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On Africa, Obama and King Mohammed VI are birds of a feather | The Hill
Morocco is already doing many of the things that President Obama wants Africa to do, reflecting a shared vision, says former Ambassador Ed Gabriel:
Last week—almost exactly a year since convening his inaugural U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit here in Washington, DC—President Obama took to the podium at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and delivered remarks “to the people of Africa”—“one of the fastest-growing regions in the world.” Citing the continent’s “historic gains in health,” burgeoning middle class, “hundreds of millions of mobile phones, surging access to the Internet,” and the millions that “have been lifted from extreme poverty,” the president renewed his call for “the world to change its approach to Africa.”
“So many Africans have told me, we don’t want just aid, we want trade that fuels progress,” he said. “We don’t want patrons, we want partners who help us build our own capacity to grow. We don’t want the indignity of dependence, we want to make our own choices and determine our own future.”
In hearing his remarks, I remembered hearing those words before, albeit in a different context.
In a speech delivered on the occasion of the first Moroccan-Ivoirian Economic Forum held in February 2014 in Abidjan, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced, “… Africa is a great continent. It therefore has to take its destiny in its own hands…[FULL STORY]