U.S. President Obama's visit to Africa has many questioning the rationale behind this visit. Hannah Edinger, Senior Manager and Head of Research & Strategy at Frontier Advisory, Dane Smith, Publications Director at Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) and Ogi Williams, Communications Director at YPIA, ask if the visit was a geopolitical response to China's engagement in Africa. Excerpts of their thoughts follow:

Now in his second term as the first black "leader of the free world," U.S. President Barack Obama concluded his maiden multi-country visit to the African continent in early July. On the heels of the annual BRICS Leaders' Summit, which was hosted in South Africa in March of this year, Obama's visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania has prompted questions about the rationale behind such a visit. These questions seem particularly pertinent in light of the continent's increasing commercial ties to leading emerging market players, such as China.

U.S. interests in developing closer cooperation with Africa are not without merit or reason. Now a still subdued global economic growth environment, Africa is the second-fastest growing region after Asia, something that has sparked the interest of many countries and has made them actively incorporate the continent into their foreign policy agendas.

As Africa has not been a significant focal point for American foreign commercial policy since the Cold War, the United States has lost its position as Africa's top trade partner, a title that now belongs to China. Africa-U.S. trade relations were eclipsed by China at the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, despite the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) preferential trade agreement.

With AGOA due to expire in 2015, it was not surprising that one of the announcements made during Obama's visit was the pledge to extend AGOA beyond 2015, a move that is part of his Trade Africa initiative.

A highlight of the promises that Obama made to Africa was his $7 billion Power Africa initiative, which aims to add more than 10,000 mw of clean electricity generating capacity to the following partner countries: Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Interestingly enough, this is one sector where Chinese investment and financing has been substantial.

The three countries visited by Obama – Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania – were strategically selected stable democracies that respect human rights. This is deemed to be an important factor in U.S.-Africa cooperation. The United States is exploring the possibility of a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which could remove a number of trade barriers for Senegalese and ECOWAS exports to the United States. 

During talks with his South African counterpart, President Jacob Zuma, Obama also emphasized his administration's commitment to lobbying for the extension of AGOA beyond 2015. At present, roughly 90 percent of South African exports to the United States enter the country duty free. 

Other notable American promises included the establishment of a leadership academy in South Africa as well as the opportunity for African students to study in the United States on scholarships. It should be noted, however, that China has already been very active in this space, having trained 40,000 African personnel and provided 20,000 scholarships to Africans over the past years. 

Obama emphasized furthering clean and efficient energy generation and less restricted trade during his stop in Tanzania. Also, the Trade Africa initiative, to which Tanzania is a partner, aims to stimulate inter-regional trade in countries of the East African Community (EAC), and boost exports to the United States by 40 percent, for example by reducing physical roadblocks, such as poor transportation infrastructure.

Other commitments that Obama made were related to food security and agriculture, particularly the transfer of relevant agricultural technologies to the continent – again, a sector in which China is also actively involved. A peace and security focus through greater military cooperation, which will be promoted by a military summit for African heads of state that the United States will host next year, was also announced.

Although these recent pledges by the United States appear to hold promise for Africa, the world's largest economy's new focus on Africa comes at a time when the continent has solidified and diversified its commercial ties with a variety of players. Despite American rhetoric and the potentially positive aspects of reinvigorated U.S.-Africa engagement, the question of whether this renewed interest is a mere geopolitical response to China's increasing activities and engagement on the continent must be asked. CA