Hosting Kenyan leader, Biden seeks to restore Africans’ trust in US
When President Joe Biden hosted 49 African leaders at a White House summit in December 2022, he pledged to make a trip to Africa in the coming year to showcase renewed interest and partnership after the Trump administration’s disregard for the continent.
The presidential trip would symbolize a U.S. commitment to a new kind of relationship with Africa – one based on furthering mutual security and economic interests while respecting African nations’ pursuit of independent paths, including deepening ties with other powers.
But the trip never happened. Instead, it symbolized what many Africans say is more of the same: an unreliable relationship of periodic fanfare over a promised new direction, with little follow-through.
“The way that
