Like all U.S. presidents, Joe Biden took office in January 2021 with a decidedly low bar to clear for engagement with Africans. But his immediate predecessor, former President Donald Trump, had lowered that bar even further. Trump referred to African states as “shithole countries” and imposed visa bans on Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Tanzania. And in its final months in office, the Trump administration blocked the selection of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala—a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States—as the World Trade Organization’s first director-general of African descent.
Given the contempt and hostility that characterized Washington’s engagement with Africans during Trump’s presidency, even the slightest improvement by his successor would seemingly indicate progress in the relationship. And for a time, it even seemed like Biden might surpass that bare minimum.
Less than a month after taking office, in a recorded message to Washington’s African partners ahead of the African Union’s annual leaders’ summit, Biden expressed his administration’s commitment to “rebuilding our partnerships around the world and re-engaging with international institutions like the African Union.” At the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022, Biden declared that the United States was “all in on Africa and all in with Africa.” He promised at that same gathering to visit the African continent before the completion of his term and is expected to fulfill that pledge with a belated visit to Angola in December, during the transition period from his administration to that of his successor.