KICK OUT PUPPETS OF IMPERIALISM
The total liberation of Africa is a critical element of Pan-Africanism. African countries may have African presidents, prime ministers and parliaments, but most of these countries are not under African control. Africa is largely controlled by western governments and foreign corporations. European countries understood back in the 19th Century that Africa possesses enormous natural resources of inestimable value. This one continent has gold, oil, coltan, chromium, bauxite, diamonds and numerous other valuable minerals.
By 1885, European countries had resolved to colonise and dominate African countries in order to gain full access to the continent’s wealth. African resistance to colonialism was protracted and fierce. By the end of the 20th Century this resistance had succeeded in driving European governments out of Africa and leaving African countries nominally independent. However this independence was illusory. Unwilling to surrender access to the valuable natural resources of Africa, imperialists devised a new form of colonialism that to all appearances was not colonialism at all. This new form of colonialism – or “neo-colonialism” relies heavily on the betrayal of Africa’s people by Africans, puppets who by one means or another control the reins of African governments.
Some of these African puppets, neo-colonial heads of state are vicious dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, who during his tyrannical tenure stole much of the country’s treasury and had innumerable people killed. The U.S. and Western Europe turned a blind eye to his crimes for many years because he allowed foreign interests to steal and exploit Congo’s resources, he was their tyrant and thief. There are still other African neo-colonial government officials who mean well, but they are constrained and directed by a well-organised system of imperialism (i.e., domination of a territory by external forces). Even these well-meaning government officials are bound to carry out the agenda of their puppet-masters in the U.S. and Europe.
Imperialist control of Africa is by force. If an African leader attempts to steer an independent course even after experiencing threats and coercion, intelligence agencies of the western governments will engineer a coup, or in some cases an assassination. In other cases where an African leader not only attempts to act independently but establishes effective defenses to subversion, imperialists may resort to economic warfare. This happened in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s governing party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, initiated a programme for the return of land occupied by European settlers to Africans. In response, the U.S., the United Kingdom and other western countries commenced and maintained an economic embargo against Zimbabwe for many years that caused substantial economic decline and consequent social and political instability.
Imperialism is also not reluctant to use armed force against those who do not cooperate with the neo-colonial agenda. This was made easier by the creation of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). The purpose of AFRICOM, which today Zambia hosts, is to dominate Africa militarily without appearing to dominate Africa militarily. The way it works is U.S. military forces serve as behind the scenes “advisors” to the armies of African countries. These African armies are directed to carry out missions that advance imperialist interests. One example is AFRICOM’s leadership in the overthrow and vicious murder of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. AFRICOM armed reactionary and racist forces whose campaign of terror allowed the U.S. and France to gain control of Libyan oil fields and end Gadhafi’s plans for an independent gold-backed Pan-African currency.
Pan-Africanism requires Africa to be totally liberated from all of these foreign forces and interests so that Africa can not only genuinely govern itself but also control its own natural wealth for the benefit of its own people in Africa and in other parts of the world.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party