Two days after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris to emerge as the 47th President of the United States of America, I was quizzed by Alexandra, my Swedish classmate and friend, on why a majority of Africans support Trump. Like many other Swedes, Xandra does not understand why a majority of Africans support the same man who once labeled their continent ‘a shithole nation’.
Though I personally do not like Donald Trump (majorly because of his crass behavior), I cannot pretend not to know why majority of my kinsmen back home in Africa wanted him to win the recent Presidential Elections in the USA so badly.
And so, when Xandra approached me after school last two Fridays, I shared my thoughts with her on how Trump played his way into the hearts of most Africans. The 2nd and 3rd observations below form part of the answers I gave to Xandra that Friday in school while the rest were developed while I was ruminating over this essay.
- Trump is Not Obama-like
It’s quite paradoxical that Trump is loved in Africa for the same reason Barack Obama, America’s first and only black President in history, is loathed in Africa. When Obama emerged as the first African-American President in January 2009, there were massive celebrations in different parts of Africa as many believed his emergence signaled Africa’s victory over racial subjugation and imperialism.
This euphoria was however short-lived as within the first few years of his tenure, Obama’s liberal democratic beliefs brought him into loggerheads with majority of his kinsmen back home in Africa.
Africa, Obama’s father’s nation, is a very conservative continent. The continent is highly influenced by conservative cultural and religious beliefs which could not accommodate most of Obama’s liberal views. To make matters worse, Obama didn’t only practice his liberal views in America where he was President; he also attempted to force his beliefs down the throat of his kinsmen back in Africa. For instance, he did not only condemn anti-gay laws made in some African states like Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, etc. but also threatened to sanction any African state which did not heed to his LGBT message.
As a result of this, by the time Obama left office in 2017, he had moved from being perceived as a hero to being seen as a traitor in most of Africa.
Consequently, when Trump appeared in the scene from the opposite direction to Obama’s camp, a lot of Africans had no option but to hop into the Trump train. While Trump enjoys the support for appearing to be the opposite of Barrack Obama, the likes of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – coming from the Obama camp – have their fair share of the collateral effect of Obama’s loss of love from Africa.
- Trump is Vocally a Religious
Nothing appeals to most Africans than their creed. This explains why, in most African states, elections are won or rigged on religious lines. Trump (like most politicians in Africa) effectively played the religious card during the last campaign by presenting himself as the candidate who would save God’s kingdom from being annihilated by his opponents. For instance, while addressing a Christian community (Latter-day Saints for Trump) on October 13, 2024, Trump stressed the fact that his opponent – Kamala Harris – is not a person of faith. He cited a few instances in the past where Kamala opposed the appointment of some persons as American judges just because of their religious beliefs. He warned American religious against electing Kamala to avoid persecution or assault on their religious rights.
Convinced or misled by his religious posturing, most religious in Africa and America (particularly those from the Christian religion) queued up behind Trump, perceiving the election as a battle between darkness and light.
- Anti-Gay/Anti-Transgender Sentiments
More than anything else, this is the one factor that drew the largest support for Trump in Africa. Unlike observation 2 above, the anti-gay sentiments are shared not just by the Christian community in Africa but also by Muslims and African traditionalists.
Despite all the campaigns from some international human organisations like Amnesty International and the pressure from the West, Africa remains, largely, a homophobic continent due to the prevalence of conservative culture coupled with the influence of the two major religions in Africa – Christianity and Islam.
As of today, homosexuality is a crime in at least 30 African states (punishable with up to 14 years of imprisonment in countries like Nigeria and extreme cases with the death penalty in a country like Uganda where the offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ attracts capital punishment).
Trump keyed into these homophobic sentiments by promising to undo some of the pro-LGBT policies implemented by the Obama/Biden/Kamala administrations. For example, Trump vowed to reverse Biden’s policies on “gender-affirming care”, to eliminate any federal program which promotes gender transition and to withdraw the license of any hospital that indulges in the chemical or physical mutilation of young people. His anti-LGBT campaigns won him millions of fans in Africa where a majority of the people are culturally and religiously opposed to gay or transgenderism.
- The Alpha-Male Phenomenon
Trump’s cocky and blustering mien represents a tribe of men whose idea of masculinity entails a constant assertion of their manliness. Most adherents of this social conditioning see soft-spoken diplomatic characters like Barack Obama as weak or unmanly. They refer to the Obama-type of men as simps. To them, the only way to prove manliness is to be abrasive and unyielding.
Trump epitomises this domineering masculinity which is typical of the manliness that most African cultures prescribe – the type Chinua Achebe infused in the character of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart. When Trump said he would end the Russian-Ukraine war within 24 hours, he was only implementing the Alpha-Male arrogance of assuming control of situations or insisting on being in charge. This is how he (i.e. Trump) became the poster boy for the Alpha-male tribe of men, the majority of whom are blacks or Africans whose culture or religion demands a man to talk and act as strongly as Donald Trump does. Interestingly, he shares this quality with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who, in his congratulatory message to Trump, described him as a ‘real man’.
- Family Values and Parental Rights
The general feeling among many American parents is that Biden/Kamala diminished or undermined their control over their children’s lives and values. Biden/Kamala administration implemented some policies which tended to alienate parents from having any influence over their children’s values or identity.
Under Biden/Kamala, schools were encouraged to give queer sexual orientation to innocent kids against their parent’s wishes and consent. The administration also attempted to remove parental consent with regard to access to healthcare by kids to enable hospitals to undertake transgender operations on kids without their parents’ consent.
ABC7 Los Angeles quotes Trump as having said the following words in condemnation of these secret transgender surgeries: ‘There are some places, your boy leaves for school, comes back a girl. OK?’ The Hill also reported the saga at the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin where school officials insisted that teachers and staff address a 12-year-old girl with a male name/pronouns despite several protests against this by the girl’s parents.
Contrary to Biden’s/Kamala’s shrinking of parental rights, Trump promised to defend and protect the rights of parents over their kids and to protect the family values of the American people.
