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Lessons for South Africa as Angola, America engage in new era of cooperation

Redi Tlhabi
By Redi Tlhabi
4 Dec 2024
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The US is a master at pivoting and changing its allegiances and focus when there are benefits to doing so. South Africa must learn this lesson from both the US and Angola, and not be forever trapped in Cold War dynamics.

It was a weakened Joe Biden who landed in Angola for his first state visit to sub-Saharan Africa earlier this week. Now in the sunset of his presidency, America’s outgoing president went on a state visit to a country that is key to the United States’ strategic interests, Angola. 

Regardless of the outcome of a bruising election and Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from the race back in July, the significance of his state visit to Angola cannot be understated. 

Here is why it matters. First, the US needs to power its economy. Regardless of incoming President-elect Donald Trump’s fit of pique and threats of unbridled tariffs, the US cannot function without raw materials and innovations from other parts of the world.

Empires were built on the extraction of minerals and raw material from “poor” countries. It is no different now. It would help if the US toned down its predictable threatening tone and recognised the value of shared interest. Biden’s sojourn to Angola is about this. 

He announced the multibillion-dollar Lobito Corridor Development Project, a crucial rail project that will link the mineral-rich Zambia, Congo and Angola to the Atlantic. 

These countries are rich in the critical minerals that the US needs for batteries, electric vehicles, electronics, defence equipment and clean energy technologies.

Biden will commit $5-billion to the Lobito Corridor, which will also be financed by the EU, a variety of Western consortiums and African banks. It is a big deal from an economic and trade perspective. The revitalised 1,300km rail network will enable access to, and transportation of, cobalt, lithium and nickel to the US.

Second, this state visit matters because geopolitical competition between China and the US is at fever pitch. The US has been fast asleep when it comes to taking Africa seriously. Of course there are trade deals, security arrangements and humanitarian aid, but in the bigger scheme of things the US’s disengagement from Africa is well documented. 

This vacuum has allowed its arch-rival, China, to make significant diplomatic and economic inroads on the continent. China has made investments in infrastructure projects like railways and ports, and beyond transportation it has also strategically prioritised oil-rich countries like Angola and Nigeria, and copper- and cobalt-rich Zambia as key trade partners. 

Maximum economic growth


To add impetus to its repertoire of engagements with the African continent, China constituted the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac), an organisation widely seen as a mechanism for cementing political and economic cooperation. Through billions in loans and grants, China has supported Africa’s development while unleashing maximum economic growth for itself. 

But there is a caveat. These loans have come at a great cost for countries like Kenya and Zambia, leading to unprecedented social unrest and a desperate cry for help to none other than the US-led Bretton Wood institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Kenya borrowed more than $5.3-billion from China for the construction of the Nairobi-Mombasa railway project. China is also Zambia’s biggest creditor, with a debt of $4.1-billion. This has led to accusations that the Asian country was engaging in “debt-trap” diplomacy. 

There are lessons for African countries such as South Africa. The US’s surging interest in public and private sector investments in African minerals and energy opens the door for a foreign policy that is suited to current global dynamics, and not trapped in Cold War nostalgia. 

The Cold War is truly over and those we call our friends know this very well as they pursue their own strategic interests. We do not owe them public utterances of allegiance at the expense of our own development, while they continue to trade with their “enemies” when it suits their geopolitical and economic ambitions. 

The US also has a lesson to learn as it claims, at least for this Angola trip, that it is not intent on making Africa choose between itself, Russia and China. Yet the rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill is often threatening and promises punitive measures to those who don’t toe the line. The US line, to be precise. 

The US is a master at pivoting and changing its allegiances and focus when there are benefits to doing so. South Africa must learn this lesson from both the US and Angola, and not be forever trapped in Cold War dynamics.

Costly conflict


Angola’s long-running, brutal civil war was a Cold War conflict that saw the US support Jonas Savimbi’s anti-communist Unita and Holden Roberto’s FNLA, while the Soviets supported the Marxist MPLA in a costly conflict that went on for almost 30 years.

The MPLA is still in government today, yet here are the two states, Angola and America, working together to build joint economic prosperity. China also bid for the Lobito Corridor project, and lost. I doubt that Angola cares what China has to say about this as it sets the terms for its own destiny. The past seems to be truly over.  

South Africa would do well to remember that relationships change. What was once an antagonistic relationship between the US and Angola has been crafted into an engagement that responds to current challenges and needs. 

Will the US-Angola deal survive the Trump administration? Of course it will. Blocking China enjoys bipartisan support and seems to be the preoccupation of every US president. Trump will love it. DM

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