Africa looks west once again: China’s slowing economy is making the US a more attractive investor

For the first time in more than 15 years, Zimbabwe’s 91-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, openly asked for western re-engagement in his ‘state of the nation’ address in August. A decade ago, Mugabe told a packed rally at the Chinese-built national sports stadium in Harare: ‘We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the west, where the sun sets.’ Angola’s equally long-serving president, José Eduardo dos Santos, has also encouraged better relations with the United States in 2015.