TOWARDS PEACE IN AFRICA
In 1985, I attended the second annual Conference of the Association
for the Study of Classical African civilisations in Chicago,
USA. There, I heard the following statement, "If you can make
a man think that he is inferior, then you will not have to condemn
him to it for he will seek it for himself."
That is precisely what the leaders of ECOWAS have done with regard
to peace keeping in Liberia. These leaders decided to send a
West African peacekeeping force to Liberia and then called on
the United States of America to come and lead them. So Africans
can not lead themselves. They must have white-European-Americans
to lead them.
This decision is similar to the kind of partnership decisions
taken by some African rulers during the slave trade. Then they
formed partnerships with European slaves to sell their fellow
Africans into slavery. The partnership between the Asante kingdom
ion present day Ghana and the Dutch is a case in point. Now this
partnership is designed to enable the USA to recolonise Liberia.
This decision flies in the face of the call by Mozambican Foreign
Minister Leonardo Simao, the new Chairman of the Executive of
the African Union. He said, "The definitive solution to conflicts
on the continent should come from Africans. We should solve our
conflicts with our own resources."
One wonders why these West African leaders are afraid to tell
the Americans and Europeans to keep out of African affairs. Had
they acted decisively when they could have done so, they would
have prevented the entire killing and mayhem in Liberia.
It was no secret that the so-called Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Democracy (LURD) rebels were being armed and financed by
Britain and America through the Lansana Conte regime in Guinea.
Even the BBC World Service is now admitting "It was an open secret
that Guinea supports LURD with arms shipments, communications
equipment and transportation." But Guinea neither manufactures
arms or communications equipment.
"The house in Guinea occupied by Ayesha Conneh, the wife of Lurd
leader Sekou Conteh is often protected by Guinean Presidential
guards and the communications equipment she uses to track Lurd
activities was supplied by Guinean authorities." So this Liberian
tragedy, although made in Europe and America, could not have
occurred had Guinea not facilitated it. What must be remembered
is that the Guineans sold more Africans into slavery than everyone
else except the kings of Benin.
While engaging in these nefarious activities, Guinea voted with
Europe and America in the United Nations Security Council for
an arms ban on Liberia. Does this sound similar to the arms control
on Iraq? A ban on Liberia importing arms was placed on Iraq despite
the armed attack on Liberia from Guinea. African leaders who
knew the score remained silent and inactive while the tragedy
unfurled.
These neo-colonial West African leaders have shown scant regard
for the economic and social welfare of their citizens. Otherwise,
instead of co-operating with Europe and America in the recolonisation
process in Sierra Leone and Liberia, they could have co-operated
with one another to develop this very rich region of Africa or
their peoples benefit. Thanks to the late President Sekou Toure,
Guinea has a great variety of minerals that are untouched. This
unlike Zambia where the copper mines appear to be exhausted.
Sierra Leone is a British colony in all but name. The British
control all the army, police, civil service and ports. They are
not accountable to anyone in that country that has the largest
concentration of foreign (United Nations) troops in the world.
Sources suggest that should these foreign troops be pulled out,
the Kabbah regime would collapse.
But Sierra Leone is extremely rich especially in diamonds. Ordinary
Sierra Leoneans are banned from mining. Diamond mining is dominated
by foreign companies all of which participated in he civil wars
on one or both sides. It would surprise a lot of people to learn
that the British supplied the arms used for the RUF attack on
Freetown in 1999.
A British company, Lifeguard Securities with offices in London
and South Africa delivered two containers of arms to the RUF
through Omrie Golley, one time Chairman of the RUF. At the same
time, this same company was training Kamajors in Guinea. It is
believed that both Golley and LifeGuard Securities were both
working for MI6 an arm of the British security services. What
was noticeable at the time was that although there was a United
Nations ban on Golley travelling, he was travelling in and out
of Europe without let or hindrance.
Besides its diamonds, Sierra Leone has bauxite, rutile that produces
a strategic metal used in the American space programme, rice,
cocoa, coffee, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts, poultry, fish,
sheep, pigs, fish and oil off its coast. Surely, this is an African
country that can have a reasonable standard of life for all its
citizens by applying the African principle that the needs of
all must be met.
Unfortunately, some of the practices used during the period of
colonisation were carried over into independence. Hence the rampant
thievery and corruption that afflicts not only Sierra Leone,
but other African countries as well. It was poverty that led
to the rebellions in the first place. Failure to stamp out corruption
and meet the economic, social and welfare needs of the people
is surely bound to lead to greater instability in the future.
Liberia is also blessed with riches. It has rubber, cocoa, coffee,
rice, palm oil, sugar cane, bananas, sheep, goats, timber, iron
ore and diamonds. President Charles Taylor came to power in elections
supervised by ECOWAS. Now, bowing to American pressure, he has
agreed to accept political asylum in Nigeria.
He begged the Americans to intervene to bring peace in Liberia.
In an interview in New African magazine, he boasted of how much
he admired ha American. He even went so far, as did Yahya Jammeh
in the Gambia, as to make September 11 a public holiday. These
are the only two countries in the world where September 11 is
a public holiday. Neither leader showed any similar concern form
the millions who were dying in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
So Taylor found himself in the position of a hog being taken
to the slaughterhouse, sharpening the knife for the butcher.
It was American insistence and that of its proxy LURD rebels
that has forced him to abandon an office to which he was elected.
Even his party chairman Cyril Allen was desperate to have the
Americans come in to control Liberia.
In a telephone conversation, he told me, No one is safe, we want
peace in our country." He said that the African Union had promised
to send a peacekeeping force but it had not materialised. He
was aware that the LURD rebels were being financed and controlled
from outside. The fighting had meant that there was no light
and no electricity.
Commenting on Taylor's demise, one of his admirers said, "The
problem with these guys is that hey are concerned with the trappings
of power. They are not concerned with the realities of power.
They want power, but they do not know what to do when they get
into power." He had asked Taylor, "How can you ask your executioner
to be your saviour?" For him, Taylor had a plantation mentality
with excess dependence on the slave master. He did not know who
his friends were.. When Kuoffour, Obasanjo and Mbeki saved him
from being arrested, he did not even thank them.
This universal African was concerned that the United Nations,
as is usual, had shown scant respect for Africa. This was to
do with the charges of "crimes against humanity" brought against
Taylor while he was in Ghana for peace talks. It is a general
rule that sitting Presidents are not targeted for arrest. No
previous sitting President had been so targeted in the history
of the world.. But the disrespect that the Euro-American controllers
of the United Nations show for Africans is manifested in this
decision.
It was the Presidents of Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa who
defied Europe and America and upheld this principle. In response,
the British secret service, through one of its front organisations
called the International Crisis Group is calling for African
leaders who do not do as they are told to be prosecuted for crimes
against humanity.
So the recolonisation process seems to have scored another success
in West Africa. What will happen in Cote de Ivoire is anyone's
guess. I am told that the rebellion in Cote de Ivoire was an
American project aimed at pushing France out of its former colony.
In the same way that Rwanda went from being in the French sphere
of interest to being in the British sphere of interest. No wonder
France opposed the British and the Americans in Iraq and is opposing
them on Zimbabwe.
France seems to be losing its foothold in Senegal as well. President
Abdoulai wade has opted to become the darling of the Jewish-Zionist
architects of the Project for the New American Century. Under
this PNAC, America, with the assistance of Britain, has embarked
on a new age of empire. It seems that despite all the huff and
puff about international terrorism, Africa is the main target
of this PNAC.
American President George Bush, who is the words of Nelson Mandela,
is a "President without a vision, a president who does not think.
Has embarked on an African odyssey. He is busy proclaiming his
love for Africa and all things African. But he has not demonstrated
any love for the African descendants of former enslaved Africans
living in America.
When he was Governor of Texas, he sent more Blacks to die in
the Gas Chamber than all the other American Governors put together.
He has not lifted a finger to help the more than 1,000,000 Black
men and over 300,000 Black men in prison in the US. Rather, he
nutures the prison-industrial complex that makes huge profits
from the imprisonment of Blacks. A recent study on the Prison
Industrial Complex carried out by Professor Randall G. Sheldon
concluded, "crime pays for the criminal justice system and big
business that caters to it.
Neither has Bush demonstrated that he cares for the on welfare,
the millions who have no health insurance or the millions of
unemployed Blacks. Statistics show that under the Bush presidency,
poverty is increasing among the poor. In his first year as president,
another 1.3 million were plunged into poverty and the household
incomes of Blacks fell by 3.4 per cent. So what makes Africans
on the continent think that election stealer George Bush cares
about them.
American policy in Africa is aimed at maximising profits for
American industry by dumping American goods and subsidised American
agricultural products in the African market. At the same time,
it opposes subsidies to African farmers while working to destroy
the manufacturing sector in Africa through the IMF and the World
Bank.
Despite the pleas of African leaders, Bush opposes then cancellation
of the debt that has crippled African economies. Rather, he forces
World bank and IMF poverty causing structural adjustment programmes
on African governments that are not powerless to resist.
These structural adjustment programmes are aimed at preventing
and destroying industrial development on the continent so that
Africans have to but manufactured goods from abroad. So rather
than create employment and value added on the continent, these
are created abroad.
In every country that has adopted a structural adjustment programme,
the currency has declined relative to the US dollar and large-scale
inflation becomes the norm. With this weak currency, Europe and
America then step in, buy up successful African companies and
force African governments to sell basic necessities like water
and electricity. With profit maximisation being the only objective,
increased prices to the long suffering African and increased
unemployment follow.
America's war against international terrorism has targeted Africa.
No African has carried out acts of terrorism against America.
Yet, America has withdrawn its troops from Saudi Arabia, the
home of most of those said to have been involved in the September
11, 2001 attack on the World trade centre in New York. It is
stationing more and more of its troops in Africa.
One British newspaper reports that America "plans to gird Africa
with military bases." In the Collins English dictionary, gird
means to bind or secure with or as if with a belt. America is
not binding or securing Africa with a military girdle for the
benefit of Africans. It is doing so against the interest of Africans
for its own economic benefit.
With bases already in Djibouti, in Equatorial Guinea and in Botswana,
it is planning new bases on Goree Island (Senegal), in Uganda,
Morocco, Algeria, Ghana and Mali. Are African leaders so mad
that they allow a predatory imperialist power like he USA to
establish more and more bases on African soil? Despite the calls
for unity in Action by the African Union, some of these leaders
are so dumb as to act individually rather than collectively,
thus exposing the continent to American military occupation to
meet America's economic needs.
The Jewish-Zionist architects of the PNAC have declared that
African oil is an American strategic interest linked to American
national security. They have their Black house slaves applauding
them. These house slaves are involved in the African-African
American conference being held in Abuja this weekend. They represent
the advance guard of the American assault on Africa to rape and
plunder African resources. Leon Sullivan, the originator of thee
series of conferences, was a former CIA operative.
General James Jones, the Commander of US European Command has
special responsibility for African operations. He said, "the
US wants a family of military bases across the continent." Besides
these military bases, the US is increasing its naval power in
the Gulf of Guinea, declared an area of American strategic interest.
Djibouti is said to be the home of 1,500 marines watching over
Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. Sudan is known to be oil rich. It is
like a piece of cork floating on a lake of oil. A US military
panel known as the African Oil Policy Initiative Group says that
"it considers the Gulf of Guinea oil basin of West Africa, with
greater Western and Southern Africa and its attendant market
of 250 million people astride key sea lanes of communication,
as a vital interest in national security considerations."
But who would have thought that Goree Island, the place from
where millions of Africans were sent to slavery in the Americas,
would become a military base for our former slave masters. One
would not have believed that Senegalese President Abdoulai Wade
could have stooped so low but this should not be a surprise.
With his slave trading mentality, he opposed slavery being declared
a crime against humanity, in support of Europe and America. He
also supports them on Zimbabwe in opposition to the support for
Zimbabwe by the African Union and the None Aligned Movement.
One wonders whether wade would go through with his plan to invade
The Gambia, using mercenaries who have fought in the civil wars
in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote de Ivoire. At the recent African
Nations Cup football match between Senegal and Gambia, Senegalese
troops viciously assaulted Gambian football supporters who had
followed their team to Senegal. Gambians responded with two days
of carnage, beating Senegalese traders, looting and burning their
business premises. For two days, the Jammeh government allowed
this to go on then sent in the army to restore order on the third
day.
Neither of the two Presidents made any statement on this matter.
Wade's failure to settle the Casamance problem seems to be the
trigger that is leading to hostilities between these two West
African countries. Ethnically and linguistically, hey are the
same people. Wade blames Jammeh for supporting the rebels in
Casamance. Last week, the Senegalese Foreign Minister went to
Gambia to invite Jammeh to travel to Dakar Bush on his arrival
in Dakar. So these two leaders are only co-operating here American
imperialists are concerned.
So where is Africa going? Despite the urgings of Libyan leader
Muamar al Gadafi, African leaders did not even consider his proposal
for a Union Government for Africa as a whole. The idea of having
an African military High Command as advocated by Kwame Nkrumah,
the African Man of he Millennium is being ignored. Instead, South
African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota is calling for military
partnerships.
He said that sometimes, Africa "had no choice but to seek help
from foreign powers whose military involvement was often the
very cause of the problem." But Africa does have a choice. It
could choose not to invite foreign military forces on to the
continent. It could also choose to ask foreign military forces
on the continent to leave.
Lekota stressed, "We are only too aware that the involvement
of foreign powers, especially military involvement, has been
the cause of our problems." So the solution of these problems
is to exclude foreign powers from involvement in African affairs.
That is the way to peace on the continent. American imperialist
troops must not be allowed to have bases in Africa.
When Muamar al Ghadafi came to power, one of the first things
he did was to close down the British and American bases in Libya.
But Ghadafi is a practitioner of African culture in that he is
ensuring that the oil wealth of Libya is used to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, house the homeless, give water to the thirsty
and to minister unto the sick. Surely this is an example that
other African leaders can follow.
by Lester Lewis
Responses to:
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