President Joe Biden apologized for the “unimaginable cruelty” of America’s “original sin” of slavery during a White House summit with African leaders this week, where at least one leader mocked America amid China’s increasing influence in the continent.
“We remember the stolen men and women and children were brought to our shores in chains,” Biden said Wednesday after promising the continent $55 billion to fight climate change and increase trade.
The first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in eight years comes as China reached an all-time high of $254 billion in trade with African countries in 2021. It was the 12th consecutive year China ranked as Africa’s largest trading partner.
During the summit, a reporter asked Rwandan president Paul Kagame about the outcome of the last U.S. summit under the Obama administration in 2014. “‘Well, at least we had a good meeting,” Kagame reportedly told a laughing crowd, suggesting the United States did not live up to expectations.
When asked about choosing between China and the United States, many African leaders declined to take a side.
“The fact that both countries have different levels of relations with African countries makes them equally important for Africa’s development,” Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador Taye Atske Selassie Amde said. Kagame added that countries don’t need “to be bullied” into “choosing between the U.S. or China.”
Domestically, Democrats attempting to issue reparations to the descendants of African slaves have struggled in recent weeks. A California task force assigned by the state legislature to plan a reparations rollout cannot agree on how to do it or how much money to distribute.
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