Category: Opinion

Opinion

Dear Black America: You Should Be Paying Attention to Africa

By Patrick Washington | San Diego Voices and Viewpoints

In the last month of 2022, The United States hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. The goal of this summit was to expand relations between the U.S. and the continent of Africa.

Well, really, it’s because China is kicking ass in diplomatic, economic, and virtually every other major area in Africa’s ascension, and the U.S. is woefully underprepared for a world where the world’s largest resources center and the world’s largest manufacturer get along — and the world’s most powerful nation isn’t invited to the cookout.

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Opinion

How the United States Can Shape Africa’s Future

by Dramane Chabi Bouko | NATIONAL INTEREST

The Department of State’s Bureau of Africa Affairs provides three core objectives for U.S. foreign policy towards Africa: “1) Advancing trade and commercial ties with key African states to increase the U.S. and African prosperity; 2) Protecting the United States from cross-border health and security threats; and 3) Supporting key African states’ progress toward stability, citizen-responsive governance, and self-reliance.”

Examining these objectives and their on-the-ground impacts, separating health and security threats, creates four unique strategic priorities.

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Opinion

Nkrumah and football | how Ghana’s top players ended up in North America

By Ernest Yeboah Acheampong |Conversation

African footballers have been migrating overseas since the 1920s, when French leagues attracted some West African players. The migration of African talent to Europe intensified from the 1980s to the 2000s. Thousands of African footballers have since found their way to Europe. Many have succeeded in carving a niche for themselves, like Abedi Pele, Didier Drogba, George Weah and Samuel Eto’o. The performances of these stars have reinforced the perception that the African continent has some of the best football talent.

Less is known about the history of African footballers moving to North America.

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Music, Opinion

Who is Nigerian music star Wizkid – and why is he taking over the world?

By Samson Uchenna Eze | Conversation

The global appreciation of West Africa’s Afrobeats music has grown significantly in the last decade. Afrobeats stars are touring the world, racking up record sales, winning awards and collaborating with big-name international artists. In fact, seven of the nine African artists nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award – one of the world’s most sought after music awards – are West African. Most of these make music driven by Afrobeats sounds.

Afrobeats is a broad, generic term for African contemporary popular music with rhythmic and harmonic influences of West Africa’s highlife and Afrobeat traditions and Euro-American funk and hip-hop.

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African Politics, Opinion

Ethiopia’s national dialogue can bring hope to the American Ethiopian community

by WASSY TESFA | New York Amsterdam News

Ever since the conflict in Northern Ethiopia began in November 2020, the American Ethiopian community has felt perplexed and frustrated. We had to watch the conflict unfold with a sense of helplessness at not being able to save our friends and family. Our repeated attempts to clarify the situation and secure attention and support from political leaders in the United States have fallen on deaf ears.

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Opinion

Africa and Its Diasporas|From Pan-Africanism to Developmentalism to Transnationalism

By Paul Tiyambe Zeleza | The Elephant

Studies of Africa and its diasporas have largely been framed through the paradigms of Pan-Africanism and developmentalism. The persistent and pressing demands of Pan-African unity and African development have increasingly privileged the engagements of the new extra-continental diasporas that have grown rapidly and eclipsed previous preoccupations with the historic diasporas that remain globally dominant.

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Opinion

Examing the poor relations between Black Americans and black Africans

By Miriam Tose Majome| Newsday

THE relationship between black Americans and black Africans has been a subject of interest for social scientists and writers for a long time.Some black Africans, especially students w ho go to live in the United States are often unprepared for the reality of the poor relations that exist between black Africans and black Americans.

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Opinion

African immigrants in the US poised to influence domestic policy

By Yaw Okyere Thompson | Quartz Africa

Before a crowded room of election-night supporters—many of whom looked like her—newly elected congresswoman Ilhan Omar described the historic occasion of her victory. “I stand here before you with many firsts behind my name: The first woman of color to represent our state in Congress; the first woman to wear a Hijab to represent us in Congress; the first refugee elected to Congress; and one of the first Muslims elected to Congress.” The Somali American politician paved the way to victory with the support of the Somali community in Minnesota.

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Opinion

Does Africa Matter to the United States?

By Charles Ray | Foreign Policy Research Institute

Most Americans generally have one of two images of Africa: a primitive home of famine, disease, and civil war, or an idyllic motherland. Neither image is entirely correct. While Africa does have more than its fair share of problems and is the homeland of many Americans, it is a diverse continent of more than 50 nations and hundreds of ethnicities and languages.

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Opinion

Black immigration’s success story

By George Fishman | Newsday

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s inspiring rebuttal to President Biden’s address to Congress last month was controversial because as an African American he proclaimed that “America is not a racist country,” but “the greatest country on Earth.” Yet, despite widespread reporting of our racial strife, Black immigrants continue to come to America in ever-increasing numbers. Once here, their belief in American greatness remains intact.

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Opinion

Africa is America’s greatest geopolitical opportunity. Does the US know it?

By Rama Yade | Atlantic Council

As the world celebrates Africa Day, which commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity on May 25, 1963. On that day, as two-thirds of the continent obtained independence, thirty-two African nations met in Addis Ababa, hosted by Haile Selassie, in order to establish the institution.

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Opinion

Does Africa Matter to the United States?

By Charles A. Ray | Foreign Policy Research Institute

Most Americans generally have one of two images of Africa: a primitive home of famine, disease, and civil war, or an idyllic motherland. Neither image is entirely correct. While Africa does have more than its fair share of problems and is the homeland of many Americans, it is a diverse continent of more than 50 nations and hundreds of ethnicities and languages; Africa is also the youngest continent in the world with a host of possibilities for the future. Other than those Americans of African ancestry, does this matter to the people of the United States? Should it matter? Why do we even need to ask this question? We rarely ever see articles about whether or not Europe or Asia matters to the United States. For a whole host of reasons, the answer to these questions is yes.

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Opinion

Trump is out, but US evangelicalism remains alive and well in Africa

By  Dion Forster | The Conversation

On the day before the 2020 US presidential election, Reverend Kenneth Meshoe, the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party in South Africa, tweeted: “Please pray… for President Donald Trump to be re-elected”. It seems bizarre that a black African Christian would support an overt racist who disdains people who come from “shithole countries”.

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Opinion

Let us now celebrate immigrants of color to Kentucky

BY ANGENE WILSON | Lexington Herald Leader

On Jan. 20, 2021 Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Asian-American mother and father from Jamaica, will take the oath of office as the Vice President of the United States. Let us now celebrate immigrants of color. In 2013, we began to interview immigrants from African countries for what we titled “African Immigrants in the Bluegrass,” an oral history project at University of Kentucky’s Nunn Center for Oral History. We completed almost 50 interviews in 2017, just before President Trump’s infamous comment in 2018 about immigrants from “s—hole countries.”

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Opinion

What Joe Biden’s Africa strategy might look like

BY MICHAEL SHURKIN | TheHill

The election of Joe Biden as the next president may present the United States with a welcome opportunity to reset its relationship with sub-Saharan Africa. Two of the priorities of the Trump administration in the region had merit, namely a focus on competition with China and a reduced emphasis on counter-terrorism.

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Opinion

Kenya | Kisii Rides on Its Sons and Daughters in the Diaspora

By Ruth Mbula | Nation

They say that east or west, home is best. This old adage is best exemplified in Kisii County, at least when it comes to people working in foreign countries pushing up development in their native communities. When President Uhuru Kenyatta toured Kisii in October, he observed that members of the Abagusii community are industrious and innovative.

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Opinion

Obama didn’t deliver for Africa. Can Biden show black lives matter everywhere?


By Vava Tampa | The Guardian

How different is the Biden-Harris administration’s Africa policy going to be from Donald Trump’s, or even Barack Obama’s? Many African people, as well as the continent’s strongman leaders, are now gingerly asking – is Biden going to be Obama 2.0, or Trump-lite? For the sake of black lives mattering everywhere in these turbulent times, I hope Biden will chart a bold new course, diametrically away from not only Trump but also Obama’s Africa policy.

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Opinion

America Voted in Favor of Refugees and Immigrants

By Ethiopian Community Development Council | Connection Newspapers

America has decidedly voted in favor of refugees and immigrants in this 2020 election, showing their support with the victory of President-Elect Joe Biden, and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, who ran on campaign promises to restore the asylum system, increase the annual cap of refugee arrivals to 125,000, and end the discriminatory travel bans.

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Opinion

What the Biden Presidency Could Mean for Africa


By Leah Feiger and  Zecharias Zelalem

In the summer of 2010, then-Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Africa. He stopped in Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa, where he met with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, spoke with Sudanese and Kenyan presidents and prime ministers in Nairobi, and celebrated the World Cup while linking up with leaders in South Africa. 

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Opinion

Nigeria’s SARS Crisis Demands U.S. Attention

by The Editorial Board | The Emory Wheel

During a turbulent two-week protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the notoriously corrupt Nigerian police unit, a speaker told protesters to wave the Nigerian flag and sing the national anthem, saying, “no soldier can shoot any citizen holding their own national flag.” Yet soldiers and police officers murdered 12 unarmed civilians. Pictures of bloodied civilians and flags soon flooded social media. 

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Opinion

What American schools should teach about race, racism and slavery

By Dennis Prager | Liberal First

Regarding race and much else, America’s students are not taught history. In fact, they are not taught; they are indoctrinated. With anti-Americanism. The purpose of all teaching about race in American schools is to engender contempt for America. They are, therefore, “taught” the lies of The New York Times’ “1619 Project” — that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery — and of such works as Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility.”

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Opinion

Americans find their inner Mugabe

By Tim Cohen | Daily Maverick

One of the funniest and poignant portrayals of soon-to-be former US president Donald Trump came, somewhat inevitably, from comedian Trevor Noah. Noah made the point in jest, but there are often few truths that hit home harder than when they are spoken with a smile.

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Opinion

Mr. President-Elect, Please Don’t Forget Us Billion Africans

By Ivor Ichikowitz | US News

DEAR MR. President-elect: Africa is watching in amazement as America faces what many perceive to be an existential crisis. Never before has the world’s most powerful country been so divided. From continued social injustice and the storming of streets across the country in protest, to lockdowns and mass unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic, to present-day controversies over vote-counting, the only thing that is seemingly certain in the United States is uncertainty.

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Opinion

Chibuihe Obi Achimba | Gay in Nigeria, Black Male in America

By Chibuihe Obi Achimba | The New York Times

I came to the United States in 2019 as a scholar-at-risk fellow at Harvard University. After I was kidnapped and tortured in Nigeria for being gay and daring to speak openly about it America offered me refuge. But this spring after videos of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd surfaced, I’m coming to terms with the fact that the country that promised me safety is one where Black men like me face a different kind of danger.

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Opinion

The Rise of Nigerian-Americans in American Democracy

By Chido Nwangwu | Thisday Newspaper

The November 3, 2020 presidential and congressional elections in the United States continue to show aspects of the beauty of its recent democratic traditions. Especially the opportunity it gives to recent immigrants — required to be citizens of the United States regardless of where they come from — to compete in the civic battle of ideas. Alongside many other candidates, 12 Nigerian-Americans and African immigrants joined in making history. One such person is Dr. Adeoye ‘Oye’ Owolewa.

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Opinion

The Biden Administration’s Approach to Africa

 by John Campbell | Council on Foreign Relations

Though still not certain, Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris will likely be elected president and vice president of the United States. A Biden administration’s approach to Africa will depend on policy but also on who the president appoints to his cabinet and senior positions.

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Opinion

Bo Machayo | My African history could shape your American future

By Bo Machayo | Q City Metro

My family’s story, like those of so many other American families, begins with immigration. My mother fled Uganda as a refugee in 1984. She was drawn to America because she saw a nation where she could expand her potential – and as a single mother to my three younger siblings and me, she taught all of us that here we, too, could grow, develop and succeed.

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Opinion

Black Immigrants in the United States Have Been Targeted by Trump

BY RUTH ETIESIT SAMUEL | Teen Vogue

In the final presidential debate, in what felt like the midnight hour of an endless campaign, just six minutes and three seconds were allotted to a dialogue that shaped Donald Trump’s entire ascent to politics. Each debate felt like a perpetual will-they-or-won’t-they dance, waiting for the candidates to discuss it. Along with other immigrants and children of immigrants across the country, I listened to Trump lie about children being brought in “through cartels, through coyotes, and through gangs” and pat himself on the back for his policies, deflecting responsibility for the 545 children his administration separated from their parents at the border.

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Opinion

Gbenga Ogunjimi | A Nigerian “Embracing my American Blackness.”

By Gbenga Ogunjimi | Washington Business Journal

I am an international entrepreneur living in America. I am demographically classified as Black, a cultural identity that I relish with pride. Like many who fall in this category, I never considered myself Black until I came to America — since everyone looked like me in my home country of Nigeria.

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