The "end" of USAID: Dare we mourn?

USAID was supposed to end with the end of the Soviet Union in 1989. It didn't. In fact, its operations and funding expanded and intensified, particularly after 9/11. Such persistence fits with the paradigm of harm observed in Apartheid Studies. Harm never actually ends. It just metamorphoses.

Trump's move to shutter or majorly disrupt USAID might be a serendipitous time to revisit old debates about Africa, development and donor aid - or are we going to be bypassed by this seeming window of opportunity to reflect and act on what has been a wicked problem? Some argue that the 21st century will turn out to be Africa's century. By 2050, 1 in 4 people and 1 in 3 young people will hail from the continent. What are the strategies that will break us through? Ending donor dependency - whether from the US, EU or China - is definitely one known important step. Question is how and when.

Trump - and Elon Musk at so-called DOGE - might have inadvertently opened a fracture. Dare we widen it? Or will it turn out to be another missed opportunity? Some are wringing their hands, mourning stopped donations, paychecks and contracts and the probable end of US soft power as we know it. Others speculate that China will fill the void.

But what of Africa? That is the question. What are we to do? Where are we in this equation? What is the calculus?

"They" have their plans. They have always had. But what is ours? What is our plan?

Fact is: whatever good USAID - and most other donor aid - does in Africa is mostly bad. A paradox.