Washington, DC — As we gathered for last month's 15th annual AGOA Forum in Washington, my thoughts turned with gratitude and sadness to a quiet champion whose powerful advocacy and rare diplomatic skill helped make the original legislation possible.
Chitmansing Jesseramsing, whom I am proud to have counted as friend and mentor, passed on July 14. He represented Mauritius in the United States from the Indian Ocean nation's independence in 1968, when he opened its UN mission in New York, until 2000. For 15 of those years he served with great distinction as ambassador in Washington, ensuring that his country punched far above the weight that would normally be assigned a remote, 720 square mile archipelago
I came to know him first when his late son, Devendra, and I were students together at American University. At the time I was still grappling with what direction my career should take. Our conversations around the family dinner table fired my interest in trade and help me understand how our policy towards Africa needed to be refocused.
As we moved AGOA from drawing board to enactment in the final years of the Clinton administration, few grasped its rationale more acutely or argued for it more convincingly than Ambassador Jesseramsing. I remember writing to him in my capacity as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa: "There is broad recognition that this giant step in US-Africa relations is due, in no small part, to your tireless, effective and tenacious work." I meant every word.
His testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee's trade subcommittee in February 1999 was magisterial. In one sentence he captured the essence of what we were trying to achieve: "a dynamic program that offers hope, sound economic opportunities and a sense of partnership rather than subservience."
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He was truly a diplomat's diplomat. Mauritius could only afford a limited number of embassies so he was accredited as envoy not just to the US but to Canada and nine Latin American countries. The latter included Cuba and I understand his services as interlocutor were highly appreciated in both Washington and Havana.
It is greatly to his credit that Mauritius positioned itself with Africa and that he deployed his extraordinary talent and energy not just on behalf of his own country but for the benefit of the continent as a whole. In 1992, the diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Times came away from the embassy's national day reception impressed by "the effusive and affectionate encounters" between the ambassador and his African counterparts. "He plays a shepherd's role for many, especially...the younger envoys for some African states."
Obituary: Ambassador Who Made Sure Many Kites Flew in the Air Passes Away (Le Mauricien)
