WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will seek to deepen and reshape US relations in Africa during a weeklong trip that is the latest and most high-profile outing for the Biden administration as it moves to counter China’s growing influence.
Harris, who is traveling with her husband, Doug Emhoff, plans to visit Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, focusing on economic development, climate change, food security and growing youth. She is scheduled to arrive in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Sunday.
“For too long, the US foreign policy establishment has treated Africa as some kind of extra credit project and not part of the core curriculum,” said Michelle Gavin, an Africa expert at the Council of Foreign Affairs and former US Ambassador to Botswana. “I see a great effort to change that thinking now. But it takes time.
In Africa, Harris will be closely watched as the first person of color and the first woman to serve as Vice President of the United States. Her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica; Harris grew up in California.
“Everyone is excited about Kamala Harris,” said Idayat Hassan, director of the Center for Democracy and Development in Abuja, Nigeria. «You can be anything you can think of, that’s what she represents to a lot of us.»
A centerpiece of Harris’ trip will be a speech in Accra and a visit to Cape Coast Castle, where enslaved Africans were once loaded onto ships for America. Harris also plans to meet with the leaders of each country he visits and lay a wreath to commemorate the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.
Your itinerary also includes several less traditional stops meant to highlight the dynamic future of a continent where the average age is just 19.
Harris plans to visit a recording studio and meet with women entrepreneurs in Accra and stop by a technology incubator in Dar es Salaam. In Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, Harris is expected to meet with business and philanthropic leaders to discuss expanding access to digital and financial systems.
The hope, administration officials said, is to present Africa as a place for investment, not just aid packages, a theme Harris emphasized in December during a US-Africa summit in Washington.
“I am optimistic about what lies ahead for Africa, and by extension the world because of you, because of your energy, your ambition and your ability to turn seemingly intractable problems into opportunities,” he said. «Simply put: your ability to see what can be, without the burden of what has been.»
The trip includes three nights in Ghana, two nights in Tanzania and one in Zambia, before Harris returns to Washington on April 2.
“This is a journey to support reformers,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, co-director of the Africa Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution. “All three countries have been going through significant challenges and changes.”
Ghana is grappling with a debt crisis and high inflation, dragging down an economy that was once one of the strongest in the region. He is also wary of the instability of Islamist militants and Russian mercenaries operating in nations north of Ghana.
Tanzania has its first female president and has lifted bans on opposition parties and rallies. Zambia has made its own changes, such as decriminalizing defamation of the president. However, democratic progress is believed to be fragile in both places.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and First Lady Jill Biden have already been to Africa on their own trips. President Joe Biden is expected to leave at the end of this year.
Harris will be returning to Zambia for the first time since visiting as a child when her maternal grandfather worked there. She was an Indian civil servant who helped resettle refugees after Zambia gained independence from Britain.
Harris writes in his book that «Grandpa was one of my favorite people in the world and one of the earliest and most lasting influences on my life.»
The US-Africa summit held in December was the only one since 2014 that was hosted by President Barack Obama. While Washington’s approach to Africa has featured some historic successes (for example, President George W. Bush’s initiative to fight HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives), there have also been periods of neglect.
“There is a lot of doubt and skepticism about America’s staying power,” said Daniel Russel, a former State Department official who now works at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “They are very familiar with American promises that dry up and don’t amount to much.”
It’s a stark contrast to China, which has also spearheaded far-reaching infrastructure projects and expanded telecom operations there.
John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said last week that African leaders are «beginning to realize that China is not really their friend.»
«China’s interests in the region are purely selfish, unlike those of the United States,» he said. “We are really committed to trying to help our African friends with a number of challenges.”
Senior administration officials have been careful not to paint Harris’s trip as another move in a geopolitical rivalry, an approach that could alienate African leaders wary of taking sides among the world’s superpowers.
Now they wait to see what Harris and the United States can offer over the next week.
“She has a very good reputation in Africa, because of her profile,” said Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. «But beyond that, very soon, public opinion in the three countries will have expectations.»