President Trump’s administration continues to halt measures that affect projects such as the termination of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) initiatives, the Green New Deal, and the defunding of nongovernmental organizations that undermine national interests. These actions coincide with the administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), set to take effect in March 2026, and the defunding of all USAID programs in Africa.
The New York Times has compiled a list of over 2,000 programs affected by these cuts, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Department of Education’s Arts in Education grant, which covers the Global South, including North Island and the Pacific Islands. This may not seem like a major issue, but defunding the arts—another form of economic sanctioning—could have positive consequences for Africa’s cultural and economic development.
The first institutions affected by these changes are the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art’s DEI offices, following an executive order issued on President Trump’s first day in office. The Smithsonian Institution is a conglomerate of museums, education, and research centres established by the U.S. government for the “diffusion of knowledge.” The Trump administration called the DEI agendas “illegal, immoral, and discriminatory” programs. The federal government heavily funds the Smithsonian Institution, which includes the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (housing collections from Africa), the National Portrait Gallery, and the Hirshhorn Museum.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington will also follow suit as it aligns with the new policies set by President Trump. These two institutions are among the oldest and largest cultural establishments with the most extensive collections of African artworks, literature, books, and research on African culture. Their collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-Saharan and North Africa, 300,000 photographs, and 50,000 library volumes.
Why Disband DEI Programs?
One may ask, why dismantle DEI programs? I’ll spare you the history lesson and get straight to the facts.
DEI is a gimmick used to further neo-imperialist movements. Through scholarships provided by DEI initiatives and NGOs in Africa, funders—primarily the federal government—control the cultural influence of the beneficiaries of these funds, thereby enacting cultural influence on these governments.
I lied. Let’s dive into the history.
After World War II and African independence, African intellectuals sought to break free from the colonial gaze that had shaped perceptions of Black identity. They aimed to establish intellectual and cultural ties among Black scholars and develop research methods rooted in African perspectives. This movement gained momentum during the rise of African nationalism. Intellectuals like Kwame Nkrumah and Walter Rodney began publishing Pan-African books and research, contributing to the Africanization of higher education.
By the 1970s, African intellectuals recognized the deep-seated impacts of colonization and slavery. Walter Rodney published How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, prompting African scholars to deconstruct the Eurocentric research methods that had shaped global perceptions of Africa. These scholars sought to engage with authentic African realities rather than externally imposed ideas.
As a result, African research in Europe declined, but collaborations between African and African American scholars increased in the United States, particularly after the Civil Rights Movement. Africa became a central hub for these cultural and academic exchanges, leading to the emergence of Africana Studies. By the late 1970s, African scholars were also working with Black UK-based intellectuals from the Royal African Society and the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK), steering African studies toward critical analyses of African leadership in the post-independence era.
However, neo-imperialists could not allow this to continue unchallenged. Enter the Cold War(1980’s)—ushering in economic turmoil across Africa. Unlike today’s trending sanctions, this crisis was manufactured differently. It led to the collapse of African studies in Africa, the U.S., and the UK, triggering what became known as a book famine, widespread migration of human capital, the collapse of local epistemic communities, the decline of professional associations, the inability of scholars to travel locally, and the deterioration of academic infrastructure.
With these disruptions, nationalist movements—including the historiographical frameworks they developed—were weakened, paving the way for the expansion of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism—the modern face of colonialism and imperialism—disguised itself as African development. It infiltrated African higher education through university missions, curricula, conceptual tools, and research methodologies. However, this time, neoliberal analysis framed Africa’s struggles—challenges created by external forces—as failures of governance and market inefficiency, both of which align with capitalist ideologies.
Neo- liberalist scholars gradually rebranded African studies, once deeply rooted in nationalism and Pan-Africanism, as development studies. Afro-pessimistic narratives—rooted in both imperialist perspectives and the historical fight for independence—drove this shift. As a result, African scholars became dependent on foreign aid and diversity programs.
These DEI initiatives positioned African scholars—now assimilated into Western academic frameworks—as policy consultants to the U.S. and European governments funding them. The rise of development studies further promoted neopatrimonialist analyses of African political economies and societies. These analyses, in turn, informed the policies of international institutions, which imposed conditional neoliberal market reforms on African nations.
At the helm of these 20th-century neo-imperialist agendas sits DEI Initiatives (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity). How much funding does this body receive from the federal government? At least $1 billion since 2021. By calling these programs “illegal, immoral, and discriminatory,” President Trump’s administration acknowledges how Africa and African Americans have consistently been shortchanged by these initiatives. With this new slate, hopefully, we can build institutions within the continent that allow us to shape our societies on our own terms
