Assessing George W. Bush’s Africa Policy and Suggestions for Barack Obama and African Leaders

This volume is the second in a series of books dealing with Africa-United States relations. Like this one, our first book, Stakes in Africa-United States Relations: Proposals for Equitable Partnership (2007), was also published under the auspices of the African Studies and Research Forum, an affiliate organization of the Association of Third World Studies, with funding from The African Institution in Washington, DC. The major objective of this series is to provide a new voice in the discourse on the relations between Africa and the United States. This book demonstrates that despite President George W. Bush’s unprecedented domestic disapproval rates said to be 73%, his popularity in Africa is considerably high. According to the Pew Foundations Global Attitudes Project, Bush’s approval rates in Africa average around 80%. Many Americans may find this surprising, but the Bush Administration did allocate a lot of money for humanitarian and development aid in Africa. The former President increased the United States budget for Africa from $1.4 billion when he entered office in 2001 to $5.6 billion in 2006. With his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a $15 billion AIDS treatment and prevention program launched in 2003, he increased American aid to millions in need. Alongside his support of programs serving the ill, he was also very generous in terms of debt relief to many African nations. Even on the very controversial issue of Darfur in the Sudan, Bush organized a massive humanitarian relief effort for victims and rallied for United Nations peacekeeping troops to enter the region. His track record in Africa seems to be substantial; nonetheless, many people believe that he had ulterior motives behind his humanitarian efforts.