The re-election of Donald Trump as head of the United States of America is heating up the debate on the domination of the world’s leading power over the rest of the world. As a result, Africa is questioning its position vis-à-vis the global ogre.

Back to business. After his first term (2016-2020), Donald Trump is back in the White House. The arch-billionaire businessman thus becomes the 47th President of Uncle Sam’s country. The Republican’s victory over the Democrat, Kamala Harris, on 6 November 2024 was unambiguous. She acknowledged the defeat in a democratic posture. The result of this election is not what we wanted, not what we voted for, not what we fought for. But we must accept the results of this election. The light of America’s promise will always shine as long as we don’t give up and keep fighting’, she said 48 hours after the election.

Pending his official inauguration on 5 January 2025, Joe Biden will complete his term of office with Kamala Harris, his vice-president, as his secular arm. Between now and then, the political and business worlds will be wondering what to do. On the one hand, the Europeans have got their jigsaw puzzle together again, taking photos of themselves to redefine their place and review their political and industrial weight in the gotha of global affairs. On the other, Africa, which the world powers do not really consider, but which curiously they cannot manage to get rid of, is in the balance.

During his first term in the White House, Trump showed little interest in Africa. He even took the outrageous liberty of calling a country like Haiti a ‘shithole’. He had not made a single official state visit to the continent. Whereas his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush had respectively made seven (7) and eleven( 11) state visits to the dark continent. Will Trump’s America warm up its political and diplomatic relations with the African continent or will it wipe itself off the African map?

‘I don’t think so. The USA remains a world power despite the partial changes that will take place with Trump’s return. It will remain in Africa and in the world in military terms, for example. This presence is decisive for them because of competition with China, for example,’ Gilles Yabi, director of Think Tank Wathi, told RFI, before adding: ’I don’t necessarily expect any spectacular changes in relations between the USA and Africa. Africa is a continent with many diversities, including its relations with the United States. There are, for example, African countries whose relations are more important in security and economic terms than others’.

As we can see, it is difficult to make a global or general analysis that is uniform in the different relations between the United States and the fifty-four (54) African nations. To be sure, with the summit of African heads of state and the USA under Joe Biden in 2022, America showed renewed interest in Africa. The American authorities affirmed the very important role that Africa has to play today and tomorrow on the world stage.

The heads of some African states will not deny this. Presidents such as Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Félix Tshisekedi (DRC) and Diomaye Faye (Senegal) have already made a show of congratulating the new strongman of the world’s leading power, the day after his election. Senegal’s young head of state was more incisive on X :

It’s no secret. Africa, which is not on the map of the world’s economic powers, is a continent of the future because of its enormous natural potential. And America, with the strength of its global hegemony, still has its eye on the continent. And every African state already has the paperwork to make its calculations with Trump back in office. Whatever its size on the continent.

Maria De Dieu

Image: Gerd Altmann via Pixabay