CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The United States (US) relation with the African continent began in 1565 when the first set of slaves landed in Florida. Between 1798 and 1808, approximately 200,000 slaves were brought to America. At the other end, private missionaries and educators immigrated to Africa to offer support services and advance the cause of their faith to Africans. It was not until 1808 that the US officially outlawed the slave trade. Indeed, several attempts were made by African Americans through the American Colonization Society to return Africans to

Africa notably in 1816, 1819 and extend some form of liberty to African Americans in 1865. These movements contributed largely to the founding of Liberia in 1822 as an American colony. The colony became independent in 1847 and in 1862, the United States established diplomatic relations with Liberia. The 1941 declaration of the Atlantic Charter calling for the freedom of nations was equally seized upon by Africans to kick-start liberation movements across Africa against their colonial overlords. In 1914, Marcus Garvey, created the Universal Negro Improvement Association to agitate for improved conditions of African American and the momentum was extended to cover addressing the plights of blacks globally. Other notable figures included W.E.B. DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah who championed the Pan-African movements through continental and international congresses especially in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

U.S Africa policies from the founding of the republic in 1776 have been marked by indifference and neglect (Lawson, 2007). The year 1958 was the year marking official recognition of Africa through the creation of the state‘s department Africa Bureau serving as a convenient starting point. Prior to this period, the relationship between the US and Africa was characterized by slave trade and slave relationships. However, since The Cold War period is the period of ideological tussle between the two power blocs in the international system which were the United States with the ideology of capitalism on the one hand, and the USSR, the ideologies of these superpowers dominated international politics for the period from 1945-1990.There have been relations between the United States and Africa during the

Cold War and even after it. As African countries became independent from the 1950‘s the U.S deemed it fit to rethink its foreign policy towards them. This, among other factors is as a result of the struggle for ideological supremacy at that time, between them (the United States) and the Soviet Union. The US leaders at that time were deeply concerned on whether the newly independent African states will turn to the west (Washington) or East(Moscow) for sympathy and assistance in finding their place in the international system. In order to prevent what was seen as the decline of U.S prestige in Africa, Senator F. Kennedy advised that the US had better embark on a bold and imaginative programme that would aid development in Africa. (Kennedy, 1950 cited in Lawson 2007)

During the cold war, the U.S foreign policy towards Africa had little to do with Africa. African countries were pawns in the global chess game. Republican and democratic governments‘ alike supported American clients and sought to undermine soviet ones. Economic and military assistance was rendered to the allies such as Mobutu Sesse Seko of Zaire as well as Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and anti-communist rebel organization such as

Janas Savimbo‘s UNITA (Uniao Nacuonal para a Indepndence Total de Angola) in Angola. Due to the little interest perceived by the U.S, the relationship between the U.S and Africa was mainly characterized by cold war logic from the 1950‘s to the 1980‘s.

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