Africa needs American generosity

In purely material terms, Africa is important to the U.S. because of its natural resources and its bright, entrepreneurial and eager young people. But global leadership involves more than strategic utility—it has a vital humanitarian dimension. What happens in Africa affects the American people.

Many parts of the continent are burdened with severe political and economic instability. Africa is now a magnet for conflicts and proxy fights over the natural resources so important to modern technology. Famine and poverty are also pervasive at levels unimaginable in the U.S.

For decades, crises in Africa have been averted and lives saved because of the American people’s generosity, delivered through the U.S. Agency for International Development. That aid has enhanced African society and, in the process, strengthened American economic influence in the region. We remain grateful for this.

Africa is a culturally rich continent with deep economic and human ties to the U.S., and a great admiration for American freedoms. Our culture is imbued with love and respect for the family, the goodness of life and the hope for a better future, which our fertility rates reflect. We are a religious people, convicted in our love for and dependence on God; rich in history as well as natural resources; and sincere in our gratitude to our global friends, who support us in becoming more self-reliant.

In short, the U.S. has transformed millions of lives for the better on my continent. Without U.S. support, even more internal conflicts would now be crippling Africa, leading to greater political instability and threatening the continent’s economic development. The end of USAID support will have untold consequences for generations.

The American people are right to be concerned about the proper use of their limited resources. Their critics are foolish and unjust when they ignore that fact. But targeted humanitarian aid for Africa is urgently needed, morally good and of great strategic value to the U.S.

International politics won’t tolerate a vacuum. Should the U.S. abandon Africa, its place will be taken by its adversaries: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. This is already occurring in too many places, but it isn’t too late to turn the tide, creating a situation in which Africa and the U.S. both win.

It’s unhelpful to tie aid to ideology—to abortion or “population control"—that defies the values of many African cultures. I believe that respect for African culture can coexist with humanitarian aid. Cultural colonization needn’t be the price exacted for a moral, strategic and humanitarian partnership.

As a Catholic cardinal, I spend time with bishops, priests and ordinary families across Africa. I see their needs. I hear their hopes. On behalf of those people, I ask President Trump and his administration to reconsider aid to his friends in Africa, who have been and will continue to be important partners of the U.S. We are eager to work closely with Washington to ensure that all such aid is used well, free of the fraud and mismanagement that has occurred in the past. There is too much at stake—for Africans, for Americans and for the world.

Cardinal Ambongo is Roman Catholic archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, and president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.