Obama's African Tour

Barack Obama has today started his African tour in Senegal, the Francophone country in the Sahel. Visiting Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, he will miss out the birthplace of his Father - Kenya, most probably because Uhuru Kenyatta, the President, is wanted by the ICC for war crimes.

What Obama's visit to Senegal displays most tellingly is that Language barriers need not hold back a new wave of foreign direct investment: Senegal played a key role in supporting French troupes in Mali during the conflict earlier this year against AQIM and is being seen as a driver of stability in the region. 

Whilst China, Malaysia, Brazil and India have been undertaking massive investments in African states and sponsoring governments to further their business interests (the China International Fund is sponsoring the building of a major new airport in Luanda, Angola as well as new infrastructure projects across the continent and even the African Union building in Addis Ababa), the West have fallen by the wayside in adopting a strategy to see long-term growth in Africa. It seems that despite Bob Geldof rescuing an entire continent from malnutrition, donating goats to rural families is no longer a viable option for these oil, diamond and uranium-rich nations. 

Yet there are fears that Chinese involvement could lead to exploitation in the region: already corrupt politicians are swayed easily by the promise of a new palace (or in the case of Equitorial Guinea's dictator, President Obiang, a new capital city) and are willing to give countries who invest, large stakes in their natural resources.  What Obama has started to demonstrate is that, despite the lack of promises of sparkling new buildings, FDI coming from Western nations need not necessarily mean a raw deal. 

In return for investment, the West have the capacity to offer real security (Niger has already allowed the US to establish a drone base in its capital, Niamey) and long-term, controlled growth with minimal exploitation. Countries who are still managing their own development and struggling with the socio-economic changes, it can be argued, will care less about the stability of the countries that they are investing in. 

Whatever the outcome, Obama's first stop on his tour is clearly more than just a geographically-useful one: West Africa is hurting under the pressure of Islamic militants and groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Nigeria's Boko Haram. Sensible and controlled long-term investment in business, government and security in this region could pay off in dividends. Literally.