Africans have reacted cautiously to election victory of Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has won the United States 2016 presidential elections.
Several African ambassadors to South Africa on Tuesday spoke to the African News Agency (ANA) about Trump victory and its possible impact on their countries’ relationship with Washington.
South Sudan’s Ambassador Philip Jada Netana said he wished Americans the best of luck and that the result would be the consequences of a free democracy.
“Nevertheless, these elections are important as they affect the rest of the world because the US is a superpower,” said Netana.
“Even a small country like South Sudan will be affected. A significant number of South Sudanese, with American citizenship, voted in the elections. Surprisingly there were some who supported Trump despite a lot of criticism towards him,” Netana told ANA.
Reflecting on Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump, Netana said Clinton had visited his country in the past when she was secretary of state and Juba had found her to be a good listener.
“However, even under former President George W Bush, a Republican, American aid to South Sudan was part of US foreign policy, so I hope this will continue despite Trump’s remarks about cutting foreign aid,” said Netana.
“In regard to Trump’s comments about getting tough on African dictators, this will be put to the test when he gets into power,” added the ambassador.
“Nevertheless, we believe our relationship with Washington will continue in a positive trajectory.”
Ethiopian Embassy spokesman Johannes Al Tamo told ANA that he also respected the will of the American people.
“Our government took no official position on the two candidates as this won’t affect our relationship with Washington,” said Al Tamo.
“Clinton has also visited Ethiopia in the past and during her visit there was positive dialogue in areas of cooperation which she actively promoted.
“We will judge Trump by his actions, not his words, Al Tamo told ANA.
However, many Africans appear to back Clinton, despite her losing to Trump.
The US embassy in Malawi held a mock presidential election via Twitter to gauge the opinion of Malawians.
“The results are in! In our mock presidential election held on Tuesday at the US Embassy’s Public Affairs Section, 321 Malawians cast their unofficial vote: 268 people voted for Hillary Clinton while 53 voted for Donald Trump,” said the embassy.
The BBC reported in another unscientific poll held on Tuesday, by a Kenyan Twitter pollster in President Barrack Obama’s father’s country, Clinton came in 69 percent ahead of Trump.
Clinton did even better in another poll held in Obama’s father’s village of Kogelo, in Siaya County, after the villagers held their own mock election, Kenya’s Star newspaper reported.
Clinton won 78 percent of the vote against Trump’s 22 percent.
In a Tuesday report published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, Zachary Donnenfeld, an American researcher from the Institute for Security Studies’ (ISS), African Futures and Innovation department, in Pretoria, outlined what he believed could be the negative consequences of Trump’s victory.
Donnenfeld said that Trump was an advocate of torture; would cut foreign aid which, among other things, would adversely affect Africa’s fight against AIDS; and indiscriminately target civilians while fighting the Islamic State (IS) and thereby increase terrorism recruitment.
The researcher added that Trump was inconsistent in his policies and had also raised the issue of using nuclear weapons. The Republican has no political experience.
Meanwhile South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory.
In a statement, Zuma said he “looked forward to working with President-elect Trump to build on the strong relations that exists between the two countries”.
He further underlined that South Africa looked forward to working closely with the new Administration in the United States in promoting peace, security and prosperity around the world, especially on the African continent.
