奥巴马对非洲的说教 A gatecrasher at Obama’s African homecoming

With every one of President Barack Obama’s trips to Africa, he has seemed keen to make a historic statement. His debut, a visit to Cairo , was meant to start a new phase in US-Arab relations after the grave misunderstandings seen during the presidency of George W Bush. The visit to Ghana soon afterwards was no less significant — the nation became in 1957 the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence, and is the most stable democracy in west Africa. Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa followed in 2013.

每次访问非洲时，美国总统巴拉克攠巴马(Barack Obama)似乎都热衷于发表一份历史性的声明。他初次访问非洲去了开罗，当时的用意是开启美国和阿拉伯关系的新篇章，以弥合乔治圠布什(George W Bush)总统任期内出现的严重误解。不久之后他对加纳的访问意义也很重大。加纳于1957年成为第一个独立的撒哈拉以南非洲国家，也是西非最稳定的民主国家。接着，奥巴马又在2013年访问了塞内加尔、坦桑尼亚和南非。

Mr Obama’s fourth visit to Africa, in July, was the first time a serving US president would visit either Kenya or Ethiopia. With Kenya, there was the added significance of a homecoming: his father was born in the country and died there. Indeed, in one of the president’s speeches there, he described himself as “the first Kenyan-American to be president of the United States”.

今年7月奥巴马对非洲的第四次访问，是在任美国总统首次访问肯尼亚或埃塞俄比亚。对肯尼亚的访问还附带了一层返乡的含义：奥巴马的父亲出生在肯尼亚并亡故于此。的确，在肯尼亚的一次演说中，奥巴马称自己是“首位担任美国总统的肯尼亚裔美国人。”

China has been paying attention; along with the US, it is a frontrunner in the race for economic and diplomatic influence on the continent. It overtook America as Africa’s largest trading partner in Mr Obama’s first year in office. That might have been on Hillary Clinton’s mind when, in Senegal as secretary of state in 2012, she said: “The days of having outsiders come and ex琀爀愀挀琀 the wealth of Africa for themselves, leaving nothing or very little behind, should be over in the 21st century”. Today it is Beijing being snarky, with state news agency Xinhua deriding Mr Obama for “playing the family card”.

中国一直在关注奥巴马的访问。和美国一样，在对非洲大陆经济和外交影响力的比赛中，中国也是一位领跑者。就在奥巴马担任美国总统的第一年，中国超越美国成为非洲最大的贸易伙伴。2012年希拉里克林顿(Hillary Clinton)以美国国务卿身份访问塞内加尔时，在发表言论时可能对此意有所指。她说：“外来者前来为自身利益剥削非洲财富，却不留下任何东西或只留下极少东西，这样的时代在21世纪应该结束了。”如今轮到北京说话刻薄，中国官方的新华社嘲笑奥巴马在“打亲情牌”。

Perhaps Chinese ire is a measure of the success of Mr Obama’s attempt to make up for the indifference of his first term. He has unveiled partnerships in infrastructure and trade, and a Mandela Washington Fellowship targeting young African leaders. Yet the upper hand remains with Beijing. The number of Chinese people in Africa is now estimated at more than 1m . Mr Obama’s final speech on the continent was delivered in the African Union’s imposing new Addis Ababa headquarters, a gift from the Chinese government.

中方的郁闷也许说明了奥巴马弥补第一任期内冷落非洲的企图取得成功。奥巴马宣布了美国与非洲在基建和贸易上的合作项目，以及面向非洲青年领袖的曼德拉华盛顿奖学金(Mandela Washington Fellowship)项目。然而，北京在非洲依然处于优势地位。目前在非洲的中国人估计已超过了100万。奥巴马在非洲大陆的最后一通演说，是在非洲联盟(African Union)的新总部大楼发表的，而这栋位于亚的斯亚贝巴的气势宏伟的大楼是来自中国政府的礼物。

Preaching to Africa is one thing America has done better than any imperial overlord, and a US presidential trip would not have been complete without it. In Kenya, Mr Obama spoke against widespread homophobia. Many Africans perceive this as an attempt to im瀀漀猀攀 an alien culture. In Ethiopia, he was scathing in his assessment of African rulers’ penchant for tenure extension. (Unlike the homosexuality point, this was extremely well received.)

在对非洲说教方面，美国比当年的殖民列强做得好，而美国总统在访问非洲期间总要说教一番。在肯尼亚，奥巴马发言反对普遍存在的同性恋恐惧症。许多非洲人认为这是企图将外来文化强加于非洲。在埃塞俄比亚，他尖锐抨击了非洲统治者的恋栈偏好。（与同性恋问题上的表态不同，这一点得到了极大认同。）

The pulpiteering had an air of hypocrisy. Mr Obama described the Ethiopian government, which took 100 per cent of the vote in May, as “democratically elected”. Yet Burundi’s July poll, in which the opposition took more than a quarter of the vote, was “not credible”.

奥巴马的说教也带有一丝虚伪。奥巴马称埃塞俄比亚政府（在今年5月的选举中得票率高达100%）是“民主选举产生的”，却说布隆迪7月份的选举（反对派赢得逾四分之一选票）“不可信”。

Hanging over this Africa trip — as with Mr Obama’s previous ones — is the conundrum: “Why not Nigeria?” It is Africa’s most populous country, and its largest economy; the US is its biggest investor and until last year the leading importer of its crude oil.

和奥巴马此前的访问一样，他这次非洲之旅的一个谜团是：“为何不访问尼日利亚？”尼日利亚是非洲人口最多的国家，也是非洲最大经济体。美国是尼日利亚的最大投资者。直到去年，美国还是尼日利亚原油的最大进口国。

Before now, Mr Obama’s apparent reluctance to visit might have been explained by strained relations between the two countries, with the US alleging that Nigeria’s military has been guilty of large-scale human rights abuses and that the central government has been too tolerant of corruption.

此前，奥巴马显然不愿访问尼日利亚也许可以用两国间的紧张关系解释。美国指控尼日利亚军方大规模侵犯人权，而尼日利亚中央政府对腐败过于纵容。

Yet days before Mr Obama travelled to Kenya he treated Muhammadu Buhari, the new president elected on an anti-graft platform, to a lavish reception in Washington. Mr Buhari was asked in an interview by Christiane Amanpour of CNN if he was “disappointed” that the US leader had yet again left out of his nation. “I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but how I wished he’d change his mind and go to Nigeria,” said Mr Buhari, adding that he planned to “send a formal invitation”.

然而，就在奥巴马赴肯尼亚访问几天前，他在华盛顿盛情款待了以反腐败为竞选平台当选的尼日利亚新总统穆罕默杜布哈里(Muhammadu Buhari)。在一次访谈中，美国有线新闻网(CNN)的克里斯蒂安·阿曼普尔(Christiane Amanpour)问布哈里，奥巴马再次将他的国家排除在外，是不是令他“失望”？布哈里回答说：“我不会说我很失望，但我确实非常希望他改变主意，去一下尼日利亚。”他还补充说，他打算“发出正式邀请”。

We may yet see one final African presidential trip in 2016.

2016年，我们也许会看到奥巴马在总统任期内最后一次访问非洲。