THE FUTURE OF US./AFRICA RELATIONS
by Randall M. Robinson
(Randall M. Robinson (J.D., Harvard, 1970) is Executive Director of TransAfrica, a Black American lobby for Africa and the Caribbean. First incorporated in 1977, TransAfrica opened its offices in Washington, D.C. in 1978. Its purpose is to inform and organize popular opinion in the United States and to advocate policies that will help achieve a more progressive U.S. foreign policy toward the nations of Africa and the Caribbean. The board of TransAfrica is headed by Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana and includes Black leaders from labor, church, politics, and business. Mr. Robinson has served as Executive Director from the opening of this organization's Washington office. He is an active advocate of African and Caribbean peoples in a wide variety of forums within the United States.)
The following is a transcript of an informal discussion by Randall Robinson given at the University of Florida, sponsored by the Center for African Studies, on May 7, 1981. Questions from the audience, and answers, appear here following the discussion.
 .We've consulted and do consult regularly with African leadership and attend the organization of African Unity meetings and meet with heads of state when I'm on the continent and we have pretty much a common mind on problems with U.S. policy historically towards Africa. I guess if you could say that two things concern Africa, two categories of things, the first would be the long-distance race of African countries to develop economically. Independent African countries. The other would be the rather short-term but highly-charged issue of the remaining work of the liberation struggle. Since 1942, of course, some fifty African countries have achieved independence. And there's no reason for us to believe that this charge southward is going to stop at the Limpopo River. There are two countries now remaining to be liberated, if you will, South Africa and Namibia. I think if any one issue unites and fuses opinion in the African world, it is the issue of South Africa. So I think it's helpful to look at these two historical problems and to see what U.S. policy has been, and what it is now. Just briefly I'll talk about the foreign assistance side of economic relations, and then go on to the more critical problem, at least currently demanding problem, of Southern Africa.
The United States has been traditionally quite stingy in its foreign
assistance to Africa. African countries want us to understand that they have pressing needs and want us to be generous in our economic assistance programs. In point of fact, U.S. aid is not now and has never been generous. We spent twelve times as much to rebuild Europe under the Marshall Plan than we spend for all foreign assistance put together now. Africa gets about $500,000,000. a year in economic assistance. We spend more in the U.S. on pet food than we do on that, and we're talking about a continent where twenty-one of the world's thirty-one poorest countries are located. By comparison, President Zia of Pakistan called a U.S. offer last year of $400,000,000. in assistance