BARACK Obama’s assumption of office as the 44th President of the US was widely welcomed as a potential life-changing moment for Africa, Zimbabwe included, but as the curtain comes down on his tumultuous tenure, there is widespread agreement that the US will never improve its relations with Africa even when there is a black leader with African roots.
Obama, the first black-American President, was just part of the crew, playing his role as an enforcer in a script crafted by those who really control the US.
From Obama’s tenure, there is no doubt someone somewhere superintends America’s horrible foreign policy and its leaders are simply there to implement it.
The same script will continue when either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton wins the ticket to the White House in next month’s polls.
So Zimbabweans should not expect any change in relationships with either Republican Trump or Democrat Clinton.
On his journey to the White House, expectations were high Obama would be a marked departure from America’s renowned bully tactics, especially in the African context.
And Uncle Sam does not hesitate to export to other nations.
When Obama’s tenure is unravelled, it will be remembered for the treacherous record of betrayal of the aspirations of a continent that looked up to him for increased engagement between Africa and America.
On our part we imagined the black Democrat would scrap the punitive Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA).
But it turned out that there was no difference with the outgoing ruthless white Republican President George Bush, who did not care even if the economy of black Zimbabwe ‘screamed’.
Obama was expected to be the conduit to mend bridges, but he did the opposite with so much aplomb.
It was, in fact, under Obama that Libya was bombed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces.
It was also under Obama that Nigerian separatist group, Boko Haram, intensified its attacks on innocent civilians amid reports that the outfit works hand-in-glove with the US.
And it was no surprise that during his inaugural visit to Africa as American President, Zimbabwe was naturally the target of his country’s fury.
In America’s words, Zimbabwe poses an ‘unusual and extra-ordinary threat to US’ foreign policy’.
This is the rare admission of Zimbabwe’s influence that makes the US afraid it will be copied by other African nations.
And this is the same nightmarish fear that will guide Trump’s or Clinton’s foreign policy towards Zimbabwe.
This is why successive American leaders have seldom differed in their preconceived ideas about Africa.
On July 11 2009, the black American President visited Ghana.
It promised to be a moment of enormous historic and symbolic resonance for his country and the continent of his father’s family.
But for Zimbabwe, it was not exactly a homecoming, since his visit was to simply extend the anti-Harare project his predecessor George Bush had set in motion through his December 21 2001 imposition of sanctions on the Southern African nation.
Speaking like a Westerner who has roots in Africa, he made references to those roots as he lectured Africa on the source of its problems.
“It is easy to point fingers and to pin the blame for these (Africa’s) problems on others,” said Obama.
“Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner.
“But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants.” 
What was lost on Obama and indeed his predecessors was that Africa’s problems can be traced to slavery.
A few kilometres from where he was spewing his anti-African diatribes is the Cape Coast Castle, the headquarters of the British slave trade on Africa’s Gold Coast.
It was at this Coast that captured Africans would pass through the castle’s infamous ‘door of no return’ as they were carted off to ships like helpless animals.
Bill Clinton and Bush visited African slave posts during their tenures, but it was the imagery of an African-American president speaking in the heart of slave trade and absolving both slavery and colonialism as causes of Africa’s problems that made the whole issue even more profound.
Ironically, Michelle Obama, his wife, is a great-great granddaughter of slaves.
On Zimbabwe, there is no denying the role that America and the rest of the Western world has played in the destruction of this once vibrant economy.
After President Robert Mugabe tackled the class issue, America got angry on behalf of the West and took the lead in slapping Harare with sanctions.
If President Mugabe had not attacked the whites the way he did, perhaps Zimbabwe would not have been crippled.
Last year Obama was in Africa again, this time visiting Kenya, when he exhibited American arrogance while trying to impose so-called gay rights on the East African Nation.
Prior to his visit, Obama had been warned by African politicians and religious leaders to avoid the issue of gay rights.
But Obama, who became the first sitting US President to publicly favour gay marriages in 2012, was belligerent.
At a press conference with the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, Obama tried to shove the issue, comparing the plight of homosexuals to the battle against slavery and segregation in the US.
He said he was ‘painfully aware of the history when people are treated differently under the law’.
This is the thinking of both Clinton and Trump who have little regard for African cultural taboos.
When either of them wins, pressure will continue to be mounted on Zimbabwe to respect gay rights.
Surely, Zimbabwe, like the rest of Africa, needs neither of them.
In the final analysis, Obama has been a huge disappointment to Africa and Zimbabwe in particular.
The continent and Zimbabwe must expect more of the same from either Clinton or Trump.