SOURCES OF FUNDS PROGRAMMED FISCAL YEARS 1975, 1976 AND 1977 Transfer of Foreign Affairs Administrative Support System to Other Accounts Total MECEA (Adjusted) $53,300,000 $60,385,000 $58,500,000 26,741 53,273,259 -$1,885,000 - 5,000,000 + 5,000,000 The ever changing political, economic and social conditions in Africa's half a hundred countries and territories are of increasing interest and concern to America. The widely fluctuating world prices of some mineral resources and the accelerated exploitation of others, notably petroleum in Nigeria, call for appropriate responses by American government and business leaders. The difficult socio-economic situation in many African countries, dramatically worsened by events such as the catastrophic Sahel drought, is a natural focus for American humanitarian interest, especially that of America's largest ethnic minority. The achievement of independence of new countries and the accession to power of new leaders in others must be taken into account. Many African leaders and opinion-makers, for their part, are increasingly interested in America and American ways. They are looking to the United States for policies that will help them strengthen their independence. The United States will serve its best interests in accepting the invitation for cooperation that is being extended by Africa's newly emerging leadership and by the newly appointed indigenous heads of Africa's institutions of higher education. PROGRAM ACTIVITIES AND NEW DIRECTIONS The U.S. government's educational and cultural exchange programs loom large in its relationship with many African countries because of the relative insignificance of other public and private American resources in those countries. These programs play an unusually important role as vehicles not only for informing Africans about the United States but also for informing Americans about African countries. In FY 1977, we shall focus on efforts to strengthen this two-way relationship, especially through contacts with potential leaders now studying in African universities. We also plan to develop strategies for communicating more effectively in areas of university teaching, public administration and management, and journalism. The evolving African scene requires that we acquaint emerging leaders with America as a country and as a society. It also requires that we learn first-hand about those leaders and their goals and objectives that are likely to affect U.S. interests on political, economic, and commercial matters. This includes cabinet and subcabinet officials, senior administrators, party and union leaders, businessmen, and others whose decisions influence national policy. While this contact will be stimulated primarily through the leaders' visits to the United States, the diversity of conditions in the individual African countries will necessitate a flexible format on our part. Experimental efforts to arrange speaking and discussion engagements for the 277 most interesting of the visiting Africans have been entirely satisfactory. an element in visitor selection and orientation as well as in programming. The expectation of public appearances is to become Our principal thrust in FY 1977 will be to increase American contact with Africa's potential leaders, including graduate students and young professionals on the path to influence and leadership. We shall achieve this by increasing the number of American professors assigned, either on a full-year or short-term basis, to African universities and other institutions of higher education. The time has come to support a proper CU academic program in Africa. The circumstances that made it excusable for us to do very little in the past (British and French hegemony, African apathy, AID and foundation contributions) have all changed substantially. America's long-term political, economic, and commercial interests will be served by a rapid increase in the American public's knowledge of Africa and its understanding of Africa's role, e.g., in the energy field, in an interdependent world. In the past, our exchange programs have been imbalanced. We had arranged for more Africans to visit the U.S. than Americans to go to Africa. We propose to improve on the ratio by arranging a series of visits by carefully selected groups of Americans. These would include: Congressional aides with demonstrated interest in Africa; black elected state and municipal officials (in cooperation with the Voter Education Project and the Council of Black Elected Officials); wire service editors from middle-sized, middle-western cities; American artists who, following their African visits, would exhibit works done on the trip or inspired by the trip in museums throughout the country, and American craftsmen (ceramics, metal, textiles, etc.) who would attend a craft workshop at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. We shall seek to create long-term linkages between various kinds of public and private African institutions on the one hand, and their American counterparts on the other, including relationships between predominantly black American colleges and African universities. |