When Barack Obama took office as president of the United States in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral national security policy toward Africa (as well as toward other parts of the world) that had been pursued by the Bush administration.

For many, expectations about the Obama administration’s approach to Africa were raised even higher by the speech that Obama delivered in Ghana in July 2009 and by the tour of Africa that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made in August 2009. But, after one year in office, it is clear that the Obama administration is essentially following the same policy that has guided US military involvement in Africa for more than a decade.

Thus, in its budget request for the State Department for the 2010 financial year the Obama administration proposed significant increases in US arms sales and military training programmes for African countries, as well as for regional programmes on the continent.

These included the Foreign Military Financing Program (to pay for arms sales to African countries), the International Military Education and Training Program (to train African military officers in the United States), the Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Partnership and the East African Regional Strategic Initiative (to provide training and equipment to the military forces of countries in North Africa, West Africa and East Africa), the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement Program (to provide equipment, infrastructure and training to police and other law enforcement units in Africa), military training programmes to help implement peace agreements (in Sudan, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo), the African Contingency Operations and Training Assistance Program (to provide training and equipment to a number of African military forces to enhance their ability to conduct peacekeeping operations and other military activities), and to several anti-terrorism programmes including the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, the Terrorist Interdiction Program, the Counterterrorism Financing Program and the Counterterrorism Engagement Program (to provide training and equipment to African countries and build ties with key political leaders on the continent).

And in its budget request for the Defense Department for the 2010 financial year, the Obama administration asked for $278 million to fund the operations of the new Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership programme from the AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

In addition, the administration requested $60 million in Defense Department funding in the 2010 financial year to pay for the operations of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), as well as $249 million to pay for the operation of the 500-acre CJTF-HOA base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti and $41.8 million for major base improvement construction projects at the base.

In addition to the Obama administration’s budget requests, the statement made by Secretary Clinton during her visit to Nigeria in August 2009 provided another indication that the new administration would continue the militarised and unilateral national security policy of its predecessor toward Africa. Following her meeting in Nigeria with Ojo Maduekwe, the foreign minister, and Godwin Abbe, the new minister of defence, Secretary Clinton was asked what the US government intended to do to help the Nigerian government establish stability and security in the Niger Delta.

‘Well, the defense minister was present at the second larger meeting that the foreign minister convened,’ she said, ‘and he had some very specific suggestions as to how the United States could assist the Nigerian Government in their efforts, which we think are very promising, to try to bring peace and stability to the Niger Delta. We will be following up on those. There is nothing that has been decided. But we have a very good working relationship between our two militaries. So I will be talking with my counterpart, the Secretary of Defense, and we will, through our joint efforts, through our bi-national commission mechanism, determine what Nigeria would want from us for help, because we know this is an internal matter, we know this is up to the Nigerian people and their government to resolve, and then look to see how we would offer that assistance.’

Thus, in addition to the security assistance programmes in the budget request for the 2010 financial year, the Obama administration is now considering providing even more military support to the Nigerian government for use in the Niger Delta if the current amnesty programme collapses, as many analysts expect, and the government resumes military operations against insurgent forces in this vital oil-producing region (which produces 10 per cent of America’s total oil imports).

Further indications of the Obama administration’s national security policy toward Africa are provided by its decision to expand US military involvement in Somalia and its decision to continue the Bush administration’s policy of unilateral military attacks against alleged al Qaeda operatives in that country. In June 2009, a senior State Department official (presumed to have been Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson) revealed that the Obama administration had initiated a programme of indirect military support for the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia (the internationally recognised government of the country, although it only exercises control over a small part of the capital, Mogadishu, and a few other towns in the southern part of the country).

According to the official, the US government was providing funding to the TFG to finance weapons purchases and had also asked the governments of Uganda and Burundi (which have deployed troops to Mogadishu under an African Union mandate to protect the TFG) to transfer weaponry from their own stockpiles to the armed forces of the TFG in exchange for promises that the US government would reimburse them. In addition, the US government made its base in Djibouti available to other governments for them to provide military training to the armed forces of the TFG.

During her visit to Kenya in August 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US government would ‘continue to provide equipment and training to the TFG’, stating ‘very early in the administration, I made the decision, which the President supported, to accelerate and provide aid to the TFG’. She went on to declare that al Shabaab, the Islamist insurgent group fighting to overthrow the TFG, was ‘a terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda and other foreign military networks’ and that they ‘see Somalia as a future haven for global terrorism’. ‘There is no doubt’, Secretary Clinton stated, ‘that al-Shabaab wants to obtain control over Somalia to use it as a base from which to influence and even infiltrate surrounding countries and launch attacks against countries far and near.’ Thus, ‘if al-Shabaab were to obtain a haven in Somalia, which would then attract al-Qaeda and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States’.

The US government arranged for the delivery of an initial supply of approximately 40 tons of small arms and ammunition worth approximately $10 million to the TFG between May and August of 2009 from the stockpiles of the AU peacekeeping force, along with between $1 million and $2 million in cash to the TFG to finance its own arms purchase, and the delivery of another 40 tons of small arms and ammunition over the following months. A number of other governments – including Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and France – are also reported to have sent military personnel to the US base in Djibouti to provide military training to TFG troops.

According to a report by the Associated Press, American officials ‘say the US military is not conducting the training and will not put any forces in Somalia’. Other countries were conducting the training, the Associated Press reported, because ‘the [Obama] administration is making a concerted effort to avoid putting any American footprint in Somalia, which would risk alienating allies and add to charges by Islamic extremists of a Western takeover.’ However, it has since become clear that most of the arms and training has been transferred to al Shabaab, either by Islamic militants who had infiltrated the TFG military forces or as a result of the sale of the weapons and ammunition on the black market.

Then, in August, US Special Forces troops attacked and killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an alleged al Qaeda operative who was accused of being involved in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, as well as other al Qaeda operations in East Africa. The US Special Forces troops carried out the attack from onboard several helicopters that had been launched from a US Navy warship off the Somali coast, using machine guns and automatic assault rifles to strafe a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles carrying Nabhan and his retinue. Following the initial assault, the helicopters landed so that their troops could seize Nabhan’s body for positive identification. It is likely that the Obama administration will conduct further military operations in Somalia since, in the words of Vice Admiral Robert Moeller, the deputy commander of AFRICOM, ‘the threat posed by al-Shabaab is something that we pay very, very close attention to’.

And in October 2009, the Obama administration announced a major new security assistance package for Mali that was delivered on 20 October 2009. The package – valued at $4.5 to $5 million (2.3 billion CFA) and which includes 37 Land Cruiser pickup trucks, communication equipment, replacement parts, clothing and other individual equipment – is intended to enhance Mali’s ability to transport and communicate with internal security (counter-insurgency) units throughout the country and control its borders. The security assistance package is officially known as a ‘Counter Terrorism Train and Equip’ (CTTE) programme. Although ostensibly intended to help Mali deal with potential threats from AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), it is more likely to be used against Tuareg insurgent forces.

In addition, between April and June of 2009, 300 US Special Forces personnel were deployed to Mali to train Malian military forces at three local bases and, according to Lieutenant Colonel Louis Sombora, deputy commander of Mali’s 33rd Parachute Regiment (which was the recipient of the new US military aid package), more than 95 per cent of his soldiers have received US military training. And in early November 2009, US Air Force Brigadier General Michael W. Callan, vice commander of the US Air Force Africa (the Air Force contingent based in Europe and dedicated to AFRICOM), visited Mali along with other US military personnel in order to inspect local military forces (including the 33rd Parachute Regiment) and tour local military facilities. According to Lieutenant Colonel Marshall Mantiply, defense attaché at the US embassy in Bamako, ‘we are working with the Mali ministry of defense on a ten-year plan’ to enhance the country’s military capabilities.

The aid package to Mali is just the latest instance of America’s growing military involvement in the Sahel region. In his testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Africa hearing on ‘Counter-terrorism in the Sahel’ on 17 November 2009, Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson identified Mali – along with Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania – as one of the ‘key countries’ in the region for the US counter-terrorism strategy. ‘We believe that our work with Mali to support more professional units capable of improving the security environment in the country will have future benefits if they are sustained’, he stated.

It is clear, therefore, that President Obama has decided to follow the path marked out for Africa by the Clinton and Bush administrations, one based on the use of military force to ensure that America can satisfy its continuing addiction to oil and to deal with the threat posed by al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups, rather than chart a new path passed on a partnership with the people of Africa and other countries that have a stake on the continent (including China) to promote sustainable economic development, democracy and human rights in Africa and a global energy order based on the use of clean, safe and renewable resources.

This is the consequence of two factors. To begin with, President Obama genuinely believes in the strategy of the global war on terrorism and thinks that Africa must be a central battlefield in America’s military campaign against al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups. Many analysts believe that terrorism does not constitute a significant threat to America’s national security interests and that it would be far more effective to treat terrorism as a crime and to reduce the threat of terrorism by employing traditional law enforcement techniques. But, as demonstrated by the president’s decision to escalate US military operations in Afghanistan, Somalia and Mali, the Obama administration is determined to use military force instead, despite the evidence that – as US military analysts argue – this only helps to strengthen terrorist groups and jeopardises other US security interests.

And with regard to America’s growing dependence on African oil supplies, President Obama understands the danger of relying upon the importation of a vital resource from unstable countries ruled by repressive, undemocratic regimes and the necessity of reducing America’s reliance on the use of oil and other non-renewable sources of energy. But, for understandable reasons, he has concluded that there is simply very little that he can do to achieve this goal during the limited time that he will be in office. He knows that it will take at least several decades to make the radical changes that will be necessary to develop alternative sources of energy, particularly to fuel cars and other means of transportation (if this is even technically feasible).

As chief of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Daniel Yohannes, is the highest ranking Ethiopian American in Obama’s government.

An Ethiopian immigrant is making history as the highest Ethiopian-American official in the Obama administration.
 
Daniel Yohannes was born in the Ethiopian capital.  He completed his elementary school at Addis Ababa’s Nativity Boy’s School and later transferred to St. Joseph’s, a prestigious Catholic high school in Addis Ababa.

“In those days people of my generation were idealistic, full of energy, with a lot of love for each other, as well as love and respect for our parents, elders, and teachers,” Yohannes says.

“Growing up in Ethiopia, we had a wonderful awareness of our country as well as the world.  We were more advanced in some ways than most teenagers today,” he says.
 
Go west, young man
 
In 1970, the 17-year-old Yohannes came to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California.  After completing high school, he pursued his undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College and went to graduate School at Pepperdine University, where he obtained his MBA.
 
Of his time in California, Yohannes says the first few years were difficult.  With no car he had to walk two to three hours a day trying to be on time for both classes and work.
 
With an undergraduate degree in economics and a graduate degree in finance, Yohannes was finally ready to plunge into the world of banking.  He worked his way up to vice chairman of the sixth largest bank in the United States, U.S. Bank, which has assets close to $260 billion.
 
For many this would have been success enough.  Not so for Daniel Yohannes.  Taking an early retirement from the bank in 2003, he co-founded one of the first “green” banks in the United States, one that specialized in funding companies creating non-polluting technologies in northern California.  Observers point out that Yohannes “went green” before the movement became fashionable.

Making a difference globally
 
The MCC was created in 2004 with a mission to reduce poverty through long-term economic growth.  According to Yohannes, the MCC was created based on best practices learned in the last four decades from other U.S. development agencies.

The MCC is very innovative in terms of its approach.  “We work with countries that have implemented good social-economic policies and are accountable for their own growth,” says Yohannes.
 
As chief executive officer of the MCC, Yohannes says he now has an opportunity to make a positive difference globally.
   
MCC equals good governance
 
Yohannes says the MCC, which has more than $7 billion available for grants, forms partnerships with some of the world’s poorest countries. But only those that invest in their citizens and are committed to good governance and to economic freedom make the cut.

Nineteen countries have entered poverty-reduction “compacts” with the organization, 12 of which are from Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Tanzania. Together, they account for over $5 billion available for projects aimed at promoting growth.
 
Yohannes tells about some of the successes.  Ghana, he points out, is making commercial agriculture more profitable and reduce the cost of transporting food from rural areas to markets.  In Lesotho, the MCC is helping the children of HIV-positive mothers live long and healthy lives by renovating health care centers and establishing clinics to distribute anti-retroviral medicines.  And in Burkina Faso, 400 classrooms have been built exclusively for girls.
 
“I’m confident that MCC’s antipoverty partnership worldwide will generate sustainable economic growth and opportunity, and this is fundamental to enhancing our collective security and common humanity for a more prosperous, peaceful world,” Yohannes told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearings.
 
Supporters say with the vast experience in the private sector that he brings to the MCC, Yohannes is well positioned to help boost African businesses and national economies.

In the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup – the first to be held in Africa – all eyes will be on soccer teams from every part of the globe. Soccer (as it is called in the United States) is understood and well-liked throughout the world, where it is usually known as “football.”

But “football” in the United States means American football, and though it is the most popular sport in the United States, it does not get much traction outside the country. While passion for American football remains almost exclusively rooted in North America, the players increasingly are from diverse backgrounds, and more and more of them are from Africa. The number of first- or second-generation American athletes from Africa has multiplied over the past few decades.

African athletes already have established a solid presence within the U.S. National Football League (NFL). In fact, an outstanding University of Nebraska athlete whose mother is from Jamaica and his father from Cameroon – Ndamukong Suh – is a top professional prospect in the United States.

One of the first African-born players to stand out in the NFL was Christian Okoye of Enugu, Nigeria, the Kansas City Chiefs running back from 1987 to 1992. Nicknamed “the Nigerian Nightmare,” Okoye still is very popular, and is remembered for his surprising speed and ability to break free from tackles.

But for many young American football enthusiasts, he represented something more: a first encounter with an African athlete, and a first connection with Africa. “Okoye was the reason I first looked up Nigeria on a map,” says Drew King, a Washington sports bar manager and football fan.

Some 20 years later, the NFL boasts dozens of athletes who are recent immigrants from Africa. Nearly every team has at least one such player, and both the Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams have four each. Immigration trends have something to do with this: more sub-Saharan Africans have immigrated to the United States over the past few decades than at any other time in history. The 2000 U.S. Census revealed that the influx of Nigerians, Ethiopians and Ghanaians, (the three largest groups of African immigrants to the United States), had increased by 370 percent, 220 percent and 235 percent, respectively, in 10 years.

Despite these gains, the sub-Saharan African-American community remains small, representing only 3.7 percent of the U.S. population, larger only than the community of immigrants from Oceania. But it is the presence in the NFL of athletes of African and Polynesian descent that has increased most dramatically in recent years.

Football requires speed, strength and size. The African football players have these traits, and they have something more: the drive and discipline to succeed on and off the field. These athletes have been shaped by challenges they faced as immigrants, and by a will to succeed instilled by parents who came to the United States to offer them a better life.

Success in the classroom, Powerhouses on the Field

Nearly all American professional football players join the NFL after going to university and playing college football, which has slightly different rules from the professional version. Though American schools offer both athletic and academic scholarships, most students obtain only one, and the competition to attain either is intense. But many of these African-American athletes in the NFL have managed to do both.

For example, for several Nigerian-American athletes currently playing for the Houston Texans, achieving academic excellence is just as important as displaying physical prowess on the field.

Xavier Adibi, the Texans’ 25-year-old linebacker, is the son an immigrant who came to Oklahoma State University to play soccer and eventually earn a doctorate in biochemistry. Along with his brother Nathaniel, Xavier attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute after graduating from high school as a Virginia state champion. Throughout his high school, college and professional careers, Adibi has been praised for being smart as well as fast.

Ndamukong Suh, a Cameroonian American currently completing his studies at the University of Nebraska, is widely considered to be one of the best professional prospects in the United States.

Frank Okam, a defensive tackle, earned his degree in sports management from the University of Texas in three and a half years. Despite the class load, Okam was a five-time member of the university’s Athletic Director’s Honor Roll and a member of a national championship team.

Amobi Okoye, also a defensive tackle, is considered by some to be one of football’s most remarkable prodigies. Born in Anambra, Nigeria, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama, at age 12. After spending two weeks in middle school, he was promoted to high school freshman. As a sophomore, he took up football and quickly mastered the sport as both a defensive and an offensive lineman. At 16, he entered the University of Louisville and became the youngest player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Also graduating a semester early, Okoye became the youngest player to be drafted in the first round of the draft by the NFL at age 19. He plans to continue his education at Harvard University, where he was accepted in 2005, after he retires from professional football.

Lives Transformed, Careers Shaped by Hardship

Other African NFL players are able to overcome challenges on the field in part because they have already overcome the challenges of conflict, poverty and loss.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mathias Kagimu Kiwanuka, a defensive end for the New York Giants, is also a proud son of Uganda. While studying at Boston College, Kiwanuka kept a Ugandan flag on display in his dorm room in remembrance of his grandfather Benedicto Kiwanuka, who was elected the first prime minister of Uganda in 1961 and assassinated by Idi Amin supporters in 1972. Shortly after fleeing the political turmoil that left thousands dead during Amin’s dictatorship, his parents divorced. His mother began a housecleaning business to provide for her three children.

Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe was born in Birmingham, England, shortly after his mother escaped Liberia as civil war broke out in 1980. Fearing that her sons’ lives might be endangered by the conflict that ravaged the country for nearly two decades, she left a comfortable lifestyle and eventually sacrificed her marriage to secure a safe environment in Washington for her children. Working two jobs and sewing her own clothes, she has provided Shiancoe with a lifelong role model, and he credits his ability to bounce back on the field to his African mother’s unwavering resilience.

African and American Champions, Local and Global Role Models

Many of the recent African immigrants in the NFL have chosen to give back to their communities, both in the United States and in Africa, and have become role models for youth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Akinola “Akin” Ayodele, a Nigerian-American linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, is famous for his strong faith and commitment to giving back. Having already won several awards for his advocacy on behalf of the poor and the sick, he recently founded Akin’s PATH, a charitable organization that partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami to mentor underprivileged youth. The foundation also calls on all Dolphins fans to volunteer as mentors.

Cincinnati Bengals safety Chinedum Ndukwe belongs to a prominent Nigerian-American family. His older brothers include Ikechuku, an offensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins, and Kelechi, an Iraq war veteran who currently serves as the U.S. Navy liaison to the U.S. Senate. After attending Harvard Business School during the offseason, Chinedum began a trust fund with his brother Ikechuku, with the intention of launching a charitable organization that would enable them to give back to both their hometown and their homeland. The now-operational Ndukwe Foundation promotes well-being and healthy lifestyles in local communities and across the Atlantic. In addition to financing an entire football season for a youth team in one of the most underprivileged neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio, Chinedum visited Nigeria with Ikechuku to start a football camp where their parents were born and raised.

New York Jets safety James Ihedigbo’s parents, Rose and Apollos, left Nigeria in the 1970s and settled in Amherst, Massachusetts, where they raised four children and both earned doctorates from the University of Massachusetts. After playing basketball, lacrosse and track in high school, James also went on to study at the University of Massachusetts, majoring in sociology. His combined passions for athletics, education and social issues have led him to reach out to youth in both the United States and Africa. He frequently visits schools to engage students in discussions about the importance of hard work and faith. He also advocates for, and spends time with, children suffering from sickle cell anemia, a disease affecting about one in every 500 African Americans. Following his parents, who returned to Nigeria to establish the Nigerian Agricultural Technical Community College, James recently founded the Hope Africa Foundation, a charitable organization that provides young Nigerians with scholarships to ensure the completion of their education.

One of the greatest obstacles to diversity in the world of American football is the sport’s relative nonexistence outside the United States. Although the NFL has organized several overseas expansion games, none have yet taken place in Africa.

Ashton Youboty, a Liberian-American cornerback for the Buffalo Bills, told the cable sports network ESPN in 2006 that “good athletes come from all over. I’m sure there are a lot of world-class athletes in Africa right now, people whose skills would allow them to play in the NFL if they just got the right break. I was lucky. … How many other African kids do you think there are who could do the same thing if they learned the game? The truth is, a lot, I’m sure.”

At a time when cell phones and the Internet are closing cultural and communication gaps that once separated Africa from the rest of the world, news of the rise in high-profile African players in the NFL may lead African audiences to become familiar with – and fans of – American football.