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Obama, the World, and AfricaErik S. McDuffie aa Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois atUrbana- Champaign

To cite this article: Erik S. McDuffie (2012): Obama, the World, and Africa, Souls: A Critical Journal ofBlack Politics, Culture, and Society, 14:1-2, 28-37

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The Election Issue

Obama, the World, and AfricaThoughts on African American Politicsand the 2012 Presidential Election

Erik S. McDuffie

The article discusses President Barack Obama’s troublingforeign policy as it relates to Africa and the Arab Spring;the apparent disinterest amongst African Americans inU.S. military intervention in Libya and unrest in Mali; andthe need for building new, internationally focused Blackmovements in the United States as we look to and beyondthe 2012 presidential election.

Keywords: 2012 presidential election, Africa, Arab Spring, Barack Obama, inter-national solidarity, Libya, Mali, Muammar Qaddafi

But today I see more clearly than yesterday that back of the problem of race andcolor, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that isthe fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if theprice of this is poverty, ignorance and disease of the majority of their fellowmen;that to maintain this privilege men have waged war until today war tends tobecome universal and continuous, and the excuse for this war continues largelyto be color and race.

—W. E. B. Du Bois, ‘‘Fifty Years After,’’ in The Souls of Black Folk (New York:The Blue Heron Press, 1953)

I thank Barbara Ransby and Prudence Browne, editor and managing editor, respectively, for theopportunity to contribute to this issue of Souls. This article benefitted from comments from theanonymous readers, as well as conversations with Gretchen Bauer, Marlah Bonner-McDuffie, P.Gabrielle Foreman, Michael Gomez and his on-line KeepitTight Africa Circle forum, Brian J. Purnell,Gilberto Rosas, Elaine Salo, and Sidney J. Toombs III.

Souls

Souls 14 (1–2): 28–37, 2012 / Copyright # 2012 University of Illinois at Chicago /1099-9949/02 / DOI: 10.1080/10999949.2012.720205

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Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was dead. Lurid images of his bloody,lifeless body flashed across television monitors around the world onOctober 20, 2011. Crowds of jubilant, gun-toting Libyan rebelsrejoiced, as the man who had ruled Libya for forty-two yearswas now gone. Later that day, President Barack Obama issued a state-ment about Qaddafi’s death from the Rose Garden at theWhite House.‘‘One of the world’s longest-serving dictators is no more,’’ Obamadeclared. He acknowledged the key role the United States and NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military forces played in top-pling Qaddafi’s regime. Charging Qaddafi with violating the humanrights of the Libyan people, Obama claimed that the West respondedmilitarily to avert a humanitarian crisis after Qaddafi threatened toviolently suppress the rebellion. PlacingQaddafi’s deathwithin the lar-ger context of the popular uprisings acrossNorthAfrica and theMiddleEast that have come to be known as the Arab Spring, Obama laudedyoung people across the Arab world for overthrowing dictators. Thepresident called attention to the death of Osama bid Laden and U.S.wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as further examples of the U.S. commit-ment to championing democracy globally. Looking toward the future,Obama acknowledged that Libyans would face challenges as theymoved toward democracy and their ‘‘liberation.’’ But he expressed con-fidence that they could now ‘‘look forward to the promise of a newday.’’1

This day has yet to arrive. Libya remains politically unstable.Several rebel groups have failed to recognize the new nationalgovernment. Violence marred recent elections. Rebels have indis-criminately harassed, raped, and killed Black Libyans and WestAfricans living in Libya before and after Qaddafi’s death.2 Moreover,unrest in Libya has spilled over to Mali. Heavily armed Tuareg com-batants from Mali who fought for Qaddafi in Libya returned to Mali,rebelled against the national government, and declared independencefor the northern half of the country. In Timbuktu, radical Islamistswho participated in the rebellion have destroyed ancient tombs andshrines designated by the United Nations as World Heritage Siteson the grounds that they were un-Islamic. Mali has descended intochaos. Some African diplomats have expressed fear that Mali couldbecome the ‘‘Afghanistan of West Africa.’’3 The Economic Communityof West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union are contem-plating sending military forces to Mali to put down the rebellion. Butnothing has happened so far.4 Indeed, the Obama-backed violentoverthrow of Qaddafi seems to have destabilized Libya and plungedWest Africa into a serious political and humanitarian crisis.Curiously, these troubling events in Africa have mostly elicited

silence, ambivalence, and confusion from Black America. While asmall group of Black leftists, nationalists, and academics denounced

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Obama and framed U.S. military action in Libya as a racist andimperialist move, they seem to be the exception. Most members ofthe Congressional Black Caucus supported giving Obama authoriza-tion to launch U.S. military action against Qaddafi. There were nomajor protests called by African American civil rights groups tocondemn these actions or to criticize the president. Libya and Maliseem to have generated little discussion in barber shops and beautysalons. Certainly some of this reaction can be attributed to BlackAmerica’s reluctance to criticize the first elected Black presidentand to defend him in the face of a virulent, racist white right-wingbacklash against his presidency.5 Still, the silence about this unrestin Africa is significant given the longstanding tradition in whichBlack Americans have understood their destiny and status as inextri-cably linked with Africa, the Diaspora, and the Third World.6

This article offers critical analysis of President Obama’s foreign pol-icy towards Africa as it relates to the state of African American poli-tics as the 2012 presidential election approaches. I posit three mainpoints. First, the Obama administration’s foreign policy toward Africamarks a significant attempt to enhance U.S. imperialist dominationof the continent. This policy complements his embrace of neo-liberalism and his failure to advance an agenda that benefits BlackAmerica as well as working and poor people at home.7 I define imperi-alism as an ideology and form of modern capitalism through whichstates and ruling classes seek to exploit resources and labor; maxi-mize the profits of finance capital; and eliminate rival social and polit-ical forces that threaten a specific state’s and social formation’s questfor global economic and political hegemony.8 I define neoliberalism asan ideology and political practice based on the belief in unregulatedfree markets and the dismantlement and privatization of the social-welfare safety net as the best way to promote democracy, economicprosperity, and human fulfillment.9

Second, the silence about Libya and Mali amongst AfricanAmericans reveals a deeper political crisis in Black America, namelya declining sense of international solidarity with Africa, the Diaspora,and the Third World. Historically, global forces such as capitalism,slavery, migration, white supremacy, economic depression, worldwar, and decolonization have been crucial to shaping Black America.Black spokespersons such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, PaulRobeson, Claudia Jones, and Malcolm X, as well as organizations suchas the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Council on AfricanAffairs, Sojourners for Truth and Justice, Black Panther Party, andCombahee River Collective understood the Black Freedom Movementin global terms. For them, the struggle for the full freedom of BlackAmerica was inseparable from liberation struggles in Africa and

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beyond. We forget these lessons at our peril.10 Third, rekindling asense of international solidarity amongst African Americans and aconcern for Africa, I argue, must be re-centered to the Black FreedomMovement as we look to and beyond the 2012 presidential election.

The Black Imperialist President

Ironically, the first elected U.S. Black president, who is the son of aKenyan, has played a critical role in expanding U.S. imperial power onthe continent. This is most evident in his role in taking took downQaddafi. To be clear, Qaddafi was no saint. He ruled Libya with aniron fist. He invaded neighboring Chad and supplied arms to dubiousforces across the continent during the 1980s. Inspired by the ArabSpring, Libyans in the eastern portion of the country rebelled begin-ning in February 2011. Qaddafi posed a dilemma for Western powers.In recent years, he became a darling of the West after he renouncedweapons of mass destruction in 2003 and opened Libya’s vast naturalgas and oil fields to foreign investment. At the same time, he remaineddefiant against the West. Calling for Pan-African unity, ‘‘BrotherLeader,’’ as he liked to be called, bankrolled and served as presidentof the African Union and advocated for a ‘‘United States of Africa.’’Critics rightfully questioned his motives. Still, Qaddafi symbolizedopposition to Western power in Africa.11

Arguably, humanitarian concerns were not the driving force behindU.S. intervention in Libya. Washington has had no problem support-ing repressive states across the Middle East. These include SaudiArabia, Bahrain, a U.S. ally that brutally suppressed a domestic upris-ing inspired by the Arab Spring, and pre-revolutionary Egypt. TheUnited States has stood by Israel as it expands its Apartheid-like set-tler colonial occupation of the Palestinian territories. Plus, the Obamaadministration has remained ambivalent about the Arab Spring. U.S.officials fear that these popular uprisings could threatenU.S. strategicand economic interests in North Africa and the Middle East. Giventhis, U.S. military intervention in Libya, I contend, was an effort todestroy a quixotic, intransigent, oil rich regime; co-opt an ArabSpring–inspired rebellion; and protect American economic, political,and military interests in Africa and the Middle East.U.S. involvement in Libya represents an important piece in the

growing U.S. military presence in Africa. This began before Obamatook office. But it has gained momentum under his administration.This is evident in the recent statement by Jeffrey P. Breedan, anofficial in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Heproclaimed: ‘‘We see Africa as the new frontier in terms of

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counterterrorism and counternarcotics issues.’’ He added: ‘‘It’s a placethat we need to get ahead of—we’re already behind the curve in someways, and we need to catch up.’’ The U.S. plans to deploy DEA com-mando teams to fifteen West African nations to interdict drug traffick-ing.12 This is troubling news. The U.S.-led ‘‘War on Drugs’’ hasunleashed unprecedented violence in and destabilized Mexico andColombia, along with several other nations in Latin America andthe Caribbean. Recently, a DEA commando team killed several inno-cent civilians in Honduras.13 It seems hard to imagine how this samepattern of violence will not be replicated in Africa. Moreover, we cannot ignore how the U.S. ‘‘War on Drugs’’ has decimated Black America.This campaign has played a key role in the mass incarceration of Blackpeople and in creating the prison industrial complex, a racialized andgendered system of social control birthed by slavery.14 The horrificslave dungeons at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle on the WestAfrican coast are a testament to this. In this light, the proposed U.S.‘‘War on Drugs’’ in Africa represents a legacy of slavery, colonialism,and racism.

Meanwhile, the United States has expanded its military presence inthe Horn of Africa and Central Africa during the Obama administra-tion. Under the guise of fighting Al-Qaida and delivering humani-tarian relief, the United States has deployed military forces toDjibouti and Uganda. The United States has launched deadly dronestrikes from Djibouti against alleged Al-Qaida targets in Yemen. Inaddition, the United States has backed bloody military campaignslaunched by Ethiopia and Kenya against Islamists in Somalia.15 InOctober 2011, Obama announced the deployment of one hundredU.S. Special Forces to Uganda. He claimed that they were sent to cap-ture Joseph Kony, the infamous leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA), whose forces have ravaged northern Uganda.16 Critics chargethat this move was a cover for U.S. military intervention into Africa.They add that Obama sent U.S. troops to Uganda to counter thegrowing economic and political presence of China on the continent.These charges seem plausible. China has emerged as the leadinggeo-political rival to the United States. In terms of Africa, Chinarecently has become the continent’s leading trading partner. Thisdevelopment threatens U.S. imperialist interests in Africa. Chinahas signed bilateral trading agreements with several African nations.For example, China has pledged billions of dollars to the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC) to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Inreturn, the DRC will supply China with millions of tons of copperand cobalt, precious minerals essential to the production of weaponry,electronics, and computer technology. China is also investing heavilyin oil production across the continent in order to fulfill the country’s

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growing energy needs.17 The Obama administration has publicly criti-cized China’s growing influence in Africa. During her visit to Senegalin August 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared thatthe United States was committed to advancing economic development,democracy, and human rights in Africa, while an unnamed trading‘‘partner’’ was concerned solely with exploiting the continent’sresources for its own benefit. The veiled reference to China was notlost to the Chinese. Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, tookexception to the comments, declaring that Clinton’s statements were‘‘cheap shots’’ and ‘‘a plot to sow discord between China [and] Africa.’’18

Given that both the United States and China see Africa as animportant source of natural resources for their respective nations,some observers fear that this rivalry could spark a hot or proxy warbetween these nations on the continent. Such a conflict wouldundoubtedly devastate the people and resources of Africa.19 What iscertain is that U.S. military intervention in Libya and elsewhere onthe continent already has resulted in the death and misery of Africanpeople. Due in no small part to the first elected Black U.S. president,Africa has suffered tremendously.

The Decline of International SolidarityAmongst African Americans

Global and domestics developments over the past thirty yearsexplain the apparent disinterest in recent unrest in Africa and thedeclining sense of international solidarity amongst African Americans.As discussed, African American reluctance to criticize Obama certainlyis an important factor in explaining the silence from Black Americaabout Libya and Mali. But this is not the only explanation. Inter-nationally, the collapse of the Soviet Union and radical Third Worldstates, together with the ascendency of neoliberalism and corporateglobalization since the 1990s, seemingly discredited leftist agendasand removed counter-hegemonic forces from the geo-political stage.Domestically, a white conservative backlash against the Black

Freedom Movement ushered in by Ronald Reagan has significantlymoved the United States toward the political right since the early1980s. White conservatives and the mainstream media have soughtto discredit the internationalist Black Freedom Movement and distortits legacy. Erasing its expansive view of democracy, militant demandsfor full citizenship, and its global vision, conservatives have framedBlack struggles of the 1950s and 1960s as campaigns for voting rightsand affirmative action. The dismantlement of the welfare state, massincarceration, deindustrialization, and structural inequalities havedevastated Black America. Given this, it makes sense many Black

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people are more concerned with making ends meet, keeping theirhomes, finding work, and surviving than in international events.20

Political shifts within Black America also explain the apparentdecline of concern for international events. African Americans remainthe most progressive constituency in the United States. However, seg-ments of Black America have moved toward the political right. SomeBlack Americans support the U.S. empire. For example, delegates atthe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP)’s annual convention in June 2012 in Houston cheered loudlywhen Vice President Joe Biden in a fiery campaign speech trumpetedthe death of Osama bin Laden as an important accomplishment of theObama administration.21 This reaction is revealing. It seemingly wasinspired by a thirst for revenge, political opportunism, disregard forinternational law, and the historical amnesia about the U.S. rolein the making of Osama bin Laden and stoking violent jihadism inAfghanistan to defeat the Soviets that blew back on the United Stateson September 11, 2001.22 To be sure, this response demonstrates thatglobal events continue to impact Black America.

Where DoWe Go From Here? Thoughts on the 2012 Presidential Electionand beyond

The 2012 presidential election poses a serious quandary for those ofus committed to Black liberation, peace, democracy, and justice for allpeople globally. As I have argued, Obama has continued an imperial-ist foreign policy toward Africa that has brought further misery to thecontinent. The war in Afghanistan rages on. Domestically, he has noagenda to address the deep structural inequalities and persistentracial injustice in this country that oppresses and immiserates Blackand Brown people. Simply put, Obama is no progressive. He neverhas been; he probably never will be. Waiting or hoping for the daywhen he turns towards the political left and embraces a progressiveagenda committed to racial and social justice, women’s and lesbian,gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights, labor, theenvironment, immigrant rights, and peace is foolhardy.

So what should Black America and progressive social forces do inNovember? I agree with Bill Fletcher’s analysis in this issue of themeaning and implications of the coming presidential election. Thiselection should not be viewed as a referendum of Obama. Instead,we need to take a long view of the struggle. The Right understands thiselection as an attempt to dismantle what’s left of the New Deal, elim-inate the gains won by social movements of the 1960s, and pursue aforeign policy even more retrograde than Obama’s. A fanatical racism

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drives their anger toward Obama and what he apparently symbolizesto them. Given that there is no viable third party candidate andno time to find one, the logical decision is to vote for Obama. In thislight, voting for ‘‘Obama in not an affirmation of Obama and his rec-ord,’’ as Fletcher writes, ‘‘but is actually a vote for time and space.’’A victory for Obama would buy Black America and progressivestime to regroup and to begin building grassroots social movementsand coalitions to challenge the neoliberal, racist, sexist, imperialistorder of our time.23

Rekindling a sense of international solidarity amongst BlackAmericans and concern for Africa are critical to this project. BlackAmerica must demand that the United States end its military inter-ventions and proxy wars in Africa (and around the world) and pursuea foreign policy committed to mutual respect, non-intervention, andinternational law. In terms of the Arab Spring, we should demand thatthe United States allow history to take its course and respect the Arabworld’s quest for self-determination. For those of us committed to thisvision, we should argue that changing U.S. policy toward Africa andthe world will save Black lives and redirect resources towardsrealizing the full potential of all people. For example, the billions ofdollars that would be spent on counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics,and fighting proxy wars in Africa could be spent on social programs,healthcare, housing, and education at home. This money could fundsustainable development and infrastructure, and fighting AIDS inAfrica and globally. We should raise awareness in Black Americaabout the proposed U.S. ‘‘War on Drugs’’ in Africa and its connectionswith the mass incarceration of African Americans. The discourse andpractice of criminalization and mass incarceration of Black Americanswill surely inform the proposed U.S. drug war in Africa. Black Amer-ican personnel will invariably be deployed and killed in Africa. Africanimmigrants in this country will lose family and loved ones in theirhomeland as a result of U.S. military interventions. This suffering isavoidable. Whatever the outcome of the 2012 presidential election,Black America cannot forget the lessons of our foremothers and-fathers: our fate is inseparable from the status and well-being ofAfrica. The struggle continues.

Notes

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/obama-muammar-gaddafi-dead_n_1022106.html(accessed July 18, 2012).

2. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/205516/20110829/libyan-gaddafi-rebels-tnc-blacks-african-union.htm (accessed July 25, 2012); ‘‘US and NATO-Supported Libyan ‘Rebels’ Continue Persecution of Blacksin Libya,’’ Black Agenda Report, http://blackagendareport.com/content/us-and-nato-supported-libyan-rebels-continue-persecution-blacks-libya (accessed July 25, 2012).

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3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18427541 (accessed July 24, 2012).4. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/07/20127533425563880.html (accessed July 25,

2012).5. For a more thorough discussion of Black America’s refusal to criticize Obama, see Bill Fletcher Jr.

essay ‘‘‘What happened?’: Obama, Demobilization and the Challenge of the 2012 Elections’’ in this issueof Souls.

6. Gerald Horne, ‘‘One Historian’s Journey,’’ Journal of African American History 96, no. 2 (Spring2011): 248–254; Erik S. McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, andthe Making of Black Left Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011); Edward Eugene Onaci, ‘‘SelfDetermination Means Determining Self: Lifestyle Politics and the Republic of New Afrika, 1968–1989’’(Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, 2012).

7. Fletcher. ‘‘ ‘What Happened?’ ’’; Tariq Ali, The Obama Syndrome: Surrender and Home, WarAbroad (London: Verso, 2011).

8. V. I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970);Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (New York: International Publish-ers, 1966). I should add that racism and sexism were central to the making and working of moderncapitalism and imperialism. For further discussion of this topic, see Claudia Jones, ‘‘An End to theNeglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!’’ Political Affairs 28, no. 6 (June 1949): 51–67; CedricRobinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (London: Zed Books, 1983);McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom; Carole Boyce Davies, Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of BlackCommunist Claudia Jones (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008); Dayo F. Gore, Radicalism at theCrossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War (New York: New York University Press,2011).

9. Neoliberalism emerged as the prevailing global economic order by the 1990s following the demiseof the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc, and militant Third World regimes. Kean Birch and Vlad Mykhnenko,eds., The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism: The Collapse of an Economic Order? (London: Zed Books, 2010);Ali, The Obama Syndrome, 3–4.

10. Horne, ‘‘One Historian’s Journey,’’ 249; Robin D. G. Kelley, ‘‘ ‘But a Local Phase of a WorldProblem’: Black History’s Global Vision, 1883–1950,’’ The Journal of American History 86, no. 3(December 1999):1045–1077.

11. Jonathan Offei-Ansah, ‘‘Gaddafi’s Ghost will Haunt Libya’’; ‘‘End of an Era’’; Desmond Davies,‘‘Wither the ‘New’ Libya,’’ all in NewsAfrica, November 30, 2011.

12. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/world/africa/us-expands-drug-fight-in-africa.html (accessedJuly 25, 2012).

13. Ibid.14. Angela Y. Davis, Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons and Torture (New York:

Seven Stories Press, 2005); Ruthie Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, andOpposition in Globalizing California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007); Michelle Alexan-der, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Globalization (New York: The New Press,2010).

15. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/10/20111017171543493140.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/africa/kenya-planned-somalia-incursion-far-in-advance.html (both accessed July30, 2012).

16. Kony gained international notoriety following the internet release of the deeply problematic filmKony 2012 produced by the American charity Invisible Children.

17. Chika Ezeanya, ‘‘US’ Africa Invasion,’’NewsAfrica (November 30, 2011): 17; http://www.chinafrica.asia/angola-laudable-oil-trade-with-china/ (accessed August 4, 2012).

18. Financial Times August 4=5, 2012.19. Chofamba Sithole, ‘‘The Great Kony ‘Con,’ ’’ NewsAfrica (30 April 2012): 24, 26; Ezeanya, ‘‘US’

Africa Invasion,’’ 17; http://allafrica.com/stories/201207260922.html; http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90778/7649195.html (both accessed July 26, 2012).

20. Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua and Clarence Lang, ‘‘Strategies for Black Liberation in the Era ofGlobalism: Retronouveau Civil Rights, Militant Black Conservatism, and Radicalism,’’ Black Scholar29, no. 4 (2000): 25–47; Tim Wise, Color Blind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat fromRacial Equity (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2010), 27–62.

21. http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2012/07/vice_president_joe_biden_tells.html (accessedJuly 26, 2012).

22. Noam Chomsky, 9-11 (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001); John K. Cooley, Unholy WarsAfghanistan,America, and InternationalTerrorism (London:PlutoPress, 2000); http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/2/did_pakistani_govt_know_where_osama (accessed July 26, 2012).

23. Fletcher, ‘‘ ‘What Happened?’ ’’

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About theAuthor

Erik S. McDuffie is an Associate Professor in the Department ofAfrican American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Sojourning for Freedom: BlackWomen, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Femin-ism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011).

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