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Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 19:31:18 EST
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Subject: [AfricaMatters] Africa greets Bush win with a weary shrug

Africa greets Bush win with a weary shrug

By Simon Denyer


NAIROBI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Africans greeted George W. Bush's win in the U.S.
presidential race with a weary shrug on Thursday, fearing a more isolationist
America would marginalise the continent still further.

But disappointment was tinged with the realisation that neither Bush nor his
opponent Al Gore was ever likely to do much to solve Africa's problems,
despite outgoing President Bill Clinton's efforts to move Africa higher up
the world agenda.

"Because of Bush's linguistic deficiencies, inability to grasp complex issues
and a deeply right-wing disposition unlikely to favour Africa...most people
were not excited by his imminent declaration as the next president," Kenya's
Daily Nation said.

"But they would equally have been uninspired by Gore's humdrum robot-like
mind, his boring intellectual unmalleability," the paper said in Thursday's
editorial.

It was an opinion echoed on the streets of the Ugandan capital Kampala by
23-year-old newspaper vendor Francis.

"Bush or Gore -- it makes no difference to me and I don't care," he said. "I
just sell my newspapers every day."

For many Africans, the prospect of Republicans controlling both the White
House and Congress means aid flows to the continent may go down over the long
term, and further debt relief might come more slowly.

Bush, who said in February that Africa did not fit into U.S. strategic
interests, often gives the impression he will pay less attention to the
continent than his predecessor.

CLINTON'S LEGACY

Bill Clinton made two high-profile visits to Africa, reclassified the
HIV-AIDS epidemic as a security issue, and pushed through bills opening U.S.
markets to African goods and granting the Third World $435 billion in debt
relief.

"Certainly under Clinton there has been more attention in dealing with the
problems on the continent," said senior Rwandan government official Patrick
Mazimhaka. "We just hope the programmes and policies Clinton started...will
continue."

Others question Clinton's legacy more critically.

"Clinton certainly seems to have put Africa on the agenda but a lot was
rhetoric and, dare I say, hot air," said Elizabeth Sidiropolous at the South
African Institute for International Affairs. "The issue of degree (of
interest) is one of less or slightly less."

Africans, though, were also fascinated, and slightly shocked, by the way the
whole electoral process was conducted, and how the final decision rested with
a Supreme Court which seemed to judge the case on partisan lines.

Many African countries have come under U.S. criticism in the past for the
failure of their own democratic processes.

"The painful progress through the courts of the U.S. presidential wrangle has
exposed some interesting lessons, and illusions, about that country's legal
and constitutional system," South Africa's Business Day wrote on Thursday.

"The biggest myth has to do with judicial neutrality, hitherto considered a
cornerstone of the U.S. political system."

John Githongo, Kenyan director of corruption watchdogs Transparency
International, agreed.

"This has totally demystified the U.S. electoral process as infallible," he
said. "Let's just see how preachy the U.S. is going to be able to be about
democracy in Africa."

(Additional reporting by Gavin Pattison in Kampala, Todd Pitman in Kigali,
Darren Schuettler in Johannesburg)

08:14 12-14-00

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.  All rights reserved.

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