President Donald Trump has yet to set foot in Africa as the US’s top leader, yet Africa is very much on the minds of American foreign policymakers. At the heart of the modern-day scramble for Africa is access to its undiscovered natural resources, which every global big player is seeking to take home and solve a myriad of its internal problems.
Africa, too, is emerging from a condemned black continent to cheap labour and natural resources. The younger generation is booming and demands its fair share of Africa’s potential riches. They are more educated than their parents and less willing to play second fiddle to others. They expect to be richer than their parents, but their dreams are unlikely to be realized.
From Kenya to West and North Africa, a second wind of change is brewing. If the first wind of change that blew across Africa was about the veneer of freedoms, whether economic or political, this second gush of wind now sweeping across Africa is demanding tangible economic and political liberties: if Africa is prosperous, so should its people be rich.
The younger generation is unlikely to accept endemic poverty while their leaders and their families live like Oil Sheikhs. If Africa is indeed prosperous, the younger generation wants their fair share of the pie. No more suffering while a coterie of local and foreign rulers are eating the national cake on their behalf.
African leaders, such as the DRC president, Felix Tshisekedi, appear to have overlooked the stringent requirements of the 21st Century, which are largely dictated by the Information Age. Felix Tshisekedi, brazenly, has asked President Trump to defend his country in a forlorn hope of handing him trillions worth of natural resources!
Tshisekedi fails to grasp that the Mobutu era kleptocracy is now placed under the sword by M-23. No more African rulers bartering African riches to benefit themselves and their imperial masters. The US understands that Tshisekedi has outlived his purpose and is attempting to exploit American Conglomerates’ avarice for super profits to lure them into a protracted conflict in the Eastern DRC.
The US has sidestepped the Tshisekedi snares and is exploring how to disarm the intransigent Rwanda to disarm M-23. That is not gonna happen. M-23 isn’t answerable to Rwanda but to her burgeoning youth. Their demand is simple: jobs for themselves. They too want to live well, and castrate running away from their own beautiful countries and become illegal immigrants in hostile overseas nations. Paradoxically, the very host countries that had sucked their blood white!
Why the US is on “charm offensive” with African leaders, not Africans?
The real reason is that geopolitics has turned the exploitation game upside down. With the Ukrainian war now marking 3 years, and no end in sight, the expansion of NATO in former WARSAW countries has come with its mega bill. EU nations are delinking from Russia, a godly enriched nation, condemning their people to the miseries of poverty. Unemployment and deindustrialization in EU countries are unprecedented.
It narrates why EU governments are teetering on the brink of collapse. The electorate has sacked most EU ruling parties, and the incoming parties keep playing the same old “Rusophobia tune”. They have angered voters. Now the Labour Party that swept into power on the terrain of fixing the UK economy has run out of steam and is now turning into a conflict like the Ukraine conflict as its nonparied scapegoat: blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not NATO expansion to cover its failed policies of antagonism.
France must intervene judicially to prevent Marine Le Pen, the most popular candidate, from becoming the president. They convicted her of corruption and slapped her with a lifetime ban from politics. Their apprehension of Marine Le Pen is that she would draw France closer to Russia, and yank France away from NATO.
The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, isn’t expected to last a year thanks to his chronic Russophobia. He needed a second vote to win the “chancellorship,” which highlights his vulnerability. Most in the EU fail to grasp Angela Dorothea Merkel, who served Germany as chancellor from 2005 to 2021, an incredible 16 years or so, because she loved Russia with all her heart. Having been born and raised in East Germany helped a lot. “From Russia with Love” ensured Merkel ruled Germany uninterrupted, and she oversaw the most significant leap in economic development. Germans didn’t love her for nothing, but she delivered connecting Russian cheap fossils to energy-hungry German industries. It was the most beneficial “symbiotic association” Europe had seen now in tatters to prolong NATO’s days in an ICU unit.
In another former WARSAW member, judicial mischief was employed to derail a popular Russian sympathiser from becoming their ruler! Wasn’t it Romania that, together with Poland, are major conduits of arming Ukraine to murder innocent Russians whose crime is self-emancipation from Rusophobia?
“Instead of a runoff, they’ll have a rerun”: Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the country’s first-round presidential election, in which dark horse candidate Calin Georgescu won the most votes. The court’s order that the presidential electoral process must be “entirely redone” comes after Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports alleging a Russian interference campaign geared toward benefiting Georgescu on TikTok and Telegram! Could the election repeat what the so-called “declassified intelligence” had alerted the authorities, whose conflict of interest knows no bounds?
It was when democracy works for NATO, but if it works against it, the strategy is to blame Russia for sabotaging Western democracy. Western democracy is all about matters of “convenience,” not real people’s power at the ballot box.
NATO has become rudderless after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It lacks a credible enemy to justify enriching her defence contractors while bilking their own people and the rest of the world to bankroll their military supremacist utopia. Now they had to demonize Russia in order to justify the existence of a dinosaur in NATO.
All the NATO members pressured by the US to squeeze their own people and increase defence budgets, most of which will be gobbled up by the American defence contractors! The EU is a country with natural resources malnourished, and has been knocking on African doors with lots of development aid and signing off illegal contracts to solve its own domestic, self-inflicted economic wounds. Ineptitude of African leadership is African bane.
In Europe, natural resources sufficiency is only possible if the EU taps into Russian gas and oil. They sanctioned Russia and the cost of doing that is now shedded on the hapless African continent. Instead of optimising the exploitation of European natural resources, Europe is invoking colonial tactics to milk Africa dry amidst the EU’s influx of African illegal immigrants. Global poverty is a geopolitical self-made problem that is making the world more of a hell than heaven it was supposed to be.
Trump too has inherited not only “hate Russia” but “contain china” too! The US foreign policy is dedicated to undermine China as an emerging economic and military superpower. The US has attempted to impose sanctions of all kinds on China but little do they know China is well prepared to counter the US with her own toolbox.
The US is devoid of precious earth minerals that are largely extracted in China. These minerals are vital in powering magnets needed in almost anything you dream to support modernity. From EV, military planes, just name them those metals are holed up somewhere in China.
Precious earth minerals, also known as rare earth elements (REEs), are a group of 17 chemically similar metallic elements that are crucial for numerous modern technologies and industries. Their unique properties, such as magnetism, luminescence, and catalytic activity, make them indispensable in various applications, including electronics, clean energy, aerospace, and healthcare.
The global availability of precious earth minerals is unevenly distributed, with China holding the largest reserves of rare earth elements, followed by Brazil, India, and Australia. While China dominates production and processing, other countries like the United States, Russia, and Vietnam also have significant reserves. The demand for these minerals is increasing due to their use in technology and clean energy, creating a need for diversification of supply chains.
The US feeling cornered is enticing China to lower her guard while the US is buying time to establish other options with African continent very much in sight of deep exploitation. US exploitation of these rare earth minerals is compounded by many factors to an extent it will not pay off in a short run demanding exploration elsewhere.
This now explains why the US loves Africa and if you had watched the Liberian president calling Donald Trump “SIR” and how Trump was ingratiated with that flattery you will know how intellectually bankrupted African leaders are. Not thinking of tackling their own multitude problems but extremely eager to address imperialist inclinations of exploitation of Africa at the expense of their own people. It explains why Africa is increasingly becoming an accursed continent of “forever civil wars.” and a nuisance “jugular vein” of illegal immigrants.
What Africans ought to learn by heart is hereby enumerated.
The effectiveness of Trump’s strategy to counter Chinese and Russian influence in Africa hinges on resolving fundamental contradictions in U.S. policy. While geopolitical maneuvering is evident, structural flaws and African agency create significant obstacles to success.
⚖️ 1. Diplomatic Missteps Undermining Trust.
– Cultural Insensitivity:
Trump’s condescending remarks to Liberia’s President Boakai (“Such beautiful English”)—despite English being Liberia’s official language since the 1800s—highlight a perception gap. Many Liberians viewed this as racial profiling, reinforcing historical stereotypes.
– Exclusionary Engagement:
The selective White House summit included only five West African nations (Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau), excluding major economies like Nigeria and South Africa due to their BRICS affiliations. This alienates key partners needed for regional leverage.
– Visa Restrictions:
New travel bans target 36+ African countries, with business/student visa denial rates exceeding 50%—double Asia’s rates. This contradicts “partnership” rhetoric and pushes talent toward China, which approves ~90,000 African student visas annually.
💱 2. Flawed Economic Pivot: “Trade Not Aid”.
– Aid Cuts, Few Trade Incentives:
USAID’s dissolution has crippled health systems in Liberia (HIV drug shortages) and Sahel nations. Meanwhile, Trump’s global tariffs impose 15-50% duties on African exports, while China offers zero-tariff access to 53 nations.
– Resource Extraction Focus:
The White House summit centered on minerals (Gabon’s uranium, Mauritania’s lithium), mirroring the DRC-Rwanda “peace for minerals” deal. However, U.S. investors resist African ventures due to perceived risks, unlike Chinese state-backed firms.
– AGOA Expiration:
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (duty-free U.S. market access) expires in September 2025 with no replacement. This voids America’s primary trade framework with Africa.
🛡️ 3. Security Withdrawal and Instability.
– Counterterrorism Retreat:
AFRICOM is reducing Sahel operations despite jihadist advances toward West African coasts. U.S. drone strikes now focus only on Somalia (protecting Red Sea shipping), abandoning Sahel allies to Russian Wagner forces.
– Ignoring Conflict Drivers:
Cuts to rural development programs (e.g., Niger’s pre-coup initiatives) eliminate alternatives to jihadist recruitment. As Chatham House notes, “Business needs stability”—which U.S. policy no longer fosters.
🧱 4. African Leverage and Multipolarity.
– Youth Demands & Sovereignty:
As user notes, Africa’s youth (median age 19) reject exploitative deals. Nigeria’s foreign minister warned that U.S. visa bans “are non-tariff barriers to deals,” implying mineral pacts could go to BRICS partners instead.
– China/Russia’s Advantages:
– China:
Trade with Africa hit $134B in early 2025 (vs. U.S. $32B in 2024), port investments (e.g., Gabon), and scholarships.
– Russia:
Security contracts with junta-led Sahel states and BRICS economic integration.
– “Keep Your America” Sentiment:
As Al Jazeera‘s Zimbabwean columnist asserts, Trump’s policies inadvertently push Africa toward self-reliance: “We will keep our Africa”.
💎 Conclusion: Self-Defeating Strategy.
Trump’s approach fails because it “prioritizes extraction over partnership”, “undercuts soft power” (visas/aid cuts), and “ignores African agency”. China and Russia gain by offering what Africa demands: “infrastructure without condescension” (China) and “security without democracy lectures” (Russia). Unless the U.S. aligns with Africa’s youth-driven economic sovereignty—not Cold War-style resource grabs—it will lose the “new scramble” .
> “The epicenter of terrorism” is also the epicenter of neglected opportunity.* — AFRICOM Commander.
Competing Powers in Africa: Comparative Strategies.
| No. | Dimension. | U.S. Under Trump. | China. | Russia. |
| 1.0 | Economic Model. | “Trade not aid”; tariffs up to 50%. | Zero-tariff access; $134B trade (2025). | BRICS-focused; energy deals: natural gas exploitation in Mozambique, Nuclear energy facilitator. |
| 2.0 | Security Role. | Withdrawing from Sahel; drone strikes in Somalia only. | Port investments; no direct military. | Wagner Group; junta alliances in West Africa. |
| 3.0 | Public Perception. | Visa bans; cultural gaffes. | Scholarships; infrastructure. | Anti-Western propaganda, |
| 4.0 | Key Weakness. | Contradictory policies (e.g., tariffs vs. “trade”). | Debt-trap accusations. | Limited economic resources. |
