October 17, 2024

International Politics and Conflict Resolution

Maria Raquel Freire

African Americans represent about 12.4% of the total U.S. population. Throughout history, according to (Mbembe, 2001), Africans have lived through three decisive periods on which today they build their identity, they are slavery, colonialism, and apartheid. The effects of slavery in the U.S. have caused the African American community to be discriminated against throughout history. This discrimination has made African Americans peripheral in the construction of U.S. policies. With the abolition of racial discrimination in the US in the 1960s with the adoption of the Civil Rights Act by the US Congress (1964), African Americans began to have prominent places with successive appointments to public office. Throughout history, we have been able to understand that the foreign policy of the United States was conditioned by the ability of the different diasporas to organize with the American power. Despite being representative, the African American community was unable to exert this capacity for influence because its most important elements were excluded from decision-making processes concerning foreign policy. With the appointment of George W Bush as President of the United States of America, we have seen for the first time the appointment of African Americans to important positions in foreign policy. The appointment of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as Secretaries of State, followed by the election of the first African-American President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, brings us to a unique reflection on the impact of these appointments on the policy of the United States of America towards Africa, since the independence of the US until that period there have never been African-Americans in such important positions for foreign policy. African Americans, according to (Heywood et al., 2015; Tillery, 2011) have advocated throughout history for U.S. policies toward Africa. Thus, the research question of the Thesis is: How did African Americans elected and appointed to prominent positions in the US EP, namely Secretaries of State and President, contribute to US foreign policy towards Africa: Analysis of the mandates of George W. Bush and Barack Obama (2001-2017).

Keywords: Africa; African Americans; Barack Obama; Foreign Policy; George W. Bush