What African Countries Can Pompeo Find on a Map?

It’s as if Pompeo and his people knew they ought to say something, but they couldn’t be bothered to do the work

Mike Pompeo’s tenure has been very bad for the State Department. Morale is extremely low. The Secretary himself routinely violates the rules that he has set for others regarding political activities. His nonsensical “swagger” rhetoric has been a global embarrassment exceeded only by the multiple failures of Pompeo’s “diplomatic” efforts. Fewer Americans are interested in becoming Foreign Service Officers, and many already in the department are quitting or taking early retirement at a fast clip. Career diplomats have been subjected to political vendettas, and Pompeo has failed to protect the people working under him from abuse and political retaliation. I mention all of this because the department’s deterioration is relevant background for its displays of ineptitude.

Today the department released a rather silly press release referring to “upcoming elections in Africa.” The entire press release is worth quoting in full because it is so generic and bereft of details:

The United States is committed to supporting free, fair, inclusive elections. The conduct of elections is important not only for Africans, but also for defenders of democracy around the world. We believe all sides should participate peacefully in the democratic process. Repression and intimidation have no place in democracies.

The right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression and association are at the heart of a functioning democracy. Adherence to these democratic norms and to the rule of law allows all citizens to engage in political dialogue and support their choice of candidates, parties, and platforms. We will watch closely the actions of individuals who interfere in the democratic process and will not hesitate to consider consequences – including visa restrictions – for those responsible for election-related violence. As long-time partners to the nations of Africa, we care about the region’s democratic trajectory and are committed to working constructively with international and regional partners.

It’s all very well that the U.S. is endorsing free and fair elections, free expression, and peaceful assembly, which should go without saying, but this is one of the most vacuous statements that our government has ever published. They refer to “the nations of Africa” and say that the U.S. is a partner to them. Which nations? What kind of partnership? What are they talking about? Why would anyone take this message seriously?

The U.S. typically neglects and ignores African affairs more than most other parts of the world, but it is hard to imagine that there would be a similarly careless, sweeping statement about so many countries on any other continent. This statement is the bare minimum of lip service. It would have been better if they had said nothing at all. It’s as if Pompeo and his people knew they ought to say something, but they couldn’t be bothered to do the work of crafting a real statement that addresses specific elections and showing the individual countries the respect of using their names. If someone presented Pompeo with a blank map of Africa, how many of the countries could he correctly identify?

If they had made the slightest effort, they would have been able to say that there are still eleven countries that have presidential and/or legislative/parliamentary elections scheduled for the remainder of 2020. These include Burkina Faso, Guinea, Seychelles, the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Egypt, Tanzania, Niger, and Somalia. If the number of countries makes a single statement unwieldy and impractical, it would make more sense to address each one on its own. If the department wanted to make a statement about all of them together, each country should have been acknowledged instead of lumping them together. As it, the message comes across like something that someone dashed off at the last minute in between meetings. If the department wanted its message to be dismissed and ridiculed, they could scarcely have done a better job.

“Africa is not a country” is an old joke by now that is meant to call attention to Western ignorance of a huge continent with 54 countries, but people keep telling the joke because the ignorance and the neglect continue to plague our foreign policy. The continent is home to more than 1.3 billion people, which accounts for almost one-fifth of the world’s population. The U.S. cannot afford to neglect it any longer. It is too large of a continent and too important a part of the world to be treated as an afterthought, and that will have to change in the coming decade.