $111,000 Barak Obama(D)- $105,849 McCain had regulation bill 3 years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_FZCaKDn9k You can't question the words right from The… [Read Full Text]
Heavens, John, do i have to read through all that right-wing Christian rhetoric complete with all the talk-radio talking points... live-birth abortions, commies and terrorists... in this dialogue? How do these lies further the topic?
Obama is enormously popular in Kenya. Yes, he is half Kenyan (half white, too) and provides a sense of pride for many Kenyans. While in Kenya, I found myself in many political conversations with Kenyans from a variety of places and stations. I found myself apologizing for the actions of President Bush, trying to assure them that not all Americans are in support of his failed Presidency. The people I talked to are quite political savvy, more so that many citizens of my town in the U.S. The know what's happening. They are… [Read Full Text]
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