Africa's heads of state are gathering in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for their annual meeting this weekend at a time when the continent's place in the world appears to be in flux.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking in Davos last month, described an arresting image of the future of international relations: either countries were at the table or they were on the menu.
For Africa's leaders, who for years have been arguing that they should be dining at the top table, it was not an unfamiliar analogy.
But in his second term, US President Donald Trump has accelerated the trend towards great-power domination of world affairs and the ditching of multilateralism.
As the White House's updated security strategy says, not every region in the world can get equal attention. Trump's pivot towards the Western hemisphere, as well as time spent on the Middle East, has implied less focus on Africa.
