US $203 BILLION LEFT AFRICA IN ONLY 2015

Mine workers take part in a march

Underdeveloped or overexploited? Against the narrative that Western aid "helps" poverty in Africa, a new study shows that the pillaging of Africa by Western economic interests is still the major source of poverty. A coalition of UK and African-based development campaign groups published research on Wednesday that indicates that Africa has an annual financial deficit of over US$40 billion in capital leaving the continent each year, the Guardian reported.

The research claims that approximately US$203 billion flowed out of the country in 2015 in the form of repatriated profits of multinational corporations, money moved into tax havens, and costs imposed by climate change adaptations. This massive outflow of capital from the historically colonized continent far exceeds that which flows into it, which according to the coalition is only US$162 billion.

“Africa is rich,” the study notes. “Its people should thrive, its economies prosper. Yet many people living in Africa's 47 countries remain trapped in poverty, while much of the continent's wealth is being extracted by those outside it.”

The study also notes the role that Western governments and international organizations have in “pushing economic models that fuel poverty.”

For example, the study describes how extractivist companies which export minerals, oil, and gas, are able to export massive quantities of wealth while paying little in taxes due to institutionalized tax incentives. The study notes however that these tax policies “are the result of long standing policies of Western governments insisting on Africa lowering taxes to attract investment.”

Ghana's Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia

Companies are also frequently able to avoid paying what little taxes they do owe through the illicit use of tax havens. According to the coalition's research, US$68 billion of capital outflow from Africa is in the form of illicit financial flows, which they define as the illegal movement of cash between countries into tax havens.

“The key message we want to get across is that more money flows out of Africa than goes in, and if we are to address poverty and income inequality we have to help to get it back,” said Tim Jones, an economist at the Jubilee Debt Campaign to The Guardian.

The report is highly critical of the role that foreign aid from Western governments has in the continent, claiming that it is often simply funding to promote privitisation of public services, free trade, and private investment. “If aid is to benefit Africa, it must be delinked from Western corporate interests,” the report says.

“Money is leaving Africa partly because Africa's wealth of natural resources is simply owned and exploited by foreign, private corporations. In only a minority of foreign investments do African governments have a shareholding; even if they do this tends to be small, usually around 5-20%” the report says.

The report's findings are continuous with a multiple-centuries-long history of colonial and neo-colonial exploitation and extraction of Africa's vast and rich pools of resources and labor.

 “There's such a powerful narrative in western societies that Africa is poor and that it needs our help. This research shows that what African countries really need is for the rest of the world to stop systematically looting them. While the form of colonial plunder may have changed over time, its basic nature remains unchanged,” said Aisha Dodwell of Global Justice Now to The Guardian.

The research only confirms what many have said before about the harsh reality of exploitation and pillage that has affected the colonized world.

Half a century ago, Former President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah said that “The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world.”

Editorial

AFRICAN LEADERS

The current leaders of Africa have failed the continent in a very big way.

Unlike Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita and others, these leaders have refused to cut the links with the colonial metropolis.

The result is that African resources are still owned by the giant corporations of the West and are exploited for the sole benefit of the bald heads who sit in boardrooms in the colonial metropolis.

Africans continue to suffer under-development and exploitation because our leaders are too comfortable with the current situation in which we serve as drawers of water and hewers of wood.

Indeed in this edition of The Insight is the story that empirical research shows that as much as US$203 billion dollars was taken out of Africa in 2015 alone.

The Insight calls on the people of Africa to take their destiny into their own hands and to continue the struggle which was began by the Osagyefo and others.

Local Story:

GYEDU BLAY AMBULLEY JOINS CONCERT

Gyedu Blay Ambulley

By Gifty Agyemang

Gyedu Blay Ambulley, the Ghanaian music superstar credited with doing rap music for the first time in the late 1960’s has confirmed his participation in the concert scheduled for July 14, this year.

The concert dubbed “African Voices for Palestine” is designed to show case the plight of the people of Palestine living under Israeli colonial occupation.

It is sponsored by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (Ghana) and will take place at the National Theatre.

Media sponsorship for the event has been growing on a daily basis with twelve top media houses identifying with the concert.

Media Houses sponsoring the event include, Pan African Television, The Insight, Radio Gold, TV Gold, Citi Fm, Atinka Fm, Atinka TV, the Crusading Guide, the Daily Guide, the Daily Dispatch and Daily Post.

So far 25 top artists from all over Africa have confirmed their participation in the 2017 Mega Musical Concert.

These include Amandzeba, Besa Simons, Knii Lante Blankson, and Miata Fahnbuleh from Liberia.

Bessa Simons

Knii Lante and Besa Simons will provide the carpet bands for the event.

Organisers say that all former Heads of state, leaders of political parties, Members of Parliament, Members of the diplomatic Corps, youth and students’ leaders as well as leaders of organised labour have been invited to participate in the event.

Amandzeba told The Insight that “this is not just about standing up for a just cause, the Palestinians have suffered enough and it is time to show solidarity”

The collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa was preceded by musical concerts all over the world.

The late Bob Marley also organised a concert to herald the independence of Zimbabwe.

Organisers say that entrance to the concert is absolutely free.

SARKOZY SWEARS TO KEEP AFRICAN COLONIES

By Mathew

Apparently, the former president of the French Republic was again exemplified in shocking remarks this last Tuesday.

In an interview with the BMTV television channel, he said that the best way to preserve the health of the French economy is to keep the FCFA as the only currency usable in the former French colonies in Africa.

“France cannot allow its former colonies to create their own currency to have total control over their central banks . If this happens, it would be a catastrophe for the public treasury that will lead France to the rank of 20th world economic power. There is no question, therefore, of letting the French colonies of Africa have their own currencies “

What is the CFA Franc?

Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy

The CFA franc is the name of two currencies common to several African countries, partly comprising the Central African franc zone (CEMAC) and the franc zone of West Africa ( UEMOA).

How does the CFA Franc work?

Principle 4 is the most technical. First, it should be noted that the Banque de France opens an account for each central bank (one for the BCEAO and one for the BEAC) and an account for each of the member states of the zones.

This is how it works: when a country in the CFA zone exports to a country other than France, it collects currencies that feed the Central Bank concerned. And this Central Bank has an obligation to transfer at least 50% of its foreign exchange earnings to its account opened at the Banque de France. So far, it is the Banque de France that manages 50% of the currencies of franc zone countries.

Finally, it should be made clear that the governance and execution bodies of this whole system (the Board of Directors, the Supervisory Board, etc.) include representatives of the French state who have a right of veto and are paid to preserve Interests of their country (which cannot be criticized elsewhere).

African Liberation Day represents expansion of human freedom

Ahmed Sekou Toure

By Strike Thokoane

Some 130 years ago, European powers met in Berlin to hatch an agenda of subjecting Africa and its peoples to mere vassals, property to be possessed and exploited for the benefit of white people. African Liberation Day celebrates the African people’s successful resistance to this oppression. The Day is also a proud commemoration of the role Africa has played in the advancement of human freedom.

Today marks the 54th anniversary of African Liberation Day, since it was proclaimed at the founding meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1963. It is an important day in our political life as the people of Africa, as it commemorates the founding ideals of unity and liberation, which were the cornerstone of the OAU, the forerunner to the current African Union (AU).

This day was used by Africans on the continent and in the diaspora to rally together and with other freedom loving peoples of the world to fight against colonialism, oppression and injustice.

When it was formed, the OAU did much to help advance the liberation and independence of many African countries, which were still colonies and dependent territories of Europe . Today, five decades after its inception, the entire African continent is free from direct colonialism, albeit still under the yoke of neo- colonialism and Western dependency. We note also, sadly, that Western Sahara continues to suffer under an aggressive and illegal occupation by Morocco.

The OAU established a dedicated organ, the Coordination Committee for the Liberation of Africa, otherwise known as the Liberation Committee, to heighten solidarity and to garner support for countries that were struggling against colonialism and white minority rule. Many Southern African liberation movements benefitted immensely, morally and materially, from this solidarity.

As a liberation movement, the Azania People’s Organization (Azapo) honours this day to remind ourselves of the vision of the founding fathers, mothers and martyrs like Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Haile Selassie, Julius Mwalimu Nyerere, Steve Biko, Yaa Asanteewa, Mmanthatise, Onkgopotse Tiro, Abu Baker Asvat, Robert Sobukwe, Japhta Masemola and many more.

All Africans, Black people and those who value freedom and democracy, should observe African Liberation Day as a poignant marker in our liberation calendar, and in the role Africa has played universally towards the advancement of human freedom.

Human freedom is today imperilled, not so much by physical occupation and the brutal force that was synonymous with colonialism, but by a more insidious and  dangerous selective amnesia, as recently displayed by the former leader of the white liberal Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, who is in denial about the human cost and  destruction colonialism wrought upon Africa.

This curtailment of human freedom is also evinced by the capture of our economic and political institutions by private interests, which erodes the hard-won democratic freedoms and rights of citizens and workers. We see this presently being played out in our country, in the gladiatorial contest between the Guptas and White Monopoly Capital.

Both sides of the capitalist divide are only driven by their avaricious desire to subvert our economic and political sovereignty, and to intensify their exploitation of our labour and land. Their interests are diametrically opposite to Black liberation. 

For us in Azania, we recall the many sacrifices that were made by African countries and the peoples of the world, who afforded us human solidarity to defeat the demon of apartheid and to erase the scourge of institutionalised racism off the face of our country.

Africa Liberation Day must be seen as a direct response by Africa to counteract the evil designs of the 1884 Berlin Conference. Some 120 years ago, European powers gathered in that German city, to hatch an agenda of subjecting Africa and its peoples to mere vassals, and property to be possessed and exploited for the benefit of white people.

The conclusions of this infamous meeting led to the so-called Scramble for Africa, which resulted in Africa being carved up into blocks owned primarily by France, Britain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain. The consequence of this was the total domination, erasure and destruction of Africa’s humanity, institutions, and culture and land rights. 90% of African lands became official territories of Western powers. Nowhere else was this vulgarity more crudely represented, than in the then King of Belgium, Léopold, claiming the whole of the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, as his own personal property.  

African Liberation Day stands as a remarkable tribute to the OAU. Within 54 years after its founding, the bold efforts that were undertaken by Africans to free themselves and their continent from the clutches of foreign domination and settler colonialism were achieved, despite the underdevelopment that remain as its legacy. This goal was attained through advancing a moral vision and value for justice, freedom and democracy, but also through waging valiant liberation struggles and acts of resistance.

The independence leader of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was a committed pan- Africanist and socialist revolutionary, who worked untiringly for the freedom and unity of Africa. He played a pivotal role in lifting our vistas beyond narrow nationalism, ethnicity, tribalism and the slumber induced by pseudo-independence. We recall his evocative words at the founding of the OAU, during his famous We Must Unite or Perish speech:

“African unity is above all, a political kingdom which can only be gained by political means. The social and economic development of Africa will come only within the political kingdom, not the other way round.

Steve Biko

Is it not unity alone that can weld us into an effective force, capable of creating our own progress and making our valuable contribution to world peace?”...So many blessings flow from our unity; so many disasters must follow on our continued disunity. The hour of history which has brought us to this Assembly is a revolutionary hour. It is the hour of decision. The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity. The people of Africa call for the breaking down of the boundaries that keep them apart…”

The founding leaders of the OAU and African Liberation Day were anchored on a strong moral compass, whose cardinal points were human freedom, solidarity and development.

Human freedom should be a continuing objective of all democratic forces, especially now, when powerful blocs seem bent on putting limits to its further expansion in Africa and throughout the universe. We bear witness to this when European governments suppress the rights of political and economic refugees from Africa and elsewhere, by detaining them in subhuman camps, with the collusion of rogue Arab states and undemocratic governments, in violation of international human rights conventions and laws.

The unnecessary deaths of Africans at sea in the Mediterranean while attempting to cross to Europe in places like Lampedusa, are avoidable and preventable. The African Union and African governments must insist on humane treatment of African refugees and for international protocols on migrants being upheld.     

The Black Consciousness Philosophy upon which Azapo is premised is framed by values of human solidarity and freedom contained in The Black Students’ Manifesto, a basic document that was adopted at the establishment of our movement by the South African Student’s Organisation (Saso) in 1967. It puts accent on this when it states:

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Steve Biko’s martyrdom. The Black Consciousness  Movement  will rededicate itself to the course of Black Solidarity, which he propagated, as we observe African Liberation Day.

As South Africans, we must also use today to reflect on whether our country is on track towards building a developmental and ethical state based on good governance. We stand at a precipitous democratic and social moment as a nation, with the seeming entrenchment of corruption within the state. The spate of violence and crime in our society, and the arrested development of our youth and labour force, point to a failure in the nation-building project. Azapo will join hands with other patriots to rescue the promise of freedom, before it is completely lost.

The spread of femicide, kidnappings and killing of young women as well as the recent horrendous death of 35 informal miners in disused mines, are also indicative of the moral and social decay that is gripping our society.  We implore government and all our citizens to utilize this Africa Liberation Day, to recommit ourselves to the goals of the liberation struggle - freedom, equality, peace and development, which must always undergird  our social transformation programme.  

Repossession of our land, restoring our culture and languages, including the redistribution of wealth to the masses and workers of our country and the continent, are the surest way to realise the noble aspirations of the  visionary leaders who originated the African Union and Africa Liberation Day. 

We draw inspiration from the hope that springs from the poem of Jorge Rebelo, a  Mozambican and a FRELIMO freedom fighter, when he writes:

Come say to me ‘Here

my hands have been crushed

because they defended

the land which they own

Come, tell me all this, my brother

And later I will forge simple words

Which even the children can understand

Words which will enter every house

Like wind

And fall like red hot embers

On our people’s souls

In our land

Bullets are beginning to flower.

On this 54th African Liberation Day, may the bullets that liberated our people and  continent, truly begin to flower for all  her daughters and sons.    

* Strike Thokoane is the newly elected President of Azania People’s Organization (Azapo).

Source: Pambazuka

African Union Must Advance Program to Reverse the Political and Economic Crises

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Another series of mass demonstrations have taken place in the North African state of Tunisia where the uprisings beginning in December 2010 led to what has been described as the “Arab Spring.”

After Tunisia the situation in Egypt unfolded with huge protests, rebellion and the eventual seizure of power by the military in mid-February 2011.

A similar scenario had occurred in neighboring Tunisia. Obviously no revolutionary party or coalition of national democratic forces had the political capacity to seize power on behalf of the people in order to make a clean break with the United States and its imperialist allies.

Events in Tunisia and Egypt prompted demonstrations in Algeria as well. However, in this North African state the color revolution did not escalate to the point of driving the National Liberation Front (FLN) from power.

Of course the history of Algeria is quite different from both Tunisia and Egypt. The FLN fought a seven year guerrilla war against France. This war of independence distinguished Algeria from the historical trajectory of Egypt where the national democratic revolution was engineered by the Free Officer Movement of lower-ranking military figures such as Gamal Abdel Nasser. The seizure of power by Nasser and his comrades in 1952 and the consolidation of power by him in 1954 led directly to the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent invasion by Britain, France and Israel two years later. Nasser prevailed in 1956 in part due to the inter-imperialist rivalry between Washington, Paris and London.

The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower opposed the European invasion of Egypt not because of its support for African independence. Instead the U.S. was seeking to consolidate its hegemony as the world’s uncontested imperialist center. Overtures to the emergent national liberation movements were part and parcel of a broader strategy of neo-colonial rule which is predominant in the 21st century.

Tunisians in recent weeks have focused on the failure of the energy industry to provide benefits for nationals. In the south of the country where the unrest began in late 2010, there has been the blockading of extractive outlets which are aimed at closing down operations. However, security forces have arrested numerous people while others have been injured and at least one person killed.

According to an article published on May 24 by the Agence France Press (AFP):

“Thousands attended the funeral Tuesday of a protester killed during clashes in southern Tunisia as officials warned tensions could escalate amid demonstrations over social and labor issues. Anouar Sakrafi, in his early 20s, died of wounds suffered Monday when he was run over by a national guard vehicle during clashes with security forces at an oil and gas plant, the scene of long-running protests over joblessness. Security forces fired tear gas as protesters tried to storm the El Kamour facility in the desert region of Tataouine, radio reports said. The government said Sakrafi’s killing was accidental.”

The lack of any fundamental socio-economic transformation in Tunisia was even pointed out in an article in Forbes Magazine. This is a journal of record for international finance capital and therefore its conclusions would not be the same as anti-imperialists and socialists.

However, Forbes said of the political atmosphere in both Egypt and Tunisia:

“A popular uprising that began in Tunisia and Egypt…, calling for an end to corruption and the creation of economic opportunities, has yet to achieve these goals.  In fact, Tunisia and Egypt have not become less corrupt since then, and unemployment continues to remain in double digits.” (May 20)

Undoubtedly the worst outcome of developments in 2011 was the counter-revolution in Libya which began in February. The suppression of the western-backed rebels by the Jamahiriya under Col. Muammar Gaddafi provided a rationale for the passage of two United Nations Security Council resolutions providing a pseudo-legal cover for the blanket bombing of this oil-rich state for seven months.

Tens of thousands of people died in the aerial bombardments which destroyed basic infrastructure and provided cover for the rebels to seize control of key cities including the capital of Tripoli by August. The brutal assassination of Gaddafi in Sirte was actually ordered by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Today Libya is a source of instability, terrorism, human trafficking, corruption and neo-colonial intrigue. Numerous attempts to impose a compliant regime that could win the support of the disparate rebel groups whom were installed by the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NATO has failed miserably.

Only a revolutionary anti-imperialist approach to the crises in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia could provide real hope for stability and reconstruction. Efforts which have taken place in Southern Africa provide a glimpse of possibilities for other regions of the continent.

The Legacy of Imperialism: Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola

A radical land redistribution program in Zimbabwe in 2000 drew the wrath of the former colonizers in Britain and their allies in Washington and Brussels. Sanctions imposed on this sovereign state in defense of settler colonial economic relations further exposed the actual foreign policy of the U.S., Britain, the European Union (EU) and its partners in Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front Party (ZANU-PF) has held steadfast in defending its independence. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe during his tenure as chairperson of the AU and the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) put forward a Pan-African program urging heads-of-state and the popular forces to reverse the cycle of dependency upon the West through regional integration and an independent foreign policy based on African interests.

Recently in the Republic of Namibia, which like Zimbabwe waged an armed and mass struggle for national liberation, the ruling Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) declared its support for the legal claims filed against Germany by the Herero and Nama people for the genocidal policies during the initial colonial period under Berlin between the 1880s and 1915 when the European state lost its colonies in Africa to other imperialist powers such as Britain and France.

In the Republic of Angola, the continent’s second largest producer of petroleum, the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which also won its independence through the barrel of the gun and its consolidation through the assistance of internationalist forces from the Republic of Cuba, announced that long time President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was turning over control to a new leadership. Angola has been impacted negatively by the sharp decline in oil prices placing a brake on the rapid economic development inside the former Portuguese colony.

At a SADC Summit held earlier this year, a proposal for a regional industrialization plan was approved by the body which represents 15 independent states in the region as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Seychelles. Despite the inevitable obstacles to such an ambitious project it represents the future of Africa. In order for sustainable development to be realized the continent must turn inward in order to exert its latent power on the global stage.

An Africa Liberation Day radio broadcast aired on May 24, 1964 by the then President Kwame Nkrumah of the First Republic of Ghana spelled out clearly the necessity for continental unity up to the point of the formation of an all-African Union Government. Nkrumah noted that Pan-Africanism and Socialism provide the only viable solutions to the post- colonial stagnation and continued underdevelopment.

This historic speech relays in part:

“As I have said time and time again, the salvation of Africa lies in Unity. Only a Union Government can safeguard the hard-won freedom of the various African States. Africa is rich, its resources are vast and yet African States are poor. It is the only in a Union Government that we can find the capital to develop the immense economic resources of Africa. Only a unified economic planning for development can give Africa the — economic security essential for the prosperity and well being of all its peoples. It is also quite clear that not a single African State can today defend herself effectively.

Therefore many African States are forced to enter defense agreements with their former colonial master. Recent events in Gabon and elsewhere show clearly how these military Pacts can be used to subvert the independence and territorial integrity of African States. The only real and lasting solution is a defense arrangement for Africa on the basis of a unified military command.”

During this 54th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity and its successor the AU, the continental organization must review these important issues. The alternative represents more of the same being greater reliance on the imperialists which has resulted in a renewed burgeoning debt, greater penetration of Pentagon and CIA elements in the region and the further fragmentation of existing nation-states.

Africa at the crossroads: AU commemorates 54 years amidst challenges

Map of Western Sahara

By Abayomi Azikiwe

History is not as far removed from the crises afflicting Africa today as many people seem to think. Imperialism has fought against the continent’s genuine independence and socialist development over the last five decades. As Nkrumah said, independence was only the prelude to a tougher struggle for the right of Africans to conduct their affairs according to their own aspirations.

May 25 marks the 54th anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor to the African Union formed in 2002. This continental organization brings together independent nation-states and the still colonized territory of the Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation.

With the readmission of Morocco into the AU this year, some have begun to question the anti-colonial mission of the organization. The monarchy in Rabat has not made any commitment to the United Nations mandated and supervised elections aimed at granting the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic the right to determine its own destiny.

Some African states opposed the reentry of Morocco for this very reason. Either the organization firmly supports the rights of colonized peoples to self-determination or it does not. There is really no room for a middle-ground.

At the founding of the OAU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963, the divisions were largely centered on the issues of the character of the African unification process. Should Pan-Africanism be a gradual process of the merging of regional entities or should it develop at a rapid pace?

Africa being carved up during the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, and events leading up to that critical period in history, laid the basis for the contemporary crises of the 21st century. From France, Britain, Portugal, Spain, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, the imperialists drained the continent of its human and material resources creating the conditions for the development of Europe and North America and the instability and underdevelopment of the continent.

Yet long before the dawn of the present century during the founding summit of the OAU, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister and later president of independent Ghana, appealed in his address delivered on May 24, 1963 to the African heads-of-state for continental unity as the only viable solution to the problems of mass poverty, super-exploitation and the consolidation of neo-colonialism. The events which took place in the former Belgian Congo in 1960-61 where the elected government of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was overthrown through the machinations of the Belgians, the U.S. and the UN illustrated clearly the monumental tasks of acquiring genuine national independence and unity.

Patrice Lumumba

Lumumba was eventually driven from the capital of Leopoldville (Kinshasa) where he sought refuge among his supporters in the Congolese National Movement (MNC-Lumumba) in the East of the vast mineral-rich state. Eventually he was captured by the imperialists and their agents.

By late January 1961, Lumumba had been vilified by the western media, unjustly detained, beaten, tortured and executed. This series of events portended much for the future of the struggle for Pan-Africanism, exposing fully the institutional resistance on a global scale to the forward advancement of the oppressed and exploited workers, farmers and youth of the continent.

Nkrumah emphasized in his 1963 speech in Addis Ababa that:

“A whole continent has imposed a mandate upon us to lay the foundation of our union at this conference. It is our responsibility to execute this mandate by creating here and now the formula upon which the requisite superstructure may be created. On this continent, it has not taken us long to discover that the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence. Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs; to construct our society according to our aspirations, unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and interference.”

Contemporary challenges from Egypt to Nigeria

These words from Nkrumah were indeed prophetic. Looking at the situation today in the North African state of Egypt sheds enormous light on the present crises. Egypt is the third-largest populated country on the continent. It is the gateway to Western Asia where there is a historic link with the ancient civilizations, which shaped the scientific, cultural and intellectual foundations of the modern world.

Nonetheless, this potential is stifled due to the continued domination of imperialism. Egypt is faced with political divisions between Islamist and nationalist forces. The military coup of July 2013 further solidified the role of the military within the state. There is an armed opposition based in the Sinai where natural gas resources abound. These assets cannot be fully utilized for the benefit of the African continent because of the dominant role of the state of Israel and the U.S.

Egypt remains impoverished despite its enormous wealth. At present there is still the failure to resolve the issues surrounding the usage of the Nile River. Ethiopia is constructing a Renaissance Dam which could impact the access of this waterway from Egypt to other contiguous Nile basin states including Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. The peaceful resolution of these disagreements will determine the outcome of any development projects for the region.

In the West African state of Nigeria, the largest populated nation on the continent, with its gargantuan oil and natural gas resources, is battling a renewed economic recession. The price of oil has dropped precipitously over the last three years due to overproduction.

Since the post-colonial African states are dependent upon the purchasing power of the West which determines the price of commodities and the terms of trade, the currency values and foreign exchange reserves have dropped significantly. Nigeria as well is divided through the guerrilla war which has been raging in the northeast since 2009 where Boko Haram has caused havoc among the people of that region, often described as the least developed due to the legacy of British colonialism.

From Somalia to South Africa: The problems of water and resource harnessing

The Horn of Africa has been a source of imperialist intrigue on the continent for at least four decades. In Somalia, where oil resources exist in abundance in the north and offshore in the central and south of the nation, the country is undergoing a calamity of unprecedented proportions.

Millions are threatened with famine as a result of the lack of food and potable water. Crop failures stem from the lack of stability and security. The war between Al-Shabaab and the western-backed government in Mogadishu is by no means subsiding. This is the situation despite the presence of 22,000 African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) troops stationed in the country for the last decade. Obviously the wealth of Somalia is being siphoned off by the transnational corporations based in the West and their allies within government.

South Africa, the most industrialized state on the continent, is suffering from high unemployment, continuing poverty, declining currency values, inadequate service delivery and a burgeoning energy crisis. A sub-continental drought and lack of investment in infrastructure has rendered the nation without the proper capacity to generate power for the much-needed second industrial transformation. There has been a systematic disinvestment by capital since the ascendancy of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in 1994 after decades of intense struggle against settler-colonialism and apartheid.

Considerable pressure has been brought on the society from international finance capital to the extent that now there are intense polemics within the tripartite alliance (the ANC, the Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions) over how to proceed in the National Democratic Revolution. All the while opposition forces led by the objectively racist and pro-imperialist Democratic Alliance (DA) is being positioned for the staging of a political coup that would re-institute a form of neo-apartheid. The lessons of Congo (1960-61) and Ghana (1966) are not as far removed as many may surmise. Imperialism has never accepted the advent of genuine independence and socialist development over the last five or more decades.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah

As Nkrumah also stated in his OAU lecture of 1963, “We are fast learning that political independence is not enough to rid us of the consequences of colonial rule. The movement of the masses of the people of Africa for freedom from that kind of rule was not only a revolt against the conditions which it imposed. Our people supported us in our fight for independence because they believed that African governments could cure the ills of the past in a way which could never be accomplished under colonial rule. If, therefore, now that we are independent we allow the same conditions to exist that existed in colonial days, all the resentment which overthrew colonialism will be mobilized against us. The resources are there. It is for us to marshal them in the active service of our people.”

These are some of the lessons of the last 54 years that must guide the AU member-states into the concluding years of the second decade of the 21st century. The alternative to a totally liberated and unified Africa is imperialism in its most profane and exploitative phase.

Lessons from the north

Another series of mass demonstrations have taken place in the North African state of Tunisia where the uprisings beginning in December 2010 led to what has been described as the “Arab Spring.” After Tunisia the situation in Egypt unfolded with huge protests, rebellion and the eventual seizure of power by the military in mid-February 2011. Obviously no revolutionary party or coalition of national democratic forces had the political capacity to seize power on behalf of the people in order to make a clean break with the United States and its imperialist allies.

The events in Tunisia and Egypt prompted demonstrations in Algeria as well. However, in this North African state the color revolution did not escalate to the point of driving the National Liberation Front (FLN) from power. Of course the history of Algeria is quite different from both Tunisia and Egypt. The FLN fought a seven-year guerrilla war against France. This war of independence distinguished Algeria from the historical trajectory of Egypt where the national democratic revolution was engineered by the Free Officer Movement of lower-ranking military figures such as Gamal Abdel Nasser. The seizure of power by Nasser and his comrades in 1952 and the consolidation of power by him in 1954 led directly to the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent invasion by Britain, France and Israel two years later. Nasser prevailed in 1956 in part due to the inter-imperialist rivalry between Washington, Paris and London.

The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower opposed the European invasion of Egypt not because of its support for African independence. Instead the U.S. was seeking to consolidate its hegemony as the world’s uncontested imperialist center. Overtures to the emergent national liberation movements were part and parcel of a broader strategy of neo-colonial rule which is predominant in the 21st century.

Tunisians in recent weeks have focused on the failure of the energy industry to provide benefits for nationals. In the south of the country where the unrest began in late 2010, there has been the blockading of extractive outlets aimed at closing down operations. However, security forces have arrested numerous people while others have been injured and at least one person killed.

According to a May 24 report by the Agence France Press (AFP): “Thousands attended the funeral Tuesday of a protester killed during clashes in southern Tunisia as officials warned tensions could escalate amid demonstrations over social and labor issues. Anouar Sakrafi, in his early 20s, died of wounds suffered Monday when he was run over by a national guard vehicle during clashes with security forces at an oil and gas plant, the scene of long-running protests over joblessness. Security forces fired tear gas as protesters tried to storm the El Kamour facility in the desert region of Tataouine, radio reports said. The government said Sakrafi's killing was accidental.”

The lack of any fundamental socio-economic transformation in Tunisia was even pointed out in an article in Forbes magazine. This is a journal of record for international finance capital and therefore its conclusions would not be the same as anti-imperialists and socialists.

However, Forbes said of the political atmosphere in both Egypt and Tunisia: “A popular uprising that began in Tunisia and Egypt…, calling for an end to corruption and the creation of economic opportunities, has yet to achieve these goals.  In fact, Tunisia and Egypt have not become less corrupt since then, and unemployment continues to remain in double digits.” (May 20)

Undoubtedly the worst outcome of developments in 2011 was the counter-revolution in Libya, which began in February. The suppression of the western-backed rebels by the Jamahiriya under Col. Muammar Gaddafi provided a rationale for the passage of two United Nations Security Council resolutions providing a pseudo-legal cover for the blanket bombing of this oil-rich state for seven months.

Tens of thousands of people died in the aerial bombardments, which destroyed basic infrastructure and provided cover for the rebels to seize control of key cities including the capital of Tripoli by August. The brutal assassination of Gaddafi in Sirte was actually ordered by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Today Libya is a source of instability, terrorism, human trafficking, corruption and neo-colonial intrigue. Numerous attempts to impose a compliant regime that could win the support of the disparate rebel groups installed by the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and NATO have failed miserably.

Only a revolutionary anti-imperialist approach to the crises in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia could provide real hope for stability and reconstruction. Efforts which have taken place in Southern Africa provide a glimpse of possibilities for other regions of the continent.

Legacies of imperialism: Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola

A radical land redistribution program in Zimbabwe in 2000 drew the wrath of the former colonizers in Britain and their allies in Washington and Brussels. Sanctions imposed on this sovereign state in defense of settler colonial economic relations further exposed the actual foreign policy of the U.S., Britain, the European Union (EU) and its partners in Southern Africa.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front Party (ZANU-PF) has held steadfast in defending its independence. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe during his tenure as chairperson of the AU and the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) put forward a Pan-African program urging heads of state and the popular forces to reverse the cycle of dependency upon the West through regional integration and an independent foreign policy based on African interests.

Recently in Namibia, which like Zimbabwe waged an armed mass struggle for national liberation, the ruling Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) declared its support for the legal claims filed against Germany by the Herero and Nama people for the genocidal policies during the initial colonial period under Berlin between the 1880s and 1915 when the European state lost its colonies in Africa to other imperialist powers such as Britain and France.

In Angola, the continent’s second largest producer of petroleum, the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which also won its independence through the barrel of the gun and its consolidation through the assistance of internationalist forces from the Republic of Cuba, announced that long time President Jose Eduardo dos Santos was turning over control to a new leadership. Angola has been impacted negatively by the sharp decline in oil prices placing a brake on the rapid economic development inside the former Portuguese colony.

At a SADC Summit held earlier this year, a proposal for a regional industrialization was approved by the body which represents 15 independent states in the region as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Seychelles. Despite the inevitable obstacles to such an ambitious project it represents the future of Africa. In order for sustainable development to be realized the continent must turn inward in order to exert its latent power on the global stage.

Only unity will truly liberate Africa

An Africa Liberation Day radio broadcast aired on 24 May 1964 by President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana spelled out clearly the necessity for continental unity up to the point of the formation of an all-African Union Government. Nkrumah noted that Pan-Africanism and Socialism provide the only viable solutions to the post-colonial stagnation and continued underdevelopment. This historic speech relays in part:

“As I have said time and time again, the salvation of Africa lies in unity. Only a Union Government can safeguard the hard-won freedom of the various African states. Africa is rich, its resources are vast and yet African states are poor. It is only in a Union Government that we can find the capital to develop the immense economic resources of Africa. Only a unified economic planning for development can give Africa the — economic security essential for the prosperity and wellbeing of all its peoples. It is also quite clear that not a single African state can today defend herself effectively. Therefore, many African states are forced to enter defense agreements with their former colonial master. Recent events in Gabon and elsewhere show clearly how these military pacts can be used to subvert the independence and territorial integrity of African states. The only real and lasting solution is a defense arrangement for Africa on the basis of a unified military command.”

During this 54th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity and its successor the AU, the continental organization must review these important issues. The alternative represents more of the same: greater reliance on the imperialists, which has resulted in a renewed burgeoning debt, greater penetration of Pentagon and CIA elements in the region and the further fragmentation of existing nation states.

* Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor, Pan-African News Wire.

Source: Pambazuka

Europe should be humble in its relations with Africa

Ivory Coast Presidential claimant Alhassan Quattara

By Job Shipululo Amupanda

The third generation of African freedom fighters is growing impatient with the contradictions of ongoing coloniality in the Motherland. Europe and its allies continue their imperialist subjugation and plunder with the support of puppet leaders as Africans suffer. A new anti-imperialist wave is gathering momentum across Africa to complete the continent's unfinished liberation.

In November 2017, African and European leaders will converge in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, for the Africa-EU Summit. From the 9th-10th May 2017 I joined researchers, policy makers, heads of civil society organizations, activists, government officials, and AU and EU officials in Addis Ababa for a precursor conference aimed at addressing issues of common concern and interest in the Africa-EU partnership. It was jointly organised by the Nairobi-based Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union (CCPAU) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Addis Ababa office. We covered peace and security, migration, economic relations, the youth; and also assessed the progress made thus far. At the end of those dialogues, and in retrospect, it is clear that Europe needs humility in its relations with Africa.

For Dr. Admore Kambudzi, the acting Director for Peace and Security at the AU, Africa-EU partnership has assisted the AU in attaining the milestone of functional coherence in the African Peace and Security Architecture particularly the work in Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia. But the Head of Peace and Security section of the EU Delegation to the AU, Dr. Thorsten Clausing, sees it differently, arguing that the EU is not getting a return on investment. At the beginning of 2016, the EU cut its funding to African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) by 20 percent.

A deeper conversation is needed beyond the ‘value-for-money’ capitalist interpretation. Europe is being disingenuous, thus needing a reminder that Africa’s problems are a direct result of incompatibilities of European state systems they imposed on Africa in the 1880s. See it this way: the fight is about who must cook and eat when, how, why and where in a European kitchen located in Africa, the state. Before this forceful unification in the European kitchen, Africans presided over their own, separate kitchens. Europe cannot, therefore, abscond its responsibilities resulting from its recreation and reconfiguring of Africa.

And it is not just 1880s-related coloniality. Europe and its diaspora (the US) moved into Libya in 2011, ignoring the AU, to kill President Muammar Gaddafi and install puppets. Libya is yet to recover. Francophone Africa is in a mess with wounded knowledge and confidence of self and perpetual conflicts. France continues to manipulate currencies, support dictators and remove (arrest and imprison) leaders (Laurent Gbagbo). Just imagine how our ancestors from Francophone Africa – Senghor Leopold, Frantz Fanon and Thomas Sankara – feel from Ancestry.

Most major conflicts in Africa hitherto have had a direct or indirect European hand. For Europe to assume its current stance is extraordinary arrogance.  Europe needs humility!

Following its refugee crisis, Europe has introduced migration as a new condition for development cooperation. Certain African countries will now be forced to agree to those migration conditionalities. Strangely, of all migrants that come to Europe, Africa only accounts for less than 20 percent. Take France, for illustrative purposes, with its 36,000+ municipalities. For the 25,000 migrants it was asked to take, there will still be 12,000+ municipalities starved of migrants – taking one migrant per municipality. What is the hullabaloo, really? Europe, which purports to be a key promoter of human rights, fails to capture the human rights dimension of migration.  Migrants do not risk their lives travelling to Europe in search of cigarettes. Sometimes it is really a matter of life and death.

But Europe needs to be reminded: Africa has experiencing a serious influx of brutal and violent European migrants since the 1880s. Those migrants are still in Africa today – 100 years later - controlling African economies and occupying millions of hectares of African land, particularly in Southern African countries.  Europe’s introduction of migration conditionality on Africa is therefore pure arrogance. The imperial continent needs humility.

Europe still controls most African economies 50 years after political independence. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) serve to consolidate Europe’s grip on these economies. The EPAs have effectively undermined Africa’s common economic strategy. Interestingly, Britain – a big trading partner of most African countries – has exited the EPAs. It is not clear what will be Africa’s response in the context of the EPAs.

Africa’s sellout liberation generation has been effectively seduced and romanced to maintain the neoliberal economic order profiting Europe. But there is a new wave – a wave of decoloniality demanding the completion of the struggle against Europe colonialism.  There is an awake generation of fearless and radical young men and women of Africa rejecting the  lengthy ‘visions’ and promises of European-made bouncers/bodyguards masquerading as African leaders. Those who disagree must go ask Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, Blaise Compaore and other western stooges. It is a struggle that will complete and deal with coloniality of being, power and knowledge. Indeed, it is a struggle to resolve the remaining contradictions of economic power.

It is a struggle that is led by fearless young men and women of Africa, ready to surrender their lives. It does not exist in the boardrooms of European-funded civil society but on African streets and shacks. This generation of radical activists promises Europe nothing but a reversal of most, if not all, deals that have been concluded with their bodyguards. Everything will be renegotiated.

All is not lost, African leaders can still go to Abidjan in November 2017 and tell Europeans that there is an impatient generation that is tired of old formulas, a generation ready to tear up deals recolonizing Africa. If the European bodyguards masquerading as African leaders fail to do so, this third generation of freedom fighters, after the heavy celebratory drinks from celebrating European economic defeat, will search for their graves of current leaders and urinate on them.

Europe must quickly be told to review its stance of peace and security, on migration and economic cooperation. Indeed, Europe must urgently search and learn about this thing: humility!  

* Job Shipululo Amupanda is a commissioner for the African Diaspora and External Affairs of the African Youth Commission (AYC). He lectures political science at the University of Namibia. jamupanda@unam.na or @Shipululo

Source: Pambazuka