A declining or stable image? An assessment of the United States' soft power in Africa

Abstract

While the concept of soft power was coined by US scholar Joseph Nye in the early 1990s, the scholarly analysis of the US soft power in Africa remains scarce. This article seeks to engage with the question of soft power arising from US policies, political values and cultural exports in Africa. It employs both primary and secondary data, and focuses on the soft power impact of AGOA and PEPFAR on African perspectives on the US, as well as the impact of US popular culture, brands and educational exchange. The article found that, despite surveys pointing to increasing anti-US sentiments globally in the 21^st century, Washington still wields significant soft power in Africa.

Keywords:

• United States
• Africa
• soft power
• culture
• political values

Notes on Contributor

Oluwaseun Tella's research interests include Soft Power, Foreign Policy, Comparative Politics and African Politics.

Notes

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5 One exception would be the military mission in Somalia, under the umbrella of a UN peacekeeping operation, in late 1993. As this ended badly, with the death of 18 American soldiers and a humiliating show of defiance by Somali warlords, there was little incentive to send troops to Rwanda in 1994.

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17 Williams B, African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Background and Reauthorization. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2015.

18 Ibid.

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33 See ‘Ouch! China's imports from Africa shrank nearly 40% in 2015 – it could get really painful for these countries', Mail & Guardian, 13 January 2016, http://mgafrica.com/article/2016-01-13-chinas-imports-from-africa-plummet-in-2015-officials (accessed 29 March 2016); Business Day, ‘“Africa writhing” in the harsh reality of Chinese slowdown’, 27 January 2016, http://www.bdlive.co.za/africa/africanbusiness/2016/01/27/africa-writhing-in-the-harsh-reality-of-chinese-slowdown (accessed 29 March 2016).

34 Hackbarth J, ‘Soft power and smart power in Africa’, Strategic Insight, 8.1, 2009, pp. 1–19.

35 See PEPFAR 2015 Annual Report to Congress, 2015, http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/239006.pdf (accessed 23 November 2015).

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37 Hackbarth J, ‘Soft power and smart power in Africa’, Strategic Insight, 8.1, 2009, pp. 1–19.

38 See http://www.pepfar.gov/countries/nigeria/ (accessed 27 March 2016).

39 See http://www.pepfar.gov/countries/southafrica/ (accessed 27 March 2016).

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43 Ibid.

44 Ibid. Also, Mbeki provided an ideological cover (African Renaissance and African solutions to African problems) for his distrust of Western pharmaceutical companies and resistance to Western imperialism in general. To this end, he promoted policies in favour of indigenous knowledge as against Western prescription on HIV/AIDS. For more on this, see Kravtsov V, Norm Diffusion and HIV/AIDS Governance in Putin's Russia and Mbeki's South Africa. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2015.

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46 Pereira R, Recipient States in Global Health Politics: PEPFAR in Africa. London: Palgrave Macmillian, 2014.

47 Diven P, ‘U.S. AIDS policy in Africa: Balancing competing interests in PEPFAR policymaking’, in Mangala J (ed.) Africa and the New World Era: From Humanitarian to a Strategic View. London: Palgrave Macmillian, 2010, p. 243.

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52 Ibid, p. 47.

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55 Nye J, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs, 2004, p. 61.

56 Ibid.

57 Cooke J & J Morrison, ‘A smarter US Approach to Africa’, in Cooke J & J Morrison (eds) US Africa Policy Beyond the Bush Years: Critical Challenges for the Obama Administration. Washington, DC: Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.

58 Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, ‘The burden of HIV/AIDS: Implications for U.S. interests’, in Preparing for the Future of HIV/AIDS in Africa: A Shared Responsibility. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2011, pp. 42–69.

59 Ibid., p. 48.

60 Personal interview, American scholar, Massachusetts, 7 May 2013.

61 Ibid.

62 Personal interview, Nigerian scholar 2, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 12 June 2013.

63 Personal Interview, Nigerian scholar 1, Ibadan, Nigeria, 14 November 2013.

64 Personal Interview, South African scholar 2, Johannesburg, South Africa, 31 October 2013.

65 Personal interview, Nigerian scholar 2, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 12 June 2013.

66 See Time Magazine, ‘See the most googled person in each country in 2015’, http://time.com/4157975/kim-kardashian-lionel-messi-most-googled-people/ (accessed 30 March 2016).

67 Adedeji W, ‘African popular culture and the path of consciousness: Hip hop and the culture of resistance in Nigeria’, Postcolonial Texts, 8.3–4, 2013, pp. 1–18.

68 Nye J, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.

69 Clark M, ‘Hip hop as social commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam’, African Studies Quarterly, 13.3, 2012, pp. 23–46.

70 Lo S, ‘Building our nation: Senegalese hip hop artists as agents of social and political change’, in Clark M & M Koster (eds) Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa. Lanham, MD: Lexinton Books, 2014.

71 Ibid.

72 Clark M, ‘Hip hop as social commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam’, African Studies Quarterly, 13.3, 2012, pp. 23–46.

73 Nye J, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs, 2004.

74 Personal Interview, Nigerian scholar 3, Ile-Ife, 12 June 2013.

75 See ‘US companies in South Africa’. www.efreeport.com/DisplayFile.aspx?nm=TDOC&DOCID=88 (accessed 12 May 2016).