Suddenly Susan
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Africanists Dismayed

  When President Bill Clinton appointed 33-year-old Susan Rice to be the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs one year ago, there were ripples of dismay among Africanists. A number of well qualified career diplomats had been overlooked, and in the circles vitally involved in African issues, where Susan Rice was almost unknown, the appointment seemed a sign that the African continent and its 800 million people had finally reached the nadir among state department concerns.

  Since then the picture has changed dramatically: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made two trips to Africa; the first lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea visited Africa; and United States President Bill Clinton made a 12-day trip to six African countries, accompanied by an 800-strong entourage including members of Congress, high Administration officials, important business leaders and a huge press corps.

  This first extended visit by a US president to Africa heralded what is called the a new era of co-operation with Africa. Leading coverage in the media brought the American public a new vision of the culture, history and politics of the sub-Saharan countries. On his odyssey of regrets for America's past sins of omission and commission, Bill Clinton publicly bonded with Africa under a spotlight that finally made the darkest of continents visible to the American people.

  What advantage can be taken from the high-wattage illumination of Africa depends on speedy and hard work back home - the “follow through” in Congress, where there is no political support for quick fixes or Marshall Plans. The President said in Africa that he would work with Congress to effect the trade and investment opportunities that are the cornerstone of his new policy and try to increase aid allocations and promote plans for relief of the crippling debt of many African economies.

  Influencing Congress is a crucial aspect of the role of the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs. The big concern among many who lobby for Africa is whether someone with as Iowa profile as Rice bas the clout or political experience to influence the skeptical and fiscally conservative Congress.

  As it is, funds for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Import Export Bank -funds that promote trade with Africa - were delayed last year out of concern that Congress would kill them. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, intended to promote two-way trade using eligibility criteria based on market reforms and respect for human rights, languished in a House committee for a year before being passed in March. It still needs Senate approval - something which is by no means certain.

  Africa’s problem in the US is that it has not had a united lobby. The Middle East, China and Cuba have powerful lobbies, said Richard Hull, Professor of African Studies at New York University. "The entire African continent should have an extremely powerful lobby; it does not. Consequently; it suffers budget cuts first, and most." Ironically, there is an array of pro-Africa elements in the States: in the private sector, major philanthropic foundations, religious organizations, Peace Corps volunteers, corporate boardrooms and the 14% of Americans of African descent. There are also about 5 000 scholars actively engaged in Africa. "So far policymakers in Washington have neglected this vital constituency," said Hull. Africa needs a secretary who can weave a tapestry out of these disparate groups. Dr. Rice will have to provide forceful leadership in helping to construct a more powerful, unified and consensual constituency for Africa -not only in Congress but in the heartland of America.

  As Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice is the primary formulator and implementer of US policy towards 48 countries in Africa. She oversees eight offices in Washington, 44 overseas missions, and 750 Foreign Service officers and civil service personnel. Rice took over from George Moose, a genial Foreign Service veteran appointed by Clinton in his first term. As the President said during his Africa trip, US policy was dominated by cold war considerations. When the cold war ended, the Africa Bureau slipped into the doldrums. During Moose's term it was more like inertia. "As if someone said: 'Don't put African issues anywhere near the Secretary of State,” said Silah Booker, senior fellow for African Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The then Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, was so preoccupied with the Middle East, Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe, that he went to Africa as a "lame duck" when his term was almost over. An editorial published in Nairobi called the trip "too little, too late”, noting the growing perception in African circles that more substantive attention was paid to the continent when conservative regimes were in office in the west.

  Cold war chiefs of the Africa Bureau had stature and heft. By comparison with men like Chester Crocker, Rice seemed barely visible. But she has come to the post blessed with the gold standard of Washington politics - connections. Before her appointment she was special assistant to the President and senior director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, responsible for guiding the President on all aspects of US policy towards Africa. She is a friend of Hillary Clinton, and has long-standing ties to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a friend of her mother, Lois Rice, dating back to their days working together for the Democratic Party. At Rice's swearing-in ceremony in October last year, Secretary Albright said the occasion was like swearing in a member of her own family.

  Among Rice's supporters is South Africa's ambassador to Washington, Franklin Sonn, who has worked with Rice on US policy in Southern Africa for a number of years: "I regard Susan as both sister and friend. She's easy-going, clear, tough on matters of principle, and works damn hard. She's traveled all over Africa and knows the continent. She has the support of many African ambassadors. She's an academic so she takes a scientific rather than political view. She's not trained, like a diplomat, to smooth problems over. What's more, she's got the ear of the White House and the Secretary of State."

  Although there is profound concern about Rice's appointment, it's hard to find anyone to say so for fear they will be construed as prejudiced by the fact that she is young, black and female. "I think some of the concerns we're hearing about Susan reflect attitudes we heard in South Africa when new people were appointed by the ANC," said Sonn. "But if you discount the questions of gender, race and age, and look at her as though she were a 45-year-old white male, you still have a person with outstanding qualifications."

  People who have worked with Rice agree on one thing: she is smart. A distinguished history student at Stanford University in California, she became a Rhodes Scholar and among that elite group at Oxford University, attained one of the highest awards in the UK for her doctoral thesis on international relations. She has been working on African issues since 1993 when she joined the National Security staff. First she was director of International Organization Affairs and Peacekeeping, working on peace efforts in Mozambique, Liberia and Angola. Then In 1995 she became senior director for African Affairs.

  Rice is not schooled, either in style or approach, by the human rights crusaders who have played a large role in the African-American leadership. The Rev. Jesse Jackson became their spokesperson last year when he was appointed special envoy to Africa in charge of democratization. Tensions appeared briefly between Rice and the flamboyant Jackson after he took the platform during the President's African trip to condemn America as a beneficiary of slavery: She glowered during Jackson's speech. When her turn came, Rice commented that "as an African-American, I would like to say I think slavery is largely irrelevant to what we are about here."

  But for many African countries, neither slavery in the past, nor trade and investment in the future, is the US policy issues of primary concern. For them, most important is the World Bank and International Monetary Fund proposal for debt reduction. Until that happens they will never be candidates for the trade and investment opportunities now being encouraged. A group of African heads of state and powerful NGOs appealed to Clinton, during his African trip, to go further than the World Bank-IMF plan and promote a total debt relief for the impoverished countries.

  The focus is on economic reforms made in Africa in the past five to seven years. "Since some were promoted by us," says Hull, "we have to keep our end of the bargain and open up trade. We need to lobby Congress more forcefully: Africa needs a secretary of state who knows how to work with Congress, how to lobby Congress, how to build bridges between Congress and the State Department. It will be marvelous if Dr. Rice can use her connections to influence Congress, because it's Congress that holds the purse strings."

  Promptly after her confirmation in the post, Rice spoke to the 3,300-strong African Studies Association in Ohio, expressing faith in a new Africa in which the "days of the kleptocratic big men are gone. Gone are the days of command economies and minority rule." Renascent Africa, she argues, is fertile ground for greater American economic involvement. "There are changes that could, if nurtured, turn the continent around. There is more reason for optimism than at any time since many African countries achieved independence over 30 years ago," she says, citing the 25 countries with a democratic form of government; the annual growth in GDP in Africa last year averaging 5%; and the fact that US trade with sub-Saharan Africa increased by 18% in 1997 - the second consecutive year in which US trade with sub-Saharan Africa outpaced its growth in global trade.

  Speaking to the House Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on Africa, just before the President's trip, she made clear her views of past US policies on Africa when she talked about the future of "partnership, not paternalism, democracy not demagoguery; trade as well as aid, and future profits rather than past prejudices." This more symbiotic approach emphasizes trade and investment rather than aid and is more likely to win support in the United States where the mood is for slashing, not boosting foreign aid. In fact, this year's aid budget for the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa is $700m compared with $840m at its peak in 1992. The Administration hopes to increase this year's allocation to $730m and ultimately restore it to 1992's high - but Congress is not expected to comply.

  Calling the new policy one of "trade versus aid" was criticized. It was seen as expecting trade to replace aid, even where countries needed aid to grow in order to participate in the trade. "We must maintain a comprehensive policy that integrates trade, investment, aid and debt reduction," said Silah Booker at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The new democracies are terribly fragile. There should be a policy that ensures the roots sink broad and deep. We have to be in there, strengthening civil society and the rule of law."

  Now the word "versus" has been removed from the discussion and some emphasis on human rights and democratization restored. However, economic partnerships with countries that make market and other reforms are the cornerstone of the new Africa policy that Clinton promoted and for which Susan Rice is proselytizing. To continue cooperation with Africa and promote the continent as an investment opportunity, three cabinet ministers are to make trips to Africa by the end of the year: Commerce Secretary William Daley will lead a trade mission, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater will visit countries wanting help to improve infrastructure, and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will talk about economic growth and development.

  All the drum rolls for change won't help if African countries don't make their "makeovers" manifest - they are competing with the world for trade and investment. Even South Africa, which still benefits from a wealth of American goodwill, has to compete for attention. "When I'm on Wall Street, trying to promote investment, I find myself waiting in line with the ambassadors from Brazil, Turkey and Singepore. The only way we're going to get the business is if we make a better impression than they do. We African countries have to work hard to make our countries known," says Ambassador Sonn.

  Indeed, South Africa is competing with other African players. "Because of their long isolation, there is a tendency among South Africans to think they maintain some special place,” says Pearl Alice Marsh of the African Policy Information Centre. Some South Africans were impatient with the Vice President's Bi-National Commission to promote trade between America and South Africa, even though South Africa had an advantage shared by only a few countries. "There is no free lunch in American politics." (Aid to South Africa has fallen from $76.6m in 1992 to $70.6m this year. For next year the Administration is seeking $50.5m, according to the National Security Council.)

  Since President Clinton's trip, the image of Africa as a continent of coups, potentates, poverty, corruption, disease and genocide has been diluted. Democracies, stable economies, and business opportunities have been added to the picture. American policy towards Africa is on the front burners. But the heat is already down. In the month following the President's return from Africa the American media carried few stories about the continent. What is needed is someone to seize the day, capitalize on the new optimism and galvanize not just Congress but the wide spectrum of Americans interested in Africa. It might be the test of Susan Rice.

Published in Leadership, 1997