WHEN it comes to manipulation and bullying, the US is the master of the game but as that country’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, flew into Africa last week, the first visit by Uncle Sam’s senior official since President Joseph Biden took over from former President. Donald Trump early this year, a new awakened and enlightened Africa was ready to counter any efforts to manipulate it.

And the continent did that with aplomb.

Whichever way one looks at it, the truth is that Blinken’s tour of Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal was meant to assert and buttress Uncle Sam’s manipulative policy on the continent.

It was meant to shirt-circuit what the US views as ‘errant’ countries into line.

It was meant to send the message that Uncle Sam will not tolerate those African nations that have been slowly drifting away from its policies of coercion and bullying.

But gone was that period when the US used to do that with ease. 

And Blinken did little to mask his country’s exasperation with an Africa that has been wriggling out of

 Uncle Sam’s grip.

Niftily soldered in between his ramblings were the usual glowing attributes to Africa but standing in Uncle Sam’s way was a China that has been steadily forging sterling co-operation with Africa.

Of course China could not be spared the usual tongue lashing by an increasingly enraged Uncle Sam.

Blinken claimed his country would ‘overhaul’ its policy on Africa, oddly saying Uncle Sam would treat the continent as a ‘major geopolitical power’.

The US, said Blinken, would increase its ‘development’ funding to Africa and this would come with no strings attached.

Honestly we have heard this before.

But the results have been almost always the same.

Their no strings attached funding utterances is a narrative that can only be believed by the gullible, especially from the opposition MDC, who hope that Uncle Sam can easily pour US$15 billion into countries like Zimbabwe without getting anything in return. 

We have seen how the US ties stringent strings in their bid to control the narrative in Zimbabwe through the over US$1 billion they have poured in for illegal regime change in Harare.

The idea, which is hidden behind their invisible strings is to subtly coerce their puppets to overthrow the Government so that they can be given more money for their dirty activities.

That has failed in Zimbabwe.

It will fail across Africa.

And Africa will indeed emerge as global superpower.

The statistics speak for themselves.

Estimates say one-in-people in the world will be an African by 2050, making Africa the youngest continent in the world.

Experts say this population dividend will shape global affairs for decades to come. 

For once, we will grudgingly agree with Blinken’s statement that ‘Africa is the future’.

Let us hear him speak:

“Too often, international infrastructure deals are opaque, coercive. They burden countries with unmanageable debt,” he said in a subtle message to China. 

They’re environmentally destructive. 

They don’t always benefit the people who actually live there.

We will do things differently.”

Herein lies the fast looming conundrum for Africa.

In the wake of the escalating fight between Beijing and Washington, where there has been a nasty exchange of words between the two superpowers, what will the future be like for Africa?

Is it not the opportunity for the continent to assert its position as the future of the world? 

The continent has a golden opportunity where it can deflect any attempts to be at the mercy of global superpowers.

What emerges from the above is that the US is certainly feeling the heat from a determined and focused China whose forays into the continent have, without doubt, unnerved the West.

But Blinken. many Americans, is not one to be trusted.

His wretched record speaks for itself.

The man is a warmonger par excellence.

Writing in November 2020 after it had emerged that Biden would appoint Blinken as Secretary of State, senior research fellow at Global Policy Institute (London) and author of Bombs for Peace: NATO’s Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia, George Szamuely said the Biden administration would embark on bombing other nations and pursuing illegal regime change.

“A US foreign policy run by Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the likely next Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, will mean more global interventions and regime-change operations, Clinton and Obama style,” says Szamuely.

“Blinken played a prominent foreign policy role in both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, while Sullivan was part of the Obama one.

The Democrat-boosting media are, not surprisingly, excited by media-anointed President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Blinken, his long-time national security adviser, as his Secretary of State. 

Along with his pick of Jake Sullivan, another close aide, as his National Security Adviser. 

These appointments supposedly signal restoration of ‘internationalism’ and ‘global partnerships’ as guiding principles of US foreign policy.”

The influential Washington Post had already given the world a glimpse of what Biden’s foreign policy was likely to be.

“Blinken will be nominated to one of the highest-profile Cabinet positions at a time when Biden is planning to prioritise foreign policy as a major pillar in his administration, with vows to re-assemble global alliances and insert the United States into a more prominent position on the world stage,” the publication reported on Monday.

“Soon after taking office, Biden plans to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the US exit from the World Health Organization and resuscitate the Iran nuclear deal.”

It went on:

“If Trump’s administration was designed to upset the pillars of government and global order, Biden’s appears aimed at rebuilding it with people who have held similar roles in the past.”