Kamala Harris Looks to Deepen Relations With Africa Amid China’s Influence

“You know she has certain roots in our beloved country,” Mulambo Haimbe, justice minister in Zambia, said in a video posted online on Saturday. “It shows,” he said, that “they are sister countries that want to shake hands on an economic level.”

Mr. Haimbe was referring to Ms. Harris’s trip to Zambia as a child, when she visited her grandfather P.V. Gopalan. Ms. Harris’s grandfather was deputized by the Zambian government to help manage an influx of refugees from Rhodesia, the former name of Zimbabwe. He also served as an adviser to the first Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, according to the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.

“My grandfather would talk to me about the importance of doing the right thing, the just thing,” Ms. Harris wrote in her book “Smart on Crime.”

Ms. Harris has a delicate balancing act in the continent during a consequential period of her vice presidency amid expectations that Mr. Biden will announce his re-election campaign in the coming months. With Republicans expecting to increase scrutiny over the Biden-Harris ticket, Democrats have emphasized the need for Ms. Harris to assert herself as someone prepared to lead the party. Many allies have said she has made the greatest strides on the global stage.

On Monday, after meeting with Mr. Akufo-Addo, she will visit a skate park and recording studio to meet with local artists and entertainers. The next day, she will speak about democratic leadership and her vision for Africa’s future to an audience of young people in Accra before visiting the Cape Coast Castle, the headquarters of Britain’s 18th-century slave trade on Africa’s Gold Coast.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/27/world/africa/kamala-harris-visit.html