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Beijing and Moscow have both set their sights on Africa, seeking to use it as a steppingstone in their quests for premier superpower status. America is also reaching out to the continent, but has this come too late?

From CBS News. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Ghana Sunday night to kick off a three-nation tour of Africa her first visit to the continent since taking office. She was greeted by schoolchildren waving Ghanaian and American flags as she walked off the plane in Accra, and quickly announced a significant new U.S. financial support package for Ghana and a handful of other nations in the region.

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Harris smiled at the dancers and said she was “looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring and very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on the continent of Africa.” …

Harris held a bilateral meeting with President Nana Akufo Addo in Accra in her first high-profile encounter as she begins the nine-day tour of central African nations. …

Harris announced $100 million in new support for Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo, to help the nations address security, governance, and development issues in the region. White House officials said Harris’ trip and meetings would focus on democracy, climate change, security, the economy and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Harris’ tour is part of the Biden administration’s bolstered efforts to strengthen ties on the continent. She is the fifth top administration official to visit Africa this year. …

The flurry of official visits follows the U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit in December, where President Biden announced a $55 billion commitment to the continent over the next three years.

Harris was quoted at the summit as saying that U.S. partnerships with African nations would be guided not by what America does “for the continent,” but what it does “with Africa.” That phrasing was a very thinly-veiled jab at China and Russia, which have invested heavily across the continent for years to gain influence.

Some analysts argue the U.S. has been late in mounting its African outreach, as Beijing has spent huge sums developing infrastructure, lending cash and, in some countries, even building a telecommunications network. Often the investments come in exchange for access to vital mineral resources.

Ghana already has a $2 billion infrastructure agreement with a Chinese company to help develop roads and other projects, in exchange for access to aluminium ore. …

Russia, too, has reignited its relationships with many African countries. Liberation movements across the continent were backed with arms, military training and financial help from the former Soviet Union, and Moscow is now leveraging those historical relationships across the continent to increase trade as well as influence — including through the deployment of mercenaries from the Wagner group in at least four African countries. …

One U.S. official told CBS News the stakes would be high for Harris on this trip. Her job is to convince African countries that the U.S. believes in their future and wants to invest, as the perception across the continent right now is that Washington is less and less interested and sees the continent merely as a charity case. …

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(Excerpt from CBS News. Photo Credit: by James Wiseman on Unsplash)