IMAGE: Bookings

Did the Summit advance Africa’s global voice?

On assuming office in early 2021, the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration of the United States
(US) identified Africa as a strategic region of focus. Within 18 months, the administration produced a
strategy on Africa, the first Africa-focused policy since 2012. This was followed four months later with the
US–Africa Leaders Summit, held from 13–15 December 2022. How can we deconstruct the information
and communications aspects of the Summit from an African standpoint? Did the Summit advance Africa’s
voice on the global stage? Overall, the Summit rose to the levels of a mega global soft-power event, thus
drawing global attention on Africa. Mega events are defined as ‘ambulatory occasions of a fixed duration
that attract large number of visitors; have large, mediated reach; come with large costs; [and] have large
impacts’.1 For an analysis focused on Africa’s global voice, the impact factor can be understood as the
influence of the event on policy and relational dimensions.

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