Biden has been a disappointment for democracy in Africa

One of President Biden’s final state visits was slated be to Angola this week — it would have been his first visit to the African continent as president. However, the White House announced on Tuesday the trip was being postponed due to Hurricane Milton.

The decision to travel to the Lusophone nation on the eve of his departure from the Oval Office was certainly not the grand tour he nor many on the continent had thought (or hoped) would transpire. In many ways it illustrated his administration’s priorities toward Africa.

At the center of President Biden’s planned three-day trip was the Lobito Corridor: an 800-mile railway which connects the mineral rich countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia with Angola’s port of Lobito.

With a $1 billion commitment from Biden in 2023 intended to rehabilitate the railway, the U.S. hopes it will improve access to key minerals including copper, cobalt and lithium. It will also be a necessary development for the U.S. should it wish to counteract China’s presence in the region given that the latter has enjoyed largely uncontested access to the continent’s minerals in recent years.

It is a pure geopolitical play on behalf of the Americans.

And this is just part of the Biden administration’s wider Africa gambit. In December 2022, President Biden hosted the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit where he pledged to go “all in” with Africa, announcing America’s commitment toward investing $55 billion across the continent over the next three years. Since January 2021, the U.S. government has closed 1,695 deals valued at $63.5 billion in 41 African countries.

Team Biden has also been on a widespread charm offensive, eager to convince African governments that the U.S. is a more desirable partner than its Chinese rival. This has led to Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and first lady Jill Biden — three of America’s most influential female political figures — visiting no fewer than seven African countries. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also completed a flurry of tours to the continent during which time he launched the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa in August 2022.

But all this geopolitical maneuvering has meant that the Biden administration has lost sight of the broader strategic imperative: the health of democracy.

It is no secret that democracy is under threat globally. Freedom House, an NGO, has flagged Africa as having undergone a decade of decline in freedom, with only 7 percent of people on the continent said to be living in "free" countries while 50 percent live in "not free" countries.

Afrobarometer, another NGO, has found that more than half of Africans are willing to accept a military takeover if elected leaders abuse power for their own ends. Since President Biden’s inauguration in 2021, there have been six successful coups d’état across Africa.

And while the U.S. remains a significant contributor of aid to Africa, its focus on supporting democratic initiatives during this period of pronounced democratic regression has been minimal. Of the $53.1 billion in aid disbursed to Africa from 2021 and 2024, only 2 percent has been allocated toward initiatives focused on democracy, human rights and governance. This according to data from ForeignAssistance.gov, a database which tracks U.S. foreign assistance spending.

What is perhaps more concerning for democracy in Africa is that the Biden administration is legitimizing non-democratic entities through its engagements and the relationships it chooses to foster. In seeking to secure access to key minerals through the Lobito Corridor, the Biden administration has seemingly made peace with the controversy surrounding Angolan President João Lourenço’s election victory in 2022, and the recent signing into law of bills which threaten freedom of speech.

Biden hosted Lourenço at the White House in 2023. He was set to meet with him again as part of his first planned and likely only visit to Africa as president. These are not insignificant actions. The optics of both meetings suggest that this administration is deeply invested in Angola, even if it means turning a blind eye to democratic deficiencies.

These actions are certainly not unique to the Biden administration. The Cold War was a period rife with democratic double standards within the White House. Think of President Truman and Operation Fortune in Guatemala; President Carter and the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua; or President Reagan and the Iran-Contra affair. Hal Brands wrote of what he calls the “Age of Amorality” in which he argues that “rough measures” are in fact necessary for a democratic superpower such as the U.S. to preserve the required political, moral and strategic balance.

Perhaps we are naïve to think anything different.

President Biden chose not to visit Ethiopia to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Pretoria Agreement, which saw the U.S. help negotiate a ceasefire in the Tigray Conflict. Nor did he plan to visit South Africa, a country whose ruling African National Congress peacefully entered a coalition after losing its 30-year majority rule in the country’s recent national elections.

Instead, he selected a country where democracy is in decline, but a vital economic opportunity awaits.

Richard Morrow is an analyst at The Brenthurst Foundation, a Johannesburg-based think tank established by the Oppenheimer family to strengthen African economic performance.