This is the third and final article reporting the Kamala Harris visitation. It focusses mainly on how ordinary people reacted to her presence. I have also prepared a very short video to accompany the article.
AFRICA STORIES : WHY KAMALA WAS RECEIVED LIKE A ROCK STAR BY ORDINARY CITIZENS OF COUNTRIES VISITED
I have already written two articles discussing how Kamala Harris failed to get any of the three nations she visited to keep a distance from China and Russia. Additionally, her attempts convince these countries to liberalize their laws on sexuality and gender was also swiftly rebuffed in all three socially conservative countries.
Nevertheless, from a public relations point of view it was a great success as Kamala Harris had visited Anglophone Africa and therefore received a rock star's reception from ordinary people and from the same state leaders that rebuffed her attempts to influence domestic and foreign policies of their country.
I have often explained again and again on this platform, people living in different African states have differing perceptions of the world. There is no such thing as a single African worldview.
What we see in the anti-French civil unrest seen in francophone Africa is unique to those nations. It does not extend to Anglophone Africa where France is seen as a normal country and USA and UK as seen as friendly nations.
There is general ambivalence when it comes to Russian Federation in English-speaking Africa (except in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa due to old historic ties to USSR).
In each of the three countries Kamala visited, she was received by crowds of excited people. There were dancing troupes, brass bands, and people dressed in T-shirts with her photos on it. Even national leaders that rebuffed her on matters of domestic and foreign policy still made her welcome in their countries
In Zambia, the visit became a bit personal for Kamala Harris because her Indian maternal grandfather, Painganadu Venkataraman Gopalan had lived and worked in Zambia in the 1960s. He was Zambian government's Director of Relief Measures & Refugees and, later on, National Adviser to the Kenneth Kaunda, the first post-independence President of Zambia.
So you can imagine Kamala Harris milking this personal history for all it is worth. She claimed to have visited her grand dad in Zambia as a kid, but I haven't seen evidence that this was the case. Nevertheless, a large crowd of Zambians accompanied her to visit the old house that her grandfather occupied while he lived in the African country.
In conclusion, the three-nation tour of Africa failed in its primary mission to get Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania to reconsider their ties with China and Russia.
Nevertheless, it was a roaring public relations success. The welcoming reception received by Kamala Harris demonstrated once again that as far as Anglophone Africa is concerned, USA is still considered a close friend. (Of course, the usual exceptions of South Africa and Zimbabwe still apply).
I have prepared a short video montage of the jubilant reception of Kamala Harris in each country she visited. I hope you watch; it is three minutes (approx) long :
