By Hans Ngala
On July 9, five West African presidents met with US president, Donald Trump at the White House to discuss a range of issues. The presidents of Mauritania, Senegal, Gabon, Guinea Bissau and Liberia were meeting with President Trump to discuss key issues but one thing stood out starkly: each African leader humiliated themselves.
It was as though it was a competition in self-embarrassment by the men. Each leader seemed to outdo the other in their heaping of praises on Trump and humiliation of themselves and their respective countries. The President of Mauritania did not even introduce himself when asked to do so and went into a lengthy monologue thanking President Trump over and over, almost as if he was in disbelief that he had been invited to the White House and somehow, he couldn’t believe that this was happening! He told Trump how his country had rare earth minerals.
The Liberian president didn’t even push back a little bit when Trump belittled him by remarking how “good” his English was. While Trump’s comments may at face value sound like a compliment, they reveal a subtle assumption that nothing good could possibly come from Africa, that after years of colonization, people could surely not amount to anything, much less do a simple thing like speak a colonialist’s language. The fact that present-day Liberia is largely a creation of the US (which ironically Trump knows nothing about), is both infuriating and disappointing and for the Liberian president to simply sit there nodding “Yes sir, yes sir” to Trump, felt rather embarrassing. Liberia’s capital is named Monrovia after former US president, James Monroe and it would seem that Liberia has always had the habit of sucking up to the US even though the US apparently doesn’t care too much about them, to the point where Trump doesn’t even know that freed slaves from the US settled in Liberia, contributed to the country and that Liberia is modelled largely after the US from their education system to their currency (the Liberian dollar), to their architecture and of course English being their official language. Trump obviously knew nothing about Liberia even though most Liberians hold citizenship in both the US and Liberia.
The President of Guinea-Bissau was even more embarrassing in his own self-deprecation. He praised Trump and reminded him that “We are great but not as great as the United States”. While it is obviously true and there is no comparison between the US and Guinea-Bissau from both the sheer difference in land size to economy between both countries, was it necessary for him as President of his country to humiliate his country in front of a foreign leader and international media? How would Guinea-Bissua’s citizens feel, hearing their number one citizen, humiliating himself and the country this way on a global stage? He could have made his points without necessarily soiling the image of his own country.
The President of Gabon while initially sounding like he was the more honourable mention in the group, also went on to mention how they have rare minerals but he was better than the rest in calling for investments from the US, at least. Even his posture in his seat, gave off the energy of an assertive leader. Answering questions from some reporters, the Gabonese leader, leaned in his seat and put one arm over his chair, giving a clear message to Trump and the other leaders that said in silent language “We are all leaders here”.
In fact, the Senegalese president’s biggest invitation was for Trump to invest in golf courses in his country. He said he would like to see President Trump display his golfing skills and even build a golf course there. This is as humiliating as can be. Does President Diomaye mean to tell the world that Senegal is incapable of investing in and building a golf course itself? They are able to build football stadia, so why should building a golf course (which arguably requires less), be something that only someone from America would have to do for Senegal? What has Senegal been doing with all its wealth for over 60 years of its independence? While Trump liked the idea, he remarked that it would be a rather long trip, but didn’t dismiss the idea.
These are just some of the things that went on between these African heads of state and President Trump. Of course we cannot pretend that any one of these countries is anywhere close to as powerful or as influential as the United States. As pointed out earlier, the US supersedes all of them combined, both in terms of population, size of economy, technology and of course, land size. This alone, tips the scales in the United States’ favour. This means, the onus is not so much on the United States to make a case for anything but let us remember, a key point for this meeting was to discuss about the US deporting illegal immigrants from the US to each of these countries. So that means the US wants or needs something from them. This is where they ought to use the chips to bargain in their own favour.
However, none of the presidents mentioned the impact of how funding cuts especially to critical sectors like health, where diseases like malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS would likely surge in those countries due to Trump’s actions. This would have been an opportunity for these leaders to cordially and respectfully point out to Trump that they appreciate the assistance and would love to continue the partnership on a more equitable basis whereby they can pay for these critical aspects to continue. If a country is ravaged by a public health pandemic, it would affect its economy and money that should have been used for infrastructure, schools and other physical development projects, would instead go into combatting disease because these countries still lack the capacity to deal with these massive public health emergencies. None of the leaders brought up this crucial aspect. Either because they didn’t discuss it among themselves or just were outright, unprepared for the meeting.
Secondly, the African presidents seemed to simply be saying “We have resources and rare earths. Please come and plunder them”. They told Trump what he obviously wanted to hear but none of them came across as visionary and focused. This would have been an opportunity to talk about gains and why Trump should care about investing in any of their countries. Trump is not someone who cares much about diplomatic protocols as was evident in his interactions with Zelensky and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa. So these leaders should have prepared slides, videos or flyers to hand to Trump, something visual that would make the case for either the need for investment, to show to him the people that would die because of his cutting off of critical food aid and medical aid, but they seemed to rush through their points without any clear focus. In all, this was an embarrassing display of unpreparedness, self-deprecation and a lack of pride in their countries, on the part of the African leaders. It was once more, a clear display of Trump’s lack of knowledge about Africa and the African leaders failed to be tactful in educating Trump about the potential in any of their countries or the fact that they are not all simply bushes in the wild. In all, it is safe to say that Trump was likely not convinced at the end of the day that any of these countries were worth the salt, because the leaders largely told Trump what would be pleasing to hear, not necessarily what is true or helpful to both the United States and to their respective countries. It was an exercise in bad leadership on their part and nothing to applaud about the meeting.
