When Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on January 20th, one of the most important former world leaders was missing from the audience. It was not Donald Trump. That one boycotted the event and he is not important. Having lost all his legal bids to have the results of last year’s US presidential elections overturned. At Biden’s inauguration, none of the programme directors mentioned that personality as they announced names of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barrack Obama as former US president expected to attend.
But by all account, that name should have been announced whether he was going to attend or not. It was only when Biden delivered his inauguration speech that the audience got to know that Jimmy Carter would not attend. Biden had spoken to him the previous day and had indicated that he would not be able to attend because of circumstance beyond his control. Biden did not go further. I am interested on Jimmy Carter. I know he had been unwell in the last two years.
At 97, he has been in and out of hospital. When programme directors at Biden’s inauguration made no mention of him, those who knew him and admired him like me got concerned. There may have been many who feared that the worst was to happen. I am interested in him for two reasons. He is the only former US president I interviewed in my journalistic carrier. He is the only former president anywhere in the world to ever touch my eyebrows with his fingertip in admiration. It was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the mid-eighties that I got the opportunity to interview him. He was there on an invitation from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) now the African Union (AU). He took the advantage of being there to hold talks with President Sir Ketumile Masire. It was him who initiated the meeting. That was at the time when Botswana was envied by the world for her dignified pattern of democracy and for her steadfast in rejecting all forms of pressure to establish diplomatic relations with apartheid South Africa. There may have been other factors which motivated Jimmy Carter to hold talks with Sir Ketumile.
I arrived at the meeting venue well in time to cover the talks. I had been given permission to cover the event. But the US secret service accompanying the former US president would not allow me entry into the room. They gave no reasons and uttered no word to me. They simply physically blocked my way. When I asked them to let me in, they only shook their heads in disagreement. Meanwhile the talks were going on and I was missing what I had thought would be my scoop of the day in Addis. Out of frustration, I decided to say something foolish to them. I said, “Guys please let me go in. I will make sure that while there in, I don’t see the person you are protecting, Jimmy Carter and I will not hear him speak. I will only see my president and hear him speak. From there I will go and write a story for my newspaper and I will have nothing to say about your man.” That reduced tension between me and them as they laughed and laughed loudly. The joke was effective so much that they ushered me in. As soon as I entered the room, it was Jimmy Carter who felt pity for me for having missed a scoop. He said , “Mr. Newsman, you have missed”. I told him that I spent a lot of time negotiating with his security personnel to allow me in but they were refusing. He regretted the incident and started briefing me on what he and Masire discussed. My interview with him lasted for thirteen or fifteen minutes. When we were done, he touched my eyebrows with his fingertip and bid me fare well.
During that encounter, I found him to be accessible to journalists, knowledgeable on what makes a good story and up to date with the politics of Botswana. I enjoyed being with him for those couple of minutes. This is one reason why I am concerned about Jimmy Carter’s health. The other reason is his policies for Africa especially Southern Africa during the years he was the president. He was a one term president having come into office in 1977 after defeating the Republican’s Gerald Ford to become the United States’ 39th president. Ford had been in the office for less than a full term replacing Richard Nixon who resigned the presidency because of the Watergate scandal. When he became president, African leaders rejoiced because he had good policies for Africa. You could see that there was light in the tunnel. In Joseph Hanlon’s Apartheid’s Second Front, a story is told of how the United States under Jimmy Carter was liked by the majority in Africa and hated by apartheid South Africa. The Carter administration unconditionally supported efforts by Frontline States and the OAU to ensure that Southern African countries which were still in the wrong hands were freed. During the Carter administration, the US, Canada, Britain, Germany and France formed what became known as the Contact Group to partner with the Frontline States to ensure the independence of Namibia.
On the contrary, the Ronald Reagan administration which came into office following the defeat of Jimmy Carter in the 1981 US presidential elections, changed tune as it frustrated Africa’s programme towards the independence of Namibia. The new US administration did everything they could to please South Africa at the expense of Namibia. The first they did was to link the independence of Namibia to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola. France withdrew from the Contact Group in protest over the linkage while the remaining members ceased to play any meaningful role as the Reagan administration made itself the sole negotiator. Clearly that was made to ensure that South Africa whose forces were invading Angola at that time succeeded in replacing the MPLA government in Luanda by the rebel UNITA movement.
The decision to link the Namibian independence to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola was to weaken MPLA forces and give military advantage to the invading forces of South Africa. That delayed the Namibian independence by at least ten years of Reagan administration. It was in 1990 that Namibia finally attained independence. Under Carter, the US would have fought hard to ensure that the last Southern African country under white domination was freed earlier. The Reagan administration was an enemy of Southern Africa. At the 1984 SADCC conference, delegates exposed one example of US meddling. The US had offered to fund a vital regional agricultural research project into drought resistant crops. The research centre was to be established in Zimbabwe. At the last mi9nute, the US demanded that none of the benefit of what was to be a regional project should go to the three socialist states of Angola, Tanzania and Mozambique. They would not be allowed to send students or receive the seeds developed. Because SADCC composed of seasoned leaders whose countries shared many things in common, they realized that the US’s intention was to split the organization and was rejected with the contempt it deserved. The Reagan administration’s positive attitude towards South Africa is also captured well in the book, Destructive Engagement”. It says, “only days after Reagan’s inauguration, the South African regime launched its largest raid to date on Mozambique, killing 12 in the capital city. Throughout Africa, the action was seen as “dramatic symbol of the new Washington team’s support for the apartheid regime”. Mind you, if it was days after the inauguration of Reagan, therefore, it was days after the departure of Carter.
In my view, it is very important for Africa not to forget Jimmy Carter especially during this time when he is medically indisposed. His administration did not let Africa down. His foreign policy on Africa was something one can write home about. A word to him from the AU chair or secretariat will make the difference. The other route through which to channel Africa’s appreciation is for the continent to assign the Dean of African ambassadors in Washington DC to visit the man at his home on behalf of the continent to check on him. If this cannot be done at continental level, SADC should take the initiative and visit the man. Still if this cannot be done at regional level, President Mokgweetsi Masisi can send Ambassador Kitso Mokaila to the home of Jimmy Carter to say to him that “long live” Jimmy Carter, long leave”. Had Jimmy Carter been allowed a second term, perhaps the construction of the TransKgalagadi Road would not have been delayed that long.