THE CONSPIRACY

AGAINST
AFRICA

Charles Akujieze

INDI A SINGAPORE M A L AY S I A
 Copyright © Charles Akujieze 2023
All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 979-8-89066-927-8

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 DEDICATION

The reality that I’m left with only memories of Iyom Lady Justina O. Okafor
(Akwuete) who passed on recently is indeed traumatizing. This book is dedicated in
her honour.
 CONTENTS

Dedication3
Praises13
Foreword15
Acknowledgement19
A Preliminary Statement 21
References72
An Introduction 83

Chapter 1 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 93

A. History of Africa 93
1. Ancient Africa 94
2. Africa in the Middle Ages 95
3. Africa 1500-1800 96
4. Modern Africa 97
B. Slavery and the Economy of Africa 98
1. How the Slave Trade stifled Africa’s economy: 98
2. The depopulating effects of slavery: 103
C. Slavery and African self-esteem: 106
1. The use of religion to perpetuate slavery: 107
2. How Colonialism replaced slavery: 108
Conclusion111

References115
6 Contents

Chapter 2 The Scramble for Africa 120

A. Background 120
B. Causes for the Scramble 121
C. Partitioning Africa 124
1. The British Empire in Africa 124
2. The French Empire in Africa 125
3. The Belgian Empire in Africa 126
4. The German Empire in Africa 127
5. The Italian Empire in Africa 128
6. The Portuguese Empire in Africa 129
7. The Spanish Empire in Africa 133
D. Africa and the Ideological Cold War Rivalry of the
immediate post-WWII period 133
1. The Cold War in Independent Africa 134

References146

Chapter 3 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization  151

A. Africa and Western Civilization 151
1. A Preliminary Statement 151
2. The Positive Impact of Western Civilization on African Culture 153
3. The Cultural Clash between the European and the Africa 156
4. Negative Influence of Western Civilization on African Culture 159
5. Africa and Christianity in Culture Clash 161
Conclusion:166
B. Africa and the Price of Ignorance: Why people
are – individually and/or collectively – get lost?  166
1. Who is an African? 168
2. Deeper Reflections: 169
 Contents 7

3. How did African (slaves) lose their identity? 172

4. Africa’s Identity Trauma: The Case of Donald
Trump’s Assessment of Africa. 172
C. The African Renaissance: A Myth or a Reality 174
1. The Issue of Race Supremacy 174
2. Crab Mentality: The Case of Africa 181
D. Is Religion the Biggest Scam in Africa? 183
1. The Damaging Effects of Religion in Africa 187

References191

Chapter 4 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa:

A Bane to Development 198
A. Background Studies 198
B. How the Lopsided EU – African Union Trade Agreements
are Harming Africa 207
1. Restrictive trade policies keep Africa prisoner. 208
2. EU’s coffee tariff punishes producers. 208
3. African markets flooded with subsidised goods. 209
4. Africa should speak with one voice through the AfCFTA. 209
5. Africa must be treated as equals, not serfs. 210
C. Political Interference through Proxy Battle 210
1. The proxy wars in Africa and the profiteers 211
2. Why Qaddafi had to go: African gold, oil, and the
challenge to monetary imperialism. 212
D. Economy – Africa as a Meal on the Table of Civilization 218
1. Stealing Africa – How the wealth of the West was built on
Africa’s exploitation.  218
2. Stealing Africa: How Britain Underdeveloped Africa 220
8 Contents

3. Stealing Africa: France 243

E. Africa – the China-owned Continent 250
1. What is the relationship like between China and Africa? 250
2. The Dragon’s Gift – The Real Story of China in Africa 252
3. What China Is Really Up to In Africa 254
4. How China is seriously stealing natural resources from
Africa worth billions of US dollars 258
F. The Russia’s Expanding Influence in Africa 261
1. Introduction 261
2. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in historical and normative
contexts264
3. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in the context of
Putin’s ‘Solar System 267
4. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in a global context 270
5. Wagner Group: What is Putin’s ‘Shadow Army’ up to in Africa? 276
Conclusion and outlook 280
G. How Multi-National Companies Exploit Africa 281
1. Multinational companies cheat Africa out of
billions of dollars 281
2. Aid and Influence [How the International Financial Institutions
(World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc.) destroys Africa] 283

Reference286

Chapter 5 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics:

China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 305
A. Background Analysis 305
1. A Preliminary Statement: 305
2. Introduction 306
3. The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics 309
 Contents 9

B. The United States and China: Strategic Rivalry in Africa. 312

1. The United States and China Strategic Rivalry in Africa:
An Explanation. 312
2. Strategic Resource Rivalry 314
3. China’s Geo-strategy in Africa: Dilute U.S. Hegemony 317
4. The U.S. Response to China’s Presence in Africa 319
C. Militarization and Securitization in Africa:
The Role of Sino-American Geostrategic Presence 325
1. The U.S. Role in the Militarization and Securitization of Africa 326
2. China’s Role in the Militarization and Securitization of Africa 331
3. Sino-American Military and Security Cooperation in Africa 334
4. Summary and Conclusions 336

References339

Chapter 6 The Subtle Re-Colonization of

Africa346
A. An Introduction 346
B. An Attempt by the Bretton Wood’s Institutions to Recolonize Africa 349
1. The Role of Intellectuals who support free-market
capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending: 352
2. The Clash of Agenda and Africa’s Surrender 354
3. The Resistance by African Leaders: 357
4. Ineffectiveness of one-sided Structural Adjustment. 360
5. Conclusion 361
C. How Western (foreign) Aid destroy Africa. 362
1. How has aid caused dependency? 362
2. A more concerning type of dependency 363
3. Demolishing aid dependency 364
10 Contents

4. Concluding thoughts 365

D. Africa and the Corrupt United Nation’s Security Council 365
E. Africa and the International Criminal Court (ICC) 367
1. What is the International Criminal Court? 367
2. What cases are before the ICC? 368
3. Why are so many ICC cases in Africa? 370
4. What criticisms are levelled against the ICC? 371
5. Is the ICC a tool to re-colonise Africa? 371
F. Foreign Military Bases in Africa 381

References386

Chapter 7 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 396
A. Pan-Africanism (from OAU to AU) 396
B. The Pan-African Congress movement 396
C. The Need for a United States of Africa: Matters Arising! 397
D. The United States of Africa: The challenges 400
1. Introduction: 400
2. The challenge of globalization: 401
3. The challenge of the US ‘War on Terror’ 403
4. Internal challenges 404
E. Can Africa overcome these challenges? 405
1. Need for political will! 405
2. Freeing the African mind. 406
3. An enlightened leadership 407
4. Involve the African people. 407
5. Conclusion 408
F. United States of Africa: An African Elitist Revolution 409
 Contents 11

G. Integration with the Continental free trade in view and

Cooperation on all Economic Fronts 414
1. Background 415
2. Negotiations 416
3. 2018 Kigali Summit 416
H. Socio-Cultural Regeneration
(Why Africa Remains Behind in the World: Amilcar Cabral Revisited) 420
1. A Brief History of Colonial Cultural Domination and
Africa’s Inferiority Complex 421
2. Cultural Domination: “Everything European and White is Good,
Everything African and Black is Bad and Inferior”.103 422
3. Amilcar Cabral and the ‘Weapon of Theory’ – Why this is
Important for African Freedom and Material Prosperity 424
I. Other Issues 427
1. Addressing African Union Peace and Security Council’s Concern 427
2. Corruption: Africa’s Second Largest Religion 434

References438

Chapter 8 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 448

A. Background Studies 448
B. Five Important Climate Issues in Africa 451
C. Demographic Transition: Is Africa being Prejudice? 453
D. Why Climate Change? 457
E Destruction of Ecosystem 458
F. Which Countries Destroy the Environment the Most (and Least)? 459

References485
 PRAISES

“Africans are already deeply wounded and therefore in desperate need of healing.
But if Africa continues to behave like grass the goats (Imperialists) would continue
to eat it. Most times, the attitudes of our leaders expose Africa as grass and
therefore fit for eating. Africa must be united to engage other advance civilization
as a bloc and endeavour to execute her various laudable aspirations and objectives
to transform Africa and her people. This book will definitely open the eyes of many
Africans and non-Africans alike” – Juliet Akujieze (United Kingdom)
 FOREWORD

In this book, “The Conspiracy against Africa”, Charles Emmanuel Nnaemeka

Akujieze has decried against foreign interferences and meddlesomeness in Africa,
warning that African Agenda must be driven by Africans, not by those he describes as
the “hunters” – the colonizers, the slavers, the imperialists and neo-imperialists and
others who want to reap where they do not sow.
He has meticulously explained how the 15th century chattel slavery through
the transatlantic slave trade led to the first scramble for Africa when the Imperialists
divided the Continent via the formalization exercise conducted in the Berlin
Conference.
The author maintains that the Imperial powers have further interfered in the
Continent militarily, diplomatically, politically and economically using the Bretton
Woods institutions (the IMF and the Work Bank) by ensuring that Africa’s political
and economic infrastructure is beholden to theirs through dollarization. They’re also
using the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as the Trojan horse to pull
wools over the eyes of Africa, and also through post-colonial institutions like the
Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie
(OIF), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), the West emasculates Africa.
He alleges that African continent has a lengthy history of its leaders being killed
by certain people or organisations that are typically opposed to government structure.
According to him, these individuals and/or organisations use a variety of means to
oust African leaders, including using coups often known as military takeovers and
strategic assassination in collaboration with past colonial masters in order to maintain
their political, economic, and social interests. Consequently, the assassination of some
of these African leaders resulted, or has resulted, in many changes in the political,
social, and economic framework of their respective nations in the African continent.
16 Foreword

Put differently, the political arena of Africa had been playing into the hands of
foreign actors for many years, using naked coercion, deceit, treachery or by outright
greed on the part of some African leaders.
He decries how the advanced countries in Europe (and America) see the sub-
Saharan Africa as fundamental to the global prosperity of the advanced countries.
To them, Africa has a role to play in the global economy ONLY as producer of raw
materials. The West will never allow Africa to escape that and will do everything
possible to keep sub-Sahara Africa where it is – impoverished, despite the abundance
of her vast human and material resources.
The author went further to say that the West will not willingly allow Africa to
develop and industrialize (and genuinely prosper) without a fight. And, according
to them, if Africa is allowed to do something differently (positive and needful), the
living standard in Europe, the US and Asia would fall. To them, that’s too much a
price to pay.
This unfortunate situation was effectively collaborated and sustained by the
ignorance and crab-mentality of African people, especially their leaders. Consequently,
sub-Sahara Africa is perpetually condemned to this condition to produce raw materials
for the West.
He calls on the world leaders to honestly address the unbalanced and repressive
world system that leaves the Africa Continent bleeding. According to him, the world
needs a system based on (i) principles of human dignity, (ii) principles of sovereignty,
and (iii) principles of economic rights.
He queried why some 1.4 billion Africans on Earth are not represented in G-20?
“If the present G-20 forum added just one more seat by inviting the chairperson of
the African Union (AU) to represent 1.4 billion Africans, will heavens fall?”, he asks!
“Yet, they are preaching democracy to us; and yet they are largely undemocratic in
their behaviour and temperament.”
In another development, he however noted that the world needs to have a second
look at the Order of magnitude change of development finance.
He went further to remind Africans how the Continent was divided along
ideological lines during the Cold War era; and today Africa is facing an imminent
re-colonization exercise in the new scramble for the Continent as the geo-political
 Foreword 17

presence of China has ignited yet another scramble between the United States and
its allies, on the one hand, and China (and Russia) and its coalition of the BRICS
nations on the other. In the same vein and simultaneously, other players like the
Asians and the Middle East all fighting to gain a foothold in Africa for their selfish
interests.
He calls on Africans to be united as a single bloc (United States of Africa) to be
able to withstand the challenges of globalisation and take her destiny in her hands.
In another unfortunate development, he hinted how a coalition of American
scientists have announced that one-third of the world population must die to prevent
wide-scale depletion of the planet’s resources—and that humankind needs to figure
out immediately how it wants to go about killing off more than 2 billion members
of its species. In other words, there is the need for the death of one-third of human
race to secure the sustainability of civilization.
According to this narrative, for the purposes of population control, more than
two billion people – in the words of Bill Gates three billion people – need to die and
that they need to start from Africa. To them, Africans need to be eliminated because
they are “deplorable, worthless … they are not part of the world economy … so they
have their right taken away … they are suppressed …”
And, according to the United Nations, Africa will be hardest hit by climate
change, but has contributed the least to causing that change. He argues that despite
contributing only a minute amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, the African
continent suffers the deleterious effects of climate change to a disproportionate degree.
He demanded that the heavy carbon emitters, like China and the United States, have
a moral obligation to help the nations of Africa, particularly the rural areas of these
countries, mitigate the impact of climate change, not just to help Africa, but to help
the rest of the world.
He however cautions that “Africans are already deeply wounded in so many
areas of human endeavour and therefore in desperate need of healing. But regrettably
however if Africa continues to behave like grass the goats (Imperialists) would
continue to eat it. Most times, the attitudes of our leaders expose Africa as grass and
therefore fit for eating. Africa must be united to engage other advance civilization as
18 Foreword

a bloc and endeavour to execute her various laudable aspirations and objectives to
transform Africa and her people.”
His’ is nothing but a clarion call for the African people to take their destiny in
their own hands and emancipate self from the shackles of whatever entanglements
they are being beholden.
His approach is Pan-Africanist as well as his temperament.
His burden and pain to “right” the “ancient wrongs” understandably led the
author to postulate strong, decisive action calling on the people of Africa to rise and
reclaim their Continent from those he describes as the hunters.
I recommend this book to all Africans, particularly students of history, politics,
administration and comparative studies, and to all those who cherish freedom of
thought and others who want to dare themselves to have a second look and a second
thought into the multi-dimensional issues which are of interest to the renascent
African in this contemporary times. – Juliet O. Akujieze (United Kingdom)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“Slavery destroyed us! Religion divided us! Ignorance controls us! And truth scares
us. If these retrogressive forces are allowed to perpetuate, Africa will remain a Dark
Continent.
-Charles Akujieze “The Conspiracy against Africa”
If God has never stopped being good to me, should I just stop being grateful? His
goodness is infinitely more wonderful than I will ever be able to comprehend. I
thank God for the ability and wisdom granted me to be able to write this book.
As a passionate reader and book lover, I have always had a healthy dose of respect
for authors. This respect has dramatically increased as I navigated through more
than two years of writing this book, starting from the outline to the final chapter,
etc. To the authors I used their ideas and data in compiling, collating, analysing and
annotating this book I owe a special debt of gratitude.
I owe a special gratitude to the following people:
My late father, Chief Fredrick Nso Akujieze (Urukanachukwu Abagana) whose
last wish is for me to always stand for truth and justice and always believe in God
who is faithful to deliver His promises; my loving and industrious mother, Mrs.
Mary Nwakego Akujieze (Omenwa Abagana) who is always there for me and my
highly beloved mother-in-law who recently passed on – Late Iyom Lady Justina O.
Okafor (Akwuete) whose contributions and support remain undeniably visible at all
times and constantly serve as a reminder of her legacy while she walked the earth.
I am highly indebted to Juliet Ogechukwu Akujieze, an inseparable facet of my
life whose role as a wife fundamentally, essentially and unquestionably provided me
with the much-needed help to face the challenges and burden of writing this book
and facing the vicissitudes and concatenations of life’s challenges.
20 Acknowledgement

Oh! My highly gifted and God-fearing children are highly recognized and
appreciated. They are Shekinah, Shalom, Fortune and David.
My brothers and sisters, friends and relations are also recognized and
acknowledged.
 A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

• Geographical Description:
Sometimes nicknamed the “Mother Continent”, the African Continent is widely
regarded and acknowledged as the oldest inhabited continent on Earth. This is
because, according to scientists, humans and human ancestors have lived in Africa for
more than 5 million years, a fact that was never discovered in any other continent. 1
It is the second largest and the second most populous continent after Asia and is
bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic
Ocean. It is divided in half almost equally by the Equator.2
Africa has eight major physical regions: the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian
Highlands, the Savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rainforest, the African Great Lakes,
and Southern Africa.3
With an approximation of some 1.4 4billion of human pot-pourri, spread out
over 54 countries, the United Nations’ Geo-scheme divides the continent into 5
distinct sub-regions – Northern Africa, West Africa, Middle Africa, East Africa, and
Southern Africa. Northern Africa is the largest of the sub-regions by land area, while
Southern Africa is the smallest. Southern Africa is also the least populous of the
African sub-regions. Each sub-region is comprised of several countries. Northern
Africa has just 5 countries, and Southern Africa 6. In contrast, East Africa, the most
populous sub-region of Africa, has 18 countries. West Africa has 16 countries, and
Middle Africa has 9. 5
However, Nigeria, a country in West Africa which geographically situate between
the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea to the south in the Atlantic Ocean and
covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 sq. mi), with a population of
over 216 million, is the most populous country in Africa, and the world’s seventh-
most populous country.6
22 A Preliminary Statement

The sovereign states that made up Africa are Algeria, Angola, Benin Republic,
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic,
Republic of Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea,
Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya,
Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi and Mali. Others include Mauritania,
Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger Republic, Nigeria, Rwanda,
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
With a total area space of about 30.4 million km2 (11.7 million square
miles) including adjacent islands, Africa covers 6% of Earth’s total surface area and
20% of its land area).7 This makes it larger than all Europe, China, and the United
States of America (USA) combined. It is three times the area of China, three times
the area of Europe, and three times the area of the United States of America (USA).
All these countries (and/or continents) could be conveniently combined and yet fit
into the African space.
The continent of Africa is also a crossroads of the world. The Bab el-Mandeb
Strait between Djibouti and Yemen is a choke point at the southern end of the Red
Sea. Another choke point exists between Sicily and Libya. The Strait of Gibraltar is
between Europe and Africa. The recent blockage of the Suez Canal threw light onto
two more choke points: the Mozambique Channel and the Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa. These sea lines of communication are vital around the globe and are
ever.8
The Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland
– has become the focus of what is being termed a ‘Middle East Cold War’. It is
undergoing far-reaching changes in its external security environment. A wide variety
of international security actors— from Europe, the United States, the Middle East,
the Gulf, and Asia—are currently operating in the region. The old bastions of power
in the region, the US, UK and France, are increasingly being displaced by a new
generation of Middle Eastern powers, with everyone racing to gain a foothold in
what is becoming one of the world’s most militarised regions. As a result, it has
experienced a proliferation of foreign military bases and a build-up of naval forces.
The external militarization of the Horn poses major questions for the future security
 A Preliminary Statement 23

and stability of the region. Evidently, the Horn is becoming one of the world’s most
militarised regions, beside one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes. The leaders
in The Horn are playing a deadly game of chess against the new forces shaping the
region.
In addition to the above, a number of Africa countries are among the “most
fragile” in the world. These countries have ungoverned or little governed areas that
attract violent extremist organizations, which capitalize on economic and political
dysfunction to extend their reach.
A number of violent extremist organizations operate in Africa, including al-
Qaida affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia and ISIS allies. Al-Shabab has clearly stated it
wants to attack the U.S. homeland, and it is a major contributor to global al-Qaida.
• Population:
As of 2023, Africa with 30.4 million square kilometres approximately has a population
of about 1.4 billion inhabitants.9 China is 9.6 million square kilometres with 1.4
billion inhabitants.10 India has a total space of 3.3 million square kilometres and 1.4
billion inhabitants.11 Yet, Africa is singled out and projected as overpopulated, and
pressure mounts on Africa to depopulate, why?
• Natural Resources:
The continent of Africa is unarguably the most profitable corner of the world.
Consequently, no empire can grow, prosper, and sustain itself without some “Africa”.
It is therefore not surprising that every great empire, wittingly or unwittingly, have
longed for some “ownership” of the continent.
Many African countries are very rich in natural resources as follows: 12 .
• # 10. Botswana – rich in diamond, copper, coal, soda, ash, and nickel.
• # 9. Ghana – rich in gold, bauxite, diamond, manganese, crude oil, silver, and
salt.
• # 8. Tanzania – rich in tanzanite, gold, diamond, and silver.
• # 7. Guinea – rich in bauxite, alumina, diamonds, and gold.
• # 6. Mozambique – This South-eastern country is rich in aluminium, natural
gas, crude oil, copper, gold, rubies, bauxites, etc.
24 A Preliminary Statement

• # 5. South Africa – rich in diamonds, gold, iron ore, platinum, manganese,

chromium, etc.
• # 4. Zambia – rich in copper, emerald, cobalt, uranium, silver, etc.
• # 3. Namibia – rich in uranium, diamonds, zinc, lead, sulphur, salt, tantalite,
and copper.
• # 2. Niger – rich in uranium, coal, cement, gold, iron ore, tin, phosphate,
petroleum, salt, etc.
• # 1. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – This central African country is
rich in copper, cobalt, diamond, oil, coltan, zinc, bauxites, gold, tin, etc. The
DRC is arguably one of the richest countries on earth and single-handedly
powering the global technology industry in some significant sense. The
Congo Basin is abundant in natural resources such as timber, diamonds and
petroleum. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) important resources
include petroleum and natural gas, most of which are produced in offshore
fields. Natural gas Congo holds the fifth-largest proven reserves of natural gas
in Sub-Saharan Africa at 3.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf )
Today, gold mining in Zimbabwe is a major mainstay for millions in the South
African country. According to Keith Sungiso in “Gold Mining in Zimbabwe”:
“There are over 4,000 recorded gold deposits in Zimbabwe of which nearly all
of them are located on ancient workings. The country remains under-explored
to discover deposits away from these ancient workings. More than 90% of gold
deposits in Zimbabwe are associated with greenstone belts which are some of the
richest in the world. Other gold deposits occur in the Limpopo Mobile Belt in the
south of the country and in the Proterozoic rocks in the North-Western part of
Zimbabwe”13
The natural resources in Nigeria include Gold, Oil and Gas, Bitumen. Others
include Coal, Iron ore, Lead and Zinc, Limestone, Barytes (Barite).
The Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd had announced in
2019 the discovery of crude oil, gas and condensate in commercial quantity in the
Kolmani area between Bauchi and Gombe states in north-eastern Nigeria, a region
that is battling an Islamist insurgency. This is an addition to Nigeria’s oil and gas
 A Preliminary Statement 25

reserves in the Southern part of Nigeria from which Nigeria significantly depended
on for her budgetary expenses.
President Muhammadu Buhari said Kolmani had 1 billion barrels of oil reserves
and 500 billion cubic feet of gas.14
Nigeria to date has discovered well over forty-four minerals in commercial
quantities. There is hardly any mineral of value that cannot be found in Nigeria.
Recently, Nigeria discovers precious mineral call lithium in commercial quantity and
Elon Musk’s Tesla wants a piece of the pie.
Lithium is a mineral used for batteries. As we know, electric cars are becoming
increasingly popular and they run on batteries made by lithium as one of the key
components. 1 Lithium accounts for about 30% of the batteries made. It is estimated
that in a decade or so, it would account for 95%. That means that the value is going
to rise and any country that can get in on the game now is going to win and win big.
The price of Lithium went from $6,000 per ton in 2020 to $78,000 per ton in 2022.
It is estimated that by 2040, it may be the most valuable mineral on earth. 15
It is therefore in this important sense that a study of the World Natural Resources
clearly reveals that Africa is a home of 60% of the world’s arable land16, 90% of raw
material reserve17, 40% of gold reserve18, 33% of diamond reserve19, and 95% of
platinum reserve20. In addition, Africa is rich in manganese, iron, wood, uranium,
copper, crude oil, etc. It also holds the largest bauxite reserve in the world 21 yet the
African continent is touted as the poverty capital of the world, ripe for depopulation.
Africa has 13 of the 25 fastest growing economies in the world and 60% of the
arable land on the globe. As a US Army Gen. Stephen J. Townsend said “This fact
alone should show how important Africa is for the world.”22
Five African countries hold 56% of her private wealth. The total investable
wealth currently held on the African continent amounts to US $2.4 trillion and 42%
over the next 10 years, according to the latest 2023 Africa Wealth Report, published
by Henley & Partnership with New World Wealth.23
The report reveals that Africa’s ‘Big 5’ wealth markets – South Africa, Egypt,
Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco – together account for 56% of the continents high-
net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and over 90% of its billionaires.
26 A Preliminary Statement

There are currently 138,000 HNWIs with an investable wealth of USD 1 million
or more living in Africa, along with 328 centi-millionaires worth USD 100 million
or more, and 23 US dollar billionaires. 24
Despite a tough past decade, South Africa is still home to over twice as many
HNWIs as any other African country, and an impressive 30% of the continent’s
centi-millionaires. 25
Egypt takes the prize for the most billionaires and Mauritius boasts by far the
highest wealth per capita (average wealth per person) in Africa, at USD 37,500,
followed by South Africa at USD 10,880 and Namibia at USD 10,050. 26
Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote is the wealthiest African on Earth and the only African
amongst the top richest 50 on earth.27
Africa has a growing population, and demographers estimate that by 2050 one
in four people on Earth will be African. 28
But, with the continent having a plethora of strategic materials, such as cobalt,
chromium, tantalum and more, African resources are critical to 21st century progress.29
It is therefore germane and fundamental to ask: if Africa is so rich, why are the
people so poor?
• If so rich, why so poor?
To offer an honest and unbiased explanation, it would be germane and
fundamental to probe holistically why our Africa is not working; why the people are
considered poor even when the continent is very rich.
It suffices that the economy of the world and the way money is valued, is one of
the biggest scams of the universe. Money and wealth are naturally backed by mineral
resources, land, and basically physical commodities such as precious metals. But in
Africa, it is not so.
Based on this eternal truth, it is therefore safe to conclude that African currencies
ought to be most valuable in the world, given that Africans have more of the valuable
resources of this world. I remember as a teenager when one dollar used to be equated
to 50 kobo and $2 dollar equals to 1 Naira in Nigeria. At this time Nigeria’s naira and
the British pound used to be at pars. At this time, Nigeria was an intimidating force
to the British when she nationalised the British Petroleum (BP) because of the latter’s
 A Preliminary Statement 27

fraternisation and support of apartheid in South Africa. I still remember in 1984

when you didn’t need visa to go to the UK. All you need to do was just present your
University of Ibadan (UI) identity card (ID) and you get boarded to attend some
lectures or seminar in the United Kingdom. But when the United States and the
West suddenly realised that the “black” man is “becoming too powerful” possibly due
to their possession of abundance and intimidating natural resources, they conspired
and removed gold reserve as the standard of measurement of economic strength of
nations.
What is a gold reserve? A gold reserve is the gold held by a national central bank,
intended mainly as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders
(e.g. paper money), or trading peers, during the eras of the gold standard, and also as
a store of value, or to support the value of the national currency.
During most of history, a nation’s gold reserves were considered its key financial
asset and a major prize of war.
At the beginning of the World War II from October 1939, a typical view was
expressed in a secret memorandum by the British Chief of the Imperial General. The
British Military and the British Secret Service laid out “measures to be taken in the
event of an invasion of Holland and Belgium by Germany” and presented them to
the War Cabinet:
“It will be for the Treasury in collaboration with the Bank of England, and the Foreign Office, to examine
the possible means of getting the bullion and negotiable securities into the same place of safety. The transport
of many hundreds of tons of bullion presents a difficult problem and the loading would take a long time.
The ideal would of course be to have the gold transferred to this country or to the United States of America.
[…] The gold reserves of Belgium and Holland amount to about £70 million and £110 million respectively.
[Foot]Note: H. M. Treasury has particularly requested that this information, which is highly confidential
should in no circumstances be divulged. The total weight of this bullion amounts to about 1800 tons and its
evacuation would be a matter of the utmost importance would present a considerable problem if it had to
be undertaken in a hurry when transport facilities were disorganized. At present this gold is believed to be
stored at Brussels and The Hague respectively, neither of which is very well placed for its rapid evacuation in
an emergency.”30

One-third of its gold reserves were transferred by the Belgian government to

the UK, another third to Canada and the United States and most of the remainder
28 A Preliminary Statement

to southern France. Following the outbreak of war, the gold held in France was
sent to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, then part of the French colonial empire. This
was against the Belgian Government’s wishes, with the Belgians having directed the
French to transfer it to the United States. After the Germans occupied Belgium and
France in 1940, they demanded the Belgian gold reserve held in Senegal.
In 1941, Vichy French officials arranged the transport of 4,944 boxes with 198
tonnes of gold to officials of the German Reich bank and the German Government
used it to purchase commodities and munitions from neutral countries. The Banque
de France fully compensated the Belgian National Bank for the loss of its gold after
the war.31
But in Africa the reverse is the case. We have multinational companies of European
and American origin, who have been mining Africa’s gold and diamond for centuries
and have used the gold to enrich their economies at the expense of their African host
countries. But more disturbing is the devilish manipulations of the America’s Bretton
Wood’s institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, who connive with European
nations to frustrate the economies of African nations and keep their currencies in
low value. “Tufiakwa!!!”
According to a Sierra Leonean, Mallence Bart-Williams, who gave a passionate
speech in a Tedx presentation about African economies and how it is been manipulated
by the West queried:
“Why is it that 5000 units of our (African) currency are worth 1 Unit of Western
currency when we are the ones with the gold reserves?
It is quite evident that the aid is not coming from the West to Africa, but from
Africa to the Western world. The Western world depends on Africa, in every possible
way. Since alternative resources are scarce in the West.
So how does the West ensure that the free AID keeps coming? They do that by
systematically destabilizing the wealthiest African nations and their systems. And
all that is backed by huge PR campaigns; leaving the entire world under the
impression that Africa is poor and dying, and merely surviving under the mercy
of the West.
 A Preliminary Statement 29

Oxfam, UNICEF, Live-Aid, Red Cross and all the other organizations,
continuously run multimillion-dollar advertisement campaigns depicting charity
to sustain that image of Africa globally.
Advertisement campaigns were paid by innocent people under the impression
to help with their donations. When one hand gives under the flashing lights of
cameras, the other takes in the shadows.
We all know the dollar is worthless, while the Euro is merely charged with German
intellect and technology, and maybe some Italian pasta.
How can one expect donations from nations that have so little? It is super sweet of
them to come with their coloured paper in exchange for our gold and diamonds.
But instead, you should come empty-handed, filled with integrity and honour. We
want to share with you our wealth and invite you to share with us.
The perception is that a healthy and striving Africa will not dispose of its resources
as freely and cheaply, which is logical. It would instead sell its resources at world
market prices which in turn will destabilize and weaken Western economies
established on the post-colonial free meal system.
Some months ago, the IMG reports that 6 out of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing
economies are from Africa.
If we measure by their GDP growth, the French treasury, for example, is receiving
$500 billion year in year out, from the foreign exchange reserves of African
countries based on the colonial depth they force them to pay…”32.
In an interview granted to the former French President Jacques Chirac, he urged
the West to honestly admit and acknowledge the fact that a big part of the money in
their banks (West) comes precisely from exploitation of the African continent.
It is also on record that, in 2008, Chirac stated that without Africa, France will
slide down in the rank of third world power. One could just imagine how much
Africa has lost and continues to lose to the wickedness of the West and America.
Are we talking about Africa’s gold, silver, and diamonds, running into hundreds
of trillions of dollars that are presently sitting in the treasury of foreign empires
and governments? If that gold alone, is giving back to Africa, it will back a unified
African currency, and make Africa the strongest continent on the face of the earth.
30 A Preliminary Statement

Yet, it is hardly known that West African gold mining took place on a vast scale.
One modern writer noted that: “It is estimated that the total amount of gold mined
in West Africa up to 1500 was 3,500 tons, worth more than $30 billion in today’s
market value.”33 This was an account that was written almost a hundred years ago.
Even though it is inferior compared to what has been stolen from Africa over the
centuries, it goes to show what Africa has lost to Western greed and is still losing.
Perhaps, the former French president, Jack Chirac provides an illuminating
answer to the perplexing and paradoxical question as to why Africa is very rich and
yet the people very poor when he summarises:
“We bled Africa for four and a half centuries. We looted their raw materials,
then we told lies that Africans are good for nothing. In the name of religion, we
destroyed their culture. And after being made rich at their expense, we now stole
their brains through miseducation (sic) and propaganda to prevent them from
enacting Black retribution against us”. 34
It suffices that, for about four centuries, Africa has not been in control of its
resources. Perhaps, the following evidence would suffice in addressing this point.
A study conducted by War on Want – Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
in 2016 revealed that 101 companies – mostly British – control some $305 billion
dollar worth of platinum, $ 276 billion dollar worth of oil and $216 billion dollar
worth of coal at 2016 market prices.35 These foreign companies own mines or mineral
licences in 37 African countries and control vast swathes of Africa’s land – four times
the size of the UK.
Africa subsidises the rest of the world by $32 billion dollar annually. A 2017
Report by the Global Justice Now collaborated by some other groups estimate
that some $161 billion dollar entered Africa whilst $202.9 billion dollar leaves the
continent every year. For instance, in 2017 Africa received a total of $19.7 billion
dollars in aid but paid back $18 billion dollars in debt repayments.36
It is also a known fact that debt burden is strangulating Africa. African governments
have borrowed between 25% and 75% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with
little or nothing to show for it. 37
 A Preliminary Statement 31

Africans in the diaspora remit not less than $32 billion annually; but multinational
companies siphon $32.4 billion in profit and illicit financial flows. 38An estimated
$29 billion dollars are stolen via illegal laws in fishing and parching annually.39 How
can any country or people accumulate and sustain wealth, growth, and prosperity
with such statistics?
It would be recalled that between 1970 and 2008, an estimated $853 billion left
Africa in what is called illicit financial flows.
According to a new United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) report, illicit financial flows (IFFs) have effectively deprived Africa of
much needed development finance to achieve its development goals.
Accordingly, the 2016 Report of the UNCTAD Economic Development in
Africa estimated that between 1970 and 2008 a total of US854-billion (R12218-
billion) left Africa in IFFs.
“This is an incredible amount of money because one third of this could have helped
Africa pay its external debt in 2008. It is estimated that this amount is equivalent
to the official development assistance that Africa received in that same period.” 40.
Laura Paez, the chief investment policy, regional integration, and trade division,
at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), felt that the
ability to curtail illegal financial flows (IFFs) is a potential catalyst to overcome the
development problems facing the continent.
“One concern that the report explains is that illicit financial flows are growing at
a very fast pace of 20-percent per year which makes Africa unfortunately today the
region with the highest share over IFFs as percentage of GDP, …
Countries need to have clear regulatory frameworks that controls movement of
capital but also trade transactions, because IFFs can also be conducted through
trade lease pricing.” 41
The report recommends that to combat IFFs, countries need to have an efficient
and effective customs administration which keeps track of the value and volume of
trade deals.
32 A Preliminary Statement

Another important element is international co-operation on tax matters to have

accounting and reporting standards for transnational corporations and the standard
be the same across countries. For, according to her:
“This way we can curb IFFs through international corporations to disclose and
share practices in the banking sector so that we have a better idea how financial
transactions are done across various countries and create an advocacy against
IFFs.”42.
As far as theft by non-African countries is a concern, this is probably the best
indicator. It has been reported that a large portion of these flows never leave the
continent but had their residency in the pockets of corrupt government officials. This
was happening at a time Sub-Saharan Africa received approximately $430 billion in
foreign direct investment (FDI) and $1.071 trillion in foreign development aid,
giving us a total of about $1.51 trillion in foreign money influx into the continent;
43
that means that only $657 billion remained on the continent for the purpose of
development.44
At this juncture, it is important we examine the negative impact of the slave
trade and subsequent colonization of the African continent and their relationship to
the present economic situations in Africa.
• The Impact of Slave Trade and Colonisation
History tells us that an estimation of over 12 million Africans were forcibly
removed from Africa and transported across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands and
the American continent. The size of the Atlantic slave trade dramatically transformed
African society’s negatively.45
The slave trade brought about a negative impact on African societies and led to
the long-term impoverishment of (West) Africa. This intensified spill-over effects
that were already present amongst its rulers, kinships, kingdoms and in the African
society.
Many nations around the world, especially those in Africa, Asia, and the Americas,
suffered European colonisation.
African colonization resulted to great negative impacts to the economy, social
and political system of African States. The greatest negative impact of colonization
 A Preliminary Statement 33

was the exploitation of the natural resources by foreigners which did not benefit
the local communities, but instead the colonizers.
But what is colonialism? “Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between
the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and Indigenous
peoples. It is characterised by domination of the local people by the colonial power.”46.
Colonialism by definition and in practice was based on dictatorship, violence,
coercion, oppression, forced taxation, and daily racial humiliation. Not a single
colonial power—France, Germany, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Spain —is
innocent. Instances are legion. In Congo, King Leopold lost half of his twenty million
people; and in the name of bringing civilization to Africa, Belgium instituted the
practice of amputating arms as punishment. Unfortunately, the Belgian abomination
was replicated a century later by Africans on fellow Africans in the Sierra Leone’s civil
war.
“The list of atrocities perpetrated by Europeans is long and bloody—Belgian-like
tactics emulated in the surrounding French and Portuguese colonies, Germany’s
genocide against the Herero people of South West Africa (now Namibia), the
blatant theft of land by Afrikaners and Cecil Rhodes’s British-backed gang of
marauders across southern Africa, the wars of the British in the Gold Coast,
the cruelty of the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique, the indiscriminate
slaughter of Ethiopians by Italy. In today’s terms, every single European power in
Africa was guilty of multiple crimes against humanity.”47.
The partitioning of Africa by the European powers was implemented with a
fine disdain for existing realities. Conducted in a purely arbitrary and clandestine
manner, families, clans, ethnic groups, and nations were all divided from each other.
Those unrelated to each other suddenly found them forcefully locked together under
new and alien governments. For many Africans, identifying with these new artificial
colonial constructs made little sense; rather than adopting Nigerian or Rwandan or
Kenyan nationality, they found it more natural to reaffirm their identities as Ndigbo
or Hutu or Luo. Paradoxically, the imposition by Europe of new nations in Africa
served instead to reinforce ties of ethnicity or clan.48
The purpose of colonialism was (and is) principally carried out for economic
reason. Hence, exploitation of the colony’s resources and its people take place.
34 A Preliminary Statement

The exploited resources from the colony enrich the colonial powers and make it
bigger and stronger economically.
With the passage of time the colonised nations got what became known as
‘independence’.
This independence was generally understood to mean the departure of the
colonial powers from their former colonies back to their countries leaving the former
colonised people ‘free’ or ‘independent’ to mind their own politics, affairs, and their
country’s resources.
Now that the ‘former’ colonies are ‘free’ and ‘independent’ have the colonial
masters retired back home?
Now let us look at the notorious British and French colonial powers and find
out whether they finally left for their homes for good after having enjoyed the fruits
of colonialism.
The British Empire is made up of dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates,
and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom.
Its origin could be traced from the overseas possessions and trading posts
established by Britain between the late 16th and early 18th Centuries. It was the largest
empire in history at its height and for over a century was the foremost global power.
By 1922, the British Empire held sway over one fifth of the world’s population
and covered more than 33 670 000km², almost a quarter of the earth’s total land
area.49 Consequently, the empire has its impacts on political, legal, linguistic, and
cultural legacy world-wide.
The British Empire was gloriously described as the “empire on which the sun
never sets” at the pick of its power. Now, the question is: have the British imperialists
completely abandoned the above-described erstwhile empire, going back to Britain,
leaving their former colonies to manage themselves without interference? Not at all!
It is on record that the British heavily invested in the colonization project and
indeed paid a heavy price. It would be recalled that some other European colonial
powers like Spain and Portugal had bought colonies far ahead of the British and the
later started off as pitiable miserable pirates, raiding Spanish ships on the high seas,
looting valuables like gold from them.50
 A Preliminary Statement 35

From piracy the British graduated into actual stealing of the colonies from Spain
or Portugal. For instance, Jamaica was stolen from the Spaniards by the British and
so was New York, formerly called New Holland, stolen from the Dutch.51
In addition, the British engaged in brutal and violent confrontations against
their rivals and locals to acquire colonies. For instance, the British fought a lot of
wars against France and Spain to get colonies in America, Africa, and Asia.
We are not lost on the so-called opium war how Britain also fought big wars
against locals – the Chinese – which resulted in them buying Hong Kong.
We are also not unaware how, in 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan and
became a colonial power in the Middle East.
Through piracy, chicanery and wars, the British became a huge colonial power
all of which involved huge investments on their part.52
The British people were a clever lot. While granting ‘independence’ to her former
colonies, the British attached unpleasant conditions as string. One good example
is what they called the British Commonwealth of Nations. In this arrangement,
the so-called ‘independent’ nations from the British former colonies were tricked
to belong to the seemingly innocent and innocuous club, headed, of course, by the
Queen (now King Charles III) in perpetuity. Through this club, the hands of those
‘independent’ nations may be visible, but the crystal unseen and unheard voice of
the British is largely unmistakable.
This arrangement helped the British immensely at the detriment of the former
colonies. It is as if they continued as a colonial master against their former colonies. It
is clearly an unequal partnership characterised by domination by the former (British)
against the later (‘independent’ nations, especially the indigenous peoples)
Although the British invaded Afghanistan since 1839 and the Middle East
country had long gained ‘independence’, the British influence is still there as I
write. The same is true of other ‘independent’ nations in the Middle East formerly
controlled by the British as colonies.53
The British is still exploiting the rich mineral resources in the region, for example
oil, which motivated them to colonise the area in the first place during the period of
colonisation.
36 A Preliminary Statement

“In every former colony of the British today these British are always there in
one form or another — as spies, bankers, so-called workers, NGOs, companies,
churches, teachers, sportsmen etc. They have never left the former colony. They are
here, there, and everywhere working either overtly or covertly.” 54
Recently, Queen Elizabeth’s death revived criticism of Britain’s legacy of
colonialism. On the one hand, the queen’s death prompted an outpouring of grief
from millions across the world, but it also revived criticism of her legacy, highlighting
the complicated feelings of those who saw her as a symbol of the British colonial
empire – an institution that enriched itself through violence, theft, and oppression.
Critics were responding to “the relationship of the monarchy to systems of
oppression, repression, and forced extraction of labour, and particularly African
labour and exploitation of natural resources and forcing systems of control in these
places.”55.
One of those virulent criticisms came from Uju Anya, a professor at Carnegie
Mellon University in the United States of America, who was born in Nigeria in the
aftermath of Nigeria-Biafra civil war. When The Times reported that the Queen
was on her sick bed Anya made an emotional and highly controversial tweet about
the Queen Elizabeth II of England: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping
genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating?”56 She made this
tweet when the palace announced that the Queen’s condition had worsened.
Anya was born in Nigeria after the civil war which she described as genocide
aided and abetted by the UK over oil interests. She is not alone in criticising the
Queen’s role in obscuring the realities of colonialism, which over the course of her 70
years reigns, she at times acknowledged but never apologized for. She later doubled
down on her earlier tweet when she said:
“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who
supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced
half my family and the consequences of which those alive today is still trying to
overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.”57.
Anya claims that her perspective on the queen has been largely shaped by Britain’s
role in the suffering of her parents and many others during the Nigerian Civil War
that followed the nation’s decolonization in 1960.
 A Preliminary Statement 37

According to her, her family was displaced in the war and some of her relatives
were killed and her parents, siblings, and extended family “suffered tremendous
trauma”.58
“I take deep offense at the notion that the oppressed and survivors of violence have
to somehow be deferential or respectful when their oppressors die,” Anya said. The
crown, she said, continues to “meddle in African affairs” and oppress.
“There are people literally around the world, rejoicing at this woman’s death, not
because they’re vile or cold but because her reign and the reign of her monarchy by
extension was violent.59 Anya said.
She said she hopes that her commentary on Twitter prompts people to research
the Nigerian Civil War.
Virtually all the criticisms were borne because while Elizabeth II ruled as Britain
navigated a post-colonial era, she still bore a connection to its colonial past, which
was rooted in racism and violence against Asian and African colonies.
In recent years, there have been growing calls for the monarchy to confront its
colonial past.
Zimbabwean American writer and an assistant professor of photography at the
Rhode Island School of Design, Zoë Samudzi, wrote on Twitter:
“As the first generation of my family not born in a British colony, I would dance on
the graves of every member of the royal family if given the opportunity, especially
hers.” 60
A professor of history at University College London Matthew Smith, who directs
the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership, said:
“The reactions indicate the complicated and mixed relationship that people have
had with the British monarchy, people in the Commonwealth and particularly in
the Caribbean.
“I think when people voice those views, they’re not thinking specifically about
Queen Elizabeth, … They’re thinking about the British monarchy as an institution
and the relationship of the monarchy to systems of oppression, repression and
forced extraction of labour, and particularly African labour, and exploitation of
natural resources and forcing systems of control in these places. That’s what they’re
38 A Preliminary Statement

often responding to. And that’s a system that exists beyond the person of Queen
Elizabeth.”61
Queen Elizabeth’s death also stirs South Africa’s colonial memories. After sending
condolences to all members of the Royal Family on Twitter, South Africa’s President
Cyril Ramaphosa’s message received many posts from South Africans, claiming the
return of the Great Star diamond. “Don’t forget to ask for our Shandis from Cullinan
on her Crown. It’s worth R400 million now. Thank you in advance, Mr President.”62
The Cullian diamond, the largest ever found, was stolen from South Africa and given
to King Edward VII of England on his 66th birthday by colonial officials.
The presenter of South Africa’s popular morning show on Radio 702, Clement
Manyatela, seemed to have captured the mood of the majority of South Africans
thus:
“Most South Africans are saying: ‘Give us an opportunity to be frank in our
assessment of [the Queen’s] legacy.’ This is the person we look at and think: ‘Ha
- that’s the face of the British colonial empire, an institution that enriched itself
through violence, through theft, through oppression”.63
But there are others who think differently:
“The Queen as an individual probably cared. But the fact is that [she was] a
symbol, and the head of the British [state], and there weren’t really any steps taken
to acknowledge, let alone to… undo the structural inequalities that were built
into a racist, exploitative South Africa, both during the colonial period, under
apartheid, and even post-apartheid.”64
On the other hand, and simultaneously, through political, security, economic,
and cultural ties, France keeps a tight stranglehold in Francophone Africa, both to
serve its interests as well as keep a last bastion of imperial prestige. The breakdown
and understanding about what France truly stands for in Africa is fuelled by the
continued collaboration that France have with agencies, leaders and individuals who
have glaring integrity issues on one hand while on the other claiming to standing for
human rights and freedom. Put differently, France is deeply entrenched in racism and
exploitative dominance on the one hand, and yet, on the other hand, still claiming
to teach others about democracy. Therefore, we need to interrogate French – Africa
 A Preliminary Statement 39

relationship in three dimensions: (a) What is not efficient, (b) What is not ethical,
and (c) Where do we see integrity gaps?
We need to appreciate the fact that Africans are deeply wounded people who feel
the pain of colonization every single day. The process of inflicting the wounds might
have been different but the results are the same. Look at the effects of colonization,
slavery, neo-imperialism, using Africa as a geo-political battleground for foreign
nations, etc. the bottom-line is that we are a wounded people; and therefore we
are in need of healing. But unfortunately, France does not seem to appreciate and
acknowledge our pain, our wound. What kind of relationship does France want
from Africa? How can you trust the source of your pain when the source doesn’t even
acknowledge it? How strong can a relationship built on pain, scepticism and lack of
trust really be?
“France has held the national reserves of 14 African countries since 1961: Benin,
Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville,
and Gabon.
In fact, more than 80 per cent of the foreign reserves of these African countries are
deposited in so-called “operations accounts” controlled by the French Treasury.
Two declared independent African banks – BEAC (Banque des Etats de l’Afrique
Centrale) and BEACO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) –
have in practice no monetary policies of their own.
The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told how much of the pool
of foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or
individually.
Only a limited group of officials knows exactly the amounts of these operations
accounts, where these funds are invested. France carefully hides this and other
details from any African bank or government.
It is estimated that France now holds nearly $500 billion of African countries’
money in its treasury and will do anything to keep it. Moreover, the African
countries do not have access to this money.
40 A Preliminary Statement

France allows them to access only 15 per cent of the money in any given year.
If they need more than that, they have to borrow at commercial rates from the
remaining 85 per cent - of their own money – that is held hostage by the French
Treasury.
To make things worse, France fixes a limit on the amount of money the countries
may borrow from the reserve. The limit is fixed at 20 per cent of their public
revenue in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than that,
France vetoes it.”65
The former president of France, Jacques Chirac, in his recent video, said the
French people should accept the fact that a large amount of the money in their banks
comes precisely from the exploitation of former colonies on the African continent.66
Giorgia Meloni, the first female prime minister of Italy and a far-right leader
also revealed in 2018 how France underdeveloped African countries.
Speaking at the “ATREJU18” conference held in September 2018, an annual
conference organised by the Italian right, Meloni accused French President,
Emmanuel Macron, of impoverishing some African states and creating conditions
for immigration flows towards Italy.
Her statement came in response to Macron’s accusations against Italy on June
13, 2018, because it did not receive a ship carrying hundreds of refugees coming
across the Mediterranean, describing its behaviour as “shameful and irresponsible.”67
“Emmanuel Macron described us as disgusting, cynics and irresponsible. He said
we are irresponsible, what a shame? The irresponsible Emmanuel Macrons are
those who bombed Libya because they were concerned that Italy would obtain
important energy concessions with Gaddafi and left us facing the chaos of illegal
immigration we are facing now,” …
“Disgusting it’s France that continues to exploit Africa by printing money to 14
African countries, charging them for mint fees and by children labour in the
mines and extracting raw materials as it’s happening in Niger Republic.
“Don’t come and teach us lessons Macron, the Africans are abandoning their
continent because of you. The solution is not to transfer Africans to Europe but to
liberate Africa from some Europeans.”68
 A Preliminary Statement 41

She went further to state:

“French extract 30% of the uranium it needs [from Niger] to run its nuclear
reactors, while 90% of Niger’s population lives without electricity”.69
In another development, investors are beginning to see Mali as a “perfect” country
in Africa for exploring and mining gold. This is becoming evident by the recent rise
in the amount of gold produced in the country. Currently, Mali is the third largest
gold producer in Africa, only beaten by Ghana and South Africa. But France is the
greatest beneficiary.
According to one Arab-language publication,
“France has the fifth largest gold reserves in the world, although there are no gold
mines on its territory. The French-occupied country of Mali has no gold reserves,
even though it has hundreds of gold mines.” 70
France’s current 2435.4 tonnes of gold reserves consist of 100 tonnes of gold
coins and 2335 tonnes of gold bars. The gold stored in the Paris vaults is in the form
London Good Delivery gold bars, or equivalent, each weighing approximately 12.5
kilograms.71 There is also a quantity of 1kg gold bars stored in the Paris vaults. On
the other hand, and simultaneously, new discoveries by mining companies have only
increased Mali’s estimated gold reserves to 822 tonnes, or around 16 years of output
at current production levels.72 Yet France is still an unrepentant parasite on its host,
Mali.
It suffices that, activating her 19th and 20th centuries’ policy of ’assimilation’, the
French had remained in their former colonies in a more subtle way. According to this
policy, colonies that adopted the French language and culture automatically became
French. Therefore, for intent and purposes, at independence, the former colonies
became part of France and the people French having assimilated the French language
and culture.
“What this means today is that France can station its troops in a former African
or Asian colony, and nobody is expected to raise an eyebrow. Furthermore, that
France can intervene with its troops in any former colony even without invitation.
On top of this, France can heavily influence who becomes the next president of its
former colony.
42 A Preliminary Statement

All the above things are happening today, meaning the French have never gone
away despite their former colonies being ‘independent’.” 73
In conclusion, therefore, France is still robbing its ‘former’ African colonies. 74
• The former colonies must pay a “colonial debt.”
• France can automatically confiscate the African country’s national reserves.
• France claims the right to exploit any natural resource discovered in the country.
• France forces African countries to give preference to French interests and
companies in the field of public procurement and public bidding.
• France claims an exclusive right to supply military equipment and training to
African military officers.
• France claims a right to deploy troops and intervene in the African country to
defend France’s interests.
• The African countries are obliged to make French the official language of the
country and of education.
• France’s former colonies are forced to use the colonial currency FCFA (the
CFA franc).
• The African countries are obliged to send France an annual balance and reserve
report.
• The African countries are prohibited from entering any military alliance.
• The African countries are obliged to ally only with France during a situation of
war or global crisis.
In 1998 the then US President Clinton sounded a measured note of contrition
for past “sins” in U.S. relations with Africa, including Cold War support for repressive
regimes and participation by Americans’ ancestors in slavery.
Bill Clinton, while speaking at a village school outside the Ugandan capital of
Kampala, stopped short of making an explicit apology for slavery – a thorny issue in
American racial politics. But he proposed more than $180 million in “new” aid for a
continent that he said had been subjected to American “neglect and ignorance.”
“It is as well not to dwell too much in the past, but I think it is worth pointing
out that the United States has not always done the right thing by Africa,” Clinton
 A Preliminary Statement 43

said. The Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union had led the United States to
deal with countries in Africa and elsewhere based on their superpower allegiances
rather than “how they stood in the struggle for their own people’s aspirations to live
up to the fullest of their God-given abilities.”
“And of course, going back to the time before we were even a nation, European
Americans received the fruits of the slave trade, and we were wrong in that
as well …
“Perhaps the worst sin America ever committed about Africa was the sin of neglect
and ignorance,” Clinton said. “We have never been as involved in working together
for our mutual benefit, for your children and for ours, as we should have been.”75
During the apartheid regime in South Africa, the rulers of the apartheid conspired
with then Ronald Reagan’s United States and then British Prime Minister, Margaret
Thatcher who were all enthusiastic fellow anti-Communists to impoverish South
Africa. It was Bob Woodward who exposed the close personal working relations
between Reagan’s CIA director – Bill Casey, and key officials of the apartheid South
Africa government of President F.W. de Klerk, including its intelligence service.
“In Angola and Mozambique, the US came in behind Portugal and South Africa
to train and arm rebel groups against African governments. To the satisfaction
of Belgian mine owners and the US, Belgium conspired with Congo secessionists
to murder Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first and only democratically elected
president. France propped up an array of tin-pot tyrants in nearly all its former
sub-Saharan colonies, most notoriously the sadistic “Emperor” Jean Bédel Bokassa
in the Central African Republic.”76.
Virtually all researchers agree that the Catholic Church and the Belgian, French,
and U.S. governments bore some of the responsibility for the Rwandan genocide.77
The relationship between Africa and the United States is a one-sided conversation
where the US sets agenda and decides on the policies Africa should follow in complete
disregard and disrespect of the sacrosanctity of Africa’s sovereignty.
Not long ago, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-
Greenfield, warned African countries not to purchase anything from Russia besides
grain and fertilizer, or else they could face sanctions. It is insulting and arrogant for
the US to dictate to sovereign nations of Africa “who” to buy from and “what”. What
44 A Preliminary Statement

impudence? The US pronouncement is only a testament that the hidden hands that
draw Africa from moving forward are real those hands are strong and very powerful.
And even when they are “invited”, African nations are not brought to the table to
discuss meaningfully developmental issues bothering the continent. This must stop!
In another development, the Biden administration and the West recently are
wanting to place sanctions on Uganda for passing anti-LGBTQ+ Law but they were
conspicuously silent about same law in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United
Arab Emirates, etc. Why have the US and her western allies overlook these Arab
nations with no promises of sanctions at all? This action appears white-supremacist
both in temperament and behaviour – punishing a “black” nation for doing want she
wants in her country. America’s arrogance has increased; it is increasing and needs to
be challenged. This unnecessary antagonism must stop!
This leads us to what some critics perceive as Western attack on some of our core
traditional African values, norms and cultures. According to some informed critics,
the biggest reason for the issues of infertility and child mortality on the African
continent is planned-parenthood international. According to critics, the US, UK,
France authorities who came to Africa to “interfere” with our medical system also
“invaded” Africa’s well-established family planning system and polluted our women
with birth-control contraception pills and vaccinations causing cancer and infertility.
They pay black women to get hysterectomies. We have people like Bill Gates, the UN,
the Rockefeller Foundation that fund family planning programmes that deliberately
seek to reduce the population of African people. Incidentally, this is one of the biggest
reasons for LGBTQ.
Granted, Africa is not necessarily against LGBTQ+ but she reserves the right
to disagree with any lifestyle that threatens the survival of her traditional African
family. Africa sees the LGBTQ+ as the new birth control pill. Why do they reason
that way? Two men in conjugal relationship cannot reproduce either do two women
in such relationship ever reproduce. Now, the West is even “transgenderizing” our
children. They are manipulating and indoctrinating African children to undergo
sexual surgeries so they’ll never be able to reproduce again. For instance, Dwyane
Wade’s son now legally had his birth certificate changed; he’s now legally a girl. Of
course, there is an admission of hormone therapy. Imagine if he gets to 30 years,
looking himself at the mirror and decides to go back to his former nature - how
 A Preliminary Statement 45

God made him – and needed to get a wife and have his own children, then the
reality would dawn on him because he cannot reproduce; his reproductive organ
is gone. His testosterone levels are gone together with his ability to produce seed is
gone. There is no going back. We are not looking at this LGBTQ+ issue with the
seriousness and gravity it deserves. To some critics, the LGBTQ+ is nothing but
birth-control and racial extermination measures. Why do you think Kamala Harris,
the vice president of the United States, is travelling combing African nations trying to
convince them to legalize gay marriage? Why does America care how Africa chooses
to run its society? Why do the US and the West bother about marriage in Africa,
even offering monetary incentives to grant LGBTQ+ a legal status and not about
offering useful developmental projects that would bring positive transformation for
the advancement of the continent? The answer is simple: if they can invade African
culture to the point of manipulating African children into same-sex relationships
and/or outright “transgenderism” which is the extermination of a bloodline, then
and only then can they start predicting the reduction of the African population.
They may not be able to get rid of all African people but they can attempt to disrupt
the natural, traditional, healthy cultural way that we live our lives, build our families,
and run our societies. The central theme of this argument is that LGBTQ+ is one
of the greatest weapons of white supremacists against the survival of African people
even when I know that it is also being promoted in Western societies.
At this juncture, it is important to find explanations to the following questions
bothering on the relationships between the US and China in African soil and possibly
attempt answers to some, if not all of them.
• The Relationship between the United States and China on African Soil:
What was the history of colonialism and imperialism in Africa and who’s
behind it? It was the Western imperialist powers that were principally the drivers of
colonialism and imperialism in Africa actively supported by the United States.
The Anglo-Saxon media description of the geostrategic presence of China, not
only in Africa but in the world generally, appears to capture the natural distortion
perception of reality. For instance, if the Communist Party of China sole rely on
repression to stay in power as the narrative want us believe, it would not create the most
dynamic economy in the world. China has delivered the fastest growing economy for
46 A Preliminary Statement

30 (thirty) years consecutively and has done this by educating the Chinese people to
a level and extent that the Chinese people have never been educated ever before. And
yet the West is touting repression? It would interest you to know that in 2019, it was
reported that some 139 million Chinese left China freely with zero defectors – all of
them later went back to China.
The Anglo-Saxon perception of China also extends to the issue of climate change.
This need not detain us here!
But what is China actually doing in Africa? Is China trapping developing
countries in debt? Is China really exploiting Sri Lanka and others?
China has four overarching strategic interests in Africa. First, it wants access
to natural resources, particularly oil and gas. It was estimated that, in 2020, China
imported more oil worldwide than the United States. To guarantee future supply,
China is heavily investing in the oil sectors in countries such as Sudan, Angola, and
Nigeria.
China’s need for oil and other resources and a market to sell its products has driven
its investment in Africa. Its investment has helped spur infrastructure development
and economic growth.
China’s contribution to the infrastructural development of Africa is conspicuously
evident to all and sundry. But whether China is a solution to Africa’s hydra-headed
problems is an entirely different issue. It would rather be safe to suggest that China
is not necessarily the lasting solution to Africa’s problems.
Indeed, China is not in Africa for colonialism but rather “buying over”. China
has an overwhelming population and therefore needed a space to relocate most of
these over-bloated populations. It finds Africa an ideal place to do that. Africa has
a lot of space to accommodate many of the over-populated Chinese nationals on
African soil; and China wants to dwell where she wants to control. China trades as
a nation not as individuals. For example, the individual Chinese who is selling, for
instance, shoes at a given spot in Africa, is doing so under the Chinese authorities,
not necessarily as an individual Chinese unencumbered and free to act on his own
volition as would the Europeans and others do.
 A Preliminary Statement 47

With deft, unpredictable and shroud market dexterity, China goes to the market,
not necessarily to “sell” their products per se, but to “win” the market. Winning the
market means she would sell at a very low prices to swing the buyers to herself.
According to some classified information:
1. China is strategically positioning herself to own over Africa, hence Africa
continent is gradually becoming the China-owned continent;
2. China in Africa is buying lands. Unlike the Chinese, the Europeans do not buy
lands in Africa and did not have interests in buying landed properties
3. to build infrastructures either. Their interests lie in coming in to suck and
mop-up Africa’s natural resources and go away. But the Chinese are different.
China wants to carve out some areas in Africa to be regarded and call Chinese
“home” and “businesses” in Africa.
4. China had twenty police stations in South Africa to protect Chinese businesses.
China has four army generals in the Zambian army to protect Chinese
businesses. The mayor of Lusaka was once sanctioned by Edgar Chagwa Lungu
a former Zambian politician who served as the sixth president of Zambia from
25 January 2015 to 24 August 2021 because the mayor reprimanded the
owner of a Chinese restaurant who refused a Zambian lady from entering his
restaurant with her Chinese friend to eat in the restaurant. Lungu asked the
mayor to apologise to the Chinese restaurant owner. That tells you that the
penetration of the Chinese into Africa is not just coming merely as colonialists
but as settlers.
5. China is not dealing with raw materials as Europeans do. China goes to the
ridiculous of doing meagre and menial jobs that common man does in Africa.
6. China is alleged to be coming with genetically programmed seeds to put inside
the crops we grow. When you eat those seeds, you start reacting and behaving
as the seed so desired and designed. This is very dangerous development.
7. China’s approach to Africa is to establish Chinese dominion by incurring debts.
China, though not known as an advanced colonialist but appears to be coming
with debt strategies. Once you’re indebted to somebody, you’re a slave to that
person. China sold the port of Djibouti and establishes a military base there.
48 A Preliminary Statement

8. China signs contract in Africa in the China’s “Mandarine” language not

English. Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken form of Chinese. It is
spoken in all of China north of the Yangtze River and in much of the rest of the
country and is the native language of two-thirds of the population. Mandarin
Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect. It is a tonal language, which means that
different tones can change the meaning of a word, even if the pronunciation
and spelling are otherwise the same. It is essential to learn the different tones
if you wish to speak Mandarin Chinese correctly. Most of the contracts China
signed with Africa governments were in Mandarine language. When Magufuli
came to power in Tanzania, he was confronted with a contract to sign when he
consulted somebody who understands the Mandarine language and the later
explained the nitty-gritty of the contract, John Magufuli annulled the contract.
What is the US versus Chinese practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo
like?
It’s on record that China supported and still supports Africa’s development and
struggles for independence. It would be remembered how Chairman Mao of China
met with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and offered the latter some intellectual and
material support needed for the liberation of the West African nation. On the other
hand, it is on record how the United States recognized Congo as a personal property
of King Leopold of Belgium. Congo would not have been what it is today with all
the exploitations it has gone through (is going through) if not for the diplomatic
support the US gave to Belgium during colonialism in terms of the extraction of
mineral resources during the World War I and II.
We are not lost on the America’s destabilizing role in the DRC, Mali, Guinea,
and more … how Washington supported and bankrolled dictators in some countries
in Africa. We still remember how, in 1996, Congo was invaded by two US’s African
allies – Rwanda and Uganda. Surprisingly these two nations have been the US allies on
the War on Terrorism. These two countries under the prompting of the United States,
offered to accept the Afghan refugees. Ugandan soldiers were seen in US-Afghanistan
crisis – African soldiers fighting US war, interesting! These two African nations were
used and instigated to invade the DRC in 1996 and 1998 which incidentally left some
six million Congolese dead. And the world was silent! And the resources of Congo
 A Preliminary Statement 49

are allegedly systematically being exploited by American Corporations without any

accountability whatsoever. The world is rather sold a dummy that the rebel group in
DRC is tied to ISIS. And so, while America recalled her troops from Afghanistan,
she transferred them to DRC to fight ISIS in DRC. But the question is: if the US for
20 years could not stop the Taliban, if they could not stop the ISIS so far, how come
they would stop the ISIS involvement and infiltrations in the DRC so soon? All these
may be dummies sold for their (US) involvement in the DRC.
US military expansion in Africa is meant to thwart China’s growing influence
in the Continent. An event happened which led to the recent coup in Guinea. But
a week before the coup, Pentagon sent the United States’ Green Beret soldiers to the
country for “military training”. The US soldiers were training the Guinea Conakry
soldiers (special force) which later carried out the coup in Guinea. On one fateful
Sunday, September 5th 2021, the Green Beret US officers were “flabbergasted” to
have “suddenly” found out that their Guinea’s soldier-students decided to go to the
Presidential Palace of Guinea to sack a constitutional government. And, as soon as
the Green Beret US training officers discovered that their students have carried out
the coup, they stopped the course and stopped the training. The social media was
agog with the US soldiers filming Guineans celebrating the coup. The New York
Times carried a full report of the incident.
It would be recalled that China used to get its iron ore from Australia. In fact,
China imported a staggering 62 per cent of its iron ore from Australia, more than
double the 21 per cent imported from Brazil in 2019, according to UBS data.
Port Hedland data shows China’s demand for Australian iron ore dwarfs all other
countries. Australia later refused to sell its iron ore to China over Covid-19 politics
and China moved to Guinea Conakry to source for bauxite, aluminium and most
importantly iron ore even at a better quality than the ones they get from Australia.
Subsequently, a China-Guinea deal was consolidated and consummated and suddenly
the American-trained Guinean military officers struck at the middle of their course.
Result: Coup d’état successful, Alpha Conde (the democratically elected president
of Guinea) deposed and detained, Constitution and government declared dissolved,
Military junta established, Guinea suspended from African Union, La Francophonie
and ECOWAS.
50 A Preliminary Statement

Meanwhile, western propaganda has never stopped in promoting anti-China

sentiment on the African continent. A look at the US versus Chinese activities in
Ghana reveals the following facts:
About 90% of Ghana’s gold is in the hands of the US-Canadian multinational
corporations. Let’s briefly examine how the US military took over an entire terminal
in Ghana’s airport.
In 2019 the US Department of Defence proposed to Ghana to enter into a
Force Agreement pact with the United States – a $20 million deal – which would
basically allow the US military presence in Ghana. Kofi Adda, the Aviation Minister
of Ghana reveals that Ghana’s Terminal 1 at the Kotoka International Airport is now
being used to offer operational and logistical support to the United States military.
Domestic flights operating from terminal 1 were relocated to Terminal 2 to give
passengers comfort and ensure efficiency in operations.
This move caused uproar among Ghanaians but the government claimed it was
only an agreement that would facilitate mobility. But clearly, it was an expansion
of the US military base in Africa even if no erection of physical structure, as the
US military alone exits the airport. One of the US military officers described it as a
base root to West Africa. This Airport base T1 was given to the US with complete
immunity granted. That means the US can do whatever they deemed right without
anybody caring a hoot.
In 1996, oil was discovered in Equatorial Guinea. The oil reserve in this country
is so much that everyone in the country should become a millionaire. For example,
as of 2016, Equatorial Guinea was having 1.1 Billion barrels of oil reserve making it
the 39th biggest oil producer in the world.
Unfortunately, the U.S oil companies gave the country a bad deal and the president
and his family stole the remaining money, leaving citizens poor and hopeless.
For four hundred years running, the US and the West (with the connivance
of some government officials in Africa) have demonstrated their unwillingness to
develop or allow Africa to develop meaningfully.
During the time of Covid-19 in Africa, China stood steadfastly with Africa with
the Chinese personnel braving the trail and working with Africans whilst the United
States citizens fled the Continent.
 A Preliminary Statement 51

Despite anti-China hysteria drummed up by African elites backed by the West,

however, African continent is gradually becoming the Chinese-owned continent.
While the United States sees Africa as a problem to be solved, China sees Africa as a
place of opportunity.
Twenty years ago, the US was Africa’s leading partner and China had almost
zero presence in the continent. But today, China is the key Africa’s future. Currently,
China seeks resources for its growing consumption, and African countries seek funds
to develop their infrastructure.
Large-scale projects, often accompanied by a soft loan, are proposed to African
countries rich in natural resources. China commonly funds the construction of
infrastructure such as roads and railroads, dams, ports, and airports. Sometimes,
Chinese state-owned firms build large-scale infrastructure in African countries in
exchange for access to minerals or hydrocarbons, such as oil.78 In those resource-for-
infrastructure contracts, countries in Africa use those minerals and hydrocarbons
directly as a way to pay for the infrastructure built by Chinese firms.79
While relations are mainly conducted through diplomacy and trade, military
support via the provision of arms and other equipment is also a major component.80
In the diplomatic and economic rush into Africa, the United States, France, and
the UK are China’s main competitors. China surpassed the US in 2009 to become
the largest trading partner of Africa. Bilateral trade agreements have been signed
between China and 40 countries of the continent. In 2000, China Africa Trade
amounted to $10 billion and by 2014 it had grown to $220 billion.81
Trade between Africa and China reached an all-time high in 2021. From 2020
to 2021, the value of trade between Africa and China rose by 35% to $254 billion,
mainly due to an increase in Chinese exports to the continent. This rise occurred
despite the 2021 global supply chain challenges and other interruptions caused by
the covid-19 pandemic.82
South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Egypt, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
were the top five largest African trading partners for China in 2021. Together, the
value of trade between China and these countries accounted for more than half of all
China-Africa trade in 2021.83
52 A Preliminary Statement

China’s top African market in 2021 was Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana,
and Kenya were the African countries that imported the most goods from China that
year. Combined, their imports made up more than half of all imports of Chinese
goods to Africa in 2021.84
Jubilee Debt Campaign, a charity organisation negotiating for the cancellation
of debts owed by developing countries reveals that an estimated 20 per cent of Africa
government’s external debt is owed to China.85
According to a report by World Finance, about 40 per cent of African countries
are in debt distress now as compared with 2013 when 20 per cent of African countries
were at considerable risk of debts distress.86
According to Peter Petrocelli, here are 10 African countries that are in debt to
China.87
• The Democratic Republic of Congo
China’s debts in Africa are mostly found in resource-rich countries, and this
is the case with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country has an
estimated debt of $3.4 billion owed to China. The Democratic Republic of
Congo agreed to exchange mineral resources for loans with China. The African
country is blessed with an abundance of natural resources including diamonds,
gold, copper, cobalt, timber, and oil.
• Ghana
Ghana has an estimated debt of $3.5 billion that it owes to China. The West
African country has been one of the fastest-growing economies globally,
growing at between 6 and 8 per cent in recent years. In November 2019,
China announced that it will finance $2 billion worth of rail, road, and bridge
networks in Ghana, and in exchange, China will be granted access 5 per cent of
Ghana’s reserves of bauxite — a crucial source of aluminium, CNBC reports.
• Nigeria
The most recent summary of Nigeria’s external debt stock published by the
Debt Management Office shows that at the end of March 2019, Nigeria owed
China about $2.6 billion. In fact, of Nigeria’s total debt of $81 billion, Nigeria
 A Preliminary Statement 53

owes more money to China than any other country it is indebted to, according
to Bloomberg.
• Cameroon
Cameroon’s total debt owed to China stands at almost $5.7 billion according
to figures from the Autonomous Sinking Fund, the public entity that manages
Cameroon’s external debt. Around $78 million of that amount was written off
BY China in 2019 — money that should have been paid in 2018 but which
Cameroon did not pay.
• Zambia
China has provided billions of dollars of loans for infrastructure projects in
African countries as part of its Belt and Road initiative in recent years, with
Zambia one of its most prominent debtors. Zambia’s external debt, estimated
to be 35 per cent of its GDP, reached nearly $10bn in 2018, up from $1.9bn
in 2011. Around $6 billion of that is estimated to be Chinese debt. Africa’s
second-largest producer of copper, Zambia could lose state-owned assets such
as power-producer ZESCO to the Chinese if it defaults on its loans, The
Guardian reports.
• Sudan
The Chinese government has financed efforts to extract Sudanese oil and
contributed to major developmental projects in the country. In 2018, Sudan’s
total debt to China was estimated at $10 billion, accounting for about one-fifth
of Sudan’s estimated $53 billion foreign debt, according to The EastAfrican.
• Congo
In May 2019, China agreed to restructure the debt owed by the Republic of
Congo as an International Monetary Fund’s precondition to assisting with
funding. Congo’s external debt to China is estimated at $2.73 billion, according
to a report by the French Embassy in Congo.
• Kenya
Kenya owes China an estimated $7.9 billion in debt — having funded
infrastructure projects across the East African country. China is guilty of
aggressive loans with terms that favour the Chinese government unfairly. For
54 A Preliminary Statement

example, a leaked copy of the contract between Kenya and China for the
construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge railway mega-project
shows that the country could lose the Mombasa port to the Chinese government
if the National Railway Corporation defaults on the payment of $ 2.27 billion,
according to Cadtm.
• Ethiopia
Beijing also accounts for nearly half of Ethiopia’s external debt and has lent
at least $13.7 billion to Ethiopia between 2000 and 2018, according to data
compiled by John Hopkins University School of Advanced International
Studies. Chinese funds have contributed to a $3.4 billion railway project
connecting Ethiopia to Djibouti, and the construction of Ethiopia’s first six-
lane highway, the metro system, and a few skyscrapers in Addis Ababa, Politico
reports.
• Angola
Angola’s debt owed to China currently stands at $22.8 billion, with recent
direct investments including an assembly plant for fishing vessels, an aluminium
factory, and a brewery, according to Bloomberg. Despite Angola being the
second-largest producer of oil in Africa, most of its precious natural resource is
going towards the repayment of Chinese debts.
Note: These debt figures may have changed considerably due to further actions
taken after its computation.
Where do China in Africa end, and Belt and Road begins? We are told that
China inveigles poorer countries into taking out loan after loan to build expensive
infrastructure that they can’t afford and that will yield few benefits, all with the end
goal of Beijing eventually taking control of these assets from its struggling borrowers.
As states around the world pile on debt to combat the coronavirus pandemic and
bolster flagging economies, fears of such possible seizures have only amplified.88
China’s internationalization is seen by critics—as laid out in programs such as
the Belt and Road Initiative—is not simply a pursuit of geopolitical influence but
also, in some telling, a weapon. Once a country is weighed down by Chinese loans,
the story goes, like a hapless gambler who borrows from the Mafia, it is Beijing’s
puppet and in danger of losing a limb.89
 A Preliminary Statement 55

The prime example of this is said to be the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota. As
the story goes, Beijing pushed Sri Lanka into borrowing money from Chinese banks
to pay for the project, which had no prospect of commercial success. Onerous terms
and feeble revenues eventually pushed Sri Lanka into default, at which point Beijing
demanded the port as collateral, forcing the Sri Lankan government to surrender
control to a Chinese firm.90
The Trump administration pointed to Hambantota to warn of China’s strategic
use of debt: In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence called it “debt-trap
diplomacy”—a phrase he used through the last days of the administration—and
evidence of China’s military ambitions. Last year, erstwhile Attorney General William
Barr raised the case to argue that Beijing is “loading poor countries up with debt,
refusing to renegotiate terms, and then taking control of the infrastructure itself.”91
• Russia-Ukraine War: A Call for Justice
On 17th of March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal
Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the
context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria
Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the
Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation
of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from
occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and
8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian
occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022.92
The indictment of Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seen by
many as double standard and sheer hypocrisy of western virtue. For a start, there
is no justification for starting any war of any kind for any reason. War is wrong!
Invading a sovereign country is wrong. So Putin was wrong to invade Ukraine even
if he argues that he was first provoked, pushed and cornered by the United States
and its allies into an existential conflict. On the other hand, the Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelensky is right to defend his own country, but wrong not to sue for
peace; wrong to let the US use him as a convenient tool to host an endless proxy war
between Washington and Moscow paid for by the US dollars and the blood of both
56 A Preliminary Statement

Ukrainians and Russians not Americans. And the US is wrong to assume it can keep
pumping billions of dollars in tax payers’ money into Ukraine to keep the war going
indefinitely refusing to entertain any peace overtures as long as only Ukrainian and
Russian blood is spilled. They are all wrong, wrong and wrong!
This is the same ICC, the same hallowed organisation up in its ivory tower at
The Hague which has done nothing about bigger war criminals still sitting pretty
because of the perpetual immunity that only Western leaders get to enjoy. The ICC
– the same great enforcer of international justice with only enough guts and political
backbone to hunt down darker-skinned on the African continent with ease and
sometimes (though rarely) those in Eastern Europe when they fall out of grace with
Western powers. This is the same ICC – the same invertebrate entity that the US is
now applauding for going after Putin hard while remaining permanently flaccid on
America’s litany of war crimes. What is the ICC’s excuse for ignoring elephants in
the room like the former US president George W. Bush and former British Prime
Minister – Tony Blair for what they did to Iraq?
We are presently marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion and the biblical
scale of death and destruction inflicted upon the Iraqi people by these modern day
perpetrators of genocide. The fact that the hideous deplorable like Bush and Blair are
now swimming around as wise and gentle statesmen with the moral temerity of all
people to condemn the invasion of UKRAINE is the ultimate obscenity in the long
sordid history of western global domination.
Yet, on the 20th anniversary of the annihilation of Iraq, they still talk about it as a
war based on “intelligence failure” in assuming that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling
weapons of mass destruction. But, what do they mean by intelligence failure? The
only failure of intelligence was on the part of those who bought the bovine faeces
and blatant lies the US and its cronies sold to them to justify this eternal atrocity,
dirty lies that were dutifully parroted by these compliant stenographers in the Anglo-
Saxon media. Shame on every one who supported the wanton destruction of Iraq!
Shame on anyone cheering Putin’s indictment while giving a free pass to smoking
mass murderers like Bush and Blair! Shame on the ICC for being a pathetic puppet
of Western imperialism! Shame on those whose only defence is accusing others of
“whataboutism” which has become a default excuse for duplicity, the glasshouse refuge
for sanctimonious scoundrels!
 A Preliminary Statement 57

Today, they (Bush and Blair) are rich, handsomely rewarded and free men …
whilst Julian Assange languishes in prison for exposing their war crimes; the Moslem
community penalised by the Prevent System for telling the truth, etc. According to
The Telegraph, Tony Blair’s fortune now stands at three times the amount he has
previously claimed, at some £60 million – which includes 10 homes. 93
They claimed that the war against Iraq is necessary to make the world a better
and terror-free place to live in. Since then till now, we are all living witnesses how
bad and dangerous the world has degenerated into – about $2 trillion are spent on
arms every year making the world a much more dangerous place. We’ve got conflict
not just between dictators in the Middle East and the biggest Imperialist in the world
(the United States) but effectively the world is witnessing a proxy war, not just in
Ukraine between two major Imperial powers, both of them with nuclear arms. We
are witnessing the increasing possibility of a war with China which incidentally could
turn out to be a nuclear war and a destruction of humanity if not properly handled.
What we are witnessing to is exactly the opposite of what Blair and his criminal
gang claimed twenty years ago were the reasons for invading Iraq – we have a more
dangerous world, Iraq is a much more dangerous place, we have far more refugees
and we have Taliban in Afghanistan back in control. Terrorism is growing steadily,
etc. and yet those who prosecute the Iraq War Crime were celebrated with medals
and they have become more-richer and wealthier than ever. Even when the UN
inspection team visited Iraq and returned a verdict of not finding any weapons of
mass destruction, George Bush and Tony Blair criminal group countered with a lie
that Iraq was going to attack Britain in the next 45 minutes.
The broadcasting media, particularly the BBC was an absolute disgrace in
gratuitously lying about the Iraqi invasion. According to the BBC report, Andrew
Moore, the political correspondent said on the actions of Tony Blair, “… he said they
would be able to take the Bagdad without the blood box and in the end the Iraq will
be celebrating … and on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right
and will be entirely ungracious for even his critics not to acknowledge and tonight
he stands as a larger man and the stronger prime minister as a result”. 94
In the Middle East, there were few democratic governments but Imperial powers
do not necessarily care about democracy in the Middle East as long as they were
58 A Preliminary Statement

able to cultivate far-reaching friendship in the region, politically, economically and

militarily to counter the rising influence of China. It was the US that facilitated
and installed Saddam Hussain in Iraq and actively supports the Saudi Arabia in the
region which for seven years has been actively waging an unnecessary war in Yemen,
and there was no question about regime change. The murder of a journalist that was
orchestrated by the members of the Saudi ruler-ship was completely ignored by the
US who would rather prefer to protect her friendship and continue enjoying her
innumerable benefits she enjoys from Saudi’s oil deal as against fighting for justice.
The occupation of Iraq was about repression, cruelty and putting down the
people of Iraq so as not to ever stand up and dare the occupation of America’s invasion
of Iraq.
War is imbedded in the society we live in today. We live in a society which is
imperialist, which is about conquering other countries and extorting monies. We
live in a society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. These Imperialists
do not care about your welfare but about the preservation of their wealth and their
position and their ability to spread those wealth, power, war and weapon are central
to their ability to do so. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in today!
We are also awash with the US lie to justify their involvement in Afghanistan
and now they are pushing another bigger lie of ISIS infiltration of the DRC as a
ploy for them to come in. Why is it that only in rich areas of mineral resources that
American soldiers’ are stationed to fight “terrorism” and why is American military
stationed in the DRC? Critics have argued that the overriding reason for America’s
involvement in the DRC is solely to protect her strategic interests in the natural-
resource-rich nation.
• Africa and Post-colonial Blocs
Granted that multiple European powers fought to colonize Africa, but only a
few prevailed in the end. Africa’s political landscape, even after independence, is
divided into two major post-colonial blocs: English- and French-speaking Africa
otherwise known as the “Anglophones” and the “Francophones”. We also have
the “Lusophones” and the “Arabic phones”. Lusophone Africa specifically refers to
the five Portuguese-speaking African countries once colonized by the Portuguese:
Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and the islands of São Tomé and
 A Preliminary Statement 59

Príncipe. These countries are members of the Community of Portuguese Speaking

Countries, an organization created in 1996 to foster friendship and unity among
Lusophone states throughout the world.
There are also “independent” African countries that adopt Arabic as one of their
official languages. Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by 150 million people in
Africa, making it the most widely spoken language on the continent. Arabic speakers
in Africa account for 62% of the total Arabic speakers in the world. It is recognized as
the official language in countries in North and Sub-Saharan Africa including Egypt,
Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, and Niger.95
There is disconnect between these blocs, and it is important we examine whether,
to what extent, and why the current political systems and politics of Anglophone
Africa differ particularly from those of its Francophone counterpart, and others.
We will understand it better when we explore variations in modes of colonial rule,
processes of decolonization, and post-colonial political developments in Algeria,
Belgian Congo, Madagascar, Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and
Uganda. Understandably, this could explain why Africa is weak and disunited in
forging a common front in the world affairs.
The world does not take Africa serious; hence I have seen a couple of times
when African leaders are addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the hall
is empty. Our leaders are ignored in international forums.
Africa is particularly weak politically and economically and the continent is
riddled with conflicts. We have 33 (thirty-three) currencies in Africa none of which
is used to conclude transactions anywhere. About 80% transactions in Africa are
concluded outside of the continent in US dollar.
Each sovereign African state has its central bank. The 54 central banks in Africa
do not appear to have much significance because Africa is playing in a small league.
The front-line countries in the premier league of respected nations are the advanced
nations of the West, the United States, and some Asian tigers. When the Chinese
leader “summons” African leaders, virtually all the African leaders went to Beijing
and were given some $60 billion as aid. Other advanced nations have summoned
Africa – Asia (Tokyo), Europe, US, Russia. You cannot be a beggar and expect to be
respected.
60 A Preliminary Statement

Even the entire budget of Africa as a Continent is inferior to those of some of

these advanced nations individually. The African continent houses one of the world’s
poorest people on the face of the earth. It is in Africa that we have the world’s capital
for poverty. In most Africa communities, poverty has been “weaponized”, and our
leaders have allowed the trappings and lure of power “to making monsters” of them.
• The Need to Unite
Africans need to come together and urgently too! It is either we unite, or we
perish. In the eyes of other races and culture, the continent is regarded and treated
as one people. Why can’t we use this as the building blocks to forge oneness and
togetherness – politically, economically, socio-culturally. Our disunity benefits
the West immensely hence they incubate, sponsor, and manage most the conflicts
afflicting the continent. And, if Africa remains the way it is today as underdog, in the
next 25 years or so, she may risk re-colonisation.
We need, once again to rekindle the spirit of Pan-Africanism sincerely and with
highest devotion. At its core, Pan-Africanism is a belief that “African people, both
on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a
common destiny.96 This spirit was manifested through the Treaty of the East African
communities advocating that Africa shall first have a common market, then a common
currency, and subsequently a political federation and these ought’s to have happened
since 2010. Each African community should have had her first president since 2010.
In ECOWAS, it ought to have been the same fate playing out.
The African Unity (AU) has initiated the African agenda 2063 designed to pull up
her people into a middle level economy, which is standing on seven pillars, including
economically, politically, and otherwise. And, under the Kigali Agreements African
countries agree to have one passport and she also needs one telephone code serving
the whole continent (not the 55 telephones codes that have no connectivity) as was
the case in the United States.
We need an Africa with a loose government – a confederacy with the national
government handling only matters of foreign affairs, defence, monetary policy, etc.
with different regional governing systems. Africa needs to have one united national
army with regional police. We can have a pan-African arrangement which allows
respects and recognises “self-determination” as of right, allowing people within a
 A Preliminary Statement 61

bigger unit to enjoy their culture, tradition, speak their language. A good example is
Switzerland.
The spirit of Pan-Africanism was made manifest on 21st of March 2018. At
the end of the 10th extraordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and
Government of the African Union, forty-four out of the fifty-five member states of
the Union signed the Treaty establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area
(AfCFTA). In terms of the number of countries involved (with a combined GDP
that is currently worth over two trillion dollars a year) and the population concerned
(about 1.4 billion people), the AfCFTA represents the main free trade agreement
since the foundation of the World Trade Organization.
Equally important is the timing of the agreement, as it stands in sharp contrast
with an international context marked by a persistent and significant increase in trade-
restrictive measures, as well as by a growing resistance (or even hostility) towards the
development of regional integration systems. The main objectives of the AfCFTA are
certainly ambitious. By removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on goods and services,
member states intend to:
• facilitate intra-African trade;
• promote regional value chains to foster the integration of the African continent
into the global economy;
• boost industrialization, competitiveness and innovation, ultimately contributing
to Africa’s economic development and social progress. 97
Due to the wide scope of the agreement, the negotiation has been divided into
two phases. The first one, which culminated in the March treaty, focused on: 98
• phasing out tariffs on 90% of goods exchanged between African countries;
• the elimination of non-tariff barriers (that is: excessively long customs procedures,
costly sanitary and phytosanitary measures, complex and heterogeneous rules
on product standards and licensing requirements, etc.);
• the definition of rules of origin;
• a deal on customs cooperation and trade remedies.
The AfCFTA agreement is also supplemented by the African Union Protocol on
Free Movement, with which the signatory states (currently twenty-seven) grant visa
62 A Preliminary Statement

waiver, the right of residence and the right of establishment for professional or work
reasons to their citizens.
Any decision on the elimination of tariffs related to the remaining 10% of goods,
represented by “sensitive products”, as well as on other issues such as investments,
competition policies and intellectual property rights, has been postponed to the
second phase of negotiations, which is expected to start in the coming months.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the
implementation of the agreement could increase intra-African trade by 52%,
compared to 2010 levels, by 2022, thus reducing the gap with intra- regional trade
quotas currently characterizing Asia (51%), North America (54%) and Europe
(67%).99
In the short term, the main beneficiaries of the AfCFTA would be small and
medium- sized enterprises, that today account for 80% of the continent’s companies.
However, in the medium to long term, the benefits will extend to all African
citizens, who will achieve a welfare gain estimated at 16.1 billion dollars especially
favouring women (who currently manage 70% of informal cross-border trade) and
young people, who could benefit from new job opportunities.
The intra-African economic and commercial growth would mainly affect the
industrial and manufacturing sectors, thus demonstrating AfCFTA’s potential role
in guiding the structural transformation of African countries. That is the right way
to go.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a South African lawyer and a founder and President of the
African National Congress gave some advice I find relevant here. He said that people
believe that Africa is diverse and because of her diversity she cannot unite. She can
because unity in diversity is possible if we understand what human beings need.
Things, “human beings need security … food … medical services … infrastructure.
If you have a government that allows that, then we are on the path of recovery.” It
reminds me of the piano. If you press the black button of the piano, it produces some
sound! If you press the white button, it produces some sound. But if you press both
the black and white button, it produces melodious music. The new Pan-Africanism
must take that path and those who have the honour and privilege of dealings and
 A Preliminary Statement 63

workings in governments in Africa have the duty to start that journey. Play your part
for it can be done and must be done.
Who is really spoiling Africa: Foreigners or fellow Africans?
Let me say this: Our problem may not necessarily be from outside all the time.
When gross ignorance, greed, tribalism, selfishness, and crab mentality encapsulate,
define, and describe a group of people, the wound have double danger in it. Who
is really spoiling Africa: Foreigners or fellow Africans? Africans that had the guts to
push the continent to higher dimensions have been destroyed by fellow Africans.
Most of the African fathers of independence had good intentions for their respective
countries and the African continent but were cut short by fellow Africans. 100
On January 13th, 1963, President Sylvanus Olympio was assassinated in a
military coup by a group of eight Togolese militants led by Emmanuel Bodjolle,
under direction of Sergeant Étienne Eyadéma Gnassingbé. Sylvanus Épiphanio
Olympio was a Togolese politician who served as prime minister, and then president,
of Togo from 1958 until his assassination in 1963. He was the leading figure of
Togolese independence and meant well for his country. He never used the French
colonial money but instead created his own (Togolese) currency and was hated
by the imperialist France and was killed for his stubbornness to yield to imperial
authorities.101
According to well-conducted research which probed declassified documents, the
CIA, with the help of Britain and France masterminded the coup that overthrew Dr
Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966. Based on Reports released by the United
States Department Office of the Historian, the article shows in part, Americans
foreign policy manoeuvres in Ghana under Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration
(1964-68).102
The foreign inspired coup was abruptly named the “glorious revolution”,
reflecting Ghana penchant for borrowing terms without pondering much about the
full meaning. The so-called “glorious revolution” was fraudulent. It was a coup that
was meaningless; a coup that has detracted the country’s democratic dreams. It was
a coup that made Ghanaians blind from seeing the iniquities of the imperialist. The
people of Ghana have not been able to justify the coup plot neither has the imperialist
justified their reasons for masterminding the overthrow of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. 103
64 A Preliminary Statement

Nkrumah’s ideologies were rooted in his vision of a United States of Africa; he

believed that the only way for Africa to truly progress was through the creation of a
federal state based on a common market, a common currency, a unified army and
a common foreign policy that would enable Africa to solve internal conflicts as well
as defend itself against external threats. It is also no wonder that according to some
quarters he had to be taken out, by any means necessary.
After Nkrumah was gone, Ghana was left on her own by these erstwhile benevolent
nations to squirm in the murk! These imperialist powers did not directly conduct the
coup but used a Ghanaian in the person of Lieutenant-General Emmanuel Kwasi
Kotoka to achieve their demonic agenda.
The Republic of Upper Volta declared independence on 5 August 1960. On
the 4th of August 1983, Blaise Compaore and others organised a military coup that
brought in Thomas Sankara as president. On 2 August 1984, on President Sankara’s
initiative, the country’s name was changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (land
of the upright/honest people).104
Sankara launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme for change, one
of the largest ever undertaken on the African continent. His foreign policies were
centred on anti-imperialism, his government denying all foreign aid, pushing for
odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the
power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.105
His domestic policies included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution
to peasants, railway and road construction and the outlawing of female genital
mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy.106 Sankara pushed for agrarian self-
sufficiency and promoted public health by vaccinating 2,500,000 children against
meningitis, yellow fever, and measles.107
His national agenda also included planting over 10,000,000 trees to halt the
growing desertification of the Sahel. Sankara called on every village to build a medical
dispensary and had over 350 communities-built schools with their own labour.108
Indeed, Thomas Sankara was one of the promising stars and obviously one of
the illustrious sons of Africa who had guts to move not only his Burkinabe people
forward but the entire Africa. He was assassinated by the Imperialist powers through
his friend and confidant Blaise Campoare.
 A Preliminary Statement 65

In the Central African Republic (CAR) a man called Bédel Bokassa was used by
the imperialists to eliminate David Dako, a promising star of the CAR.
Commandant Marien Ngouabi was the President of Congo, assassinated on the
18 of March 1977. Commandant Marien Ngouabi who came to power in 1968
th

through a popular revolt, which ended the rule of Alphonse Massamba-Debat was
also eliminated by fellow Congolese.
In Guinea Equatorial Francisco Macías Nguema was the first person to hold
the office, taking effect on 12 October 1968. His cousin, Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo, who took office on 3 August 1979, was used to eliminate him.
John Pombe Joseph Magufuli (29 October 1959 – 17 March 2021) was the
fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021. Under his
presidency, Tanzania experienced one of the strongest economic growths on the
continent (6% on average per year according to the IMF) and moved from the
category of low-income countries to middle-income countries.
After taking office, Magufuli immediately began to impose measures to curb
government spending, such as barring unnecessary foreign travel by government
officials, using cheaper vehicles and board rooms for transport and meetings
respectively, shrinking the delegation for a tour of the Commonwealth from 50
people to 4, dropping its sponsorship of a World AIDS Day exhibition in favour of
purchasing AIDS medication, banning officials from flying first and business class,
and discouraging lavish events and parties by public institutions (such as cutting
the budget of a state dinner inaugurating the new parliamentary session). Magufuli
reduced his own salary from US$15,000 to US$4,000 per month.109
Magufuli was suspected to have been poisoned by the imperialist using one of
his close officials.
The NATO forces conspired with some distressed Libyans to eliminate Gaddafi.
Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured and killed on 20
October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi was found west of Sirte after his
convoys were attacked by NATO aircraft. He was then captured by National
Transitional Council (NTC) forces and was killed shortly afterwards.110
Moments after it was reported that Gaddafi was killed, Fox News published
an article titled “U.S. Drone Involved in Final Qaddafi Strike, as Obama Heralds
66 A Preliminary Statement

Regime’s ‘End’”, noting that a U.S. Predator drone was involved in the airstrike
on Gaddafi’s convoy in the moments before his death. An anonymous U.S. official
subsequently described their policy in hindsight as “lead[ing] from behind”.111
Because Libyan rebels had consistently told American government officials that
they did not want overt foreign military assistance in toppling Gaddafi, covert military
assistance was used (including arms shipments to the opposition). The plan following
Gaddafi’s death was to immediately begin flowing humanitarian assistance to eastern
Libya and later western Libya, as the symbolism would be critically important. U.S.
sources stressed it as important that they would “not allow Turkey, Italy and others
to steal a march on it”.112
During his life time, Muammar Gaddafi was recorded to have made the following
prophesies:
“I will not go into exile to any foreign country. I was born here in Libya and
I will die here. This country was a desert and I turned it into a forest where
everything can grow.
No one loves this land more than its citizens. If Europe and America tell you
that they love you, be careful.
They love the wealth of your land – the oil and not the people. They are helping
you to fight against me but, it will be wiser for you to fight against them because
they are fighting against your future and progress.
My message to you, the people of Libya is, they are helping you to kill me but
you will pay the price because you will suffer.
And my message to you America and Europe is, you will kill me but be ready
to fight a never ending TERRORISM.
Before you realise your ignorance, terrorists will be hitting you at your
doorsteps.” 113
It would be recalled that Gaddafi once advised the Nigerian and British
governments to divide Nigeria into two, so that the Hausa/Fulani (Moslems), Yoruba
(Christians) and Biafrans/Igbo can live as neighbouring countries.
 A Preliminary Statement 67

Under Gaddafi, Libya experienced phenomenal growth and development114;

1. There is no electricity bill in Libya. Electricity is free for all its citizens.
2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given
to all its citizens are at a 0% interest by law.
3. Home is considered a human right in Libya. Gaddafi vowed that his parents
would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home.
4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinars (US$50,000) from the
government to buy their first apartment.
5. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi, only 25%
of Libyans were literates. Today, the figure stands at 83%.
6. Libyans taking up farming as a career receive farmlands, a farming house,
equipment, seeds and livestock to kick-start their farms – all for free.
7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they needed in Libya,
the government funded them to go abroad for it.
8. In Gaddafi’s Libya, if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidizes 50% of
the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per litre.
10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – now
frozen gradually.
11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation, the state would pay
the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment
is found
12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all
Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child under Gaddafi received US $5,000 as child
benefits fund.
14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $0.15.
15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree.
68 A Preliminary Statement

16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project known as the Great
Man-Made River Project, to make water readily available throughout the desert
country.
No doubts, Gaddafi had his faults and they may not be few. But, if this is what
the West call “dictatorship” I wonder what type of leadership Democrats have!
As I’m writing this piece, Joe Biden is currently holding a democracy summit
in southern Africa in the very place where the United States, the United Kingdom,
France and the entire so-called West supported racist apartheid white supremacist
states right up until the very end. It was there Margaret Thatcher called Nelson
Mandela a common terrorist. The United States only took Mandela off the terrorist
list in 2008.
Not quite long, the picture of Congo’s first Prime Minister – Patrice Lumumba –
was posted on tweeter – half-naked, in shackles, being pushed down aircraft steps by
a Belgian military officer after he was overthrown in a coup organised and executed
by Britain, Belgium and the United States of America.
The CIA, Mi6 and the hated Belgian colonist government that was finally has
to leave power took Lumumba (probably the greatest of all African leaders) and
murdered him. They then dismembered him, dissolved him in acid and sent one
of his teeth back to Brussels for safekeeping for DNA. It was only returned to the
Congo in 2022. The West murdered Patrice Lumumba, the West helped keep Nelson
Mandela in prison for 27 years, CIA with the aid of the West attempted to murder
Kwame Nkrumah which led to his exile and subsequently his death. Other Africa
leaders who resisted Western imperialism were similarly eliminated.115
What is more painful is that we do not seem to have politicians and leaders in
Africa who can stand up against the West anymore; and those we managed to have
had were eliminated through Western conspiracy and complicity. What we mainly
have presently are stooges and cronies. They do the biddings of their European and
American masters.
What Africa needs are leaders who can stand up to demand justice and what is
rightfully ours in Africa. The African Union should stand to its name and creed and
save Africa. Enough is enough!!!
 A Preliminary Statement 69

It is our collective responsibility to defend and protect our Africa. We need to

educate and transform the mind-set of Africans, especially those of our leaders.
• A Call for Sanity
It was Jeffrey Sach’s speech at the G20 Summit that calls on the world leaders
to honestly address the unbalanced and repressive world system that leaves the
Africa Continent bleeding. According to him, the world needs a system based on
(i) principles of human dignity, (ii) principles of sovereignty, and (iii) principles of
economic rights.116
The G20 (Group of 20) is an international forum which includes 19 of the
world’s largest economies and the European Union. It is a forum for economic,
financial and political cooperation. It addresses the major global challenges and seeks
to generate public policies that resolve them.
In this important institution, why are some 1.4 billion Africans on Earth not
represented? If the present G-20 forum added just one more seat by inviting the
chairperson of the African Union (AU) to represent 1.4 billion Africans, will heavens
fall? Yet, they are preaching democracy to us; and yet they are largely undemocratic
in their behaviour and temperament.
In another development, the world needs to have a second look at the Order of
magnitude change of the development finance. I am yet to understand how and why
the rich nations have up to $17 trillion to fight Covid-19 pandemic but the poor
countries left with nothing. This is because the rich nations borrow with 0% interest
rate whilst the poor ones are charged between 5 to 10 % thus leaving the later with
little or no access generally speaking. If this is not the definition of inequality and
wickedness I don’t know what it is!
The world needs a strong, not bias United Nations as the global umpire, impartial,
core and central institution. This is the only way we could have a civilized world. But
if we must have a strong UN there is also the need to equip it financially to meet its
pressing needs. How can one explain the fact that the whole budget of the UN is $39
billion whilst the budget of the New York City was over $100 billion? 117
70 A Preliminary Statement

• Conclusion:
Africans must always remember that the colonial masters never left the continent
for good. They are still around in a big, subtle way, under various guises. Therefore, we
must not rest our oaks unless and until we flush these criminals out of our continent
and the so-called ‘independent’ countries truly become independent. Only genuine
and reciprocal investors would be allowed to work with the continent.
We must be united to say “NO” to foreign interference and meddlesomeness in
Africa in all its ramifications and guises. We must understand that foreign interference
in Africa which started with slavery and gone through colonization through the
balkanization and formalization in the Berlin Conference has graduated to neo-
colonial project in our contemporary times, using fraudulent diplomacy (gun-boat
diplomacy). This interference goes further to include the use of the Bretton Woods
institutions – the IMF and the World Bank and other financial institutions to behold
and strangulate Africa through dollarization. In our educational and cultural sectors,
these foreign interferences have had negative impacts on Africa. They go ahead to
influence Africa by lending advisors who tell us what to do. Through their Non-
Governmental Organisations (NGOs), they infiltrate our institutions. For instance
a look at the Africa Development Bank reveals that her major shareholders are the
Americans, the Germans, the Japanese, the French, etc., hence making it easy for
them to manipulate and control us. They also interfere through those post-colonial
institutions such as the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale
de la Francophonie (OIF), and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries
(CPLP) which is analogous to the Commonwealth of Nations for countries formerly
part of the British Empire. Through these institutions, foreign powers interfere
in Africa politically, economically, militarily, diplomatically, etc. Enough of this
hullabaloo! African Agenda must be driven by Africans, not by the “hunters” – the
colonizers, the slavers, the imperialists and neo-imperialists and others who want to
reap where they do not sow.
Africa must unite to reinforce and act the Malabo declaration, Maputo
declaration, etc., and must stop dealing with the bigger powers as individual Africa
countries but united commonwealth of Africa through the Africa Union (AU) as its
representative. It is only through a united front that Africa could effectively attempt
to check foreign interference and meddlesomeness in Africa.
 A Preliminary Statement 71

Africa is not poor. On the one hand, the systems and structures of inequality
are foisted on the continent and hence haemorrhaging it. On the other hand and
simultaneously, the West and their African collaborators are stealing its wealth. It is
time we change the way we think and talk about Africa.
If the West were truly serious about “helping” Africa, it would adopt the following
measures:
• It would not use the World Trade Organization as a tool of the richest against
the poorest.
• It would not dump its surplus food and clothing on African countries.
• It would not force down the price of African commodities sold on the world
market.
• It would not insist on growth without redistribution.
• It would not tolerate tax havens and the massive tax evasion they ease.
• It would not strip Africa of its non-renewable resources without paying a fair
price.
• It would not continue to drain away Africa’s best brains.
• It would not charge prohibitive prices for medicines.
• In a word, it would end the hundred and one ways in which the West quietly
ensures that more wealth pours out of Africa each day than the West transfers
to Africa.
Why has the Horn of Africa suddenly become a geopolitical battleground for
foreign nations? These foreign powers in Africa are all “devils” of some sort, no doubt,
seeking after their interests, not African’s. Yet we need genuine investors to partner
with. It is therefore germane and fundamental to ask: Between America, France,
Britain, China and Russia, who is the “better devil”? I leave African people and their
leaders to ponder on this fundamental puzzle.
Remember: Slavery destroyed us. Religion divided us! Ignorance controls us!
And truth scares us. If these retrogressive forces are allowed to perpetuate, Africa
will remain a Dark Continent.
God bless Africa!
72 A Preliminary Statement

References
1. Scientists who compared the skulls and DNA of human stays from around
the world say their results point to modern humans (Homo sapiens) having
a single origin in Africa. According to James Owen, “Modern Humans Came
Out of Africa, ‘Definitive Study’ Says”, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/
history/article/modern-humans-came-out-of-africa-definitive-study-says.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. As of Sunday, of June 19, 2022, the current population of Africa is
1,403,506,772 approximately. See www.worldometers.info/world-population/
africa-population.
5. See https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/region-of-africa.html
6. See Wikipedia on Africa, www.wikipedia.org
7. ibid
8. Jim Garamone, “Commander Says Africa Is Too Important for Americans to
Ignore”, U.S. Department of Defense, April 21 2021.
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Top 10 Richest Countries in Minerals in Africa 2022. See www.mealoki.com
12. Keith Sungiso, “Gold Mining in Zimbabwe”, see https://miningzimbabwe.
com
13. “Nigeria Inaugurates First Oil and Gas Project in the North”, see www.vanews.
com
14. Wale Fatade, “Nigeria’s Latest Lithium Find: Some Key Questions Answered”,
The Conversation, 24 June 2022.
15. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources
16. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources
17. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources
 A Preliminary Statement 73

18. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources
19. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources
20. Mallace Bart-Williams gave this enthusiastic speech at a local TEDx event
about African economies and how it has been manipulated by the West.
21. Jim Garamone, “Commander Says Africa Is Too Important for Americans to
Ignore”, U.S. Department of Defense, April 21 2021.
22. According to the latest 2023 Africa Wealth Report published by Henley &
Partnership (H&P) with New World Wealth, 5 African countries hold 56% of
Africa’s private wealth.
23. Ibid. see also www.dmarketforces.com
24. Ibid
25. Ibid
26. Dangote, who remains the richest man in Africa for the 11th year running, was
the only African who made the top 100 list. The Nigerian billionaires started
on an upward note after being ranked the 97th richest in the world in January
with a net worth of $19.2 billion. He is now the 73rd richest in the world. See
Africa.bussinessinsider.com
27. Jim Garamone, “Commander Says Africa Is Too Important for Americans to
Ignore”, U.S. Department of Defense, April 21 2021.
28. Ibid
29. Memorandum by War Cabinet Secretary E.E. Bridges from October 6, 1939
Secret: Holland and Belgium: Measures to be taken in the event of an invasion
by Germany, pp. 1&4 [The National Archive UK]
30. “Belgian gold in foreign hands” Museum of the National Bank of Belgium, 4
March 2010. Archived from the original on 14 November 2019. Retrieved 19
January, 2016.
31. www.bullionbypost.co.uk/info/gold-production-by-country/
32. In his recent video, the former president of France, Jacques Chirac said the
French people should accept the fact that a large amount of the money in their
74 A Preliminary Statement

banks comes from exploitation of French ex-colonies in Africa. See France still
robbing its ‘former’ African colonies | Pambazuka News
33.
34. https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/france-still-robbing-its-former
colonies
35. World is plundering Africa’s wealth of ‘billions of dollars a year’ More wealth
leaves Africa every year than enters it – by more than $40bn (£31bn) –
according to research that challenges “misleading” feelings of foreign aid. The
headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
36. World is plundering Africa’s wealth of ‘billions of dollars a year’.
37. www.ippmedia.com/en/features/world-plundering-africas-wealth-billions-
dollars-year. See Karen McVeigh, “World is plundering Africa’s wealth of
‘billions of dollars a year’”, The Guardian, 24 May 2017.
38. https://www.knowyourafrica.co.za/about-us
39. Ibid
40. Ibid
41. Economic Development in Africa Report 2016 | UNCTAD
42. https://unctad.org/webflyer/economic-development-africa-report-2016
43. The Economic Development in Africa Report 2016, subtitled Debt Dynamics,
and Development Finance in Africa, examines some of the key policy issues
that underlie Africa’s Development
44. Economic Development in Africa Report 2016 | UNCTAD
45. Economic Development in Africa Report 2016 | UNCTAD
46. Atlantic Slave Trade - HISTORY CRUNCH - History
47. www.historycrunch.com/atlantic-slave-trade.html
48. King Leopold II committed heinous atrocities in the name of chasing profits
and raising the prestige of Belgium. The genocide in the Congo is one of the
most forgotten pieces of history, but the damage has been long-lasting. From
1885-1908, the Congo Free State under the personal rule of King Leopold II
was living hell. See https://www.africanexponent.com
 A Preliminary Statement 75

49. In Congo, King Leopold lost half of his twenty million people; and in the
name of bringing civilization to African Belgium instituted the practice of
amputating arms as punishment.
50. Gerald Caplan, “The Conspiracy against Africa”, The Walrus, Nov. 2006.
51. By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-
fifth of the world’s population at the time. The empire covered more than
33,700,000 km2 (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land
area. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread.
52. British Empire – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire
53. Ibid
54. Ibid
55. Ibid
56. Former British Colonies – World Atlas https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/
former-british-colonies.html
57. Queen Elizabeth’s death revives criticism of Britain’s legacy of colonialism.
See https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-elizabeths-death-revives-
criticism-britains…
58. Professor Uju Anya, who wished the Queen an ‘excruciating death’ made a
tweet … ‘I heard the chief monarch of a thieving, raping genocidal empire is
finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,’ she tweeted. Her remarks sparked
outrage. See https://www.dailymail.co.uk
59. Ibid
60. Ibid
61. Ibid
62. Zoë on Twitter: “As the first generation of my family not born in a British
colony, I would dance on the graves of every member of the royal family if
given the opportunity, especially hers.” See https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/
status/1567888385347297281
76 A Preliminary Statement

63. Queen Elizabeth’s death revives criticism of Britain’s legacy of colonialism.

See https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-elizabeths-death-revives-
criticism-britains…
64. South Africans Want the Return Of ‘World’s Largest Diamond’ on Queen …See
https://news.yahoo.com/south-africans-want-return-world-Web19/09/2022
· After sending condolences to all members of the Royal Family on Twitter,
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa’s message received many posts from
South Africans, claiming the return of the…
65. Most South Africans are saying: ‘Give us an opportunity to be frank in our
assessment of [the Queen’s] legacy.’ This is the person we look at and think:
‘Ha - that’s the face of the British colonial empire, an institution that enriched
itself through violence, through theft, through oppression.
66. The African country must deposit its national monetary reserves into France’s
central bank. France has held the national reserves of 14 African countries
since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad,
Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon. See https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/
france-still-robbing-
67. Ibid
68. Jacques Chirac – Wikipedia See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac.
69. Speaking at the “ATREJU18” conference held in September 2018, an annual
conference organised by the Italian right, Meloni accused French President,
Emmanuel Macron, of impoverishing some African states and creating
conditions for immigration flows towards Italy.
70. FLASHBACK: France Behind Poverty, Insecurity in Africa, Italy’s New Prime
Minister Said In 2018, Sahara Reporters, 22 Sept. 2022
71. Ibid
72. What Countries Have the Largest Gold Reserves? – Investopedia See https://
www.investopedia.com
73. “And by child labour in the mines by extracting RAW materials is happening
in Niger where France extracts 30% of the Uranium it needs to run Nuclear
 A Preliminary Statement 77

reactors, while 90% of Niger lives without electricity. - Italian PM, Georgia
Meloni 28 Sep 2022
74. Gold Reserves by Country - Top 10 Largest Gold Reserves See https://www.
bullionbypost.com/info/gold-reserves-by-country .
75. The African country must deposit its national monetary reserves into France’s
central bank. France has held the national reserves of 14 African countries
since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad,
Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon. See https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/
france-still-robbing-.
76. Ibid
77. In 1998 the then US President Clinton sounded a measured note of contrition
for past “sins” in U.S. relations with Africa, including Cold War support for
repressive regimes and participation by Americans’ ancestors in slavery. Bill
Clinton, while speaking at a village school outside the Ugandan capital of
Kampala, stopped short of making an explicit apology for slavery – a thorny
issue in American racial politics. But he proposed more than $180 million in
“new” aid for a continent that he said had been subjected to American “neglect
and ignorance.”
78. Clinton talks of U.S. “sins’ against Africa - tampabay.com See https://www.
tampabay.com/archive/1998/03/25/clinton-talks-of-u-s-sins-against-africa
79. See China – Africa Trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Africa%E2%80%93China_economic_relations
80. Zongwe, Dunia (2010). “On the Road to Post Conflict Reconstruction by
Contract: The Angola Model”. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/
ssrn.1730442. ISSN 1556-5068. S2CID 150819659.
81. Ibid
82. Abegunrin, Olayiwola; Manyeruke, Charity (2020). China’s power in Africa: a
new global order. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 27. ISBN 978-
3-030-21993-2.
78 A Preliminary Statement

83. “China Africa Trade: Chinese have Replaced Britishers as our Masters!”. 21
December 2017.
84. Carlos Mureithi, “Trade between Africa and China reached an all-time high in
2021”, qz.com, 8 February, 2022.
85. Ibid
86. ibid
87. Jubilee Debt Campaign, a charity organisation negotiating for the cancellation
of debts owed by developing countries reveals that an estimated 20 per cent of
Africa government’s external debt is owed to China.
88. From 2012 to 2017, Chinese loans to countries in sub-Saharan Africa grew
tenfold to more than $10bn per year. An estimated 20 percent of African
governments’ external debt is owed to China, according to the Jubilee Debt
Campaign, a charity that wants the debts of developing countries to be written
off. See moguldom.com/262023/10-african-countries-that-are …
89. Around 40 per cent of African countries are in debt distress compared with
2013, when 20 per cent of African countries were at high risk of debt distress,
World Finance reported. From 2012 to 2017, Chinese loans to countries in
sub-Saharan Africa grew tenfold to more than $10bn per year. “40 Per cent Of
African Countries Are in A Debt” …See moguldom.com.
90. 10 African Countries That Are in Debt to China – Moguldom. See https://
moguldom.com/262023/10-african-countries-that-are-in-debt-to-china
91. The narrative surrounding China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ is a lie … China,
we are told, inveigles poorer countries into taking out loan after loan to build
expensive infrastructure that they cannot afford and that will yield few. See
https://www.scmp.com/…/article/3125914/narrative-surrounding-chinas-
debt-trap-diplomacy
92. China’s internationalization is seen by critics—as laid out in programs such as
the Belt and Road Initiative—is not simply a pursuit of geopolitical influence
but also, in some telling, a weapon. Once a country is weighed down by Chinese
loans, the story goes, like a hapless gambler who borrows from the Mafia, it is
Beijing’s puppet and in danger of losing a limb.
 A Preliminary Statement 79

93. The prime example of this is the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota. As the
story goes, Beijing pushed Sri Lanka into borrowing money from Chinese
banks to pay for the project, which had no prospect of commercial success.
Onerous terms and feeble revenues eventually pushed Sri Lanka into default,
at which point Beijing demanded the port as collateral, forcing the Sri Lankan
government to surrender control to a Chinese firm.
94. The Trump administration pointed to Hambantota to warn of China’s strategic
use of debt: In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence called it “debt-trap
diplomacy…” See: https://www.theatlantic.com
95. African political landscape, even after independence, is divided into two
major post-colonial blocs: English- and French-speaking Africa otherwise
known as the “Anglophones” and the “Francophones”. We also have the
“Lusophones” and the “Arabic phones”. Lusophone Africa specifically refers
to the five Portuguese-speaking African countries once colonized by the
Portuguese: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and the islands
of São Tomé and Príncipe. These countries are members of the Community
of Portuguese Speaking Countries, an organization created in 1996 to foster
friendship and unity among Lusophone states throughout the world. There
are also “independent” African countries that adopt Arabic as one of their
official languages. Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by 150 million people
in Africa, making it the most widely spoken language on the continent. Arabic
speakers in Africa account for 62% of the total Arabic speakers in the world.
It is recognized as the official language in countries in North and Sub-Saharan
Africa including Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, and Niger.
96. See all on Wikipedia Pan-Africanism – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Pan-Africanism
97. Basically, Kigali agreement can be viewed as an amendment to Montreal
protocol. The agreement took place in Kigali, the capital city of tiny African
country, Rwanda, on 15th October 2016. See www.iassolution.com/kigali-
agreement/
98. At the 10th Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of States and
Government, 44 of the 55 African Union Member States signed the Agreement
80 A Preliminary Statement

Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); 30 May 2019
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. See au-afcfta.org/about/
99. The Protocol on Free Movement of Persons seeks to establish a visa-free zone
within the AfCFTA countries and support the creation of the African Union
Passport. At the summit in Kigali on 21 March 2018, 44 countries signed the
AfCFTA, 47 signed the Kigali Declaration, and 30 signed the Protocol on Free
Movement of People. See African Continental Free Trade Area – Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Continental_Free_Trade
100. African Continental Free Trade Area: Opportunities and Challenges
101. See: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329450723_African_
Continental_Free_Trade_Area…
102. Ibid
103. An Overview of African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA …
the lawyer. Africa/2022/03/26/an-overview-of-afcfta/
104. Who Is Spoiling Africa: Foreigners or Africans? | Who Is Spoiling …
105. https://www.facebook.com/…/who-is-spoiling-africa-foreigners-or-
africans/280833430351783
106. See Wikipedia on Slyvnus Olympio of Togo
107. According to well-conducted research which probed declassified documents,
the CIA, with the help of Britain and France masterminded the coup that
overthrew Dr Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966. Based on Reports
released by the United States Department Office of the Historian, the article
shows in part, Americans foreign policy manoeuvres in Ghana under Lyndon
B. Johnson’s administration (1964-68).
108. ibid
109. Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) on Wikipedia
110. Ibid
111. Ibid
112. Ibid
113. See Wikipedia on the country concern
 A Preliminary Statement 81

114. Tanzania (John Magufuli) on Wikipedia

115. NATO’s Conspiracy against Libya on Wikipedia
116. Ibid
117. During his life time, Muammar Gaddafi was recorded to have made the
following prophesies
118. See the History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi (Wikipedia)
119. Ibid
120. How the CIA, Mi6, Belgian authorities murdered Lumumba.
121. See Jeffrey Sach’s Speech at the G-20 Summit where he narrated how the West
underdeveloped Africa and calls for a change; arguing that the G20 should
include Africa as the 21st member to make the group more representation of
all interests.
122. ibid
 AN INTRODUCTION

“Slavery destroyed us. Religion divided us! Ignorance controls us! And truth scares
us. If these retrogressive forces are allowed to perpetuate, Africa will remain a Dark
Continent. – Charles Akujieze (The Controversy against Africa)
Most historians, especially from the West, stereotype and write off the vast swaths of
human African population as irredeemably impoverished, backward and locked into
patriarchal value systems.
In the 14th Century, Africa was rich with Eastern Africa connected to the Indian
Ocean trade while West Africa was home to the richest person to have ever lived: a
man named Mansa Musa.
But today, Africa is the poorest continent in the world in terms of GDP per-
capita and the majority of the worlds’ poor live in Africa.
Why is Africa poor as a continent? What makes it different from America,
Europe, and parts of Asia? A couple of reasons have been adduced, explaining why
Africa is poor.
At the macro level:
• predatory and “kleptomaniac” corruption-ridden rule.
• Weak states unable to enforce rules order or provide public goods.
• Lack of mechanisms of national accountability allowing rent extraction.
At the micro level:
• Mechanism for distributing land.
• Lack of mechanisms of local accountability (chiefs).
• Social institutions of mutual obligation.
Notwithstanding, while it would not be unrealistic to appreciate and acknowledge
the above reasons, there is a germane and fundamental reason why Africa remains
84 An Introduction

poor which many writers, among other things, choose to ignore. The West wants
Africa to stay poor!
The advanced countries in Europe (and America) see the sub-Saharan Africa as
fundamental to the global prosperity of the advanced countries. To them, Africa has
a role to play in the global economy ONLY as producer of raw materials. The West
will never allow Africa to escape that and will do everything possible to keep sub-
Sahara Africa where it is – impoverished! 1
Virtually all the structures and institutions designed as civilizational – be
it economic, political, socio-cultural, etc. were carefully put in place to reinforce
and reiterate the idea of “Destiny Instinct” – the belief that innate and immutable
characteristics decide the destinies of whole nations and cultures. It’s the idea that
things are as they are for ineluctable, inescapable reasons: they have always been this
way and will never change.2
A common example of this is the idea that African culture is “backward,” and
will never change or progress. It reinforces the “Generalization Instinct”, the “Gap
Instinct”, and the “Negativity Instinct” to make people in Level 4 countries believe
that human existence is the same for all people in all countries at Levels 1, 2, and 3;
that these cultures sit on the other side of an unbridgeable gap from us; and that life
in these places is bad, getting worse, and will never improve.
And so, all the political and economic structures, all the global institutions,
including the economics taught in schools appear to be carefully designed and
orchestrated to keep Africa where it is. Whether it is Europe or the United States of
America or China, etc. it is the same. They need Africa to impoverish because they
need those raw materials at ridiculously cheap prices. And, according to them, if
Africa do something differently (positive and needful), the living standard in Europe,
the US and Asia would fall. To them, that’s too much a price to pay.3
The West would most likely never allow Africa progress without a big fight. And
it appears that virtually ALL the Western institutions are complicit in this deceit.
The job of the academia is to convince Africans to keep doing what they are doing
in benefiting the superior race and to convince them that they are the reasons why
they are poor. And so, all the economies, all the global institutions are reinforced by
economic ideologies favourable to the West. It is another form of colonization.
 An Introduction 85

Take it or leave it, no country ever develops without manufacturing (or some
sort of industrialization). The West has effectively ensured that Africa is not “allowed”
to industrialize and produce something. This unfortunate situation was effectively
collaborated and sustained by the ignorance and crab-mentality of African people,
especially their leaders. Consequently, sub-Sahara Africa is perpetually condemned
to this condition to produce raw materials for the West.
Economic institutions like the World Bank, Paris Club, International Monetary
Fund (IMF), etc. were all structured and programmed to sustain the economies and
stability of the West. The kleptomaniac tendencies of African rulers, and their over-
dependence on international aid, made most African countries vulnerable. Through
the conditions attached to aids and debts, Africa unwittingly played into the hands
of these predators, and this thus become one of the greatest undoing of the Africa
continent. And once Africa is indebted to the West, they control Africa. Any African
Leader who has the temerity, the audacity, and the effrontery to challenge the West
on this or tries to do things differently stands the risk of being overthrown and/or
loses his life. Why do you think leaders like Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara of Burkina
Faso, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, the strongman of Libya, John
Pombe Joseph Magufuli of Tanzania, etc. were all murdered? Once you refuse to
accept the loans and work at cross-purposes at the selfish interests of the West, you
must pay dearly for it. Hence, through debt-trap Africa is effectively held down and
emasculated.
Another satanic tool of control was the establishment of monopoly buying
structures. Of all the raw materials produced by Africa, there are about four or five
multinational companies that mop-up those raw materials. These companies collude,
connive, and conspire among themselves to undermine the economy of Africa by
deciding on the price those products must be sold to them without recourse to free
market forces. It is an economic war.
The West attempt to prevent African industrialization drive through The Trade
Related Investment Measures, a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement that
recognizes that measures and regulations impose on investments and investors can
reduce or distort international trade and may function as disincentives for investor
in situations where investment is needed. The agreement restricts the use of three
86 An Introduction

TRIMS requirements: local content requirements, trade balancing requirement and

foreign exchange balancing requirements.
Another tool used to control and checkmate Africa is through the manipulations
of government procurement to the advantage of the West. Government procurement
is the process by which the government buys the goods and services it needs by
purchasing from commercial businesses. Since agencies of the government use
taxpayer money, there are several regulations on how to use it properly and responsibly.
Therefore, they must draw up legal contracts with suppliers to proceed. Prices must
be pre-negotiated and fair, based on a predetermined set of terms and conditions.
Businesses that have products and services that the government wants to line up to
bid on and receive work contracts and must prove their viability and legitimacy to
earn and keep them.4
Another source of control is through the World Court, the International Criminal
Court (ICC), etc. This need not detain us now!
These institutions are exclusively created to control the poor countries with little
or no room to manoeuvre. Through these institutions and structural adjustment
programmes, African countries were railroad into producing what the West want
them to produce? Why do you think the West ensure that the sub-Sahara Africa have
recurrent balance of payment problems? Why is it that virtually all the countries that
get advice from the IMF/World Bank ended up having recurrent balance of payment
problem?
In another development, the World Bank forces all food companies to eliminate
food subsidies and food support. Africa doesn’t produce own food; the West increase
their control of it. If you don’t have any subsidy scheme in place, you’re not allowed
to have subsidy on food, but if you have subsidy and income support on food
production, the WTO allows you to run. But the question is: who are those that
have subsidies and income support programme in place? – The US, Europe, and
Eurasia, etc. but not Africa.
Trade and markets for food and farm goods matter to us all — whether we are
consumers of these products, or we also produce, transform, and trade them.
 An Introduction 87

Under the Agreement, WTO members agree to “schedules” or lists of

commitments that set limits on the tariffs they can apply to individual products and
on levels of domestic support and export subsidies.
But, however, the WTO agreement was skewed to favour the advanced countries.
The advanced economies have a lot of instruments in the WTO to invoke in stopping
Africans from industrializing.
In another development, according to research that challenges “misleading”
perceptions of foreign aid, more wealth leaves Africa every year than enters it – by
more than $40bn (£31bn).
“Research reveals that whilst the African continent receives $30 billion in aid
in a year, it pales in comparison to the $192 billion leaving the continent via
illicit financial flows, the repatriation of multinational company profits, debt
repayments, loss of skilled workers, illegal logging and fishing, and the costs imposed
as a result of climate change.” 5.
It runs thus: $46.3b in profits made by multinational companies, $21b in debt
payments often following irresponsible loans; $35.3b in tax evasion and other illicit
financial flows facilitated through tax evasion; $6b in health worker; $17b in illegal
logging; $1.3b in illegal fishing; $36b because of climate change that Africa didn’t
cause, etc.
• Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs):
In the international development community, the concept of IFFs is emerging
as a powerful and constructive umbrella to bring together previously disconnected
issues. The term emerged in the 1990s and was initially associated with capital flight.
It now generally refers to cross-border movement of capital associated with illegal
activity or more explicitly, money that is illegally earned, transferred, or used that
crosses borders.
This falls into three fundamental areas:
• The acts themselves are illegal (e.g., corruption, tax evasion); or
• The funds are the results of illegal acts (e.g., smuggling and trafficking in
minerals, wildlife, drugs, and people); or
• The funds are used for illegal purposes (e.g., financing of organized crime).
88 An Introduction

However, there is an on-going global discussion on whether and what commercial

activities – such as tax avoidance – should be considered part of IFFs, considering
that many business practices to lower tax liabilities are legal.
So, while the term “illicit financial flows” is increasingly used, there is still no
agreement on the precise definition.
The World Bank Group recommends focusing on flows and activities that have
a clear connection with illegality. Regardless of how IFFs are precisely defined, it’s
clear that the flows are an impediment to development. What’s most important is
to understand how and why money flows out of developing countries and to devise
strategies to stem these flows. 6
Key Points to note about illicit financial flows (IFFs):7
• “Money illegally earned, transferred, or used that crosses borders” is the most
common definition of illicit financial flows (IFFs).
• FFs reduce domestic resources and tax revenue needed to fund poverty-reducing
programs and infrastructure in developing countries; accordingly, they are
receiving growing attention as a key development challenge.
• IFFs reduce resources, but they are also symptomatic of other issues that
constrain poverty reduction and shared prosperity, such as vested interests and
weak transparency and accountability.
• Curbing IFFs requires strong international cooperation and concerted action
by developed and developing countries in partnership with the private sector
and civil society.
• With its technical knowledge and global convening power, the World Bank
Group has a critical role to play in combating IFFs and is committed to this
work.
• How much are African countries losing to illicit financial flows?
In Australia, for example, several mining companies are still being investigated
for bribing high-ranking officials to win mining licenses in Sierra Leone (2016) and
the Republic of Congo (2006-2007). According to some estimates, African countries
are losing at least US$50 billion annually to illicit financial flows.8
 An Introduction 89

Analysis by a coalition of the UK and African equality and development

campaigners including Global Justice Now claims the rest of the world is profiting
more than most African citizens from the continent’s wealth.
“… African countries received $162bn in 2015, mainly in loans, aid, and
personal remittances. But in the same year, $203bn was taken from the continent,
either directly through multinationals repatriating profits and illegally moving
money into tax havens, or by costs imposed by the rest of the world through climate
change adaptation and mitigation.”9.
And, according to the report, Honest Accounts 2017, this led to an annual
financial deficit of $41.3bn from the 47 African countries where many people remain
trapped in poverty.10
The campaigners said illicit financial flows, defined as the illegal movement of
cash between countries, account for $68bn a year, three times as much as the $19bn
Africa receives in aid.11
An economist from the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Tim Jones said: “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.”12
According to him, the key factors contributing to this inequality include unjust
debt payments and multinational companies hiding proceeds through tax avoidance
and corruption.
African governments received $32bn in loans in 2015 but paid more than half
of that – $18bn – in debt interest, with the level of debt rising rapidly.13
The prevailing narrative, where the governments of rich countries say their
foreign aid is helping Africa, is “a distraction and misleading”, the campaigners said.14
Aisha Dodwell, a campaigner for Global Justice Now, said:
“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.”15.
90 An Introduction

The report points out that Africa have considerable riches. South Africa’s potential
mineral wealth is estimated to be around $2.5tn, while the mineral reserves of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo are thought to be worth $24tn; and Nigeria
worth between $20 and $30 trillion approximately.16
A report in The Economist magazine of October 10, 2019, revealed that
about $582bn has been stolen from Nigeria since independence in 1960.17 This was
according to Chatham House, a British think tank, which was quoted in an article
published by the magazine titled, ‘Catch me if you can, African kleptocrats are
finding it tougher to stash cash in the West’.
However, the continent’s natural resources are owned and exploited by foreign,
private corporations, the report said.
Bernard Adaba, policy analyst with ISODEC (Integrated Social Development
Centre) in Ghana said:
“Development is a lost cause in Africa while we are haemorrhaging billions every
year to extractive industries, western tax havens and illegal logging and fishing.
Some serious structural changes need to be made to promote economic policies that
enable African countries to best serve the needs of their people, rather than simply
being cash cows for western corporations and governments. The bleeding of Africa
must stop!”18.
Accordingly, Maya Forstater, a visiting fellow for the Centre for Global
Development, a development think-tank, however, said the report did not provide a
meaningful look at the issues.
Forstater said:
“There are 1.2 billion people in Africa. This report seems to view these people and
their institutions as an inert bucket into which money is poured or stolen away,
rather than as part of dynamic and growing economies. The $41bn headline they
come up with needs to be put into context that the overall GDP of Africa is some
$7.7tn. Economies do not grow by stockpiling inflows and preventing outflows
but by enabling people to invest and learn, adapt technologies, and access markets.
 An Introduction 91

Some of the issues that the report raises – such as illegal logging, fishing, and
the cost of adapting to climate change – are important, but adding together all
apparent inflows and outflows is meaningless.”19.
Forstater also questioned some of the report’s methodology.
The coalition of campaigners, including Jubilee Debt Campaign, Health
Poverty Action, and Uganda Debt Network, said those claiming to help Africa “need
to rethink their role”20, and singled out the British government as bearing special
responsibility because of its position as the head of a network of overseas tax havens.
Dr Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist at the London School of
Economics, commenting on the report, agreed that the prevailing view of foreign aid
was skewed. Hickel said: “One of the many problems with the aid narrative is that it
leads the public to believe that rich countries are helping developing countries, but
that narrative skews the often-extractive relationship that exists between rich and
poor countries.”21.
A key issue, he said, was illicit financial flows, via multinational corporations,
to overseas tax havens. “Britain has a direct responsibility to fix the problem if they
want to claim to care about international poverty at all,”22 he said.
The report makes a series of recommendations, including preventing companies
with subsidiaries based in tax havens from operations in African countries, transforming
aid into a process that genuinely benefits the continent, and reconfiguring aid from a
system of voluntary donations to one of repatriation for damage caused.23
 Chapter 1

AFRICA AND THE CHALLENGE OF

CIVILIZATION

“Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards

emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use
your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.”
- Steven Biko
There are many reasons why civilizations fail. Evidence from archaeology suggests
that five factors have almost invariably been involved in the loss of civilizations:
• Uncontrollable population movements
• New epidemic diseases
• Failing states leading to increased warfare
• Collapse of trade routes leading to famine
• Climate change
There is no conclusive explanation as to why civilizations collapse. What we do
know is that the factors highlighted above can all contribute.
Africa faces many challenges, including poverty, disease, conflict, corruption,
and lack of infrastructure. However, it is important to note that Africa is a diverse
continent with many different countries and cultures, each with its own unique
challenges and opportunities.

A. History of Africa
The history of Africa could be traced and accessed through four major stages – the
Ancient Africa, Africa in the Middle Ages, Africa from 1500 – 1800 and finally, the
modern Africa.
94 The Conspiracy against Africa

1. Ancient Africa
Scientists believe that Africa was the birthplace of mankind. By 100,000 BC modern
humans lived by hunting and gathering with stone tools. From Africa, they spread
to Europe.
In his work, “A Brief History of Africa”, Tim Lambert re-echoed the popular
sentiments by scientists that Africa was the birthplace of mankind. A huge part of
Africa’s earliest history has been lost, while some parts have been distorted and/or
misrepresented. However, there are parts of African history that remain intact, because
of modern-day discoveries and new emerging facts and methods help to rediscover
the lost pasts of the Africa’s past through DNA sequencing, dendrochronology,
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) dating and various other methods.24
According to reports, by 5,000 years ago, farming had spread to North Africa.
People herded cattle and they grew crops. At that time the Sahara Desert was not a
desert. It was a green and fertile area. Gradually it grew drier and became a desert.25
In the intervening period about 3,200 BC, writing was invented in Egypt.
The Egyptians made tools and weapons of bronze. However, by the time Egyptian
civilization arose most of Africa was cut off from Egypt and other early civilizations
by the Sahara Desert. Sub-Saharan Africa was also hindered or impeded by its lack
of good harbours, which made transport by sea difficult.
Farmers in Africa continued to use stone tools and weapons however about 600
BC the use of iron spread in North Africa. It gradually spread south and by 500 AD
iron tools and weapons had reached what is now South Africa.26
About 480 BC the Phoenicians from what is now Lebanon founded the city
of Carthage in Tunisia. Carthage later fought wars with Rome and in 202 BC the
Romans defeated the Carthaginians at the battle of Zama. In 146 BC Rome destroyed
the city of Carthage and made its territory part of their empire.
Meanwhile, Egyptian influence spread along the Nile, and the kingdoms of
Nubia and Kush arose in what is now Sudan. Southern Arabian influence spread to
Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia, and Eastern Sudan. By 50 AD the kingdom of Axum
in the region was reached an advanced stage of social and cultural development.
Axum engaged in business transactions with Rome, Arabia, and India. Axum became
Christian in the fourth century AD.27
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 95

Meanwhile the Roman Empire continued to expand. In 30 BC Egypt became a

province of Rome. Morocco was fully engaged in 42 AD. However, the rest of Africa
was segregated from Rome by the Sahara Desert.
2. Africa in the Middle Ages
The Arabs dominated and subdued Egypt in 642; and between 698 and 700, they
subjugated Tunis and Carthage and later controlled all the coasts of North Africa.
Understandably, since the Arab invaders were Muslims, it is not surprising that the
whole coast of North Africa were converted to Islam. Ethiopia remained Christian
but it was cut off from Europe by the Muslims.28
In northern Africa, organized kingdoms appeared only after 800 AD. The
Indigenous northern Africans engaged in business transactions with the Arabs,
hence the furtherance of Islam, not only in the northern region of Africa but also to
other regions of the continent. Bringing with them luxury goods and salts, the Arabs
bought from the Africans, gold, and slaves. 29
Ghana (which included parts of Mali and Mauritania) was one of Africa’s
frontline earliest kingdoms. It was called the land of gold by the 9th century; and by
the 11th century, Ghana was annihilated from further north by Africans.
In Southwest Nigeria, the city of Ife was the capital of a great kingdom by
the 11th century. The ingenuity of the Ife craft-men was made manifest from the
12th century when they made terracotta scriptures and bronze heads. Unfortunately,
however, Ife began to decline by the 16th century. 30
The medieval kingdom of Benin (bigger than the contemporary Benin state
as an independent entity), is another African nation highly regarded from the 13th
century as rich and powerful in the medieval times. It later suffered a decline.
In the 13th century, the kingdom of Mali was founded and in the 14th century,
it was already rich and powerful. Timbuktu was a prominent city in Mali popularly
known as a busy trading centre where salt, horses, gold, and slaves were sold. 31
In the 16th century, however, Songhai – a kingdom situated east of Mali on the
River Niger from the 14th century through the 16th century – effectively destroyed
and subverted the Mali kingdom. And about 1500 AD, Songhai had reached its
96 The Conspiracy against Africa

pinnacle only to be defeated and subverted by the Moroccans, hence, breaking the
Songhai kingdom. 32
Located near Lake Chad, Kanem-Bornu was another great North African state.
Evidently, in the 9th century, Kanem-Bornu rose to prominence and remained
independent till the 19th century.33
At the same time, the Arabs also traversed down the east coast of Africa. Some of
them settled there and others in Zanzibar; and they founded states such as Mogadishu.
In Zimbabwe about 1430 impressive stone buildings were erected about this
time and in South Africa organized kingdoms were formed. 34
Ethiopia developed rapidly and successfully in the Middle Ages within this
period. At about 1200, the famous Church of St. George was built. 35
In 1431, the Portuguese sailed through the Azores, exploring the coast of Africa.
They reached the mouth of the river Congo in 1445. However, in 1488, they reached
around the Cape of God Hope. 36
3. Africa 1500-1800
Slavery was not new in Africa. The Europeans started conveying African slaves across
the Atlantic in the 16th century. And for centuries, Africans sold their brothers as
slaves to the Arabs.
In the 18th century Britain as well as other European countries was well involved
and active in slave trade. Britain, having taken advantage of the trans-Atlantic slave
trade that was then huge, took manufactured goods to Africa. On the other hand,
Britain took slaves from there to the West Indies and took sugar back to Britain. This
was called the Triangular Trade. 37
“Some Africans were sold into slavery because they had committed a crime.
However, many slaves were captured in raids by other Africans. Europeans were
not allowed to travel inland to find slaves. Instead, Africans brought slaves to the
coast. Any slaves who were not sold were either killed or used as slaves by other
Africans. The slave trade would have been impossible without the co-operation of
Africans many of whom grew rich on the slave trade.”
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 97

Meanwhile, between the 16th and 18th centuries, criminals from the North African
coast, known as the Barbary, pointedly robbed Spanish and Portuguese ships.38
Most of the North African coasts were conquered in the 16th century by the
Turks – Egypt was seized in 1517 and by 1556, however, most of the coast was in
their hands. 39
In the meantime, South Africans continued to build powerful kingdoms. In the
16 century, the empire of Kanem-Bornu expanded with the aid of guns bought
th

from the Turks. In the 16th century, however, Ethiopia though survived but declined
in power and importance. 40
It would be recalled that the Portuguese settled in Angola and Mozambique in
the 16th century while the Dutch founded a colony in South Africa in 1652. 41
4. Modern Africa
Most of Africa was colonized in the 19th century! However, most countries in Europe
made visible attempt to put an end to slave trade in the 19th century.
It would be recalled that a movement was developed from the 1770s in Britain to
abolish the trade in slaves. This movement known as the abolitionist movement was
a pot-pourri of some human assemblage of dedicated men and women – politicians,
ordinary workers, women, testimonies from former slaves, etc. – all contributed to
this movement?
Although the British Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in
1807, it did not protect those already enslaved. However, this very Act did put to an
end the buying and selling of slaves within the British Empire. Instructively, it took
some 30 years of further campaigning for hundreds of thousands of people to be
liberated and slavery abolished in most British colonies.
In 1814 the British dispossesses the Dutch colony in South Africa. In 1830 the
French violated northern Algeria. Colonization, however, only became serious in the
late 19th century when Europeans supplanted Africa.42
In 1884 the Germans lay hold on Namibia, Togo, and Cameroon and in 1885
they confiscated Tanzania. In 1885 Belgium get hold of what is now the Democratic
Republic of Congo. The French invaded Madagascar in 1896. They also enlarged their
empire in northern Africa. In 1912 they took Morocco and Italy invaded Libya.43
98 The Conspiracy against Africa

In 1914 the British invaded and captured Egypt. Although in 1896 the Italians
tried to invade and supplant Ethiopia, but the Ethiopians defeated them. Currently,
all of Africa was in the hands of the Europeans.
Moving further south, the British took Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda,
and Kenya. British also took control of Egypt; but Angola and Mozambique remained
in the hands of the Portuguese.
In the early 20th century, however, attitudes to imperialism began to change in
Europe. For instance, in Africa, churches supplied schools and increasing numbers of
Africans became educated. These Africans became impatient for independence. The
movement for African independence became impregnable and in the late 1950s and
1960s, most African countries became independent.44
About seventeen countries gained their independence in 1960. Nevertheless,
Mozambique and Angola did not become independent until 1975.
Africa began to boom in the 21st century. Today the economies of most African
countries are growing considerably. Tourism in Africa is thriving, and investment is
pouring into the continent. Africa is growing rapidly and there is every reason to be
optimistic.45

B. Slavery and the Economy of Africa

1. How the Slave Trade stifled Africa’s economy:
It is not possible to recount the history of the African continent without talking
about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the continent’s economy.
Indeed, a cursory look at Africa’s current economic situation will reveal traces
and imprints of the heinous crime against Africans known as the slave trade.
The slave trade is one of the factors that have contributed to the sorry state
of Africa today. It is one of the reasons why Africa is struggling with a heavy debt
burden, internal conflicts, abject poverty, and the overall despondency one easily
encounters on the continent.46
The Slave Trade was never in the interest of Africa and her people; it served only
the interest of the perpetrators.
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 99

There are some though, who might argue that there have been some benefits to
Africa from the slave trade because some members of the African elite benefited from
the trade. Some of these were directly involved in the trade.
The argument also goes further to suggest that some Africans who survived the
inhuman transition to the New World benefited by having access to material wealth
and Western education.
Sadly, while the full story of the slave trade may never be known, the reality is
that the slave trade involved plunder, brutality, and the gross abuse of the human
rights of Africans.47
Bob Koigi wrote about the impact of slavery on modern Africa in which he
explained that more than 400 years since over 12 million men and women were
forcibly removed from their native land in Africa along treacherous routes and
delivered as slaves in Americas and Europe, the impact of that historic forced migration
continues to shape the continent and redefine the socio cultural, economic, and
political development of the African people.48
It has been established, according to research, that slave raiding in Africa
ultimately weakened the social and fabric of the continent giving rise to colonialism
which ultimately altered not just Africa but the new world order and how the world
relate to each other to date.
The collateral damage on the theft of the continent – robbing African countries
of the much-needed labour force – not only have a disastrous effect on the economic
activities of the continent, but also have gravely affected and indirectly birthed the
poverty experienced by the continent over the years.
In his book, “The Long Economic and Political Shadow of History”, Volume
II, Africa, and Asia”, Nathan Nunn a Frederic E. Abbe, Professor of Economics at
Harvard University wrote:
“Although research understanding the long-term impacts of Africa’s slave trades is
still in progress, the evidence accumulated up to this point suggests that this historic
event played an important part in the shaping of the continent, in terms of not
only economic outcomes, but cultural and social outcomes as well. The evidence
suggests that it has affected a wide range of important outcomes, including economic
prosperity, ethnic diversity, institutional quality, the prevalence of conflict, the
100 The Conspiracy against Africa

prevalence of HIV, trust levels, female labour force participation rates, and the
practice of polygyny. Thus, the slave trades appear to have played an important
role in shaping the fabric of African society today…
Robbing African countries off the much-needed labour force by taking men and
women at their prime and productive ages not only affected the economic activities
then but have been attributed to the poverty experienced in the continent over the
years. Researchers like Nunn have pointed to the correlation between countries
where majority of slaves were taken and rising poverty over the years.”49.
Researchers indicate that if slavery never took place, the 72 per cent gap in
average income between Africa and the rest of the world would not be experienced
today. If anything, they argue, Africa would be at par in development with Asia or
Latin America.
A historian and lecturer at the Department of History, Archaeology and Political
Studies of Kenyatta University in Kenya, Harry Munendo, writes:
“Human capital from post slave trade was one of the most valued assets across
African societies. Slaves were captured to go work in plantations in Americas and
Europe at the height of the agricultural revolution. Now you can imagine the
difference this would have made to the economic development of the continent
if these strong and energetic labour force (sic) was allowed to develop their own
farmlands and societies.” 50.
• Slaves were kept in dehumanizing conditions.
The human resources of African continent were raped, kidnapped, dehumanized,
and sold to eager and willing buyers and were shipped in more dehumanizing and
appalling conditions on the slave ships to the New World where most of them
laboured and/or died in most horrifying condition as they laboured perpetually to
build the New World without due compensation.51
According to Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who worked to buy his own
freedom captured the horrifying scenes when he was taken on board a slave ship for
the first time.
“Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears now, that, if ten thousand
worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 101

exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country. When
I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a
multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their
countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate;
and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I feel motionless on the deck
and fainted.”52.
The slave trade, like a scourge, was visited upon Africa for four centuries before the eventual
colonization of the continent by Europeans. The nature and form of the trade was so violent,
vicious, and inhuman that it could only leave an “annihilator”, calamitous, cataclysmal impact
on the continent of Africa. So traumatic, an impact, that the current conditions – political,
religious, economic, and social to a large extent, can be attributed to the dehumanizing and
unlawful dissipation of the continent’s human and natural resources.53
• Slavery was no trade.
Walter Rodney, a respected Pan-Africanist, argues that the slave trade in Africa
was no trade at all. He further argues that the act was conducted through trickery,
warfare, banditry, and kidnapping.
The pan-Africanist posited that when one tries to measure the effect of European
slave trading on the African continent, it is very essential to realize that one is
measuring the effect of social violence rather than trade in any normal sense of the
word.
“The violence that characterized the trade, he believes also meant insecurity. The
opportunity presented by European slave dealers became the major, although
not the only stimuli for a great deal of social violence between different African
communities and within any given community. It took the form more of raiding
and kidnapping than regular warfare, and that fact increased the element of fear
and uncertainty”.54.
Depletion of African Population:
According to researchers, there would have been some more one hundred and
twelve million (112 million) Africans were slave trade never happened.55
In addition to denying Africa of the much-needed human capital, the export of
slaves also altered the continent’s population with the impact being felt in modern
102 The Conspiracy against Africa

societies. Existing data reveals that African population accounted for 13 per cent of
the global population in 1750 but dropped to 8 per cent in 1900; but returned to 13
per cent some 250 years after in 2014.56.
Researchers argue that there would have been 112 million more Africans if there
was no slave trade. According to Harry, “It is a complete set of arithmetic considering
that those who were taken as slaves were in their fertile age, between 16 and 35
years. This meant that those who were left behind, their parents, were at a point
where they couldn’t bear children. By being taken captive, this youthful population
depressed future population growth and a whole set of processes including marriage,
a phenomenon that continues to be experienced in modern Africa.”57.
In addition to the above, some European slave merchants in particular were
said to have infected their hosts with venereal diseases which affected reproduction.
According to report, “The Mpongwe people of Gabon for example suffered a huge
population loss following an outbreak of Syphilis and smallpox, introduced by
European slave traders. Most of those who died were at the prime of their reproductive
years.”58.
Contemporary Africa continue to suffer the most pronounced impact of slavery
through racism and skewed value judgements which created class, social status and
respect based on colour. Even up till 19th century when slavery had ended in other
parts of the world, slave traders found new frontiers in Africa. Consequently, since
activities of slave trade continues in Africa secretly, and the prejudice linked with
slaves who are treated as second class citizens, differences in colour pigmentation
become more pronounced and preferential treatment based on racial supremacy
persisted till modern society.
But Harry had this counsel for Africans:
“The history of slavery should be a mandatory course in all African schools so that
every African can appreciate from a point of information the journey of their
ancestors, the struggles and the impact slavery has had on them. It is through
this knowledge that they will learn to appreciate themselves and respect their
heritage.”59.
It is therefore germane and fundamental ask: In what important sense is Africa
Union (AU) doing to tackle modern day slavery?
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 103

It would be recalled that in November 2017, the world woke up to the harrowing
images of young Africans trapped in slave markets in Libya caged in deplorable
conditions and being sold in life auctions for as little as $400. No one would like
to elicit sad memories already confined in history books about the atrocities the
forefathers in Africa were subjected to in the wake of the decades-long slave trade.
“But while that incident sparked international condemnation and furore, it lifted
the veil on the numerous forms of slavery that continue target vulnerable Africans,
from slavery, child labour, sex, and human trafficking. It has also put into focus
the role of the African Union, the umbrella body of the African countries and
whether it is doing enough to end modern day servitude.”60.
Africa continues to be the centre-stage of this horrifying and degrading criminal
activity and those who are involved continue to ride on the vulnerability of the
people on the one hand and desperation of illicit financial gain.
“Data shows that there are an approximated 9.2 million Africans trapped in
slavery in a business estimated to generate up to $13 billion in profits each year.
Global estimates of child labour show that Africa has the largest number.”61.
2. The depopulating effects of slavery:
Historians and scholars have argued that slave trade indeed depopulated Africa with
its attendant destabilizing effect on the continent setting back a lot of progress already
made in most African societies.
The depopulation of the African continent through slavery destroyed almost
every social system that could have engendered the growth of any economy that
existed in Africa in those times. Slavery led to the exploitation of Africa and Africans.
Statistics show the slave trade destroyed the fabric of West African societies.
For example, kingdoms such as Congo, Senegal, Angola, CIO, Oho and Doomed,
experienced one of the most salient effects of mass depopulation of West Africa.62
“It is estimated that between 1 700 and 1 850 some eleven million people were
taken from West Africa”63 (Cement, 12).
The forced emigration of these individuals gives rise not only in a reduction in
population numbers, but it also crippled the ability of the nations to replenish them.
104 The Conspiracy against Africa

This was so as most captives were between the ages of fourteen to fifteen; the age
range of sexual maturity and potency.64
Following from above, the most affected communities were inflicted with lower
birth rates and decrease in the rate of natural growth. And as a result, population
decreased due to high mortality or death rate in a particular community due to slave
raids and maltreatment of captives.
Lastly, slave trade led to this depopulation which changed the demography of the
population to one characterized by mostly, women, children, and elderly men. The
gradual and continuous loss of strength, numbers, quality, or value of the population
also goaded or prodded the breakdown of the family structure in West Africa. Slave
raids destroy family ties, erode nuclear family structure, and after resulted or have
resulted to the development of single parent families. Once an individual is seen to
be viable, he is captured.65
Slave trade affected the male-female population ratio (since a greater number
of males and females were traded); distortions on gender roles (women had to take
on roles as the bread winners of the families) and these consequently resulted or
have resulted to disruption of the family, precipitating the ultimate disintegration of
affected African communities. In some West African states, this evil trade completely
removed the community life and community spirit. Love, brotherhood, happiness,
subsistent living, etc. that previously existed prior to the vicious trade were expunged.
What we now have are kleptomaniacs, extremely greedy and selfish individuals
thrown up into leadership positions exploiting common individual African men
and women. Individuals became very defensive and suspicious of their brothers and
neighbours. The bond that held African communities had been broken by slave trade
and colonialism.66
Slave trade also induced negative psychological effects on Africans. It created or
has created unfathomable level of fear and insecurity as well as mental instability. At
any point in time and location, people were afraid of the looming threat of being
captured in slave raids. This vicious trade also widens the gap between the rich and
the poor.
The main African slave traders (who colluded and connived with the European
slave masters), most times doubling as traditional rulers and state leaders become
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 105

richer at the expense of the lowly West Africans who suffer losses and becomes poorer.
Again, this vicious trade greatly undermines the ancient traditional African culture and
encouraged its replacement by the European culture. This has been made evident in
our dressing modes and attires, African cuisine have changed (is changing) gradually
as imported foods replaced or have replaced (is replacing) gradually African grown
foods, rich African music, dance, and songs such as the grits; singing about rich men
which originated in Sexagenarian, ceased in this new apprehensive environment.
Certain religious institutions were perverted and defamed to meet the needs of the
slaves. Also greatly limited and impeded was the development of African culture due
to the traditional transfer of historical stories from one generation to the next.67
Finally, slave trade affected Africa’s skilled craft men since most of them were
captured and shipped as slaves and those who replaced then in the risky and hostile
slave-trading environment produced inferior types of arts, and ancient arts and crafts
were lost. 68
Summarily, the following impact suffices: 69.
• Slavery led to the exploitation of Africa and Africans. Millions of Africans were
kidnapped, and African societies were ransacked, and entirely new societies
were built on the labour and lives of Africans.
• Slavery was carried out for the economic enrichment of Europe and its
descendants. It was the exploitation of African labour that led to the expansion
of industry across Great Britain, the United States, and other parts of the world.
• Indeed, slavery also created the circumstances, which consigned Africans
and African nations to some of the worst social and economic conditions
experienced by any people in the world today.
• As a matter of fact, the argument that population loss is highly relevant to the
question of socio-economic development is valid.
• Africa’s depopulation, therefore, through slavery can be said to have contributed
largely to the economic conditions in the continent today.
106 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Population growth, as Rodney posits, played a major role in European

development in providing labour, markets and the pressures which led to
further advance. Japanese population growth had similar positive effects.
• The same can be said of China in the 21st Century. It has never been depopulated
in the manner that Africa was, and neither has China been colonized. The
Chinese do not practice western forms of democracy, which is believed in
modern times to be the basis for economic growth. Yet China is today a growing
and booming economic power.
• Advancing the argument further, Rodney states that African economic activity
was affected both directly and indirectly by population loss. For instance, when
the inhabitants of a given area were reduced below a certain number in an
environment where tsetse fly was present, the remaining few had to abandon
the area.
• In effect enslavement was causing these people to lose their battle to tame and
harness nature – a battle which is at the basis of development.
As far back as the 17th Century, the capture and sale of slaves began having
severe consequences for Africa’s economy.
According to Rodney the Portuguese and Dutch discouraged slave trade in the
‘Gold Coast’ because they recognized that it would be incompatible with the trade
in gold.
“However, by the end of that Century, gold had been discovered in Brazil, and
the importance of gold supplies from Africa lessened. Within the total Atlantic
pattern, African slaves became more important than gold, and Brazilian gold was
offered for African captives at Dahomey and Accra.
The trading activity involving the exchange of gold for African slaves was
dehumanizing. It is a denigration of the African which reduces him or her to a
mere object of economic value rather than a human.”70.

C. Slavery and African self-esteem:

The conduct of the slave trade and the fact that the African was effectively turned
into a commodity to facilitate the trade, adversely impacted on the self-image of the
African, leading to the acquisition of low self-esteem despite the enormous amount
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 107

of talent, and natural resources that the continent and its people are endowed with.
Most Africans today, see themselves as inferior to Europeans.
As Equiano writes,
“I have often seen slaves, particularly those who were meagre, in different islands,
put into scales and weighed, and then sold from three pence to six pence or nine
pence a pound. My master, however, whose humanity was shocked at this mode,
used to sell such by the lumps. And at or after a sale, it was not uncommon to see
Negroes taken from their wives, wives taken from their husbands, and children
from their parents, and sent off to other islands, and wherever else their merciless
lords choose; and probably never more during life see each other!”71.
The Europeans humiliated African slaves to the point of reducing them to less
human status and these appalled Equiano so much that he says,
“Such a tendency has the slave trade to debauch men’s minds and harden them
to every feeling of humanity! For I will not suppose that the dealers in slaves are
born worse than other men-No; such is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that
it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it into gall.”72.
He continues,
“… when you make men slaves, you deprive them of half their virtue, you set them,
in your own conduct, an example of fraud, rapine, and cruelty, and compel them
to live with you in a state of war; and yet you complain that they are not honest
or faithful! You stupefy them with stripes and think it necessary to keep them in
a state of ignorance. And yet you assert that they are incapable of learning; that
their minds are such a barren soil or moor, that culture would be lost on them.”73.
The brutal nature of the slave trade has to a large extent contributed to the
racism and contempt from which Africans still suffer.
1. The use of religion to perpetuate slavery:
Religion was one of the tools used to compel Africans to accept the horrors and
brutality of slavery.
“Africans were made to believe that slavery was the will and plan of God for the
continent. Religion was used to make Africans succumb to the evils of slavery.
108 The Conspiracy against Africa

It is common knowledge that most of the European traders in slaves were religious
people and some were even clergymen. The profound irony, however, was that the
Christian enterprise in Africa in the Middle Ages had a close association with the
slave trade.
So pervasive was the influence of religion on the slave trade that, a prominent and
well-educated freed slave, Jacobus Elia Johannes Capitein (1717-1747), who
grew up and studied theology in Holland at the University of Leiden wrote and
published his doctoral thesis in defence of slavery. He wrote in Latin and argued
that slavery was consistent with Christianity.
The belief among many Africans who had converted to Christianity was that, like
the Biblical Joseph, they have been sold into captivity for the appointed time when
they would be used by God to redeem the continent from satanic bondage.”74.
Despite his seemingly genuine concern for Africa, Thompson, another African
from Gold Coast (present day Ghana) was reported to have defended the slave trade.
There certainly was a basic contradiction between converting Africans to
Christianity and buying them as slaves.
2. How Colonialism replaced slavery:
According to D. Dzorgbo and other sociologists and political economists,
“Europe viewed the slave trade as an economic rather than an abuse of the continent,
therefore, any modification of the system to further the economic interest of Europe
would be appropriate.
Therefore, the vestiges of the cruel practice in whatever form, was not going to take
off the hands of the slave masters from the continent. It would not be far-fetched
to postulate that any system that Europe would introduce in Africa, be it political
or religious would be to save this single objective – economics.”
Therefore, colonization was introduced. What is colonialism? “Colonialism is a
set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often
between the colonists and Indigenous peoples. It is characterised by domination of
the local people by the colonial power.”75.
The slave trade was followed by colonization. Dzorgbo argues further that,76.
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 109

• For the system of colonialism to succeed and achieve the one single economic
objective, the African must be classified. The African was therefore classified as
a savage who must be civilized.
• This led to the introduction of vocabulary that did not only classify the African
but also denigrated and reduced the African to an irrational being who needs
to be civilized to save him or her from himself or herself.
• The African was thus identified as ignorant, barbaric, pagan, heathen and
backward. African cultural practices were labelled and banned. The African
personality must be erased, the African’s self- concept must be wiped and the
European personality and concept of self-imposed to make the African a better
person. Wearing of western clothes and drinking tea was imposed on the African
and the African was forced to accept these cultures as symbols of civility. Even
African drumming and dancing was denounced as evil and pagan.
• The branding of the African way of life as evil did much harm to the psyche of
the African and gave the colonialists a stranglehold on the continent.
• The imposition of these stereotypes consequently drove the African to despair
culminating in a sense of helplessness and hopelessness which can be seen in
how much Africans look up to the West who they consider their masters and
superiors for assistance, even in the art of governance. That is notwithstanding
the fact that Africans have been governing themselves long before Europeans
set foot on the continent.
Dzorgbo argues further that, before colonialism, Europeans and African traders
regarded each other as self-sufficient. The issue of civilizing the colonized arose when
questions were raised about the moral basis of colonialism.
• Colonialism was thus conceived as a civilizing mission through which the
colonized who had been self-sufficient in their social organization and ruling
themselves since time immemorial according to their cultural traditions, were
now defined as incapable of governing themselves, and must be “civilized” in
the image of Europeans to do so.
• Historical facts about the abolishing of the slave trade are skewed in favour of
Europe. The story is told in such a way as to portray Europe in good light. This
110 The Conspiracy against Africa

also makes Europe Africa’s benefactor and therefore, Africa is expected to show
gratitude to Europe. But the reality is otherwise.
• While most European historians report that Europeans saw the evil in slave
trading and decided to end it, on the other hand the abolition of the slave trade
was influenced by economic factors. And indeed, some slaves had to pay with
dear life in the struggle to end the trade. They fought for freedom!
In Dzorgbo’s view,
“… Increased nationalism, industrial competition, the need for new markets, for
raw materials and for opportunities of profitable investment… led many nations
of Europe to a new interest in colonial expansion in the last decades of the 19th
Century.
And as a result of the industrial revolution, Europe, particularly Great Britain
needed a market for the glut of products, and also needed raw materials.
But these needs could not be met in the context of the slave trade that was disrupting
societies. Africans, needed to be left in peace on the continent to provide market
and supply critical raw materials for European industries.
Even though European powers, particularly the British, attribute abolishing of
the slave trade to humanitarian reasons or the changing moral conscience, the
main motivational reason was economic.
Colonialism was to continue where the slave trade ended. To further the economic
interest of Europe. Therefore, the form of colonialism introduced on the continent
was instructive.”77.
C. Ake, one of Africa’s foremost Political Scientists, said that colonialism in
Africa was markedly different from the colonial experience of the Americas, Europe,
and Asia. To begin with, it was unusually statist.
The colonial state redistributed land and determined who should produce what
and how. It attended to the supply of labour, sometimes resorting to forced labour;
it churned out administrative instruments and legislated taxes to induce the
breakup of traditional social relations of production and the atomization of society.
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 111

For the colonial order to survive and be able to carry out its functions, it needed to
be powerful, in the face of the resentment and hostility of the colonized. And the
power of the colonial state was not only absolute, but arbitrary.
For instance, it was the colonial state, the former slave traders who decided which
crop should be cultivated. In the case of the Gold Coast, they decided that cocoa
should be introduced. They did the same with the introduction of coffee in Eastern
Africa. And these crops were specifically to be exported to Europe to feed the growing
industry in that part.
The promotion of these crops was done at the expense of food crops that were
traditionally cultivated by Africans. As a result, the agriculture of the continent
suffered and plummeted.
By and large, the slave trade culminated in colonialism, which eventually fashioned
out the way the continent must go.
The World Bank, the IMF and their sister organizations serve the interests of the
former slave traders. In consequence therefore, the fate of the continent is in the
hands of these Bretton Woods institutions. The continent can develop and grow in
as much as these institutions decide.
The policies of almost the whole of Africa are based on the concepts of development
that have been designed by these organizations. They have a stranglehold on the
continent, because obviously, as a result of the slave trade, the continent has been
brought to her knees.
Sadly, many more Africans, even today, believe that they are inferior to Europeans
and that they can only develop, if and when the Europeans assist them. Even
then, the kind of development Africans pursue is largely based on concepts that
Europeans have fashioned out.”78

Conclusion
It is possible though that one could find some positive impacts of the slave trade
on Africa today, but these are negligible, compared to the depth and severity of the
negative impacts on the continent. The negative impacts far outweigh any gains that
the continent can be said to have made from the cruel and inhuman venture.
112 The Conspiracy against Africa

More graphically, the impacts can be seen in the deepening poverty, economic
stagnation, and underdevelopment that the continent is grappling with, despite
claims by the West that the continent is doing well economically.
“Firstly, the slave trade provided employment to those Africans involved in the
capture and trading of slaves thus contributing to improvements in persons’
standard of living. Furthermore, the crops brought across the Atlantic created
a boost in agriculture in some states thus helping to sustain population growth
and create a higher class of people in society. The social effects of the slave
trade on West Africa were quite severe. While the slave trade wracked some
West African economies from its start, it was a significant source of financial
gain for others. Firstly, the slave trade caused economic tragedy in that it
induced the export of West Africans most valuable raw material; its human
labour in an unsustainable fashion.”79.
As a result of slave trade, many West African nations acquired considerable
wealth:
“… The Shanty Kingdom which became a major exporter of slave grew and
developed as due to the profits derived from the trade. Furthermore, the slave
trade stimulated the growth and development of States such as Doomed, another
large-scale trader. These nations had a sure market for their export crop and
while their foreign exchange increased, they were able to market themselves to the
outside world. Lastly, the local Africans also gained revenue from the slave trade.
African rulers captured slaves, sold them to slave specialists, specialists African and
Afro-European slaves conveyed the slaves to the coasts where European activity
was centred along their trading forts. Revenue also came from rent and taxes the
Europeans were made to pay for their occupation of land space and buildings
along the West African coast.”80.
The slave trade also affected African politics. The political Structure of most
West African states was made up of various tribes which comprised kingdoms led by
kings, but the great demand for slaves changed the motive of those who engaged in
tribal wars.
However, slave trade effectively and ultimately prevented successive African
generations from being able to sufficiently meet their own needs and develop
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 113

(West) Africa following the forceful and unsolicited removal of millions of strong,
productive youthful Africans. This led to decline in labour force in West Africa which
triggered the decline in agriculture. It should be understood that prior to the slave
trade, lands were farmed for both subsistence and commercial use, but during slave
trade, the farms were abandoned, and young men and women were forced to flee for
safety. Those who were left or rather escaped were fear-stricken to remain in hostile
environment infested by slave rammers to avoid being victims of raids. 81
Kidnapping took place in places along danger zones like the Senegal River where
large-scale farming was practiced. Nomads who had challenges of having enough
fertile lands were further crippled with droughts, starvation, malnutrition, and a
host of other problems. Consequently, food shortages occurred but food had to be
purchased. This vicious trade impacted negatively on the structure of trade in (West)
Africa,” instead of trading gold, ivory bronzer, kola nuts and slaves for beds, cloth,
ceramics crafts and weapons as in earlier days, Africans centred the read around
trading slaves for guns, gun powder, iron textiles and alcohol.”82
One of the greatest beneficiaries of the slave trade were the kings and slave
kidnappers. The uneven distribution of wealth in that period was clearly defined
and the gap between the rich and the poor greatly widened. Furthermore, African
slave merchants import the same goods Africans made which were in high demand
markets for local craft men such as clothes, iron, pots, and hoes.
“… The trade of slaves and the purchase of inferior goods undermined local
industries like the salt producing industry, the mining industry and metal works.
During that period West Africans no longer wanted to take part in internal trade or
intra- African trade and external trade with the Europeans grew. One devastating
effect of the slave trade was that the West Africans practiced monoculture where
they relied almost exclusively upon slaves as a main crop.”83.
Moreover, any decline in the product was accompanied by a decline in a nation’s
economy. For example, when war broke out in Oho, the trade was reduced, and the
state’s income was dramatically reduced. Furthermore, in the 18th century when the
Europeans attempted to end the human trafficking, this created grave strains on the
economies of the chief states involved in the trade – Shanty, Doomed, Benign, Guiana,
Ghana coast and Congo. The economic potential of many African communities was
114 The Conspiracy against Africa

greatly weakened, throwing them off the path of development. Africa economies
were greatly hampered by constant wars, raids, and frequent kidnappings. This also
created a sense of insecurity in some communities which discouraged incentive and
economic enterprise which would have stimulated development. 84
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 115

References
1. Dr Howard Nicholas, “This is Exactly Why the West Wants Africa to Remain
Poor!” That African Explorer, 15 June 2021. Also see the YouTube on the
subject matter.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. “What is Government Procurement?” See https:// www.gmpgov.com
5. “Who Aids Whom? $192 Billion Stolen from Africa Annually” AfricanGlobe.
Net See also https://www.africanglobe.net.
6. Illicit Financial Flow (IFFs) – World Bank. See www.worldbank.org.
7. Ibid
8. “How Africa Loses US $50 Billion to Illicit Financial Flow”, see www.acbf-
pact.org
9. Karen McVeigh, “World is plundering Africa’s wealth of ‘billions of dollars a
year’”, see https://www.theguardian.com.
10. “The World is Robbing Africa of ‘Billions of Dollars a Year’, The Nairobi Law
Monthly, 2 June 2017. See also Honest Accounts of 2017.
11. Illicit Financial Flow (IFFs) – World Bank, op. cit.
12. Tom Jones, an economist from the Jubilee Debt Campaign was quoted in
Karem McVeigh, op. cit.
13. Karem McVeigh, ibid.
14. Ibid
15. Informed Western commentators have argued Africa id not poor; we’re stealing
its resources. See www.aljezeera.com.
16. Karem McVeigh, op.cit.
17. “Chatham House: $582 billion stolen from Nigeria since independence” see
www.thecable.ng See also “African Kleptocrats are finding it tougher to stash
cash in the West”, www.economist.com
116 The Conspiracy against Africa

18. Bernard Adaba, a policy analyst with ISODEC (Integrated Social Development
Centre) in Ghana was quoted in Karem McVeigh, op. cit.
19. Forstater was quoted in 1.2 billion opportunities – The Economist Special
Report on Africa, hpps://broadreachcorporation.com
20. “The World is Robbing Africa of ‘Billions of Dollars a Year’”, op. cit.
21. Dr Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist at the London School of
Economics was quoted in Karem McVeigh, op. cit.
22. Karem McVeigh, ibid
23. Ibid
24. African History and Facts – The Definitive Guide, Think Africa See http://
thinkafrica.net. See also https://en.wikipedia.org on History of Africa.
25. Liley Kuo, “Five thousand (5000) years ago, the Sahara Desert was home to
people, animals …” See Quartz, qz.com/Africa.
26. A Brief History of Africa –Local Histories. See https://localhistories.org.
27. Elena Watson, “The Influence of the Nile”, Sept. 20, 2018. See “The Influence
of the Nile (Archaeology of Ancient of Ancient Egypt and Nubia). See https://
anthropology.msu.org.
28. “How the Arabs gained control of Egypt” See https://www.universiteitleiden.
nl April 3, 2020, See also Muslim conquest of Egypt – Wikipedia https://
en.wikipedia.org
29. NORTH – The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee. See
https://www.ipacc.org.za/north-africa. See also Mark Cartwright, “The spread
of Islam in Ancient Africa – World History Encyclopaedia, https://www.
worldhistory.org (10 May 2019).
30. In her article titled “12 Facts You Need to Know about Ife Arts”, Yemisi Shyllon
of the Museum of Art, Pan-Atlantic University” made these comments.
31. “The Mali Empire”, see https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopaedia/
mali.
32. Songhai, Africa Empire, 15-16th Century. See sahistory.org.za See also Toyin
O. Falola, “History, Facts and Fall” https://www.britannica.com
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 117

33. Kanem Bornu in universalium.en-academic.com

34. “A Brief History of Africa”, www.localhistories.org
35. “A Brief History of Ethiopia”, ibid. See also Ethiopia in the Middle Ages -
Wikipedia
36. Portuguese Maritime Exploration – Wikipedia See https://en.wikipedia.org.
37. 10 African Nations Involved in the Trade”, Think Africa, https://thinkafrica.
net. See also “History of African Slave Trade” www.thevintagenews.com
38. “A Brief History of Africa” see https://local histories.org. See also www.
thevintagenews.com.
39. Ibid
40. Ibid
41. Portuguese Angola – Wikipedia See https://en.wikipedia.org.
42. See Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 – Wikipedia.
43. See History of Namibia – Wikipedia. See also German Protectorate of Africa
1884-1890, https://afrolegend.com
44. Imperialism in the 20th Century. See https://www.studymode.com.
45. Africa in the 21st Century – History Guide. See https://historyguide.org.
46. Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, “How the Slave Trade Stifled Africa’s Economy” Ghana
Business News Dec. 6, 2008. Last updated on Aug. 19, 2016. See https://www.
ghanabusinessnews.com.
47. Ibid
48. Bob Koigi quoted in “The Impact of Slavery on Modern Africa”, See https://
www.fairplanet.org.
49. Nathan Nunn a Frederic E. Abbe, “The Long Economic and Political Shadow
of History”, Africa and Asia vol. II
50. Harry Munendo, a historian and lecturer at the Department of History,
Archaeology and Political Science of Kenyatta University in Kenya quoted in
“The Impact of Slavery in Modern Africa”, op. cit.
118 The Conspiracy against Africa

51. Slavery in Africa – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org See also Dr

Alexander Falconbridge, “Eyewitness Account: The Kidnapping of Africans
for Slaves” www.abhmuseum.org
52. Olaudah Equiano quoted in https://brainly.com.
53. Africa and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk
54. How the Slave Trade Stifled Africa’s Economy, op. cit.
55. Africa and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk
56. Bob Koigi quoted in “The Impact of Slavery on Modern Africa”, See https://
www.fairplanet.org.
57. ibid
58. Mpongwe people – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
59. Bob Koigi quoted in “The Impact of Slavery on Modern Africa”, See https://
www.fairplanet.org.
60. Human Rights Watch Report 2016 See https://the conversation.com
61. Africa (Global Slavery Index) https://www.globalslaveryindex.org
62. The slave trade’s effect on African societies – BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk
63. The Effect of the Slave Trade on West Africa – https://www.studymode.com
64. Forced Migration: 6 Causes and examples – https://www.concernusa.org.
65. Demography of Slavery – https://wncyclopedia.com
66. Slave gender ratio on select routes 1636-1867 (Statistics) – https://www.
statista.com
67. 11 Traditional African Clothing that Identifies African Tribes at a Glance –
https://africanvibes.com.
68. What effects did the slave trade have on Africa? – https://www.enotes.com
69. Bob Koigi quoted in “The Impact of Slavery on Modern Africa”, See https://
www.fairplanet.org.
70. 2.1 Gold discovered (Brazil: Five Centuries of Change) – https://library.
brown.com
 Africa And The Challenge Of Civilization 119

71. Olaudah Equiano quoted in “How the Slave Trade Stifled Africa’s Economy”,
op. cit.
72. Olaudah Equiano quoted in in https://en.wikipedia.org.
73. Ibid
74. Slavery in Africa – Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org)
75. D. Dzorgbo quoted in “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Its Role in the European
Economy”, https://eduzaurus.com
76. Robert Longley, “What is Colonialism? Definition and Examples” –https://
www.thought.com. See also Colonialism facts and information – https://www.
nationalgeographic.com.
77. Nationalism and Industrial Revolution Essay – https://essays-service.com
78. C. Ake quoted in British Colonial State Example – https://graduateway.com.
79. Angela Thompsell, “A History of African Traders of Enslaved People – https://
thoughtco.com
80. The Effect of the Slave Trade on West Africa – https://newyorkessays.com
81. Ibid
82. Conflict in the Senegal River Valley – https://www.culturalsurvival.org
83. China in Africa: The Role of Trade, Investments, and Loans Amidst Shifting
Geopolitical Ambitions
84. Geeta Nargund, “Declining birth rate in Developed Countries: A radical policy
re-think (https://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov)
 Chapter 2

THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

“Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.”

- Mortimer Adler

A. Background
The “Scramble for Africa”, otherwise called the “Partition of Africa”, or the
“Conquest of Africa”, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonization of
most of Africa by seven Western European powers during a brief period known as
New Imperialism (between 1881 and 1914). In 1870, 10 per cent of Africa were
under formal European control but later increased to almost 90 per cent by 1914,
with only Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia remaining independent, though Ethiopia
would later be invaded and occupied by Italy from 1936 to 1941.1
In other words, the ‘Scramble for Africa’ is the term used by historians to refer
to the expansion of European empires into Africa. It is referred to as a ‘scramble’
due to the way in which the European nations raced to capture territory to expand
their empires. This is considered to have occurred from approximately 1870 until
the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During these years, almost all of Africa came
under the control of the major European powers, including Britain, France, Germany,
Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.2
The 1884 Berlin Conference, for better or for worse, is usually regarded as the
official designation and legitimization of European colonization and trade in Africa.
This was considered necessary to avert possible political rivalries among European
nations precipitating into possible hostilities in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Hence Africa was partitioned between European nations without resort to war.
However, a transition from “informal imperialism” – military influence and economic
dominance – to direct rule was set up in the later years of the 19th century.
 The Scramble for Africa 121

There are several main causes to the Scramble for Africa, including: European
competition, ethnocentrism, the spread of Christianity and new innovations.

B. Causes for the Scramble

The first main cause of the Scramble for Africa was that European nations were
seeking large sections of territory to increase their access to resources and people. In
the century or so before the start of the Age of Imperialism, Europe underwent a major
transformation in the form of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution
saw the main European nations (especially Britain) transform their economies from
being based on agriculture to the factory system. This resulted in the construction of
many factories throughout the cities in Europe. Due to the rise of the factory system,
the European nations were in search of territory to gain access to more resources,
which could be used to develop products in their resources. As such, this led to the
‘scramble’ in Africa as the European nations competed for different regions of the
African continent.3
Another cause of the Scramble for Africa was the view of racial superiority that
Europeans expressed throughout the 19th century. More specifically, as Europeans
travelled the globe and colonized different regions, they met all sorts of different
Indigenous people. European beliefs about their own supposed racial superiority
helped inform their interactions with the people they encountered, including native
Africans. The term that best relates to this concept is ‘ethnocentrism’, which is the
concept of judging other cultures based upon the views of your own.
Further to this idea is the concept of ‘euro-centrism’. Euro-centrism is like
ethnocentrism but focuses specifically on Europeans and the views of superiority
expressed in relation to the timeframe of imperialism. These Eurocentric beliefs were
justified by European governments due to a concept called Social Darwinism. In
short, Social Darwinism is the idea that some ethnic groups or races are superior to
others and therefore more ‘fit’ to rule over those that are less ‘fit’.
Charles Darwin was the renowned British scientist who is credited with
developing the theory of evolution in his famous book ‘Origin of Species’. While
Darwin was referring to biological studies of species, others used his ideas and applied
them to human beings. Therefore, supporters of Social Darwinism attempted to use
122 The Conspiracy against Africa

the ideas of Charles Darwin to scientifically justify or prove ethnocentric beliefs.

Social Darwinism was particularly popular in the early 1870s, when Europeans were
conducting their massive imperialistic campaigns as part of the Age of Imperialism.
The beliefs of ethnocentrism and Social Darwinism can be seen in a famous
poem by Rudyard Kipling called ‘The White Man’s Burden’. In the poem, Kipling
calls on Europe to ‘send forth the best ye breed’ to ‘take up the white man’s burden’.
In general, Kipling is promoting the idea that people of European descent are
biologically more superior to other people from around the world, and the ‘burden’
of the white man is to ‘fix’ the uncivilized indigenous peoples. As a result, the beliefs
of ethnocentrism and euro-centrism led to the events of the Scramble for Africa in
1870 because the views of superiority on the part of the Europeans empowered them
to dominate the people they encountered.​4
A third cause for the events of the Scramble for Africa was the need for the
European nations to promote their own religious values around the world. Like
the belief in their own racial superiority, Europeans also promoted Christianity as
superior to the religious beliefs of the indigenous peoples that they encountered,
including those in Africa. In fact, Christian missionaries often accompanied early
explorers to the African interior, and the spread of Christianity was a key feature
of European imperialism in Africa. For the European nations, Christianity was an
essential aspect of using their culture to dominate and control the African societies
that they encountered during the Scramble for Africa. As well, European missionaries
felt it was their duty to help spread Christian beliefs to new people.​5
A fourth cause of the Scramble for Africa is the modern technologies and
innovations that helped the European nations to overpower the different African
societies. As stated above, the major European powers had industrialized throughout
the 19th century with the events of the Industrial Revolution. This period of
industrialization led to the development of several significant inventions and
advancements. For example, the steam engine was an important invention that led
to other advancements such as the steamboat, steam train and railroad construction.
These allowed the European powers the ability to trek further and faster into the
African interior and were major aspects of the Scramble for Africa. For instance,
as the European powers raced each other to capture territory in Africa, the new
 The Scramble for Africa 123

advances in transportation caused them to scramble to develop railroad networks

across the vast continent.
However, likely the most significant European advantage came in the form of
weaponry. For example, the development of the Maxim gun played a vitally important
role in Europe’s success in Africa. In short, the Maxim gun was a machine gun that
was invented by Hiram Maxim and could fire up to 600 rounds per minute. In
fact, it was the first recoil-operated machine gun in history and is often considered
to be one of the main factors of European dominance in the Scramble for Africa
and the Age of Imperialism. In fact, British poet Hilaire Belloc commented on the
importance of the Maxim gun and the military advantage it gave the British in Africa
when he wrote: “Whatever happens, we have got/ The Maxim gun, and they have
not”. (The Modern Traveller, 1898) Therefore, European inventions from the 19th
century helped the major European powers more easily travel through the African
territory and overpower African resistance.​6
The fifth and final cause of the Scramble for Africa was the competitive nature
and rivalries that existed between the major European nations in the late 19th century
and early 20th century. Europe has a long history of wars and conflicts between its
major nations, and this was still true in the 19th century. In fact, nationalism became
a central motivating factor among the European nations in the 19th century and
pushed them to expand their empires of control across the world. Furthermore,
the European nations experienced a period of prolonged rivalry through the Age of
Exploration, which occurred from the 15th century until the 17th century. By the
time of the Scramble for Africa, these nations were still politically and economically
competitive with each other, as they each raced to capture as much territory as they
could. This sense of rivalry was so intense that it eventually led to the outbreak
of World War I in 1914. As such, historians considered the rivalries that existed
between the European nations in the 19th century as a major factor in the Scramble
for Africa. 7
124 The Conspiracy against Africa

C. Partitioning Africa
1. The British Empire in Africa
The British Empire began to expand into Africa in 1880 and by 1913 the empire had
control over 458 million people and 25% of the world’s land. However, by 1981 the
British Empire had ended after it could no longer afford the maintenance of such a
big Empire.8
The British Empire ruled over many countries in Africa which included what are
now Kenya, Sudan, Lesotho, Botswana, Northern Somalia, Egypt, Eastern Ghana,
Gambia, Niger, and Benin. These were all places Britain wanted to dominate for
access to goods such as rubber, salt, gold, ivory, and other natural products. As in the
Indian Subcontinent, the British used local African tribal leaders to work for them
from afar. One of the last British colonies to gain its independence was Zimbabwe
in 1980.9
Early Efforts for British Colonies in Africa: The British Empire was the largest
empire in human history. A substantial part of this territory consisted of British
colonies in Africa; Britain controlled much of the continent of Africa for nearly a
century before its empire collapsed in the middle of the 1900s.10
In the early modern period, British traders brought products such as weapons to
Africa in exchange for raw materials and enslaved persons. These traders often were
protected by the government through the creation of monopolies, which meant their
trading company had exclusive rights to conduct commerce with a certain region or
for a certain product. In 1672, for example, the Royal African Company was given a
monopoly on the African slave trade. Many of these enslaved Africans were brought
to the New World to labour in British sugar colonies in the Caribbean or in the
Thirteen Colonies.11
In 1748, perhaps, one of the earliest examples of British colonialism in Africa a
London company occupied Bunce Island to take greater control of the slave trade.
After the Revolutionary War, the British Crown funded an expedition of African
American Loyalists, who were blamed for crimes in London, to settle the coast of
Sierra Leone in West Africa. Many of these settlers died. 12
 The Scramble for Africa 125

However, British colonialism was not just motivated by commerce and racism.
British scholars, advocating for liberalism, influenced the flavour of the British
Empire. This meant that while British traders may have purchased and sold enslaved
persons, the British Empire was later at the forefront of the campaign against the
slave trade, outlawing it in 1807. The earliest British colonies in Africa prove the
complicated and multidimensional nature of the British Empire.13
British Empire in Africa in the 19th Century: As mentioned previously, the British
Empire funded the establishment of colonies of freed African Americans on the
coast of Sierra Leone. This grew in population, becoming a key British colony in
West Africa. In the early 1800s, Britain took control of the European trade ports
on the Gold Coast, then expanded inwards. In the middle of the century, Britain
also intervened in monarchical politics in Nigeria to take control of the territory for
herself.14
During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain took control of the Cape Colony. The
colony, originally founded by the Dutch, occupied a key strategic position along the
southern point of Africa. Many Dutch settlers, known as the Boers, migrated from
the coast inland. Many would travel farther inland to escape British rule, establishing
republics. A hundred years later, Britain would seize control of these republics in the
Boer Wars.15
2. The French Empire in Africa
The French presence in Africa dates to the 17th century, but the main period of
colonial expansion came in the 19th century with the invasion of Ottoman Algiers
in 1830, conquests in West and Equatorial Africa during the so-called scramble for
Africa and the establishment of protectorates in Tunisia and Morocco in the decades
before the First World War. To these were added parts of German Togo and Cameroon,
assigned to France as League of Nations mandates after the war. By 1930, French
colonial Africa encompassed the vast confederations of French West Africa (AOF, f.
1895) and French Equatorial Africa (AEF, f. 1905), the western Maghreb, the Indian
Ocean islands of Madagascar, Reunion, and the Comoros, and Djibouti in the Horn
of Africa. Within this African empire, territories in sub-Saharan Africa were treated
primarily as colonies of exploitation, while a settler colonial model guided colonization
efforts in the Maghreb, although only Algeria drew many European immigrants.
126 The Conspiracy against Africa

Throughout Africa, French rule was characterized by sharp contradictions between a

rhetorical commitment to the “civilization” of indigenous people through cultural,
political, and economic reform, and the harsh realities of violent conquest, economic
exploitation, legal inequality, and sociocultural disruption. At the same time, French
domination was never as complete as the solid blue swathes on maps of “Greater
France” would suggest. As in all empires, colonized people throughout French Africa
developed strategies to resist or evade French authority, subvert, or co-opt the so-
called civilizing mission, and cope with the upheavals of occupation. After the First
World War, new and more organized forms of contestation emerged, as Western-
educated reformers, nationalists, and trade unions pressed by a variety of means for
a more equitable distribution of political and administrative power. Frustrated in
the interwar period, these demands for change spurred the process of decolonization
after the Second World War. Efforts by French authorities and some African leaders
to replace imperial rule with a federal organization failed, and following a 1958
constitutional referendum, almost all French territories in sub-Saharan Africa claimed
their independence. In North Africa, Tunisian and Moroccan nationalists were able
to force the French to negotiate independence in the 1950s, but decolonization in
Algeria, with its million European settlers, came only after a protracted and brutal
war (1954–1962) that left deep scars in both postcolonial states. Although formal
French rule in Africa had ended by 1962, the ties it forged continue to shape relations
between France and its former colonial territories throughout the continent.16
3. The Belgian Empire in Africa
The Belgian Empire known as the Belgian colonial empire, consisted of overseas
colonies and protectorates controlled by Belgium. During its colonisation era,
Belgium controlled several colonies and concessions during its history, the Belgian
Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960, and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda
and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concession in China and was a
co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. There was a colony
in Guatemala between 1843 and 1854.17
Roughly 98% of Belgium’s overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times
larger than Belgium itself ) – known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded
in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State, which was
 The Scramble for Africa 127

the personal property of Belgium’s king, Leopold II. Under the rule of the Congo
Free State, which began in 1885, the Congolese people were subjected to widespread
atrocities. Killings, famines, and diseases caused the deaths of as many as 10 million
people. The local people were forced to trade ivory, rubber, and minerals. 18 Following
World War I, Germany lost all its colonies. Part of the colonies of German East
Africa was given to mandate to Belgium in League of Nations Mandate, forming the
Ruanda-Urundi who were granted independence in 1962. 19
4. The German Empire in Africa
The German colonial empire was the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories
of Imperial Germany. Unified in the early 1870s, the chancellor of this period was
Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states
had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a
colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the left-
over un-colonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at
the time, after the British and French. The German Colonial Empire encompassed
parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day Burundi, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad,
Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, as well as north-eastern New Guinea, Samoa, and numerous
Micronesian islands. Including mainland Germany, the empire had a total land area
of 3,503,352 square kilometres and population of 80,125,993 people.20
Germany lost control of its colonial empire when the First World War began in
1914, with all its colonies being invaded by Allied forces during the first weeks of
the war. However, several colonial military forces held out longer. German troops in
Southwest Africa and Cameron surrendered in 1915 and 1916, respectively, while
forces under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck fought a guerrilla campaign in East Africa
which tied down allied troops until 1918, only surrendering after the end of the
war.21
Germany’s colonial empire was officially dissolved with the Treaty of Versailles
after Germany’s defeat in the war and where each colony became a League of Nations
mandate under the supervision (but not ownership) of one of the victorious powers.
The German colonial empire ceased to exist in 1919.22 Plans to regain their lost
128 The Conspiracy against Africa

colonial possessions persisted through the Second World War, with many at the time
suspecting that this was a goal of the Third Reich.23
5. The Italian Empire in Africa
The Italian Empire between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and
comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions, and dependencies of the Kingdom
of Italy. In Africa, the colonial empire included the territories of present-day Eritrea,
Somalia, Libya, and Ethiopia; outside Africa, Italy possessed the Dodecanese Islands
(following the Italy-Turkish War), Albania (a protectorate from 1917 to 1920 and
from 1939 to 1943, when it was invaded and forced into a personal union with
Italy), and some concessions in China, including in Tianjin.24
The Fascist government that came to power with Dictator Benito Mussolini
after 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims
of Italian irredentists. Systematic “demographic colonization” was encouraged by the
government, 25 and by 1939, Italian settlers numbered 120,0026-150,00027 in Italian
Libya and 165,00028 in Italian East Africa.
During World War II, Italy allied with Germany in 1940 and occupied British
Somaliland, western Egypt, Yugoslavia, Tunisia, parts of south-western France
and Greece; however, it then lost those conquests and its African colonies to the
invading allied forces by 1943. In 1947, Italy officially relinquished claims on its
former colonies. Only the territory of Somalia was eventually turned into a UN trust
territory under Italian administration until 1960. Following the independence of
Somalia in 1960, Italy’s 78-year period of imperialism concluded.29
Former colonies, protectorates and occupied areas include: Italian Eritrea
(1882–1947), Italian Somalia (1889–1947), Trust Territory of Somaliland (1950–
1960), Libya (1911–1947), Italian Tripolitania & Cyrenaica (1911–1934), Italian
Libya (1934–1943), Italian East Africa (1936–1941), Italian Ethiopia (1936-1941),
Italian concessions in China, Italian concession of Tientsin (1901–1943), Italian
Albania (1917-1920, 1939-1943), Italian Islands of the Aegean (1912–1947),
Italian occupation of France (1940–1943), Independent State of Croatia (1941–
1945), Italian occupation of Montenegro (1941–1943), Governorate of Dalmatia
(1941–1943)Hellenic State (1941–1943), Province of Ljubljana (1941–1945) and
Tunisia (1942-1943)30
 The Scramble for Africa 129

6. The Portuguese Empire in Africa

The Portuguese Empire was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the
later overseas territories governed by Portugal. It was one of the longest-lived empires
in European history, lasting almost six centuries from the conquest of Ceuta in North
Africa, in 1415, to the transfer of sovereignty over Macau to China in 1999. The
empire began in the 15th century, and from the early 16th century it stretched across
the globe, with bases in North and South America, Africa, and various regions of
Asia and Oceania.31
The Portuguese Empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery, and
the power and influence of the Kingdom of Portugal would eventually expand across
the globe. In the wake of the Reconquista, Portuguese sailors began exploring the
coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418–19, using recent developments
in navigation, cartography, and maritime technology such as the caravel, with the aim
of finding a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice-trade. In 1488 Bartolommeo
Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India. In
1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown’s secret design, Pedro Álvaro’s
Cabral reached what would be Brazil.32
Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts
and islands of East Asia, setting up forts and trading posts (factories) as they went.
By 1571 a string of naval outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts
of Africa, the Middle East, India, and South Asia. This commercial network and
the colonial trade had a substantial positive impact on Portuguese economic growth
(1500–1800) when it accounted for about a fifth of Portugal’s per-capita income.33
When King Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal) seized the Portuguese
crown in 1580 there began a 60-year union between Spain and Portugal known
to subsequent historiography as the Iberian Union. The realms continued to have
separate administrations. As the King of Spain was also King of Portugal, Portuguese
colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain:
The Dutch Republic, England, and France. With its smaller population, Portugal
found itself unable to effectively defend its overstretched network of trading posts,
and the empire began a long and gradual decline. Eventually, Brazil became the most
valuable colony of the second era of empire (1663–1825), until, as part of the wave
130 The Conspiracy against Africa

of independence movements that swept the Americas during the early 19th century,
it broke away in 1822.34.
The third era of empire covers the final stage of Portuguese colonialism after
the independence of Brazil in the 1820s. By then, the colonial possessions had been
reduced to forts and plantations along the African coastline (expanded inland during
the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century), Portuguese Timor, and enclaves
in India (Portuguese India) and China (Portuguese Macau). The 1890 British
Ultimatum led to the contraction of Portuguese ambitions in Africa.
Under Antonio Salazar (in office 1932–1968), the Estado Novo dictatorship
made some ill-fated attempts to cling on to its last remaining colonies. Under the
ideology of pluricontinentalism, the regime renamed its colonies “overseas provinces”
while retaining the system of forced labour, from which only a small indigenous
élite was normally exempt. In December 1961 India annexed Goa, Daman and
Diu and Dahomey annexed Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá. The Portuguese
Colonial War in Africa lasted from 1961 until the final overthrow of the Estado
Novo regime in 1974. The Carnation Revolution of April 1974 in Lisbon led to the
hasty decolonization of Portuguese Africa and to the 1975 annexation of Portuguese
Timor by Indonesia. Decolonization prompted the exodus of all the Portuguese
colonial settlers and of many mixed-race people from the colonies. Portugal returned
Macau to China in 1999. The only overseas possessions to remain under Portuguese
rule, the Azores and Madeira, both had overwhelmingly Portuguese populations, and
Lisbon subsequently changed their constitutional status from “overseas provinces” to
“autonomous regions”.35
The Portuguese soldiers captured Ceuta in 1415. Throughout the 15th century,
Portuguese ships organized by Henry the Navigator explored the West coast of Africa,
mapping the territory and pursuing trade, particularly in gold and slaves. By 1487,
Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama
reached India and set up the first Portuguese outposts there. The discovery of the sea
route around Africa to India and the rest of Asia opened enormous opportunities to
trade for Portugal, and Portugal moved aggressively to establish both trade outposts
and fortified bases to control this trade.
 The Scramble for Africa 131

In East Africa, small Islamic states along the coast of Mozambique, Kilwa, Brava
and Mombasa were destroyed or became subjects or allies of Portugal. Pedro de
Covilha had reached Abyssinia as early as 1490. In the Indian Ocean and Arabian
Sea, one of Pedro Álvares Cabral’s ships discovered Madagascar, which was partly
explored by Trista da Cunha (1507); Mauritius was discovered in 1507, Socotra
occupied in 1506, and in the same year D. Lourenço d’Almeida visited Ceylon.
The Portuguese empire in the East was guaranteed by the Treaty of Tordesillas,
and Portugal set up trading ports at far-flung locations like Goa, Malacca, the Maluku
Islands, Macau, and Nagasaki. Guarding its trade jealously from both European
and Asian competitors, Portugal dominated not only the trade between Asia and
Europe, but also much of the trade among different regions of Asia, such as India,
Indonesia, China, and Japan. Jesuit missionaries followed the Portuguese to spread
Roman Catholic Christianity to Asia with mixed success.
Brazil was discovered in 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral. Although initially less
important, Brazil would become the most important colony of the empire, from
which Portugal gathered resources such as gold, precious stones, sugar cane, coffee,
and other cash crops.36

Competition and Decline

From 1580 to 1640, the throne of Portugal was held by the Habsburg kings of Spain.
This period marked a phase of decline for the Portuguese Empire. Spain’s enemies,
such as the Netherlands and England, coveted their overseas wealth, and in many
cases found it easier to attack poorly defended Portuguese outposts than Spanish ones;
Spain also pursued a policy of neglect of the Portuguese colonies it now controlled.
Although Dutch colonies in Brazil were wiped out, over the 17th century the Dutch
were able to occupy Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and the East Indies, and to
take over the trade with Japan at Nagasaki. Portugal’s Pacific territories were reduced
to the bases at Macao and East Timor.37
In 1661 the Portuguese gave Bombay to England as part of a dowry, and over
the next hundred years the British became the dominant power in India, excluding
other powers from trade. Portugal retained Goa and several minor bases throughout
the colonial period.
132 The Conspiracy against Africa

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake sharply checked Portuguese colonial ambitions in

the late 18th century. The quake and later tsunami killed more than 100,000 people
in Lisbon (then a city of 275,000).
Brazil remained a territory of Portugal for many years and became the main
centre for Portuguese colonial ambitions. Voluntary immigration from Europe and
the slave trade from Africa increased the population of Brazil immensely (today
Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world). By 1822, though,
Brazil declared independence with a Portuguese prince, Pedro I, as Emperor.
By the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had lost
its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. During this phase,
Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-
sized territories to compete with other European powers there. Portuguese territories
eventually included the modern nations of Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe,
Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique.

Fall
In the wake of World War II, other European nations began abandoning their
colonies either voluntarily or involuntarily. Portugal refused to enter this process
voluntarily and was the last nation to keep its major colonies. In 1961, Goa and the
rest of Portuguese India were occupied and annexed by India, while a decade-long
war raged in Portuguese Africa with various resistance groups. Eventually, the cost
of the unsuccessful war led the Salazar regime to collapse in 1974 (the Carnation
Revolution), and one of the first acts of the democratic government which replaced
it was to end the war and negotiate the hand-over of the colonies to the indigenous
rebels. In Mozambique and Angola, the rebels promptly entered a civil war, with
incoming Communist governments backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and other
Communist countries, and insurgent groups supported by nations like Zaire, South
Africa, and the United States.38
East Timor also became independent at this time, but was promptly invaded by
neighbouring Indonesia, which occupied it until 1999.39.
 The Scramble for Africa 133

The Portuguese Empire ended when Portugal handed Macau over to China in
1999 under the terms of a negotiated agreement like the one under which the United
Kingdom handed over Hong Kong.40
The seven former colonies of Portugal that are now independent nations, together
with Portugal, are members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries
(CPLP).41
7. The Spanish Empire in Africa
Spanish West Africa (Spanish: Africa Occidental Española, AOE) was a grouping of
Spanish colonies along the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. It was formed in 1946
by joining the southern zone of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, the colony of
Ifni and the colony of Spanish Sahara into a single administrative unit. Following the
Ifni War (1957–58), Spain ceded the southern protectorate to Morocco, and created
separate provinces for Ifni and the Sahara in 1958. 42
Spanish West Africa was formed by a decree of 20 July 1946. The new governor sat
at Ifni. He was ex officio the delegate of the Spanish high commissioner in Morocco
in the southern zone of the protectorate, to ease its government along the same lines
as the other Spanish possessions on the coast. On 12 July 1947, Ifni and the Sahara
were raised into distinct entities, but still under the authority of the governor in Ifni.
On 10 and 14 January 1958, respectively, the Sahara and Ifni were raised into regular
Spanish provinces completely independent of one another. 43

D. Africa and the Ideological Cold War Rivalry of the

immediate post-WWII period
In truth, though, it marked a turning point – the end of direct actions by western
powers in Africa, replaced by conflicts that spread across the Continent as the West
and the Soviet Union tussled for influence in newly or soon-to-be independent
African nations: a proxy Cold War described as a “second scramble for Africa”.44
The effects of the Cold War on Africa were stifling. In many respects, it was
a second scramble for Africa. The great powers (in this case the Soviet Union and
the U.S.) wanted Africa simply to prevent each other from possessing it and in the
process, African economic and political development was hindered; independence
was often delayed.45
134 The Conspiracy against Africa

1. The Cold War in Independent Africa

The independence movements in Africa during the early 1960 have supplied foreign
policy opportunities to both the United States and the Soviet Union.
In their book, “Nationalism and New States in Africa”, Ali A. Mazrui and
Michael Tidy had observed that more than fifteen African nations became sovereign
the year John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States of America46
(Mazrui and Tidy, 362). Reflecting its own anti-colonial heritage, the United States
of America cannot but sympathised with emerging African nations. It was therefore
in this important sense that John F. Kennedy promised to recognize and support
African nationalism. On the other hand, and simultaneously, the former Soviet
Union also saw its history reflected in Africa.
It would also be recalled that in response to Western imperialism, nascent socialist
revolutions were springing up across Africa. It is on record how the former USSR’s
Khrushchev supported national liberation movements all over the world, including
Africa. It would therefore be correct to state that the sympathized with revolutionary
Africa.47
However, such sympathies were tempered by the Cold War. But the realities of
containment by both superpowers invariably exposed the nakedness of the ideals of
American and Soviet policy toward Africa. For the USSR, anti-Americanism was (and
is) perceived more relevant than anti-capitalism. It was consequent upon this bedrock
that Khrushchev reluctantly had to embrace weak ideologies, enduring shifting
alliances among his African clients. On the other hand, and simultaneously, the
United States’ sees anti-communism as preventing support for many independence
movements in Africa. Therefore, the U.S. policymakers could not fully embrace
socialist-leaning African leaders. Evidently, Kennedy tried not to antagonize NATO
members who were also colonial powers.48
The effects of the Cold War on Africa were suffocating. In many respects, it
was a second scramble for Africa. The great powers (in this case the Soviet Union
and the U.S.) wanted Africa simply to prevent each other from having it African
economic and political development was hindered; independence was often delayed.
Neither the Soviet goal of socialist development nor the American goal of democratic
nationhood was realized from the vast opportunities present in independent Africa.
 The Scramble for Africa 135

A significant milestone in the US – African relations appeared to be the election

of John F. Kennedy as chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. In was on this platform that Kennedy was in close contact with
many African nationalist leaders. In 1957, Kennedy did not equivocate in showing
his support for African nationalism and criticising Eisenbowers non-involvement
policy toward French colonialism in Algeria.49
According to Richard Mahoney in his “Ordeal in Africa”,
“Overseas territories are sooner or later, one by one, going to break free and look
with suspicion on the Western nations who impeded their steps to Independence . .
. Nationalism in Africa cannot be evaluated purely In terms of the historical and
legal niceties argued by the French and thus far accepted by the State Department
National self-identification frequently takes place by quick combustion which the
rain of repression simply cannot extinguish”50 (Mahoney, 20).
It is on record that Kennedy referred to Africa 479 times during the 1960
campaign. “This demonstrated his keen and informed awareness of the significance
to the United States of the emergent African nations”51 (Jackson, 38-39).
It was, therefore, not surprising that Kennedy’s diplomatic appointments,
once chosen, reflected concern for Africa. He appointed Mennan Williams, former
Michigan Governor to the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. Williams,
an idealistic liberal, was a strong supporter of civil rights and “proved to be the most
effective and durable defender of a new approach to Africa”52 (Noer, 63). During this
period, undersecretary of State Chester Bowles and UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson
also advocated more attention to Africa.
In the same vein, the Soviet policymakers also began, in the late 1950s and
early 1960s to look at Africa with more seriousness. Renewed interests in the Third
World were shown by Khrushchev53 (Kempton, 1). It was therefore not surprising
when Khrushchev pledged, in a January 1961 speech, Moscow’s support to wars
of national liberation. The position of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) was that national liberation did not end with political independence and
unless the new nation severs colonial ties and undergoes radical social and economic
change, independence will be in name only 54(Kempton, 36). To Soviet leaders,
Africa appeared to be an ideal place to promote Soviet-style revolutionary states.
136 The Conspiracy against Africa

In his “Soviet Policy in West Africa”, Robert Legvold writes that Africa possessed
several characteristics favourable to socialism– “the natural place of the commune
in African peasant society, the near absence of an indigenous bourgeoisie, and the
expanding role of the state sector” 55(Legvold, 179). According to Zbigniew Brzezinski,
the Soviets had four distinctive advantages in their relations with Africa:
1. Africans agreed with the Soviets about the connection between capitalism and
imperialism. They believed that the two were linked, and both were worthy of
elimination.
2. Africans and Soviets had a common enemy. The former colonial powers were
also anti-communist.
3. No communist nation had ever been a colonial power in Africa; and
4. Africans admired the rapid development in the Soviet Union and saw it as a
model for their own development56 (Brzezinski, 205-207).
Nevertheless, the Soviets felt frustrated in their attempts to realize this ideological
opportunity. Indeed, the realities of African politics did not fit in the limited
conceptions of either the Soviet Union or the United States.
In 1957 upon gaining independence, Ghana was in the vanguard of the African
nationalist movement. Kwame Nkrumah emerged as the leader of the new nation.
Nkrumah’s electoral mandate was not great even though his party held 71 out of 104
seats in parliament. His party won only 57 per cent of the vote but suffered defeat
in northern Ghana57 (Mazrui and Tidy, 59). The reasons for opposition to Nkrumah
arise from tribalism and the effects of indirect rule. Under British colonial rule,
Ashanti chiefs in the north had kept much of their power. “Nkrumah’s agitation for
independence and centralized rule threatened to undo this arrangement”58 (Mahoney,
160).
Nkrumah’s triumph, it would appear, would be a blessing to the Soviet Union.
Nkrumah embraced socialism and even thought of himself as an African Lenin59
(Mazrui and Tidy, 57). But the situation was not that simple.
As a pan-Africanist, Nkrumah believed that the goals of an independent and
united Africa should take precedence over the socialist revolution.
 The Scramble for Africa 137

Furthermore, Nkrumah feared close relations with the Soviets would lead to a
neo-colonialist relationship. Quite prudently, Nkrumah courted aid from both the
USSR and the U.S., balancing one off the other while preventing external domination
60
(Mazrui and Tidy. 64).
The Soviets had ideological concerns about Ghana as well. Granted that Nkrumah
saw himself as an African Lenin, but evidently, he was not a communist and did not
adhere to Lenin’s concept of an elite-driven revolution. Kwame Nkrumah’s party “…
was, from the start basically mass organization”61 (Mazrui and Tidy, 57). However,
on his late 1957 visit to Ghana, the then USSR’s most prominent Africanist scholar
Ivan Potekin made some fundamental exposure of the shortcoming.
Potekin condemned the fact that the British Queen (now King) was still head of
state, that English language was still the official language, that British institutions still
existed in Ghana, and that Christian missions still influenced education62 (Legvold,
43). Such conditions did not enhance economic independence or non-capitalist
development. Potekin’s assessments were legitimate. And, according to Robert
Legvold, the British-influenced Ghanaian civil service “strongly opposed formal ties
with the Soviet bloc”63 (Legvold, 46). Legvold explains further the fact that Ghana
and the Soviets did not set up diplomatic relations until January 1958. It would be
another year before the two nations opened embassies. Trade relations were also slow
to develop. Economic talks did not begin until June 1959; the agreement was not
concluded until August 1960; it was not ratified until June 196164(Legvold, 47).
However, following prevailing events at the time, Nkrumah’s ambivalence
changed toward the Soviet into support. The December 1960 kidnapping of Congo
Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba left Nkrumah devastated; an event that the UN
and the West were personally implicated by him. Nkrumah believed that the UN
preferred Joseph Kasavubu to Lumumba.65 (Nkrumah, 120).
Capitalizing on Nkrumah’s anger and dissatisfaction, the Soviets sent two of a
promised six Ilyushin aircrafts to Ghana within two weeks of Lumumba’s kidnapping.
Following this development, “Nkrumah welcomed a thirty-four member Soviet
technical assistance team to discuss $40 million worth of projects” including the
Volta dam66 (Mahoney, 164).
138 The Conspiracy against Africa

Nkrumah’s position was further hardened following the murder of Lumumba.

Nkrumah sent an invitation to then Soviet Leonid Brezhnev to meet with him in
Accra, Ghana where he fired off a pricking letter to then President Kennedy of the
United States of America. Currently, the media in Ghana were featuring pictures of
black lynching in the United States.
At the time Nkrumah wrote his poignant letter, Kennedy was only less than a
month in office. As a matter of fact, Lumumba was even assassinated days before
Kennedy took office, only that the news of his murder was only released weeks later.
For Kennedy to redress relations with Ghana and prove his commitment to Africa,
he had to invite Nkrumah to Washington. When the two met in March 1961, they
agreed on Congo policy and negotiated the assistance of the United States for the
Volta dam. Upon this success, Nkrumah proclaimed a “new era of African American
friendship”67.
This diplomatic turnaround must have flabbergasted the Soviets. However,
Nkrumah’s personality made him amenable to personal diplomacy. Understandably,
Kennedy treated him affably and homely even introducing him to his wife and
daughter. Perhaps there were some exaggerations but essentially it was accurate and
according to a CIA briefing paper described Nkrumah as “a politician to whom
the roar of the crowd and the praise of the sycophant are as necessary as the air
he breathes . . . (and who] desperately wants a favourable verdict from history”68
(Mahoney, 166). And in his 1961 official trip to the Soviet Union, Nkrumah was
showered with the same flattery. The USSR’s Khrushchev told Nkrumah that he was
a candidate for the Lenin Peace Prize. It was therefore no surprise when Khrushchev
invited Nkrumah to join him during his summer vacation.
In the early 1960s, Ghana’s foreign policy reflected hesitation and uneasiness
existing between East and West. As a result of this fact, the Kennedy administration
had no choice but reconsidered the Volta dam project and Nkrumah had strong
opposition in the Kennedy administration including members of the State
Department and Attorney General Robert Kennedy who strongly believe Nkrumah
was a communist. 69 On the other hand and simultaneously, the USSR’s Khrushchev
was also frustrated. The arbitrary and helter-skelter nature of Ghana’s foreign policy
caused Khrushchev to delay plans to sponsor the creation of a Ghanaian Communist
party. As Legvold writes, such action “would have antagonized Nkrumah, guaranteeing
 The Scramble for Africa 139

the early suppression of Communism in Ghana.”70(Legvold, 49) In the event that

there was no vanguard party in the vanguard nation of African independence, Soviet
ideological goals were necessarily thwarted.
On the other hand, Guinea would prove to be an easier test for Soviet policy. In
a sense, Guinea “represented everything that Ghana was not”71 (Legvold, 60). Under
Sekou Touré, Guinea refused the 1958 French referendum on constitutional union.
President Charles de Gaulle of France had warned Touré that a “no” vote would
be tantamount to a declaration of independence. France perceived Touré’s action
as an affront and cut off relations with Guinea, creating a vacuum the Soviets were
extremely happy to fill.
Between 1959 and 1960 Soviet’s total exports to Guinea rose from 9.3 per cent
to 44.2 per cent. In the same period, however, exports to Soviet Union expanded
from 16.2 per cent of the total to 22.9 per cent. 72 (Legvold, 75)
On the political sphere, Touré aligned Guinean foreign policy with the Soviets.
Touré backed Khrushchev’s disarmament schemes and Soviet intervention in the
Congo. He also brought refuge in the capital of Conakry for African revolutionary
movements and supplied the Soviets exclusive access to their leaders. Soviet
policymakers at the time saw Guinea as the model for proper African development.
Although the motives of Guinea and the Soviet Union were not identical, their
policy goals appeared synonymous. Though the Soviets had wished to influence
the East-West balance of power; but Guinea held to an “uncompromising desire to
keep its independence intact”73 (Legvold, 120). It was therefore in this important
sense that Touré proclaimed in April 1960 that “if certain people wished to find a
Guinean Communist party, they should realize that the PDG (Touré’s party) would
oppose them … for Communism was not the way for Africa” 74(Legvold, 73). It was
therefore not surprising when Touré began to complain about the quality of Soviet
goods sent to Guinea. Not only were the commodities inferior, but they were often
in the wrong quantity, shipped to the wrong location, or sent without necessary
parts. Also, a personal conflict between Touré and the Soviet ambassador contributed
to Soviet-Guinean animosity.
The prevailing political ambience between Guinea and the Soviet created an
opportunity for alternative for Touré following the election of Kennedy as the US
140 The Conspiracy against Africa

president. It would be recalled that when France imposed a confinement on Touré’s

Guinea, the later resorted to aid from the Soviet; but things were no longer the
same. Interestingly, Touré was impressed by Kennedy’s pro-nationalist speeches in
the Senate, and he began to indicate to Western reporters his interests in getting
aid from the United States. Washington, however, granted Touré some $25 million
as an aid package. As things were unfolding, it dawned on the Soviet that their
goal of promoting a revolutionary socialist state in Africa was rather bewildered.
Both pan-Africanists – Nkrumah and Touré – “claimed equally that their socialism
incorporated features from several systems, not only Marxism-Leninism, that in
conformed uniquely to African conditions”74 (Legvold, 115).
Granted that both the US and the Soviet first started with both Ghana and
Guinea, however, during the 1960s, the major factor of the Cold War agitation
was in the Congo. In January 1960, the Congolese demands for independence was
granted by the Belgian authorities; and six months later, they were free from Belgian
rule. Events unfolding pointed to the facts that the Congolese weren’t ready for
independence, as they were frequented with colossal complications and challenges.
According to Robert W. July, “Fourteen million people drawn from over two hundred
tribal groups had no sense of national identity”75 (July, 452). Only a handful had
earned college degrees, and only a few were trained professionals. To make matters
worse, many Europeans in the Congo, fearing reprisal attacks from formerly oppressed
blacks, fled the country. “With the flight of the Europeans, the civil administration,
the magistrature, and much of the army began to disintegrate”76 (Jackson, 28).
Congo held both strategic and economic significance as it were, and the
superpowers could not afford to allow such power vacuum. Located at the centre of
Africa, Congo held a vital position bordering nine nations. Economically, the West
obtained 49 per cent of its cobalt and 69 per cent of its industrial diamonds from the
Congo. Iron, gold, zinc, copper, bauxite, and tantalum (a mineral necessary In U.S.
aerospace production) were all found in high quantity 77(Jackson, 23).
It was not long for tension and anxiety to start manifesting in Congo, often
orchestrated by foreign powers. Within five days after independence insurrection
erupted. In Leopoldville, Congolese soldiers revolted against their remaining Belgian
superiors. The Congolese Prime Minister at the time, Lumumba was said to have
indirectly supported the military revolt given his speeches on the Africanization of
 The Scramble for Africa 141

the Congo. But as Jackson writes: “Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Emile Janssens,
the commander of the Force Publique, antagonized the (Congolese) soldiers by
dramatizing his die-hard colonialist opposition through a statement he inscribed on
the blackboard at Force headquarters: Before independence = after independence”78
(Jackson, 27). The local rebellion quickly spread nationwide.
Lumumba soon made his support unambiguous by sending away all the 1,135
Belgian officers. However, Kasavubu the Congolese Head of State, opted to support
Western contacts. Therefore, he opposed Lumumba’s decision. Lumumba could not
afford to upset Kasavubu. Various Congolese factions only allowed Lumumba to
lead the diverse coalition government after he ceded the position of the Head of
State to Kasavubu. However, both Lumumba and Kasavubu were forced to reach
a common policy. Belgium sent paratroopers, on July 10, 1960, to reinforce their
troops stationed in the Congo. They were successful in suppressing the rebellious
Congolese, particularly in Katanga province. Such intervention helped trigger the
secession of Katanga, provider of one-half the national revenue163 (Jury, 452). Both
Lumumba and Kasavubu appealed to the UN for emergency forces even though
both have ideological differences.
While Kasavubu was mainly pro-Westerner, Lumumba was essentially a strong
advocate of socialism79 (Jackson, 28). Such a distinction was not lost on the Eisenhower
administration. Allen Dulles, the then director of the CIA believed Lumumba was
another Fidel Castro. Eisenhower sent Lawrence Devlin to the American embassy in
Leopoldville to set up a CIA office in the Congo. Devlin’s mission was to encourage
the overthrow and assassination of some Congolese leaders, supposedly including
Lumumba 80(Jackson, 32).
At a National Security Council meeting held in August 1960 the US President
Eisenhower declared: “we were talking of one man forcing us out of the Congo, of
Lumumba supported by the Soviets” 81(Mahoney, 40). Eisenhower did not want to
give up the Congo. What Eisenhower failed to realize, however, was that Lumumba’s
move toward the Soviet Union was hastened by Western miscalculation.
Lumumba requested from the then UN Secretary General – Dag Hammarskjold
– to send UN troops into Katanga and to put the UN forces under his command,
a request that was rejected. However, Eisenhower blamed Lumumba for the chaos
142 The Conspiracy against Africa

and not the Belgians. Eisenhower viewed Lumumba’s anti-Belgian position in the
context of his alleged communist sympathies82 (Mahoney, 38, 45).
However, Lumumba never discountenanced the West. Interestingly, Lumumba
explained his plight thus: “We will take aid from the devil or anyone else as long as
they get the Belgian troops out. If no Western nation helps us, why can we not call
on other nations?” 83(Mahoney, 38).
When Lumumba visited Washington in late July 1960, Washington neglected
him. Lumumba had no choice than to accept military aid from Khrushchev. The
commotion that ensued finally led to the assassination of Lumumba which implicated
Washington.
Lumumba’s acquiring of Soviet aid renewed the cleavage between him and
Kasavubu. On 5 September 1960 Kasavubu was said to have “removed” Lumumba
from his position as Prime Minister. Later that day, Lumumba avenged Kasavubu by
“removing” him. The UN unquestionably supported Kasavubu in the rift between
him and Lumumba; and on the 6th of September 1960, the UN forces closed the
Leopoldville radio station.
“This action was indefensible. It deprived Lumumba of the means to address
the people while Kasavubu, broadcasting freely on Brazzaville radio [was]
openly stirring up anti-Lumumba’s feeling. How could such action of the United
Nations possibly be justified when Lumumba was the lawful Prime Minister?”84
(Nkrumah, 36).
However, Lumumba was forced to move his organization underground. But
Kasavubu understandably closed-in on Lumumba and his organization and with the
aid of the CIA Lumumba was arrested and inhumanly treated on the 1st of December
1960. However, reports showed that the incoming Kennedy administration intended
helping Lumumba out of his predicament. Unfortunately for Lumumba, the outgoing
Eisenhower administration was exacerbating its anti-Lumumba CIA efforts. On
the 17th of January 1960, the imprisoned Lumumba was flown to Elizabethville,
dehumanized en route, and was assassinated, probably at the hands of Katangese
authorities 85(Mahoney, 70).
With Lumumba out, the Head of State, Kasavubu, the new Prime Minister,
Cyrille Adoula, and the head of the military, Joseph Mobutu were all friendly and
 The Scramble for Africa 143

agreeable with the Western. Kennedy was able to persuade the UN to overrun
Katanga. At the same time, Kennedy’s policies re-established order and this kept
the Soviets from undertaking a unilateral military operation. Describing Kennedy’s
Congo policy as a success, Professor Richard Mahoney wrote:
“Kennedy had proven that there could be a creative aspect to containment policy:
by addressing the internal origins of the Congo crisis in addition to addressing
the external communist threat, the President made containment in the Congo
what it never was in Vietnam—a workable and constructive policy that was
fundamentally in consonance with nationalist reality”86(Mahoney, 247).
While it may be true that convincing the UN to intervene in Katanga was easier
in the absence of Lumumba, it is difficult to admit that U.S. policy concur with
Congolese interests. We must give it to Lumumba as the one having most legitimacy
of any national leader in that country. His party was the political organization
“least identified with tribal or ethnic factions.” Furthermore, his party “was also the
country’s major civilian institution”87 (Jackson, 29). His successor, Cyrille Adoula,
visibly proved weakness in leadership and lacked a powerful base of popular support.
He, however, fell to a military coup as Mobutu rose to power in 1964.
Admittedly, the US goofed by ignoring realities in Congo, pursuing nebulous
relationship, relying on personalities, and neglecting legitimate institutions.
A more prudent policy would have been supporting Lumumba by strengthening
the legitimate institutions on ground while invariably getting the UN to restore order
to Katanga. Both actions would have diminished and lessen the possibility of Soviet
influence. Perhaps Kennedy would have done a better job had he been in office
sooner than he came. But then his precedent for anti-communism over nationalism
he entrenched in Angola suggested otherwise.
The facts on ground indicted Kennedy for preferring Cold War alliances to
overwhelm his concern for African nationalism. Initially, Kennedy appeared to have
viewed Angola from a new lens. His Ambassador Stevenson was twice instructed to
vote for anti-Portuguese resolutions. During Kennedy administration, the United
States, in March and April 1961, voted for resolutions calling on Portugal to grant
independence to Angola.
144 The Conspiracy against Africa

Evidently, the United States tried to establish relations with Angolan opposition
leader Holden Roberto who met the US State Department officials in March
1961. Impressed by the US policy makers “Roberto successfully played to U.S.
anticommunism by repudiating Marxism and emphasizing the radicalism of his
opponents” among the Angolans 88(Noer, 72). It would be recalled that his rival
organization, the MPLA, was Soviet supported. As a further sign of a changing
attitude to affirm solidarity with the Angola opposition, the U.S. cut aid to Portugal
from $25 million to $3 million89 (Noer, 73).
However, Kennedy had discussions with oppositions at home and abroad.
France’ Charles de Gaulle perceived that exhibiting hostility against Portuguese
dictator Salazar might possibly inspire a communist revolution in Lisbon. Even the
“Europeanists” in the United States’ State Department argued for the backing of
fellow NATO member Portugal. For them, presenting a united front against the
Soviets was a vital priority, in addition to keeping its rights in the Portuguese Azores.
The Azones was vital to the US as it was an important re-fuelling and troop transport
base and had been used during the Lebanon and Congo crisis. The “Europeanist”
case was further strengthened following the Berlin crisis in August 1961. 90 (Noer,
81-82).
Lisbon, in response, hired the New York public relations firm of Selvage and Lee.
Selvage and Lee bombarded the US media with press releases, “documenting” that
the Angolan revolution was instigated from Moscow. Their greatest success appeared
to be their ability to convince House Speaker John McCormick and Representative
Tip O’Neill to praise Portugal in congressional speeches91 (Noer, 74).
In the course of time Roberto’s position in Angola was becoming more unstable.
Roberto had been slammed by fellow Africans for using US aid through NATO to
undermine the Angolans. These critics have queried as to why the United States never
prohibited private companies from selling such militarily applicable products as jeeps
to the Portuguese. Meanwhile, Roberto’s MPLA opposition was also strengthening
as it amasses more aid from the Soviets92 (Noer, 84-85).
Kennedy was rightly or wrongly perceived to have started drifting gradually but
steadily to the “Europeanist” school of thought. His Assistant secretary, Williams
had to rejig his strategy in approaching Kennedy. Instead of basing his arguments
 The Scramble for Africa 145

on conceptual or theoretical concepts of nationalism, Williams concentrated on the

significant issues of trade and anti-communism. Opposing the Azores argument,
Williams contested that a reversal of support on African nationalism might lead to a
loss of U.S. bases in Morocco, Libya, and Ethiopia 93 (Noer, 88, 92-93).
Nevertheless, Kennedy was forced to give in to Cold War pressures.
Understandably, as the US lease on the Azores was expiring in December 1962, the
United States renounced the two anti-Portuguese resolutions. Instead, the United
States, by the beginning of 1963, “had moderated its public criticism of Portugal and
had eliminated informal meetings with rebel leaders”94 (Noer, 94-95).
Nevertheless, the pro-Soviet MPLA was dominant in Angola as the US-backed
Roberto never succeeded. The Cold War policy of the United States rather drove
a potential ally to the Soviet bloc. The was no need for the MPLA to have risen to
power in the first place since Roberto’s party had a greater base of popular support,
which included the large Bakongo ethnic group. In comparison, the MPLA’s support
base came primarily from the Mbundu, which represented only 18 per cent of the
entire population. Moreover, in military showdown with the Portuguese, Roberto’s
organization showed more leadership potential95 (Kempton, 53).
In conclusion, therefore, none of the superpowers – US or the Soviet – could
establish their African policy objectives. It was rather insulting and arrogant for either
of the superpowers to attempt to enforce its agenda on Africa. Their African policy
failures arise from their crass ignorance of African conditions and temperaments.
The Soviets firstly made unsuccessful attempts to impose a rigid ideology backed
by economic plan on a region badly in need of experimentation. Therefore, their
Ghana and Guinea experiment suffered policy disappointments. On the other hand,
even though the United States endorsed African independence from colonialism, her
policymakers endorsed such goals to be buried by anti-communism. And so, while
Congo became an oppressive dictatorship, Angola was driven to the “devil.” Cold
War policies proved inadequate to the needs of post-independence Africa.
146 The Conspiracy against Africa

References
1. Scramble for Africa – Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org)
2. Ibid
3. Elias Beck, “Causes of the Scramble for Africa” – https://www.historycrunch.
com (March 25, 2019)
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. The British Empire in Africa – https://www.ukessays.org
9. British Empire – Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org)
10. Ibid
11. Early modern period – Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org)
12. British Colonies in Africa – https://study.com
13. British Colonialism and Racism Theme in the English Patient – https://www.
litcharts.com
14. British Colonies in Africa – https://study.com
15. Britain takes control of the Cape – https://www.sahistory.org.za
16. French Colonial Rule – https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com
17. Belgian Colonial Empire – https://en.wikipedia.org
18. Ibid
19. German African Colonies – https://www.encyclopedia.com
20. German Colonial Empire – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
21. Ibid
22. Unification of Germany – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
23. German Colonia Empire, op. cit.
24. Italian Empire – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
 The Scramble for Africa 147

25. Fascist Italy (1922-1943) – Wikipedia https://en Wikipedia.org

26. Ibid
27. Ibid
28. Ibid
29. Military History of Italy during World War II – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.
org
30. Italian Empire – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
31. Portuguese Empire – Wikipedia
32. Ibid
33. Ibid
34. Ibid
35. Ibid
36. Ibid
37. Ibid
38. Ibid
39. Ibid
40. Ibid
41. Ibid
42. Spanish West Africa – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
43. Ibid
44. Colonisation of Africa – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
45. Jay Dee’93, “The Cold War in Independent Africa” (African History). See
https://central.edu/writing-anthology (1993)
46. Ali A. Mazrui, et al, (1984) “Nationalism and New States in Africa”, London:
Heinemann Publishing, p. 362
47. Jay Dee’93, “The Cold War in Independent Africa” (African History). See
https://central.edu/writing-anthology (1993)
48. Ibid
148 The Conspiracy against Africa

49. Ibid
50. Ibid
51. Richard Mahoney D. JKF, (1983) “Ordeal in Africa”, New York: Oxford
University Press, p.
52. Henry F. Jackson, (1982) “From the Congo to Soweto: US Foreign Policy
towards Africa since 1960”, New York: Morrow Publishing
53. Thomas J. Noer (1995) “Cold War and Black Liberation: The US and White
Rule in Africa, 1948-1968”, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press.
54. Daniel Kempton R. (1989), “Soviet Strategy towards Southern Africa: The
National Liberation Movement Connection”, New York: Praeger Press, p.
55. Robert Legvold (1970), “Soviet Policy in West Africa”, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, p. 179
56. Robert Legvold (1970), “Soviet Policy in West Africa”, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, p. 179
57. Zbigniew Brzezinski, (1963) “Africa and the Communist World”, Stanford
University Press, Stanford, California.
58. Ali A. Mazrui, et al, (1984) “Nationalism and New States in Africa”, London:
Heinemann Publishing, p. 362
59. Richard Mahoney D. JKF, (1983) “Ordeal in Africa”, New York: Oxford
University Press, p. 160
60. Ali A. Mazrui, et al, (1984) “Nationalism and New States in Africa”, London:
Heinemann Publishing, p. 362
61. Ibid, p. 64
62. Ibid, p. 57
63. Robert Legvold, (1970) “Soviet Policy in West Africa”, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, p. 179
64. Ibid, p. 46
65. Ibid., p. 47
 The Scramble for Africa 149

66. Kwame Nkrumah (1967) “Challenge of the Congo”, New York: International
Publishers
67. Richard Mahoney D. JKF, (1983) “Ordeal in Africa”, New York: Oxford
University Press, p. 160
68. Ibid. p. 167
69. Ibid, p. 166
70. Ibid, p. 172
71. Robert Legvold, (1970) “Soviet Policy in West Africa”, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, p. 75
72. Ibid, p. 120
73. Ibid, p. 73
74. Ibid, p. 115
75. Robert W. Jury (1992), “A History of the African People”, Illinois: Waveland
Press, p. 452
76. Henry F. Jackson (1982), “From the Congo to Soweto: US Foreign Policy
towards Africa since 1960”, New York: Marrow Publishing, p. 28
77. Ibid, p. 23
78. Ibid, p. 27
79. Robert W. Jury (1992), “A History of the African People”, Illinois: Waveland
Press, p. 452
80. Henry F. Jackson, (1982) “From the Congo to Soweto: US Foreign Policy
towards Africa since 1960”, New York: Morrow Publishing, p. 28
81. Ibid, p. 32
82. Richard Mahoney D. JKF, (1983) “Ordeal in Africa”, New York: Oxford
University Press, p. 40
83. Ibid, pp. 38, 43
84. Ibid, p. 38
85. Kwame Nkrumah (1967) “Challenge of the Congo”, New York: International
Publishers, p. 36
150 The Conspiracy against Africa

86. Richard Mahoney D. JKF, (1983) “Ordeal in Africa”, New York: Oxford
University Press, p. 70
87. Ibid, p. 247
88. Henry F. Jackson (1982), “From the Congo to Soweto: US Foreign Policy
towards Africa since 1960”, New York: Marrow Publishing, p. 29
89. Thomas J. Noer (1995) “Cold War and Black Liberation: The US and White
Rule in Africa, 1948-1968”, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press,
p. 72
90. Ibid, p. 73
91. Ibid, pp. 81, 82
92. Ibid, p. 74
93. Ibid, pp. 84, 85
94. Ibid, pp. 88, 92-93
95. Ibid, pp. 94, 95
96. Daniel Kempton R. (1989), “Soviet Strategy towards Southern Africa: The
National Liberation Movement Connection”, New York: Praeger Press, p. 53
97. Jay Dee’93, “The Cold War in Independent Africa” (African History). See
https://central.edu/writing-anthology (1993), p. 129.
 Chapter 3

AFRICA’S IDENTITY AND THE IMPACT OF

WESTERN CIVILIZATION

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty
and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so
tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.”
- Barry Goldwater

A. Africa and Western Civilization

1. A Preliminary Statement
From the prism of tradition, history, experience, and research, it would be understood
that African ontology is incomplete without the transcendental and metaphysical
domain. What really differentiates the African ontology from others is the seeming
inevitable alliance between the physical and the supernatural realms. In his book,
Towards an Igbo Metaphysics (1985), Emmanuel Edeh, a catholic priest in Nigeria,
outlined the three broad categories of beings with sub-categories.1 The first category is
Spirit and Forces2. In descending order, the subs are (i) the Supreme Deity (Chukwu/
Chineke), (ii) Powerful Spirit (Agbara), (iii) Ancestral Spirit (Ndichie), (iv) Spirit of
the dead, (v) human Spirit, (vi) Spirit associated with the personality of all things,
(vii) Forces which may be phenomena, or related to certain human endeavours,
(viii) forces which are immanent in natural objects, (ix) Evil spirit-devil (akalaogoli/
ogbanje). In the second category, Human being (Madu) in descending order3, (i) Priests
(Ndiezemmuo), (ii) Diviners (Dibia Afa), (iii) Medicine men (Ndi Dibia Ogwu), (iv)
Elders (Ndi Okenye), (v) Wealthy/ titled men (Ndi Ogaranye/Ndi Nzenaozo), (vi)
Ordinary men (Ndi-nkiti), (vii) women and children, (viii) the unborn. In the last
category are4 (i) Animals (including birds and insects), (ii) Plants, (iii) inanimate
152 The Conspiracy against Africa

objects and elements. Interestingly, African culture believes that each of these beings
is permeated by spirits and forces.
It is therefore, in this important sense that the Igbos’ (Africans’) belief in the
Supreme being, and the hierarchy of spiritual beings is commonplace and there is a
sustained strong belief in the existence of spirits. The spirits are above man but below
the Supreme being, and these spirits oversee operations.
In summary, the basic feature of African culture includes, but not necessarily
limited to the following:5.
1. Spiritually – African culture is intensely religious and ethically oriented to the
point of superstition or fanaticism at times. For Africans, justice represents the
ethical foundation of their religious life and spirituality.
2. Socially – African culture is characterized by self-reliance, collective egoism,
domestic life-centred, mass illiteracy, and lack of modern institutions and
amenities.
3. Economically – the characteristic features of African culture are primitive
agricultural ways and methods of life, supra-abundance of raw materials and
mineral resources, disguised unemployment, incipient industrialisation, socio-
economic imbalance, distaste for manual labour and greed for money among
the elites.
4. Politically – African culture shows intense tribal and sectional feelings and
organisational instability, inordinate desire for power, and corruption. However,
the true spirit of African culture values and cherishes purpose and integrity, as
well as service in leadership.
In terms of records and documentation, African culture is sustained by oral and
objective tradition with no practice of literary recording and documentation.
On the other hand, the Western world is in possession of a civilization secular
on the surface, yet deeply spiritual and Christian in its foundation and spirit.
Here is a civilization characterized by intellectual maturity, politico-institutional
stability, advanced science and technology, greater appreciation of human dignity,
values and fundamental freedoms, and progressive socio-economic equilibrium and
advancement.6
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 153

Consequently, many nations in the Western world have an adequate number

and variety of educational institutions to cater for the cultural and intellectual needs
of their people.
The rule of law, stable and firm constitutional provisions, competent and
enlightened governmental leadership are the inheritance of their citizens. Respect
for human rights, social policies, projects, and amenities for the common good are
the common features of Western culture. Among European nations, the common
welfare of the citizens is the prime objective of their legislations and overriding motive
of their leaders. 7
Meanwhile, the Western world has been able to fully exploit the fruits of
the applied sciences. It is therefore not surprising that their national economy is
characterised by highly mechanised agriculture, advanced and rapid industrialisation,
high productivity, multiple division of highly skilled and sophisticated workforce
and labour, automation and mass production of goods, high standard of living, and
an enviable high degree of environmental sanitation.8
2. The Positive Impact of Western Civilization on African Culture
In the beginning, the contact of Africa with the Western world was marked by multi-
dimensional clashes, chaos and confusion, the dust of consternation was quickly
dispelled by quite a few beneficial positive results.
The advent of Western civilization gave rise to the transition of our economy
from trade by barter to money economy or to a more objective and rational system
and means of exchange in trade and commercial transactions. Both Africans and the
Europeans benefited from this system. It was a great incentive to economic activities
and commerce.9
Africa benefited from Western civilization the transition of literary
documentation more effective and reliable methods of book-keeping,
libraries, archives, museums, and zoological gardens are becoming
increasingly the significant features of our modern and contemporary
cultures. This phenomenal development is a consequence of a more
fundamental revolution, namely the achievement of literacy among African
people. Granted that a significant portion of Africa’s population is still
illiterate, yet effective public and functional literacy has been achieved in
154 The Conspiracy against Africa

our land to an appreciable degree. This has given rise to easy and effective
personal and mass communication and social interaction, nationally and
beyond, in addition to accelerating the advancement and preservation of
the African culture. 10
In the field of formal education, it is easily noticeable that our institutions and
practice – at all levels, primary, secondary, and tertiary – are systematically patterned
on Western educational institutions and structures. In a veritable sense, the Modern
African intelligentsia and elite are the products of Western culture and acculturation.
Africa’s contact with the West has benefitted the former in the following ways11:
1. The frequency of local community feuds and bloody clashes has been drastically
reduced.
2. Twin babies are now acceptable and no longer exposed to slaughter and
destruction.
3. The mother of twins is no longer a suspect and a taboo and ostracised.
4. That women are no longer sub-citizens to be seen and not heard, to be given
away in marriage, and deployed despite their will and choice and to be relegated
to the background and stably harnessed to the burdens of domestic chores and
routines.
5. The rigorous and irrational discrimination practiced against the victims of the
‘Osu’ caste system is fast losing ground in our land.
6. The practice of local slave, child-kidnapping and human sacrifice have in
general become issues of the past.
In terms of science and technology, African culture has continued to inherit
much from the advanced knowledge, inventions, and techniques of the Western
and Eastern world. Africans have become beneficiaries of the major revolutions and
discoveries and achievements in the fields of medicine, industry, and production.
Because of the accessibility of the scientific and technological contributions of the
West to us12:
1. Various diseases and ailments have been brought under medical and rational
control, the health of our people has improved, infant mortality rate has fallen,
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 155

many child-bearing women have continued to receive adequate clinic-care; the

mortality rate of Africans are no longer alarming.
2. Incipient industrialisation is increasingly becoming a feature of African culture,
even though on a very modest scale. We have garri industries, palm oil, cocoa,
and rubber industries, cement and ceramics industries, breweries, etc. Africa
has benefited from the technological equipment of the West.
3. Though the advanced scientific technology of the Western civilization, Africa
has access to mass communication media such as telephone networks, the
radio, television, the press, and other social media devices such as Facebook,
Instagram, Tweeter, etc.
4. Africa has benefited immensely from the West in transformation of systems of
transport. This has facilitated travel and transportation by sea, by land, and by
air. African culture has joined the mainstream of world civilization in terms
of a free flow of men, money, ideas, and goods rendered easily and cheap by
modern changes in transport and communications. African culture can no
longer afford to be insular and isolated.
In terms of political and civic advancement and consciousness, Africa is not yet
“uhuru” as one would have wished, we must appreciate certain inherited Western
values which had helped, is helping to revitalize and re-engineer Africa’s political
advancement. Such values included but not necessarily limited to the following13:
1. The rule of law.
2. The equality of all before the law.
3. The equality in personality and rights of both sexes.
4. The independence of the judiciary.
5. The accountability of public functionaries.
6. Increased appreciation of human rights, etc. did raise strong hopes of a brighter
politico-civic future for all our people.
What some termed as the greatest blessing ever is the introduction of Christianity
and Islam into the African continent depending on who is doing the assessment and
on what prism. It was the Western missionaries that laid educational foundations of
156 The Conspiracy against Africa

our modern educational culture. The benefit of Christianity on our culture cannot
really be over-emphasized.
3. The Cultural Clash between the European and the Africa
The cultural clash between the Europeans and the African culture led to the division
and disintegration of the African way of life. It is worth mentioning the fact that the
negative influence of Western civilization on African culture have arisen either from
the colonial mistakes and follies of the Westerners themselves or from the irrational
imitation or imposition of Western culture – politically and/or religiously – on African
people by Africans themselves. For instance, the European influence put to the test
Igbo’s (Africa’s) religious practice. Igbos’ system of governance once held together
by traditional solid beliefs and centralised leadership was lost. The Igbo people had
a very diverse religious system in comparison to the Europeans’ Christianity. They
worshipped many deities, but their main “God” was called “Chukwu”. They had a
respectful group of nine ancestral spirits. The beliefs about the influence of the god
on the Igbo (African) people were predominant. Spiritual sacrifice was a common
thing, “Every year … before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the
owner of all land 14(Achebe, 17)”
According to the Africans, religion was a central theme in their lives, and they
held that every god plays a specific role in their lives. These gods could work to either
harm or help them.
However, the introduction of the new Christian religion disrupted this religious
pattern. The new religion attracted the interest of many natives, particularly those
who were considered lowly and senseless. The British cast doubt on the African gods,
emphasizing that worshipping many gods was barbaric – “Your gods are not alive
and cannot do any harm.”15 (Achebe, 105) Similarly, the British rule undermined the
role and power of the senior men in the society as messengers came to overtake them.
This conflict led to the collapse of Igbo traditional culture.
The lack of common language between the natives and the British leads to
divisions that bring about the disintegration of the rich Igbo (African) culture and
tradition. The alien European culture views the Igbo culture and tradition as barbaric
and needs “civilization” only because they did not understand their language and thus
their way of life did not make any sense to them. Igbos’ (African’s) way of speaking
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 157

reflects common traditional values while the Western language is overtly direct and
does not seem to exhibit any aesthetics of language. 16
The disparity in language and thus culture is evident in Okonkwo’s voiced
concerns. He asks: “Does the white man understand our customs about land? How
can he when he does not even speak our tongue” 17(Achebe, 176)
Evidently, language, according to Tobalase (2016) is an inherent link between
the people and their identity. It is easier to identify and establish a connection
with people with whom one shares a language. On the other hand, if one does not
understand the language of the other, then they may not appreciate their culture.
The Europeans introduced new laws and religion which contradicted the established
Igbo (African) traditional values, culture, and norms.18
In virtually all the colonised societies in Africa, the language of the colonial master
has been adopted and used as official language; and the native languages relegated to
the background. No progressive nation on earth adopts and uses any other language
as official language of communication except Africa. The role and importance of
language in nation building and development cannot be overemphasized. As a
medium of communication, language mirrors one’s identity and is an integral part
of culture.19 it was therefore in this important sense that Ngugi wa Thiongo referred
to language as the soul of culture. It functions as one of the most obvious markers
of culture. It suffices that people are often identified culturally primarily (and even
solely) based on the language they speak.20
1. Linguistic diversity becomes symbolic of cultural diversity.
2. The maintenance or revitalization of language signals on-going or renewed
validity of the culture associated with that language.
3. Language is a means of expression and allows a person to participate in
community activities.
4. Language policy plays a vital role in the process of democratic transition.
5. Languages are also valuable as collective human accomplishments and on-
going manifestations of human creativity and originality.
6. Language can also be a source of power, social mobility, and opportunities.
158 The Conspiracy against Africa

7. Language has served both as a reason (or pretext) for brutal conflict, and as a
touchstone of tolerance.
Native language is the means of identification in this world. This gives you a
medium to preserve your own rich cultural heritage, traditional values and all the
valuable knowledge for generation yet to born. Native language is identical to the
nation.
What is the importance of a native language for Africa? The usage of African
languages, be it one or multiple ones, shapes how African continent is developed.
No nation, whether advanced or developing, can achieve significant stride without
the use of their indigenous native language. If you look at all the advanced countries
– be it the UK, USA, France, Spain, China, Germany, Russia, etc. each of them uses
her native language in all facets of life be it educational, science and technology,
manufacturing, production, etc. Africa cannot go far by using lingua franca. Virtually
all African nations are either Anglophone, Francophone, or Lusophone.
Africa has no single unified language; hence she is multi-lingual. Multiple African
languages provide language diversity, and thus diversity of thoughts, which promotes
innovation and is thus beneficial for the development of Africa.21
Moreover, having multiple languages within the Continent often mean sharing
common ones with other African countries, favouring the interactions for mutual
interests between them; and this would be beneficial for the development of the
countries in the Continent.22
The introduction of the language of the colonial masters creates language barriers
in the respective African countries, which hinders communication of thoughts, not
favouring the incubation of insights and thus the development of the Continent.
All languages have the same functionality, and thus equal complexity, as we have
the same cognitive ability with our brain.
The way the language spoken in a country affect the technological development
is access of information.
If the language spoken is universal for professionals in the country, sharing of
ideas is promoted, which facilitates incubation of technological solutions. Moreover,
if the language spoken is mutually intelligible with other countries, exchange of
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 159

technological achievements between them will be more favourable. In these two

ways, the language spoken in a country speeds up the technological development.23

Conclusion
The development of a country is dependent on the usage of language, which can
be dependent on external factors like geographical location and diplomatic relations,
so there are not much room to boost country development by altering the usage of
languages.
4. Negative Influence of Western Civilization on African Culture
During the colonial period of European association with the indigenous African
countries, the former evidently made obvious mistakes and miscalculations. The
arbitrary division and political grouping of the Africans have been the root cause of
frequent friction and conflicts among the new nations of Africa. This served their
colonial purpose of domination and control which had adversely affected the smooth
political and cultural evolution of Africa. The Western power unjustly exploited the
raw materials and mineral resources of the Indigenous Africans hence the economic
imbalance and underdevelopment. Despite the so-called “independence” of virtually
African nations of Black Africa, they are still struggling for economic emancipation.24
Furthermore, it is evident that the colonial powers prepared the people very
inadequately for a smooth transition to political independence. The reign of chaos
and bloodshed and outrage in the former Belgian Congo in the early 60s was the
consequence of the faulty political ruse destined to lead to political explosions and
social confusion and disorder. This has been the common experience of the emerging
nations of Africa.25
European powers instigated and super-imposed apartheid rule whereby those
African communities in which the population of the Europeans is large, political
independence has either been denied the Africans – to be ruled by a white minority
as in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, with their racially, discriminatory laws
against the African natives – or being granted after many years of bloodshed. This
was the case in Algeria of the 1950s and Mozambique of the 60s and 70s; and it is
still the case in Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), South Africa, and Namibia. 26
160 The Conspiracy against Africa

In all of these, the Western powers and their civilization have not left a clean
tradition in our political, economic, and cultural memory.
In another development, when we consider the consequences of ill-considered
imitation of Western culture and civilization by Africans, the following facts suffice27:
1. The failure to research into, appreciate and cherish the positive ethical, political,
and social values of African culture such as Justice, Solidarity, Social Justice,
etc.
2. The uncritical adoption of Western religious institutions and patterns and the
senseless imposition of the same on African people.
3. The importation and imposition of religious prejudice, discrimination, and
fanaticism in clear violation of the authentic and honest spirit of our traditional
religion and religious ancestors.
4. The imposition of the language of our former colonial masters – especially the
English Language – to the point of utter embarrassment and frustration of the
younger generation and students with different talents and aptitude.
5. The imposition of a paralysing and bureaucratic systems 0f the people in a
senseless bid to take after the Western ways of life.
6. The unjustified imitation of the Western scholastic year and time schedule
which had led Africans to the folly of withdrawing from school during the cool
and congenial months of the year only to expose them to the harsh heat of the
tropics in December, January, February, March for schooling.
7. In the name of urbanization, our urban and municipal centres have become the
quintessence of environmental pollution, with their poor housing condition,
open gutter, and filth all around, lack of breathing space and recreation grounds
and facilities for children. In this circumstance, Africans are unable to imitate
the Western culture. Our land office, housing authority, and civil engineers
should take note of these lapses.
8. The rigid inheritance of the principles of political sovereignty and territorial
integrity and their ruthless application to the detriment of other equally
important principles and values such as the right of all peoples to self-
determination, and the fundamental rights and freedom of man.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 161

9. The construction of highways without any consideration for most of our people
who are still pedestrians and cyclists. The provision of tarred and smooth track
roads along-side our highways and adequate zebra-crossings for pedestrians
and cyclists would have saved many lives and prevented unnecessary accidents.
10. The failure to realise that power is from the people, of the people and by the
people and their welfare and not the power-mongers and their sectional and
selfish interests. This has often led to lack of consultation with the people.
In conclusion, however, the impact of Western civilization on African ways of
life has some positive and beneficial aspects as we need each other in a respectful,
reciprocal ways. Nevertheless, it is important that we stress the fact that in this
process of cultural cross-fertilization and borrowings, the agent of our culture must
be circumspective, discreet, selective, and adaptive. As the acculturation goes on, the
key words and guiding principles must be identity and authenticity, indigenisation,
and Africanization all through. However, I must warn that this process is without its
inherent challenges.
5. Africa and Christianity in Culture Clash
It appears that the most fundamental and constant factor or feature in any thoughtful
consideration of the origin of Christianity in Africa and its clash with African culture
was with the processes and forces of Christianity and Christianization.

1. The Origin of Christianity in Africa:

It suffices that the encounter of Africa with Christianity has been as old as Christianity
itself. We need to reflect on the incident of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch by
Apostle Philip, on Christianity in Carthage, Alexandria, and Ethiopia in Africa as
early as the 3rd century AD, on Christianity in the Congo, and Benin Kingdoms as
early as the 15th century (by the Portuguese missionaries). The available facts show
that there had been dialogue between Africa and Christianity prior to the more
recent and intensive Christian missionary activities in Africa of the later 19th and
early 20th centuries.28
The second point to note is that the origin of Christianity in Africa has been
seriously affected by elements of chance, historical accidents, and contingencies. It is
not evident that the continent of Africa or any African Nation ever applied as a people
162 The Conspiracy against Africa

to embrace Christianity, to fill a felt religious vacuum, or need. It is therefore logical

to say that if Africans become Christians, it is because the Christian missionaries
came to Africa. If they were Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists
or of the Faith Tabernacle, etc. it was through a sheer accident of history, not because
of a rational option inspired by the intrinsic quality of the religion in question. Each
local African community simply decided to belong to the form of Christianity at its
doorsteps. There was no choice, for there were no alternatives. 29
In the third place, we must appreciate the fact that Africans were remarkably and
corporately generous towards the Christian missionaries. Even the early clash and
bloody conflicts and disputes with the European colonialists did not contaminate
the goodwill and friendliness of the African natives towards the missionaries. In
his account of the Apostolate of the Holy Ghosts in Africa, Reverend Reginald F.
Walker remarked that “The natives always maintained the friendliest relations with
the missionaries, never molesting them in any way, but on the contrary, showing
the greatest eagerness to be on the most cordial relations with them”30. It was in
this singular and profound kindness and gratitude of the African people towards
the Christian missionaries that prompted them to make liberal grants of tracts of
land and other donations and gifts in cash and kind to them for the success of their
mission.
The fourth and remarkable features of the origin of Christianity in Africa were
Africans’ deep appreciation and respect for the religious and sacred.31 Again, Rev.
Walker called attention to this quality of the Africans, saying “these divine truths of
our religion found a generous echo in some of these hearts, which, in spite of their
pagan customs, are profoundly religious”32. This sense of religion on the part of
Africans was undoubtedly a psycho-ethical pre-requisite and a predisposition for the
acceptance of Christianity.
Fifthly, the origin of Christianity in Africa saw the heroic charity and the practical,
disarming and inviting humanitarian spirit of the missionaries. The missionaries
in some places and at certain stages succeeded in establishing schools, educational
centres, maternity centres, hospitals, orphanages, leper colonies, farm settlements,
and other humanitarian establishments. “The sick, the needy, the abandoned, the
orphans and the helpless found a ready welcome and solace in the hands of the
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 163

missionaries. It was this enticing and selfless missionary charity that attracted and
convinced the Africans and wrought their conversion to the Christian faith.”33.
It was in the light of these humanising charities that the Africans saw Christianity
as the instrument of enlightenment, development, and progress. Here, the record
of Rev. Walker deserves attention. Writing about Eze (King) Idigo of Aguleri near
Onitsha, Rev. Walter said “His Majesty, keenly alive to the benefits that accrue to his
neighbours from the ministrations of the missionaries sent a deputation to Father
Luitz, begging him to send a Father to teach the Aguleris the ways of Christianity
and civilization”34.
In the sixth place, evangelization through education and educational
establishments characterise the early beginnings of Christianity in Africa. Hence,
there was the saying that education without Christianity is nothing but paganism.
The scholars and graduates of the Christian Missionary Schools constituted the
backbone of the missionary work, as well as the trained manpower on which the
colonial Governments in Africa could effectively draw.35
In this important sense, therefore, it could be said that since the missionaries
were all Europeans or European oriented culturally, a degree of westernisation were
seen as necessary, if only a common basis of communication and understanding was
to be provided. This was precisely the role the missionary schools came to fulfil. The
school aided the process of evangelization, and the development of education and
culture, though they implied a degree of westernisation. 36
The seventh point was the fact that Christianity at the early stages found African
culture at its lowest ebbs. Some of the gross, gruesome and cruel aspects of our culture
were conspicuously in evidence. The origin of Christianity beheld African culture
battling with cannibalism, nudity, infanticide destruction of twins, local and tribal
strife and bloodbath, mass illiteracy, total lack of sense of documentation, idolatry,
superstitious beliefs, fear, human sacrifice, internal slavery, sorcery, witchcraft, etc.37.
Rev. Adrain Hastings has elucidated these pitiable features of our early culture
and shown how perversely much of African customs relates to fear of the sorcery or
of cruelty, “to which almost all deaths and other misfortunes were widely ascribed
and to an endless struggle to protect oneself against”38.
164 The Conspiracy against Africa

It was these negative and transitory phases of African culture that struck the early
Christian missionaries and prompted them to adopt in general a negative attitude
towards the African culture. It was this negative reaction that sparked off a cultural
clash between Africa and Christianity.
Finally, since time immemorial, the contact of Africa with Christianity had been
plagued by lack of organic vitality, by instability, and fruitlessness and eventual failure
and collapse of local Christianity. Such was the case of Church in North Africa, for
Christianity aped the Roman imperial patterns of control and unwittingly whipped
up nationalism and national prolongation of doctrinal disputes. Evidently, by the
7th century, Christianity in North Africa had already lost its vitality and dynamism
before Islam swept it aside. Such was the case in Congo and Benin where Christianity
perished the 16th century, for its roots were Portuguese and foreign. All these historic
setbacks could have been forestalled and Christianity been fully and firmly rooted in
the indigenous culture of the people. 39

2. Africa and Christianity in Cultural Clash:

By cultural clash it is not meant here that the principles of Christianity as a religion
are opposed to the authentic and honest values of African culture. Cultural clash
here must be understood as the conflict between the Western cultural vessels in
which Christianity had been conveyed to Africa and authentic values and honest
institutions of the African culture.40
The process of evangelization and Christianization in Africa had brought African
and European cultures into contact. Both cultures had received reciprocal shocks.
However, the African culture had suffered greater disadvantages from this shock.
The waves of missionary activities and westernization have cast a stifling shadow
over some of the cultural values of the Africans. These are now in a hard struggle for
survival.41
The following factors have been identified as responsible for this cultural conflict
surrounding the planting of Christianity in Africa42:
1. The Christianity that came to Africa was in general fully steeped in Western
personnel, Western culture, Western philosophy, Western theology, and
Western psychology and cultural values – such as monogamy, institutional
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 165

celibacy, flowering garments reminiscent of the Roman toga or of Medieval

Europe, western patterns of prayers and incantations, rituals and ceremonials
and western names and concept of authority. All these have been swallowed,
and still being swallowed uncritically by Africans in the name of Christianity
to the detriment or neglect of their own culture.
2. The failure of the Christian Missionaries to effectively appreciate the positive
element of African culture and religion. The early missionaries who brought
Christianity to Africa did not seem to enter the African world of thought and
patterns, Africa’s religious psychology, African ethos and ethical conceptions
and values. Struck and shocked by those gross and transient aspects of our
culture, the missionaries shuddered and glossed over the positive merit of our
cultural institutions. In his book, “Church and Mission in Modern Africa”,
Adrain Hastings wrote: “What struck them, undoubtedly, was the darkness of
the continent: Its lack of religion and sound morals, its ignorance, its pitiful
condition made worse by the barbarity of the slave trade. Evangelization
was seen as liberation from a state of absolute awfulness, and the picture of
unredeemed Africa was often painted in colours as gruesome as possible the
better to encourage missionary zeal at home”.43.
3. In their invincible, if not inculpably anthropological ignorance of the
Africans, the Christian missionaries conceived, or seemed to have conceived
their mission as that of imparting, not only the Christian religion but also
culture and civilization – precisely Western civilization. The missionaries were
convinced of the immense superiority of the Western culture which Africa, as
a cultural ‘tabula rasa’ must wholly absorb if it must be rescued from the claws
of paganism, savagery, barbarism, and superstition. Such was the mentality of
the early missionaries in Africa who did not penetrate the minds and culture
of the Africans. This cultural arrogance and superiority complex handled the
strife between African Culture, and then westernised Christian institutions
and values.
4. The African customs, laws and institutions of early and pre-Christian Africa
were in a state of cultural coma and impotence, deeply afflicted by non-
articulation, lack of communication and defencelessness. At the early stage of
Christianity, the African culture had no documented or literary tradition in
166 The Conspiracy against Africa

evidence and defence of its identity and integrity. These militated against the
ability of African culture to cushion off the initial shock and blow inflicted by
the waves of Westernization. Furthermore, African culture had no sophisticated
apologists and well-groomed and equipped elites to defend it against the
unwarranted incursions of the West. The ranks of those who struggled to hold
out were feeble, insignificant, and inconsequential compared to the avalanche
of Westernization.44
Conclusion:
As Africans, adoption of Christianity or any other religion must recognize the
authentic and honest conceptions, customs, institutions, and values of African culture.
Our African mind, religion, psychology, and personality are clearly reconcilable and
harmonize with Christian principles.
A realistic fusion of the spirit and basic institutions of our culture with Christianity
will ensure religious vitality, fruitfulness, and stability.
It suffices that the indigenisation of the externals of religion in terms of personnel,
language, songs, architecture, ceremonials, and instruments would be insufficient.
Christianity should realistically recognize the African personality, its cultural spirit,
and basic and honest institutions, if the earlier Congo-Benin ecclesiastical disaster
would be avoided.
It is this lack of “Africanization” of Christianity that the Western founders of
Christianity in Africa shot themselves in the foot, due to their cultural limitations
and the social constraints of African communities.
It has now become an urgent task with which our African ecclesiastics should
grapple with, to ensure for the African Christian religious sense, stability, and
fruitfulness.

B. Africa and the Price of Ignorance: Why people

are – individually and/or collectively – get lost?
There are two major reasons why people are lost: (a) they do not know who they are
(and their history); and (b) they do not know what they want.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 167

Majority of people don’t really know who they are. They think their nationality
is who they are. They think their religion is who they are. They think their culture
… occupation is who they are. But it is interesting to know that they did not pick
their names. They did not choose their nationality … religion … culture. Some did
not even choose their occupation but were only influenced by society to pick their
occupation.
Therefore, the reason most people fail in life is principally the ignorance of who
they are. Oh yes! My name is my name but if I change my name does it really change
who I am? So, if your culture, nationality, religion, occupation and even your name
is removed, who are you? Do you define yourself from outside in or from inside
out? Anyone who defines himself from outside in cannot satisfactorily conquer the
vicissitudes and concatenations of life because nothing he has was chosen by him but
was externally chosen for him by the society. For majority of people, 100% of their
identity has been given to them by others. And so, if you don’t know who you are,
what then is the basis of your decision? How do you make decisions?
Who you are is not define by your name, your nationality, your culture, your
religion, or your occupation. Who you are is defined by your purpose, your passion,
your values, your strengths, your zone of genius, and your goals. And majority of
people cannot tell anything about their own purpose, their own passion, their own
values, their own strengths, their own mission and their own goals, and their own
zone of genius. It is therefore in this important sense that majority of people were
ignorant of who they are. They are living a lie – Albert, a fabricated identity given
to them by the society. Thus, majority of people are ignorant of who they really are.
The second reason why people are lost is that most people don’t really know
what they want. They have not honestly asked the question and attempt to answer
the question: “What do I truly want?” The society had told them many lies…they
are not free and don’t know what they want. No human being on earth has the
right to take one’s freedom away. It’s a constitutional, moral, and spiritual right.
Unfortunately, majority of people don’t believe that. Can you see how they’ve been
programmed already? People don’t listen to themselves but to everyone else’s’! No
wonder they don’t know where they’re going!
168 The Conspiracy against Africa

Africans must know who they are and where they’re going if they want to be
taken serious in the committee of respected nations.
1. Who is an African?
Is Africa a place of opportunity and unimaginable wealth? Is it the land of our ancestors
and forebears? Is it a shithole, full of corruption and violence that just won’t end? Is it
a motherland for the African diaspora, the cradle of humankind, or just a landmass
with no distinct cultures, people, and languages? Really, what is Africa?
Africa’s identity was dictated by people who had no personal stake in the
continent’s improvement and no understanding of the continent’s cultures, systems,
traditions, and ideologies. Africa’s identity was dictated by people who wanted to
exploit and manipulate it for their gain. It was a psychologically violent act.45
It was Pliny the Elder, writing in ancient Rome, who said: “There is always
something new out of Africa.”46 In 2023, the statement still rings true.
In his book “My definition of African Identity, what is African identity?”
Chiedza H. Kehle wrote that the answer to that question seems obvious but with the
diversity of cultures and the current global village frenzy, it becomes more difficult
to answer. Geographically, those who identify as African are those who live on the
African continent but then come the issue of roots, some may live in Africa but have
ancestral roots in Europe, Asia America, or Australia. Perhaps skin colour also has
a role in African identity; black people who were born and raised in America are
known as African American. Most of them have never been to Africa but because of
the colour of their skin, they are identified with Africa.47
According to Achille Mbembe, in his article “Afropolitanism”: “For many, to
be ‘African’ is to be ‘black‟ and therefore ‘not white’”, with a degree of authenticity
being measured on the scale of raw racial difference.”48 (2005). What we glean from
this is that people, who don’t understand what being an African is, think physical
appearance automatically makes you African which we think is wrong. African
identity is not defined by race, gender, religion, geo-political boundaries, or ethnicity
but by philosophies and ideologies rich in morals, ethics, and an African culture; in
essence, African identity is a state of mind (Botha). African identity, for me, is being
able to call Africa home. So, regardless of colour, roots or geography, African-ness is
the ability to call Africa home.49
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 169

In the book, “Beautiful Ugly; African diaspora and Aesthetics”, the issues of
African identity are discussed in-depth. The African identity is often misunderstood
because of how the history of Africa has evolved.50 During colonialism, a policy
known as assimilation was implemented. According to Senghor, “the ‘Negro African’,
in contrast with the European, approached his surroundings in such a way that the
dividing line between himself and the object completely disappeared. He does not
assimilate; he is assimilated. He lives a common life with the other; he lives in a
symbiosis.”51.
The identity of the African may have been distorted with this process of
assimilation. Gamal Nkrumah however argues on just how much of who one can
be taken out of them, is it possible really to forget one’s own language and culture?
Under all that oppression, did Africans conform to the assimilation and forgot their
own identity? That can’t be possible because Africa still exists and there is an African
culture of sorts that still exists.52
Looking at post-colonial Africa, the continent has been re-built and the people
independent, however, the effects of assimilation may still be visible on the African
culture. Gatherings which were afro-centric have changed drastically. The African
lifestyle has changed but then comes the question of modernity, where is the line
between loss of a culture and evolution. 53
In summary, the identity of the African is a state of mind. There are qualifiers
and categories for the identity of what is African. In essence, Africa has been called
the cradle of mankind so everything could be African, but some things have been
qualified more than others, thus African-ness is really a state of mind.54 Nuttall, S.
(Ed) 2006.
2. Deeper Reflections:
Explorers came to Africa looking for mythical lands and treasure. Colonisers
came here looking for land, minerals, and the expansion of empire. The Cold War
superpowers came here to extend the reach of their economic and ideological power.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank used debt-ridden African
countries as testing grounds for their lending policies, and now businesspeople and
technocrats come here looking for the next genius start-up to buy up and add to
their catalogue.55
170 The Conspiracy against Africa

With each new wave of interest, there’s a “reinvention” of Africa and what it really
is. This also isn’t new. Africa was the birthplace of the first humans, the site of the
Pyramids, the fabled land of Ophir and a long-lost white kingdom, the land of slaves,
wide-open expanses, and wild animals. All these understandings and definitions of
the continent have at some point been the dominant narrative, intrinsic to Africa’s
identity.56
In his book, “The Re-Invention of Africa”, Kenyan academic, Ali Mazrui wrote:
“How Africa is defined has been a product of its interaction with other civilisations,”
he argues, outlining a history of inventions and reinventions of African identity that
came about because of black Africa interacting with Arab, European and American
influences.57
Mazrui also says that the very name of the continent may very well not be
African in origin.58
If our name, the word we use to find ourselves and each other with, is not an
indigenous African word, then what kind of foundation is our continental identity
built upon? It’s a question that appears to have sparked a quasi-existential crisis over
what African identity really is, and whether we truly own it.
Fast forward a century or so and it’s an identity trauma that Africa is still grappling
with. Although colonial administrations are gone, the African identity that they
established stubbornly refuses to go away. The cycle of inventing and reinventing
Africa with cool new packaging continues and the result is still the same: African
voices don’t have a say in the way they’re represented and understood on a global
scale.59
In cultural and social terms, we don’t own our histories. The production of
West and Central African wax print fabric is slowly being taken over by Chinese
manufacturers. Disney somehow found it proper to copyright a Swahili phrase.
Afro-futurism, a movement aimed at reinventing blackness, draws heavily on African
aesthetics and aspects of African cultures in a way that can still treat Africans and
Africa as props.60
In economic terms, we don’t fully own our land, minerals and means of
production. Economically, the situation is the same. All too often, conversations
and strategic planning for African economic development largely occur outside the
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 171

continent, with next to no African economists or scholars involved. Africans still

don’t have a seat at their own table.61
Why should we care? After all, who cares about what the rest of the world thinks
about us? But it’s not that simple. Ownership of identity — especially when global
politics comes into play — is vital in negotiations and power balances.
To engage with other countries while keeping our independence and bargaining
power, we need to be firmly rooted in an identity that’s not at the mercy of someone
else.62
In a capitalist system such as the current one, ownership is important. Ownership
of resources and means of production is crucial for autonomy, but it’s equally crucial
not to overlook ownership of identity and narrative. When we have full ownership
of who we are and what we’re capable of, no one can tell us otherwise.63
There has been some progression towards ownership. Decolonisation movements,
in part, understand this. So too are calls for stolen historical artefacts to be returned
to their homelands. Academics such as Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni theorise
about decolonising higher education and creating truly African universities, not just
universities in Africa. Wizkid has demanded equal billing and visibility at international
awards ceremonies.64
Although these are all different situations, they share a common theme — Africa,
for too long, has not had the power to create its own independent identity. Africa
is not a thing upon which hopes and dreams can be projected. There is not always
something new out of Africa because it is not a site for endless plunder.
Identity is not organic. It’s not something that just springs up and exists in the
world as is. No, identities are made. Identities are carefully constructed, tweaked,
and altered. And, ultimately, identity serves a purpose.
In the same vein, representation is not neutral. The way we human beings
understand and make sense of the world is heavily linked to how that world is
represented to us. Representation and identity are personal, and they are political.65
In terms of African identity, setting up and fully owning our identity is important
for our political, economic, and social progression. In the past, Africa hasn’t had
172 The Conspiracy against Africa

control over how we’re perceived and how we’re represented. That is changing slowly
but it is changing.66
As the current cycle of African reinvention plays itself out, I can only hope that
this time Africa’s identity won’t be created and controlled by others.
3. How did African (slaves) lose their identity?
They did not lose it. It was taken from them. They were67
• Given foreign names by their oppressors.
• Not allowed to speak in their native languages.
• Not allowed to exercise their cultural rituals.
• Not allowed to worship their gods.
4. Africa’s Identity Trauma: The Case of Donald Trump’s Assessment
of Africa.
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and
businessperson who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. During
his administration, he had certain opinion about Africa and Africans which we share below: 68
• They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many
wives, alcoholism, witchcraft, indulging in sex, pretending in church, jealousy,
fighting and complaining of bad leadership; yet refuse to take a decisive action
and protest to remove the brigands from position of power.
• Let us all accept the fact that the black man is a symbol of poverty, mental
inferiority, laziness, and emotional incompetence. To make the matter worse,
he can do everything possible to defend his stupidity. Give them money for
development and they will fight and create hatred and enmity for themselves.
Drill oil wells for them and they will not have peace all the days of their life. *
• See, for instance, what is happening in Nigeria (a Country blessed with
abundant resources), Southern Sudan, Malawi, DRC just to mention a few.
• “This proves to anybody including a stupid fool that Africans do not know
what they want. isn’t that plausible”?
• “They are like monkeys looking for already ripping banana all over the world!
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 173

• Therefore, that the white man is created to rule the Black man, Africans will
always have daydreams.
• And here is the creature (black man) that lacks foresight but only sees what is
near him and still fails to know what to do”?
• A black man is stupid to the extent that he cannot plan for his life beyond a
year. Therefore, how can they develop and live longer?
• “Corruption in the west (And China) is a big abomination, but in Africa, it’s
so huge that it is slowly becoming an acceptable way of life!!!(Shame, isn’t it?)
• They sing and rejoice to their corrupt political leaders. They worship their
scandal-ridden religious leaders like their gods. Lest you forget, these so-
called Africans are praising, dancing, and praying for the people that have
impoverished them, and who comes to hide their loot here. *
• Then which fool argues that the black man is not born a beggar, grows a beggar,
looks a beggar, falls sick as a beggar, and dies a beggar. this has been proven
beyond reasoning.
• I wonder why even up to now most Africans still go to school by force, and
those who are at school are just drug addicts who don’t know what took them
there. This is a pregnant stupidity in Africa. The body of Africans is a very
fertile ground for all diseases in the world because they don’t fear even HIV/
AIDS.
• This leaves me with a question: Are our eyes created the same with those
Africans? I hear there are still cultures in Africa that prohibit them from using
latrines which is very annoying.
• “They cried for independence but have failed to rule themselves”. For sure
being African is a very untreatable disease that even prayers are not enough.
• They have minerals but they cannot do anything with it. Therefore, let us
(whites) go to Africa and pick what we can pick and leave what is of no use.
Poverty is a disease to the whites, but to the blacks it is very normal.
• “Look at what is currently going on in Nigeria National Assembly. Legislators
amending the constitution to favour themselves at the expense of two (200)
million Nigerians; the present administration now has no economic blueprint
174 The Conspiracy against Africa

plan, rather than noise and false propaganda. Characterised with hatred and
witch hunt/impoverishment”.
• “Majority of these legislators are treasury looters who are intellectually barren
but using the ill-gotten wealth to oppress the citizens of that great country”…
• Black people with black sense, and a sick president in London for medical
tourism!!!
• The worst tragedy in Africa is that if you dare stand up and speak up for what’s
right, you may end up regretting.
• “The few wise and open-minded Africans who have tried to educate these fools
about civilization have met the worst. They have been pushed hard on the wall,
they have been silenced and others have been killed”.
• Before I finish, let me tell Africans that before you jump and call me a racist, an
anti-blacks or whatever term you may wish to use against me,1st tackle runaway
corruption, dreadful terrorism, tribalism, poverty, unemployment, diseases,
illiteracy, ignorance, and inequality, that have put your whole continent on the
verge of collapse”.
• “Hate me or love me, I don’t care. I know this is the plain truth which will
never see the light of the day to the cowards that are afraid to be told as it is”.

c. The African Renaissance: A Myth or a Reality

1. The Issue of Race Supremacy
Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, an English man of Oxford University, England and one
of the most respected and greatest modern historians that ever lived, once described
the history of Africa as “darkness, nothing but darkness”69-70. Coincidentally, a famous
and wealthy Arab slave trader in the 18th century, Mehtma Mohammed, who used
to capture and purchased his slaves from what is now West Africa and transported
them to the Arab world through Sudan and to the Middle East where they spent
their miserable lives as slaves was not sparing in his remarks and experiences of the
black Africans. According to him:
“These black creatures were born to be in perpetual servitude and were ordained
by God to be our slaves forever. They are lazy, greedy, stupid, godless, dirty, and
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 175

most important of all they are cowards. When you put the whip to them and
hard, they line up and will do anything for you. They and their African brothers
who sell them to us have no sense of collective purpose and they think nothing of
killing and selling their own kinsmen for a pittance. They have no god, and they
have no interest in dying for or fighting for anything which is outside their daily
feeding. They are docile, lazy, dirty, and stupid and that is why I have made so
much money from selling them. The most gratifying thing is that even if one of the
groups shows signs of any potential or hope of being able to be a great leader to the
others, they are the ones that will expose him, report him, and destroy him just for
a few morsels from my table. They present no danger to us. They are as harmless
and fearful as puppies and them only growl like dogs at each other and to no-one
else. We will shame them, trade them, own them and rule over them forever.” 71
These are painful and harsh words coming from this Arab slave-trader. Yet sadly
such views about the African are not limited to the likes of him or indeed to the 18th
century.
It would be recalled that the former apartheid South African President P.W. Botha
re-echoed similar sentiment while addressing his Cabinet. A reprint of the address
was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper,
dated August 18, 1985. It reads as follows:
“Pretoria has been made by the White mind for the White man. We are not
obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are
superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one
ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created
by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and
blood. Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines?
Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Niggers in
the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade? Where is the Black
man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their “Sus” law
is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their
discrimination too. Why in the hell then is so much noise made about us? Why are
they biased against us? I am simply trying to prove to you all that there is nothing
unusual we are doing that the so-called civilized worlds are not doing. We are
176 The Conspiracy against Africa

simply an honest people who have come out aloud with a clear philosophy of how
we want to live our own White life.”72.
He went further to assert:
“We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks
look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make
them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not
crocodiling simply because they look alike. If God wanted us to be equal to the
Blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect, but he
created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually,
we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt
over the years.73
I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God-fearing person, who has demonstrated
practically the right way of being. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that
behind the scenes, Europe, America, Canada, Australia-and all others are behind
us in spite of what they say. For diplomatic relations, we all know what language
should be used and where. To prove my point, Comrades, does anyone of you know
a White country without an investment or interest in South Africa? Who buys our
gold? Who buys our diamonds? Who trades with us? Who is helping us develop
another nuclear weapon? The very truth is that we are their people, and they are
our people. It’s a big secret.74
The strength of our economy is backed by America, Britain, and Germany. It is
our strong conviction, therefore, that the Black is the raw material for the White
man. So, Brothers and Sisters, let us join hands together to fight against this Black
devil. I appeal to all Afrikaners to come out with any creative means of fighting
this war. Surely God cannot forsake his own people whom we are. By now every
one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them
guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise,
dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the
Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness, and emotional
incompetence. Isn’t it plausible therefore that the White man is created to rule the
Black man? 75
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 177

Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and, on the throne,
sat a Kaffir! Can you imagine what would happen to our women? Does anyone of
you believe that the Blacks can rule this country? Hence, we have good reasons to
let them all – the Mandela’s and the others – rot in prison, and I think we should
be commended for having kept them alive in spite of what we have at hand with
which to finish them off. I wish to announce a number of new strategies that
should be put to use to destroy this Black bug. We should now make use of the
chemical weapon.
Priority number one, we should not by all means allow any more increases of
the Black population lest we be choked very soon. I have exciting news that our
scientists have come with an efficient stuff. I am sending out more researchers
to the field to identify as many venues as possible where the chemical weapons
could be employed to combat any further population increases. The hospital is a
very strategic opening, for example and should be fully utilized. The food supply
channel should be used. We have enveloped excellent slow killing poisons and
fertility destroyers. Our only fear is in case such stuff came in!! They were bound o
their hands as they are bound to start using it against us if you care to think of the
many Black people working for us in our homes. However, we are doing the best
we can to make sure that the stuff remains strictly in our hands.76
Secondly, most Blacks are vulnerable to money inducements. I have set aside a
special fund to exploit this venue. The old trick of divide and rule is still very
valid today. Our experts should workday and night to set the Black man against
his fellowman. His inferior sense of morals can be exploited beautifully. And
here is a creature that lacks foresight. There is a need for us to combat him in
long term projections that he cannot suspect. The average Black does not plan
his life beyond a year: that stance, for example, should be exploited. My special
department is already working round the clock to come out with a long-term
operation blueprint.77
I am also sending a special request to all Afrikaner mothers to double their birth
rate. It may be necessary too to set up a population boom industry by putting
up centres where we employ and support fully White young men and women
to produce children for the nation. We are also investigating the merit of uterus
rentals as a possible means of speeding up the growth of our population through
178 The Conspiracy against Africa

surrogate mothers. For the time being, we should also engage a higher gear to
make sure that Black men are separated from their women and fines imposed
upon married wives who bear illegitimate children. 78
I have a committee working on finding better methods of inciting Blacks against
each other and encouraging murders among themselves. Murder cases among
Blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them. My
scientists have come up with a drug that could be smuggled into their brews to
effect slow poisoning results and fertility destruction. Working through drinks and
manufacturing of soft drinks geared to the Blacks, could promote the channels of
reducing their population. Ours is not a war that we can use the atomic bomb
to destroy the Blacks, so we must use our intelligence to effect this. The person-to-
person encounter can be very effective.79
As the records show that the Black man is dying to go to bed with the White
woman, here is our unique opportunity. Our Sex Mercenary Squad should go
out and camouflage with Apartheid Fighters while doing their operations quietly
administering slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to those Blacks they thus
befriend. We are modifying the Sex Mercenary Squad by introducing White men
who should go for the militant Black woman and any other vulnerable Black
woman. We have received a new supply of prostitutes from Europe and America
who are desperate and too keen to take up the appointments.
My latest appeal is that the maternity hospital operations should be intensified.
We are not paying those people to help bring Black babies to this world but to cut
them on the very delivery moment. If this department worked very efficiently, a
great deal could be achieved’’.80
These are manifestly racist, demonically inspired and utterly despicable
submissions coming from malevolent, evil, dark, twisted, tormented and ignorant
souls. They tell us exactly how many of our detractors view us, even up until today,
even if they cannot afford to say so openly. And we must also accept the fact that
oftentimes our own behaviour confirms these negative stereotypes. If anyone doubts
that just look at the Nigerian example.
A Nigerian born political activist, Femi Fani-Kayode reflecting on the political
development of his country made the following submissions:
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 179

“The truth is that we take pleasure in persecuting, shaming, killing, and destroying
one another, we enjoy pulling down our brightest and our best, we wilfully and
consciously promote and celebrate compromise and mediocrity and we are simply
not prepared to fight and die for any worthwhile cause or principle, even when it
is in our interest so to do.
That is the difference between us and those from other parts of the world. They
are ready to pay any price for a better and safer tomorrow for their children,
but we are not. They will always insist on the best, on enforcing their rights, on
jealously guarding their civil liberties, on resisting evil, on fighting persecution
and injustice and on preserving the integrity of their civil institutions whilst we
are not. Instead, we are prepared to settle for anything, compromise with anything
and take anything from anyone or any institution. If we wish to progress, we
must change our attitude, we must discard this slavish mind-set and thereby put
to shame our detractors and enemies. We must be ready to stand up and insist on
our rights and we must be ready to pay the supreme price whilst doing so if that
is what is required.
We must dig deep and find the required strength and courage and we must, as a
people, rise up to where we belong and become what God wants us to be: a great,
beautiful, free, prosperous, educated, respected and strong people. We are no less
than that and that is our due. To establish and confirm the glory of our continent
and to bring honour, self-respect, and dignity to every African: that surely is the
challenge of our time. May God help us to achieve this in our generation and may
He put the Mehtma Ali’s, the Hugh Trevor Roper’s, and the P.W. Botha’s of this
world to utter shame. God bless Nigeria. God bless Africa.”81.
Africans do not love themselves or love their own. Our continent, as beautiful and
blessed with human and mineral resources as she is, is plagued with more bitterness,
frustration, envy, hatred of self, hatred of others, backbiting, wickedness, deceit and
evil than any other that I know. If he or she sees anything good in his brother or
sister, the African’s first instinct is to diminish it and destroy it.82
Other than that, he attempts to play it down, ridicule it and discredit it. We kill
and destroy our brightest and our best, we sacrifice the future of our children, and
we choose to believe the very worst about one another, about our future and about
180 The Conspiracy against Africa

our past. And that is precisely why we are so far behind everyone else. Have you
ever asked yourself how many Africans really know their own history, where they are
coming from and whether they know anything about the great and noble heritage
that was bestowed upon them by their forefathers and fallen heroes?83
A man will give his life for his people and his community in Africa and he will
be killed by the powers that be for it and yet within 5 to 10 years after that noble
act of sacrifice and martyrdom not only is he forgotten and despised but his name
will not even be mentioned in the classrooms for future generations to learn about
him or to acknowledge or appreciate the great sacrifice that he has made for his
country. The list of those that have been treated in this way is endless: Muammar
Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi of Libya, the Bulldozer of Tanzania – John
Magufuli, Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Samora Moisés
Machel of Mozambique, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Tunde
Idiagbon of Nigeria, Milton Obote of Uganda, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo
Kenyatta of Kenya, Chris Okigbo of Nigeria, Steve Biko of South Africa, Kwame
Nkrumah of Ghana, Ken Saro-Wiwa of Nigeria, M.K.O Abiola of Nigeria, Kudirat
Abiola, Shehu Musa Yar’adua, Dele Giwa, Alfred Rewane, Isaac Adaka Boro, Bola
Ige, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Murtala Mohammed, S.L. Akintola, Tafawa Balewa,
Ahmadu Bello, Baguda Kaltho (all from Nigeria) and so many others. I could go on
and on. Every single one of them long gone, yet none given their proper dues or the
respect that they deserve, and neither are they given a place in the pantheon of world
greats. And then the soul -searching questions begin.84
How do you explain the fact that this is the only continent in the world that
has very few first-class world historians? And yet if we know nothing about our
glorious and illustrious past or if we continuously distort it with subjective, self-
serving, dishonest, and inaccurate embellishments or the usual fancy far-flung tales
and ancient folklore, how can we possibly expect to build a greater future for our
people? For example, in Africa your enemies have no history and memories of them
are not only annihilated and erased from the human psyche and public records,
but their descendants must be ridiculed, scorned, and treated with contempt from
generation to generation.85
That is our way. The question that then comes to mind is this: can we possibly
gain anything from a past that we refuse to learn anything about and that we
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 181

habitually distort? Are we not condemned to repeating its mistakes if we continue to

glibly ignore it and refuse to dig deep and learn from it like those from other climes
continuously do? Yet we pray for and often talk about an “African Renaissance”. And
we glibly tell the world that “Africa’s time has come”. But can there be a renaissance
without us first changing our mind-set? Can our time come without us first changing
our ways and the way we perceive and treat one another? The truth is that none of
these things can happen until we turn our hearts to God, love our neighbours as we
do ourselves, acknowledge and imbue the spirit and power of unconditional love and
at least try to completely renew our minds. Until we rid ourselves of the evil cancer
of ‘’the hater’’ in Africa we are not going anywhere, and we will not achieve our full
potentials.
2. Crab Mentality: The Case of Africa
Have you ever seen crabs in a bucket? You’ll realize it is impossible for any crab to
escape, why? If one such crab attempts to escape from the bucket, the others pull it
back rather than help, even when they all share the same motive, drive to survive and
be free.
This malicious nature existing amongst Africans defeats their collective purpose.
This interesting and unfortunate metaphor is termed “Crab Mentality”. It is simply
phrased as “if I can’t have it, you mustn’t have it too”. Evidently, this phenomenon
characterizes the African continent. This, for me, is one of the major reasons why
Pan-Africanism and the African Union have failed to unite the continent. It is my
take that disunity is the major setback in Africa shackled by its dogmatic adherences.86
Paradoxically, Africa is one of the richest continents in the world in terms of
natural resources and yet the “poorest continent” of all. Africa is estimated to have
some 120 billion barrels of oil reserves – less than half of Saudi Arabia, some 600
million hectares of uncultivated arable land, more than half of the world’s population
growth will be in Africa by 2050 according to the African Development Bank.87
With all these awesome endowments, why on earth is Africa yet under-developed?
Her inability as a continent to have a single voice in dealing with other continents
has led to the mitigation of the resources of Africa, enabling the Western powers
to influence the forces of supply and demand even when she (Africa) is the sole
producer of these resources. The continent has been gravely deprived due to these
182 The Conspiracy against Africa

unwarranted developments causing resources to be under-charged and benefits to

the continent at ground zero. 88
In another development, Africa is said to be at a great risk losing over $60 billion
annually due to illegal outflows and price spikes in the extraction of minerals with
most of its returns going offshore.
Natural resource industries have produced “enclave economies” as a result
generating wealth that is not utilized in areas of importance to remedy human
development challenges. For instance, although Ghana is the second leading producer
of cocoa beans in the world, there are still high levels of poverty and underdevelopment
in the country, especially in rural areas whose survival are almost entirely dependent
on agriculture. 89
The inability of Africans to have full control of resources on the continent has
undoubtedly denied them the opportunity to empower themselves economically
invariably leading to the vicious circle of poverty.
According to a World Health Organisation report, “Bridging the Gaps”, poverty
is now the leading cause of premature death across the world especially in the
developing areas like sub-Saharan Africa.90 And, until Africans discard the erroneous
mentality of the crabs and stand united, no number of external aids, grants and/or
technocrats imported from elsewhere would help develop the continent.
Understandably, in one of his famous speeches, Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame
Nkrumah said, “Salvation of Africa lies in unity … for in unity lies strength and I see
it. Africa must unite or sell themselves out to imperialists and colonialists’ exploiters
for a mess of pottage or disintegrate individually”. Evidently the recurrent selfish
attitude of African leaders to champion their personal gains at the expense of the
collective overriding interests of the continent has caused the masses to consistently
wallow in poverty and remained underdeveloped. (“Remembering Kwame Nkrumah:
Why his vision remains most viable answer to Africa’s problems”, African Courier,
Reporting Africa and its Diaspora, Germany. See also Abel Udoekene, “Top 30
Quotes by Great African Leaders on African Unity” https://www.motivation.africa/
top-30-quotes-by-great-africa)
Clearly, this unfortunate attitude of our leaders playing into the hands of
their oppressors have consolidated, in no small measure, to the dependency of the
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 183

continent and effectively nullifies and rubbish the very essence of fighting against
decolonisation in the first place. We can judge the acts of omission or commission
of the colonial masters for all I care, but in what important sense is the political
leadership now from then? Where is the unity now? Isn’t it about time we forged a
coalition of African countries with dedicated political leadership and commitment?
The price we pay for disunity amongst African nations and her peoples have
invariably led to the violent conflicts in countries such as Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia,
and Sierra Leone which led to disruption of internal peace and security of the
continent.
Deceitfully, African leaders continue to talk about African “unity” in one breath
but in so many circumstances they have been seen to have sided with “outsiders”
against their own fellow African leaders as seen in the overthrow of leaders such as
Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Muammar Gaddafi of
Libya, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. African leaders remained largely unconcerned
as the continent is turned into a dumping ground for inferior goods.
What can Africa really do without seeking for external help? Even on issues of
grave concern such as Covid-19, Ebola, monkey pox, and even ordinary malaria, the
continent looks up to the West for solution.
If we had blamed colonialism in the past as the major reason why Africa was
underdeveloped, what stops Africa from achieving social and economic development
now that she manages her own resources? We can only make progress when we are
united. My thesis stands or falls on this theorem.

D. Is Religion the Biggest Scam in Africa?

Is religion the biggest scam in history? Some critics have argued the fact that it is not
only is it the biggest scam, it’s the worst insidious infectious Blight ever inflicted on
humanity! Some others have argued that even assuming that a religion started with
the best of intentions, it is clear that religion has been used (and continues to be used)
to control people’s thoughts, speech, and actions, with penalties for disobedience
ranging from “God will punish you later” to “we need to cut your head off”.91
Of course, there’s scores of people who maintained that “God” spoke to them
and for only a small donation of your annual pay-check you too can be saved. These
184 The Conspiracy against Africa

pious, mansion dwelling, private jet flying, men of the cloth have lied their way to a
lavish lifestyle.92
Critics have argued that worst of all is the perpetration of indoctrinating children
into believing there is some deity who needs you to think, talk, and act in a certain
way lest awful things happen. Yet the parent/preacher/whomever has absolutely no
proof, no evidence, that anything will happen. What a horrible thing to do to a
child.93
The Bible and the Koran have been misused to enslave and colonise Africa.
Today, the Bible is one of the greatest instruments in creating false industry in the
Continent of Africa. Christianity as we know it today was midwifed to Africa through
European missionaries. When Europeans came, they were reading the same Bible
that we’re reading today! When they sat in the Berlin Conference dividing Africa,
they were reading the same. This was the same Bible in which Apostle Paul’s letter
to the Galatians in chapter 3:28 which reads: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus”. And yet, these Europeans came to Africa and conquered us, subjugated and
discriminated against us. Of course, they were mentored by the same Bible.
They have succeeded in dividing the body of Christ. In 1534 a group of
Europeans formed what is today known as the Anglican Church with the British
monarch as its head. The Scots have appropriated that same religion to have their
Presbyterian Church; the Greeks, their Greek orthodox … the Armenians, their
Armenian orthodox, etc. The Roman Catholics was bizarre in her appropriation that
irrespective of where the Church is situate it is known as, call and function as Roman
Catholic Church whether in Nigeria, or Uganda, or elsewhere.
It would be recalled that in apartheid South Africa, the Dutch Reformed Church
was the spring board, the very foundation stone on which Apartheid was articulated
in 1948. It was Dr D.F. Malan, the prime architect of apartheid, who led the National
Party in the first campaign that centred on openly racist appeals to white unity.
So the Bible has been misused! It has been used to support slavery, colonisation,
and perversion of truth and justice and creating divisions even among adherents of
the same faith. It does not seem to guide and mould the lives of its adherence any
more. We are very pretentious in our actions and behaviours. Circumstances now
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 185

seem to define and as much as possible describe the portion of the Bible we respect
and abide by. It is now the convenience-instrument with which we cover our sins and
hide our ugly nakedness. Are our lives testaments to our professed and proclaimed
Christianity? We need to rediscover mentorship in the Bible. Christianity in its right
perspective is indeed a way of life as espoused and lived by Jesus Christ.
Islam and Judaism do not fare any better! Islam is regarded as a “religion of
peace”, misguided Muslims have misused the Koran to endorse, enslave, colonise
and kill fellow human. They forgot that if Allah is truly Almighty and Supreme, as
they truly espouse, He should fight and defend His cause and course. Why must
humans fight and kill for a deity that is all-powerful?
There are three kinds of sin in Judaism: sins against God, sins against another
person, and sins against self. An example of a sin against God might include
making a promise you don’t keep. Sins against another person might include saying
hurtful things, physically harming someone, lying to them, or stealing from them.
Judaism’s belief that you can sin against yourself makes it somewhat unique among
major religions. Sins against self may include behaviours such as addiction or even
depression. In other words, if despair prevents you from living fully or being the best
person you can be, it can be considered a sin if you fail to seek correction for the
problem. In these categories of sin, many adherents have fallen short.
Is religion, therefore, a remarkably successful scam?
“ … Religion is a business; a big business… Its product is fraud, so yes, a scam.
Religion has the most successful marketing tools, especially the use of the carrot and
the stick. Religions have a marketing toolbox par excellence! They control their
followers not just on Sunday but every day of their lives, and the followers do not
even see it! Take prayer: they’re told what to pray, when to pray, to whom to pray,
how many times a day to pray, and they do it! Islam even controls them making
them pray five times a day! Plus, many other special prayers! … How can they not
see they are being controlled?”94
More people today are seeing the truth and leaving religion in vast numbers
– the religious, the non-affiliated, the “spiritual but not religious”, the atheists and
agnostics are the largest growing segment categorized under religion.95
186 The Conspiracy against Africa

Intelligent men do not decide any subject until they have carefully examined
both or all sides of it. Fools, cowards, and those too lazy to think, accept blindly,
without examination, dogmas and doctrines imposed upon them in childhood by
their parents, priests, and teachers, when their minds were immature, and they could
not reason.
In Africa, Christianity is a multi-billion-dollar industry that sells invisible
products to its members, one of which you can only find out about once you are
dead - eternal life in paradise.
[Some] 433,000,000 Mohammedans believe that the Koran was brought by an
angel from heaven; 335,000,000 Hindus believe one of their gods, Siva, has six arms;
153,000,000 Buddhists believe they will be reincarnated; 904,000,000 Christians
believe a god made the world in six days, Joshua stopped the sun by yelling at it, and
Jesus was born of a virgin and nullified natural laws to perform miracles.96
Are there scientific proofs of any of these claims? Science has shown them to
be contrary to all known facts. It is more intelligent, some would argue, to classify
them as false. According to this school of thought, religions are all based upon the
primitive superstitions of ignorant, stone-age men who had no knowledge of science
and thought the world was flat. The Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo for life and
burned Bruno at the stake because they disagreed with these superstitious beliefs.97
These primitive beliefs have been kept alive by a vast army of priests, preachers,
imams, and rabbis because it is to their great profit to promote them, first, by
imposing them on the helpless brains of children, and second, by saturating the air,
TV, press, and schools with their childish superstitions and unreasonable claims.
They fool the ignorant and make the gullible and the intelligent alike pay tribute
to them. Their multi-billion-dollar properties and incomes are exempt from taxes;
they get half-fare on trains, buses, and planes; and receive billions of dollars in grants
of taxpayers’ money to help build up their political power, wealth, and luxurious
living. Taxes could be cut 10 per cent if churches paid their just share. That would
mean a probable saving of 20 billion dollars a year to the people of the U.S. every
year of their lives. Some priests also indoctrinated with superstition from childhood
probably believe what they preach. It pays them handsomely to do so.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 187

Some religious beliefs are against common sense. These superstitious beliefs
are promoted for the purpose of making the gullible believe that by paying money
to the priest-class, they will be favoured by one of the gods. Some religious critics
have argued that there is nothing supernatural — nothing contrary to natural law.98.
Whether this is true or not is a matter of who is doing the judgement.
Religion has caused untold ignorance, murder, torture, fear, poverty, unhappiness,
wars, and has kept the world 10,000 years behind the times. It still does, while the
millions support the priestly loafers in comfort and ease. For ages, the independent
thinkers have been murdered, ostracized, tortured, and suppressed and their writings
destroyed. Only in recent years have a few courageous thinkers been free to criticize
religions.99
Great thinkers and scientists — Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Charles Bradlaugh,
Luther Burbank, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein,
Henry L. Mencken, Charles Smith, Joseph Lewis, Rupert Hughes, Bertrand Russell,
H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, Clarence Darrow,
Chapman Cohen, George McDonald, George Bernard Shaw, and hundreds of others
— have discarded all or most of the religious beliefs.100
This book appeals to you to examine both sides so we may all escape from the
religious oppression which degenerate the minds, forces all to pay tribute to the
priestly parasites, and retards human progress.
1. The Damaging Effects of Religion in Africa
One of the major causes of conflicts in Africa and the world in general is the issue of
religion. Each sect or denomination always believes its ways and practices as being
the approved or acceptable one and as such view the others either as inferior or
threat to theirs. This has led to verbal and sometimes physical confrontations leading
to loss of property and even lives in places like Nigeria and the Central African
Republic (CAR). Even within same faith, we have experienced, are experiencing
doctrinal differences and disagreements. Even among Muslims there are conflicts
between the Sunni and Shiite sects over practices, while among Christians there are
doctrinal conflicts or misunderstandings among the various many denominations,
including which is even the right day to congregate for worship. Amongst African
traditional worshippers, they see Christianity and Islam as being mutually different
188 The Conspiracy against Africa

and antagonistic, an imported religion meant to exploit the people and diminish
their rich culture.101
In addition to the above, a lot of religious misunderstandings, misinterpretations
and so-called prophecies have brought about conflicts among family members,
leading to destruction, broken homes and even death. It is not uncommon to read
in the media that a man has killed or maim his wife, child, mother because of a
prophecy he claims to have had about the victim from his pastor or religious leader.
In this part of the world (Africa), there appears to be a direct relationship between
religion and laziness, leading to poverty. A lot of believers would rather spend their
time attending one religious event or the other throughout the year at the expense of
their work or source of livelihood. It is not uncommon to see church services from
morning till night in any part of the country, even on weekends. There is no doubt
that the more time a person spends at his/her religious program to the neglect of his/
her work, the less income the person earns, leading to lack and poverty. 102
Additionally, a lot of religious adherents, especially from those imported
religions, are made to believe that there is no need working harder on this earth
to amass wealth, after all you will die one day and leave your possessions behind.
Thus, they should seek the kingdom of God first and all other things shall be added
unto them (Matt. 6:33) The interpretations given to this passage by a lot of people
are misleading and false. It is not a rocket science to reason that the more you work
efficiently and effectively, the more likely you earn and increase in wealth.
It is therefore in this important sense that critics have argued that religion
(especially the imported ones) makes many of its adherents lethargic, and instead of
being initiative-taking on issues affecting their lives. So you’ll come across someone
who has a symptom of a disease who’ll rather pray instead of going to the health
centre at the first sign, till the condition deteriorates. It’s thus not a wonder to find
a lot of preventable diseases killing or maiming people in our society. According to
CIA fact book of 2010, Nigeria with a religious belief index of 96% had maternal
mortality rate of 630 out of 100,000 births, while Sweden, with a religious belief
of 17% index had a maternal mortality rate of 4 out of every 100,000 births. There
definitely are many factors leading to these statistical differences or disparities but
religion plays a prominent role in all of it. 103
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 189

Furthermore, religion creates a sense of fear or timidity in its adherents. Most

of the religious sermons on our airwaves are usually warnings or threats to people to
do or refrain from doing one thing or the other to avoid a curse or damnation from
God. It’s quite common to hear statements like “stop drinking alcohol or you’ll go
to hell”, “if you don’t pay your tithes, your blessings will be withheld by God and
you’ll be poorer”, “if you dress provocatively, you could be raped”, “if you don’t
repent, you’ll die sooner than you think” and so many other fear-mongering stuff.
The reality is that a lot of these untruths sink into the consciousness of their listeners,
who are usually afraid to go out of their way to think independently and act on their
own. It’s much dangerous even with kids where they are indoctrinated from their
homes, schools, and churches to tow a certain line or face hell fire or danger in life.104
In addition, religion has created an avenue for a lot of charlatans parading as so-
called men of God to fleece the poor of their meagre resources. They’ll readily quote
verses in the bible to support the need for members to donate their monies to the
‘work of God’. These monies mostly find their way into the pockets of these charlatans
to fund their luxurious lifestyles while members continue to sink in poverty. A lot of
these preachers are living in luxurious homes driving the latest luxury cars, travelling
to most exotic holiday destination with their families, educating their children in the
most expensive schools, etc. while most of their followers can barely pay their utility
bills and kids’ fees even in public schools.105
Whereas the congregants are told to aspire to go to heaven to enjoy the best
of life, these preachers are enjoying their right here on earth at the expense of the
gullible and poor members. 106
Most religious groups discriminate against women in so many ways, even
though they usually form the bulk of the members of any sect or denomination.
All the cleaning, scrubbing, tidying up, singing and events organisation are mostly
spearheaded by women, but they are barely represented in the decision-making
echelons of religious organisations. In some of these organisations, women cannot
preach or teach to the congregation or cannot lead groups. Yet they are the highest
contributors in terms of donations/offertories and the general sustenance of these
groups.107
190 The Conspiracy against Africa

Unsurprisingly, most of their religious holy books (Bible or Koran) have various
verses which seems to support this aspect of treating women as second-class members.
And, once it is settled in those books, who are you to challenge what they say? One
thing worthy of note is that all these books are supposed to have been written by
men, so what would one expect?108
In addition to the above, many governments in Africa use religion as a vehicle
to foment trouble or create dissatisfaction among the populace, all to advance their
political and parochial interests. This leads to a fragmentation of the society along
various lines. The Buhari’s administration in Nigeria is a perfect example whereby the
government was reasonably suspected to have plans to Islamize the country. Another
typical example is the political campaign season in Ghana where the ruling NDC
and the main opposition NPP have been inciting one religious group or the other to
vote for its leaders to advance their personal political interests, all to the detriment
of social cohesion.109 39.
Finally, one major problem of religion in Africa is that it does not encourage
creative or critical thinking. Religious dogma and practices are quite conservative
or static. There are a lot of inventions in the world which have made life and living
comfortable and much better. Religion generally believes that a supernatural power
has the final say in how things are destined to work in one’s life.110
Whereas religion and critical thinking is encouraged in Asia, Europe, and
America, it is not so in Africa. Religion takes precedence over all other things in our
lives, thus no surprises that hardly do we invent or innovate in any of the technological
advancement in the world.
I do concede that religion might not be the only factor in deciding the above
negative effects on African societies. However, it plays the dominant role and there is
little doubt that a less focus on religion and a major attention to science, technology
and critical thinking will no doubt propel our development goals forward. It is thus
my hope that as a society, we would do a critical and objective evaluation of how
we overemphasize the positions of religion especially in our educational institutions
and political circles, and rather focus our resources, especially and money, on
development-oriented goals.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 191

References
1. Reverend Father Emmanuel Edeh (1985), “Towards an Igbo Metaphysics”,
London: Author-House (abridged edition), 2014.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe (1985), “Christianity, Culture and Colonialism in
Africa”, Port Harcourt: Department of Religious Studies, College of Education.
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Ibid
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. Unoka quoted in Chinua Achebe (1958), “Things Fall Apart” first published
in the UK in 1962 by William Heinemann Ltd, p. 17.
15. Chinua Achebe, ibid.
16. “The cultural clash between the European and the Africa” https://www.
gradevalley.com/the-cultural-clash-between-the-european-and-the-africa#
17. Chinua Achebe (1958), “Things Fall Apart” first published in the UK in 1962 by
William Heinemann Ltd, p. 176.
18. Language changes lives by changing minds, shaping thought, and making
worlds of difference merely by what is said or not said. It embodies the rules
192 The Conspiracy against Africa

of a culture and the aspirations of those who live in it. The language we speak,
hear, and read, and with which our minds reflect our place in the world, shapes
our reality. See “The Power of Language: How It Creates Your Reality and How
…” www.learning-mind.com/the-power-of-language/
19. The decline of ethnic languages has been a matter of serious concern for many
linguists. Since colonial times, the status of African countries as developing
countries has not changed. See “The impact of colonialism on African languages”
See www.speak-africa.com/impact-colonialism-african-languages
20. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan author and academic who writes primarily in
Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English.
21. Africa has 3000 distinct ethnic groups, 2000 languages. Home to the most
genetically diverse people on Earth. So diverse that two Africans are more
genetically different from each other than a Chinese and a European are from
each other. Africa is the world’s second largest and second-most-populous
continent. See PEOPLE OF AFRICA - The Diversity of African People” See
www.africanholocaust.net/peopleofafrica.htm
22. The usage of languages, be it one or multiple ones, shapes how a country is
developed. Multiple languages provide language diversity, and thus diversity of
thoughts, which promotes innovation and is thus beneficial for the development.
See “How Language Affects the Development of a Country …” medium.com/
language-insights/how-language-affect…
23. 10 ways Britain Has Ruined the World - Listverse_files.
24. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe (1985), op. cit. p.
25. Under his rule, over half of the region’s population died. At the time of the
conference, only the coastal areas of Africa were colonized by the European
powers. At the Berlin Conference, the European colonial powers scrambled
to gain control over the interior of the continent. The conference lasted until
February 26, 1885 — a three-month period where colonial powers haggled over
geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural
and linguistic boundaries …See Matt Rosenberg https://www.thoughtco.com/
berlin-conference-1884-1885-div
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 193

26. Ibid
27. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe, op. cit.
28. Samson Fatokun, “Christianity in Africa: A Historical Approval”, Pretoria:
University of Pretoria, p.
29. Joseph Kiprop, “The Origin and Growth of Christianity in Africa” https://
www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-origin-and-growth-of-christianity-in-the-
african continent.html
30. Rev. Reginald F. Walker (1933), “The Holy Ghost Fathers in Africa”, Dublin:
Black-Rock College, p. 78
31. Ibid, pp. 79 & 83
32. Ibid, pp. 79
33. Ibid, pp. See also Adrain Hastings (1967), “Church and Mission in Modern
Africa”, London: Burns and Oats, pp. 59-60.
34. Rev. Father Walker, op. cit. p. 80
35. Ibid, p. 85
36. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe (1985), op. cit. p.
37. Rev. Father Walker, op. cit. p. 79. See also P.A. Talbot (1926), “The Peoples
of Southern Nigeria”, vol. 1 Oxford p. 272 quoted in Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe,
op. cit.
38. Adrain Hastings (1967), op. cit. p. 61
39. Ibid, p. 52-59
40. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe, op. cit.
41. Ibid
42. Ibid
43. Adrain Hastings, op. cit. p. 60
44. Nwachukwu, S.S. Iwe, op. cit.
45. Africa’s identity was dictated by people who wanted to exploit and manipulate
it for their gain. It was a psychologically violent act. See “Africa’s identity begins
194 The Conspiracy against Africa

at home” https://mg.co.za/article/2019-02-08-00-africas-identity-begins-at-
home/
46. Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist
and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman
Empire and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopaedic
Naturalis Historia which became an editorial model for encyclopaedia.
47. Chiedza H. Kehle, “My definition of African Identity, what is African Identity”
- Academia.edu https://www.academia.edu/8804387/My_definition_of_
African_Identity
48. Achille Mbembe in his article “Afropolitanism” quoted in “What makes you
African?” See https: nactpvs.wordpress.com (20th of September 2018).
49. Ibid.
50. “Beautiful/Ugly is a theoretically sophisticated, enormously insightful, and
refreshing read of the politics of aesthetics and the aesthetics of politics,
terrifically well illustrated and beautifully arranged and designed.”—David
Theo Goldberg, author of The Racial State “Finally, a book that explores
African and African diasporic concepts of aesthetics with depth and theoretical
sophistication. A marvellous collection of well thought-out and finely crafted
essays by a diverse group. Seehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Ugly-
African-Diaspora-
51. Senghor quoted in Chiedza H. Kehle, op. cit. p. 47
52. Gamal Nkrumah quoted in Chiedza H. Kehle, ibid. p. 47
53. Ibid
54. S. Nuttal (ed) (2006), ibid
55. Africa’s identity was dictated by people who wanted to exploit and manipulate
it for their gain. It was a psychologically violent act. See “Africa’s identity begins
at home” https://mg.co.za/article/2019-02-08-00-africas-identity-begins-at-
home/
56. Ibid
57. Ali Mazrui (2005), “The Re-Invention of Africa”, Research in African Literature,
vol. 36, No. 3.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 195

58. Ibid
59. Ifi Amadiume (1997), “Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture”,
UK: Bloomsbury Publishing
60. Mako Muzenda, “Africa’s identity begins at home” Africa’s identity begins at
home - The Mail & Guardian https://mg.co.za/article/2019-02-08-00-africas-
identity-begins-at-home
61. Africa’s identity begins at home - The Mail & Guardian https://mg.co.za/
article/2019-02-08-00-africas-identity-begins-at-home
62. Ibid
63. Ibid
64. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is a professor and chair of epistemologies of the
Global South at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
65. Africa’s identity begins at home - The Mail & Guardian https://mg.co.za/
article/2019-02-08-00-africas-identity-begins-at-home.
66. It is very important to have the African identity. Throughout history, Africa
has seen an extensive amount of change and many others passing through. But
what has always maintained is that of the African identity in the diversity of
the people and the variation they have. Africa itself before the oncoming of
colonialism had already been holding many different kingdoms with differing
backgrounds of origin. “WHY IS THE AFRICAN IDENTITY IMPORTANT”
see bethanyonlineschool.com/why-is-the-african-identity-important/
67. The African Diaspora describes people of African origin, living outside of
the continent by choice, or most predominantly against their will, due to the
Transatlantic slave trade. The diaspora is vast and includes displaced Africans
living in many countries all around the world. See “The African Diaspora
Group” – Connecting the African Diaspora …africandiasporagroup.org/
68. See Donald Trump’s speech on Rise up Africa. See www.linkedin.org
69. Hugh Trevor-Roper on Wikipedia
70. Ibid
196 The Conspiracy against Africa

71. Femi Fani-Kayode quoted Mehma Mohammed in “The Mind-set of Black

Man’s Enemy”. See also “Black African are Born to be in Perpetual Servitude
and Ordained by God” see www.inc_usa.org
72. David G. Mailu, “President P.W. Botha’s Address to South African Cabinet”
reported in Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, dated August 18, 1985.
73. Ibid
74. Ibid
75. Ibid
76. Ibid
77. Ibid
78. Ibid
79. Ibid
80. Ibid
81. A Nigeria-born political activist, Femi Fani-Kayode made these submissions
while reflecting on his country and Africa continent in general.
82. Ibid
83. Ibid
84. Ibid
85. Ibid
86. Adelaide Yiriyelleh (2016), “Crab Mentality: The Case of Africa”, see www.
modernghana.com
87. Ibid
88. Ibid
89. Ibid
90. According to a Health Organisation report, “Bridging the Gaps”, poverty is the
leading cause of premature death across the world especially in the developing
areas like sub-Saharan Africa.
91. “Is Organized Religion a Scam?” See www.quora.com.
 Africa’s Identity and the Impact of Western Civilization 197

92. Ibid
93. Ibid
94. Ibid
95. Ibid
96. James Hervey Johnson, (1949) “Religion Is a Gigantic Fraud” Church and
State Press, London N1 9JY.
97. Ibid
98. Ibid
99. Ibid
100. Ibid
101. Religion in Africa and the Harmful Effects” https://www.africanglobe.net/
featured/religion-africa-harmful-effects
102. By Kofi Asamoah Okyere, “The Damning Effects of Religion in Africa”,
modernghana.com.
103. Ibid
104. Ibid
105. Ibid
106. Ibid
107. Ibid
108. Ibid
109. ibid
 Chapter 4

FOREIGN INTERFERENCES IN THE

POLITICAL HISTORY OF AFRICA: A BANE
TO DEVELOPMENT

“If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and
the surest emancipation.”
- Lord Acton

1. Background Studies
African continent has a lengthy history of its leaders being killed by certain people or
organisations that are typically opposed to government structure. These individuals
and/or organisations use a variety of means to oust their leaders, including using
coups often known as military takeovers and strategic assassination in collaboration
with past colonial masters to maintain their political, economic, and social interests.
The assassination of some of these leaders resulted in many changes in the political,
social, and economic framework of their respective nations and the African continent.
The political arena of Africa had been playing into the hands of foreign actors
for many years, using naked coercion, deceit, treachery or by outright greed on the
part of some African leaders.1
The assassination of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba in 1961 was suspected to have
been masterminded by the America’s CIA with the tacit support of the United
Kingdom, France, and the Belgium governments.
Félix-Roland Moumié (1 November 1925 – 3 November 1960) was an anti-
colonialist Cameroonian leader, assassinated (POISOINED) in Geneva on 3
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 199

November 1960 by an agent of the SDECE (French secret service) with thallium,
following official independence from France earlier that year.
In 1963, Sylvanus Olympio was assassinated in 1963 and the imperialist power
– France- was fingered for his murder.
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan nationalist, politician, revolutionary, head
of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) and secretary of the Tri-
continental Conference.
An opponent of French Imperialism and King Hassan II, he was “disappeared”
in Paris in 1965. Many theories attempting to explain what happened to him were
put forward over the years; but it was not until 2018 that details of his disappearance
were established by Israeli journalist and author Ronen Bergman in his book “Rise
And Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations”. Based on
research and interviews with Israeli intelligence operatives involved in planning the
kidnapping of Barka, Bergman concluded that he was murdered by Moroccan agents
and French police, who ended up disposing of his body.
Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was the President of the Mozambican Liberation
Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his
assassination in 1969. He died from a parcel bomb while fighting for the liberation
of his people from the Portuguese.
It would be recalled that an event took place among European leaders, in the
German city of Berlin in 1884 which invariably changed the history of the entire
continent of Africa. This historic conference otherwise known as the historic Berlin
Conference of 1884-85 was the formalization of the “Scramble for Africa”.
Evidently, Africa lost its autonomy and self-governance because of this
formalization exercise. Prior to the arrival of the “white man” to consummate
the process of balkanization of Africa, there were social, political, and economic
structures in place throughout the continent. Notable among those structures or
pillars include Axum, Ethiopian, Songhai, Ghana etc. empires to mention a few and
several kingdoms. At the time when all of Europe was on the decline, these African
empires were at heights of renaissance.2
After the end of the Second World War, many enlightened Africans began to
lead their people to demand for independence. But that road to independence was
200 The Conspiracy against Africa

very tough, bitter, and dotted with conflicts. Especially, in the Lusophone- speaking
countries, guerrilla tactics had to be adopted in the fight against the imperialist’s
forces.3
Ghana was the first country south of the Sahara to appear out of colonial
domination in 1957 with the government of the Convention People’s Party (C.P.P.)
led by Kwame Nkrumah. Immediately after wrestling the country from the British,
Nkrumah saw a bigger threat ahead and he declared that in the statement: “The
independence of Gold Coast (former name of Ghana) is meaningless unless it is
linked up with the total liberation of the African continent”.4 That the time has come
for Ghana to help other countries on the continent to fight and redeem Africa from
the grips of the white imperialist that have created artificial boundaries to separate
Africans; using divisions as a tool to weaken Africans, they called some parts of
Africa as Anglophone, some Francophone and others Lusophone speaking colonies.
To Nkrumah, Africa should remain indivisible. So, Nkrumah countered:
“To us, Africa with its islands is just one Africa. We reject the idea of any kind of
partition. From Tangier or Cairo in the North to Cape Town in the South, from
Cape Guardafui in the East to the Cape Verde islands in the West, Africa is one
and indivisible. 5 (Kwame Nkrumah; Africa Must unite, 1964).
Paranoid of Kwame Nkrumah’s posture of uniting the entire continent of
Africa to completely dismantle and uproot the imperialist structure in Africa, the
imperialists began a surreptitious move to counter and upturn Nkrumah’s intention
towards the attainment of progress and liberation of the continent. While Nkrumah
was pushing for a supra-national continental body with one president in charge
that would remove artificial boundaries created by the imperialists, the imperialists
foisted instead its traitors and stooges to kill Nkrumah’s noble ideas. Thus, we had the
Casablanca group which Nkrumah belonged calling the shot for a united Africa; and
the saboteurs, the stooges, and the traitors, notable among them was Felix Houphet
Boigny of Ivory Coast were identified in the Monrovia bloc confederacy that opposed
the Casablanca bloc during the formative years of the Organisation of African Union
(OAU). The Monrovia bloc opted for the maintenance of the boundaries of the
independent states claiming to work towards cooperation among states to achieve
harmony. Evidently, the role of Felix Houphet Boigny, in shooting down the drive
towards Pan-Africanisation is very legendary and as such deserves a special mention.6
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 201

No wonder the Presidential Palace of the Ivory Coast was built by France and rented
out to the Ivorians. He is also known to have played a vital role for France, in ousting
Thomas Sankara from office in 1987. What a shame!
The young unstable and newly emerging independent states faced two major
dilemmas at the heat of the Cold War which adversely affected the Western
economies. International politics at this time was viewed through the prism of East-
West dichotomy. Africa unfortunately found itself in the crossfire of the dominant
ideological divide – Capitalism and Communism (Socialism) – spear-headed by the
United States and the USSR. The ideological divide posed much of a challenge and a
dilemma to Africa as it was used as a justification to interfere in their internal affairs.
In other words, the Cold War led to emergence of client states in Africa whereby the
leaders were to be maintained in power in return for their allegiance to one of the
superpowers (US and its allies on one side or the Former Soviet Union). 7
The second possible reason of the Western meddlesomeness in the politics of
Africa nations is economy. With the “liquidation” of the Western imperialism in
Africa, the capital economy of the imperialists began to shrink considerably. The
above two factors made the former colonial masters to return this time, by influencing
some locals to their side and to succeed in making Africa a hunting ground for the
exploitation of resources and the practice of adventurism. This is the birth of the
emerging phenomenon christened as “The New Scramble for Africa”. 8
In furtherance of the above, France, operated a unique policy called “The France
Afrique” (French Africa Connection). This policy was one of cooperation from
the national leaders of French former colonies so that they can continue to exploit
resources to enrich themselves. These western powers were prepared to even go all
out to secure their desire in the continent come what might.
The foretaste of the imperialist evil machination in Africa played out in 1961
when the newly elected Prime Minister of Congo (former Zaire), Patrice Lumumba,
a pan-Africanist was assassinated through an intricate network of conspiracy. The
US accused him of aligning his government to the ideology of the East (Socialism; a
202 The Conspiracy against Africa

variant of communism in practice in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(USSR) and by that a communist puppet. Through Western financial inducements,
Patrice Lumumba was arrested by his countrymen and taken to Katanga Province
where Belgian assassins executed him. His body was chopped into pieces and
dissolved in an acid. The Congo enjoyed a good relationship with the West after
ousting Lumumba. This is because Mobutu Sese Seko, who became the president
shortly, installed a totalitarian regime and developed a cooperative relationship with
the West. In this awkward relationship, the resources of Congo were plundered. The
Congo has since been unsettled.9
Furthermore, having been seen as a colossus among his contemporaries, his
strong objection to foreign imperialism in the continent of Africa, a Pan-Africanist
(a torch bearer of ideas on Africa unity) and an ardent believer in socialist ideology,
Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana became the next target on the Radar of Western powers.
Nkrumah led his country out of colonial domination in 1957, first in Sub-Saharan
Africa to reach independence and his involvement in the Congo by sending troops
to that country to save the Prime Minister he became an enemy to the West. His
growing influence across the entire face of the continent made it imperative for him
to be removed from the point of the US. P.L.O. Lumumba once asserted that what
Nkrumah can see while sleeping, cannot be seen by many leaders while standing.10
Several CIA agents were unleashed in Ghana to help topple his regime. In
1966, while Nkrumah was away in China to attend an international forum against
US atrocities in Vietnam, a coup was staged behind him that ended his regime.
The key actors in that illegitimate exercise were some Ghanaians Military Officers
namely Colonel Kotoka, Lieutenant -General J. A. Ankra, Major A. A. Afrifa and
the Inspector-General of Police J. W. K. Harley. The finance was of course provided
by the President Johnson’s administration.11
The removal of Kwame Nkrumah from power dealt a big blow to the attainment
of the unity of the continent. June Milne in the New Africa Magazine described the
coup that ousted Nkrumah thus: “The coup that disrupted Africa’s forward march”.12
(No. 488, Feb. 2006). The African Exponent revealed that Nkrumah’s dream of a
united and a successful African continent and the narrative he was creating for Africa
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 203

was a foreign policy concern for United States of America.13 The then US President
Johnson had said that the Nkrumah’s coup was “… a fortuitous windfall”. He went
further to add that “… Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than
any other Black African”.14 He further maintained that Nkrumah was strongly pro-
communist leanings and that informed the new military regimes that took over
having pathetic pro-Western character.
Throughout the 1960s, the West was involved in almost all the military
interregnum that swept the continent of Africa. According to records, at least 16
successful attempts were made to topple the political leadership in French-speaking
Africa alone.15
A Portuguese-speaking colony, Mozambique, fought a violent war of
independence from Portugal. Samora Machel who joined FRELIMO in 1963 later
became the leader waged guerrilla warfare against the colonial administration. Upon
attainment of independence from Portugal, Machel instituted a socialist-Leninist
ideology – a distinct variant of Marxism formulated by Lenin of the former Soviet
Union. His aim was to provide a direct rule by the proletariat (workers) with the
FRELIMO party serving as the vanguard of the working class for the provision of
political conscience. Machel’s revolutionary moves in creating political awareness of
the workers and his decision to stop sending cheap labour to Apartheid South Africa
to work in the mines prove very risky for him which eventually led to his death.
“South Africa reacted by sponsoring an anti-FRELIMO movement called
REMANO, which executed a vicious campaign of destroying educational,
health and other public infrastructures in order to the government of FRELIMO
unpopular. The quest by Samora Machel to encourage the rise of black bourgeoisie
in that country was fought by external actors and finally his administration was
uprooted in 1986 when his presidential plane was bought down over the territory
of Apartheid South Africa.”16.
After the death of Samora Machel, Africa witnessed yet another Western
intervention in its political arena. This time, it was the turn of the Burkinabe’s to
receive the “wotowoto” treatment from the imperialist West (France) through the
direct involvement of one of its stooges, Felix Houphet Boigny.
204 The Conspiracy against Africa

“Thomas Sankara (Africa’s Che Guevera) who seized power in 1983 at the behest
of the worst drought in West Africa (Lee, 1994), rise to become president of a
promising West African state. He institutionalized tree planting in that country
to curb the spreading desert. Under his leadership, Burkina Faso attained food
sufficiency and became a net exporter of food. The railway to link Ouagadougou
to the Manganese mines was also built. He code-named it “The battle of the
railways.
France witnessing the change that was taking place in her former colony and
the enormous opportunities and benefits that it could offer it jumped in as usual
through an unorthodox means by emboldened Blaise Campaore, a close ally of
Sankara to stage the 1987coup that had the president killed and he former taking
power and brought the country to one cooperation with France.”17.
With his prison cell unlocked by a US prison guard late one night in November
1985, Charles MacArthur Ghankay Taylor walked out of the maximum-security
area of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts to prosecute
a civil war in Liberia in 1989. Charles Taylor, who supposed to be in prison in US
charged with the offence of money laundering and other crimes, was seen emerged
from the Ivory Coast to prosecute the destabilization of his country. Many scholars
believed that the US deliberately released him to oust the first Indigenous president,
Samuel Doe, a Krahn. 18
In 1991, the imperialist West was deeply involved in the Sierra Leonean civil war
which lasted 10 years, 9 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days. One Russian businessman,
Victor Bout was behind the supply of the needed arms through Charles Taylor to the
war front in that country. At the height of the war, external pressures from the West
were brought to bear on the Ahmad Tijan Kabbah (the then president) to negotiate
with the rebels. According to the President’s memoir entitled: “Coming back from
the brink in Sierra Leone”. “…increasing external pressure on me to engage in
negotiations with the rebels”19 (Kabbah, 2010). Even when there were clear reasons
that Foday Sankoh (leader of the RUF) had been erratic and inconsistent at the
previous negotiations, Kabbah’s government was forced by the international bodies
to grant amnesty to the rebels. The president was forced to evoke the prerogative of
mercy clause under section 63 of the Sierra Leone constitution to set the rebels free.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 205

Analysts have argued that in the international system, the principle of stare decisis
hardly applies. In the case of Ghana in 1979 coup, those analysts contended that
the people’s demand and their quest for justice was acceptable hence the execution
of those army officers 20(Kabbah, 2010). The fear from those rogues and renegade
soldiers still lingers on in that country. Justice had not been served the victims of that
civil war. With their presence, that country can no longer be at ease.
More so, the Arab Spring offered yet another great opportunity for the West
to strike at a vibrant Pan-Africanist – someone widely described as a successor of
Nkrumah. Through their propaganda news channels, they succeeded in painting the
Muammar Gaddafi’s government as illegitimate at the height of the “Arab Awakening”
in that country in 2011. 21
Gaddafi was known and called the “Mad Dog” of the Middle East by Reagan
administration. In his Green Book, Gaddafi was able to expose the fraudulent nature
of the West’s concept of democracy, arguing that power should be directly in the
hands of the people and through representatives in parliament. According to him,
that parliament is misrepresentation of the people and that parliamentary systems
are a false solution to the problems of democracy. That anything short of direct
participation of the people is a façade.22
He further renewed the call for African unity and the creation of Gold-backed
currency to compete with the Euro and US Dollar. He kept that Africa could develop
without depending on the West and the Britton Woods. This orientation and posture
were the major factors that precipitated the USA and France acting behind NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to surreptitiously intervene in Libya to oust
Gaddafi. Prior to the uprising, CIA agents were sent to Tripoli and Benghazi to
incite the people to demonstrate against the government; a country that at the time
having a good welfare system for its people than Britain. No one was homeless in
Libya unlike the USA and some parts of Europe that still have some fraction of its
population sleeping under bridges.23
When the NATO bombs went silent, Muammar Gaddafi was captured and
assassinated by his countrymen. The video of the capture and killing of the Libyan
went viral and when it was shown to then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, she
remarked: “We came, we saw, and he died”. The fact is that, by his assassination, the
206 The Conspiracy against Africa

West is telling Africans that it had set boundaries and whomever that steps out of it
will be dealt with.24
The collapse of the Libyan regime has unleashed a destabilizing force in many
North African states. A consequent manifestation is the advent of the National
Liberation Movement of Azawad (MNLA), which now has access to dozens of
arms inherited from Gaddafi’s vast weapons caches25 (Aning et al, 2012). Gaddafi’s
administration provided a kind of buffer for the countries like Mali and Niger. With
the fall of the government, the Tuareg Rebels that were under the control of the
Gaddafi returned home in North Mali where they fought the Malian government to
create an independent state of Azawad.26
Moreover, under Muammar Gaddafi the regime gave citizenship to many
Africans who lived and worked in that country and sending remittances home to
support their dependents. The return of these breadwinners did not portend well at
all. Some suffered from cultural shocks while others became a security threat to their
respective countries by engaging in kidnapping of foreigners for ransom. It must be
placed on record that an unstable Libya today, can and did exacerbate the security
situations in the Sahel, especially in Nigeria.
Another front where the West particularly the US is interfering is in the military
of many African states in the execution of its War on Terror. 27 The former is investing
heavily in terms of military hardware for the latter states to fight a war that is not
originally its war. The US under the policy of Revolution in the Military Affairs
(RMA) of which it has decided not to put its military boot on a foreign soil for
combat, is now using countries like Kenya and Somalia to fight its War on Terror.28
Kenya, over the years must pay heavily for this as militants continue to wage war on
the government forces and many innocent civilians.
NATO took part in the US “War on Terror” in Afghanistan, NATO destroyed
Libya and today, NATO is expanding into Africa. 29
In conclusion, therefore, Africans should know that there is a new “Scramble
for Africa” and this time there are new powers on-board. China, India, United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Iran and Turkey are all coming to Africa in various forms to exploit
local resources. What Africans must do is to learn how to craft their own game and
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 207

unlearn the game of the exploiter. The continent must encourage the growth of
Black bourgeoisies like the Aliko Dangote’s, Mo Ibrahim’s, the Adenuga’s etc. As the
foreigners are trooping into Africa and they are being received with open arms, the
question is where are the Africans in this regard? Where have Africans put in their
own entrepreneurs? 30
Again, African leaders should not forget that these foreign actors who come in
under the guise of trade or waging “War on Terror” have their own hidden interests.
China is building several infrastructures in many East African countries and those
investments are going to be owned by China forever. There are no agreements of
handing them over to the respective governments. As it stands, projects such as these
does not endure to the benefit of the people but the few “comprador elites” or some
few oligarchs in government.
On the front of ensuring social cohesion, Africa must rehabilitate its Pan-African
ideas in the minds and hearts to agree unanimously that the problem of Africa is one
of poor leadership and to believe also that the last 50 years the Achilles heels of the
continent has been disunity.
The African Union’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court
(ICC) located in The Hague can be described as a naïve move when the continent had
not created institutions parallel to the Hague-Based court nor the continental body
taken steps to first develop and strengthen the Pan- African court; a move that can
lead to the growth of authoritarian governments on the continent. To Kofi Annan,
the ICC should be a source of hope to those victims of serious abuses whose domestic
judicial systems have let them down. Unfortunately, however the perception in parts
of Africa and elsewhere that the court is not impartial, and that big powers that are
not members apply double standards, is undermining its credulity and effectiveness.
We know that in Africa, Hyenas are chosen to take care of Goats.31
Therefore, there is the need to have strong institutions in place to safeguard the
people and state resources. The AU must observe the occurrences on the continent
critically to know that there is a growing phenomenon on the continent whereby
leaders in power change the very constitution that brought them to power.
208 The Conspiracy against Africa

B. How the Lopsided EU – African Union Trade Agreements are

Harming Africa
Uganda’s presidential advisor on exports, Odrek Rwabwogo has rightly argue that
Africa needs a more equal trade relationship with Europe where African countries are
treated as partners, not serfs.
1. Restrictive trade policies keep Africa prisoner.
Restrictive trade policies from wealthy, western countries and blocs keep African
countries chained to raw materials exports while hampering Africa’s efforts to move
up the manufacturing value chain.32
These policies keep Africa prisoner, while making the countries and blocs that
implements them wealthier still. European Union effectively ensures that any trading
entity she pursues seek terms most favourable to them. But the deals African countries
are forced into are unique in just how lopsided they are; and more so in how they are
prevented from making any progress to improve their lot.33
It is not easy to distinguish such relationships from the colonial-era protectorates
of the past.
2. EU’s coffee tariff punishes producers.
The most leading offender in this regard is of course the most influential trading bloc
in the world: the European Union (EU). Numerous examples suffice, but one of the
most shocking that illustrates the issue is coffee. 117
The EU slams Africa with punishing tariff charges on processed, roasted coffee,
but not unroasted, raw green beans. Naturally, this discourages our coffee producers
from investing in the technology to process the commodity while bullying them into
exporting it raw.34
To worsen the situation, European countries can then process and re-export for
great profit – and at great expense to poor African farmers. For instance, in 2019
Uganda earned just $470m from over 250,000 tonnes of coffee exports; Switzerland
earned some $2.2bn from processing and re-exporting just 80,000 tonnes. Indeed, all
Africa earned just $1.5bn from the crop in 2014. Yet Germany, a leading processor,
earned nearly doubled that from re-exports.119 In another development, Nigeria
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 209

exports crude (unprocessed) oil to Europe who refines the product and re-sale back to
Nigeria at criminal prices even while engaging in various criminal activities therein.
The West ensure that Nigeria never have a functional refinery to date.
3. African markets flooded with subsidised goods.
Furthermore, the unbalanced EU-African Union trade agreements see African
countries flooded with cheap, subsidised goods while able to export little in return.
How Africa could import a staggering 80% of its food, despite being a continent
dominated by agriculture?
The impact on the farmers of what are already some of the poorest countries
in the world is clear. They simply cannot compete. Again, punishing EU standards
require heavy investment in the value chain for African produce, which prevents
African producers from improving their productive capabilities beyond raw exports.35
Still, African leadership must take some blames. More than 60 years since the
end of direct colonialism and there has been little insistence in efforts to modernise
agriculture, enhance intraregional cooperation and foster unity on matters of security,
trade, and investment.
4. Africa should speak with one voice through the AfCFTA.
The recent formation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) promises
some hope in providing African nations for the first time a platform to trade as a
bloc and speak with one voice. But if divisive EU trade policies continue to create
inducement for struggling, individual African nations to enter into separate and
typically unfavourable bilateral agreements, the issue can only persist.
As a result, many African nations are today aggressively seeking to diversify their
export markets. For example, Uganda is actively building ties with the Middle East
and particularly member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Uganda made a strong showing at Dubai Expo where Uganda secured some
$650m of investments in just two weeks – the start of Uganda’s broader ambitions to
secure some $4bn for her economic recovery and to fast-track our industrialisation
agenda. Closer to home, Uganda is approaching her regional economic community
of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) with a renewed focus – a $760bn market
with a youthful population of some 600m.36
210 The Conspiracy against Africa

5. Africa must be treated as equals, not serfs.

Africa do not want to lose access to the world’s largest trading bloc. Africa only wants
to be treated like equals and partners, not serfs.
“We have a lot to offer. Africa’s collective population is one of the world’s youngest
and fastest-growing – projected to double by 2050 and with a median age of less
than 20. We are a continent of innovators and entrepreneurs – Uganda alone is
a leader in electric vehicles – including Africa’s first solar-powered bus – and a
key driver of the African HealthTech revolution that has flourished during the
pandemic.
We will seek partners where we can, but it is partners, not imperial-era protectorates,
that we want.” 37.

C. Political Interference through Proxy Battle

Africa has become the new locus of great power conflict in the 21st century, with the
United States and China vying for influence and resources in the world’s poorest
continent. But the Horn of Africa, with its strategic location across the Gulf of Aden
from the Middle East, has become the crucible for the latest stage of a centuries-old
superpower political interference through proxy battle.
Matt Kennard and Ismail Einashe report on the untold story of the genocide in
Somalia in the late 1980s and how this connects with the conflicts of today in the
country and region, looking particularly at how the U.S. supported the Somalian
regime while it conducted the killings. Kennard and Einashe also report on how
northern Somalia, and particularly the strategic port of Berbera, has become a hotspot
in this new regional war, following on from its significant role in the Cold War. 38
Just north of Somalia, the U.S. military has its only permanent base in the whole
of Africa in Djibouti. Camp Lemonier, located inside the Djibouti international
airport, is home to U.S. Africa Command (US-AFRICOM), established by George
W. Bush in 2008, with his administration aware that many of the future conflicts
with great power rivals would play out on the continent. Kennard and Einashe
investigate how this is progressing, with some comparing the Horn of Africa in 2018
to Sarajevo in 1914. 39
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 211

1. The proxy wars in Africa and the profiteers

The more we fight and kill ourselves, the more profit (money) they make. In other
words, even as we work very hard to achieve peace, unity and understanding, there
are many agents of darkness up there in higher places also working extra hours to
ensure there are wars and even more wars so they can profit from the blood of untold
number of people. This is the situation in Africa today and that is why every now and
then you hear conflicts, political violence, and rumours of war across the continent.
Let me begin with an example to explain my point. Let us take the Darfur
genocide. Many of you have heard about Darfur and the deaths of untold number of
people (some say about 500,000 although the true number is far higher than that).
However, not so many people know the Sudan conflict was somehow “a proxy war”.
Some major countries and corporations outside Africa were making big money
in Sudan while innocent people, including tiny little babies, were being butchered
like animals.
Let us begin with China. Sudan (now 2 countries, North and South) was/is an
oil rich country and the entire economy of Sudan depended on oil. China was a
major buyer of the Sudanese oil and used to pay cash for the oil.
When the conflict started, China saw an opportunity to make even more profit.
The government of North Sudan (with the wicked Al-Bashir as president) was in
total control of all the oil in Sudan. However, because of the war, the government
needed more guns and China was more than ready to exchange guns, bombs, etc.
for oil. In other words, while NGOs and other peace groups were working very hard
to help save lives in Sudan, China was busy making and supplying even more guns
in exchange for oil and more oil. In effect, the Chinese firearm companies flourished
while hundreds of thousands of innocent people continued to die in Sudan. Yes, the
Chinese government made huge profits out of the Darfur genocide.40
Russia also had similar evil agenda and joined hands with the Chinese government
to make more profit in Sudan while innocent people were dying like flies. In other
words, China and Russia did not want the conflict to end because the longer the
conflict continued, the more profit they made in their bloody “oil-gun” transactions.41
212 The Conspiracy against Africa

The United States came in to help the “underdogs” or the oil-rich South Sudan.
Greater part of Sudan’s oil lies in the South. In other words, South Sudan is far richer
in oil than North Sudan. However, North Sudan with crazy Omar Al Bashir as its
leader, had a very well-structured army and all the weapons and support needed to
crush South Sudan (where the opposition forces resided). The United States and
some major countries in Europe therefore decided to help South Sudan. Because of
how the United States came in, it was impossible for them to openly make profit out
of the war like China and Russia were doing so the United States decided to involve
Israel. In other words, Israel came into the war just to work for America. Also, The
United States knew that after the war, China because of their evil deeds would not
be able to buy oil from the oil-rich South Sudan which would open South Sudan’s
oil market to other major players (including the United States) and that was why
America came pretending to help. Just like China and Russia, the USA saw the
Darfur conflict as a business opportunity.42
Take Libya for example. Gaddafi might be as bad as some people think. However,
compared to Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, Muammar Gaddafi was a saint. Yet America
and friends under the banner of NATO were more than ready to sponsor some armed
groups to overthrow Gaddafi while Omar Al Bashir remained president. Omar Al
Bashir was the worst leader in Africa and had been declared a war criminal by the
international community yet remained president of Sudan and openly sold his oil
at the international market. Had Gaddafi agreed to their “deals”, Gaddafi would be
alive today. The same applies to Saddam Hussein, etc.43
This is just an example of how western powers benefit from the deaths of untold
number of people in Africa. They create and sponsor conflicts in Africa to benefit
from the blood of the innocent. Almost all the wars and political conflicts in Africa
today are “proxy wars” purposely created and sponsored by western powers.
2. Why Qaddafi had to go: African gold, oil, and the challenge to
monetary imperialism.
What was NATO’s violent intervention in Libya all about? Now we know, writes
Ellen Brown, thanks to Hillary Clinton’s recently published emails. It was to prevent
the creation of an independent hard currency in Africa that would free the continent
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 213

from economic bondage under the dollar, the IMF, and the French African franc,
shaking off the last heavy chains of colonial exploitation.
The brief visit of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Libya in October
2011 was referred to by the media as a “victory lap.”
“We came, we saw, he died!” she crowed in a CBS video interview on hearing of
the capture and brutal murder of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi.”44.
But the victory lap, write Scott Shane and Jo Becker in the New York Times, was
premature. Libya was relegated to the back burner by the State Department, “as the
country dissolved into chaos, leading to a civil war that would destabilize the region,
fuelling the refugee crisis in Europe and allowing the Islamic State to establish a
Libyan haven that the United States is now desperately trying to contain.”45
US-NATO intervention was allegedly undertaken on humanitarian grounds,
after reports of mass atrocities; but human rights organizations questioned the claims
after finding a lack of evidence. Today, however, verifiable atrocities are occurring.
As Dan Kovalik wrote in the Huffington Post, “the human rights situation
in Libya is a disaster, as ‘thousands of detainees [including children] languish in
prisons without proper judicial review,’ and ‘kidnappings and targeted killings are
rampant’.”46
Before 2011, Libya had achieved economic independence, with its own water,
its own food, its own oil, its own money, and its own state-owned bank. It had arisen
under Qaddafi from one of the poorest of countries to the richest in Africa.47
Education and medical treatment were free; having a home was considered a
human right; and Libyans took part in an original system of local democracy. The
country boasted the world’s largest irrigation system, the Great Man-made River
project, which brought water from the desert to the cities and coastal areas; and
Qaddafi was embarking on a program to spread this model throughout Africa.48
But that was before US-NATO forces bombed the irrigation system and wreaked
havoc on the country. Today the situation is so dire that President Obama has asked
his advisors to draw up options including a new military front in Libya, and the
214 The Conspiracy against Africa

Defence Department is reportedly standing ready with “the full spectrum of military
operations required.”49
Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver.
This gold was intended to set up a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden
Dinar. This plan was designed to provide Francophone Africa with an alternative to
the CFA. 50
The Secretary of State’s victory lap was indeed premature if what we’re talking
about is the officially stated goal of humanitarian intervention. But her newly released
emails reveal another agenda behind the Libyan war; and this one, it seems, was
achieved.
• Mission conducted.
Of the 3,000 emails released from Hillary Clinton’s private email server in late
December 2015, about a third were from her close confidante Sidney Blumenthal,
the attorney who defended her husband in the Monica Lewinsky case. One of these
emails, dated April 2, 2011, reads in part:
“Qaddafi’s government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver
… This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to
be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar.
This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an
alternative to the French franc (CFA).”51
In a ‘source comment’, the original declassified email adds: 52.
“According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued
at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly
after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.
According to these individuals Sarkozy’s plans are driven by the following issues:
• A desire to gain a greater share of Libya oil production,
• Increase French influence in North Africa,
• Improve his internal political situation in France,
• Provide the French military with an opportunity to reassert its position in the
world,
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 215

• Address the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi’s long-term plans to supplant
France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa.”
Conspicuously absent is any mention of humanitarian concerns. The aims are
money, power, and oil.
Other explosive confirmations in the newly published emails are detailed by
investigative journalist Robert Parry. They include admissions of rebel war crimes,
of special ops trainers inside Libya from nearly the start of protests, and of Al Qaeda
embedded in the US-backed opposition.
Key propaganda themes for violent intervention are acknowledged to be mere
rumours. Parry suggests they may have originated with Blumenthal himself. They
include the bizarre claim that Qaddafi had a “rape policy” involving passing Viagra
out to his troops, a charge later raised by UN Ambassador Susan Rice in a UN
presentation. Parry asks rhetorically:
“So, do you think it would be easier for the Obama administration to rally
American support behind this ‘regime change’ by explaining how the French
wanted to steal Libya’s wealth and maintain French neo-colonial influence over
Africa - or would Americans respond better to propaganda themes about Gaddafi
passing out Viagra to his troops so they could rape more women while his snipers
targeted innocent children? Bingo!” 53
• Toppling the global financial scheme:
Qaddafi’s threatened attempt to set up an independent African currency was
not taken lightly by Western interests. In 2011, Sarkozy reportedly called the Libyan
leader a threat to the financial security of the world. How could this tiny country of
six million people pose such a threat? First some background.
It is banks, not governments that create most of the money in Western economies,
as the Bank of England recently acknowledged. This has been going on for centuries,
through the process called ‘fractional reserve’ lending. Originally, the reserves were in
gold. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt replaced gold domestically with central
bank-created reserves, but gold stayed the reserve currency internationally.
216 The Conspiracy against Africa

In 1944, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to unify this bank-created money system globally.
An IMF ruling said that no paper money could have gold backing.
A money supply created privately as debt at interest requires a continual supply of
debtors; and over the next half century, most developing countries wound up in debt
to the IMF. The loans came with strings attached, including ‘structural adjustment’
policies involving austerity measures and privatization of public assets.
After 1944, the US dollar traded interchangeably with gold as global reserve
currency. When the US was no longer able to keep the dollar’s gold backing, in the
1970s it made a deal with OPEC to ‘back’ the dollar with oil, creating the ‘Petro-
dollar’. Oil would be sold only in US dollars, which would be deposited in Wall
Street and other international banks.
In 2001, dissatisfied with the shrinking value of the dollars that OPEC was
getting for its oil, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein broke the pact and sold oil in euros. Regime
change swiftly followed, accompanied by widespread destruction of the country.
In Libya, Qaddafi also broke the pact; but he did more than just sell his oil in
another currency. As these developments are detailed by blogger Denise Rhyne:
“For decades, Libya and other African countries had been attempting to create a
pan-African gold standard. Libya’s al-Qadhafi and other heads of African States
had wanted an independent, pan-African, ‘hard currency’.
“Under al-Qadhafi’s leadership, African nations had convened at least twice for
monetary unification. The countries discussed the possibility of using the Libyan
dinar and the silver dirham as the only possible money to buy African oil.
“Until the recent US/NATO invasion, the gold dinar was issued by the Central
Bank of Libya (CBL). The Libyan bank was 100% state owned and independent.
Foreigners had to go through the CBL to do business with Libya. The Central
Bank of Libya issued the dinar, using the country’s 143.8 tons of gold.
“Libya’s Qadhafi (African Union 2009 Chair) conceived and financed a plan
to unify the sovereign States of Africa with one gold currency (United States
of Africa). In 2004, a pan-African Parliament (53 nations) laid plans for the
African Economic Community - with a single gold currency by 2023.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 217

“African oil-producing nations were planning to abandon the Petro-dollar, and

demand gold payment for oil/gas.”54
• Showing what is possible.
Qaddafi had done more than organize an African monetary coup. He had proved
that financial independence could be achieved. His greatest infrastructure project,
the Great Man-made River, was turning arid regions into a breadbasket for Libya;
and the $33 billion project was being funded interest-free without foreign debt,
through Libya’s own state-owned bank.
That could explain why this critical piece of infrastructure was destroyed in
2011. NATO not only bombed the pipeline but finished off the project by bombing
the factory producing the pipes necessary to repair it.
Crippling a civilian irrigation system serving up to 70% of the population hardly
looks like humanitarian intervention. Rather, as Canadian Professor Maximilian
Forte put it in his heavily researched book Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War on
Libya and Africa,
“The goal of US military intervention was to disrupt an emerging pattern of
independence and a network of collaboration within Africa that would facilitate
increased African self-reliance. This is at odds with the geostrategic and political
economic ambitions of extra-continental European powers, namely the US.”55
Mystery solved.
Hilary Clinton’s emails shed light on another enigma remarked on by early
commentators. Why, within weeks of initiating fighting, did the rebels set up their
own central bank? Robert Wenzel wrote in The Economic Policy Journal in 2011:
“This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around
and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. I have never heard of a
central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising.”56
It was all highly suspicious, but as Alex Newman concluded in a November
2011 article:
“Whether salvaging central banking and the corrupt global monetary system were
truly among the reasons for Gadhafi’s overthrow … may never be known for
certain - at least not publicly.”57
218 The Conspiracy against Africa

There the matter would have remained - suspicious but unverified like so many
stories of fraud and corruption - but for the publication of Hillary Clinton’s emails
after an FBI probe. They add substantial weight to Newman’s suspicions: violent
intervention was not chiefly about the security of the people.
It was about the security of global banking, money, and oil.

D. Economy – Africa as a Meal on the Table of Civilization

1. Stealing Africa – How the wealth of the West was built on Africa’s
exploitation.
The wealth of the west was built on Africa’s exploitation. Beckford’s experts estimated
Britain’s debt to Africans in the continent and diaspora to be in the trillions of
pounds. While this was a useful benchmark, its basis was mistaken. Not because it
was excessive, but because the real debt is incalculable. For without Africa and its
Caribbean plantation extensions, the modern world as we know it would not exist.58
Profits from slave trading and from sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco are only
a small part of the story. What mattered was how the pull and push from these
industries transformed Western Europe’s economies. English banking, insurance,
shipbuilding, wool and cotton manufacture, copper and iron smelting, and the cities
of Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow, multiplied in response to the direct and indirect
stimulus of the slave plantations.59
Joseph Inikori’s articulate book, “Africans, and the Industrial Revolution in
England”, shows how African consumers, free and enslaved, nurtured Britain’s infant
manufacturing industry. As Malachy Postlethwayt, the political economist candidly
put it in 1745: “British trade is a magnificent super-structure of American commerce
and naval power on an African foundation.”60
In The Great Divergence, Kenneth Pomeranz asked why Europe, rather than
China, made the breakthrough first into a modern industrial economy. To his two
answers - abundant coal and New World colonies - he should have added access to
West Africa. For the colonial Americas were more Africa’s creation than Europe’s:
before 1800, far more Africans than Europeans crossed the Atlantic. American slaves
were vital too, strangely enough, for European trade in the east. For merchants needed
precious metals to buy Asian luxuries, returning home with profits in the form of
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 219

textiles; only through exchanging these cloths in Africa for slaves to be sold in the
New World could Europe obtain new gold and silver to keep the system moving.
East Indian companies led ultimately to Europe’s domination of Asia and its 19th-
century humiliation of China.61
Africa not only underpinned Europe’s earlier development. Its palm oil,
petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum and in particular gold was and is crucial
to the later world economy. Only South America, at the zenith of its silver mines,
outranks Africa’s contribution to the growth of the global bullion supply.62
The guinea coin paid homage in its name to the West African origins of one
flood of gold. By this standard, the British pound since 1880 should have been
rechristened the rand, for Britain’s prosperity and its currency stability depended on
South Africa’s mines. I would wager that a large share of that gold in the IMF’s vaults
which was supposed to pay for Africa’s debt relief had originally been stolen from
that continent.63
There are many who like to blame Africa’s weak governments and economies,
famines, and disease on its post-1960 leadership. But the fragility of contemporary
Africa is a direct consequence of two centuries of slaving, followed by another of
colonial despotism. Nor was “decolonisation” all it seemed: both Britain and France
tried to corrupt the whole project of political sovereignty.
It is remarkable that none of those in Britain who talk about African dictatorship
and kleptocracy seem aware that Idi Amin came to power in Uganda through British
covert action, and that Nigeria’s generals were supported and manipulated from 1960
onwards in support of Britain’s oil interests. It is amusing, too, to find the Telegraph
and the Daily Mail - which just a generation ago supported Ian Smith’s Rhodesia and
South African apartheid - now so concerned about human rights in Zimbabwe. The
tragedy of Mugabe and others is that they learned too well from the British how to
govern without real popular consent, and how to make the law serve ruthless private
interest. The real appetite of the west for democracy in Africa is less than it seems.
We talk about the Congo tragedy without mentioning that it was a British political
leader, Alec Douglas-Home, who agreed with the US president in 1960 that Patrice
Lumumba, its elected leader, needed to “fall into a river of crocodiles”.64
220 The Conspiracy against Africa

2. Stealing Africa: How Britain Underdeveloped Africa

Arguably, Britain is considered as the greatest empire of all time, and certainly at its
height the British Empire was the largest empire in history, and for two centuries was
the foremost global power. It was in this important sense that the phrase “The sun
never sets on the British Empire” was formed.
By 1922, the British ruled more than 458 million people, and covered 13,012,000
square miles—almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. However, despite these
great accomplishments, the British Empire sowed the seeds for some of the worst
disasters that have afflicted not only Africa but the whole of humanity. We need to
prove the fact that though the British were not directly responsible for all the events,
but their interference in others’ problems was often just as destructive.65
Here are some ways the British Empire ruined Africa:

1. Apartheid
This was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation by the National
Party governments, the ruling party in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The rights
of the nation’s black majority were curtailed, and white supremacy and Afrikaner-
minority rule was maintained. The British did institute some reforms after they
seized the Cape from the originally Dutch Boers—such as by repealing the more
offensive anti-black Boer laws. But after one hundred years of wars, and having
gained complete political control, the British made a decision that doomed many
South Africans. They gave Boer republics the green light to disenfranchise all non-
whites. The apartheid system was entrenched in the Union constitution, which was
drawn and approved by the British government. In 1913, the Native Land Act was
brought into force; it pushed black people off the land on which they were either
owners or tenants and relocated them to shantytowns in the cities.69
Apartheid would not end until the F. W. de Klerk government moved to lift bans
on African political parties, such as the Africa National Congress and Pan African
Congress. These actions culminated in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994,
which were won by the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela.70
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 221

2. Atlantic Slave Trade

The British did not start the slave trade or even import the most slaves (both dubious
distinctions belong to the Portuguese). In the beginning, British traders merely
supplied slaves for the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies; but eventually, British
slave traders began supplying slaves to the new English colonies in North America.
The first record of enslaved Africans landing in British North America occurred in
1619, in the colony of Virginia. In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa
in British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the 1760s, Britain was the foremost
European country engaged in the slave trade, owning more than fifty per cent of the
Africans transported from Africa to the Americas. The British involvement in the
slave trade lasted from 1562 to until the abolishment of slavery in 1808—a period of
245 years. In addition to being a major player in the slave trade, the British supported
the pro-slavery Confederates during the Civil War. The British needed cotton to
fuel their machines; this caused the demand for cotton to skyrocket, which in turn
demanded slave labour. If the Confederates had won at the battle of Antietam, the
British would have given full support to the rebels and may even have tipped the
Civil War in favour of the Confederates. And although Great Britain was one of the
first nations to abolish slavery, they quickly made up for the loss of human labour by
extracting Africa’s raw materials and resources.71

3. Participating in the Scramble for Africa

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 began the process of carving up Africa, paying
no attention to local culture or the differences between ethnic groups, and often
leaving people from the same ethnic group on opposite sides of artificial, European-
imposed borders.
Britain was primarily concerned with maintaining its lines of communication
with India, hence its interest in Egypt and South Africa. Once these two areas had
been secured, imperialists like Cecil Rhodes encouraged the acquisition of further
territory, with the goal of establishing a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Britain was also
interested in the commercial potential of mineral-rich territories like the Transvaal,
where gold was discovered in the mid-1880s. As a result, during the final twenty years
of the nineteenth century, Britain occupied or annexed territories which accounted
222 The Conspiracy against Africa

for more than thirty-two per cent of Africa’s population, making the British the most
dominant Europeans on the continent.
By 1965, Britain had lost its stranglehold on the continent—but the consequences
of imperialism were immense. Firstly, the settler states of Kenya, Rhodesia, and
South Africa saw many episodes of violence before African nationalists could forge a
return to stability, after the departure of the colonial governments. Corrupt African
“strongmen,” or dictators, often gained power—despite ignoring the social needs of
the people. Economic dependence on the West, coupled with political corruption,
crippled attempts to diversify.72
Even today, Africa is the least developed region in the world, with poverty and
malnutrition running rampant. The idea that Europeans wanted to “civilize” Africa
was an utter lie, and a means to justify the exploitation of the continent.

4. Looting the continent’s art

During war and colonisation, Western nations took part in the theft of thousands of
pieces of African art. This is the story of the role Britain’s anti-slavery mission played
in looting African artefacts, and of the campaign to get them returned.
The British Museum has been accused of exhibiting “pilfered cultural property”,
by a leading human rights lawyer who is calling for European and US institutions
to return treasures taken from “subjugated peoples” by “conquerors or colonial
masters”.73
In his book “Who Owns History? Elgin’s Loot and the Case for Returning
Plundered Treasure” Geoffrey Robertson QC said: “The trustees of the British
Museum have become the world’s largest receivers of stolen property, and the great
majority of their loot is not even on public display.”74.
He criticised the museum for allowing an unofficial “stolen goods tour”, “which
stops at the Elgin marbles, Hoa Hakananai’a, the Benin bronzes and other pilfered
cultural property”. The three items he mentioned are wanted by Greece, Easter Island
and Nigeria, respectively.75
He went further to state:
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 223

“That these rebel itineraries are allowed is a tribute to the tolerance of this great
institution, which would be even greater if it washed its hands of the blood and
returned Elgin’s loot”. 76
Robertson also accused the museum of telling “a string of carefully constructed
lies and half- truths” about how the marbles “were ‘saved’ or ‘salvaged’ or ‘rescued’
by Lord Elgin, who came into possession of them lawfully.”77
He criticised “encyclopaedic museums” such as the British Museum, the Louvre
in Paris, and the Metropolitan in New York that “lock up the precious legacy of other
lands, stolen from their people by wars of aggression, theft and duplicity”.78
He writes: “This is a time for humility – something the British, still yearning
for the era when they ruled the world, i.e., for Brexit, do not do very well. Before it
releases any of its shares of other people’s cultural heritage, the British Museum could
mount an exhibition – ‘The Spoils of Empire’.”79 Others argue that the empire also
brought benefits, including education and legislation.
Advocating the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles,
Robertson observes that the French president, Emmanuel Macron has “galvanised the
debate” by declaring that “African cultural heritage can no longer remain a prisoner
of European museums”80 .
He went further to Say:
“Politicians may make more or less sincere apologies for the crimes of their former
empires, but the only way now available to redress them is to return the spoils of
the rape of Egypt and China and the destruction of African and Asian and South
American societies,” 81 he writes.
“We cannot right historical wrongs – but we can no longer, without shame,
profit from them.”
He writes:
“The Benin bronzes, for example, are art, which is important to Africa, but not to
the world in the way that the marbles have international resonance. On the other
hand, the barbaric manner of the taking of the bronzes amounted to a war crime,
which is morally more despicable than Elgin’s theft and duplicity.”82
224 The Conspiracy against Africa

He accuses museum trustees and the government of passing the buck when it
comes to answering requests for the return of cultural property. He also criticises the
lack of diversity among trustees.
Julian Spalding, the former head of Glasgow, Sheffield, and Manchester museums,
agreed that the British Museum should give the Elgin marbles back “because they’re
an intrinsic part of one the world’s greatest works of art”.83
A British Museum spokeswoman confirmed that it allows a “stolen goods tour”,
run by an external guide. She said the Elgin marbles were acquired legally, with the
approval of the Ottoman authorities of the day.84
“They were not acquired because of conflict or violence. Lord Elgin’s activities
were thoroughly investigated by a parliamentary select committee in 1816 and found
to be entirely legal,”85 she said.
“The British Museum acknowledges the difficult histories of some of its collections,
including the contested means by which some collections have been acquired such
as through military action and subsequent looting … In the case of the Benin
bronzes, the museum visited Benin City in 2018 to talk about plans for a new
Royal Museum in Benin City and how the museum could help.”86.
From Italy to Sweden, Hungary to France, the far right is once again a force to be
reckoned with. Its hostility towards immigrants encourages xenophobes everywhere,
including in Spain. Its social conservatism threatens hard-won LGBTQ+ rights. Its
Euroscepticism has already upset the dynamics of the EU.

5. What Britain did to Nigeria: The Chibok Capture

Chibok, a town in northern Nigeria is notorious for the kidnapping of 276 children
by Boko Haram. But go back 115 years and this tiny farming community perched
atop a hill fought one of the greatest resistances to British colonisation.
In November 1906, around 170 British soldiers launched what that country’s
parliament called a “punitive expedition” against the town for carrying out annual
raids along British trade routes in Borno state.
In defence, during an 11-day siege, Chibok townsmen shot poisoned arrows at
the soldiers from hideouts in the hills.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 225

The fiercely independent “small Chibok tribe of savages”, as they were described
in a report presented to Britain’s parliament in December 1907, had been “the most
determined lot of fighters” ever encountered in what is now modern-day Nigeria.
It took British forces another three months to annex Chibok, and only after they
discovered their natural water source and “starved them out”, the report said. 87
The arrows and spears the Chibok townsmen had used against the British were
then collected and sent to London where they are held in storage today. But curator
labels available online about the background of the items at the British Museum –
which holds around 73,000 African objects – make no mention of how the spears
got there, or of the town’s resistance against “punitive” colonisation.88
While many Western curators defend their collections as “universal”, representing
the art of the world regardless of how they were acquired, critics suggest they have
not done enough to accurately present the complex histories of the objects that were
taken.
Historian Max Siollun recounts Chibok’s capture in his book, “What Britain
did to Nigeria”, which examines the legacy of Nigeria’s violent colonisation in its
rapidly expanding modern crisis. He believes historical narratives – largely written
by Europeans – were deeply flawed, neglecting “a much more interesting and deeper
history”.89
“It is very dangerous to rely on the victor’s account as the sole account of history,”
he says. “There is a proverb about this … the tale of the hunt will always be the
hunter’s tale until the lion learns how to tell its story.” 90
“Museums were definitely devices that helped to shape colonialism and stories
of conquests and the legitimising of the conquests,” says Ayisha Osori, director of the
Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), headquartered in Senegal. She is
co-leading a four-year, $15m initiative by the Open Society to help nations get back
their cultural treasures held abroad. 91
“If we use the Benin kingdom in Nigeria, the Dahomey kingdom in Benin
[Republic] and the Ashanti kingdom in Ghana – a lot of violence was how these
things were taken,” 92 she says.
Six decades on from independence, African governments are actively seeking the
return of stolen artefacts. Historically, European authorities refuted claims for return
226 The Conspiracy against Africa

on the basis that they could not determine who the original owners were. Other excuses,
according to Abba Isa Tijani, the director general of Nigeria’s National Commission
for Museums and Monuments, included concerns that returned artefacts would not
be properly managed. 93
So, Nigerians formed an independent body in 2020 – the Legacy Restoration
Trust – to act as an intermediary and manage negotiations with foreign museums!
Tijani believes it was the best step forward and is designed to survive changes in
Nigerian politics.
Nigeria has since been proactively clinching agreements for returns with
institutions in the United States, Germany, Ireland, and Britain, including the
University of Aberdeen, the Church of England, the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles,
the National Museum of Ireland, and Berlin’s Ethnologists Museum.
Currently, Tijani was in the middle of finalising the return of three Nigerian
artefacts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, announced in June
– two 16th century Benin Bronze plaques and a 14th century Ife head. He hoped
that more museums with similarly stolen Nigerian objects would consider returning
them.94
But negotiations with the British Museum have often reached an impasse.
Britain’s government recently adopted a “retain and explain” stance for state-owned
institutions, meaning that monuments and contested objects will be kept but
contextualised. European state-owned institutions require new laws to be able to
return their collections. This has been enacted in France and Germany, but British
institutions are still prevented from doing so by the British Museum Act of 1963 and
the National Heritage Act of 1983. The UK government has said it has no plans to
amend those laws to enable return.95
The Benin Dialogue Group, a network of Nigerian representatives and
European museums including the British Museum, have been engaged in decades-
long discussions about loaned returns with few tangible timelines. “We thought that
this is the group that will enable the United Kingdom to succumb to the issue of
repatriation,” says Tijani, but “this process is not very clear.”96.
He says Nigeria “will not relent” and hopes to “talk more with the British Museum
and then come up with a very concise, concrete, timely repatriation of our objects.”97
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 227

The British Museum told Al Jazeera it was “engaged in a series of dialogues with
different parties in Benin, especially the Legacy Restoration Trust, and is aware of
widespread hopes of future cooperation.” It would not offer any clarification on a
date for loaned returns. 98
Having been the largest enslaver nation – enslaving about 3.1 million African
men, women, and children during its participation in the trade – Britain enacted
laws in 1807, with further acts in 1811 and 1833, that abolished the trade after
frequent rebellions by enslaved people eventually prompted concerns from influential
members of British society about their appalling treatment.
Abolitionist Ignatius Sancho – born on a slave ship travelling from Guinea –
was enslaved in the Spanish West Indies. He was sold again at just two years old and
forced to work in London as a house slave until adulthood. Sancho ran away aged
20, learned to read and became the first Black Briton to vote in an election. The
letters he published in 1782 about his life as an enslaved person influenced British
foreign secretary Charles James Fox and set the course for abolition. Fox proposed
the anti-slavery bill that was passed into law.99
Yet, slavery was a source of immense wealth for Britain, and fuelled industries
such as shipbuilding, banking, and insurance. In need of replacement sources of
wealth, politicians developed the idea of “legitimate commerce”, whereby African
forced labour in African countries would produce resources shipped to enrich Britain.
For this to happen, Britain’s military officers negotiated so-called treaties with
African rulers that would establish British trading, and lead to Britain declaring
itself the legitimate ruler. Kings of Africa’s mega kingdoms – some of whom had
acted as middlemen, selling their prisoners of war to Europeans – opposed these
treaties. So, Britain’s military – on a mission to “protect” Africa from slave traders –
started to ally with local rulers who were favourable to British trade and to violently
dispose of African kings who blocked these treaties or this trade. Stolen artefacts
from the captured kingdoms paid Britain’s costs from these wars. The result was the
destruction of Africa’s oldest empires.100
The campaign against slavery also allowed it to brutally amass colonies and loot
civilisations’ artefacts. This included wealth and treasures from kingdoms that are
now part of modern-day Nigeria and Ghana.
228 The Conspiracy against Africa

Shipbuilder Macgregor Laird formed the African Inland Commercial Company

in 1831. He had a great passion for “legitimate” trade in Nigeria as a substitute for
slavery and estimated that one resident could be forced into harvesting a tonne of
palm oil a year to supply Britain’s flourishing soap industry.
“An able-bodied slave is at present worth about four pounds’ worth of British
goods, and when he is shipped, he can produce nothing more. But supposing he
was kept in his native country, he might [by] very slight exertion produces one ton
of [palm] oil per annum, which would be worth eight pounds or purchase double
the quantity of British goods,”101wrote Laird and R A K Oldfield, a surgeon who
travelled with him, in a book about their travels in West Africa in the 1830s.
Their expedition was led by British explorer Richard Lander who removed
what is thought to be the first artefact taken from Nigeria during Britain’s process of
colonisation. It was an intricately carved Yoruba stool that is ironically now named
after Lander and held in the British Museum.
It is thought that Lander’s trip, funded by the British government, provided vital
details on navigating Nigeria’s interior. According to Siollun’s book, while European
exploration had been limited to the coast because almost all who went further died
from illness, the arrival of quinine – a medicine used to treat malaria – changed this.
Soon after, explorers, merchants and slave raiders ventured beyond Lagos’s coastlines
into regions previously considered a “white man’s grave”102.
Like other European powers, Britain rushed to control African land not just for
palm oil but also gold, ivory, diamonds, cotton, rubber, and coal. “Trade in produce
has been gradually growing up and gaining upon the Slave Trade in proportion as the
enterprise of the British merchant,” it was noted in Britain’s parliamentary papers in
1842. And by 1845 the British government abolished duties on palm oil observing
that imports “had nearly quadrupled”.
Yet slave-raiding continued among some British merchants because of the
enormous profits involved. This led to Britain more rigorously pushing “legitimate”
means of trade, subsequently granting charters to companies to exploit trade across
West Africa. The most successful was the Royal Niger Company (RNC) governed
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 229

by merchant George Goldie between 1879 and 1900. Goldie was instrumental in
colonising Nigeria and South Africa by establishing mineral companies in the region.
He set up administrative posts manned by officers who used the same violence and
intimidation carried over from the slave trade. Historian Felix K Ekechi argues in his
book, Portrait of a Colonizer: H. M. Douglas in Colonial Nigeria, 1897-1920, that
“colonial officials, and particularly the earlier administrators were not only imperious,
overbearing but consciously callous and brutal towards Africans”.103
Britain used discriminatory policies to protect its merchants from local
competition. It enacted high tariffs on indigenous palm oil trade and confiscated the
goods of anyone not paying its fees. African merchants found themselves unable to
grow their own economies. This prompted hostile opposition from locals, according
to papers of the RNC, held at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian library. Farms
and entire villages were burned to the ground and villagers beaten to crack down on
growing opposition. “To the natives, it appeared as if Britain had abolished indigenous
slavery so it could replace it with its own system of slave labour,” historian Siollun
says of the company.
The tariffs RNC imposed made it extremely lucrative. According to parliamentary
papers, it earned shareholders a six per cent profit annually.
After the Berlin Conference of 1884 endorsed European claims to African
territories, Goldie led punitive expeditions against the Nigerian kingdoms of Nupe
and Ilorin in 1897, removing their rulers for opposition towards its military outposts
in the region. RNC controlled swaths of territory covering a population of more
than 30 million people. 104
In 1899, Henry Launcher, the MP for Middlesex, described the process by which
territory was acquired during a parliamentary meeting. “Someone belonging to one
company, or another meets a black man. Of course, he has an interpreter with him.
He asks the black man if he is proprietor of certain land, and if he will sign a paper,
he shall have a bottle of gin. The Black man at once accepts; a paper is put before
him, and he is told to make his mark on it, which he does. And then we say that we
have made a treaty by which all the rights in that country of the emperor, king, or
chief, or whatever you call him, have been given over to us. That is the origin of all
these treaties.”105.
230 The Conspiracy against Africa

In one instance, RNC was supposed to pay the Sokoto empire in northern Nigeria
£300 to £400 annually in mining rights and for the empire to recognise Britain
as “the paramount power”. Officers knew the true value was £1,000 a year, about
£132,000 in today’s figures. But nothing was paid, and Sokoto was later violently
conquered.106
In southern Nigeria, the Igbo communities in the Delta state formed an organised
resistance to the company known as the Ekumeku movement, meaning “the silent
ones”. The continuing uprisings and fear that Germany or France might take control
of the area prompted Britain to buy out RNC’s territories. Military expeditions to
defeat the Ekumeku continued until the mid-1900s with officers during those wars
buying Igbo artefacts that ended up in London.
In 1929, RNC’s subsidiary was absorbed into Unilever, which was owned by
William Lever and extracted palm oil in Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria to use as a key
ingredient in its soaps. Unilever holds a few African artefacts but says these were gifts
given to its employees.107
However, more artefacts would be seized during wars between Britain and various
local kings who were dethroned and replaced with corrupt “puppet” rulers. Britain’s
National Archives referred to it as “indirect government” in the region. This involved
using local chiefs to implement colonial policies. Britain would be in charge, but
traditional authorities would have the appearance of power.
In 1892, British soldiers attacked the Yoruba kingdom of Ijebu using early
machine guns known as maxims. The kingdom’s artefacts were looted as punishment
for blocking trade.
Ijebu’s king controlled routes leading to the costal ports of Lagos. Captain
George Denton, acting governor of Lagos, had visited the capital Ijebu-Ode in 1891
to gain access to trade for British companies. But the Ijebu king refused, and British
officers threatened the use of force if they did not sign a treaty. When the Ijebu
king and his chiefs objected that they could not read English, British officials had it
signed for them by Ijebu people living elsewhere. This fuelled further hostility and
when the Ijebu would not allow a British officer passage through their territory, a
punitive expedition was mounted for allegedly breaching the terms of the signed
treaty, according to parliamentary records.98
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 231

Historical accounts estimate more than a thousand Ijebu soldiers were killed.
“On the West Coast, in the ‘Jebu’ war, undertaken by Government, I have been told
that ‘several thousands’ were mowed down by the Maxim,” Frederick Lugard, later
governor-general of Nigeria, recalled in his 1893 book, The Rise of Our East African
Empire.
Having captured most of the Yoruba kingdoms by 1895 including Ibadan, Oyo
and Abeokuta, British forces moved inwards toward the ancient kingdom of the Bini
people – the Benin Empire.
In February 1897, Britain launched another “punitive expedition” using 1,200
naval soldiers and 5,000 colonial troops. The massacre lasted 10 days and Benin
was burned to the ground. It was in response to the Benin king’s men killing seven
officials from a British convoy, including its leader Captain James Phillips, which
had demanded control over the palm oil and rubber trade.99
At the time, Benin kingdom, modern-day Edo state in southern Nigeria, had
been a self-sustaining nation surrounded by former civilisations crumbling under a
siege of European invasion.
Benin city, formed around the 12th century, was one of the first places in the
world to have street lighting, according to Siollun’s research. The 120-feet-wide roads
to the oba’s palace were lit at night by metal streetlamps – fuelled by palm oil – that
stood several feet high. Its earthwork walls were described by archaeologists as the
world’s largest before the mechanical age.
It was a prosperous trader in enslaved people – largely its war captives. The official
rhetoric, according to documents from colonial records, was that soldiers saved Bini
people from a haven of “slavery” and “barbarism”. British accounts suggest Benin
was heavily engaged in human sacrifices naming it the “city of blood”. According to
parliamentary records, soldiers came across “several deep holes in compounds filled
with corpses”. 100
But Nigerian narratives say some of those dead had been hurriedly buried by
villagers before fleeing the besieged city. One possible explanation is that British
soldiers “had been firing long-range artillery, rockets, machine guns, for hours and
days even before they entered Benin,” Siollun tells Al Jazeera, “So it is possible that
a great number of corpses that they saw were the casualties of their own attacks.”101.
232 The Conspiracy against Africa

While eight British deaths were reported to the House of Parliament, Benin
deaths were not counted. At least 3,000 artefacts were looted from the royal palace
and surrounding homes – the true number is unknown. Burn marks from the blaze
are still clearly visible on some looted artefacts. The bounty was auctioned off in
London to private collectors and galleries across the West in what historians believe
were pre-planned loot. 102
Captain Phillips had written to Britain’s Foreign Office in November 1896 that,
“I would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory may be found in the
king’s house to pay the expenses in removing the king from his stool,” according to
correspondence papers held in Nigeria’s National Archives.103
Benin’s capture was celebrated in American and British newspapers. British
soldiers kept some of the loot for themselves. They dressed up in fake native wear
and wore blackface to reconstruct their lucrative exploit.
The Benin Bronzes, a collection made up of carved ivory, bronze and brass crafted
sculptures and plaques, are not mere artworks but catalogue the story of Benin – its
achievements, explorations, and belief systems.
They ended up in more than 160 museums globally. The largest collection –
928 – is at the British Museum where an exhibition took place within months of the
kingdom being razed. Berlin’s Ethnological Museum holds 516 – the second largest
collection. There are 173 at the Weltmuseum in Vienna, 160 at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art (Met) in New York, 160 at Cambridge University’s Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology and 105 at Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum.104
“It was purely a colonial power exerting power on the community. They looted
and burned down everything and carted away what they took off the people,” Tijani,
of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, tells Al Jazeera.105
A spokeswoman for Austria’s Weltmuseum Wien acknowledges 13 of its 173
Benin Bronzes “have been linked definitively to the British invasion” though eight
were acquired in the 16th century. “Further research will seek to establish the
provenance of the rest of the objects,” she told Al Jazeera via email. “The museum
itself is not authorised to decide to return objects. Such decisions are made by the
government.” 106.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 233

Weltmuseum Wien has committed to loans via the Benin Dialogue Group and
the sharing of digitised archives in the Digital Benin project, which will create an
online database of more than 5,000 objects held globally in public institutions by
2022. 107
In a statement to Al Jazeera, the British Museum added that “the devastation and
plunder wreaked upon Benin City during the British military expedition in 1897 is
fully acknowledged by the Museum and the circumstances around the acquisition of
Benin objects explained in gallery panels and on the Museum’s website”. In November
2020, the British Museum announced it would help in archaeological excavations of
the royal palace’s ruins before a new museum is built on the site.
The Benin Kingdom theft is well-documented. Yet Benin Bronzes stay profitable
for their owners, with single pieces having fetched more than $4m at auction houses.
“The nature of how these things were carried out is illegal, everybody understands
that so therefore these objects need to come back to us,” 108 Tijani says.
• Stolen skulls and gold
Throughout Britain’s anti-slavery missions, many prized African artefacts arrived
in London to be sold onto European collectors and museums.
At the time, scholars doubted “primitive” Africans could create such works.
German archaeologist Leo Frobenius, who was accused of having stolen a sacred
Yoruba Ife head in 1910, argued they were of Greek origin and not African. “I was
moved to silent melancholy at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and
feeble-minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much loveliness,”109
he wrote in his book, Voice of Africa, published in 1913.
Charles Read, a British Museum curator between 1880 and 1921, had a similar
reaction to the Benin Bronzes. “We were at once astounded at such an unexpected
find and puzzled to account for so advanced an art among a race so entirely barbarous
as were the Bini,” he said. Read saw the museum “as a centrepiece of the British
Empire”.110
Ghanaian authorities have also tried to reclaim gold treasures looted by British
soldiers from the Asante kingdom, which is also known as Ashanti.
234 The Conspiracy against Africa

In 1872, Britain expanded its West African territories by buying the Dutch
Gold Coast. It had become less profitable to the Dutch after the abolition of the
slave trade. But the Asante, described by British MP Charles Adderley as “the most
warlike of the African tribes,” refused to acknowledge British rule and in February
1874, a “punitive expedition” was mounted using 2,500 British troops. The Kumasi
royal palace was destroyed with explosives and the city was ransacked and burned.111
According to the memoir of British forces commander Sir Garnet Wolseley,
published in 1878, “As the amount realized by the sale of loot, was inconsiderable,
the troops and seamen received a gratuity of thirty days’ pay, in lieu of prize money.”
112.

Items stolen by British soldiers from the Kumasi royal palace were auctioned
off at crown jeweller, Gerrard, less than three months after Kumasi’s destruction.
Gerrard runs today in London’s West End.
Asante leaders were forced to sign a treaty in which they would renounce rights
to their lands, end human sacrifice and pay Britain’s cost of the war through 50,000
ounces in gold, according to the Wolseley memoir. The treaty also made allocation
for British commercial interests. When Asante leaders could not pay all the gold
demanded, its new king Prempeh I petitioned the British to allow more time to pay
the sum. The petition was rejected, and Asante territory became part of Britain’s
Empire in 1897 after a second punitive expedition between 1895 and 1896. 113
Ghanaian officials have been keeping an eye on the paced developments in
Nigeria over the Benin Bronzes. “There is now a kind of organised structure [in
Nigeria] that is advocating for the return,” explains Nana Oforiatta Ayim, founder
of Accra based ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge. “That’s what I’m trying to put
in motion at the moment is that same organised push towards getting our objects
back.”114.
She heads the President’s Committee on Museums and Monuments which will
advise the government on restitution. She believes there has been a “silence” on
looted Asante treasures with little public data. In May, the 13-person committee
launched a report on next steps that will include compiling inventory of items held
by museums globally.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 235

Around 514 Asante royal regalia ended up at the British Museum, according to
data from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Al Jazeera, 19 at the Victoria
and Albert (V&A), and 14 at the Wallace Collection. Several other institutions
hold Asante loot including New York’s Met, the Dallas Museum of Art, Glasgow
Museums, and the British royal family.115
The Wallace Collection told Al Jazeera 12 of its items “are on display and can be
seen for free on a visit to the museum.
“We have no active restitution or repatriation claims for any objects to be
returned to their country, state, community or owner of origin,” it said via email. 116
The Met did not respond to a request for comment on its Ghanaian treasures.
The British Museum repeated its ethos. “We believe the strength of the British
Museum collection resides in its breadth and depth, allowing millions of visitors
an understanding of the cultures of the world and how they interconnect over time
– whether through trade, migration, conquest, or peaceful exchange,” the museum
said in its statement to Al Jazeera.
The V&A bought 13 royal artefacts from the Gerrard auction with additional
buys from soldiers who participated in the looting. Just three items of its collection
are on public display while 16 are held in storage, according to details from a freedom
of information (FOI) request by Al Jazeera.
The V&A has only received one request for return from an African country,
it says. Ethiopia’s former President Girma Wolde-Giorgis sent a letter in 2008
requesting the repatriation of artefacts looted by British troops in Maqdala in 1868.
The museum responded a decade later with the offer to loan the objects back long-
term. That offer was rejected.
In 1974 the Asante royal family asked the UK government to pass legislation
that would allow the return of looted treasures. The reply was “very racist and rude,”
recalls Oforiatta Ayim.
The case was referred to the House of Lords. In response to the suggestion that
sacred Ghanaian objects embody the souls of ancestors, one Lords member said,
according to parliamentary minutes, “would it not be possible to keep the booty and
return the souls?”
236 The Conspiracy against Africa

Another Lords member cautioned treading “warily when it comes to returning

booty which we have collected,” as that process could “turn into a striptease” of
Britain’s museums.117
Relations had not improved by the start of the millennium. In March 2000,
Prince Edun Akenzua, of the royal court of Benin, also wrote to Britain’s Parliament
demanding that a record of all looted artefacts be published.
“Britain, being the principal looters of the Benin Palace, should take full
responsibility for retrieving the cultural property or the monetary compensation
from all those to whom the British sold them,” he wrote.118
Akenzua’s plea was ignored. Chao Tayiana Maina, co-founder of the Open
Restitution Africa project and the Museum of British Colonialism in Kenya, adds
that Britain’s policy on return is an added challenge. “What we are seeing with the
Germans and the French is a bit more flexibility.
“The concept of loans is really a bandage over a broken bone,” says Maina.
“When you have these objects on loan there is still this overarching cloud that they
are still not ours.”
Kenya is demanding the return of more than 2,000 historical artefacts held in
the UK. One particularly shocking case is that of the skull of Nandi chief Koitalel
Arap Samoei. He fought against Britain’s railway project through his land and in
1905 was shot dead by British colonel Richard Meinertzhagen. Samoei’s body was
decapitated, and the head taken to London.
The skull is still held in Britain although the items he was wearing that were
stolen by Meinertzhagen were returned by his son in 2006.
Empty shelves were recently showcased at the Nairobi National Museum to
represent more than 32,000 objects taken out of Kenya during the colonial era.
The exhibition, called Invisible Inventories, examined how such a profound loss of
heritage affects communities.
In 1902, British colonial officials seized the Ngadji, a sacred drum of the Pokomo
people of Kenya’s Tana River valley. The drum has been in the British Museum’s
storage room for more than a century, never once put on public display. Maina
points out that many contested collections have been in storage for centuries since
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 237

being shipped to Western museums. Catalogue details have been inaccurate while
objects have been left to gather toxic dust.
“Western museums act as if returning is the hardest part, but we are the ones who
must do the hard job. We are the ones who must receive objects that are sometimes
poisonous because they have been stored in arsenic,” she says. “Restitution is a much
broader process in terms of what happens even when the object comes back and how
they are reintegrated into society.”
Benin Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif resigned as a trustee of the British Museum
in 2019 because of its position on repatriation. Soueif said her resignation was not
because of a single issue but a cumulative response to the museum’s immovability on
issues of critical concern to young and less-privileged people. “The British Museum,
born and bred in empire and colonial practice, is coming under scrutiny. And yet it
hardly speaks,” she wrote in a blog post. She asked, will the museum “continue to
project the power of colonial gain and corporate indemnity?”
Oforiatta Ayim, who is an historian and curator, worked a short stint at the
British Museum and recalls going into its storage. “Especially in the rooms where
the African objects are. You feel this energy there and you think these objects do not
feel right here,” she says. “If you look at our knowledge systems and you look at how
objects are seen and animated – they are not these graveyards of a mausoleum, there
is a spirit and an aliveness to them.”
She quotes the V&A’s director Tristram Hunt writing that “empire was also a
story of cosmopolitanism,” and suggests this amount to a continued romanticism of
imperial violence that ignores its ruinous effects on generations.
The argument at its base is a legal and moral one. “You kill my parents, and then
take objects from me … when I come to you and say this has been a traumatic event
for me and I want those objects back you say to me, ‘well they are mine now maybe
I’ll lend them to you’,” says Ayim.
Despite the offer, artefacts are not currently on loan to any African country by
the V&A or the British Museum. The British Museum currently has seven Benin
artefacts on loan to other museums in Europe, according to Al Jazeera’s Freedom
of Information request. It has objects out on loan to the UK’s Wilberforce House
Museum in Hull, London’s V&A, M Shed Museum of Bristol, and the House of
238 The Conspiracy against Africa

European History in Brussels. Four objects associated with the Asante royal court
are on loan to museums in the US, the names of those institutions were not released.
The V&A said it does not have any Asante objects out on loan anywhere globally.
• Legislating return:
In the 1990s, the Washington Principles enacted guidelines around the return
of Nazi-confiscated art. In 2002, the heirs of Dr Arthur Feldman sought the return
of four old master drawings from the British Museum because they had been stolen
by the Gestapo. The case went to court and the family lost on the grounds that
British law forbids state museums returning their collection. It prompted a private
members’ bill in parliament by MP Andrew Dismore which led to the Holocaust
(Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 in the UK. “Sadly, there is nothing we can do
to reverse those appalling losses, but we can at least keep open the hope of the return
of lost treasures, when they are identified in our museums,” one parliamentarian said
in 2019 when the act was revisited.
For Osori of OSIWA, it serves as a paradigmatic case for legislation on returning
African objects looted during colonialism. “You ask yourself why the restitution was
able to take place in a much shorter time and it is still taking you this much time for
you to do restitution for African cultural heritage.”
African leaders were delighted when French President Emmanuel Macron
declared in 2017 that the return of African heritage to its ex-colonies would be a
“top priority”.
“I cannot accept that a large part of cultural heritage from several African
countries is in France,” he told students during a two-hour speech in Burkina Faso’s
capital Ouagadougou. “African heritage cannot be a prisoner of European museums,”
Macron later tweeted during his trip.
A 2018 report that he commissioned, by academics Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine
Sarr, recommended African artefacts be returned. Around 90 to 95 per cent of African
cultural heritage is held overseas, the report found.
The French parliament subsequently passed a bill in December 2020 to allow
African objects to be returned. “This is not an act of repentance or reparation,”
minister delegate for foreign trade Franck Riester said.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 239

Cambridge University’s Jesus College became one of the first British institutions
to announce the planned return of a looted Benin Bronze cockerel. The college’s
Legacy of Slavery Working Party, a group established to look at the institution’s
connections to the slave trade, recommended it be returned.
But it was not until the death of George Floyd in the US and the Black Lives
Matter (BLM) movement, that African repatriation gained global momentum.
Restitution became part of a broader debate on racial equality in the wake of BLM
protests in June 2020.
It was against this backdrop that in April, Germany became the first national
government to say it would return a “substantive” number of more than 1,000 Benin
Bronzes held by German institutions by 2022. It also committed more than $2m
into provenance research of looted objects and guidelines towards return.
“We are facing the historical and moral responsibility to bring Germany’s colonial
past to light and to come to terms with it,” Monika Grütters, Germany’s culture
minister, said. “We would like to contribute to understanding and reconciliation
with the descendants of people who were robbed of their cultural treasures during
the colonial era.”
Returned bronzes will be displayed in a new museum called the Edo Museum of
West African Art to be constructed at the site of the old royal palace in Benin City.
The project designed by architect David Adjaye is due to open in 2026, although the
dates have shifted multiple times.
Lagos state governors will loan from the British Museum the Lander Stool to
display at a new centre due to open in spring 2022 – the John K Randle Centre for
Yoruba History and Culture. The planned rooms of the building will tell the Yoruba
story of human creation through its gods and goddesses, as well as the history of
colonialism and the Transatlantic slave trade.
Lagos authorities say the centre will be a place where the Yoruba can “reclaim
their heritage from a colonial narrative”. The British Museum will lend key objects
on a long-term basis, it announced last month.
• African voices:
240 The Conspiracy against Africa

The debate about who should be the custodians of African art has recently
centralised in the Global North with academics and “experts” writing books on the
Benin Bronzes to a plethora of rave reviews. It raises an uncomfortable truth that
while they are vital to global discussions, Africans who are taking practical steps
towards restitution have been drowned out by white male voices, Ayim says candidly.
“You are essentially doing what colonisers have been doing for centuries which
is talking on behalf of someone and saying this is what should happen,” she adds.
The Pitt Rivers Museum has not repatriated its looted African items, despite
being the hosts of several programmes focussed on restitution. When asked whether
Pitt has returned any Benin Bronzes, the museum told Al Jazeera “No”.
Restitution has been all talk without action. Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director
of the LagosPhoto Festival and the African Artists’ Foundation, says institutions have
“idolised themselves”.
“Restitution has become commodified, just like everything else that relates to
Africa and its diaspora, it becomes something for intellectuals in Western institutions
to go from conference to conference.”
African curators are calling for more meaningful discussions with the continent’s
young generation. LagosPhoto, Nigeria’s biggest international arts festival, sought
to make the conversation more inclusive last year. Its Home Museum project asked
citizens to submit images of objects of personal significance under the theme Rapid
Response Restitution.
The interactive online exhibition contains more than 200 submissions of personal
ephemera and family heirlooms that each tell a unique story. It was about shifting
dialogue about the legacies of loss from diplomats and intellectuals to citizens, says
Nwagbogu. For him, photography has the power “not just to illustrate or tell a story
but it also captures memory, ideas and history”.
Another project of his called Generator is in collaboration with Clémentine
Deliss, who was a director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt. It aims to
develop local cultural custodians through access to arts education and research.
“When these museums in Africa become physically realised, we’re not looking to hire
curators from elsewhere,” he says, “we want to be able to have people on the ground
that are interested and skilled.”
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 241

That grassroots approach is snowballing. In Ghana Ayim has created the

mobile museum that travels across Ghana. She describes it as “a listening tool”
with communities giving feedback on what they want from a future museum. This
will eventually feed Ghana’s national strategy to create a museum model that is less
“monolithic”.
Plans to build a $30m Pan African Heritage World Museum by 2023 are taking
shape in Ghana. Kojo Yankah, a former member of the Ghanaian parliament who is
behind the project, said it aims to inspire citizens “to know that there is something
to be proud of in being African”.
Maina’s small organisation holds workshops retelling Kenyan history and
offering up spaces for people to explore its impact. “It’s easy to think that nothing is
happening in terms of restitution or that very little is happening,” says Maina, “but
so many people are involved. It is just that they don’t have a platform.”
Across the continent, African voices on return are getting louder. The African
Union (AU) announced plans to build a $57m Great Museum of Africa by 2023 in
the North African country of Algeria.
Although some have questioned this specific location, Angela Martins, head of
culture division at the AU, tells Al Jazeera the site in the country’s capital Algiers was
offered by the Algerian government and would promote continent-wide cultural
heritage. To Martins, colonial powers recognising that assets were looted and not
simply “taken” are the first major hurdle. She would like to see reparations given for
stolen assets. The Great Museum of Africa would be “a dedicated institution which
will be negotiating the return of illicitly trafficked heritage,” Martins continues.
It would “initiate negotiations with member states and the countries that are
having looted or illicitly trafficked objects; so that they can come to an agreement.”
A planned AU Model Law report equally aims to align approaches on restitution
for member states. “Our main role is at the policy level,” says Martins, who believes
its report would be the “major instrument” about restitution.
Tijani says Nigeria will not stop seeking the return of its cultural artefacts. The
objects recovered so far are few in comparison to the amount looted. Far more are
suspected to be in private European homes. Nigeria is seeking back illegally exported
242 The Conspiracy against Africa

treasures from the Nok era, the Igbo people, Oku and Eloyi. The latter unsuccessfully
revolted against British rule in 1918.
Britain’s Queen received a Benin bronze head as a gift by Nigerian general
Yakubu Gowon during a state visit in the 1970s. The head had been looted from
Nigeria’s national museum in Lagos after it had been purchased back from Britain in
the 1950s. Nigeria concedes its museums were “porous”. “There are situations where
even the museum staff are capable of colluding with other people to loot some of our
objects away just for them to get some monetary value,” says Tijani, but he insists
more stringent authorisation systems have been put in place to reduce thefts.
Nigerian federal authorities want to collaborate with countries to block objects
being transported abroad without a permit, he explains. “The customs or the
authorities of those countries must take possession of these artefacts and notify us.”
In April, Nigeria received back a stolen Yoruba Ile-Ife head recognised at an airport
in Mexico. While the University of Aberdeen has agreed to return a Benin Bronze,
head acquired in an “extremely immoral” way, there is a second in its possession that
Nigeria wants back.
“We are discussing with them because they want to confirm if it is part of the loot
of 1897,” says Tijani. Private European holders, however, have asked for monetary
compensation for the return of looted Bronzes, he explains.
While Nigeria has previously purchased back Benin Bronzes, that era appears to
be over. “It is not morally right for us to pay for our own objects,” says Tijani. “We
are not ready to pay for any compensation.”
Nigeria’s organised position on restitution has not been without controversy. The
current Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, said in a statement to media that anyone working
with the Legacy Restoration Trust is “an enemy,” and returned objects should come
to him. Tijani says he does not want a situation where overseas institutions “start
thinking twice,” on repatriation. “We are not taking these objects to other places. We
agree we want to display these objects in Benin City. So let us be united,” he says.
As the debate intensifies, African countries are more affirmative in their pursuit.
“It’s a big international issue now,” says Tijani. “Anywhere we come across these
objects whether in private collections or in public institutions we are going to lay
claim … that we are sure of.” (Culled from Stealing Africa: How Britain looted the
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 243

continent’s art. During war and colonisation, Western nations participated in the
theft of thousands of pieces of African art. This is the story of the role Britain’s anti-
slavery mission played in looting African artefacts, and of the campaign to get them
returned.)
3. Stealing Africa: France
In this book, I will try to explain how African countries that were colonized by
France are still beholden to their colonizers. The current relationship between African
countries and France prevents successful African development and sovereignty. 128

1. France dominance and inhumanity against Africans:

1. The former colonies must pay a “colonial debt.”
2. The newly “independent” countries are forced to pay for the country’s
infrastructure that France takes credit for building during colonization. The
amount of this debt varies depending on what country is paying the debt and
how its infrastructure is developed.
3. France can automatically confiscate the African country’s national reserves.
4. The African country must deposit its national monetary reserves into France’s
central bank.
5. France has held the national reserves of 14 African countries since 1961:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon,
Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo-
Brazzaville, and Gabon.
6. In fact, more than 80 per cent of the foreign reserves of these African countries
are deposited in so-called “operations accounts” controlled by the French
Treasury.
7. Two declared independent African banks – BEAC (Banque des Etats de
l’Afrique Centrale) and BEACO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de
l’Ouest) – have in practice no monetary policies of their own.
8. The countries themselves do not know, nor are they told how much of the pool
of foreign reserves held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or
individually.
244 The Conspiracy against Africa

9. Only a limited group of officials knows exactly the amounts of these operations
accounts, where these funds are invested. France carefully hides this and other
details from any African bank or government.
10. It is estimated that France now holds $500 billion of African countries’ money
in its treasury and will do anything to keep it. Moreover, the African countries
do not have access to this money.
11. France allows them to access only 15 per cent of the money in any given year.
If they need more than that, they must borrow at commercial rates from the
remaining 85 per cent - of their own money – that is held hostage by the
French Treasury.
12. To make things worse, France fixes a limit on the amount of money the countries
may borrow from the reserve. The limit is fixed at 20 per cent of their public
revenue in the preceding year. If the countries need to borrow more than that,
France vetoes it.
13. In his recent video, the former president of France, Jacques Chirac said the
French people should accept the fact that a large amount of the money in their
banks comes precisely from the exploitation of former colonies on the African
continent.
14. France claims the right to exploit any natural resource discovered in the country.
15. France claims it has the first right to buy any natural resources found on the
territory of its ex-colonies. The African countries are also not allowed to seek
other partners freely.
16. France forces African countries to give preference to French interests and
companies in the field of public procurement and public biding.
17. According to government contracts, French companies must be considered
first. Only after that can Africans connect with other foreign companies.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 245

It doesn’t matter if the African countries would receive help from a partner
outside of France.
18. Consequently, in many French ex-colonies all the major economic assets are
in French hands. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire French companies own and
control all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and
major banks. The same situation exists in the field of commerce, construction,
and agriculture.
19. France claims an exclusive right to supply military equipment and training to
African military officers.
20. Through a sophisticated scheme of scholarships, grants and “defence agreements”
attached to the Colonial Pact (the document that sets up the common currency
for all Francophone countries – the CFA Franc), African countries send their
senior military officers for training in France.
21. The situation in Africa now is that France has trained and nourished hundreds,
even thousands of traitors. They are activated when France needs them to
commit another coup d’état or create a disturbing political situation inside
Africa.
22. France claims a right to deploy troops and intervene in the African country to
defend France’s interests.
23. Under the conditions of defence agreements and the Colonial Pact, France
claims a legal right to intervene militarily in the African countries and deploy
its troops permanently on their military bases.
24. The African countries are obliged to make French the official language of the
country and of education.
25. The “Francophone” cultural and educational system, with several satellites and
their affiliates, is supervised directly by the French minister of foreign affairs.
26. African people are pressured to speak French instead of their own languages.
27. That is extremely limiting. It has been suggested that if a person only speaks
French, they will have access to less than 4 percent of humanity’s knowledge
and information.
246 The Conspiracy against Africa

28. France’s former colonies are forced to use the colonial currency FCFA (the
CFA franc).
29. This evil setup acts as a milk cow for France. It has been condemned by the
European Union, but France is not ready to get rid of such a system that drains
the African countries of their wealth and brings to about $500 billion annually
to the French treasury.
30. The African countries are obliged to send France an annual balance and reserve
report.
31. Without the report the African countries cannot get money from the reserves
of the France central bank. Also, the central banks of ex-colonies are controlled
and managed by the France central bank.
32. The African countries are prohibited from entering any military alliance.
33. The African countries in general have military alliances with their ex-colonizers.
Moreover, France forbids the Africans from looking for any form of military
cooperation and protection outside of that offered by the French government.
34. The African countries are obliged to ally only with France during a situation of
war or global crisis.
More than a million African soldiers contributed to the defeat of Nazism
and fascism in World War II. However, this contribution is often ignored or
underestimated. Since World War II, France has taken into consideration the fact
that Africans may be used in the case of any military threat or war expectation.
In conclusion, France has been addicted to looting and exploiting Africa since
the times of slavery. There are still French military bases and soldiers in Africa under
the pretence of protection. But in fact, they are there to control and oppress the local
citizens.

ii. Monetary bankruptcy

Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it
carefully organised its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of “compulsory
solidarity” which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65% of their
foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20% for financial
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 247

liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15% of
their own money! If they need more, they must borrow their own money from the
French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960s. 131
France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land
of the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries can get better prices
elsewhere, they can’t sell to anybody until France says it doesn’t need the resources.
In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered
first; only after that can these countries look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the CFA
countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.
Presidents of CFA countries that have tried to leave the CFA zone have had
political and financial pressure put on them by successive French presidents.
Thus, these African states are French taxpayers – taxed at a staggering rate – yet
the citizens of these countries aren’t French and don’t have access to the public goods
and services their money helps pay for.
CFA zones are asked for to supply private funding to French politicians during
elections in France. 132
The colonial pact: It is the Colonial Pact that set up the common currency
for the Francophone countries, the CFA Franc, which demands that each of the
14 C.F.A member countries must deposit 65% (plus another 20% for financial
liabilities, making the dizzying total of 85%) of their foreign exchange reserves in an
“Operations Account” at the French Treasury in Paris.
The African nations therefore have only access to 15% of their own money for
national development in any given year. If they need extra money, as they always are,
they must borrow from their own 65% in the French Treasury at commercial rates.
And that is not all: there is a cap on the credit extended to each member country
equivalent to 20% of their public revenue in the preceding year. So, if the countries
need to borrow more than 20%, too bad; they cannot do it. Amazingly, the final says
on the C.F.A arrangements belongs to the French Treasury, which invests the African
countries’ money in its own name on the Paris Bourse (the stock exchange).133
Ownership of natural resources: It is also the Colonial Pact that demands that
France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land of
248 The Conspiracy against Africa

the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries could get better prices
elsewhere, they cannot sell to anybody until France says it does not want to buy those
natural resources.
It is, again, the Colonial Pact that demands that in the award of government
contracts in the African countries, French companies should be considered first; only
after that can Africans look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if Africans can obtain better
value for money elsewhere, French companies come first, and most often get the
contracts. Currently, there is the awkward case in Abidjan where, before the elections,
former president Gbagbo’s government wanted to build a third major bridge to link
the central business district (called Plateau) to the rest of the city, from which it is
separated by a lagoon. By Colonial Pact tradition, the contract must go to a French
company, which incidentally has quoted an astronomical price – to be paid in euros
or US dollars.134
From Parliament to resources: Not happy, Gbagbo’s government sought a second
quote from the Chinese, who offered to build the bridge at half the price quoted by
the French company, and – wait for this – payment would be in cocoa beans, of
which Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer. But unsurprisingly, the French
said “non, you can’t do that”.
Overall, the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged position
over Francophone Africa, but in Côte d’Ivoire, the jewel of the former French
possessions in Africa, the French are overly dominant. Outside parliament, almost
all the major utilities – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports, and major
banks – are run by French companies or French interests. The same story is found in
commerce, construction, and agriculture.
In short, the Colonial Pact has created a legal mechanism under which France
obtains a special place in the political and economic life of its former colonies.135
The big questions: In what meaningful way can any of the 14 CFA countries
be said to be independent? If this isn’t illegal and an international crime, then what
is? What is it going to take for this state of indentured servitude to end? How much
have the CFA countries lost because of this 50-year (and counting) “agreement”?
(Remember, they’ve had to borrow their own money from the French at commercial
rates) Do French people know they’re living off the wealth of African countries and
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 249

have been doing so for over half a century? And if they know, do they care? When
will France start paying back money they’ve sucked from these countries, not only
directly from the interest on cash reserves and loans these countries have had to take
out, but also on lost earnings from the natural resources the countries sold to France
below market rates as well as the lost earnings resulting from awarding contracts to
French companies when other contractors could have done things for less? Does any
such “agreement” exist between Britain and its former colonies, or did they really let
go when they let go?
The colonial powers were not interested only in natural resources and raw material
in the lands they set foot on. They were also interested in the languages, religions,
and cultures of the indigenous peoples of those lands. Therefore, colonialism both
had economic-commercial and cultural-political objectives. On the other hand, it
is possible to say that France left more permanent effects at cultural and political
levels. For instance, it is very hard for an African country to vote against the national
benefits of France at the UN today.
French imperialism found itself new markets, capital, raw material, and cheap
labour force and established colonies or protectorates in Africa by claiming that it
was their mission to “civilize” the “primitive” folks. France, for instance, as one of the
five permanent members of the UN Security Council, did not do much to prevent
the ethnic clashes and genocide in Rwanda during 1994. Due to its right to veto, the
French responsibility in Rwanda was never questioned at the UN or international
war crime tribunals. 136
To maintain its dominance in Central Africa better, France established a federal
structure called the “French Equatorial Africa” in 1908 and united Cameroon,
Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, and Gabon. These countries
are all independent states and are in political conflict with each other today.137
It is not possible to speak of a good vicinity in North Africa either. For example,
Morocco has serious problems with Mauritania and Algeria because of West Sahara
issue and political reasons. In some cases, African countries tend to co-operate against
each other with the country that colonized and exploited them. That is why, it is not
possible to speak of an African solidarity, unity.
250 The Conspiracy against Africa

E. Africa – the China-owned Continent

1. What is the relationship like between China and Africa?
Some Chinese people even refer to Africa as the “China’s Second Continent”. Yes,
they have come to lay generational “seeds” on the continent and have no intentions
of ever going back even for generations to come. We often look at the Africa-China
relationship from just one economic point of view which is not often very helpful.
Not long ago, many of us (Africans back home) only saw Chinese people in
“Kung fu” martial arts movies. We learned about China through characters like
Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. It may surprise you to know however that, over a million
Chinese investors have permanently settled in Africa today with their families.138
They (the Chinese investors) are coming with their families not because they
love Africa as a home but because they know there is money and more money to be
made in Africa. The Chinese investors are coming in their numbers, but they are also
coming with hooks and lines. They have the baits and what it takes to lure the poor
into their nets and then systematically suck the last drop of blood out of their veins.
They are coming in their numbers and have no plans of ever going back to China
even for generations to come. To them, Africa is another “made in China” product.139
They have bought lands, houses, established businesses, etc. and have come to
stay permanently. Some Chinese people even refer to Africa as the “China’s Second
Continent”. Yes, they have come to lay generational “seeds” on the continent and
have no intentions of ever going back even for generations to come.
We often look at the Africa-China relationship from just one economic point of
view which is not often very helpful. When exactly in time did the dragon learn to
play with lambs?
It is true China is “investing” greatly on the continent, but we often ignore some
other major areas where the presence of Chinese people in Africa does nothing but
great harm to Africa. Look at the environment for a second. Already, wildlife is being
decimated due to habitat loss (from building more infrastructure, more homes for
Chinese immigrants, mining, farming, etc.).140.
China is the only country in the world today that is openly involved in the
ivory trafficking dirty business in Africa. Unlike America and other leading nations,
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 251

China has not yet put a ban on the ivory trade and the reason is because, ivory is
as valuable as gold in China today (especially among China’s flourishing numerous
carving industries). Just last year alone, over 40,000 African elephants were poached
for their ivory tusks to be shipped primarily to carving industries in no other place
but China.
Just as the “blood diamonds” fuelled conflicts in places like Liberia and Sierra
Leone, so this dirty ivory trade continues to fuel terrorist groups such as the notorious
“Al Shabaab” of East and Northeast Africa, The Lord’s Resistance Army LRA (which
operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo), etc. In other words, the Chinese involvement
in the ivory trade does not only harm the environment but also fuels conflicts across
the continent.141
Yes, China is sowing so many seeds in Africa today and some people believe
China will reap the rewards tomorrow. However, China is reaping more than it
sows even today in most parts of Africa. Just look at the recent $75 million airport
expansion contract in Mali for example. This project was funded by American
foreign aid but went straight to a Chinese construction firm. To an outsider, the
Chinese are expanding the airport for Mali for free, not knowing the project was
funded by another country/donor. Foreign aid, private loans and even loans from
IMF and the World Bank often land in Chinese hands. In other words, the several
Chinese investors and firms operating in Africa today have taken over almost all
major projects across the continent and some people think they (the Chinese) are
just “sowing seeds” which is not true.142
And to those of you who don’t know the type of job these numerous Chinese
construction firms do in Africa, Chinese projects don’t often last long. A hospital in
Luanda, the capital of Angola, was opened with great fanfare but cracks appeared
in the walls within a few months, and it soon closed. The Chinese-built road from
Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to Chirundu, 130km (81 miles) to the south-east, was
quickly swept away by rains. Just two weeks after an “inspection” by President Uhuru
Kenyatta, a $12 million Chinese-built Sigiri bridge in Western Kenya collapsed
before it was completed. I can go on and on.143
252 The Conspiracy against Africa

The Chinese people are building businesses across the continent not purposely
to provide jobs for Africans as some people think. Go to any Chinese-owned business
(except maybe the mining sector where poor Africans do all the hard work) in Africa
today and you will realize at least 90% of the employees there are recent Chinese
immigrants. The remaining 10% are the poor Africans who perform the hard labour
for the worst pay ever. From a Chinese point of view, Africa is just another “made in
China” product.
2. The Dragon’s Gift – The Real Story of China in Africa
One country that has gained great wealth and power on the global stage in recent
years is China. As a result of its domination of trade and manufacturing, China has
risen to the second-richest country in the world behind only the United States.
China has been dominating world affairs due to this control over manufacturing
and trade. However, it faces rising competition from other world powers such as
India, Japan, and the US. China has made headlines for its recent economic activities
that are slowly giving it increasing control of developing areas. This is all part of their
Belt and Road Initiative. 144
China is said to employ a strategy known as debt-trap diplomacy, also known
as the Chinese money trap. This is where China gives loans to underdeveloped or
developing countries for them to develop their infrastructure. If a country can’t pay
back their loans by a certain time, China takes control of its trade routes. Not too long
ago, China has been accused of trying to take over Uganda’s sole international airport
if the east African country fails to pay some $200 million loan for the expansion of
the site.
What is China doing in Africa in the first place? Africa need to develop
infrastructure which requires a huge sum, but most African countries cannot afford
the needed financial requirements, hence needed a new sugar-daddy – China. Over
the last several decades, China has been pumping resources into Africa. The country
has invested hundreds of billions of dollars across the continent, ranging in anything
from transportation and infrastructure to real estate and technology. 145
Large infrastructural projects would be viewed as risky by any traditional bank
and would be viewed as risky by any traditional bank and would therefore struggle
to get financed. But China’s Export-Import Bank does not care. This bank would
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 253

give low-interest or no-interest loans to African countries as they can build these
trains, ore dams or other projects. And according to China, their foreign investments
and aids have no string attached – no requirements on factors like respect of human
rights, or democratic elections, etc. Thus, China has been making it rain in Africa
– she doesn’t care about your government, the rule of law, human rights, etc. She’s
basically the cool man of the international finance. In any case, this is a great relief to
African countries.
However, not a few scholars suggest Beijing’s true endgame in Africa is not solely
financial but rather political – true or false! There is empirical evidence that China
has been using these infrastructure investments to affect world-wide politics. It’s
been found that if an African country recognises Taiwan as a country, she receives on
average 2.7% fewer Chinese infrastructure projects within their borders each year.
Conversely, if an African country votes overwhelmingly along with China in the UN
General Assembly, she receives 1.8% more Chinese infrastructure projects each year.
146

It would be recalled that, at a point or another, 30 African countries have had

formal relations with Taiwan. Presently, Eswatini is the only African country that
recognises the Island. That is the power of money! China has really been successful
in this political game.
In Africa, China is estimated to have won virtually all the engineering
procurements and construction contracts. But those contracts have not come
without controversies. The country has been accused of unfair labour practices in
Africa including bringing its own workers from China instead of hiring locally. She
sends Chinese workers to fill-in the best positions, hence, wealth and opportunities
are not shared with the local community. Even when Africans are being employed,
they are treated differently, even segregated from the Chinese workers. 147
China is gaining control of Africa’s foreign policy. A lot of these companies put
China in charge of Africa’s prized natural resources, especially precious metals.
Consequently, if you examine this relationship, it looks increasingly less like a
loan and a lot more like a new kind of colonisation, let alone what would happen
if the obligation of loan repayment is not met. Hence analysts have suspected and
accused China of debt colonialism. There are increasing fears that China is making
254 The Conspiracy against Africa

loans it knows specific African countries would most likely be unable to redeem in
each time. In other words, Beijing is simply engaging, according to these critics, what
could rightly be characterized as “debt-trap diplomacy” – lending intended to force
countries into handing over lands, minerals, and strategic assets when they default
on loans. For instance, Kenya is said to have agreed to apply the Chinese laws inside
Kenya and give up East Africa’s largest port if it could not repay its debts.
However, some African countries are relying on gradual payment by shipping
specific quantities of oil. Sometimes, the loans are repaid in natural resources such
as cobalt.
As Africa’s largest bilateral creditor, China holds more than 20% of the continent’s
debts. Many African countries were already crippled under the weight of the money
they owe China. The coronavirus pandemic frustrated many countries from keeping
up with debt payments.
3. What China Is Really Up to In Africa
Africa is gradually and steadily becoming one of the final frontiers of the fourth
industrial revolution as the continent has become the fastest urbanising region of the
world with rural migrants moving into cities – a situation that has even surpassed
that of China and India. 148
As it were, this rapid transition not only presents big challenges but also offers big
rewards for countries willing to risk billions in an infrastructure building revolution
unlike anything the world has seen before – and no country has answered Africa’s call
quite like China.
Africa’s 1.1 billion human populations is expected to double by 2050 with 80%
of this growth happening in cities, bringing the entire headcount of the continent
to more than 1.3 billion. The population of Lagos, a city in Nigeria, is said to be
growing by 77 persons per hour. McKinsey has predicted that more than 100 cities
in Africa would likely experience well over a million people resident in each of them
by 2025. 149
The rapid urbanisation in Africa brings along with it many unprecedented
economic opportunities. Not too long ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
declared Africa as the world’s second-fastest growing region; many observers are
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 255

making similar prediction stressing that Africa is on its way to becoming a $5 trillion
economy, as household consumption is expected to increase by 2025 at a 3.8%
annually to 2.1 trillion. Hence, the attention of the world is now drifting towards
Africa, with comparisons to 1990s-era China are no longer coming off as radical
projections. 150
Beijing has likewise become a central player in Africa’s urbanization push, as
a huge percentage of the continent’s infrastructure initiatives are being driven by
Chinese companies and/or backed by Chinese funding.
According to Daan Roggeveen, the founder of MORE Architecture and author
of many works on urbanization in China and Africa.
“Right now, you could say that any big project in African cities that is higher
than three floors or roads that are longer than three kilometres are being built and
engineered by the Chinese. It is ubiquitous.” 151.
China is now Africa’s biggest trade partner, with Sino-African trade topping
$200 billion per year. According to McKinsey, over 10,000 Chinese-owned firms
are currently operating throughout the African continent and the value of Chinese
business there since 2005 amounts to more than $2 trillion, with $300 billion in
investment currently on the table. Africa has also eclipsed Asia as the largest market
for China’s overseas construction contracts. To keep this momentum building, Beijing
recently announced a $1 billion Belt and Road Africa infrastructure development
fund and, in 2018, a whopping $60 billion African aid package, so expect Africa to
continuing swaying to the east as economic ties with China become more numerous
and robust. 148
As Chinese President Xi Jinping once pointed out, “Inadequate infrastructure
is believed to be the biggest bottleneck to Africa’s development.” Collectively, the
countries of Africa would need to spend $130-170 billion per year to meet their
infrastructure needs, but, according to the African Development Bank, they are
coming up $68-$108 billion short. Closing Africa’s infrastructure gap has been the
obsession of multiple waves of colonists, and China is the next in line to reach into
the heart of the continent with railroads, highways, and airports. 150
Xiaochen Su on The Diplomat wrote:
256 The Conspiracy against Africa

“Europeans built infrastructure in Africa at the turn of the century, purportedly

also for local economic development, but in essence the projects were used for
natural resource extraction. The predecessor of both the Nairobi-Mombasa and
Addis Ababa-Djibouti railways can be categorized as such. Both connect inland
regions with mineral deposits with major ports on the Indian Ocean” 151
Infrastructure is what Africa needs most and infrastructure is what China is
most equipped to provide. It is not lost on many African leaders that hardly 30 years
ago China was in a similar place that they are now — a backwater country whose
economy made up hardly two per cent of global GDP. But over the past few decades
China shocked the world in the way that it used infrastructure to propel economic
growth, creating a high-speed rail network that now tops 29,000 kilometres, paving
over 100,000 kilometres of new expressways, constructing over 100 new airports,
and building no less than 3,500 new urban areas — which include 500 economic
development zones and 1,000 city-level developments. Over this period, China’s
GDP has grown more than 10-fold, ranking number two in the world today. 152
It is precisely in this important sense that this kind of infrastructure-induced
economic growth that Africa is looking for right now, and many African leaders are
looking to China to bring their experience to their countries. The central players in
many of Africa’s biggest ticket infrastructure projects — including the $12 billion
Coastal Railway in Nigeria, the $4.5 billion Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway, and the
$11 billion mega-port and economic zone at Bagamoyo — are being developed via
Chinese partnerships. 153
China, since 2011, has been the biggest player in Africa’s infrastructure boom,
claiming a 40% share that continues to rise. Meanwhile, the shares of other players
are falling precipitously: Europe declined from 44% to 34%, while the presence of
US contractors fell from 24% to just 6.7%. 154
Zhengli Huang, a research associate at the University of Sheffield who has
conducted extensive case studies on urbanization in Nairobi says:
“The Chinese SOEs they are really taking over the market of infrastructure projects
in Africa. It’s true to say that everywhere you go in East Africa you see Chinese
construction teams.” 155.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 257

As Roggeveen points out, the reasons for this ubiquitous presence are rather
straight forward: many African contractors simply don’t have the capacity for major
development projects, “so if you want to do large-scale construction you either turn
to a western firm or to a Chinese firm, but the Chinese firm is always able to undercut
you on price.” 156
When we look at Africa, we see many countries chasing dreams of a better
economic future while burying themselves in massive amounts of infrastructure-
induced debt that they may not be able to afford. There have already been warning
signs: the $4 Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway ended up costing Ethiopia nearly a
quarter of its total 2016 budget, Nigeria had to renegotiate a deal with their Chinese
contractor due to their failure to pay, and Kenya’s 80% Chinese-financed railway
from Mombasa to Nairobi has already gone four times over budget, costing the
country upwards of 6% of its GDP. In 2012, the IMF found that China owned
15% of Africa’s external debt, and hardly three years later roughly two-thirds of all
new loans were coming from China. This has some analysts issuing warnings about
debt traps – with some even going as far as calling what China is doing a new form
colonialism.157
China needs what Africa has for long-term economic and political stability. Over
a third of China’s oil comes from Africa, as does 20% of the country’s cotton. Africa
has roughly half of the world’s stock of manganese, an essential ingredient for steel
production, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on its own possesses half
of the planet’s cobalt. Africa also has significant amounts of coltan, which is needed
for electronics, as well as half of the world’s known supply of carbonatites, a rock
formation that’s the primary source of rare earths. 158
However, there is a common misconception that all Chinese projects in Africa
have the backing of Beijing. Often, Chinese SOEs are running in Africa on purely
for-profit ventures that do not have the ambitions of their government in mind.
However, it can be difficult to separate China’s commercial intentions in Africa from
the strategic, as, in many cases, the two inevitably overlap. The internationalization of
Chinese construction firms and IT companies as well as the building of infrastructure
to better extract and export African resources, are key concerns for Beijing. So, while
the infrastructure being built on the ground may not necessarily be orchestrated by
Beijing it does ultimately play into China’s broader geo-economic interests.
258 The Conspiracy against Africa

4. How China is seriously stealing natural resources from Africa

worth billions of US dollars
Africa is on the cusp of a new period in its history, its renaissance. Freed from centuries
of colonialism and neo-imperialism, Africa could become a centre of economic
might to provide prosperity to the continent’s growing population. Yet, at present,
Africa unfortunately faces a new danger: Sino-imperialism, the risk of falling under
the control of China through Chinese economic investment and loans. The People’s
Republic of China has long supported African states since the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) came to power in 1949. Under Mao, China’s backed African liberation
movements to advance Maoism and offset Soviet and American influence. In much
of Africa today, China is the imperialist power. 160
China is in Africa now not to advance Maoism, but to control its resources,
people, and potential. From building railways in Kenya and roads in rural Ethiopia
to running mines in the Congo, China has drastically changed the African economic
landscape in the twentieth century. China lent $125 billion to Africa between 2000
and 2006 and recently pledged $60 billion at the 2018 Forum on China-Africa
Co-operation. The Chinese superficially appear to maintain a mutually beneficial
relationship with Africa by providing financial and technical assistance to Africa’s
pressing developmental needs. Trade between China and Africa has grown from $10
billion in 2000 to $190 billion by 2017. It is estimated that 12 per cent of Africa
industrial production, or $500 billion annually—nearly half of Africa’s internationally
contracted construction market—is carried out by Chinese firms. 161
China’s activities in the African continent have yet to receive the attention they
deserve in the West. China’s behaviour in Africa is important for three major reasons.
162

• First, China is the source of significant investment capital twinned with an

immense ability to create infrastructure, both of which are needed by many
African states.
• Second, China’s behaviour in Africa provides the rest of the world with insight
into how it will behave towards other states, particularly the states of the Global
South, as it becomes equal in power with the United States.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 259

• Third, what China is doing in Africa does not augur well for the rest of the
world. China’s activities and behaviour in Africa may only be described as neo-
colonial and exploitative of African peoples and the environment.
China’s abusive behaviour towards African states has occurred for decades. In
2007, Guy Scott, the former agricultural minister in the Zambian government told
The Guardian, “We have had bad people before. The whites were bad, the Indians
were worse, but the Chinese are worst of all.” But Sino-imperialism is getting worse
as China grows in power and seeks evermore resources. 163
There are copious examples of the negative consequences of Sino-imperialism.
One archetypical case is the China National Petroleum Corporation, the state-owned
oil and gas company, which is a major investor operating in South Sudanese oil fields.
The Chinese pollute the local environment with impunity, resulting in children
born with deformities, the poisoning of livestock, destruction of fertile land, and
the pollution of rivers. Additionally, the Chinese cause environmental destruction in
the Northern Upper Nile and Ruweng states affects the indigenous Dinka Padang
communities of South Sudan. The Chinese help produce oil generating revenue and
economic opportunities but are not bound with environmental standards. 164
The Chinese influence in South Sudan also results from road construction and
infrastructure development. South Sudan will provide thirty thousand barrels per day
of crude to the Export-Import Bank of China to fund the construction of roads and
infrastructure development. This includes the construction of a 392-kilometer (244-
mile) road from Juba to Rumbek and from Juba to Nadapal on the Kenyan border,
which is being built by a Chinese firm using Chinese technology and manpower. 165
South Sudan’s neighbours, Ethiopia, and Kenya received loans for infrastructure
projects from the Chinese. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative have introduced
dynamic infrastructure projects such as the Standard Gauge Railway. The railway
connects Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The railway was Ethiopia’s first railway in
over a century and Africa’s first fully electrified line. The railways cuts travel time
from the capital Addis Ababa to Djibouti from two days by road to twelve hours. 166
The Standard Gauge Railway appears to be providing revolutionary infrastructure
to stimulate economic growth, but the details demand scrutiny. The project cost
nearly $4.5 billion, partly financed by the China Export-Import Bank. The railway
260 The Conspiracy against Africa

uses Chinese trains, Chinese construction companies, Chinese standards, and

specifications, and operated by the China Railway Group Limited (CREC) and
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. 168
As might be expected from this Sino-imperialist project, the railway has been
plagued with technical and financial challenges, which calls into question Ethiopia’s
dependence on Chinese technology and debt-finance. The African country is
struggling to repay its loan to China and reap the benefits of this dynamic infrastructure
project. In 2018, Addis Ababa negotiated with China and structured its loan terms
from fifteen to thirty years. In next door Kenya, because of heavy borrowing by the
government, China may seize the port of Mombasa. According to Kenya’s Daily
Nation newspaper, the terms are Draconian and state “neither the borrower [Kenya]
nor any of its assets is entitled to any right of immunity on the grounds of sovereignty,
with respect to its obligations.” 169.
In addition to these abuses, the Chinese presence in Africa is defined by a
purposeful isolation from the indigenous population. Chinese firms bring in their
own drivers, construction workers, and support staff, denying these employment
opportunities to Africans, and often live apart from the African societies in which
they reside.
These activities are only an example of China’s abusive behaviours in Africa.
Africa endured colonialism and neo-imperialism for hundreds of years. Just as Africa
has freed itself from those bonds, it needs to work with the West and other states to
provide alternatives to Chinese money and infrastructure. The greatest threat Africa
faces today is Sino-imperialism. It is now in danger of being captured by China’s
sinister Sino-imperialism that will keep Africa from entering its renaissance.

F. The Russia’s Expanding Influence in Africa

Russia is challenging the status quo in Africa, using insecurity and diplomatic disputes
with Western powers as a springboard to expand its presence on the continent.
From Libya to Nigeria, Ethiopia to Mali, Moscow has been building key strategic military
alliances and an increasingly favourable public profile across Africa in recent years.
Central to this effort is offering alternatives to countries that have grown disgruntled with
Western diplomatic partnerships.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 261

It would be recalled that at the inaugural summit in Sochi in 2019, President Vladimir
Putin vowed that Russia was “not going to take part in a new ‘repartition’ of the continent’s
wealth; rather, we are ready to engage in competition for cooperation with Africa.”
The second Russia-Africa Summit was held in 2022. Through the United Nations, Russia
has also provided aid in the form food and medical assistance alongside its growing commercial,
economic, and military support across the continent.

1. Introduction
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was widely seen as one of the most influential
external actors in Africa.170 Consequently, following the breakup of the former Soviet
Union, the Russian Federation closed nine embassies and three consulates across
Africa and subsequently showed little interest in Africa between the 1990s and
2000s.171 But Russia not only returned to Africa in the 2010s but also began to re-
build relations with many African rulers from 2014 onwards.172 And by June 2019,
Moscow had signed military cooperation deals with at least 20 African states.173 On
24 October 2019, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin together with Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi co-chaired a Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi. Evidently,
this was the first event of this size in the history of Russian African relations, having
all African heads of state invited to attend. The main goal of the summit was the
further expansion of political, economic, military, technical and cultural cooperation
between Russia and African states. 174
In one breathe critics maintain that Russia’s return to Africa is seen as a grave
security threat. Russia’s return to Africa, for example, is closely watched by other
states, including Russia’s Cold War adversary, the United States. Expectedly, then-
commander of US Africa Command, General Thomas Waldhauser addressed Russia
as a growing challenge in the Central Africa Republic due to its arms sales and
the actions of the Wagner – the private security firm. He went further to posit
that Russia tried to ‘import harsh security practices, in a region already marred by
threats to security’ and that Russia ‘potentially looks to export their security model
regionally.’1756 General Stephen Townsend, another former AfriCOM commander,
referred to ‘Russia’s malign influence in Africa’ as the second biggest threat to US
security interests in Africa after terrorism.176 Since the invasion of Ukraine, the angle
262 The Conspiracy against Africa

of ‘great power competition’ has, if anything, become more pronounced. In August

2022, US Secretary of Défense Llyod Austin pointedly linked Russian inroads into
Africa with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.177 Besides, the tone
of remarks on Russian involvement in Africa by US defence officials has become
more belligerent, with AFRICOM for instance asserting that the deployment of
Russian air defence systems to Mali, in the wake of its military junta inviting Russian
mercenaries, has added to instability in the region.178
On the other side of the debate, observers point out that Russia’s involvement
in Africa should not be overstated. 179 Russian involvement in most African states in
which it is involved is still of little consequence in comparison to other foreign states.
For instance, most experts on Sudan agree that the Gulf states have been far more
influential in Sudan than Russia, both during the rule of President Omar al-Bashir
and following his fall from power.180 Similarly, Kimberly Marten notes how Russian
activities in Africa remain limited in comparison to the longstanding presence of
the United States and the European Union, as well as the huge new commercial and
financial inroads made by China, though Marten also highlights that ‘Moscow is
engaged in an astonishing variety of well-publicised political, economic, and military
pursuits.’181
The section puts Africa-Russia relations in context in three distinct ways.
• First, the current involvement of Russia in Africa cannot be meaningfully
understood without putting it in historical and normative contexts. The Soviet
Union’s involvement in Africa has been hotly debated.182 14 Yet, as soon as
Russia scaled back its activities on the continent with the waning of the Cold
War, the scholarly interest in Russia’s role in Africa correspondingly waned.
Nevertheless, studying Soviet-Africa relations sheds light on some of the current
contradictions of Russia’s involvement – such as a clear normative emphasis
on anti-imperialism to justify its involvement while simultaneously running
in Africa with an agenda to increase its geopolitical influence and principally
cater to authoritarian leaders.
• Second, the section puts Russia’s involvement in Africa in the context of Putin’s
broader patronage 183 networks. While Moscow is often viewed as a monolithic,
holistically thinking, and executive actor, the reality is much more ambiguous.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 263

This is related to what has been described as a ‘solar system’ in which elites’ power
is defined by their proximity to President Putin.184 16 In this view, the Russian
ruling circle is a highly complex network of oligarchic and administrative actors,
which also includes those in charge of the military-security complex (siloviki).
While the power of the president and the executive have been strengthened
under Putin, this does not mean every Russian or Russia-attributed activity
outside its borders is conducted at Putin’s behest, or even that of its nominally
legitimate institutions. This also goes a long way in explaining areas in which
Moscow’s agents prefer to run and who they cooperate with. As such, it is
necessary to sketch actors and dynamics that serve as elements of official and
semi-official tools of power projection.
• Third, and lastly, the revival of Russian involvement in Africa cannot be
understood without putting it in a wider, more global context than just
the African context. Russia’s actions in Africa bear certain commonalities
with Russian actions in non-African settings, such as Syria. Discussion will
accordingly aim to showcase where Russian power projection into Africa
echoes previous operations. The section principally examines the fused nature
of military and non-military measures by Russia, and the re-appearance of
certain actors.
2. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in historical and norma-
tive contexts
The Soviet Union did not have contact with Africa during the colonial period, apart
from an embassy in Addis Ababa that dated from the late 19th century during tsarist
times. However, the Soviet Union started to support many of the newly independent
African states from the late 1950s onwards, portraying itself as an ally to African
leaders. Moscow hoped to gain strategic influence by offering to help local state
leaders to reorient the continent away from Western, post-colonial countries.185
Nevertheless, from the prism of an average African, close cooperation with the
Soviet Union was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a strong norm emerged
in the early post-colonial period to maintain the autonomy of the African system
of states and keep external actors out of Africa. African leaders after saw how easily
they could be caught up in superpower competition. The first of these instances was
264 The Conspiracy against Africa

the US and Belgian intervention in the Congo in 1964, but the point was especially
driven home by foreign involvement in the civil war that broke out in Angola in
1975. This further coalesced African leaders around the desire to shield themselves
from external involvement and to avoid being caught up in the Cold War.186
On the other hand, the non-alignment norm was not strong enough to dissuade
African leaders from accepting non-African support to help fight the Portuguese
in the remaining African colonies and fight the white minority regimes in South
Africa, Namibia, and Rhodesia.187 For instance, from early on in the liberation war
in Mozambique that started in 1964, the Soviet Union provided military equipment
and training to help FRELIMO fight the Portuguese.188 In short, liberating all African
countries from colonialism, as well as from post-colonial influences, was deemed so
important that these goals overrode the norm of non-interference. Soviet support was
thus happily received.189 Accordingly, an African norm emerged that equated neo-
colonial and imperialist influence with the West, while other actors such as Russia
could stay below the threshold of being perceived as imperialist.
It is important that Russia re-attach itself to the Soviet Union’s legacy of
supporting liberation struggles. Moscow holds a comparative advantage when it
comes to building ties in Africa, as it can draw on its reputation to consistently
oppose colonialism in Africa.190 Indeed, a striking similarity between Russia’s Africa
policy and its communist predecessor’s Africa policy during the Cold War is that both
heavily emphasise the sovereignty of African countries and the mutually voluntary
nature of Russia’s involvement. Soviet representatives emphasised during the Cold
War that the start of Soviet support to Somalia in the 1960s and Ethiopia in 1974
was the result of an invitation from these African states rather than an imposition.191
In the same vein, Valery Zakharov, a former St Petersburg police officer with links
to Russian domestic intelligence (FSB) – who assumed the role of the main security
advisor of the president of the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2017 – stated in
response to a question on Russia’s activities in the country that it was ‘the will of the
president of the Central African Republic’ that Russia came to CAR:
“I must emphasize this again. We, all of us, are here at his invitation. It is his
vision to improve ties with Russia. And why is this? Let’s remember our history.
Russia first came here in 1964. Today, Russia is simply coming back. That’s all.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 265

Everything you see here that’s of any value was created under president Bokassa
with the support of the Soviet Union.”192.
Russia thus pushes a narrative of respecting the sovereignty of African countries
while being an effective ally, grafting its present activities directly onto perceived
Soviet successes.
Another example of how Russia cashes in on the fact that the Soviet Union
supplied extensive support to the African anti-apartheid movement during the
Cold War is the nuclear deal between Moscow and the governing African National
Congress (ANC) in South Africa in 2014. While many Western states labelled Nelson
Mandela and the ANC as terrorists, the Soviet Union provided strong support to the
ANC. As a result, the ANC has longstanding ties to Moscow; former South African
President Jacob Zuma had received his military training in the Soviet Union.193 25
Building on this relationship, once he was elected to office Moscow concluded a
nuclear power deal with Zuma.194 This deal eventually backfired, with Zuma being
accused of corruption, but the agreement does show how Moscow’s reputation during
the Cold War as a champion of the liberation movement is still of relevance today.195
In addition, the Africa policies of both the Soviet Union and Russia could be
described as pan-African in nature. A series of internal documents that were leaked
in June 2019 describe Russia’s current African priorities. These included a paper
titled ‘African World’ and dated March 2018, which calls for Russian support to
develop an ‘African self-identity’ based on anti-imperialism, an integral part of
the pan-African school of thought.196 In other words, it is in Moscow’s interest to
promote this ideology, as anti-Western sentiments are virtually baked into it by way
of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. The ‘African World’ paper suggests that
Russia should actively work towards a ‘loyal chain of representatives across Africa.’197
To this purpose, it is suggested that Russia identify ‘agents of influence’ to groom as
future African leaders, not only in Africa, but also in the US and Europe.198 30 The
assumption accordingly seems to be that pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment go
hand in hand.
An example of how Russia puts on a liberator’s cloak while supporting autocrats
was Moscow’s support for Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir during his final years in power.
For example, Russian mercenaries supported the Sudanese security forces’ crackdown
266 The Conspiracy against Africa

(ultimately only partially successful) in early 2019.199 31 the Sudanese-Russian links,

however, appear to have survived the autocrat’s fall, as the long-awaited announcement
of a Russian naval logistics base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast was announced in November
2020.200
Two differences
• There are, however, two differences between the Soviet Union and Russia in
terms of their Africa policies. A first difference is that during the Cold War, the
Soviet Union directly intervened in African states in which the US and its allies
had strong interests. By contrast, Russia up until 2022 focused on countries
in Africa ignored by the West rather than focusing on priority countries of the
West. Russian assets’ intervention in Mali which coincided with and partially
forced the French drawdown, however, might show a change in behaviour 201
33 but so far constitutes an outlier. Some of the African states in which Russia
has been most active since 2014 – including Libya, Sudan, and Zimbabwe –
are all under UN and/or EU multilateral sanctions for war crimes and other
bad behaviour.202 For this reason, Marten concludes that rather than making
headway in an international competition with the West, Russia is building
relations with these countries because it has few alternatives.203 In short,
Russia’s current Africa policy is more opportunistic than the Soviet strategy
during the Cold War. Of course, this does not preclude a more direct approach
at undermining Western influence on the continent, once Moscow feels it
has secured a sufficiently large support base. In addition, Russia’s significant
involvement in CAR appears to be a direct result of the vacuum left by the US
and France, allowing a rival security provider to step in.204.
• A second difference between the Soviet involvement in Africa during the Cold
War and Russia’s current activities in Africa is that Russia is currently pursuing
a much less state-centric approach. Russia’s activities in Africa from the mid-
2010s onwards have been led by a businessman from St Petersburg and close
associate of Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who implements Russia’s interests through
a network which his employees refer to as the ‘Company.’205 One of the groups
belonging to the ‘Company’ is the private military company (PMC) referred to
as the Wagner Group. The paramilitary and political operations of the Wagner
Group in Sudan, Mozambique, the CAR, Libya, and Mali are telling examples
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 267

of how Russia’s involvement in African affairs is different from the involvement

of other foreign states, in the sense that Russia’s Africa policy is in large part
implemented by a network of groups that are not legally recognised as part of
the Russian state, but are nevertheless closely connected to the Kremlin.206 As
such, it would be misleading to label these efforts as ‘covert’ or ‘autonomous’,
as Moscow’s veneer of deniability is very thin.
In short, Russia is heavily emphasising an anti-imperialist narrative, latching
onto the Soviet commitment to supporting liberation struggles to gain
influence in Africa. A notable difference between the Soviet and the Russian
Africa policy is that Russia’s activities are more pragmatic and less driven by
state instruments. The next section delves into the diffused nature of Russian
power as it is wielded on the continent.
3. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in the context of Putin’s
‘Solar System’
A lot of research has focused on what drives Russia as an international actor, and,
to some extent, which does so. The basic architecture that constitutes the locus of
power in Moscow has been termed ‘Kremlin Towers’ or a ‘solar system’. These terms
describe a highly personalised, networked conglomerate of different constituencies
and personalities. The degree of power vested in a given office, however, stems from the
individual occupying it and their links to other powerful individual nodes.207 Henry
Hale describes this more concisely as ‘patronalism,’208 defined as ‘a social equilibrium
in which individuals organise their political and economic pursuits primarily around
the personalised exchange of concrete rewards and punishments, and not primarily
around abstract, impersonal principles such as ideological belief or categorisations
that include many people one has not actually met in person.’209 In effect, this means
that Russia is ruled and administered in a dual architecture, one characterised by
official, hierarchical bureaucracy and the other by informal networks constituted
by patron-client relationships.210 Vladimir Putin and his circle sit at the top of the
former, and in the centre of the latter element of this dual architecture, not simply
by power of office but also by occupying the central nodes that enable a controlling
position – hence the term ‘solar system’.
268 The Conspiracy against Africa

Especially after Vladimir Putin resumed the role of President in 2012, while
the basic principles of the system are intact, Putin has centralised the system to a
higher degree than before, concentrating more power within his inner circle. State
and patronage assets overlap, for example, where Chechen viceroy Ramzan Kadyrov’s
network is deeply integrated within the recently created National Guard (Rosamaria).
211
Another telling example of how Putin’s solar system works is how Yevgeniy
Prigozhin has curried favour with the Kremlin in a variety of ways. He is the central
figure behind the now infamous Internet Research Agency (IRA), a St Petersburg-
based ‘troll factory’ that has been indicted in the US for election interference.212
As an offshoot of Russia’s informal solar system at home, Marten notes how
Russia’s foreign policy operates ‘under an individualistic, patronage-based model
of politics and business, where corrupt favours are exchanged under the table by
particular bosses and kingpins on the basis of longstanding personal loyalties, but
no lasting institutional relationships are built.’213 Prigozhin has emerged as a central
actor linking Russia’s domestic power architecture to activities abroad that further
the Kremlin’s causes. Familiar patterns have emerged in these activities: Wagner and
other elements under the oligarch’s control act as (semi-)deniable actors, executing
missions for the Kremlin or at least within Kremlin-defined parameters. In exchange,
the ‘Company’ gets rewarded by access to resources in the target country. The Russian
government helps by easing these transfers between local regimes and Prigozhin.214
According to Marten, Russia’s individualistic, patronage-based model of politics
and business is a major weakness of Russia’s involvement in Africa.215 However, this
claim ignores the fact that there is a large Africanist literature that suggests that politics
– defined as who gets what, when, and how – is often not determined through state
institutions according to the rule of law in many African countries, but rather through a
logic of patronage politics.216 48 Indeed, Russia is predominantly involved in unstable
countries in Africa in which patronage politics thrive. The leaked documents on
Russia’s Africa strategy include a map from December 2018 that shows and ranks the
level of cooperation between Russia and African governments, indicating political,
military, and economic relationships with Sudan, Madagascar and the Central African
Republic being at the top.217 With regard to Sudan, Alex de Waal has noted how the
country is best characterised as a ‘political marketplace’ in which local elites seek
to obtain the highest reward for their loyalty within patrimonial systems.218 Dalby
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 269

notes with regard to the Central African Republic that ‘Since independence, the
political elite have sought to benefit from their privileged position and have therefore
concentrated power and resources in Bangui while largely neglecting and excluding
those in the hinterland.’219 Similarly, Marie-Joëlle Zahar and Delphine Mechoulan
reflect how elites in the Central African Republic have consistently ‘used all the
means at their disposal — including legal and illegal financial rewards and political
appointments — to buy the loyalty of potential rivals.’220 Russia’s use of a patronage-
based strategy is therefore a natural fit in Africa.221 For example, Russians in the
Central African Republic have tried to entrench President Touadéra’s rule through
bribing militia leaders and providing political advisors (‘political technologists,’ in
the Russian nomenclature) to support combat operations against insurgents.222 The
Russian involvement in the Central African Republic not only includes arms sales,
military training, and diamond and gold mining deals, but also the provision of
personal security to President Touadéra and his inner circle.223 Marten concludes
that ‘Touadéra is effectively surrounded by Russian security representatives 24 hours
a day — a strong incentive for him not to stray far from Moscow’s wishes’.224
In Madagascar, Prigozhin helped fund at least six candidates for the presidential
elections, but requested all these candidates support Andry Rajoelina when it
became clear that Rajoelina was in the lead to win the elections.225 Similarly, Moscow
provided strong electoral campaign support to help Emmerson Mnangagwa win
the presidency in Zimbabwe’s elections in 2018.226 Within a year, the Zimbabwean
government and the Alrosa diamond company announced a joint venture to exploit
both platinum and diamonds. Alrosa is led by Sergei S Ivanov, who as the son of
Putin’s KGB training school classmate and former defence minister is well integrated
into Putin’s core network.227 President Mnangagwa witnessed the signing of the joint
venture and stated that the deal had come to fruition owing to his country’s excellent
relations with Russia.228
Yet another example of how Russia is replicating its patronage-based strategy
in Africa is the Russian involvement in Libya. With military support from Russia,
Libyan rebel leader Khalifa Haftar has managed to take control of most of the oil
fields in Libya. This military support took the form of Russian military advisors
and several private military companies, including the Wagner Group and the RSB
Group.229 Haftar promised Moscow lucrative oil deals in return for Russia’s military
270 The Conspiracy against Africa

support.230 These deals are concluded at the highest level as became apparent in
November 2018, when Haftar travelled to Moscow for a meeting with Russian
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu. Yevgeny Prigozhin also attended this meeting. 231
4. Russia’s increased involvement in Africa in a global context
Russia’s sub-Saharan endeavours, as opposed to operations in Ukraine and even
Syria, have not been driven by traditional concerns of national security and regional
strategic posture but rather overarching ambitions of placing Russia on the highest tier
of the international hierarchy.232 While this does mean that African operations, even
if militarised, should not be equated with previous instances from Soviet history, we
attempt to draw comparisons where applicable. Russia’s use of non-military measures
and of criminal patronage networks can be observed in both its military and semi-
state endeavours.
The revival of Russia’s involvement in Africa was preceded by the start of
heightened tensions between Russia and the US with its allies, perhaps most clearly
reflected in the Western sanctions imposed against Russia over the annexation of
Crimea.233 It would be tempting to equate operations on African soil with those that
were conducted in Ukraine and Syria and to assume that methods and priorities are
made from the same cloth. However, the authors try here to not only disentangle
where the differences between ‘Russia the state’ and ‘Russia the collective actor’ lie,
but also to find parallels in its approaches on the ground. Indeed, it is a worthy
question whether Russia’s recent activities on the African continent up until 2022
have been linked to the new round of competition with NATO – with the jury being
out on whether Mali constitutes a major strategic shift. For the present purposes,
however, the article will give context to previous military actions abroad, starting
in Ukraine in early 2014 and specifically Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the
subsequent escalation in the country’s east.
In operational terms, Russian special operations and high-readiness intervention
forces seized the Crimean Peninsula in a coup-de-main. Among other factors, they
capitalised on international and Ukrainian confusion in the aftermath of pro-Russian
Ukrainian President Yanukovych’s ouster, the Crimea’s proximity to Russia’s two
highest readiness military districts, a friendly civilian population, and pre-existing
military contingents.234 In eastern Ukraine, Moscow initially hoped to achieve its
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 271

ends by funnelling in volunteers, mercenaries (including operatives of the Wagner

Group), and raising local militia through its agents.235 However, Ukrainian successes
necessitated a fully mechanised ground intervention, executed by less-than-deniable
means such as armoured formations and artillery batteries.236 After its intervention
in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, Russia (except in Ukraine in 2022) has largely stuck
to an approach that minimises its military footprint, with the air force, military
advisors and special operations forces being its most notable contribution to Bashar
al-Assad’s regime. Besides this type of Russian support, the Kremlin has seemed
happy to let local militia and proxy forces do most of the fighting and dying.237
This type of minimal Russian involvement can also be seen in Africa. For
instance, in Libya, Russian support in favour of General Haftar, who opposes the
internationally-recognised government coalition, is based on a minimal footprint
of mercenaries and, one assumes, special forces and intelligence assets.238 However,
with Turkey stepping up its military involvement on the other side of the proxy
war equation in early 2020, Russia was forced to deploy fighter-bomber aircraft in
autumn of the same year, supposedly flown by private contractors.239 In addition,
forces tied to the Wagner Group have constructed large-scale fortifications along
a 280-kilometre line reaching into the Libyan desert, fortifications which serve to
entrench the military status quo. Russian semi-state forces thus appear by no means
limited to light infantry and advisory duties in Libya, but also include combat aviation
and engineering capabilities, if the situation (or Moscow) demands it.240
The level of Russian effort in non-African countries – such as Ukraine and Syria
– has corresponded to the relevance each theatre holds for the Kremlin. Ukraine
touches Russia’s security interests most directly. In addition, Ukraine is not viewed
as an independent cultural or political entity in Moscow, as it stands for two distinct
threat vectors. Firstly, due to its cultural proximity, the Kremlin perceives revolutions
in Kyiv especially threatening as they might ‘infect’ Russia itself. Secondly, Ukraine’s
territory makes for a perfect corridor into Russia and, indeed, represents a historic
invasion route. The tools of modern warfare – in this case long-range sensors and
missiles – exacerbate the old fear of NATO gaining a foothold in the former Soviet
republic even more. 241 Syria, meanwhile, has been Russia’s most reliable ally in West
Asia, enabling power projection into the wider region and serving as a local ally,
272 The Conspiracy against Africa

hostile to NATO and the US. Russia’s air war in favour of the Damascus regime was
thus not very surprising.242
In these theatres of war, as in Africa, the use of PMCs has played a crucial
role in the hard power part of Russia’s military strategy. For instance, the Wagner
Group has been active in eastern Ukraine and Syria.243 These contractors are not
only semi-deniable but also offer convenient off-ramps – Moscow can deny, and
has done so in the past, ownership of operations if they result in military failure.
An incident in February 2018 in north-eastern Syria illustrates this dynamic: A
force of Russian mercenaries and local allies had attempted an attack on a US/
Kurdish-guarded oilfield. When the Russian military denied its involvement, US
air and artillery strikes destroyed the attacking columns – potentially killing large
numbers of Russian mercenaries. However, these mercenaries still make it possible
to use a minimum level of necessary state force, by supplementing or replacing the
deployment of regular troops.244
The soft power part of operations in Ukraine and Syria has been completely tied
to their hard power components. The ratio of non-military and military measures
is nominally prescribed as 4 to 1, but with the non-military strategic efforts still
falling under the aegis of the military.245 A telling example of this blurring of the
lines between instruments of soft and hard power is that Russia has a ‘Reconciliation
Centre’ in Syria, which provides humanitarian aid and promotes dialogue between
the different sides within the conflict – while also reportedly being integrated into
the targeting complex of Russia’s air campaign.246 These activities would be kept
completely separate, both institutionally and functionally, by Western states, but
not by Russia. Rather than seeing development and diplomacy on the one hand and
military action on the other hand as contradicting activities, Russian policymakers
see this as all falling under ‘holistic’ or ‘fused’ security policy.247.
This approach, or, in more minimalistic terms, this strategic priority has been
visible in Russian agents’ activities in Africa. The operations of the Wagner Group in
Sudan, the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, and Mozambique have received
a lot of attention,248 but how Russia is involved in soft power or political activities
in these countries has garnered much less attention. Russia, for instance, played a
crucial role in the mediation of a peace agreement between the government of CAR
and various armed groups in August 2018.249 Russia has used its contacts with the
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 273

armed groups to influence them to refrain from fighting. Marten observes how in the
Central African Republic, Moscow is ‘using financial and security inducements to
buy a tenuous peace between an individual leader in the capital and local warlords in
the resource-rich periphery, serving as the sole linchpin for stability.’250 In operational
terms, heavily armed mercenaries are but a small element in a wide-ranging campaign
to secure President Touadéra’s power base next to bribing both officials and militia
and aiding in the political consolidation of the ruling party.251 83 CAR appears
to provide an environment in which Russia’s semi-state actors thrive: a splintered
country in which various militia vie for access to and ownership of natural resources.
Here, Moscow appears to have simply capitalised on the drawdown of French and
US assets by stepping into the breach and throwing its weight behind Touadéra and
his (then) tenuous government. 252 As a result, Russian actors have become embroiled
in what amounts to proxy warfare with French-aligned networks and military actors.
Touadéra’s apparent preference for hiring the expertise of international businesspeople
with connections to criminal networks and furnishing them with CAR passports
suits groups such as Wagner perfectly.253 It is no surprise that Prigozhin’s network
is reportedly engaged along every chain link between Moscow and Bangui as it is
engaged in funnelling personnel and weapons into the theatre.254
Similarly, while Russia is supporting rebel commander Khalifa Haftar in his fight
against the internationally recognised Libyan government, it has played a crucial
role in the various Libyan peace initiatives. Moscow hopes to strengthen Haftar’s
bargaining position in Libya through its military support, but at the same time tries
to bolster his influence over a future UN-brokered diplomatic settlement on Libya
through being directly involved in this mediation process. In addition, Russia uses
the mediation process to keep a channel open with the Libyan government. To this
end, Russia established an intra-Libyan contact group in 2018, aimed at facilitating
dialogue between various political factions.255 In illustration of Russia employing its
dual soft power/hard power approach abroad, this contact group was headed by a
businessman with ties to Chechnya’s leader Kadyrov.256
Another crucial aspect of Russian soft power activities in Africa, like previous
operations outside of Africa, is a focus on information flows. The information
dimension is a pillar of Russia’s thinking on war and competition.257 In the Russian
security canon ‘information security/warfare’ refers to the substantive content – the
274 The Conspiracy against Africa

ideas and arguments – conveyed as information, whereas in the West one tends to
focus on the infrastructure for the conveyance of that information – for example
cyber defence and network security.258 A telling example of how Russia has unfurled
this strategy in Africa is the support to former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
before he was ousted from power. Russian specialists helped the regime to develop
a campaign to smear anti-government protestors, depicting these protestors as anti-
Islam, pro-Israel, and pro-LGTB.259
Yet another example of Russia’s emphasis on information flows is the fact that
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ‘Company’ has helped set up newspapers and a radio station in
the Central African Republic.260 92 The Russian capacity to mobilise political actors,
media, and social networks has subsequently greatly increased.261 93 One paper in
the leaked documents on Russia’s Africa policy comments on how the activities of the
‘Company’ have included spreading false information in order to get rid of politicians
in the Central African Republic, including national assembly representatives and the
foreign minister (Charles Armel Doubane), who are ‘orientated towards France.’262 94
Accordingly, these political operations inside and outside the CAR are employed in
concert with the above mentioned paramilitary-political entrenchment of Touadéra.
More generally, Russia is investing in drawing attention to the French and
English versions of its two big international media platforms, RT, and Sputnik. The
editorial line of these two platforms is depicting Western involvement in Africa as
neo-imperialism. According to a former Google employee, Russia has been investing
in an Addwords campaign that makes Russian media content more likely to be
privileged in Google searches in Africa. 263
In short, the information domain is a very important aspect of Russia’s fused efforts
to garner influence and to discredit Western activities and initiatives. In addition to
more direct military involvement, Russians deployed in Africa have reportedly acted
as repression consultants, advising their African clients on how to polarise or control
society through engaging in propaganda or spreading disinformation.264
The economic relations Russia is developing with African states through the
exploitation of natural resources should also be seen from this perspective. However,
it should also be noted that the revenues generated through mining in Africa pale
in comparison to mining projects in Russia itself. Marten even casts doubt on
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 275

whether Moscow is making a profit in the Central African Republic, given that the
diamond and gold mines are artisanal operations spread out over a large territory.265
Indeed, economic interest cannot fully explain Russia’s increased involvement in
Africa, because one would expect Russia to also have been more involved in Africa
during the 1990s and 2000s if economic interests were key. However, the political
influence Russia wields through these economic partnerships is significant.266 Stephen
Blank explains how Russia’s economic activities in Africa have ‘strategic-political
importance’ since they allow ‘Russia to gain a local foothold upon which it can
then expand its influence in multiple directions.’267 Paul Goble asserts in this regard
that the economic partnerships Russia is developing might even allow it to ‘restore
many of the political positions it enjoyed in Soviet times.’268 The leaked document
on Russia’s Africa policy mentions in this regard that the Central African Republic
is strategically important because it allows Russian companies to not only set up
profitable mining deals in CAR, but also to expand across the African continent
and conclude mining deals and build influence in other African countries.269 That
being said, while the Russian state is not motivated primarily by economic reasons,
its semi-state agents might very well be. In addition, by controlling both mining
companies and mercenary outfits, Prigozhin, for example, appears to be able to self-
finance elements of his influence and combat operations – without doubt another
bonus with the Kremlin.270
5. Wagner Group: What is Putin’s ‘Shadow Army’ up to in Africa?
(i) The Kremlin-aligned mercenary is spreading its influence across the
continent.
Wagner Group – the Kremlin-align mercenary – was recently categorised as a
significant transnational criminal organisation by the United States. This designation
came on the backdrop of its growing influence across the African continent.
In 2014 during the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian
oligarch and an ally to President Vladimir Putin founded the Kremlin-align mercenary,
ostensibly to offer Russia a credible deniability as the group’s operation has spread
abroad. During the civil war in Syria, members of Wagner group fought alongside
Assad’s army.271 Following Wagner’s successful operations in the civil war in Syria
276 The Conspiracy against Africa

which paved way for the group to acquire global prominence hence its footprint
presently extends to Africa. From Libya, where it assisted General Khalifa Hafter, to
Madagascar, Sudan, Mozambique, Central Africa Republic, Mali, and Burkina Faso,
the group is slowly meandering its way across the continent.272
It is therefore germane and fundamental to ask as many local and international
observers are wondering: What is Putin’s game plan in Africa?

(ii) Weapons for Gold:

The Wagner Group is famous for its exceptional brutality, recruitment of convicts as
expendable fighters, systemic human rights violations, resource theft, and political
interference. The group acts as a shadow army for Putin’s reprisal ambitions in
Europe.273 According to a UN official working in the region, Wagner group operates
as Russia’s boots on the ground in an expansionist agenda that seeks to bring back
“Soviet-era influence on the continent.274 Accordingly, Dr Joseph Siegle who leads
the Africa Centre’s research programme believes Russia’s strategic objectives in Africa
are to secure “a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean, gaining naval port access in
the Red Sea, expanding natural resource extraction opportunities, displacing Western
influence, and promoting alternatives to democracy.”275
The Wagner Group’s strategy consists of targeting the vulnerable states within
the troubled Sahel. According to the UN official, “They go into places where there
are resources, unstable government structures, and weak state institutions and take
control of their resources while pretending to help them win wars.” 276
Arguably, Sahel – the world’s most neglected and conflict-ridden, vast semi-arid
region if Africa – is a home of the Islamic jihadists! The security situation has gone
from bad to worse in much of the region with Islamic jihadists affiliated with the
Islamic State (ISIS) as well as the armed militias like Boko Haram on the one hand
and the Fulani herders belonging to pastoral and farming communities engage in
internecine warfare.
The West appears flabbergasted as the Wagner Group adroitly picks off one
country after another by assisting their governments with weapons to fight jihadists
often in exchange for gold mines and other high-value resources.277 In Central African
Republic, for instance, Wagner fighters have helped to hold off armed rebel groups
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 277

and to keep President Faustin-Archange Touadera in power in exchange for the

country’s gold and diamond mines.278 In 2019, Wagner deployed some 160 fighters
to the gas-rich Cabo Delgado region in Northern Mozambique.279 Also in Sudan, it
obtained gold mining concessions in exchange for helping to quash anti-government
protests that eventually toppled the country’s former autocratic leader, President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir.280 It was therefore not surprising when Ghana’s President
Nana Akufo-Addo in December 2022 during a three-day US-Africa summit, accused
neighbouring Burkina Faso of contracting the Russian paramilitary group. “I believe
a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for
their services.”281
Recent events in Mali clearly show that Vladimir Putin has become, is becoming
more bold and daring. With the support of the Wagner Group, the Malian government
kicked out French forces that had been operating in the country under “Operation
Barkhane”, the former colonial power’s military intervention in the Sahel. This
invariably created a security vacuum which Wagner Group capitalized to deploy at
least one thousand mercenaries.282 Looking at the situation critically, Waliu Ismaila
said that this is a significant development as it shows the Kremlin successfully strong-
arming a key competitor out of an African country thereby setting off the fear of
potential contagion effects for the rest of the Sahel: “This could mark the beginning
of the end of France’s influence in the region,”283 he added. In December 2022,
according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement, Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister
Apollinaire Kyelem de Tembela met in Moscow with Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss “priority issues of strengthening relations”
between them.284
But Wagner is far more than a simple weapons-for-gold scheme. It also commits
political interference, props up dictators, orchestrates digital deceptive campaigns,
produces action movies, and organizes beauty pageants. 285
“In 2021, Central African Republic made Russian language study compulsory in
the country’s universities. At the same time, Russia’s trade with Africa is growing,
although still incomparable to that of China and other powers. Foreign direct
investment (FDI) from Russia is less than 1% of total FDI into Africa. But this
has not stopped Russia from undertaking huge investment projects in friendly
African countries such as Egypt, where Rosatom, the Russian state corporation
278 The Conspiracy against Africa

headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy

goods, and high-tech products, is building a whopping $25 billion power plant at
El-Dabaa. Russia also has other investment interests like oil and nuclear energy
deals in Nigeria, diamond mining in Angola, oil exploration in Ghana and
Algeria, gas projects in Cameroon and Nigeria, hydropower in Tanzania, and
arms exports in Uganda, Egypt, and several other African States”.286

(iii)Expansion to the Sea:

Russia is also in talks with Sudan to be allowed to have its first African military base
in the country. The agreement, which is planned to last for 25 years, with automatic
extensions for 10-year periods, allows Russia to establish a naval base with up to 300
Russian troops, and to simultaneously keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-
powered ones, in the strategic Port Sudan on the Red Sea. In exchange, Russia is to
provide Sudan with weapons and military equipment.287
Should the Sudan deal succeeds, Russia would be enabled to establish her
hegemony on the continent especially at a period when Africa’s former colonial
masters, France and the United Kingdom have become unpopular while the United
States is yet to recover from Trump-era “America First” policy. As the UN official
rightly observed: “Putin’s aim has always been to rebuild the Russian empire. He
looks with nostalgia at the days of the Soviet Union. So, all his expansionist activities
are aimed at increasing the influence of Russia across the world.” 287 For the moment,
one of the factors behind Putin’s success is the legacy of the Soviet Union’s relationship
with the continent.
Unlike its European neighbours especially Britain and France, the presence of
Russia in Africa Continent does not seem to raise the people’s eyebrows since Russia
has no colonial legacy in Africa. In addition, just like China, Russia does not care
about human rights and Western-style democracy. “Putin’s autocratic leadership
appeals to African leaders, many of whom are dictators,” the UN official said.288
Unlike the West, Russia does not insist on respect for rule of law, good governance,
democracy, and respect for human rights as a precondition for providing weapons
and economic aid.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 279

(iv)Potential Danger Ahead

Whether the West likes it or not, the popularity of Russia continues to rise among
ordinary Africans. We could see tens of hundreds of demonstrators on the streets
of Ouagadougou and Bamako waving Russian flags in celebration during the coup
that took place in Mali and Burkina Faso. As Diallo Abdoulaye observes, “Only
Westerners talk about Wagner, and given their rivalry with Russia, I distrust all the
information Westerners give about Wagner”. 289 Abdoulaye is the Coordinator of
the Ouagadougou-based National Press Centre Norbert Zongo in Burkina Faso. He
believes that what is happening is “just a war of control of Africa between the powers,
with Russia, China, and Iran also wanting to stretch their influence against the US,
Britain, and France.”290
In the middle of this situation, as Ismaila rightly noted, Russia’s actions in
uncritically backing newly emergent dictators and coming to their assistance with
arms and economic support when Western nations and regional blocs sanction them
is acting as a stimulant to encourage a collapse of democracy on the continent.291
As Russian influence continues to increase steadily, Africa could be drawn into
the gamut of the unfolding Great Power rivalry. Russia’s plan to establish a military
presence in the horn of Africa, which will give it control of the strategic Red Sea and
the Indian Ocean, could be the tipping point. As political analysts suspect, “Africa
faces the risk of becoming a new theatre for Russia and the West’s saber rattling.”292
Conclusion and outlook
In this section, I attempted to contextualise Russia’s return to Africa in three distinct
ways. First, Russia’s current involvement in Africa cannot be meaningfully understood
without putting it in historical and normative context. The Soviet Union portrayed
its support to African states or African armed opposition groups as part of an effort
to promote Pan-Africanism and fight imperialism and neo-colonialism. Russia
capitalises on this historical support, contrasting its involvement in Africa with that
of former colonial powers like France. Moscow’s clear normative emphasis on anti-
imperialism makes Russian involvement in African affairs more acceptable to African
leaders, even though Russia arguably also runs in Africa with an agenda to increase
its geopolitical influence and principally cater to authoritarian leaders.
280 The Conspiracy against Africa

Second, Russia’s return to Africa should be understood in the context of

Putin’s broader patronage networks, which have been active as an element in
power projection gaining political influence abroad. Hence, not every Russian or
Russia-attributed activity abroad is carried out on the order of and executed by
state institutions. Since Russia is predominantly involved in unstable countries in
Africa where patronage politics thrive, Russian actors have been able to establish
loyalty from politicians, businessmen and armed groups by integrating them into
their patronage-based networks. As a result, beyond the often-assumed motive of
‘denying’ Russia’s involvement, this external deployment of patronage networks has
very pragmatic benefits: it not only cuts Moscow’s foreign operations bill, but these
semi-state operatives experienced in the Russian context might just be more suited
to these environments than government bureaucrats or intelligence agents. The
approach also fits what the leaked ‘African World’ paper called for: building a ‘loyal
chain of representatives across Africa.’
Third, and lastly, Russia’s return to Africa needs to be understood in its global
context, looking beyond the African context. Russia’s actions in Africa bear certain
commonalities with Russian actions in non-African settings. For instance, in Libya,
Russian support in favour of General Haftar, who opposes the internationally-
recognised government coalition, is based on a minimised footprint of mercenaries
– a strategic priority observed even in the Ukrainian and Syrian theatres that touch
Russia’s national security more acutely. Of relevance in this regard is the fused nature
of (para-)military and non-military measures in Africa. Russia has projected power
into Africa through soft power tools, including diplomacy, informational warfare,
and concluding commercial contracts. This again is an echo of operations in Syria
that also featured tight integration of military and non-military means at a local level.
The invasion of Ukraine, may, however change these dynamics. While speculative,
it appears reasonable to assume that Moscow may take a more hands-on, more ‘robust’
(read: militarised) approach to the African continent from 2022, echoing Cold War-
era dynamics. This, however, may be constrained both by capability and pragmatism.
On the one hand, Western sanctions and financial military overstretch in Ukraine
will impose hard ceilings on what the Russian state can invest in power projection
further afield. Oligarch networks may also increasingly be regarded as malign actors
and their activities hampered by western regulators, intelligence services, and law
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 281

enforcement. There have already been indications of Russia being forced to reduce
mercenary contingents in Libya to sustain combat operations in Ukraine, indicating
that the separation of oligarchs and the state does not imply infinite resources.293
Secondly, however, there may be little incentive for Moscow to change gears in
the first place. Its current diffused, opportunistic approach can claim a range of
successes, especially as far as Moscow’s global standing is concerned. Hence, it can
be expected that Moscow will rather stick to the principle of ‘reasonable sufficiency’
(strategic minimalism) on display in Syria 294 when it comes to African operations,
even if a higher degree of strategic guidance is imposed. The contours of future
power competition on the African continent may already be visible, but this is not
guaranteed.

G. How Multi-National Companies Exploit Africa

1. Multinational companies cheat Africa out of
billions of dollars
Africa was cheated out of US$11 billion in 2010 through just one of the tricks used
by multinational companies to reduce tax bills, according to new Oxfam report,
‘Africa: Rising for the few,’ released today. This is equivalent to six times the amount
needed to plug the healthcare funding gap in Ebola affected countries of Sierra Leone,
Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau.295
Oxfam’s findings come as African political and business leaders get set to
attend the 25th World Economic Forum Africa in South Africa. The main theme
of the meeting will be how to secure Africa’s economic rise and deliver sustainable
development. Reforming global tax rules so that Africa can claim the money it is
due – and which is needed to tackle extreme poverty and inequality – is critical if the
continent is to continue its economic rise. 296
Oxfam is calling for all governments to send their Head of State and Finance
Ministers to the Financing for Development Conference in Ethiopia, in July. The
Addis conference will set out how the world will finance development for the next
two decades and is an opportunity for governments to start developing a more
democratic and fairer global tax system.
282 The Conspiracy against Africa

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International’s Executive Director said: “Africa is

haemorrhaging billions of dollars because multinational companies are cheating
African governments out of vital revenues by not paying their fair share in taxes. If
this tax revenue were invested in education and healthcare, societies and economies
would further flourish across the continent.”297
In 2010, the last year for which data is available, multinational companies avoided
paying tax on US$40billion of income through a practice called trade mispricing –
where a company artificially sets the prices for goods or services sold between its
subsidiaries to avoid taxation. With corporate tax rates averaging out at 28 per cent
in Africa this equates to $US11 billion in lost tax revenues. 298
Trade mispricing is just one of the ways multinational companies avoid paying
their fair share of taxes. According to UNCTAD, developing countries lose an
estimated US$100billion a year through another set of tax avoidance schemes
involving tax havens. 299
Companies also lobby hard for tax breaks as a reward for basing or retaining
their business in African countries. Tax breaks provided to the six largest foreign
mining companies in Sierra Leone add up to 59 per cent of the total budget of the
country or eight times the country’s health budget.300
Byanyima added, “African leaders must not sit by while international tax
reforms are agreed which give multinational companies free reign to sidestep their
tax obligations in Africa. Political and business leaders must put their weight behind
the ever louder calls for the reform of global tax rules. African nations must also
introduce a more progressive and democratic approach to taxation – including
stopping tax exemptions for foreign companies.” 301
Existing international efforts to tackle corporate tax dodging such as the BEPS
(Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) process, led by the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation (OECD) for the G20, will leave gaping tax loopholes that multinational
companies can continue to exploit across the developing world. Many African nations
have been shut out of discussions on BEPS reform and will not benefit from them
as a result.302
According to the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa’s Report on the High-
Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa (http://www.uneca.org/iff), there
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 283

was a US$40 billion outflow from Africa due to trade mispricing in 2010.302 281With
corporate tax rates averaging out at 28 per cent in Africa this equates to nearly $US11
billion in lost tax revenues. Given that companies and investors from G7 countries
handle more than half of the foreign direct investment in Sub-Saharan Africa,
companies from G7 countries may be responsible for robbing African governments
of around $6 billion every year from just one tax trick alone.303
Developing countries lose estimated US$100billion a year because of one set of
tax avoidance schemes involving tax havens. 304
Tax breaks provided to the six largest foreign mining companies in Sierra Leone
add up to 59 per cent of the countries budget or eight times the country’s health
budget 305 : ‘Losing Out: Sierra Leone’s massive revenue losses from tax incentives’,
London: Christian Aid, http://christianaid.org.uk/images/Sierra-Leone-Reporttax-
incentives-080414.pdf
2. Aid and Influence [How the International Financial Institutions
(World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc.) destroys Africa]
A recent research report released by a group of UK and Africa-based NGOs suggests
that, while western countries send about $30bn in development aid to Africa each
year, more than six times that amount leaves the continent, “mainly to the same
countries providing the aid”. In other words, western countries hide under the banner
of “aid” to loot Africa.306
Almost all the foreign aid Africa receives each year, end up in private bank
accounts in foreign lands. In Africa, foreign aid fuels corruption, starts conflicts, and
pays to kill innocent people especially the poor and the weak. 307
Foreign aid brings in a lot of other negative incentives. External people see Africa
as even poorer. Why? This is because they “feed” Africa in the form of aid.
Taking the past 50 years for example, over 1 trillion dollars has gone to Africa in
the form of aid yet what do we see?
African leaders continue to pile billions of dollars in private bank accounts in
foreign lands and that is because foreign aid, to an African government, is “free money”
and they need not give any account of it. In other words, foreign aid disenfranchises
the poor African because they are not able to hold their governments accountable.
284 The Conspiracy against Africa

One other very negative aspect of foreign aid to Africa is that it discourages investment
and entrepreneurship.308
So, should foreign countries turn their backs on Africa? The answer is No. Africa
needs help just like any other continent. However, Africa shouldn’t be considered and
treated as a beggar as it appears in today’s world. Western countries can help Africa,
but they should learn to do so in the proper way because aid delivered into wrong
hands, does nothing but great harm to Africa. Aid delivered into wrong hands, only
worsens our already bad situation.309
Africa should be treated as a partner on the global stage and not as a beggar as
most western donors consider us to be. The question western countries should be
asking is, “What can we do with Africa?” and not “What can we do for Africa?”.
Africa needs help but we need help to enable us stand on our feet and do it on our
own and not “daily manna” and “diluted Fanta” from any western country.310
Western countries can help by encouraging African governments to get off the
aid and start looking for alternatives such as encouraging trade, assisting in the capital
markets, encouraging remittances (money sent home by migrants. This constitutes
the second largest financial inflow to many developing countries exceeding even
international aid). Taking remittance for example, Today’s African Diaspora consists
of about 25 to 30 million working adults, who send about 40 billion dollars annually
to their families and local communities back home. Encouraging remittance and
other such programs can have far greater positive impacts on Africa than just sending
“free aid” which almost always ends up in private bank accounts in foreign lands.311
Once again, I am not saying western countries should turn their backs on Africa.
There are several ways of helping and there are several types of aid. In times of disaster
(take the Haiti earthquake for example), any form of aid can help save lives. However,
emergency aid is quite different from the everyday foreign aid that rich countries
continue to send to poor countries. The truth is that the “five loaves of bread” and
“two fishes” rich countries continue to send does not cure hunger. Instead, it fuels
corruption and pays to kill innocent people. 312
On the individual level for example, we can encourage African entrepreneurship
through programs such as Micro-finance. Giving a small-scale shoemaker in Nigeria
just a tiny fraction of this aid can go a very long way in helping him expand his
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 285

business, employ, and train new people, and take care of his or her family. The
same applies to small-scale farmers in Ghana, small-scale shop owners in Congo, etc.
Instead, what do we see today? Western countries continue to send billions upon
billions of “bloody” dollars to Africa in the form of aid only for the “aid” to worsen
our already unpleasant situation. A significant portion of the aid Africa receives each
year also goes directly into financing wars and terrorizing innocent people. 313
This is how foreign aid destroys our beloved continent and that is why western
countries should stop sending Africa any more of that toxic “manna”.
286 The Conspiracy against Africa

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2. Chester A. Crocker, “African Governance: Challenges and their Implication”,
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3. Felix Ahadzi, op. cit,
4. Kwame Nkrumah quoted in Felix Ahadzi, ibid.
5. Kwame Nkrumah (1964), “Africa Must Unite” Publisher‫‏‬: ‎ Hassell Street
Press (September 9, 2021)
6. Felix Ahadzi, op. cit,
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8. “The New Imperialism (1875-1914)”. See www.britannica.com
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10. Felix Ahadzi, op. cit,
11. Black History, “The CIA, Kwame Nkrumah, and the Destruction of Ghana”,
ModernGhana, 28th November 2011.
12. June Milne in the New Africa Magazine No. 488 of February 2006 described
the coup that ousted Nkrumah as one that disrupted Africa’s forward march.
13. The African Exponent revealed that Nkrumah dream of a united and a successful
African continent and the narrative he was creating for Africa was a foreign
policy concerns for the USA.
14. Black History, “The CIA, Kwame Nkrumah, and the Destruction of Ghana”,
ModernGhana, 28th November 2011.
15. Daniel Schwedt, “1960: The Year of Africa” CBC News, 8 June 2010.
16. Felix Ahadzi, op. cit,
17. Ibid. See also “Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara: Who Killed ‘Africa’s Che
Guevara’? The African Report,
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 287

18. Tracey Gurd, “Taylor alleges US Government helped him escape from US
Prison” International Justice Monitor Open Society Justice Initiative, US.
19. Ahmed Tijani (2010), “Coming Back to the Brink in Sierra Leone”
20. Ibid
21. (Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Arab Spring”. Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 23 Nov. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-Spring.
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22. Morris Mickle Whaite, “Muammar al-Gaddafi Biography: Mad Dog of the
Middle East”, BIO Graphics, 6th of December 2018.
23. Ellen Brown, “Why Qaddafi had to go: African gold, oil, and the challenge to
Monetary Imperialism” ECOLOGIST, 14th March 10`6.
24. Tim Gaynor, Toha Zergoun, “Gaddafi caught like ‘rat’ in a drain, humiliated
and shot” REUTERS, 21st October 2011.
25. Mary Fitzgerald, “Libya, a Decade after Gaddafi’s Fall” Manara Magazine, 16th
March 2021.
26. Roxana Buspinero, “Libya: Before and After Muammar Gaddafi”, Tele SUR,
15th January 2020.
27. Mary Fitzgerald, “Libya, a Decade after Gaddafi’s Fall” Manara Magazine,
16th March 2021.
28. Felix Ahadzi, op. cit,
29. Rania Khalok Dispatches, “NATO Expands into Africa as US Bullies the
Continent over Ukraine” Apple Podcasts,
30. Peter Fabricius, “Sergey Lavrov Back to Africa with a Vengeance – Analysis”
Eurasia Review, 22 January 2023.
31. “African Union backs mass withdrawal from ICC” BBC News, 1 February
2017.
32. Odrek Rwabwogo, “Lopsided EU trade agreements are harming Africa”,
African Business, 3 February 2023
33. Ibid
34. Ibid
288 The Conspiracy against Africa

35. Ibid
36. Ibid
37. Ibid
38. Matt Kennard and Ismail Einashe, “Proxy War in the Horn of Africa”, Pulitzer
Centre,
39. “The Proxy Wars in Africa and the profiteers”, Africa and the World,
40. Ibid
41. Ibid
42. Ibid
43. Ibid
44. Ellen Brown, “Why Gaddafi had to go: African gold, oil, and the challenge to
monetary Imperialism”, op. cit.
45. Ibid
46. Ibid
47. Ibid
48. Ibid
49. Ibid
50. Ibid
51. Ibid
52. Ibid
53. Ibid
54. Ibid
55. Ibid
56. Ibid
57. Ibid
58. “The British Empire: An Overview”, See www.bbc.co.uk
59. Phil Moore, “10 Ways Britain has ruined the world”, LISTVERSE, 12 March
2013.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 289

60. (Bundy, Colin J., Lowe, Christopher C., Nel, Andries, Mabin, Alan S.,
Hall, Martin, Vigne, Randolph, Gordon, David Frank, Thompson, Leonard
Monteath and Cobbing, Julian R.D. “South Africa”. Encyclopaedia Britannica,
22 Jan. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa. Accessed 27
January 2023.)
61. “Apartheid: Definition and South Africa”, See www.history.com
62. Phil Moore, “10 Ways Britain has ruined the world”, LISTVERSE, 12 March
2013
63. Dalya Alberge, “British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods”,
British Museum, 4 November 2019.
64. Geoffrey Robertson, “Who Owns History? Elgin’s Loot and the Case of
Returning Plundered Treasure” Biteback Publishing, 5 November 2019.
65. Ibid
66. Ibid
67. Ibid
68. Ibid
69. Ibid
70. Ibid
71. Ibid
72. Ibid
73. Dalya Alberge, “British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods”,
British Museum, 4 November 2019.
74. Ibid
75. Ibid
76. Ibid
77. Nosmot Gbadamosi, “Stealing Africa: How Britain Looted the Continent’s
Art”, AL JEZEERA, 12 October 2021
78. Ibid
290 The Conspiracy against Africa

79. Max Siollun, “What Britain did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and
Rule” Hurst Publishers. Max Siollun is a historian and author who specialises in
Nigeria’s history. He has written some of the most acclaimed books on Nigeria’s
history, and has been described as standing ‘unchallenged, in contemporary
times, as the Chronicler-in-Chief of the Nigerian military’ by the Special
Assistant on New Media to Nigeria’s President Buhari, Tolu Ogunlesi.
80. Ibid
81. Ibid
82. Osori Ayisha, director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)
made this assertion.
83. Ibid
84. Nosmot Gbadamosi, “Stealing Africa: How Britain Looted the Continent’s
Art”, AL JEZEERA, 12 October 2021
85. Ibid
86. Dalya Alberge, “British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods”,
British Museum, 4 November 2019
87. Nosmot Gbadamosi, “Stealing Africa: How Britain Looted the Continent’s
Art”, AL JEZEERA, 12 October 2021
88. Ibid
89. Ibid
90. Ibid
91. Ibid
92. Ibid
93. Ibid
94. Ibid
95. Ibid
96. Ibid
97. Ibid
98. Ibid
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 291

99. Ibid
100. Ibid
101. Ibid
102. Ibid
103. Ibid
104. Ibid
105. Ibid
106. Ibid
107. Ibid
108. Ibid
109. Ibid
110. Ibid
111. Ibid
112. Ibid
113. Ibid
114. Ibid
115. Ibid
116. Ibid
117. Ibid
118. Ibid
119. Dalya Alberge, “British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods”,
British Museum, 4 November 2019
120. Nosmot Gbadamosi, “Stealing Africa: How Britain Looted the Continent’s
Art”, AL JEZEERA, 12 October 2021
121. Richard Drayton, “The Wealth of the W2est was Built on Africa’s Exploitation”,
The Guardian, 20 August 2005.
122. Ibid
123. Ibid
292 The Conspiracy against Africa

124. Ibid
125. Ibid
126. Ibid
127. Ibid
128. Giorgio Spagnot, “Is France still Exploiting Africa?” IERI, 10 February 2019.
129. Mawuna Remarque Koutonin”, “14 African Countries Forced by France to
Pay Colonial Tax for the Benefits of Slavery and Colonization”, Pan African
Visions, 24 January 2014.
130. Eze Chimere Nwauzo, “How France Loots her former African Colonies”, 16
August 2016.
131. Siji Jabban, “How France Loots its former Colonies” This is Africa, 24 January
2013.
132. Ibid
133. Ibid
134. Ibid
135. Ibid
136. Ibid
137. Ibid
138. “Africa the China-owned Continent” See https://www.africaw.com
139. Ibid
140. Ibid
141. Ibid
142. Ibid
143. Ibid
144. Deborah Brautigan, “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa”,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
145. Panos Mourdoukoutas, “Why is China Building Africa” Forbes, 21 September
2021.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 293

146. Deborah Brautigan and Meg Rithmire, “The Chinese ‘Debt Trap’ id a Myth”,
The Atlantic, 6 February 2021.
147. Wade Shepard, “What China is really up to in Africa”, Forbes, 3 October 2019.
148. “China’s Regional Snapshot: Sub-Sahara Africa”, Foreign Affairs Committee,
19 January 2022.
149. Emmanuel Tweh Friday, “The Danger in China’s Infrastructure Financing for
Africa”, Modern Ghana, 8 November 2022.
150. Xiaochen Su, quoted in Emmanuel Tweh Friday, ibid.
151. Ibid
152. Wade Shepard, “What China is really up to in Africa”, Forbes, 3 October 2019.
153. Emmanuel Johnson, “China needs what Africa has for long-term economic
and political stability” Sierra Leone Telegraph, 12 January 2021.
154. Ibid
155. Ibid
156. Ibid
157. Ibid
158. ibid
159. Wade Shepard, “What China is really up to in Africa”, Forbes, 3 October 2019.
160. Akol Nyok Dok, “Takeover Trap: Why Imperialist China is Invading Africa”,
The National Interest, 10 July 2019.
161. Ibid
162. Ibid
163. Ibid
164. Ibid
165. Ibid
166. Isaac Kaledzi, “Ethiopia’s War Triggers Fears in Kenya, South Sudan”, See www.
dw.com, 11 August 2021.
294 The Conspiracy against Africa

167. Akol Nyok Dok, “Takeover Trap: Why Imperialist China is Invading Africa”,
The National Interest, 10 July 2019.
168. Ibid
169. Ibid
170. Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, The Angolan war: A study in Soviet policy in the third
world (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1980); Marina Ottaway, Soviet and
American influence in the Horn of Africa (New York, NY: Praeger, 1982); Mark
Webber, ‘Soviet policy in sub-Saharan Africa. The final phase,’ The Journal of
Modern African Studies 30, no. 1 (1992), pp. 1–30.
171. Keir Giles, ‘Russian interests in sub-Saharan Africa’ (Carlisle Barracks, PA:
Strategic Studies Institute, Letort Papers, US Army War College, 2013), p. 7.
172. It should be noted that Russia continued to be involved in exporting arms to
Africa. Russia has always been the main arms provider to Africa. Russia accounts
for 39% of the total arms sales to Africa between 2013 and 2017, though
Algeria accounted for 78% of Russia total arms export to Africa. See: Pieter
D. Wezeman et al., ‘Trends in international arms transfers, 2017’ (Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm, 2018). In addition, three-
quarters of the countries in Africa use some form of Russian military equipment,
which means that many Russian military technicians are working in Africa to
conduct maintenance. See: Arnaud Kalika, ‘Russia’s “great return” to Africa?’,
Russie.Nei. Visions 114 (2019). However, Russia has always exported high
volumes of arms to Africa, so this can hardly be seen as a new Africa strategy.
173. These leaked documents were obtained by the Dossier Center, an investigative
unit in London led by exiled, Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
See: Luke Harding and Jason Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort
to exert influence in Africa’, The Guardian, 11 June 2019, https://www.
theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/11/leaked-documents-reveal-russian-effort-
to-exert-influence-in-africa (15 March 2021).
174. President of Russia ‘Sochi will host Russia-Africa Summit on October 24’
(President of Russia, Moscow, 2019).
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 295

175. United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, ‘Statement of General

Thomas D. Waldhauser, United States Marine Corps Commander United
States Africa Command before the Senate Armed Service Committee’ (116th
United States Congress, Senate Committee on Armed Services, Washington
DC, February 7, 2019), pp. 9, 32, 33.
176. Dan Lamothe, ‘U.S. Africa Command Nominee Cites Potential Russian
and Chinese Threats to U.S. Interests in the Region’, Washington
Post, April 2 2019, <www.washingtonpost.com%2fnational-
security%2f2019%2f04%2f02%2fus-africa-command-nominee-cites-
potential-russian-chinese-threats-us-interests-region%2f > (15 March 2021).
177. U.S. Department of Defense, ‘Remarks by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J.
Austin III at U.S. Africa Command’s Change of Command Ceremony (As
Delivered)’, 09 August 2022, <https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/
Speech/Article/3120796/remarks-by-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-at-
us-africa-commands-change/> (19 August 2022).
178. Abraham Mahsie, ‘Townsend: Russia Added to Instability in Africa with
New Air Defences in Mali’, Air Force Magazine, 26 July 2022, <https://www.
airforcemag.com/townsend-russia-added-to-instability-in-africa-with-new-
air-defenses-in-mali/> (19 August 2022).
179. Kimberly Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa: Is the Cold War returning?’, The
Washington Quarterly, 42, no. 4 (2019), pp. 155–70.
180. For instance, see: Michael Woldemariam and Alden Young, ‘What happens
in Sudan doesn’t stay in Sudan: Will Khartoum become the centre of a new
African order or an appendage of the Gulf?’, Foreign Affairs, 19 July 2019,
<https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/africa/2019-07-19/what-happens-
sudan-doesnt-stay-sudan> (15 March 2021).
181. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 155.
182. Paul Stronski, late to the party: Russia’s return to Africa (Washington, DC:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2019); Marten, ’Russia’s back in
Africa’; Kalika, ‘Russia’s “great return” to Africa?’.
296 The Conspiracy against Africa

183. S. N. MacFarlane, ‘Intervention and security in Africa’, International Affairs

60, no. 1 (1983) pp. 53–73; Webber, ‘Soviet policy in sub-Saharan Africa’;
Michael Radu and Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, The dynamics of Soviet policy in
sub-Saharan Africa (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1991).
184. Russian area studies tend to prefer ‘patronalism’ over ‘patronage’; however, for
the purposes of this article, the latter is used for the sake of consistency within
African studies.
185. Fabian Burkhardt, ‘The Putin system’, Dekoder, 18 March 2020, <https://
putin.dekoder.org/putin-system>, (15 March 2021).
186. Christopher S. Clapham, Africa, and the international system: The politics of
state survival (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 142–3.
187. Stephen John Stedman, Peace-making in civil war: International mediation
in Zimbabwe, 1974–1980 (London: Lynne Rienner, 1991), pp. 86–7; S. Neil
MacFarlane, ‘Africa’s decaying security system and the rise of intervention’,
International Security 8, no. 4 (1984), pp. 127–51, p. 139. See also: Organisation
of African Unity, ‘Resolution adopted at the fourteenth ordinary session of the
assembly of heads of state of the OAU’, (Libreville, 2–5 July 1977), p. xiv.
188. Clapham, Africa, and the international system; Nicole Muchnik and Arslan
Humbaraci, Portugal’s African Wars: Angola, Guinea Bissao, Mozambique
(Macmillan, New York, 1974).
189. Muchnik and Humbaraci, Portugal’s African Wars.
190. Roland Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique. Anachronismes ou
nouvelles configurations?’ (CNRS, Sciences Po-CERI, 2019).
191. Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique ‘; Kalika, ‘Russia’s “great return”
to Africa?’, p. 15–6.
192. Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique’, p. 8.
193. BBC World Service, ‘Russia’s African Doctrine’, The Real Story, 21 September
2019, <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyddf> (15 March 2021).
194. Stronski. ‘Late to the party’, pp. 3–4.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 297

195. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’; Kimberly Marten, ‘Russ-Afrique? Russia,

France, and the Central African Republic’, PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo
608 (2019), p. 5.
196. Andrew S. Weiss and Eugene Rumer, ‘Nuclear enrichment: Russia’s ill-fated
influence campaign in South Africa’ (Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, Washington, DC, 2019).
197. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
198. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
199. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
200. Middle East Eye, ‘Russian private contractors active in Sudan during protest
crackdown’, 24 January 2019, <https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russian-
private-contractors-active-sudan-during-protest-crackdown> (16 March
2021).
201. Amy Mackinnon, ‘With base in Sudan, Russia expands its military reach
in Africa’, Foreign Policy, 14 December 2020, <https://foreignpolicy.
com/2020/12/14/russia-expands-military-reach-africa-navy-base-sudan/> (16
March 2021).
202. Colum Lynch, Amy Mackinnon, and Robbie Gramer, ‘Russia Flounders
in Ukraine but doubles down in Mali’, Foreign Policy, 14 April 2022,
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/14/russia-ukraine-mali-wagner-group-
mercenaries/> (19 August 2022).
203. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 157; Stronski, late to the party’, p. 10.
204. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 157; Stronski, late to the party’, p. 10.;
Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique’.
205. Nathalia Dukhan, Central African Republic: Ground zero for Russian influence
in Central Africa, (Washington DC: Atlantic Council Eurasia Center, Atlantic
Council, 2020), p. 2.
206. Sergey Sukhankin, ‘The ‘hybrid’ role of Russian mercenaries, PMCs and
irregulars in Moscow’s scramble for Africa’, The Jamestown Foundation, 10
January 2020, <https://jamestown.org/program/the-hybrid-role-of-russian-
mercenaries-pmcs-and-irregulars-in-moscows-scramble-for-africa/> (15 March
298 The Conspiracy against Africa

2021); Irina Dolinina et al, ‘The chef ’s global footprints’, OCCRP, 17 December
2019, <https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/the-chefs-global-footprints>
(16 March 2021); Jack Margolin, ‘Paper trails: How a Russia-based logistics
network ties together Russian mining companies and military contractors
in Africa, C4ADS, 13 June 2019, <https://c4ads.org/blogposts/2019/6/13/
paper-trails> (16 March 2021).
207. Kimberly Marten, ‘Russia’s use of semi-state security forces: The case of the
Wagner Group’, Post-Soviet Affairs 35, no. 3 (2019), pp. 181–204, pp. 182,
193; Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique’.
208. Kimberly Marten, ‘A new explanation for Russian foreign policy: The power
of informal patronage networks’, PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 274 (2013),
p. 2.
209. Hale’s use of the concept ‘patronalism’ is like the use of ‘patronage’ within
African studies.
210. Henry E. Hale, ‘Russian patronal politics beyond Putin’, Deadalus 146, no. 2
(2017), pp. 30–40, p. 31.
211. Nathaniel Reynolds, ‘Putin’s not-so-secret mercenaries: Patronage, geopolitics,
and the Wagner Group’ (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, 2019), pp. 4–5.
212. Hale, ‘Russian patronal politics’, p. 33.
213. Reynolds, ‘Putin’s not-so-secret mercenaries’, p. 4.
214. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 159.
215. Reynolds, ‘Putin’s not-so-secret mercenaries’, p. 5.
216. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 159.
217. Jean-François Bayart, The state in Africa: The politics of the belly (London:
Longman, 1993); Alex de Waal, the real politics of the Horn of Africa: Money,
war and the business of power (Cambridge: Polity, 2015); Marielle Debos,
Living by the gun in Chad: Combatants, impunity and state formation
(London: Zed Books, 2016).
218. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 299

219. Alex de Waal, ‘Violence and peace-making in the political marketplace’, Accord
25 (2014), pp. 17–20.
220. Ned Dalby, ‘A multifaceted business: diamonds in the Central African Republic’,
in Making sense of the Central African Republic, eds. Tatiana Carayannis and
Louisa Lombard (London: Zed Books, 2015), pp. 123-41, p. 135.
221. Marie-Joëlle Zahar and Delphine Mechoulan, Peace by pieces? Local mediation
and sustainable peace in the Central African Republic (New York, NY:
International Peace Institute, 2017).
222. Kalika, ‘Russia’s “great return” to Africa?’, pp. 25–6.
223. Paul Goble, ‘Moscow exporting ‘political technologists’ beyond Africa to
Europe’, Eurasia Daily Monitor 16, 128 (2019).
224. International Crisis Group, ‘Making the Central African Republic’s latest peace
agreement stick’ (Africa Report 277, International Crisis Group, Brussels,
2019).
225. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 163.
226. Ilya Rozhdestvensky and Roman Badanin, ‘Master and chef: How Evgeny
Prigozhin led the Russian offensive in Africa,’ Proekt, 14 March 2019, https://
www.proekt.media/ investigation/evgeny-prigozhin-africa/ (16 March 2021).
227. Andrey Maslov and Vadim Zaytsev, ‘What’s behind Russia’s newfound interest
in Zimbabwe’, Carnegie Moscow Center, 14 November 2018, <https://
carnegie.ru/commentary/77707> (16 March 2021).
228. Maslov and Zaytsev, ‘What’s behind Russia’s newfound interest in Zimbabwe’.
229. BusinessDay, ‘Alrosa invests $12m in diamond exploration in Zimbabwe’,
16 July 2019, <https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/africa/2019-07-16-
alrosa-invests-12m-in-diamond-exploration-in-zimbabwe/> (16 March 2021).
230. The RSB Group is a private military company from Russia that officially runs
under a de-mining contract in Libya but has played an instrumental role in
helping Haftar take control of large parts of Libya.
231. Yury Barmin, ‘Russia’s endgame in Libya’, Al Jazeera, 11 July 2019, <https://
www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/7/11/russias-endgame-in-libya> (16
March 2021).
300 The Conspiracy against Africa

232. Meduza, ‘Supposed ‘troll factory’ founder and mercenary kingpin attends talks
between Russia’s defence minister and the head of the Libyan National Army’,
10 November 2018, <https://meduza.io/en/news/2018/11/10/supposed-
troll-factory-founder-and-mercenary-kingpin-attends-talks-between-russia-
s-defense-minister-and-the-head-of-the-libyan-national-army> (16 March
2021).
233. Stronski. ‘Late to the party’, pp. 6–7.
234. Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique’.
235. Michael Kofman et al, Lessons from Russia’s Operations in Crimea and Eastern
Ukraine (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2017), pp. 7–11.
236. Michael Kofman et al, Lessons from Russia’s Operations, pp. 43–4.
237. Amos Fox, ‘Cyborgs at little Stalingrad. A brief history of the battles of the
Donetsk airport’, (Land Warfare Paper 125, The Institute of Land Warfare,
Arlington, VA, 2019), p. 5.
238. Dmitry Adamsky, ‘Moscow’s Syria campaign: Russian lessons for the art of
strategy’, Russie.Nei. Visions 109 (2018), p. 10–1.
239. Alec Luhn, ‘Russian special forces sent to back renegade Libyan general –
reports’, The Guardian, 14 March 2017, <https://www.theguardian.com/
world/2017/mar/14/russian-special-forces-deployed-in-egypt-near-libyan-
border-report> (17 March 2021).
240. United States Department of Defense, ‘Russia, Wagner Group continue
military involvement in Libya’, 24 July 2020, <https://www.defense.gov/
Explore/News/Article/Article/2287821/russia-wagner-group-continue-
military-involvement-in-libya/> (17 March 2021).
241. Nick Paton Walsh and Sarah El Sirgany, ‘Foreign fighters were meant to leave
Libya this week. A huge trench being dug by Russian-backed mercenaries
indicates they plan to stay’, CNN, 22 January 2021, <https://edition.cnn.
com/2021/01/22/africa/libya-trench-russia-intl/index.html> (17 March
2021).
242. Maren Garberg Bredesen and Karsten Friis, ‘Missiles, Vessels and Active
Defence What Potential Threat Do the Russian Armed Forces Represent?’ The
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 301

RUSI Journal 165, no. 5–6 (2020), pp. 68–78, p. 70; David Lewis, ‘Russia’s
“strategic deterrence” in Ukraine’ (Security Insights, George C. Marshall
European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 2019).
243. Jams Kearney, ‘Russia’s airstrike rules of engagement reviewed’, Action on
Armed Violence, 14 March 2019, <https://aoav.org.uk/2019/an-assessment-
of-russias-roe/> (17 March 2021); Adamsky, ‘Moscow’s Syria campaign’, p. 6.
244. Marten, ‘Russia’s use of semi-state security forces.
245. Adamsky, ‘Moscow’s Syria campaign’, pp. 29–30; Piotr Sosnowska et al,
Russian losses near Deir ez-Zor – a problem for the Kremlin (Warsaw: Centre
for Eastern Studies (OSW), 2018), Sukhankin, ‘The ‘hybrid’ role of Russian
mercenaries.
246. Dmitry Adamsky, ‘Cross-domain coercion: The current Russian art of strategy’,
Proliferation Papers, 54 (2015), p. 23.
247. Kearney, ‘Russia’s airstrike rules of engagement reviewed’; David Lewis,
‘Contesting liberal peace: Russia’s emerging model of conflict management’,
International Affairs, 98 (2022), pp. 653–73.
248. Adamsky, ‘Moscow’s Syria campaign’, p. 11, 27–8.
249. Kimberly Marten, ‘Into Africa: Prigozhin, Wagner, and the Russian Military’,
PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 561 (2019).
250. International Crisis Group, ‘Making the Central African Republic’s latest peace
agreement stick’, pp. 4–5; David Lewis, ‘Contesting liberal peace: Russia’s
emerging model of conflict management’.
251. Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 162–3.
252. Dukhan, ‘Central African Republic’, pp. 2, 3–6.
253. Dukhan, ‘Central African Republic’.
254. Nathalia Dukhan, State of prey: Proxies, predators, and profiteers in the Central
African Republic, (Washington, DC: Briefing, The Sentry, 2020), pp. 5, 10.
255. Dukhan, ‘Central African Republic’, pp. 6–7.
256. Samuel Ramani, Russia’s mediation goals in Libya (Washington, DC: Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, 2019).
302 The Conspiracy against Africa

257. Alla Hurska, ‘Lev Dengov: Ramzan Kadyrov’s middleman in Libya’, Eurasia
Daily Monitor 15, no. 153 (2018).
258. Adamsky, ‘Cross-domain coercion’, p. 34.
259. Oscar Jonsson, The Russian understanding of war: Blurring the lines between
war and peace (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2019), p. 95.
260. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’, LGBT referring
to ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender’.
261. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
262. Marchal, ‘La Russie et la Corne de l’Afrique’.
263. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
264. Kevin Limonier, ‘Diffusion de l’information russe en Afrique: Essai de
cartographie générale’ (Note de recherche 66, Institut de Recherche Stratégique
de l’Ecole Militaire, Paris, 2018).
265. Sukhankin, ‘The ‘hybrid’ role of Russian mercenaries.
266. Kimberly Marten, ‘Russia’s back in Africa’, p. 160.
267. Nataliya Bugayova and Darina Regio, The Kremlin’s campaign in Africa
(Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of War, 2019).
268. Stephen Blank, ‘Russia’s military diplomacy in Africa: What does it mean?’,
Eurasia Daily Monitor 16, no. 82 (2019).
269. Paul Goble, ‘Moscow quickly expanding ties to Africa’, Eurasia Daily Monitor
15, no. 92 (2018).
270. Harding and Burke, ‘Leaked documents reveal Russian effort’.
271. Obiora Ikoku, “Wagner Group: What is Putin’s Shadow Army up to in Africa”,
inkstickmedia.com
272. Ibid
273. Ibid
274. UN official working in Africa spoke with Inkstickmedia.com, ibid.
275. Dr Joseph Siegle leads the Africa Centre’s research programme explains Russia’s
strategic objectives in Africa, ibid.
 Foreign Interferences in the Political History of Africa: A Bane to Development 303

276. Obiora Ikoku, “Wagner Group: What is Putin’s Shadow Army up to in Africa”,
inkstickmedia.com
277. Ibid
278. Ibid
279. The President of Ghana Akufo-Addo made this statement during a three-day
US-Africa summit meeting in December 2022.
280. Obiora Ikoku, “Wagner Group: What is Putin’s Shadow Army up to in Africa”,
inkstickmedia.com
281. Waliu Ismaila quoted in Obiora Ikoku, ibid.
282. Obiora Ikoku, op. cit.
283. Ibid
284. Ibid
285. Ibid
286. Ibid
287. Diallo Abdoulaye quoted in Obiora Ikoku, ibid.
288. Ibid
289. Obiora Ikoku, op. cit.
290. ibid
291. Reynolds, ‘Putin’s not-so-secret mercenaries’, pp. 5, 9–10.
292. Middle East Eye, ‘Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow pulls mercenaries from Libya’,
28 April 2022, <https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-ukraine-war-
moscow-pulls-mercenaries-libya> (19 August 2022).
293. Amsky, ‘Moscow’s Syria campaign’, p. 7.
294. “Multi-national Companies Cheat Africa out of Billions of Dollars”, Oxfam
International, 1 June 2015.
295. Ibid
296. Ibid
297. Elliot Smith, op. cit.
304 The Conspiracy against Africa

298. Ibid
299. Ibid
300. Ibid
301. Ibid
302. UN Economic Commission for Africa’s Report on the high-level Panel on the
Illicit Financial Flows from Africa”, See www.uneca.org
303. “Multi-national Companies Cheat Africa out of Billions of Dollars”, Oxfam
International, 1 June 2015.
304. http://investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/Upload/Documents/FDI,%20
Tax%20and%20Development.pdf
305. ibid
306. Mark Anderson, “Aid to Africa: Donations from West Mask $60bn Looting of
Continent”, The Guardian, 15 July 2014.
307. “How Western (foreign)Aid Destroys Africa”, Africa and the World,
308. Ibid
309. Ibid
310. Ibid
311. Ibid
312. Ibid
313. Ibid
314. “Will Switzerland Ever Release African Funds Frozen in their Banks” The
African Exponent, 30 January 2023.
 Chapter 5

AFRICA AND THE RETURN OF BIPOLARITY

IN WORLD POLITICS: CHINA, THE UNITED
STATES AND GEO-STRUCTURAL REALISM

“Until justice is blind to colour, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity
is unconcerned with the colour of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but
not a fact.”
- Lyndon B. Johnson

A. Background Analysis
1. A Preliminary Statement:
This section is predicated on the premise that the African continent has become, is
becoming, a focus of geopolitical and economic attention, especially as a locus of
Sino-American rivalry and to some extent cooperation. Expectedly, Sino-American
presence in Africa has resulted in:
1. the militarization and securitization of Africa impelled by the war on terrorism
and the need to protect vested political and economic interests;
2. the continent becoming a theatre for the interplay of differences between
American and Chinese militarization and securitization; and
3. the inevitable and rare cases of military and security cooperation between the
two powers on the continent.
The section probes how and why the two powers have militarized and securitized
the continent, the activities that constitute militarization and securitization, and
prospects for further militarization and securitization in the context of both rivalry
and minimal cooperation.
306 The Conspiracy against Africa

2. Introduction
In his work title: “Militarization and Securitization in Africa: The Role of Sino-
American Geostrategic Presence”, Earl Conteh-Morgan writes that contrary to the
popular consensus that Africa is non-geostrategic, however, it has experienced three
“scrambles” –
1. the 19th century scramble for colonies that balkanized it into over 50 states,
2. the ideological Cold War rivalry of the immediate post-WWII period, and
3. the current rivalry and the focus of China and the United States on the continent
along with the presence of other great, middle, and emerging powers.1
According to him, in addition to the well-known Sino-American rivalry in
Africa, there are other significant players also serious about gaining strategic foothold
on the continent. These powers included Japan,, India, Russia, and Iran.
The activities of these powers – whether covet or overt – inadvertently result in
obvious militarization and securitization of the Africa continent even as they point
to Sino-American rivalry and/or cooperation in the continent. Thus, both China and
the United States have been fighting for a long time to for economic and economic
advantages in the continent with regard to our natural resources, markets, investment
outlets, and political influence within its diversified nation-state. 2 On the one hand,
the current scramble for Africa is inspired and/or sustained by the efforts of the
United States to ensure and protect her geopolitical interests in the region. On the
other hand and simultaneously, China is doubling down on its efforts to do same,
hence
The current scramble for Africa is sustained and inspired, on the one hand, by
the United States’ efforts to ensure her geo-economic interests and on the other,
China’s efforts to do same, hence their naturally motivated and inspired her presence
on the continent. In another important sense, these two great powers are enticed to
Africa continent following the gale of religious militancy, piracy, and terrorism.
The objective of this analysis is to:
1. examine the relationship between increasing terrorist attacks, internal rebellions
against incumbent state regimes, incidents of piracy, and the vastly increased
American and Chinese military presence in Africa;
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 307

2. analysed the connection between Sino-American geo-economic interests and

the deepening militarization and securitization of the African continent; and,
3. discuss differences in the nature of the American and Chinese militarization
and securitization of the continent.
In other words, in what significant ways have the two economies of the world
militarized and securitized Africa? What activities constitute the militarization and
securitization of the Africa continent? And most importantly, why are the US and
China militarizing and securitizing the continent? 3
According to Earl Conteh-Morgan, “Militarization” comprised of arms transfers,
troop deployment, peacekeeping activities, military engagement against terrorist
groups, anti-piracy activities, military training and advising, and the establishment
of military bases.4 All of these activities are pursued by both the United States’ and
China, hence the preference to have a permanent military presence on the African
soil.
It could be envisioned as Africa’s propensity to attract foreign military presence.
It takes the form of strengthening African militaries through joint training and
combat activities. It could, therefore, be conceptualized because of terrorist attacks
which threaten the economic powers of the great powers. It is a deliberate policy of
ensuring that there is a threat to the United States and China.5
Specifically, the Copenhagen School of Securitization emphasize the function
of “speech act” in securitizing an issue.6 The securitization of Africa is therefore the
verbal (oral and written) expression of the geostrategic importance of Africa to both
the US and China.7 In such official policy statements, the pronunciation made by
the players expresses and reveals their intent and consideration to such issues like
terrorism, rebellion, or violence in the Africa continent as it constitute such a threat
to their national security and geo-economic interests of the powers in question. In
such “speech act”, i.e., the act of identifying threats to the national security, the
development of the military bases and the deployment of the combat troops to
ensure the security of their geopolitical interests is revealed.8 This is usually the case
with the United States. On the other hand, the 2017 National Security Strategy
(NSS) expressly communicated China’s presence and activities in Africa, in the West
and in the world in general.9
308 The Conspiracy against Africa

Evidently, China, for its part, has been willing to dilute its longstanding foreign
policy of non-interference and add to its involvement in traditional peacekeeping
and peace-building activities the need to engage in military combat to protect its
interests in Africa. Hence, the threats of terrorism and piracy to its vested interests
in Africa have even compelled China to reform and improve potential threats from a
low political priority concern to a high political priority concern, which necessitates
the need to make use of combat troops and set up its first ever foreign naval base in
Djibouti. China’s decision in 2013 to deploy combat troops to Mali and to send troops
to protect its investments in South Sudan is an indication by China to designate rebel
violence and terroristic developments in Africa as a security threat to its geopolitical
and economic interest on African soil.10 “The securitization of Africa is therefore a
procedure that has evolved from foreign policy doctrine and/or speech acts to the
implementation of the speech act strategy into practical tactics such as joint military
exercises, the establishment of military bases, cooperation in combatting the threat,
and ensuring that African militaries become more effective at containing threats to
the national security of state actors.” 11
“Both the militarization and securitization of Africa by foreign actors (the U.S.
and China) involve the implementation of verbal (oral or written) military
strategies which include troop deployment, cooperation in the armed containment
of terrorist groups, the protection of geopolitical and economic interests, and the
establishment of military bases designed to produce a climate of stability and
security by effectively forestalling threats to internal and external interests. The
result is the growth and increase of an external military presence in Africa which
over time becomes institutionalized. The greater the domestic and external
militarization and securitization, the higher the probability of a power struggle
between the forces of destabilization –terrorists and rebels– and those of military
security promotion –the U.S., China, and incumbent African regimes.”12
Furthermore, there is this argument that militarization and securitization could
have negative effects in the manner of provoking more terrorist or rebel attacks
against the U.S., China, and incumbent African regimes, because of the terrorists’
determination to win the struggle against state actors. The consequences could likely
be the fact that the greater the presence of external economic interests and military
presence, the greater will be the frequency of terrorist attacks on countries such as
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 309

Mali, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’Ivoire, among others. The
unfolding consequence and/or action-reaction pattern between state actors and
terrorist/rebel groups could be represented this way:
“The overall consequence is a never-ending protracted conflict between domestic
African regimes and the U.S. and China as external powers viewed as meddling
in the internal affairs of the host country.”13
3. The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics
Trans-Pacific View author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy
practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S.
– Asia policy. Her conversation with Dr. Øystein Tunsjø ̶ Professor and Head of
the Asia program at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies and author of “The
Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-structural
Realism” – is the 176th in “The Trans-Pacific View Insight Series”. Her insights provide
a significant sense in which the contemporary bipolarity differs essentially from that
of the Cold War era even though structurally similar.
In the Cold War era, we had a situation in which two states are much more
powerful compared to any other state and no third power can challenge the top
two. However, as the world enters a new era of U.S.-China superpower rivalry, the
contemporary bipolarity differs significantly from the U.S.-Soviet rivalry of the
second half of the 20th century. Its core difference can be summed up in the Dr.
Øystein Tunsjø phrase, “it’s geopolitics, stupid.” According to her, the contemporary
superpower rivalry is largely at sea, rather than on land. In her estimation there will
likely be more instability at the new power centre in East Asia in some respect than
there was in Europe during the previous bipolar period. Water barriers are likely to
prevent a major war, but it increases the risk of a limited war directly involving the
United States and China in maritime East Asia.14
• What are the highest geopolitical risks in U.S. – China relations?
According to experts in geopolitics, the fundamental feature of the new
superpower rivalry, increasing the risk of a limited war, is that it will boil down to the
maritime domain of East Asia and not on the landmass of Europe. In the previous
rivalry between the former superpowers which concentrated on Europe – the United
States and the Soviet Union – the United States was less rated to the superior Soviet
310 The Conspiracy against Africa

Union’s land power. . To deter and prevent a Soviet attack on Western Europe, the
United States had to rely on nuclear weapons. It is therefore not surprising, however,
when experts see a high risk that any crisis or conflict could escalate into a major,
plausibly nuclear, war. Though Europe remained stable and peaceful, we experience
a galloping arms race, severe tension, and profound hostility followed. 15
In contrast to Europe [and the former Soviet Union], none of the United
States’ most important allies in East Asia (Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and
Australia) share borders with China. Instead, water and U.S. naval preponderance
protect these allies from China’s formidable land power. But it is unnecessary for
the United States to rely on nuclear weapons as heavily as it did in Europe in order
to deter China. One might think that this is good for peace and stability, but the
temptation of brinkmanship and the risk of war increases when the contenders rely
on conventional rather than nuclear deterrence.16
“A future conflict might break out in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, or
the Taiwan Strait. In any case, the most likely scenario is a limited war constrained
to the sea, that would not result in an invasion of China, the United States, or its
allies, but would likely result in devastating attacks on the military infrastructure
of both sides. If core interests are at stake, decision makers might be willing to risk
a limited war or a constrained battle at sea in maritime East Asia, calculating
that escalation to a major war is avoidable.”17
• Evaluate current media characterization of U.S.-China relations in a new “Cold
War.”
The “Cold War” analogy neglects the important geopolitical differences between the
former US – Soviet Union bipolar system concentrated on continental Europe and
the current bipolar system concentrated on maritime East Asia. Two added aspects
are also important. First, some observers think that Russia and the United States are
in a “new” Cold War. The current Russia – Ukraine war in which the United States led
the Western and some Eastern Europe against Russia is often touted as evidence. But
this argument may not hold water. In the contrary, China’s nominal gross domestic
product is about ten times larger than Russia’s and its defence spending roughly four
times Russia’s. The only power posing a major challenge to the United States today
is China, not Russia.18
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 311

Second, while the mutual antagonism between the new superpower has political,
military, strategic, economic, and technological competition, the contemporary era of
globalization and economic interdependence is vastly different from the independence
and East-West divide of the Cold War era. Together with the geopolitical differences,
this will give the new bipolar system different characteristics compared with the
Cold War.19
• How then do we briefly explain how policymakers should understand “geo-
structural realism.”?
Geo-structural realism argues that although it is important whether the
international system is bipolar or has some other structure, stability and balancing
is heavily affected by geopolitics and the way in which geography affects the two
superpowers and their relationship. In appearance, while the previous bipolar system
was strong balancing, stability, and strong competition and rivalry at the periphery,
however the contemporary bipolar system is characterized by moderate balancing,
instability, and limited competition and rivalry at the periphery. Geo-structural
realism accounts for these different structural effects.20
• What are the U.S. foreign policy implications of geo-structural realism about
U.S. leadership in the Asia Pacific?
The People’s Republic of China [PRC], since its foundation in 1949, has never been
more secure along its borders than now. This fact afforded the [PRC] the opportunity
to concentrate more resources and military capabilities on challenging the U.S. in
maritime East Asia. Evidently, the United States’ leadership in the contemporary
era of US – China superpower rivalry would likely be constrained for the simple
fact of the Geo-Structural condition that the vastness of the Pacific Ocean limited
geographical space for forward U.S. military presence in East Asia coupled with large
geographical distances between U.S allies and partners in the region. International
politics would likely get polarized as a consequence of the contemporary bipolar
system. 21
The United States and the Philippines announced a deal recently to give US
troops access to another four bases in the Southeast Asian nation, as the long-time
allies seek to counter China’s military rise.22
312 The Conspiracy against Africa

Beijing’s growing assertiveness in Taiwan and its building of bases in the disputed
South China Sea have given fresh impetus to Washington and Manila to strengthen
their partnership.23
It comes as both countries – the US and the Philippine – seek to repair ties that
were fractured in recent years. Previous Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte favoured
China over his country’s former colonial master, but the “new” administration of
Ferdinand Marcos has been keen to reverse that.
Given its proximity to Taiwan and its surrounding waters, cooperation from the
Philippines would be key in the event of a conflict with China.
The four new locations bring the total number of sites accessible to US forces to
nine. And, talking to AFP, a senior Philippine official reveals that talks were on-going
for a potential 10th site.
The announcement was made as the United States reopened its embassy in the
Solomon Islands after a 30-year hiatus as it squares-up with China for influence in
the South Pacific.24

B. The United States and China: Strategic Rivalry in Africa.

This book underscores the strategic rivalry taking place in Africa between the United
States and China, sparked by the latter’s massive political, economic, and socio-
cultural engagement with the continent. It argues that the reasons for the on-going
rivalry between the two is related to their clashing worldviews, and their focus on
accessing Africa’s energy/oil and other strategic natural resources. The strategies both
global superpowers are utilizing have the effect of diluting each other’s influence
on the continent. Their rivalry has progressed from mild, to moderate, to intense,
with both powers increasing their activities on the continent and decreasing Africa’s
erstwhile marginalization.25.
1. The United States and China Strategic Rivalry in Africa: An Ex-
planation.
In his beautiful narrative, Earl Conteh-Morgan said that the rivalry between the
world’s two most powerful economic entities – the United States and China – has
become a reality in Africa underlined largely by the two giants’ clashing worldviews.
China’s extensive economic investments, intense political and cultural interactions,
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 313

and on-going peacekeeping and peace building activities in Africa have sparked
insecurity for the U.S., while the U.S., still considered the world’s hegemon, has
naturally always had a “Missionary Complex” and is therefore trying to contain
China’s on-going expansive and pervasive engagement in Africa. 26
One positive outcome, at least for Africa, is the appearance that the U.S.-China
rivalry has reduced to some extent the marginalization that the continent had suffered,
especially during the immediate post-Cold War era of the early 1990s. The focus
of this analysis is to investigate U.S. – China rivalry in Africa by analysing: (i) the
divergence in worldview between the two nations; (ii) their competition for energy
sources in Africa; and (iii) the strategies utilized by both powers in their rivalry on
the continent.27
During the Bill Clinton Administration, the competition between China
and the U.S. in Africa began as mild rivalry but subsequently progressed to
moderate rivalry during the George W. Bush Administration and became intense
during the Obama and later Trump’s Administrations. The question to examine
is, what instigated insecurity on the part of the United States because of China’s
expansive and deepening commitment in Africa? The comprehensive reason lies in
the reality of competing worldviews between the two great nations, one a rising
hegemon perceived as threatening the preeminent position of the United States.28
China’s worldview, mostly based on non-adherence to universal human rights, its
“communist capitalism” and refusal to embrace some key rules and regulations that
guide aid, trade, investment, and political interactions in a largely neoliberal political
economic international system led by the United States, are strikingly different from
the American worldview, based on respect for universal human rights, deliberate
promotion of liberal democratic values, and support for the rules and regulations
that uphold global economic governance embodied in the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and World Bank institutions.29
Many of China’s projects are challenging to U.S. foreign policy interests in
Africa: these include its extensive involvement in Africa’s economies through aid,
trade and investments, its deepening bilateral and multilateral political ties with
African states and its vigorous introduction of Chinese culture though Confucius
Institutes. While China may not be threatening to the U.S.’ military defensive power,
it is nonetheless using its enormous economic “soft” power of four trillion dollars
314 The Conspiracy against Africa

in reserves to reinforce its influence and become politically attractive on the African
continent. The competition between the US and China in Africa is predominantly
based on the use of diplomatic and economic instruments of foreign policy towards
Africa. China as the rising hegemon inspires the rivalry, while the United States tries
to contain it by giving a little more attention to the continent. With the transition to
economic competition from Cold War ideological rivalry, China’s economic power
has enabled it to project its influence in partnership with Africa via the Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), particularly with the BRICS nations of which
South Africa, an anchor state in Africa, is a member. China has put the United States
on the defensive and has created both the perception and the reality of daring U.S.
dominance in Africa. 30
2. Strategic Resource Rivalry
The contemporary dominant narrative explaining China’s heavy engagement in
Africa argues that it is there solely to extract Africa’s oil and other strategic minerals
found in resource-rich countries such as Angola, the Republic of Congo, Nigeria,
Algeria, and Zimbabwe. The fact is that the scope of China’s energy/oil commitment
in Africa is so expansive and so deep that it has aroused insecurity in the West,
on the part of the United States. China’s oil companies, many of which are state-
owned and state-financed, are involved in the exploitation and production of oil and
other strategic minerals and the construction of pipelines, ports, and infrastructure
to ease the extraction and transportation of oil. Since oil is considered a geostrategic
resource, in realist terms, China’s extensive oil investments in Africa are perceived as a
threat, especially by the United States. In 2005, China’s purposeful efforts to control
a larger share of access to African oil provoked an American national security debate;
No wonder, the then Director of the CIA, James Woolsey, considered the move a
“national security issue,” arguing that China’s goal and geo-strategy is to dominate
energy markets including those in Africa.31
In April 2006, President Bush and his Chinese counterpart President Hu Jintao
discussed this issue during the latter’s visit to the White House as this was considered
such a key security matter. The matter was also underscored in the U.S.’ 2006
National Security Strategy.32 Since that time, the U.S. has remained concerned about
China’s aggressive competition for Africa’s critical resources.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 315

Peter Eigen in his “Is China Good or Bad for Africa?” noted that in addition to
energy sources like oil and natural gas, Africa is home to critical and rare minerals
like vanadium, uranium, and titanium that are useful in space and nuclear industries,
a further source of rivalry between the U.S. and China. Strategic minerals ranging
from aluminium to zirconium are essential to China; as a manufacturing power it
needs these minerals to continue producing military jets and other high technology
and luxury products. China accordingly endeavours to cement its ties with countries
in Africa that are endowed with these strategic minerals.33
China has developed a “catch all” strategy to make sure it gets unrestricted
access to the minerals of each African country, as the acquisition of strategic minerals
and other resources is a priority in its foreign policy. To ensure access to these key
resources, it offers “gifts” or economic incentives in the form of stadiums, new roads,
and hospitals, etc., to generate appreciation in sealing economic deals.34
And, as Earl Conteh-Morgan has noted, the U.S. policy posture of upholding IMF
and World Bank stipulations based on economic austerity, a top-down relationship,
and other types of measures as conditions for aid transfer will continue to alienate
many African nations from the West and pull them toward China.35
If the Cold War ideological rivalry that prevailed between China and the U.S.
in the 1960s and 1970s may have ended in countries like Angola, Guinea, and
Zimbabwe, however, it has only been replaced by a geo-economic and strategic
mineral competition between the two great powers. In the area of energy/oil resources,
Nigeria, Sao Tome, and Principe are major oil suppliers to the U.S. The current
military presence of the U.S. on African soil and its engagement with the African
states aims to help lessen the level of violence and to ensure the uninterrupted flow
of oil and minerals of geostrategic value to the U.S.’ industrial development and
national security. The extensive presence of China in Africa, along with U.S. concerns
over this new strategic threat, has made the African continent –once considered non-
strategic– now central in the geostrategic rivalry of the two largest economic powers
in the world.36
In his “Billions from Beijing: African Divided over Chinese Presence”,
Bartholomew Grill, noted that China poses both an economic and a security problem
for the U.S. in Africa because its objective is not merely to extract oil and mineral
316 The Conspiracy against Africa

resources; rather, it views the continent as a source of markets and investments.

By 2012, trade volume between China and Africa had already increased 20-fold,
amounting to $200 billion, and outpacing that of any of Africa’s other major trading
powers including Britain, France, and the United States. In fact, as early as 2009,
China had surged ahead of every other developed nation to become Africa’s largest
trading partner, surpassing even the U.S., the EU, and other major trading blocs.
Currently, there are now well over 2,000 Chinese companies, and more than a million
Chinese citizens in sub-Saharan Africa.37
According to Earl Conteh-Morgan in his “The United States and China:
Strategic Rivalry in Africa” China’s expansive commitment with Africa has not only
geo-economic objectives but geopolitical ones as well. Whereas the geo-economic
objectives of China involve competing for Africa’s resources and even monopolizing
large sectors of them, its geopolitical goals reflect its aspiration to project its overall
political, economic, and cultural power in relation to other powers. China is using its
newfound wealth to modify its relationship with African states into a new strategic
partnership epitomized by the FOCAC. It maintains a robust economic agenda
based on aid, trade, and investment to secure its relations with African states, thereby
marginalizing or undermining Taiwan’s relations with them and even trying to
achieve hegemonic status on the continent. To strengthen its political and economic
partnership with African nations, China deliberately reaches out to African states at
the United Nations and other multilateral venues to align its diplomatic positions
with theirs. To endear itself to African states, it makes sure it imposes few –or no–
conditions on them in exchange for the foreign aid it donates. This policy means,
among other things, that China ignores misrule, corruption and even gross violations
of human rights, the cases of Sudan and Zimbabwe being the most glaring examples.
China’s influence among the power elite of Africa will increase as it continues its
laissez faire attitude and its seeming generosity toward them. This strategy by China
is bound to produce growing security concerns on the part of the United States.
The U.S. policy posture of upholding IMF and World Bank stipulations based on
economic austerity, a top-down relationship, and other types of measures as conditions
for aid transfer will continue to alienate many African nations from the West and
pull them toward China.38
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 317

3. China’s Geo-strategy in Africa: Dilute U.S. Hegemony

China uses diplomatic, institutional, and financial strategies to incapacitate or dilute
U.S. hegemony, balance against the greater U.S. power and influence, and achieve a
more equal or even superior level of influence with African nations. Using its diplomatic
style and aggressive economic power projection, China is challenging American goals
and values, promoting its own political and economic interests, strengthening its
African regional security goals, and enhancing its national development aims.39
By pursuing its national interest in the areas of soft power, China does not appear
to be openly challenging U.S. regional objectives, but rather merely conducting its
traditional foreign policy by using its newly acquired economic and diplomatic power.
Put differently, the on-going U.S.-China rivalry in Africa is one based on socio-
economic and cultural competition in which the instruments utilized are aggressive
diplomacy such as FOCAC for China, and Africa Command (AFRICOM) for the
United States. China is intensifying its interactions with Africa through expansive
investment activities, Confucius Institutes, and the consolidation of bilateral and
multilateral relations through political and financial institutions and summits. It is a
rivalry based more on “soft power” than on traditional military and ideological great
power rivalry.40
The scope and intensity of China’s economic and cultural power projection could
be interpreted to de-concentrate U.S. power in Africa and weaken what China views
as unipolar power dominance in Africa that favours the United States in particular,
and the West in general. Indeed, the goal of creating a more multipolar world is one
of China’s foreign policy goals. For instance, in 2001, as Vice President of China,
Hu Jintao declared that “Multi-polarity composes an important base for achieving a
durable peace on the planet. Such multi-polarity is conducive to building a new just,
and reasonable economic-political order, setting up a relatively stable international
political framework, and promoting exchanges and cooperation.”41.
First, China is convinced that a highly effective way to undermine U.S. power
preponderance is to employ its enormous and growing economic strength and forge
cooperative strategic partnerships with the nation-states of Africa.
Second, China prioritizes developing significant partnerships with the more
strategic states in Africa such as South Africa and other members of the BRICS
318 The Conspiracy against Africa

nations which are considered emerging great powers. In addition to South Africa,
China has a significant presence in anchor states such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia,
and Egypt. China’s continuous wooing of both significant and non-strategic African
states could be interpreted as a deliberate strategy by China to ensure U.S. power/
influence dilution and offer an alternative great-power ally to weaker nations instead
of abandoning them to total dependence on the United States. African states such as
Sudan and Zimbabwe, which have been the target of Western sanctions, have often
turned to China as an alternative and an escape from dependence on the U.S. or the
West in general.42 Indeed, during the recent Communist Party Congress, President
Xi said that China’s socialist economy serves as an alternative to other systems.43
Third, China’s focus on creating a more symmetric/multipolar international
system is seen in its establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIIB) as an alternative or competitor to the U.S. dominated World Bank. While the
BRICS Development Bank is also a part of this strategy, the AIIB reflects the financial
power of China, and is an instrument in promoting multi-polarity, reawakening the
“Bandung Spirit” aimed at uniting Asian, African, and other Third World regions.
The Spirit of Bandung underscores the respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity,
and equality of all races as originally articulated during the Bandung Conference of
1954-1955.44
China, it could be argued, is using Africa to pursue its re-concentration of U.S.
power and influence and create a more symmetrical power relationship among great
powers and African states. China’s efforts at weakening U.S. power have taken the
form of establishing strategic partnerships with states and forging close cooperation
with them in economic, political, cultural, educational, and security areas, among
other things. Through such partnerships, China hopes to achieve power and influence
parity with the U.S. in Africa. These strategic partnerships are helpful to China
because it can count on friends in Africa should it someday have to confront global
sanctions directed against it by the West or the UN. In the worst-case scenario, it
would also have support from African friends should it someday be caught up in a
militarized dispute with the U.S. Second, China openly states that it is more focused
on business than on military alliances and says that it does not mix business with
politics. This means that its rivalry with the U.S. in Africa avoids direct confrontation
of a military nature because in this era of economic competition, markets and the
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 319

emphasis on soft power, aid, trade, and investments are considered a legal, positive,
and very acceptable form of competitive behaviour. Moreover, China in terms of
high diplomacy, outmanoeuvres the U.S. in Africa because of the more frequent and
regular visits by its heads of states compared to those of U.S. Presidents. Chinese
Heads of State have been accustomed to visiting Africa on a regular basis since the
1960s. Said differently, China’s geostrategic power projection is found and played out
at the highest levels of bilateral and multilateral relations. Furthermore, Chinese geo-
strategy against the U.S. in Africa involves using FOCAC to effectively communicate
or announce enormous resource transfers to African states. Resource commitments
and disbursements are made a part of summits along with the leitmotif of a win-win
relationship between China and African states. While the process is real, it is also a
form of propaganda about China’s increasing diplomatic, economic, and cultural
power and its ability to satisfy the demands of African states within a framework of
what it describes as mutually beneficial relations.
While the BRICS Development Bank is also a part of this strategy, the AIIB
reflects the financial power of China, and is an instrument in promoting multi-
polarity, reawakening the “Bandung Spirit” aimed at uniting Asian, African, and
other Third World regions.
4. The U.S. Response to China’s Presence in Africa
The institutional response of the United States to China’s multipronged strategy in
Africa is AFRICOM which, although it is a military command, is also multipronged or
multi-functional and includes a focus on development, health, education, democracy,
and economic growth. The U.S. reaction to China’s aggressive and expansive geo-
strategy in Africa especially during the George W. Bush and Obama Administrations,
could generally be described as concerns for the maintenance of international
regimes governing the neoliberal international order and the promotion of U.S. and
Western values. These U.S. concerns revolve around: (i) upholding and promoting
democratic change and respect for human rights in Africa; (ii) ensuring continued
support for international regimes in issue areas such as aid and debt cancellation; and
(iii) concerns over China monopolizing Africa’s strategic minerals and destroying the
continent’s environmental sustainability, among other things.45
320 The Conspiracy against Africa

In its rivalry against China in Africa, the U.S. has utilized a narrative that
has progressed from neutral or even positive to negative. For instance, in 2005
the narrative regarding China’s engagement in Africa was more neutral and even
positive as reflected in words by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she
stated that “America has reason to welcome the rise of a confident, peaceful, and
prosperous China. We want China as a global partner, able and willing to match its
growing capabilities to its international responsibilities.46 By the time of the Obama
Administration the neutral/positive narrative had transitioned to a negative one as
evidenced in comments by then Assistant Secretary of State Jonny Carson’s words
in February 2010: “China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor
with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons. China is in Africa for
China primarily.”47. Similarly, during the Obama Administration there were more
negative comments about China in Africa such as China being equated to a colonial
power whose sole aim is to take away resources from Africa. Because of its policy
of non-interference, China is accused of aiding and abetting authoritarian regimes
and African dictators who thrive on corruption and blatant violations of the rule of
law. The consequence is that China is undermining and reversing all the progress
that has been made by the U.S. in the areas of good governance, transparency, and
promotion of neoliberal values based on free, fair, and regular elections. The benefit
for China is that through its non-interference policy it can gain access to resources
and markets and strengthen its diplomatic ties with African states. Besides, because
of its policy of non-interference in Africa and singular focus on economic interests,
China expresses no concern for systemic corruption and environmental degradation
related to its investments in the continent. These narratives are indicators of insecurity
on the part of the U.S. because of China’s engagement in a geographic location
(Africa) largely perceived as the “domain” of the West. China has adopted exactly
the opposite policy posture towards Africa (non-interference in the internal affairs
of other nations) of what it perceives as U.S. behaviour in the international system
reflected in the Washington Consensus and manifested in calls for good governance,
respect for universal human rights, and other political and economic conditions,
which for China are a form of interference. 48
The narrative about China being in Africa solely to acquire strategic minerals
can especially be extremely negative. There is a great deal of that narrative from both
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 321

public officials and private citizens in the West, as well in Africa. China is viewed
either explicitly or implicitly as threatening to Western hegemony in Africa, and
to American goals on the continent. An example of such a narrative is that of U.S.
Congressman Donald Payne, a member of the House Sub-Committee on Africa,
Global Human Rights and International Operations, which expresses concern about
a U.S.-China rivalry on the continent in this way: “Engagement of China and the
U.S. has begun to resemble a competition for resources and influence that has the
potential to result in an ugly dynamic akin to that created by the Soviet Union and
the U.S. during the Cold War.”49
Since the late 1990s, China has enhanced the geostrategic importance of Africa
by according the continent both geo-economic and geopolitical significance.
With the establishment of AFRICOM by the U.S. in 2007, it could be argued
that the U.S. launched its containment of China policy on the continent. It is doing
so through enhanced diplomatic, military, economic, and other forms of engagement,
all as part of a strategy of “offshore balancing.” This strategy involves an ever-increasing
American presence within the region to counterbalance the rapid growth of China’s
multipronged Africa engagement, which is becoming increasingly worrisome to the
West. AFRICOM has two major objectives: to prevent the proliferation of terrorist
groups in Africa through cooperation with local governments, and to compete with
China’s growing diplomatic, political, economic, and cultural presence in Africa.50
The idea of U.S. offshore balancing in Africa is to maintain and enhance U.S.
power and presence in the region in the most effective way without appearing
belligerent or threatening, either to China or to any of the other major powers
operating in the region. Accordingly, former President George W. Bush said in 2007
that: “The new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and
help to create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa.
Africa Command will enhance our efforts to help bring peace and security to the
people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education,
democracy, and economic growth in Africa.”51 Through AFRICOM, the U.S. has
adopted a new set of policies regarding U.S.-Africa political, economic, and military
relations, especially as they relate to U.S. national interests.
322 The Conspiracy against Africa

A second strategy of the U.S., aimed especially at counterbalancing China’s

development program of “modernization without democratization,” is that of
continuing to promote the Clinton Doctrine of enlarging market democracies in
the region. Through AFRICOM, the U.S. encourages African nations to continue
pursuing the democratic path that was launched during the early 1990s with the end
of the Cold War. The U.S. has an advantage in this area, given the African Union’s
intolerance for coups and illegal regime change. In West Africa in particular, Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued a warning against illegal
overthrow of incumbent regimes.52 The U.S. also has a great deal of advantage over
China because of Africa’s mostly British and French colonial heritage, and one could
argue, the continuing neo-colonial presence and influence of Western Europe and its
tradition of democratic capitalism, which serves as a powerful example for African
nations as former colonies. The efforts of AFRICOM are strongly buttressed by the
role of Britain and France in political and cultural ties. The political, economic,
and cultural/linguistic ties to the West are still very strong and solidly based on
educational, political-economic, and even emotional/psychological affinities. Africa’s
very strong colonial and neo-colonial western heritage affords the U.S. and the West
in general a strong advantage over China whose psychological hold on the minds of
Africans is still very new, tenuous, and evolving slowly. Besides, African nations are
to a very large extent led by western-educated power elite, fluent in English, French,
or Portuguese with strong communication, educational, and religious ties to the
West that are far stronger and deeper compared to those with China. In fact, the
ambition of most Africans is to be educated or trained in the West. The reason is either
because of the stronger emotional ties, or simply because of the scope, intensity, and
even duration and frequency of cross-cultural interactions. For Africans, the West
is often held in higher esteem among Africans than any other region of the world.
Despite this, the scope, intensity, and frequency of political, economic, and cultural
transactions with which China is engaging/interacting with Africa is becoming a
source of concern for the West, especially the United States, which sees itself as the
hegemonic power in the international system.
Both the United States and China have put in operation multipronged strategies
that aim to enhance and promote their power and influence among the nation-states
of Africa. During the Cold War, Africa was not considered as geopolitically important
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 323

as other regions (Europe, Asia, the Middle East, etc.), but during the formation of
AFRICOM, U.S. rhetoric about Africa elevated it from a non-geostrategic region
to one that is both strategic and central to U.S. national security.53Just as China
regards its relationship with African states as a new partnership, AFRICOM as the
strategic arm of the U.S. in Africa is considered a partnership with African states by
the United States Department of Defence. As a partnership, one of AFRICOM’s
objectives is not to dominate leadership in Africa but rather to be a source of support
for the local leadership and democratic endeavours that currently exist within the
continent. Like China’s reliance on high level diplomacy to cement its partnership
with African nations, the U.S. via AFRICOM also relies on high level diplomatic
missions to African nations to explain AFRICOM’s role, functions, and rationale.
The new unified command, it is hoped, will be seen by Africans as an effort by the
U.S. to create a relationship of equality, mutual respect, or as the Chinese would say,
a “win-win” partnership.
Since the late 1990s, China has enhanced the geostrategic importance of Africa
by according the continent both geo-economic and geopolitical significance. The
geo-economic importance of Africa is reflected in the enormous levels of aid, trade,
and investment by China, and its geopolitical importance is reflected in the increased
political ties between specific African nations and China, which even involve inter-
political party cooperation, and in particular the formation of FOCAC in 2000. In
a similar fashion, and to rival China’s attention to Africa, the U.S. has also accorded
geo-economic and geopolitical significance to Africa by establishing AFRICOM. In
fact, the U.S. has been trying to match China’s attention towards Africa starting with
the Clinton Administration and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA),
the Bush Administration and the Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, and the more
recent Obama U.S.-Africa summit, and the Power Africa whose goal is to provide
electricity to 600 million Africans on the continent.54 The latter’s establishment is
a result of several developments in the post-Cold War environment, as well as the
expansion of China into Africa as a result of economic imperatives of globalization
within China. However, in addition to China’s primary preoccupation with access
to mineral resources, U.S. geopolitical and geo-economic interests in Africa have
expanded to include containing terrorism, securing access to mineral resources,
combating violent conflicts and responding to humanitarian crises, helping to combat
324 The Conspiracy against Africa

pandemics like HIV/AIDS and Ebola, preventing the spread of illegal drugs from
Africa to the West, and countering the very positive image that China is creating in
Africa –that of a China that genuinely cares about Africa and is therefore locked in
a relationship of “win-win,” mutual respect and equality with African nations. The
U.S. through AFRICOM looks to make up for its past record of having marginalized
the continent as being of little geopolitical and strategic importance or as simply a
supplier of raw materials and even a physical obstacle or barrier to travel and access
to the more geostrategic regions of the Middle East and Asia.
Despite American efforts to contain China in Africa, however, the evidence of
China’s massive engagement with Africa is nonetheless often impressive and based
on China’s political and economic will to cement its ties with African states. By
2014, over 50 per cent of China’s foreign aid was being disbursed to Africa, with an
emphasis that there were no strings attached. The vast amounts of foreign aid and
investment activities by China may be seen in the construction of infrastructure
projects such as roads, railways, schools, and hospitals, as well as the reopening of
mines which employ some Africans. China is also steadily engaged in pockets of
conspicuous industrialization –at no cost to Africa– such as the construction of the
20-story African Union building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was a gift to the African
Union of a very modern $200 million dollar building.
According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, in 2015 China signed new contracts
for infrastructure programs with Africa worth over five billion dollars. In 2016, the
China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) reported additional contracts
worth over five billion within Africa. In April 2016, China began constructing its
first ever overseas military base on the coast of Djibouti, approximately nine miles
away from the U.S.’s AFRICOM, the largest American military base in Africa, raising
questions about the possibility of a more open strategic military challenge to the
United States in Africa.
In conclusion, the U.S.-China rivalry is likely to intensify in the future because
of statements by incumbent Chinese President Xi Jinping during his more than
three-hour speech during the recent October 16, 2017, Chinese Communist Party
Congress. President Xi Jinping underscored the fact that China has entered a “new
era,’ and said that it was “Time for China to take centre stage” in the world. He also
emphasized that China’s socialist model of development offers “a new choice for
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 325

other countries” because it would fast-track their development without sacrificing

their sovereignty to any nation with interventionist inclinations. He pointed to
China’s economy which he said was flourishing.55 These show confidence in China’s
worldview and socialist political economy, in contrast to the worldview of the West
which is based on democratic governance but plagued with sluggish economies.
Such statements are likely to make the U.S. more insecure because China is already
considered the rising hegemon in the international system, one that is deliberately
projecting its power in many regions, especially in Africa. The two countries have
fundamentally different ideologies and are therefore more likely to clash in the
future, especially if China continues to rise and threaten U.S. hegemonic power.56
Under President Xi Jinping, the U.S. and China are ideologically further drifting
apart. For President Xi democracy is seen as inimical to China’s stability and growth.
Accordingly, the idea of a free press, independent judiciary, a powerful and diverse
civil society, and criticism of the socialist system, among other things, are illegal in
China.57
A tactical geo-economic and geopolitical rivalry is actively taking place in Africa
between the U.S. and China as the latter is perceived as rapidly gaining influence
within the continent and is determined to dilute U.S. power preponderance.
China is helping to intensify the rivalry through its policy of multi-polarity
manifested in a deliberate effort to diminish U.S. power preponderance by re-
launching the Bandung Spirit, establishing the BRICS bank, and the AIIB. All these
efforts on the part of China are motivated by China’s dislike of a world characterized
by an overwhelmingly powerful nation that is prone to intervene and interfere in the
affairs of other nations. In sum, a tactical geo-economic and geopolitical rivalry is
actively taking place in Africa between the U.S. and China as the latter is perceived as
rapidly gaining influence within the continent and is determined to dilute U.S. power
preponderance. The consequence is that the rivalry has developed into a geostrategic
imperative on the part of both powers. 58

C. Militarization and Securitization in Africa:

The Role of Sino-American Geostrategic Presence
This section is predicated on the argument that the African continent has become a
focus of geopolitical and economic attention, especially as a locus of Sino-American
326 The Conspiracy against Africa

rivalry and to some extent cooperation. So, Sino-American presence in Africa has
resulted in59:
1. the militarization and securitization of Africa impelled by the war on terrorism
and the need to protect vested political and economic interests.
2. the continent becoming a theatre for the interplay of differences between
American and Chinese militarization and securitization; and
3. the inevitable and rare cases of military and security cooperation between the
two powers on the continent. The article probes how and why the two powers
have militarized and securitized the continent, the activities that constitute
militarization and securitization, and prospects for further militarization and
securitization in the context of both rivalry and minimal cooperation.
1. The U.S. Role in the Militarization and Securitization of Africa
A primary factor underlying the militarization and securitization of Africa by the
world’s two economic superpowers is China’s phenomenal rise and its profound
engagement with African states. The obvious economic Chinese presence on the
continent has provoked great power anxiety on the part of the U.S. and is perceived
as a challenge to the latter’s hegemony on the continent. As great powers, both the
U.S. and China are exercising their ability to champion free trade and to guarantee
the physical military security of the African states as hosts to their foreign direct
investments, sources of raw materials, and even markets for their manufactured goods.
China’s massive economic power projection in Africa has resulted in a diminished
geopolitical and economic gap on the continent between itself and the U.S. in terms
of influence. China has thereby provoked security anxiety or spatial insecurity on
the part of the U.S. where Africa is concerned. It could, therefore, be argued that the
U.S.’ efforts to militarize and securitize Africa was spawned by China’s extensive and
deepening presence in Africa. The first response of the U.S. was partly manifested in
a U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) to ensure a competitive presence instead of a
total takeover by China.60
The militarization and securitization of Africa by the U.S. has had the effect of
an American military overstretch caused by persistent and growing terrorist attacks
in the east, west, and Sahel regions of Africa.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 327

The U.S. military presence in Africa is increasing at a rapid rate, even though
the U.S. is not engaged in war there, as it was in Afghanistan and Iraq during the
2000s. This growth in U.S. troops on the continent is largely the result of the war
on terror. Violent ISIS affiliates active in the Sahel region, such as Boko Haram,
al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda, as well as other extremist groups, are now threatening
other regions of the continent and challenging U.S. security interests. According
to AFRICOM, in 2017 the U.S. maintained approximately 6,000 troops on active
duty on the continent. When contractors are included in this number, the total
number of American troops deployed numbered about 75,000 troops. According to
General Thomas Wald Hauser, head of U.S. AFRICOM, there are currently about
1,800 troops engaged in joint combat missions across 13 nations on the continent.61
Most of the troops, over 4,000 military personnel are focused on containing the
terrorist group al-Shabaab. The mission in the east African region includes American
soldiers on the ground and an increased number of air strikes.62 The eastern African
region mission is specifically focused on Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia. In the west
of the continent, the focus is on Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Mali, which comprise a
substantial portion of the Sahel region.
In a way, the militarization and securitization of Africa by the U.S. has had the
effect of an American military overstretch caused by persistent and growing terrorist
attacks in the east, west, and Sahel regions of Africa. This means that American troops
are thinly spread across several countries on a vast continent. U.S. militarization
is heavily concentrated in the countries of most security concern such as Somalia,
Niger, and Djibouti, the home of AFRICOM. Djibouti, Somalia, and Niger contain
the bulk of the roughly 6,000 American servicemen and women spread across the
continent.
To a considerable extent, al-Shabaab poses the greatest security threat to the
U.S. in Africa. Allied with ISIS, the group coordinates terrorist attacks directed at
neighbouring states. As a result, dozens of U.S. strikes are carried out by land, sea,
and air against the group operating within Somalia. According to Robyn Mack, a
civilian spokesperson for AFRICOM, these military operations are possible because:
“We maintain 14 enduring locations: two Forward Sites and 12 Cooperative Security
Locations on the African continent, which give the U.S. options in the event of
crisis, and enable partner capacity building.”63 Additionally, the command has
328 The Conspiracy against Africa

designated 20 contingency locations as part of the Theatre Posture Plan, which, since
2017 has focused on access to support partners, counter threats, and protect the
U.S. interests in east, north, and west Africa.64 Although the U.S. military missions
are largely to advise, assist, and train African militaries in their efforts to contain
Islamist extremists, nonetheless they are always ready for the eventuality of combat
in high-threat locations. The U.S. established AFRICOM in 2007 to ensure the
cooperation of African states in its war on terrorism and to increase the capabilities
of African countries to be able to solve the new and evolving security problem of
Islamic terrorism which had erupted in 1998 in Kenya and Tanzania, and which has
now become more widespread in all the regions of Africa.
The U.S. military presence in Africa is heavily concentrated in Djibouti’s Camp
Lemonier, the permanent U.S. military base. While thinly spread across several
countries, the U.S. has a military presence in every African country. According to
the U.S. Secretary of Defence, James Mattis, the U.S. military presence in Africa
is to help Western allies like France build the military and security capacities of
African states threatened by and vulnerable to terrorist attacks.65 Cooperating with
its Western allies and African nations, the U.S. engages in the defence training of
African states such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Nigeria, Central African
Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Except for Djibouti and Uganda, all the other African nations have between
10 and 80 American troops.66 Djibouti is the location for AFRICOM and a major
base with roughly 4,000 troops, several aircrafts, and numerous drones. Uganda,
which has about 300 American troops, is backed by PC-12 surveillance aircraft to
search for rebels, especially the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group of Joseph
Kony. There are also as many as 300 American troops in Cameroon. The functions
of these troops are varied and include the search for rebel armies, terrorist groups,
and the search for Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram. They fly drones
over east Africa, provide support for French and African troops in the Sahel, actively
engage in intelligence collection, provide advice and training, and protect American
citizens and property, among other things.
China has been taking advantage of Africa’s new and vibrant markets by
“dumping” many of its goods which African consumers find more affordable than
goods from the West.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 329

Ultimately, however, as Grant T. Harris notes, Africa is of security significance

to the U.S. for economic reasons.6714 Unlike the 1980s when Africa was considered
almost “hopeless” in terms of economic growth, today Africa has a rapidly growing
middle class, and several of its nations enjoy a healthy annual growth rate. The extensive
and deepening presence of China in Africa further increases the significance of the
continent. China is outpacing the U.S. in terms of seizing economic opportunities in
Africa. By June 2017, it was estimated that there were more than 10,000 Chinese firms
operating in Africa.6815 The U.S. is aware of Africa’s growing economic importance.
The continent is home to a rapidly growing and enterprising middle class, with
some countries showing very encouraging growth in GDPs. The U.S. is also aware
that China is surpassing it in taking advantage of the best economic opportunities,
resulting in Chinese companies being over-represented on the continent. By 2017,
China’s enterprises in Africa were generating roughly $180 billion a year in revenue
according to the report by McKinsey and Company Partner.69 The continent has
become not just a source of energy and other strategic resources, but a huge market
for China’s affordable goods. The December 2017 National Security Strategy of the
United States underscored Africa’s growing importance when it stated that: “Africa
remains a continent of promise and enduring challenges. Africa maintains many of
the world’s fastest growing economies, which represent potential new markets for
U.S. goods and services. Aspiring partners across the continent are eager to build
market-based economies and enhance stability.”70 China has been taking advantage
of Africa’s new and vibrant markets by “dumping” many of its goods which African
consumers find more affordable than goods from the West.
While combating terrorism to promote the neo-liberal world order, the U.S. is
also concerned about China’s role in Africa, which is seen as undermining Africa’s
march towards a world order favourable to the United States
Second, and related to its economic significance, Africa is of national security
importance to China and the U.S. because of its strategic minerals. Africa is home to
minerals critical to space and nuclear industries; minerals like vanadium, uranium,
or titanium are critical and rare. Africa also possesses minerals that are essential to
manufacturing and range from aluminium to zirconium. Since 2005, China has
been focused on a very expansive and determined effort to invest heavily in Africa’s
strategic minerals sector –so much so that the effort was seen as threatening to U.S.
330 The Conspiracy against Africa

national security. This was why in 2005, China’s aggressive push to acquire access to
strategic minerals provoked an American national security concern; China was seen
as seeking to dominate access to Africa’s strategic minerals, possibly with the aim of
denying other nations access to these resources. It is not surprising that in the 2006
Report to Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
emphasized the following: “China’s strategy of securing ownership and control of
oil and natural gas assets abroad could substantially affect U.S. energy security –
reducing the ability of the global petroleum market to ameliorate temporary and
limited petroleum supply disruptions in the United States and elsewhere.”71 China’s
investments in Africa’s oil and other strategic minerals were so extensive that then
President George W. Bush considered it a matter vital enough to discuss with then
Chinese President Hu Jintao during his April 2006 visit to the White House, while
the CIA Director at the time, James Woolsey, described China’s strategic resource
policy in Africa as a matter of national security.
The most important reason for the U.S. militarization and securitization of
Africa is to create and maintain a world order favourable to U.S. national interest
and predicated on a neo-liberal world order. This theme of a world order favourable
to the U.S. is inherent in or implied in virtually all the security strategies of the U.S.
over the years. Accordingly, the U.S. combats terrorism in Africa, helps enhance the
military security of African states, and even tolerates authoritarian incumbent regimes,
because, according to the U.S. National Security Strategy of December 2017: “Many
African states are battlegrounds for violent extremism and jihadist terrorists. ISIS,
al-Qaeda and their affiliates operate on the continent and have increased the lethality
of their attacks, expanded into new areas, and targeted U.S. citizens and interests.”72.
The U.S. may not be investing economically in Africa as extensively as China,
but it makes sure it has a presence in all African states in the economic, military, and
political realms. The presence of AFRICOM, the trade relationship of the African
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, the
Power Africa Initiative, and the U.S.-Africa Youth Program, among others, are all
initiatives and cooperative efforts aimed at further incorporating Africa into the
neo-liberal world order with the aim of strengthening peace, enhancing security,
and forging multilateral ties to combat militancy and terrorism. While combating
terrorism to promote the neo-liberal world order, the U.S. is also concerned about
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 331

China’s role in Africa, which is seen as undermining Africa’s march towards a world
order favourable to the United States. This concern is articulated in the U.S. National
Security Strategy of 2017 in this way: “China is expanding its economic and military
presence in Africa, growing from a small investor in the continent two decades ago
into Africa’s largest trading partner today. Some Chinese practices undermine Africa’s
long-term development by corrupting elites, dominating extractive industries, and
locking countries into unsustainable and opaque debts and commitments.”73.
2. China’s Role in the Militarization and Securitization of Africa
Since the mid-2000s, there has been a slow but steady trend towards the militarization
and securitization of Africa by China. For well over two decades, China emphasized
its non-interference policy, its rhetoric of not mixing business with politics. Until the
early 2010s, China focused on playing the role of a responsible rising power in Africa
through its focus on multinational peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in several
countries on the continent. In post-war countries like Liberia, it dispatched post-war
reconstruction experts such as military engineers, medical staff, and police training
officials. China has been involved in peacekeeping missions in several countries on
the continent. However, China seems to have embarked on a more deliberate and
focused strategy of militarizing and securitizing Africa along the lines of a forum
on China-Africa military and security cooperation. Accordingly, on June 26, 2018,
top military officials from 50 African states met in Beijing to launch the first China-
Africa Defence and Security Forum.74 This forum is significant because it shows
China’s determination to militarize Africa and elevate it into a top security foreign
policy entity. The reality of China’s first overseas naval base in Djibouti is already
common knowledge, while the launching of this recent defence and security forum
aims to deepen military and security ties with the continent. In the recent past,
China’s involvement in Africa was solely economic and socio-cultural; now, the Sino-
African relationship is tilting toward military and security cooperation. To sum up,
China’s military and security goals in Africa have progressed from United Nations
Peacekeeping missions to its first overseas military base ever, and located in Africa
(Djibouti in 2017), and in 2018 the establishment of a defence and security forum
by China’s Ministry of National Defence.
332 The Conspiracy against Africa

The expansion of China-Africa military defence and security activities in Africa

means that China’s engagement in Africa has become even more multidimensional,
and is now comprised of economic, political, cultural, educational, and military
security and defence activities.
While the U.S. seems to be more involved than China in military and counter-
terrorism activities in Africa, according to Lina Benabdallah, China seems to be in
the process of trying to extend its activities in the defence and military security area
underlined by its win-win, or mutual benefit philosophy.75 In addition to conducting
joint military exercises and military training for all military officials, China’s goal
through the forum is to create far stronger military security ties between the People’s
Liberation Army, Navy, and Air Force, and African military officers. This decision
to increase military and security ties is a realization of President Xi Jinping’s promise
in 2015 to help Africa establish an “African Standby Force” that would translate
into an “African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis.” During the Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC 2015), President Xi Jinping promised $100
million in free military aid to the African Union to be used towards this effort.76
China’s decision to enhance the military and security defence of Africa also entails
the holding of military workshops involving tens of thousands of top Chinese and
African military officials in China. The current expansion of China-Africa military
defence and security activities in Africa means that China’s engagement in Africa has
become even more multidimensional, and is now comprised of economic, political,
cultural, educational, and military security and defence activities.
In terms of military security and defence, China is already known for its
involvement in arms sales, anti-piracy training, and the deployment of troops for
counterterrorism. China’s militarization of Africa is particularly visible in arms sales
to incumbent regimes in African states. While China is not the only country selling
arms to Africa, it nonetheless contributes significantly to militarization, especially
through the transfer of small arms and light weapons to conflict zones and dictatorial
regimes in Africa. Its extensive and comprehensive infrastructural activities in the
areas of health, agriculture, media development, railway, and road systems, among
others, also includes the business of arms sales to incumbent regimes, and at times
to both rebel groups and governments. Because arms transfer by China to Africa
largely consist of Small Arms Light Weapons (SALW), which are inexpensive and
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 333

easy to use, they have been implicated in ethno-political violence and government-
rebel conflicts in countries such as Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic, among others. China’s
militarization of the continent via arms transfer is now a reality because of its strategy
of making its weapons: (i) affordable/inexpensive; (ii) available for all because of its
arms transfer or military relationship with both strategic and non-strategic African
countries such as Egypt, South Africa, and Zimbabwe on the one hand, and Eritrea,
Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, or Sierra Leone on the other; and (iii) aggressive and
effective marketing of both its sophisticated and SALWs in frequent and regular
arms exhibits throughout the continent. In other words, China is ever present at
arms trade shows in Africa and by 2012 was selling weapons to well over 15 African
countries, more than any other major arms exporter.77
China’s militarization and securitization of Africa is part of its strategy of
promoting multi-polarity and/or power dilution directed at the U.S. Accordingly,
China securitizes U.S. presence to weaken what China views as a U.S. advantage
related to its power preponderance in Africa and other regions of the world. Multi-
polarity is a key foreign policy strategy of China, which it pursues in Africa through:
(i) extensive and deep economic power projection; (ii) the forging of close economic
ties with all African states that adopt the “One China” policy, especially the significant
geopolitical and economic states; and (iii) encouraging broad cooperation between
Asian and African states, and reviving the Bandung Spirit, and in the case of Africa in
particular making FOCAC an integral arm of China’s foreign policy and diplomatic
strategy aimed at outdoing the U.S. presence on the continent.78 Pursuing the three
broad objectives outlined above has taken the form of joint economic ventures with
African states, political party cooperation, establishing Confucius Centres, aiding
Africa’s education goals, and more recently deeper cooperation with Africa in matters
of military defence and security, among many other development-related activities.
China views Africa as a region of high priority to its international relations and that
is why it engages in high level diplomacy by embarking on more frequent and regular
visits by its heads of states compared to the U.S. In fact, China has now made it a
diplomatic tradition for its foreign minister to pay the first international visit of each
year to an African state.79 Indeed, Chinese heads of state have been accustomed to
334 The Conspiracy against Africa

visiting Africa on a regular basis since the 1960s. The continent is given diplomatic,
economic, political, and even military attention above other regions.
China has been particularly forced to flex its military muscle in Africa by the
Somali pirates. This has helped to undermine its non-interference policy since the
mid-2000s when China started combatting piracy in waters near Somalia. Following
the repeated hijacking of Chinese vessels by Somali pirates, China deployed three
warships to the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa and has since made it a part of
its military strategy in the region to protect its merchant vessels from pirates. These
anti-piracy activities have helped to reduce hijackings since 2012. The decrease in the
frequency of piracy incidents is due to the visible presence of the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). This is in line with China’s establishment of its first
overseas naval facility in Djibouti with the objective of using it as a logistical forward
base to supply the anti-piracy operations of PLAN. In April 2017, PLAN was able to
adequately respond to a distress call from a ship in the Gulf of Aden that had been
attacked by pirates.80
While many perceive the U.S. and China as rivals in Africa, they complement
each other’s efforts or cooperate to contain transnational threats.
Since the early 1960s, China has considered Africa to be of geostrategic
importance to its rivalry with the two superpowers of that era, the U.S., and the Soviet
Union. Now with its extensive and deep geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural
engagement with the continent, it is impelled to defend and protect: (i) the physical
security of its investments and nationals who now number roughly a million; (ii)
defend itself from politically motivated attacks because of the reality or perception
by rebels and terrorists that it is supporting incumbent despotic regimes; and (iii)
violent protests against China by African workers related to labour disputes and/or
commercial insecurity caused by the large inflow of Chinese goods which undercut
the profits of African business owners. In addressing all these security threats, China
cooperates, when necessary, with either the African Union or the United Nations, or
adopts a defensive, unilateral approach.
3. Sino-American Military and Security Cooperation in Africa
While the U.S. and China may be perceived as rivals for access to energy sources and
political influence, they at the same time cooperate to resolve each other’s security
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 335

concerns through their military presence and engagement with African states. This
cooperation helps contain terrorist violence and make possible the uninterrupted
flow of both oil and other strategic resources of value to both. Countries like Nigeria,
São Tomé and Principe, Angola, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South
Africa, and the like, are of geo-economic significance to both countries. Their
extensive presence in the continent and security concerns over the uninterrupted
flow of strategic resources has increased the militarization and securitization of the
continent.
Moreover, while many perceive the U.S. and China as rivals in Africa, they
complement each other’s efforts or cooperate to contain transnational threats. The
continent has now become plagued by the terrorist affiliates of ISIS and al-Qaeda,
and by rebel violence in some countries that are rich in minerals like South Sudan,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria. The Sino-American on-going
militarization of the continent and support for incumbent regimes helps ensure
some stability. There is, of course, the possibility that their presence could provoke
violence against incumbent regimes. China has been at the forefront of combating
piracy to ensure the free flow of resources and vessels through the Gulf of Aden
and the Horn of Africa. The motivation for the U.S.-China security cooperation in
Africa is the fact that both countries have extensive economic interests in the country
that require efforts to promote peace and security in specific African countries and
on the continent. Both nations are threatened in Africa by terrorism and rebellions
against incumbent regimes, by piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa,
and by other criminal threats which also impact the economic, and overall national
interests of both countries. Accordingly, the need to protect their vested interests in
the continent leads the U.S. and China to bilateral cooperation in the areas of peace
and security, through UN peacekeeping and anti-piracy efforts.81
While a U.S.-China rivalry is alluded to in rhetoric between the two nations
regarding their presence in Africa, nonetheless both are also involved in multilateral
collaboration on the continent in the areas of peacekeeping. While the U.S. does
not contribute troops to UN multilateral peacekeeping in Africa, it is nonetheless
the largest contributor (28 per cent) of the UN peacekeeping annual budget
of roughly $8.2 billion.82 China, on the other hand, contributes more troops to
peacekeeping than all the other permanent members of the UN. Moreover, China
336 The Conspiracy against Africa

has graduated from merely contributing UN peacekeepers to sending combat troops

to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)
and deploying combat troops to the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan
(UNMISS). China’s President Xi Jinping has often expressed China’s willingness to
increase its involvement in peacekeeping activities in Africa and even to spearhead the
new UN peacekeeping capability readiness system; it has therefore recently established
a permanent peacekeeping police squad –a peacekeeping readiness force of about
8,000 troops.83 As part of their bilateral cooperation on Africa, the two countries
operate within the U.S.-China consultation on African affairs which takes place
between the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By
2016, they had conducted seven of such cooperative talks, which are usually jointly
chaired by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs and the Chinese
Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. Areas of cooperation on Africa between the U.S.
and China cover communication and information exchange, security collaboration
in the field of counter-piracy, including anti-piracy exercises in the Gulf of Aden and
the Horn of Africa. These areas of cooperation focus on enhancing the two countries’
collective strength and presence on the continent.
4. Summary and Conclusions
Since China is now heavily engaged in Africa, its longstanding policy posture on
security and non-interference is adapting to new realities. Its economic investments
are extensive and well-entrenched, and in several countries have become targets for
rebels challenging the incumbent regimes (the Democratic Republic of Congo, South
Sudan, Nigeria, etc.). It is therefore not surprising that by the early 2010s China was
deploying combat troops to provide security for its factories, plants, mines, and energy
investments. This means that China is now steadily adapting to new realities and
abandoning a purely non-interference foreign policy posture in favour of a flexible
one that does not preclude the use of force when necessary. What used to be a Sino-
African relationship solely emphasizing business and socio-cultural cooperation has
now evolved to include military and security concerns, policies, goals, and activities
because of the new reality: the need to protect economic investments from rebels and
terrorist groups.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 337

What used to be a Sino-African relationship solely emphasizing business and

socio-cultural cooperation has now evolved to include military and security concerns,
policies, goals, and activities because of the new reality: the need to protect economic
investments from rebels and terrorist groups.
The United States and China in Africa have ignited the continuing militarization
and securitization of Africa because of their huge investments and geopolitical
commitments to combat rebellion and piracy. An action-reaction pattern between
these two powers and forces of destabilization may have been set in motion because
the very presence of external troop deployment and military technology could result
in emboldening and increasing the determination of rebels and terrorists to fight an
unrelenting battle against what they consider external intervention. The establishment
of cooperative military security locations, forward military operating sites, drone
bases, and even AFRICOM in Djibouti could function as a motivating factor for
terrorist attacks on incumbent regimes and the external economic interests of the
two powers. Both China and the U.S. are susceptible to similar security concerns
that impel them to cooperate in having them. Both have a common interest in
containing terrorism, international crime, narco-terrorism, and piracy to prevent
these threats from destabilizing their interests in Africa, and their own domestic
interests. Both countries have of late considered Africa to be of high priority due to
its strategic resource endowment and its tendency to be a magnet for terrorist activity
with both national and international dimensions.
As China’s interests become more extensive in Africa, it will find itself more open
to security cooperation with the United States. However, China’s almost sacrosanct
non-interference policy presents a dilemma for the nation in its cooperative efforts
with the U.S. and the West in general. For instance, China prefers unilateral anti-
piracy escort missions compared to multilateral missions because it is wary of
being trapped into the modus operandi or agendas of the U.S. and other Western
countries. Although China has engaged in combat troop deployment in Mali, it
is nonetheless very reluctant to adopt an offensive military deployment posture
in Africa. Its anti-piracy and military deployment strategies have remained largely
defensive and protective. This defensive overseas military posture has been shaped
by its non-interference policy and is likely to continue shaping its militarization and
338 The Conspiracy against Africa

security policy in Africa. This policy differs from that of the U.S. which adopts more
of an offensive and proactive strategy in combating terrorism in Africa.84
In sum, the current geopolitical and economic importance of the African
continent has resulted in attracting the attention of the world’s two largest economic
powers. This Sino-American attention and presence in the continent has resulted
in: (i) competing militarization manifested in the establishment of military bases
and deployment of troops by both powers to ensure stability; (ii) regular policy
pronouncements underscoring the security importance of Africa to both powers’
national security concerns; and (iii) a growing security and military cooperation
along with rivalry on matters related to containing terrorism and protecting their
interests in the continent.

(6) How do the Advanced Powers help in Fighting Terrorism in Africa?

Advanced powers have been helping African countries fight terrorism by providing
military aid and training to African countries. The African Union established
joint forces to fight terrorism, such as AMISOM/ATMIS in Somalia, the Joint
Multinational Force in the Lake Chad Basin, the G5 Sahel Joint Force, the SADC
mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), and bilateral initiatives in Mozambique.
The numerous regional initiatives to counter terrorism in Africa, including the
Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad Basin and the joint force of the
Group of 5 for the Sahel (G5 Sahel), need the international community’s full support
and durable commitment.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 339

References
1. Earl Conteh-Morgan, “Militarization and Securitization in Africa: The Role
of Sino-American Geostrategic Presence” Insight Turkey, vol. 21, Number 1,
Updated: March 13, 2019.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. See, Ulrich Albrecht, “Technology and Militarization of Third World Countries
in Theoretical Perspectives,” Bulletin of Peace Proposals, Vol. 8. No. 2 (1977),
pp.124-126.
5. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit. p.
6. For more details on securitization by the Copenhagen School, see, Holger
Stritzel, Securitization Theory, and the Copenhagen School, (London: Palgrave,
2014); Rita Taureck, “Securitisation Theory and Securitization Studies,”
Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol. 9, (2006), pp. 53-
61; Roxanna Sjostedt, “Securitization Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis,”
in Cameron Thies (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopaedias, (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2017).
7. On securitization, see for example, Thierry Balzacq, “Three Faces of
Securitization: Political Agency, Audience and Context,” European Journal of
International Relations,” Vol. 11, No. 2 (2005), pp. 171-201.
8. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
9. “National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” The White House,
(December 2017), retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905.pdf.
10. See, Kevin Knodell, “China Is Sending Combat Troops to Africa,” War Is
Boring, (June 1, 2014), retrieved from https://warisboring.com/china-is-
sending-combat-troops-to-africa/.
11. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op.cit.
12. Ibid
340 The Conspiracy against Africa

13. Ibid
14. Alexa Liautaud, “U.S. Military Presence in Africa Grew Again, but “We’re Not
at War” Top U.S. Command Says,” Vice News, (March 6, 2018), retrieved
from https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5b3pb/us-military-presence-in-
africa-grew-agin-but-were-not-at-war-top-us-commander-says.
15. For more details, see, Les Neuhaus, “The U.S. Military Stretched Thin in
50 African Nations,” The Observer, (December 1, 2017), retrieved from
https://observer.com/2017/12/us-military-has-presence-in 50-of-54-african-
countries/; Greg Myre, “The U.S. Military in Africa: A Discreet Presence in
Many Places,” National Public Radio, (October 20, 2017), retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558757043/the-u-s-
military-in-africa-a-discreet-presence-in-many-places.
16. As quoted in Neuhaus, “U.S. Military Stretched Thin in 50 African Nations.”
17. See, Eric Schewe, “Why Is the U.S. Military Occupying Bases Across Africa?”
JSTOR Daily, (April 11, 2018), retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-
the-u-s-military-occupying-bases-across-africa/.
18. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
19. Ibid
20. Ibid
21. Ibid
22. Ibid
23. Ibid
24. Ibid
25. Earl Conteh-Morgan, “Persistent Rise of China Global Challenges and Global Dynamics”,
Insight Turkey, vol. 20, Number 1 (Winter 2018) pp. 39-52
26. David Schambaugh, “The United States and China: Cooperation and Confrontation?”,
Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, vol. 96, number 611 (September 1997), pp. 241-
245.
27. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
28. Ibid
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 341

29. Ibid
30. ibid
31. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission,”
U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, (November 2006), retrieved
from https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/annual_reports/USCC%20Annual%20
Report%202006.pdf.
32. National Security Strategy of the United States,” p. 52.
33. Peter Eigen, “Is China Good or Bad for Africa?”, Global Public Square, (Oct. 29, 2012)
34. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
35. Ibid
36. Ibid
37. Bartholomew Grill, “Billions from Beijing: African Divided over Chinese Presence”,
38. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
39. See, Earl Conteh-Morgan, The Sino-African Partnership: A Geopolitical Economy
Approach, (New York: Peter Lang, 2018)
40. Earl Conteh-Morgan, “Militarization and Securitization in Africa: The Role of Sino-
American Geostrategic Presence” Insight Turkey, vol. 21, Number 1, Updated: March 13,
2019.
41. See, Kevin Knodell, “China Is Sending Combat Troops to Africa,” War Is
Boring, (June 1, 2014), retrieved from https://warisboring.com/china-is-
sending-combat-troops-to-africa/.
42. Alexa Liautaud, “U.S. Military Presence in Africa Grew Again, but “We’re Not
at War” Top U.S. Command Says,” Vice News, (March 6, 2018), retrieved
from https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5b3pb/us-military-presence-in-
africa-grew-agin-but-were-not-at-war-top-us-commander-says.
43. For more details, see, Les Neuhaus, “The U.S. Military Stretched Thin in
50 African Nations,” The Observer, (December 1, 2017), retrieved from
https://observer.com/2017/12/us-military-has-presence-in 50-of-54-african-
countries/; Greg Myre, “The U.S. Military in Africa: A Discreet Presence in
Many Places,” National Public Radio, (October 20, 2017), retrieved from
342 The Conspiracy against Africa

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558757043/the-u-s-
military-in-africa-a-discreet-presence-in-many-places.
44. As quoted in Neuhaus, “U.S. Military Stretched Thin in 50 African Nations.”
45. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
46. See, Eric Schewe, “Why Is the U.S. Military Occupying Bases Across Africa?”
JSTOR Daily, (April 11, 2018), retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-
the-u-s-military-occupying-bases-across-africa/.
47. Kathryn Watson, “Where does the U.S. Have Troops in Africa, and Why?”
CBS News, (October 23, 2017), retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/
news/where-does-the-u-s-have-troops-in-africa-and-why/.
48. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
49. Kathryn Watson, “Where does the U.S. Have Troops in Africa, and Why?”
CBS News, (October 23, 2017), retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/
news/where-does-the-u-s-have-troops-in-africa-and-why/.
50. Grant T. Harris, “Why Africa Matters to U.S. National Security,” Atlantic
Council, (May 25, 2017), retrieved from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/
publications/reports/why-africa-matters-to-us-national-security.
51. Some China-Africa experts challenge these economic figures. See, for example,
Doug Tsuruoka, “How Many ‘Chinese’ Businesses Are in Africa?” Asia Times,
(March 16, 2018), retrieved from www.atimes.com/article/many-chinese-
businesses-africa/.
52. Irene Yuan Sun, Kartik Jayaram, and Omid Kassiri, “Dance of the Lions and
Dragons: How Are Africa and China Engaging, and How Will the Partnership
Evolve?” Mckinsey & Company, (June 2017), retrieved from https://www.
mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/the-closest-look-yet-
at-chinese-economic-engagement-in-africa.
53. “National Security Strategy of the United States,” p. 52.
54. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission,” U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission,
(November 2006), retrieved from https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/
annual_reports/USCC%20Annual%20Report%202006.pdf.
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 343

55. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review

Commission.”
56. Earl Conteh-Morgan, op. cit.
57. Ibid
58. Ibid
59. Ibid
60. Ibid
61. Alexa Liautaud, “U.S. Military Presence in Africa Grew Again, but “We’re Not
at War” Top U.S. Command Says,” Vice News, (March 6, 2018), retrieved
from https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5b3pb/us-military-presence-in-
africa-grew-agin-but-were-not-at-war-top-us-commander-says.
62. For more details, see, Les Neuhaus, “The U.S. Military Stretched Thin in
50 African Nations,” The Observer, (December 1, 2017), retrieved from
https://observer.com/2017/12/us-military-has-presence-in 50-of-54-african-
countries/; Greg Myre, “The U.S. Military in Africa: A Discreet Presence in
Many Places,” National Public Radio, (October 20, 2017), retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558757043/the-u-s-
military-in-africa-a-discreet-presence-in-many-places.
63. As quoted in Neuhaus, “U.S. Military Stretched Thin in 50 African Nations.”
64. See, Eric Schewe, “Why Is the U.S. Military Occupying Bases Across Africa?”
JSTOR Daily, (April 11, 2018), retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/why-is-
the-u-s-military-occupying-bases-across-africa/.
65. Kathryn Watson, “Where does the U.S. Have Troops in Africa, and Why?”
CBS News, (October 23, 2017), retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/
news/where-does-the-u-s-have-troops-in-africa-and-why/.
66. Watson, “Where Does the U.S. have Troops in Africa, and Why?”
67. Grant T. Harris, “Why Africa Matters to U.S. National Security,” Atlantic
Council, (May 25, 2017), retrieved from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/
publications/reports/why-africa-matters-to-us-national-security.
344 The Conspiracy against Africa

68. Some China-Africa experts challenge these economic figures. See, for example,
Doug Tsuruoka, “How Many ‘Chinese’ Businesses Are in Africa?” Asia Times,
(March 16, 2018), retrieved from www.atimes.com/article/many-chinese-
businesses-africa/.
69. Irene Yuan Sun, Kartik Jayaram, and Omid Kassiri, “Dance of the Lions and
Dragons: How Are Africa and China Engaging, and How Will the Partnership
Evolve?” Mckinsey & Company, (June 2017), retrieved from https://www.
mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/the-closest-look-yet-
at-chinese-economic-engagement-in-africa.
70. “National Security Strategy of the United States,” p. 52.
71. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission,” U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission,
(November 2006), retrieved from https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/
annual_reports/USCC%20Annual%20Report%202006.pdf.
72. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission.”
73. “Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission.”
74. See, Yun Sun, “U.S.-China Cooperation on African Security,” Brookings,
(November 1, 2016), retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-
in-focus/2016/11/01/us-china-cooperation-on-african-.
75. security/.
76. Lina Benabdallah, “China-Africa Military Ties Have Deepened. Here Are
4 Things to Know,” The Washington Post, (July 6, 2018), retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/07/06/
china-africa-military-ties-have-deepened-here-are-4-things-to-know/?utm_
term=.0fda19c5de3f.
77. See, Kai Xue, “FOCAC 2015: Making Sense of the Numbers,” The China Africa
Project, (December 30, 2015), retrieved from https://chinaafricaproject.com/
focac-2015-making-sense-of-the-numbers/; Yun Sun, “Xi and the 6th Forum
on China-Africa Cooperation: Major Commitments, But with Questions,”
 Africa and the Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geo-Structural Realism 345

Brookings, (December 7, 2015), retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/

blog/africa-in-focus/2015/12/07/xi-and-the-6th-forum-on-china-africa-
cooperation-major-commitments-but-with-questions/.
78. Column Lynch, “China’s Arms Exports Flooding Sub-Saharan Africa,”
The Washington Post, (August 25, 2015), retrieved from https://www.
washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinas-arms-exports-flooding-
sub-saharan-africa/2012/08/25/16267b68-e7f1-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_
story.html?utm_term=.fd0707b045a2.
79. See, Earl Conteh-Morgan, The Sino-African Partnership: A Geopolitical
Economy Approach, (New York: Peter Lang, 2018).
80. See, Eric Biegen, “Why Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Africa Tour Is Crucial,”
China Plus, (January 13, 2018), retrieved from http://chinaplus.cri.cn/
opinion/opedblog/23/20180113/77514.html.
81. Ankit Panda, “As Somali Pirates Return, Chinese Navy Boasts of Anti-
Piracy Operations,” The Diplomat, (April 16, 2017), retrieved from https://
thediplomat.com/2017/04/as-somali-pirates-return-chinese-navy-boasts-of-
anti-piracy-operations/.
82. Yun,” U.S.-China Cooperation on African Security.”
83. Yun, “U.S.-China Cooperation on African Security.”
84. Michael Martina and David Brunstrom, “China’s Xi Says to Commit
8,000 Troops for UN Peacekeeping Force,” Reuters, (September 28, 2015),
retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-assembly-china /
chinaski-x-number-to-commit-8000-troops-for-un-peacekeeping-force-
iduskcn0rs1z120150929; Reg China Registers 8,000 Standby Peacekeepers at
UN,” XinhuaNet, (September 18, 2018), retrieved from www.xinhuanet.com/
english/2017-09/28/c-136645953.htm.
 Chapter 6

THE SUBTLE RE-COLONIZATION OF

AFRICA

“Africans are already deeply wounded and therefore in desperate need of healing. But if
Africa continues to behave like grass the goats (Imperialists) would continue to eat it.
Most times, the attitudes of our leaders expose Africa as grass and therefore fit for eating.
Africa must be united to engage other advance civilization as a bloc and endeavour
to execute her various laudable aspirations and objectives to transform Africa and her
people. This book will definitely open the eyes of many Africans and non-Africans alike”
– Juliet Akujieze (United Kingdom)

A. An Introduction
Scholars have defined and/or described the term “Politics” variously as
1. organizing for human projects,
2. struggle for power, or
3. about who gets what, when, and how.
Organizing for human projects gives politics a wider view involving whatever
humans do; the notion of struggle for power narrows the definition to the arena of
authority in society; and the notion of “who” gets “what”, “when”, and “how” links
politics to economics (the production and distribution of wealth) as close allies.1
In his piece, “The Politics of one-sided adjustment in Africa”, Daniel Tetteh
Osabu-Kle embraces all these three definitions. He expresses the view that structural
adjustment in Africa does not conform to natural justice, is one-sided, and not
primarily concerned with solution to economic problems in Africa, but about
organizing for human projects in which decisions about “who” gets “what”, “when”,
and “how” have become the source of power struggle between the Bretton Woods
institutions and African leaders. This struggle may be interpreted as an attempt by
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 347

the Bretton Woods institutions to recolonize Africa on behalf of their allies while
African leaders strive to resist that new form of colonialism. Evidently, the allies of the
Bretton Woods organizations are the Western governments, international businesses,
the commercial banks of the West, and some neoliberal intellectuals.
“Colonialism is a relationship in which the weaker people one country is subject to
the authority, dictatorship, and control of more powerful people from outside the
territory of that country. In a colonial relationship the colonizer is not accountable
to the weak colonized people and may do whatever it pleases despite resistance.
The relationship between the Bretton Woods institutions that dictate to and impose
harsh conditionalities of structural adjustment and the economically weak African
countries are not appreciably different from this colonial relationship. While
officials of the Bretton Woods institutions may be answerable to their superiors
located in the air-conditioned rooms of Washington and New York, they are not
accountable through elections to anyone. Their privileged position is identical to
that of the imperialist of the colonial days.” 2.
It suffices that the economic weakness of African countries resulting from the
historical forces of four centuries of slavery, a century of colonialism, decades of neo-
colonialism, and partly the consequences of the natural forces of drought which have
encouraged the Bretton Woods institutions to attempt to recolonize Africa. Owing
to economic weakness of African countries in a world in which the rich dictate
terms, and the history of slavery of Africans, the voices of African countries are not
taken into consideration in the world community. This situation of discrimination
in international circles inspires the Breton Woods institutions to apply double
standards in dealing harshly with African countries on the one hand and flexibility
with leniency to Western countries on the other.3 For example, structural adjustment
with its harsh conditionality’s were not forced on Western countries which received
IMF and the World Bank loans before, during, and after the 1960s, but as soon as
the oil pricing and monetary shocks of the 1970s and the 1990s worn-out African
economies, structural adjustment with its harsh conditionality was introduced to
control African access to loans. Given that the Bretton Woods institutions derive
their power from the voting strength of the rich countries of the West, their double
standards and attempt to recolonize Africa is on behalf Western imperialism. 3
Because of the support they enjoy from the West, these institutions are not ashamed
348 The Conspiracy against Africa

or moved as their prescriptions for structural adjustment fail to work everywhere in

Africa.
Armed with support from the West, the Bretton Woods institutions display their
double standards by accepting recessions in the West as natural but recessions in Africa
as product of mismanagement. It is within this context that when drought-induced
recessions occur in Africa these institutions blames it on economic mismanagement
by the African elite most of whom have either been trained directly in Western
institutions or locally in accordance with blueprints of the syllabi of Western
institutions.4 Prominent among the charges of mismanagement against the African
elite is political setting of prices instead of allowing market forces to work in both
external and internal trade. The assumption is that the oligopolistic ally distorted
world market deeply characterized by protectionism is an arena for setting the right
prices. Closing their eyes to market failures in the West which have encouraged
Western governments to institute welfare benefits including food stamps, welfare
cheques and unemployment benefits, the Bretton Woods institutions compel African
governments to remove all government subsidies to expose African populations to
untold hardship and marginalization.5
The political hypocrisy of the Bretton Woods institutions makes them gloss
over the fact that the equivalent of welfare and unemployment benefits in Africa
is government subsidy and price control to enable the poorest person to get some
daily bread, shelter, and clothing from the sweat of his or her own eyes. This may
be contrasted with the poor in Western society who are fortunate enough to collect
welfare cheques and food stamps without a single drop of sweat.6 We should not forget
that the fortunate position of the poor in the West is made possible by favourable
terms of trade and the structure of the world economic and financial systems which
enable an estimated amount of 12 billion dollars to be siphoned away from the Third
World to the affluent West for every per cent of interest rate in Western banks.7 The
behaviour of the Bretton Woods institutions reminds one of the biblical saying “ you
hypocrite, first remove the beam in your eye so that you may see clearly to remove
the mote that is in your brother’s eye.” If these institutions were not hypocrites, they
should have been bolding enough to advise their Western masters to let market forces
work uninterrupted through stopping welfare and unemployment benefits in their
own countries, eliminating subsidies to Western farmers, eradicating all monopolies
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 349

and oligopolies, and removing protectionist barriers all of which are products of
political decisions that distort both the labour and commodity markets.8
B. An Attempt by the Bretton Wood’s Institutions to Recolonize Africa
(a) How the International Financial Institutions [(World Bank,
International Monetary Fund, (IMF) etc.)] Destroy Africa.
The structure of African economies is not a natural condition or the making of Africans.
It is the product of centuries of Western interferences which messed up the continent.
The four hundred years of slavery witnessed the diversified economies of African
social formations being transformed by Western political and economic forces into
production of captives for Western enterprise. During the era of colonialism similar
political and economic forces from the West re-transformed African economies into
mono-crop and primary product economies to satisfy Western demands, and decades
of neo-colonialism have witnessed the inability of the weak economies inherited
from the slavery and colonial pasts to diversify without assistance from the West who
created the whole mess in the first place. 9
Given that it is easier to destroy than to build and that African economies were
destroyed over a period of five hundred years, the restructuring of Africa economies
cannot be expected to be achieved through short term projects but long-term ones
which the short-term stabilization projects of the Bretton Woods organizations are
not capable of handling.
Isn’t it right for those who created the mess be made to clear it or at least be held
to bear the cost of clearing it? This has not been the case in as the creators of these
messes engage further in insulting the conscience and intelligence of the African
people and their governments by demanding that African will not only clean the
mess but also bear the cost thereon. The Bretton Wood’s intellectuals are fully aware
of this fact, yet they resort to politics of blame-shift on African leaders and their weak
economies. Within this context of responsibility and cost avoidance, they resort to
preaching market ideology and selling a so-called Western democracy supposed to
be liberal but which in effect follow neither autocratic nor democratic principles and
elitist.
350 The Conspiracy against Africa

In their works, D. Befekadu’ and J. Horsefield alluded to the fact of one-sided

structural adjustment which is by itself a product of injustice perpetrated by the whole
configuration of Western political and economic interests. Structural adjustment
originated from Keynes who was concerned with the creation of an orderly and
balanced economic order capable of preventing another World War. His far-sighted
plan recommended penalties for countries with surplus and deficit of more than
25 percent of their quota in an International Monetary Fund 10 (Befekadu: 1988;
Horsefield: 1969). The idea of preventing a recurrence of the events that led to the
Second World War was accepted by the West but due to pressure from the United
States which saw Keynes’ balanced adjustment not conducive to its selfish interests
and its advantageous position in world trade, the two-sided strategy structural
adjustment aspect of the proposal was killed and replaced with a one-sided regime of
adjustment in which the burden was shifted entirely to the deficit countries. Thus,
economic justice was replaced with political injustice, and it is this injustice which
the IMF perpetuates on behalf of the whole configuration of Western interests.
And, as Daniel Telleh Osabu-Kle rightly elucidated in detail:
The practice of one-sided adjustment does not make logical sense and benefits only
the West in their relations with African countries. If two entities A and B engage
in any fair trade it is to be expected that each of them should be price setters of
their own commodities.
Certainly, a situation in which one partner, A, is always the price-setter of both sets
of commodities and the other, B, always the price-taker of both sets of commodities
cannot be said to be a fair one. It is not democratic either for, A is a dictator. If
A turns around and preaches democracy to B, then democracy itself becomes a
mockery and rubbish. Should this dictatorial situation of the market render A so
rich that he or she diversifies his or her economy and expects B out of his or her
poverty to diversify his or her economy by obtaining loans from A at high interest
rates such that B gets poorer as A gets richer then it is to be expected that at one
some point in time B may rebel against the dictatorship of A. In the process, A may
succeed in killing B, but then A will no longer have a partner and may become
like Robinson Crusoe on the lonely island.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 351

The relationship between Africa and the West is similar to the relationship between
A and B except that A, the West, may have additional partners C, D, E, and F
in the Third World and Eastern Europe to kill through its dictatorial policies.
However, if B, C, D, and E representing the Third World and Eastern Europe
simultaneously rebel against the West, then its economy may be jeopardized. So
far, the West has been so lucky that the rest of the world is divided. In particular,
the development gap between Africa and the West continues to increase as the West
assisted by the Bretton Woods organizations plays its dictatorial politics in the
world market and perpetuates itself as the sole price-setter.11

1. Satanic Activities and Manipulations of the Commercial Banks of the

West:
The principle of equal consideration of interests is a moral principle that says that
one should both include all affected interests when calculating the rightness of an
action and weigh those interests equally. In this circumstance, the commercial banks
of the West allied with the Bretton Woods organisations in their political game of
protecting themselves with cross-default clauses. These cross-default clauses state
explicitly that, any African country that defaults on a loan to any Western bank has
defaulted on all Western banks and is disqualified from obtaining any loan from
all. The argument of this kangaroo justice is as follows. If “A” commits any offence
against “B”, and “C”, “D”, “E” and “F” happen to be the friends of “A”, then each
of “C”, “D”, “E”, and “F” are justified in lynching “A”. It implies that lynch justice
which is supposed to have died with the slavery has been resurrected not only by
the Ku Klux Klan which as recent as 1998 dragged a black American into pieces
behind a vehicle, but also by the commercial banks of the West which drag African
countries into debt through their high interest rates with the support of the Bretton
Woods organizations and the Western governments. In the ensuing political game,
these commercial banks descend like vampires upon the weak African economies to
offer high interest rate loans after the Bretton Woods organizations have successfully
broken the resistance of African leaders and imposed the harsh conditionality of
structural adjustment.12
According to M. Rahnema and Victoria Bawtree, the high interest rates of the
commercial banks are themselves reflections of economic mismanagement in the
352 The Conspiracy against Africa

West which tend to crowd out private investment there. It is principally through
these high interest rates that bank officials of the commercial banks are lavishly paid,
and the poor countries of the Third World including Africa develop the rich by
incurring high total debt burdens exemplified by Third World debt payment of $1.3
trillion between 1982 and 1990 13 (Rahnema et al: 1997, pp. 207 - 213).
“This siphoning process from the poor nations to the rich encourages the governments
of the West to lend their unflinching support to the Bretton Woods organizations
and the commercial banks for, without it, social and political stability may
be jeopardized. With the approval of Western governments, the Bretton Woods
organizations also charge high interest rates for the principal purpose of lavishly
compensating its officials. In this way, the interests of Western governments, the
commercial banks, and the Bretton Woods organizations are politically and
economically fused. In the case of Africa, the whole political scenario is as though
the governments of the West are Shylocks using the Bretton Woods organizations
and the Western banks as knives to cut the pound of flesh of unfortunate Antonio
– Africa” 14
1. The Role of Intellectuals who support free-market capitalism, de-
regulation, and reduction in government spending:
As a political and economic agent of Western imperialism, the political powers of the
Bretton Woods are also buttressed to a large extent by the political activities of Western
intellectuals some of whom have labelled themselves as Africanists. While it cannot
be denied that some of these intellectuals mean well and some have contributed
effectively to draw attention to the evils of structural adjustment without a human
face, the behaviour of others which portray the African elite as some irresponsible
lot leave much to be desired, and have encouraged the Bretton Woods organizations
in their political game.15 It was therefore in this significant sense that Robert Bates
in Markets and States, tried to justify why intelligent men of Africa adopt policies
and practices which are detrimental to their own countries (Bates: 1981). “These
intelligent men are accused of controlling prices for the purpose of creating Ricardian
rent which they appropriate to their advantage. The assumption here is that Ricardian
rent is no longer a concept, model, or tool of explanation but the whole truth when
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 353

it is applied to the African environment. State corporations of Africa are described as

inefficient, protected, and staffed by incompetent officials”. 16
It is therefore germane and fundamental to examine critically Bates’ arguments:
why do intelligent men in the West drive their firms into bankruptcies? Why do
they continue to subsidize agriculture? Why do they drive their economies into
recession? And why do Crown Corporations or State Enterprises continue to exist in
the mixed economies of the West? It appears that Bates deliberately closed his eyes
to the fact that colonial policies intentionally stifled the development of indigenous
entrepreneurs or bourgeois class in Africa, and in their absence, the post-colonial
state has no other nationalist choice but to fill the gap.
In the same vein, Deepak Lal argues in The Poverty of “Development Economics”
that some dirigiste dogma explained as Third World government interference with the
market which distorts the barter terms of trade, undermines comparative advantage,
and stifles free trade is responsible for the poor performance of some Third World
economies 17 (Lal: 1985). He overlooks the possibility that the poor performance
of those Third World countries may as well be attributed to a combination of their
not interfering enough in the market to protect their infant industries as Taiwan
and South Korea did, and opening their countries too wide to foreign investment
which deflated their economies through repatriation of profits to the metropolis.
He overlooked the argument that if in the West where entrepreneurial ability is well
developed state enterprises are still justified within a mixed economy structure, then
they are much more justified in Africa within the same mixed economy context.
Bates and Lal appear to have forgotten that the development of capitalism in the
late industrializing countries of Europe was characterized by protection of infant
industries and recognition that international competence differentials might have
adverse consequences on relatively weaker economies 18 (Senghaas: 1985; Dobb:
1984). Indeed, African elites learnt how to protect infant industries from the
European experience and from their training in the West or locally in accordance with
the blueprints of the syllabi of Western institutions. They learnt about international
competence differentials and how some European countries such Portugal which
opened their economies too liberally were reduced to the periphery of European
development in the process. From their studies of economics, they learnt about
how beggar-thy-neighbour policies of one country can damage the economies of
354 The Conspiracy against Africa

other countries and why Western countries ensure the protection of their economies
from dumping. Armed with this knowledge, the benign elites of Africa attempted to
protect the infant industries of their countries and in the process were mal aligned by
the Bretton Woods organizations with the assistance of some intellectuals preaching
the market ideology of neoliberals.
2. The Clash of Agenda and Africa’s Surrender
The political arena in Africa has been turned into a game of a power struggle between
the Bretton Woods organizations acting on behalf of international capital from the
West and the African states about who gets what, when and how in Africa. The two
contestants have entirely different political and economic agenda the clash of which
lead to confusion and power struggle 19 (Ake: 1996). The agenda of international
business whose interest is also served by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
(the Bretton Woods organizations) is maximization of profit and its repatriation to
the metropolis. Neither they nor the IFIs are accountable to any African populations.
To satisfy their agenda of maximization of profit, it is in the interest of international
business from the West to own the lion’s share of productive assets in Africa, control
African economies, and hence the levers of political power in Africa. This is the
rationale behind the political game of privatization preached by the Bretton Woods
organizations and some neoliberal intellectuals. It is within this context that the
Bretton Woods organizations, knowing very well that Africa is devoid of a bourgeois
class of entrepreneurs, embark upon preaching privatization which is essentially
a means for strategically compelling African countries to invite the participation
of international business from the West in joint ventures, or surrender complete
ownership of the means of production within their borders to the bourgeoisie located
in the West.
While African countries are still pre-capitalist, the Bretton Woods organizations
and their allies compel them to embrace Western democracy which is suitable for
the capitalist mode of production. The hidden agenda is to enable subsequent
contradictions render African countries politically and economically weak enough
to be dominated and exploited. African countries are compelled to adhere to their
comparative advantage as producers of primary products to satisfy Western interests.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 355

The hidden agenda is to keep Africans perpetually as cutters of wood and drawers of
water for the West.20
On the other hand, the agenda of the African elite who are accountable to the
African peoples is the development of their respective countries and to catch up
with the West. It is for this reason that the African elite including even some notable
puppets of the West have collectively and individually endeavoured to resist the
Bretton Woods organizations and their allies in various ways. Various position papers
of the Organization of African Unity such as Africa’s Strategy for Development
in the 1970s adopted in Tunisia in February 1971, the Addis Ababa Declaration
also called The African Declaration on Cooperation, Development, and Economic
Independence adopted by the OAU in 1973; The Revised Framework of principles
of Implementation of the new Economic Order in Africa adopted in Kinshasa in
1976; the Monrovia Declaration of the Commitment of the Heads of States and
Governments of the Organization of African Unity on Guidelines and Measures
for National and Collective Self-Reliance in Social and Economic Development for
the Establishment of a New International Economic Order adopted in July 1979 in
Monrovia; and the Lagos Plan of Action for the Monrovia Strategy for the Economic
Development of Africa are collective attempts by African countries to resist neo-
colonialism.
All these attempts were made futile through the political agency of the Bretton
Woods Organizations on behalf of the West. The Lagos Plan of Action which was
the embodiment of African attempts to resist neo-colonialism and to own their
economic recovery was eventually killed when the Bretton Woods organizations with
the backing of Western governments tactically ignored it. It was frank in blaming
the roots of Africa’s development problem on colonialism, neo-colonialism, settler
exploitation, racism, and apartheid. 21(OAU: 1986, p.27). In a political manoeuvre
to shift blame on to Africans the Bretton Woods organizations lent their support to
a World Bank sponsored study called Accelerated Development which ridiculously
explained Africa’s development on internal factors, suggested that the solution lay in
a free play of market forces that would inject efficiency and dynamism, and advised
African countries to concentrate on primary products especially agriculture.22
Although African countries, in a document called the Declaration of Tripoli on
the World Bank Report Entitled “Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa:
356 The Conspiracy against Africa

Agenda for Action” rejected the study as inconsistent with the Lagos Plan of Action
and contrary to Africa’s interest in diversifying its economy, their objections fell upon
the deaf ears of the Bretton Woods organizations and their allies. In their frustration
of powerlessness against the Bretton Woods Organizations and their allies, the
humiliated African countries were tactically compelled in July 1986 to compromise
their position in Africa’s Priority Program for Economic Recovery (APPER) which
embodied the essential elements of the Accelerated Development while casting the
elements of the Lagos Plan of Action into the garbage can. In this way, the African
countries were compelled to surrender their sovereignty to the Bretton Woods
organizations which most willingly accepted it. It was not by coincidence that the
same year the United Nations came out with its own program for recovery in Africa
called the United Nations Program of Action for African Economic Recovery and
Development (UNPAAERD). This plan was very similar to the sell-out program
of APPER but simultaneously sent the political message that African countries no
longer owned their development agenda and that the United Nations is effectively
one of the political allies of the Bretton Woods organizations. 23
APPER is a major milestone in Africa’s economic and political history for it
was through it that for want of short-term bread and butter African leaders were
manoeuvred into cowardly surrendering their collective sovereignty. The political
miscalculation of the African leaders in this surrender assumed that despite Africa’s
enormous wealth in various natural resources, it needs the West more than the
West needs it. This misconception was compounded by the inability of the African
elite to take a strong and committed stand collectively against the Bretton Woods
organizations and their allies whereas those allies can take a strong hold on to it
till African countries give in. It is therefore not so much the economic weakness of
African countries which is the problem, for Africa is a rich continent, but their lack
of collective steadfastness.24
The surrender of collective sovereignty has cost Africa a great deal. Since that
time, African countries have been compelled to accept the exogenous agenda of the
Bretton Woods organizations and their allies, but not without some resistance at the
national level. Even before the surrender of collective sovereignty in 1986, various
African leaders whether benign, corrupt, or puppets resisted the onslaught of re-
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 357

colonization through the Bretton Woods organizations and their allies in several
ways.
3. The Resistance by African Leaders:
African leaders whether benign, corrupt, or puppets have in several ways resisted the
re-colonization stance of Bretton Woods and their allies. The most corrupt African
leader cited by Western academic, economic, and political forces as an example of
selfish leaders of Africa who ruined their countries was Mobutu Sese Seko of the
Republic of the Congo alleged to have accumulated millions of dollars in foreign
banks while his compatriots lived in abject poverty.25 An example of a benign leader
who was committed to the nationalist aspirations of Africans is President Kaunda
of Zambia. The resistance and struggles of these two African leaders against the
domineering attitude of the Bretton Woods organizations provide an insight about
how African leaders resent the re-colonization of the continent.
The allegation that Mobutu is a corrupt leader itself has political roots. The
fundamental political issue is not the corrupt attitude of Mobutu per se, but who was
responsible for placing such a character at the helm of affairs in the Congo. Certainly,
Mobutu was not the choice of the Congolese but Patrice Lumumba. However,
the same international political and economic forces interested in controlling the
economies of Africa to their advantage and on whose behalf the Bretton Woods
plays its politics worked to both assassinate Lumumba and to entrench Mobutu
as their puppet. The same Mobutu who was praised as “our man in Africa” by the
West was described after the demise of the Cold War by the same West as corrupt
when he was then assessed to be more of a liability than an asset. Nevertheless, even
Mobutu, the puppet, had his own reservations about the politics of the Bretton
Woods organizations.26
Mobutu’s resistance against the Bretton Woods organizations is a typical one. The
only difference is that Mobutu realized too late that a puppet cannot always escape
the political chains of imperialism. Given that Mobutu was a puppet of Western
imperialism, however, his resistance against the Bretton Woods organization and their
allies may be considered a critical case which demonstrates that African countries
resent the re-colonization of the continent by the Bretton Woods organizations and
their allies.27
358 The Conspiracy against Africa

Being aware that their weak economies are vulnerable to price fluctuations in
the oligopolistic world market, African countries contribute to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) as an insurance against the bad day but when the bad day
eventually comes, they find themselves in the political chains of an International
Monster without Feelings (IMF). Like most African countries, the colonial structure
of the economy of the Republic of the Congo was geared to providing raw materials
for industry in Belgium. The colonial administration demonstrated its lack of interest
in the local economy by leaving economic policy of the colony entirely in the hands
of foreign corporate interests dominated by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga
(UMHK). Almost a hundred years of Belgian rule provided the country with no local
elite with ideas about corporate management28 (EIU: 1996, Zaire, p.13). Indeed, at
the time of independence there were fewer than ten graduates.
In its attempt to diversify the economy and transform the primarily agricultural
economy into an industrial one, the country had to obtain technical advice and loans
from OECD member countries and from commercial banks of the West. Because
of that country’s enormous mineral wealth, the attempt served as an opportunity
for creditors and investors to trap the country into debt with the hope of siphoning
its wealth through interest payments and repatriation of profits to metropolis.
Fluctuation of prices in the world commodity market and especially in the price of
copper, however, so prevented the country from meeting its debt payment obligations
that the balance of payment situation became precarious. It was in this context
that the country sought assistance from the IMF as far back as the 1970s with the
hope of Paris Club debt rescheduling and the political struggle with the Bretton
Woods organizations and their allies began. In 1978, the IMF violated the country’s
sovereignty by posting its officials at the central bank. Some $912m standby facility
was awarded by the IMF in mid-1981 but after a disbursement of only $175, the
facility was blocked in September of the same year (EIU: 1996, p.32). There was
devaluation in September 198329 which impressed the IMF and its allies leading
to the provision of five standby facilities for later years but the IMF conditionality
continued to bite and the imposed policies of liberalization failed to work.
Mobutu was compelled by the deteriorating situation of his country to announce
a unilateral repayment term with the creditors. Subsequent negotiations led to the
approval of the fourth facility and an additional Structural Adjustment Facility
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 359

(SAF) credit was approved but had to be blocked for failure to comply with IMF
requirements. After further negotiations, both the next standby and the SAF were
in June 1989 but had to be blocked again in mid-1990. With Mobutu no longer
required by the West to contain communism, in 1991 the European Parliament passed
a resolution to suspend aid to his government, the US Congress blocked military aid,
and the Bush administration which had been supportive of his government all along
agreed that the time was ripe for Mobutu to go. That same year the IMF declared
the Republic of the Congo ineligible for funds and went ahead to suspend its voting
rights in 1994. These events demonstrate a struggle between the Bretton Woods
organizations and the Mobutu government in which the IFIs supported by the West
had the upper hand. In the Republic of the Congo itself, the implementation of
the harsh conditionality including the adoption of Western democracy resulted in
strikes, demonstrations, hundreds of ethnic-oriented political parties, and revival
ethnic violence which undermined political stability - the major achievement of the
Mobutu government.30
The historical experience of Zambia with structural adjustment demonstrates
the insensitiveness of the Bretton Woods organizations to genuine African problems.
Zambia is a land-locked country whose economy is highly dependent on copper
and to some considerable extent on maize. Any changes in the oligopolistic world
market price of copper have a far-reaching effect on the Zambian economy which
may be aggravated by any simultaneous occurrence of drought. Its busiest access to
the sea is through Zimbabwe to the ports of Beira and Maputo in Mozambique.
The second access is through the Benguela railway system from the Zambian copper
belt through the Republic of the Congo to the Angolan port of Lobito. The third
access is the Great North Road to Tanzania. The 1973 blockade of the border with
Zimbabwe by the rebellious Ian Smith’s government hurt the Zambian economy,
and the revolutionary disturbances in Angola and the Republic of the Congo since
1975 which make the Benguela inoperable aggravate matters.31
Copper prices have slumped since 1975 and within the same period drought has
been frequent. The poor state of the Zambian economy cannot therefore be blamed
principally on any mismanagement on the part of the Zambian political elite but on
drought, its disadvantageous position as a landlocked country, and its vulnerability
360 The Conspiracy against Africa

to fluctuations in the world market price of copper. Despite these facts, when the
government of Kenneth Kaunda approached the Bretton Woods organizations for
assistance the conditionality it was subjected to were harsh as though the problem
was the consequence of its mismanagement of the economy. In its struggle with
the IMF over the imposed policy of structural adjustment a package negotiated in
March 1976 was suspended in September of the same year. Further resistance to
IMF colonialism led to Kaunda’s announcement on May 1, 1987, of a break with
the IMF and an institution Zambia’s own recovery program 32 (EIU: 1996, Zambia,
p 35).
However, faced with enormous difficulties, Kaunda had to give in to the IMF in
mid-1989, but the struggle continued. Again, in September 1991 aid was suspended
when commitment to national obligations prevented the Kaunda government
from honouring its payments to the World Bank. After their success in removing
Kaunda in 1992 through the multi-party elections they imposed, the Bretton Woods
organizations encouraged unprecedented levels of aid that same year, and it appeared
as though their relations with the Chiluba government would be smooth for a long
time. The Shylocks soon exposed their behaviour. In December 1993 aid was frozen
till two cabinet ministers suspected to be drug traffickers were removed.33
In 1995 negotiations with the IMF was stopped. Struggles of the Chiluba
government with the IMF vindicate Kaunda and confirm that the Bretton Woods
organizations can play politics but cannot solve economic problems.
4. Ineffectiveness of one-sided Structural Adjustment.
African countries have been subjected to decades of structural adjustment directed
by the Bretton Woods organizations. However, the economic structure of African
countries has remained the same as what was inherited from the colonial era. The short-
term prescriptions by the Bretton Woods organizations and their allies for solution
to Africa’s long-term problems have proved to be inappropriate. Econometric tests
within the World Bank itself have revealed that the one-sided structural adjustment
in Sub-Saharan Africa have not led to any statistically significant growth. On the
contrary and despite higher exports, it is associated with significantly lower investment
and lower savings rates34 (Elbadawi: 1992; Elbadawi et al 1992). Consequently, it
is undeniable that one-sided structural adjustment with all its harsh conditionality
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 361

and lack of human face has had negligible impact in improving African economies.
It implies that the sufferings which African populations were compelled to undergo
achieved extraordinarily little. This is not surprising given that Africans do not
own the structural adjustment and the Bretton Woods organizations which owned
the adjustment were only playing politics on behalf of their allies. Although there
is some new talk about debt forgiveness, there is no sign that the Bretton Woods
organizations intend to acknowledge their mistakes and give the Lagos Plan of Action
which is owned by Africans a chance to work. Since the economic structures remain
the same, the aftermath of debt relief may be another round of political struggle with
the Bretton Woods organizations and their allies in which African countries may end
again as the losers leading to another round of debt forgiveness and a vicious cycle of
political struggles and debt forgiveness.35
5. Conclusion
The one-sided structural adjustment in Africa has been a political struggle between
the Bretton Woods organizations and their allies on the one hand and African
countries on the other. The economic mess in Africa is not created by Africans but
by the imperialist West. If justice were to prevail it is the West who must clear the
mess or at least bear the cost.
However, the Bretton Woods organizations with the backing of their allies of the
West have been playing the politics of shifting the blame on to African countries who
have in several ways resisted the re-colonization of the continent. The Lagos Plan
of action which was a recovery program owned by Africans was shelved but despite
decades of structural adjustment at the behest of the Bretton Woods organizations,
the result has been very disappointing. This is not surprising given that instead of
a balanced and two-sided structural adjustment, the Bretton Woods organizations
and their allies played the politics of one-sided adjustment with the hidden agenda
of promoting an inappropriate Western democracy and neoliberal market ideology
in pre-capitalist Africa. Because of lack of collective steadfastness African countries
surrendered their sovereignty to the Bretton Woods organizations and gained very
little. The lessons of that political gamble should teach them never to surrender their
sovereignty again despite odds. The West needs Africa much the same way that Africa
needs the West. Although there is an on-going talk about debt forgiveness there is no
362 The Conspiracy against Africa

guarantee that Africans will be permitted to implement the recovery program they
own - the Lagos Plan of Action. What African leaders need is collective steadfastness
and courage to play the political game including a call for going back to the two-
sided and balanced adjustment proposed by Keynes.36

C. How Western (foreign) Aid destroy Africa.

Aid has long been the response of richer countries to the imbalance of economic
development seen across the globe. In the last two decades however, relatively non-
intrusive in-kind giving has been re-branded and intensified to the point where
aid today is arguably used as a strategic force in increasingly interventionist global
development policy. The aid industry has seen a rapid expansion, characterised by an
increase in the number of organisations, amounts of funding and geographical reach
.37 (Collinson and Duffied, 2013). The question of aid dependence is an important
one; many argue that international aid paradoxically poses a barrier to recipient
country development and sustainable economic growth 38 (Moyo, 2009).
Recent rhetoric surrounding aid dependency is clear- it is an unwelcome and
unfortunate side effect of aid, and its diminishment is high on the aid policy agenda.
39
(Thomas et al., 2011). What is becoming increasingly clear however is that there
is an emerging type of aid-related dependency that does not refer to economic or
financial factors, but political. Cases of corruption in recipient country governments
have been met with the development of more complex modes of donation, including
direct programme funding, conditionalities, tied aid, and grants, which give donors
more control over the direction and ultimate use of their funds. This often means
that those providing aid are increasingly entwined in political processes. This
combined with aid uncertainty, questionable sustainability, and a tendency of top-
down approaches to political involvement, create a situation where countries in need
of aid are dependent upon foreign agendas.40
2. How has aid caused dependency?
Aid dependency refers to the proportion of government spending that is given by
foreign donors. Since 2000 this has in fact decreased by one third in the world’s
poorest countries, exemplified by Ghana and Mozambique where aid dependency
decreased from 47% to 27% and 74% to 58% respectively (3)41. Aid is not intrinsically
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 363

linked to dependency; studies have shown that dependency is influenced by many

factors, mostly length and intensity of the donation period, and 15-20% has been
identified as the tipping point where aid begins to have negative effects (Clemens et
al., 2012).42 What causes dependency is when aid is used, intentionally or not, as
a long-term strategy that consequently inhibits development, progress, or reform.
Food aid is particularly criticised for this, increasing dependency on aid imports dis-
incentivises local food production by reducing market demand. This is compounded
when declining aid is replaced with commercial imports rather than locally sourced
food, either because of cheaper prices or a lack of recipient country food production
capacity because of long-term aid causing agricultural stagnation (Shah, 2012)43. This
is exemplified in the situation of Haiti, which is dependent on cheap US imports for
over 80% of grain stocks even in a post-aid era, or countries such as the Philippines
where aid dependency has forced an over-reliance on cash crops. Dependency relates
not only to commodities but also technical expertise and skills which donors often
bring to specific aid schemes and projects, which when not appropriately coupled
with education create an over-reliance on donors. 44 (Thomas et al., 2011).
2. A more concerning type of dependency
The nature of aid almost intrinsically causes what is increasingly known as ‘political
dependency’ by encouraging donor intervention in political processes. Donors
need to satisfy the interests, values, and incentives of the home country, whilst also
providing them with expected results to maintain the cash flow. This has resulted
in donors either bypassing and therefore destabilising government service provision
processes to set up donor projects, a strategy often favoured by USAID and the World
Bank45 (Bräuntigam and Knack, 2004), or intervening directly in policymaking and
implementation. 46 (Bräutigam, 2000).
The involvement of donors, either foreign governments or international agencies,
in recipient country political processes has been shown to reduce the quality of
governance (Knack, 2001). It reduces leader accountability; the government is
“playing to two audiences simultaneously”- the donors and the public (Hayman,
2008). This means the direction of accountability is between government and donor
rather than the public, risking government legitimacy and delaying the progress of
political reform and development47 (Bräutigam, 2000). This is particularly damaging
364 The Conspiracy against Africa

in countries where the need for aid stems from political upheaval or civil unrest
such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Zimbabwe, which have a lengthy
history of aid dependence48 (Moss et al., 2006). The risk here is that donors have
political leverage, thus decisions and planning become reliant on donor involvement
whose motivation and values may not necessarily align with those of the public or
government.
Furthermore, ‘earmarking’ is a strategy favoured by many international donors
who fear corruption in recipient governments, therefore ‘earmark’ direct sector or
programme funding rather than general government budget support49 (Foster and
Leavy, 2001). This not only shifts the agenda-making power to donors who have the
authority to set priorities and direct funds accordingly, but also creates patchy and
unsustainable development where some sectors outperform others.
An additional significant problem of dependency upon international agenda-
making for countries receiving aid is that globally recommended ‘best practice’
policies often lack appropriate contextualisation to cultural, religious, or social
values. A top-down, uniform approach to policy implementation by donors also
has logistical barriers whereby local infrastructure is incapable of carrying out
donor projects effectively and producing satisfactory results. A good example
of this is the widely disseminated policy encouraging syndromic management of
sexually transmitted diseases, which was coercively incorporated into aid channels in
Mozambique, despite the clear lack of the technical expertise and human resource
capacity that such a robust policy requires50 (Cliff et al., 2004). This then perpetuates
aid dependency because donors do not receive satisfactory project results and may
consequently reduce funding without solving the problem, thus the poverty cycle
continues, and aid is required once again.
3. Demolishing aid dependency
Ending or preventing aid dependency will be contingent on affirmative action from
both donors and recipients. Botswana is a key example of recipient-led aid policy
that effectively resulted in rapidly reducing aid and therefore dependency. Botswana
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 365

began receiving aid shortly after gaining independence in 1966. 51 (Bräutigam and
Botchwey, 1999). Of primary importance here is that Botswana largely decided
the direction and use of funding; areas of priority were identified, and donors were
matched accordingly, thus avoiding reliance on donor ideas and agendas. Only
projects that the predicted government ability could absorb once aid was reduced
in the long-term were undertaken, which ensured sustainability. In contrast, the
relative ‘success story’ of Taiwan can be explained by donor-led project planning.
Taiwan received much aid from the US in the early 1960’s which focused mainly on
building infrastructural capacity-docks, railways, factories-with the aim to increase
trading systems and boost the economy. In fact, this scheme was so effective that the
US eventually withdrew aid for fear of creating competition52 (Chang, 1965).
It seems evident that recipient-led schemes and projects are more effective and
reduce the risk of dependency. Technically speaking, some argue that aid should
only ever be in the form of general government budget support rather than selective
sector or project aid because it reduces donor involvement in political processes. It is
also less bureaucratic, is less influenced by donor missions who need to produce and
report results and avoids the risk of uneven service provision53 (Moss et al., 2006).
Ideologically speaking, the aid industry today is at risk of forming a novel kind of
colonialism where ‘Western’ ideas of development and progress are used to influence
and hold power over governments of countries receiving aid.
4. Concluding thoughts
The aid industry must respond to the problem of economic and political dependence.
Coordinated efforts to monitor donor-recipient relationships, using a widely
implemented human rights-based legal and moral framework more effectively for
aid policy should be the ultimate, collective goal (Ooms and Hammonds, 2008).
The reality is however that with increasingly complex humanitarian disasters and the
destructive forces of climate change looming, the aid industry will be called upon to
increase ability and intensity which may perhaps re-direct focus from implementing
ideological change. Nevertheless, the opportunity to ‘get things right’ in aid policy
and practice persists, and it is a moral imperative that the industry and its participants
make the attempt.54
366 The Conspiracy against Africa

D. Africa and the Corrupt United Nation’s Security Council

After the two world wars, there was the need for a world governing body which
would ensure peaceful resolutions to conflicts to prevent genocides and another
world war. The United Nations was born. On the 26th of June 1945, representatives
from 51 countries gathered in San Francisco to sign the United Nations charter and
the intention was to prevent the repeat of the second world wars that have killed an
estimated of over 100 million people. Today, one hundred and ninety-three (193)
countries have signed the chatter and meet at the headquarters in Manhattan to
discuss matters of international importance.
However, this organization intended to safeguard our freedoms and rights as
laid out in the charter, is by its very nature undemocratic. How undemocratic is the
UN? What does the United Nations do? Can the United Nations harm us? Is the
UN dangerous? How dangerous is the United Nations really?
One of the main aims of the United Nations is to restore peace in war zones
and to prevent genocide and to achieve this, a multi-national peacekeeping force was
created in 1948. As of March 2016, this army has 104,773 uniformed troops around
the world. A larger force than either Canada or Australia can withstand and a larger
force than most third world countries can withstand.
It is true this peacekeeping force is under the direct control of the UN Security
council but who exactly is the commander general of this heavily equipped force?
Hervé Ladsous, a French diplomat, was appointed by the current UN secretary
General Ban Ki moon. In other words, this large heavily equipped armed force larger
than most countries’ militaries is under the direct control of an unelected official.
Not just that. Exactly where this heavily equipped force is deployed is decided by the
very undemocratic UN Security Council.
Why is the UN Security Council undemocratic? Well, the council consists of 10
non-permanent members elected every two years as well as five permanent members
(The US, The UK, France, China, and Russia). Over sixty of UN member states have
never been members of the Security Council and a big continent like Africa, has no
permanent membership. This means five nations hold arbitrary influence over where
peacekeepers are deployed, who the next secretary general will be, etc.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 367

Take the 1994 Rwandan genocide for example. Over 800,000 people died within
a period of one hundred days and the UN Security Council just stood by watching
as if nothing bad was happening in Rwanda. The five permanent member countries
were not interested in Rwanda and so the UN did not intervene. Meanwhile, because
the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were very much interested
in Libya and the fall of Gaddafi, the UN Security Council quickly approved a deal
which allowed America to sponsor some armed groups and bomb Libya (under the
banner of NATO) all to overthrow Gaddafi.
Another major problem with multi-national neutral peacekeeping force
intervening in foreign affairs is that, often it is not wanted by either side of the
conflict. Why would any country reject a UN intervention? Well, the 5 permanent
members (The US, The UK, France, China, Russia) and the UN Security Council
often intervene in places and in cases where there are financial (and not necessarily
moral) gains to be made.
Also, UN troops have been accused of misconduct against the people they
were supposed to be protecting. For example, between 2013 and 2015, French
UN peacekeepers allegedly sexually assaulted over 99 girls in the Central African
Republic. Three of those girls were allegedly forced to have sex with animals by a UN
commander. In Bosnia, peacekeepers were accused of helping traffic young girls into
sex slavery. We can go on and on. With this record, the UN is unwanted in most war
zones “why?” This is because the UN has the potential to escalate conflicts.

E. Africa and the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The International Criminal Court has sparked controversy with its case choice and
pursuit of justice in some African states notably Uganda and Sudan.
In July 2008, the chief prosecutor of the six-year-old International Criminal
Court (ICC) presented evidence that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir committed
genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur. The announcement
rekindled a debate over the purpose of the world’s first permanent court dealing
with grave crimes. The ICC has focused its initial efforts on Africa, but some on the
continent are questioning the court’s ability to provide justice. Meanwhile, the United
368 The Conspiracy against Africa

States, initially one of the ICC’s most fervent opponents, appears to be softening its
position on the court.55
1. What is the International Criminal Court?
Established in 2002, the ICC is a permanent court to try individuals who commit
the world’s most serious crimes: genocide (the extermination of a group of people
based on race, class, or creed), war crimes (violations of the Geneva Conventions),
and crimes against humanity (systematic abuses based on political, social, or cultural
differences). The Court will determine its jurisdiction over the crimes of aggression
(yet undefined) at a review conference in 2009. The ICC does not supersede the
authority of national courts; rather, it is a “court of last resort,” governed by the
principle of complementarity: It will only act when a national government lacks
either the will or the capacity to prosecute a crime committed within its jurisdiction.
Proceedings before the ICC may be initiated by a state party, the prosecutor, or the
UN Security Council. As of July 2008, 108 countries had agreed to be bound by the
provisions of the Rome Statute, which set up the ICC. Cases can only date from the
time of the court’s start in 2002. The United States signed on to the Rome Statute
during the Clinton administration, but in 2002 the Bush administration revoked the
U.S. signature.56
2. What cases are before the ICC?
Four situations have been publicly referred to the Prosecutor of the ICC: Three state
parties (Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic)
have referred situations occurring on their territories, and the UN Security Council
has referred the situation of Darfur, Sudan. Two potential cases were dismissed in
2006 (Venezuela and U.S. actions in Iraq), and five others (Central African Republic,
Cote d’Ivoire, and three that have not been made public), remain under analysis. The
following four investigations are on-going:
Uganda. The Court has four outstanding arrest warrants for top-level members
of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), including its leader, Joseph Kony. The ICC
does not have the power to arrest these four persons; such arrests are the responsibility
of state parties. Kony refuses to negotiate with the Ugandan government unless the
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 369

ICC drops its indictments. As a result, Ugandans, including victims of the LRA,
have accused the ICC of undermining the country’s peace process.57
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In March 2006, Thomas Lubanga
Dyilo was surrendered to the court by the Congolese government after a February
warrant for his arrest. His trial was set to begin in June 2008 but has been delayed
because ICC judges determined the prosecution had withheld evidence from the
defence. Lubanga, a militia leader in the country’s northeast, stands accused of
recruiting children under the age of fifteen to fight in the DRC’s civil war. Two other
Congolese rebel leaders were indicted by the court in July 2007 as co-perpetrators of
four counts of crimes against humanity and nine counts of war crimes. A third rebel
leader was indicted for conscription of child soldiers in August 2006, but his warrant
was not publicly released until April 2008.58
Darfur, Sudan. The UN Security Council voted to refer the issue of Darfur to
the ICC in March 2005 in response to on-going reports from UN experts and others
about atrocities committed against civilians on a mass scale. The ICC prosecutor
told the UN General Assembly (PDF) in October 2006 that the court has started
pre-trial investigations, including more than fifty missions to fifteen countries, the
screening of close to 500 potential witnesses, and three missions to Khartoum to
assess national proceedings. In May 2007, the court issued warrants for Ahmad
Muhammad Harun, minister of humanitarian affairs, and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-
Al-Rahman, a Janjaweed militia leader. In July 2008, the ICC’s chief prosecutor
presented evidence that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had committed genocide,
war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The court has several months to
decide whether to indict Bashir.59
Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of the Republic of Sudan since 16
October 1993 at time of warrants. Arrest warrants: 4 March 2009 and 12 July 2010
“Charges: five counts of crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, forcible
transfer, torture, and rape; two counts of war crimes: intentionally directing
attacks against a civilian population as such or against individual civilians not
taking part in hostilities, and pillaging; three counts of genocide: by killing, by
causing serious bodily or mental harm, and by deliberately inflicting on each target
370 The Conspiracy against Africa

group conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction,
allegedly committed at least between 2003 and 2008 in Darfur, Sudan
The first warrant for arrest for Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir was issued on 4
March 2009, the second on 12 July 2010. The suspect is still at large.
Next steps: Until Omar Al Bashir is arrested and transferred to the seat of the
Court in The Hague, the case will remain in the Pre-Trial stage. The ICC does not
try individuals unless they are present in the courtroom.”60 - Al Bashir Case “The
Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir” ICC-02/05-01/09 (Pre-trial)
Central African Republic. In May 2008, the court indicted Jean-Pierre Bemba
Gombo, leader of the rebel group Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC) for
crimes against humanity and war crimes.
3. Why are so many ICC cases in Africa?
The prosecutor of the ICC has encouraged self-referrals, and the only such referrals
have been from African countries. While the ICC has received some 1,700
communications to investigate alleged crimes in 139 countries, 80 percent of these
communications have been found outside the authority of the court. This is “not a
question of picking on Africa,” says John Washburn (PDF) of the American NGO
Coalition for the ICC. “The UN Security Council referred [Darfur], and the other
countries came forward voluntarily.” Some international law experts say the weakness
of Africa’s national legal systems has led individual countries to refer situations to the
ICC. Most African states have yet to implement the Rome Statutes in their domestic
legislation, write Olympia Bekou and Sangeeta Shah in Human Rights Law Review,
which is the first step toward retaining domestic jurisdiction. “Strengthening domestic
prosecutions so that the ICC does not have to intervene should be the ultimate goal
of every state,” 61 they write.
Established in 2002, the ICC is a permanent court to try individuals who commit
the world’s most serious crimes: genocide (the extermination of a group of people
based on race, class, or creed), war crimes (violations of the Geneva Conventions),
and crimes against humanity (systematic abuses based on political, social, or cultural
differences.62
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 371

Others say despite the need for Africa to strengthen its domestic judiciaries, the
continent is showing its commitment to international criminal justice. The African
referrals to the ICC show “the resolve the African governments have to say that
impunity must end,”63 ICC Deputy Prosecutor Bensouda said in an interview with
Newsweek.

International Criminal Court Cases

There have been thirty-one cases before the ICC. Eight have resulted in acquittals
or no charges, while five have resulted in reparations or imprisonment.64
4. What criticisms are levelled against the ICC?
In Uganda, the LRA’s Joseph Kony is refusing a peace deal unless the ICC drops its
indictments against himself and three other LRA leaders. Ugandans are increasingly
dissatisfied with the ICC, which they say does not respect their desire for traditional
reconciliation and is undermining efforts for genuine peace in their country. The UN
Security Council can postpone an investigation for twelve months, but most think
this is unlikely. “Why would anyone want to help him [Kony] out?” asks Washburn.
Unfair treatment of defence: Lubanga’s defence lawyer says the defence team
has been given a smaller budget than the ICC’s prosecutors, his evidence and witness
statements have been slow to arrive, and many documents are impossible to read
because they have been so heavily redacted by the ICC, who looks to protect the
identity of victims. The International Bar Association has corroborated the defence’s
concerns.
Choice of cases is not transparent: Human rights organizations charge that the
prosecutor has not been clear about his choice of cases. Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo
has defended his choices as the “gravest admissible situations” within his district, and
the charge he has brought against Lubanga as the one for which he had the strongest
evidence. “Because this is the first case there are a great many unresolved issues and
potential bugs in the system about how the ICC is to conduct judicial proceedings,”
Washburn says. “The prosecutor rightly wanted to have a case that was very simple,
very clean, with very strong evidence.”65
On the other hand, some experts say the Sudanese government’s opposition to
the court, as well as the LRA’s demands for amnesty, indicate the ICC has quickly
372 The Conspiracy against Africa

established itself as a force for rule of law. Scheffer says the performance of the
court thus far is “encouraging.” The ICC’s “capacity to produce deterrence is clearly
dependent on its being successful in trying people and putting them in jail,” says
Washburn. But, he adds, the ICC “is here for the long haul.”66
5. Is the ICC a tool to re-colonise Africa?
“The fact that the ICC has focused so overwhelmingly on African situations prompts
questions about why the gaze of international criminal justice falls in some places
and on some people and not on others. The Court’s focus on Africa has stirred
African sensitivities about sovereignty and self-determination – not least because of
the continent’s history of colonisation and a pattern of decisions made for Africa by
outsiders,” 67 says Nicholas Waddell and Phil Clark in their seminal work, Courting
Conflicts? – Justice, Peace, and the ICC in Africa. So far, the Court has indicted 27
Africans from seven countries. Why? What lies behind the focus on Africa? asks Dr
David Hoile.
It was Alexander Murdoch Mackay, the Scottish Presbyterian missionary to
Uganda, who observed in 1889: “In former years, the universal aim was to steal
Africans from Africa. Today the determination of Europe is to steal Africa from the
Africans.” 68 A hundred and twenty-three years later, Europe appears to still be trying
to steal both Africa and the Africans. They are now using their new creation, the
International Criminal Court (ICC), to steal Africans from Africa to put on show-
trials in Western Europe.
This has been seen as a means of destabilising the African continent – something
which then makes the political domination of Africa and the subsequent exploitation
of African minerals and resources that much easier. As the African Union has put
it: “The abuse and misuse of indictments against African leaders have a destabilising
effect that will negatively impact on political, social and economic development of
member states and their ability to conduct international relations…”69.
The ICC’s actions have provoked furious debates over the Court’s potential
impact, its exclusive focus on Africa over other parts of the world, its selection of
cases, and the effect of its indictments and prosecutions on peace processes on the
African continent. Over-zealous evangelism has been caught up in double standards,
hypocrisy, racial stereotyping, and national and personal agendas.70
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 373

Judge Richard Goldstone (the ICC enthusiast from South Africa) has highlighted
the political nature of the international criminal tribunals that preceded the ICC:
“The problem with the UN Security Council is that it says no in the case of Cambodia,
Mozambique, Iraq, and other places where terrible war crimes have been committed,
but yes in the case of Yugoslavia and Rwanda. That’s a political way of deciding
where international justice should be meted out. There has long been a concern
that these tribunals ‘politicise justice’… It is noteworthy that no ad hoc tribunals
were established to investigate war crimes committed by any of the five permanent
members of the UN Security Council or those nations these powerful states might
wish to protect.”71.
Prof Mahmood Mamdani, the influential Ugandan academic, agrees: “The fact
of mutual accommodation between the world’s only superpower and an international
institution struggling to get its bearings is clear if we consider the four countries
whereby [by 2009] the ICC had launched its DR Congo. All…are places where the
US has no objection to the course charted by the ICC investigations.73
Its name notwithstanding, the ICC is rapidly turning into a Western court to try
African crimes against humanity.
“In Uganda, the ICC has charged only the leadership of the [rebel group] LRA
but not that of the pro-US government [headed by President Museveni]. In Sudan,
the ICC has charged officials of the Sudan government. In DR Congo, the ICC has
remained mum about the links between the armies of Uganda and Rwanda – both
pro-US – and the ethnic militias that have been at the heart of the slaughter of
civilians.74
Mamdani notes further that: “The ICC’s attempted accommodation with
the powers that have changed the international face of the Court. Its name
notwithstanding, the ICC is rapidly turning into a Western court to try African
crimes against humanity. Even then, its approach is selective: it targets governments
that are adversaries of the US and ignores US allies, effectively conferring impunity
on them.”75.
In their well-argued paper, “The Impact of Timing of International Criminal
Indictments on Peace Processes and Humanitarian Action”, Jacqueline Geis and
Alex Mundt noted that “although the ICC was established as an impartial arbiter
374 The Conspiracy against Africa

of international justice, both the timing and nature of its indictments issued to
date suggest that the intervention of the ICC in situations of on-going conflict is
influenced by broader external factors.”76.
“Broader external factors” bring into sharp focus the indictment by the ICC of
the ex-Libyan leader, Muammar Al Gadhafi, during last year’s NATO war in Libya.
Gadhafi’s indictment contrasts starkly with the ICC’s silence on the presidents of
Syria and Yemen, and the King of Bahrain where similar “war crimes” and “crimes
against humanity” as alleged by the ICC to have occurred in Libya under Gadhafi
have happened over the past year. But Gadhafi, then being bombed and wanted by
the Western powers, was indicted by the ICC, while, to date, the Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the King of Bahrain
Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa have been left in peace.77
Another example is the ICC actions in Sudan regarding the Darfur situation,
which have been particularly controversial not least because Sudan, as a non-signatory
of the Rome Statute, does not come under the ICC’s jurisdiction. In so doing, the
ICC has polarised international opinion on the Court.
Unfortunately for the ICC and Europe, they are targeting Africa at a time when
the continent is asserting its political and economic independence. As a result, Africa
has rejected European and ICC attempts at regime change by deeply questionable
legal diktat. Broadly, the ICC has emerged as a de facto European court, funded by
Europe, directed by Europe, and focused almost exclusively on the African continent,
and thereby serving Western political and economic interests in Africa.78
“Some commentators alleged that the prosecutor has limited investigations to Africa
because of geopolitical pressures, either out of a desire to avoid confrontation with
major powers or as a tool of Western foreign policy.”79.
Geis and Mundt have noted how the ICC’s Africa focus is fragmenting
international opinion: “The broad international consensus in favour of the Rome
Statute has begun to fray as the Court pursued justice in some of the world’s most
politically charged and complex crises, all of which happened to fall within Africa.
At the same time, other states such as Burma and North Korea have so far eluded
potential ICC investigations, most likely for geopolitical reasons and/or deference
to regional interests. Other commentators alleged that the prosecutor has limited
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 375

investigations to Africa because of geopolitical pressures, either out of a desire to

avoid confrontation with major powers or as a tool of Western foreign policy.” 80.
This reality has been picked up by the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. He
has dismissed the ICC as a new form of imperialism created by the West and “put
in place only for African countries, only for poor countries”. He said that the ICC
reflected “colonialism, slavery and imperialism”.81.
The distinguished international peace researcher and a past senior vice rector of
the United Nations University, Prof Ramesh Thakur, reflects this growing consensus
within the developing world: “A troubling issue is how an initiative of international
criminal justice meant to protect vulnerable people from brutal national rulers has
managed to be subverted into an instrument of power against vulnerable countries.
A court meant to embody and pursue universal justice is in practice reduced to
imposing selective justice of the West against the rest.”82.

The cases
The Rome Statute provides that individuals or organisations may submit
information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC. These submissions
are referred to as “communications” or complaints. By February 2006, the ICC
prosecutor had received 1,732 communications alleging crimes worldwide. As of
4 October 2007, the Office of the Prosecutor had received 2,889 communications
about alleged crimes in at least 139 countries. As of 1 February 2006, 60% of the
communications had originated in just four countries: the USA, UK, France, and
Germany.83
As of end September 2010, the Office of the Prosecutor had received 8,874
communications about alleged crimes. After initial review, 4,002 of these
communications were dismissed as “manifestly outside the jurisdiction of the Court”.
84
The ICC has opened investigations in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic,
Côte d’Ivoire, Darfur, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Libya,
Uganda, Bangladesh/Myanmar, Palestine, and Venezuela.85 Additionally, the Office
of the Prosecutor conducted preliminary examinations in situations in Bolivia,
Colombia, Guinea, Iraq / the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Georgia, Honduras, South
Korea, Ukraine and Venezuela. 86 Preliminary investigations were closed in Gabon;
376 The Conspiracy against Africa

Honduras; registered vessels of Comoros, Greece, and Cambodia; South Korea; and
Colombia on events since 1 July 2002. 87
The ICC is the first permanent international criminal court dedicated to
investigating and potentially prosecuting individuals in positions of power who are
allegedly involved in serious crimes against communities. There have only been 30
cases before the court since it began sittings nearly 20 years ago.88
The ICC’s Rome Statute establishes the four core crimes in which the ICC has
jurisdiction: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.
“Crimes against humanity” encompass one or more of the following “when committed
as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,
with knowledge of the attack”:89.
• Murder.
• Extermination.
• Enslavement.
• Deportation or forcible transfer of population.
• Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of
fundamental rules of international law.
• Torture.
• Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization,
or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity.
• Persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial,
national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other
grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law,
in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the
jurisdiction of the Court.
• Enforced disappearance of persons.
• The crime of apartheid.
Other inhumane acts of a similar character are intentionally causing great
suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 377

As of July 2009, the prosecutor reported that his office had “received over 8,137
communications from more than 130 countries”. Yet, despite all these complaints,
the ICC has started investigations into just 7 countries, all of them African: Uganda,
DR Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Kenya, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya; and
has indicted 27 people, all of them again Africans. Die-hard supporters of the ICC
have tried to explain the ICC focus away. When asked in 2005 about the fact that
the ICC’s only referrals up to then had been African, Judge Goldstone replied that
“it is a coincidence that the first four cases have come from Africa”.90
When pressed on the fact that all his cases and investigations have been in
Africa and nowhere else, Moreno-Ocampo has always defended this narrow focus
by claiming that they were all “self-referrals” by the African countries themselves, or
in the case of Sudan, by the UN Security Council. Ocampo claims that he is merely
responding to spontaneous referrals from African state members of the ICC. “Why
focus on cases in Africa? Because… the leaders requested our intervention,”91 he says.
But this is a deceit! The ICC brought considerable pressure to bear on both
Uganda and DR Congo to refer themselves to the Court. On 17 July 2003, Ocampo
announced that he had analysed the 500 complaints the ICC had then received since
the Rome Statute had entered into force. Of all the complaints, he chose to “follow
closely” the situation in DR Congo.92 On 3 September 2008, the US Congressional
Research Service confirmed that: “According to an Office of Prosecutor official,
referrals by the governments of Uganda and DRC followed moves by the Office
of the Prosecutor to open investigations under its discretionary power”.93 Human
Rights Watch baldly confirmed that “the Office of the Prosecutor actively sought the
referrals in the DRC and Uganda”.94
On 17 July 2008, Ocampo himself admitted that he had invited Uganda and
DR Congo to refer their situations to the ICC. 92As the Inner City Press later noted:
95
“After this admission, to argue that Moreno-Ocampo is only responding to requests
is no longer tenable.”
The truth is that Ocampo made it very clear to both DR Congo and Uganda that
he had been “closely analysing the situation in the DRC since July 2003. In September
2003, Ocampo informed the states parties that he was ready to request authorisation
from the Pre-Trial Chamber to use his own powers to start an investigation, but that
378 The Conspiracy against Africa

a referral and active support from the DRC would assist his work”.96 In autumn
2003, Ocampo said he was ready to act but pointed out that he preferred to wait for
the Congolese government to ask him to intervene.
The American Non-Governmental Organisations Coalition for the ICC confirms
that “in July 2003, Prosecutor Ocampo identified Uganda as an area of concern.”
97
In December 2003, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, was forced to
“refer” the situation in his country to the ICC.98 Under similar pressure, DR Congo
“welcomed” the ICC involvement, and in March 2004, the Congolese government
“referred” the situation in the country to the Court.99

The ICC action in Uganda has been criticised for three main reasons:
• Selectivity and bias on the part of the ICC and its prosecutor.
• severely damaging the peace process in the country; and
• trying to impose a retributive European model of justice on Africans.
It is a matter of record that President Museveni may have had second thoughts
about the referral. Even before the warrants were issued, he asked the ICC to drop
the charges. The government later stated that traditional justice would be a more
effective tool for dealing with the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and
its crimes.
The Western response was immediate – arrogant. The London-based Amnesty
International declared this could not be done. A conference in the USA, chaired by
Judge Goldstone, said:
“The Ugandan government may believe it can simply retract the referral and
nullify the work of the ICC, if the UPDF [the Ugandan army] is implicated. It is
not clear that the government understands that once an investigation is launched,
it can only be delayed by the UN, it cannot be revoked.” The American legal
expert, Prof Tom Ginsburg, has clearly said the case: “A government that wants to
make a decision to forgive cannot do so, once it has signed the Rome Statute.”100.
The lesson therefore is a clear one for any government considering referring a
situation to the ICC. However cosy the arrangement may have been at the start,
although much the prosecutor may have wooed the government in question for a
referral, once in play it has its own life.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 379

• Compare and contrast.

In contrast to the ICC action in Africa, the Office of the ICC Prosecutor reported
in February 2006 that it had received 240 communications in connection with the
invasion of Iraq in March 2003, which alleged that various war crimes had been
committed. Many of these complaints concerned the British participation in the
invasion, as well as alleged responsibility for torture deaths whilst in detention in
British-controlled areas. 101
On 9 February 2006, Ocampo published his response to all those who raised the
issue of Iraq, which included the allegations in respect of the targeting of civilians or
clearly excessive attacks; wilful killing or inhuman treatment of civilians. Ocampo
stated that there was insufficient evidence for proceeding with an investigation in
connection with the targeting of civilians or clearly excessive attacks.102
He concluded that the situation in Iraq did not appear to meet the “gravity”
threshold necessary to initiate any such investigations, and that there was a reasonable
basis for believing that there had been an estimated 4 to 12 victims of wilful killing
and a limited number of victims of inhuman treatment, totalling in all less than 20
persons.103
Even Alan Dershowitz, the conservative American lawyer, jurist, and political
commentator, has said that the armed forces of the US and the UK have “caused
the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. He prefaces that
acknowledgement with “inadvertently”, but Ocampo has ignored all these deaths.104
The ICC has also ignored a range of crimes that would seem to fall within its
legal mandate committed by Western security companies in Iraq. These included a
September 2007 shooting incident in Nisour Square in Baghdad in which the Iraqi
government said contractors from [a US security company] killed 17 Iraqi civilians
and wounded more than 20 others.105
The ICC also continues to ignore the situation in Iraq, as it does events in
Afghanistan and Gaza and the Occupied Territories in Palestine. It is perhaps worth
mentioning that Afghanistan is a member of the ICC.106
In 2008, the UN reported that US, NATO, and Afghan forces handled over
828 civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Most of these were the result of US and NATO
air strikes. In effect, the death of more than 90 Afghan civilians, and the injury to
380 The Conspiracy against Africa

dozens more, in a military air strike (one of many such air strikes resulting in civilian
fatalities) are ignored by the ICC. Yet, the death of 57-157 protestors during a
demonstration in Conakry, Guinea, is the subject of an official ICC investigation.107
Human Rights Watch has also confirmed that the ICC’s impartiality has come
into question in Uganda: “The ICC badly needs to regain the confidence and trust
of the people whose interests it is pursuing. It must correct the image it has bought
of an institution subject to manipulation by the Ugandan government for political
expediency. It must restore the image of a credible international institution.” 108.
In Africa generally, the ICC and its prosecutor have been extraordinarily selective
and partisan. They have chosen cases which they knew would not antagonise the US.
They have also clearly avoided cases which would embarrass the governments in
whose countries the ICC was physically present and active.
It is a matter of record that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s
only credible international legal institution, has itself pointed conclusively to Ugandan
government involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed
on Congolese territory. In a 2005 landmark case, the ICJ passed on judicially on
claims by DR Congo that its neighbour Uganda had invaded Congolese territory,
plundered its natural resources, and massacred its civilians.109
The ICJ held that both international humanitarian law and human rights
obligations were binding on the Ugandan troops then occupying DR Congo, and
that the Ugandan government was liable under the doctrine of responsibility for
those acts. Those crimes were unambiguously documented by the ICJ and having
occurred in large part after the establishment of the ICC thus came within the ICC’s
brief. It was the sort of case that the ICC had been created for: bringing to justice an
otherwise unaccountable head-of-state and government engaging in the most serious
of crimes.110
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 381

Yet, despite the ICJ’s detailed listing of serious war crimes, the ICC chose instead
to indict Thomas Lubanga for allegedly using child soldiers in DR Congo. And,
of course, similarly, the ICC has not indicted any Ugandan officer or official for
involvement in the large-scale crimes against humanity for which they have been
responsible within Uganda itself – choosing to charge only Ugandan rebels. It would
be difficult to imagine clearer examples of the Ugandan government being given
“exemption or freedom from punishment” by the ICC.111
The Court has similarly turned a blind eye to alleged crimes against humanity
committed by the Congolese government inside Congo itself, thus according to
impunity to the government in Kinshasa.
Some critics believe that the ICC has deliberately sought out Africa. This is quite
simply because the Western European states and NGOs at the heart of the ICC
see the continent as a “free fire zone” in which to experiment with a questionable
European legal model, established by a flawed statute.112

F. Foreign Military Bases in Africa

Why has the Horn of Africa become a geopolitical battleground for foreign
nations?
Foreign military intervention in Africa is controversial when it happens, and
occasionally controversial when it doesn’t.
It’s a symptom of the fragility of African states, and the power of external interests.
The long and inglorious history of intervention runs from colonial and post-colonial
struggles, through to the Cold War, and up to the present day.
But we are now in a complex, multipolar world. The “war on terror”, the arrival of
China, and the emergence of regional powers, jostling for influence, has complicated
the map. Nothing better illustrates this than the spread of foreign military bases on
African soil.113
The twin hotspots are the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. “It’s where Europe
touches Africa, and where Africa touches the Middle East,” explained the Africa
director for the International Crisis Group, Comfort Ero.
The Sahel controls the migration route that conveys young men and women
across the Mediterranean. It’s also a zone of instability, where al-Qaeda, so-called
382 The Conspiracy against Africa

Islamic State and Boko Haram operate. It’s where state administration and even basic
services are absent, encouraging that flow.
From bases across the region, US drones and French soldiers have joined African
armies to push the militants into the remote hinterlands. But blasting Jihadists from
the sky does not win the hearts and minds argument.
“The challenge is, despite the rise of new security structures in the last few years,
they haven’t done much to change the [political] dynamic on the ground,” Ero told
IRIN.
Those alliances also give leaders like Idriss Déby in Chad and Ismaïl Omar
Guelleh in Djibouti some regime security and a pass on their dodgy human rights
record.
And Guelleh has milked it. Djibouti lies on the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a gateway
to the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. It’s also a waypoint
between Africa, India, and the Middle East, and makes a lot of money from hosting
seven armies – America, China, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, and soon Saudi
Arabia.
The lease on the only permanent US military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier
is $63 million a year. China, building its own facility at the other end of the Gulf of
Tadjoura, gets a bargain at $20 million. Only Iran seems to have been refused a berth
in Djibouti.
The following is a rough guide to whose boots are where in Africa.

China
• Djibouti: China is building its first overseas military base at the port of
Obock, across the Gulf of Tadjoura from the US Expeditionary Base at Camp
Lemonnier. It’s the latest in China’s $12 billion investments in Djibouti,
including a new port, airports, and the Ethiopia-Djibouti rail line. The base
will have the capacity to house several thousand troops and is expected to help
supply security for China’s interests in the rest of the Horn of Africa.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 383

France
• Chad: Headquarters of the anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane. The roughly
3,500 French troops run in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.
• Cote d’Ivoire: The facility at Port-Bouët, a suburb of Abidjan, is to be expanded
from 500 to 900 men and form a forward operating base for West Africa.
• Djibouti: A long-standing French military presence, now making up roughly
1,700 personnel.
• Gabon: A key base that has contributed troops to France’s interventions in
Central African Republic.

Germany
• Niger: An air transport base at Niamey international airport to support
Germany’s growing troop contribution to the UN mission in Mali.

India
• Madagascar: India’s first foreign listening post was set up in northern
Madagascar in 2007 to keep an eye on ship movements in the Indian Ocean
and listen in on maritime communications.
• The Seychelles: Has distributed land on Assumption Island for India to build
its first naval base in the Indian Ocean region. The ostensible interest is counter-
piracy, but India also seems to be keeping an eye on China.

Japan
• Djibouti: Since 2011, a contingent of 180 troops has occupied a 12-hectare site
next to Camp Lemonnier. This year, the outpost will be expanded. The move
is seen as a counter to Chinese influence, linked to a new strategic engagement
with Africa, underlined by the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African
Development held in Nairobi last year.
384 The Conspiracy against Africa

Saudi Arabia
• Djibouti: After falling out with Djibouti, Riyadh is now finalising an agreement
to build a new base. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition fighting Houthi rebels
in Yemen, across the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

Turkey
• Somalia: Ankara’s first military base in Africa is a training facility for Somali
troops. Turkey has steadily increased its influence in Somalia, with major
development and commercial projects. In 2011, then Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first foreign leader to visit Mogadishu since
the start of the civil war.

United Arab Emirates

• Eritrea: In 2015, the UAE began developing the mothballed deepwater port
of Assab and its 3,500-metre runway, capable of landing large transport planes.
Assab is now the UAE’s main logistics hub for all operations in Yemen, including
the naval blockade of the Red Sea ports of Mokha and Hodeida. In return, the
isolated Eritrean government has received a financial and infrastructural aid
package.
• Libya: Operates counter-insurgency attack aircraft and drones from Al-
Khadim airport in eastern Libya in support of the Libyan National Army
fighting jihadist militants.
• Somalia: The UAE trains and equips Somalia’s counterterrorism unit and
National Intelligence and Security Agency. It also supports the Puntland
Maritime Police Force, which is believed to have played a role in interdicting
Iranian weapons smuggling to the Houthis.
• Somaliland: The UAE has a 30-year lease on a naval and airbase at the port of
Berbera. Last year, Dubai Ports World won a contract to manage and double
the size of the port, ending Djibouti’s monopoly on Ethiopia’s freight traffic.
The UAE is reportedly providing military training and a security guarantee to
the self-declared independent territory.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 385

United Kingdom
• Kenya: A permanent training support unit based mainly in Nanyuki, 200
kilometres north of Nairobi.

United States
• Burkina Faso: A “cooperative security location” in Ouagadougou provides
surveillance and intelligence over the Sahel.
• Cameroon: Garoua airport in northern Cameroon is also a drone base targeting
Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria. It houses unarmed Predator drones and
some 300 US soldiers.
• Chad: Predator and Reaper drones are based in the capital, Ndjamena.
• Central African Republic: US special forces are based in the “temporary sites”
of Obo and Djema, helping the Ugandan army hunt for Joseph Kony and his
Lord’s Resistance Army
• Democratic Republic of Congo: Dungu is another “temporary site” used in
the hunt for Kony.
• Djibouti: Camp Lemonnier, a 200-hectare expeditionary base housing some
3,200 US soldiers and civilians next to the international airport. Home to the
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa of the US Africa Command, it is
the only permanent US military base in Africa.
• Ethiopia: A small drone facility at Arba Minch was operational since 2011 but
is now believed to have closed.
• Gabon: Bare-bones launch pad for quick-reaction forces called in to protect
diplomatic facilities in the region.
• Ghana: Bare-bones launch pad for quick-reaction forces.
• Kenya: Camp Simba in Manda Bay is a base for naval personnel and Green
Berets. It also houses armed drones for operations in Somalia and Yemen.
• Niger: An initial base in Niamey has been overshadowed by Agadez, capable
of handling large transport aircraft and armed Reaper drones. The base covers
the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin
386 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Somalia: US commandos are operating from compounds in Kismayo and

Baledogle.
• The Seychelles: Drone operations from a base on the island of Victoria.
• Senegal: The Senegal facility was used during the US military’s Ebola response.
• South Sudan: Nzara airfield is another base for US troops searching for Kony,
and related surveillance operations. US special forces have also provided training
to South Sudanese troops.
• Uganda: PC-12 surveillance aircraft fly from Entebbe airport as part of the US
special force mission helping the Ugandan army hunt for Joseph Kony and the
Lord’s Resistance Army.
• Ghana: Kotoka International Airport T1 was the latest US military base in
West Africa. Although it has no physical structures and technically not called
a military base, but operationally and administratively, it is nothing short of a
military base.
*This story was updated on 20 February 2017 to include a United Arab Emirates’
base in Libya, and several US facilities in West and Central Africa not included in
the original report.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 387

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5. I.A.D. Elbadawi et al, (1992) “Why Structural Adjustment has not Succeeded
in Sub-Saharan Africa, Policy Research, Working Papers, Transitional Macro-
Adjustment, WPS 1000, Washington D.C: Country Economic Department,
World Bank.
6. D. Befekadu (1988), “Traditional Adjustment Mechanism, the World Bank,
the IMF, and the Developing Economies; Survey of Theories and Issues’
background paper for the African Alternative Framework to Structural
Adjustment Programmes for Socio-economic Recovery and Transformation,
UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
7. R. Bates’ (1981), “Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of
Agricultural Policies” Berkeley: University of California Press.
8. Ibid
388 The Conspiracy against Africa

9. I.A.D. Elbadawi et al, (1992) “Why Structural Adjustment has not Succeeded
in Sub-Saharan Africa, Policy Research, Working Papers, Transitional Macro-
Adjustment, WPS 1000, Washington D.C: Country Economic Department,
World Bank.
10. D. Befekadu (1988), “Traditional Adjustment Mechanism, the World Bank,
the IMF, and the Developing Economies; Survey of Theories and Issues’
background paper for the African Alternative Framework to Structural
Adjustment Programmes for Socio-economic Recovery and Transformation,
UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. See also J.K. Horsfield (1969) “International
Monetary Fund 1945-65, vol. 1 Chronicle. Washington D.C: International
Monetary Fund.
11. Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle is an Assistant Professor at Carleton University. His
areas of interest include research method and data analysis, theory, and practice
of development in the third world, problems of African development, the African
diaspora, comparative political analysis, and public affairs and management.
See Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle, “The Politics of one-sided Adjustment in Africa”
(PDF).
12. Ibid.
13. M. Rahnema and Victoria Bawtree (1997), “The Post Development Reader”,
Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
14. Ibid.
15. R. Bates’ (1981), “Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of
Agricultural Policies” Berkeley: University of California Press.
16. Ibid.
17. Deepak Lal (1985), “The Poverty of ‘Development Economies’” Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
18. D. Senghaas (1985), “The European Experience: A Historical Critique of
Development Theory”, Leamington: Berg.
19. C. Ake (1996), “Democracy and Development in Africa”, Washington D.C:
The Brookings Institution.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 389

20. Deepak Lal (1985), “The Poverty of ‘Development Economies’” Cambridge:

Harvard University Press.
21. OAU: (1986), p. 27
22. R. Bates’ (1981), “Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of
Agricultural Policies” Berkeley: University of California Press.
23. D. Befekadu (1988), “Traditional Adjustment Mechanism, the World Bank,
the IMF, and the Developing Economies; Survey of Theories and Issues’
background paper for the African Alternative Framework to Structural
Adjustment Programmes for Socio-economic Recovery and Transformation,
UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
24. Ibid
25. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) (1996), “Country Profile 1995-1996,
Zaire; Zambia, London: The London Economic Intelligence Unit.
26. Ibid
27. Ibid
28. Ibid
29. Ibid
30. Ibid
31. Ibid
32. Ibid
33. Ibid
34. I.A.D. Elbadawi et al, (1992) “Why Structural Adjustment has not Succeeded
in Sub-Saharan Africa, Policy Research, Working Papers, Transitional Macro-
Adjustment, WPS 1000, Washington D.C: Country Economic Department,
World Bank. See also I.A. Elbadawi (1992), “Have World Bank-Supported
Adjustment Programs Improved Economic Performance in Sub-Sahara Africa?
Policy Research Working Papers, Transition and Macro-Adjustment, WPS
1001 (Washington D.C: Country economic Department, World Bank)
35. Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle is an Assistant Professor at Carleton University. His
areas of interest include research method and data analysis, theory, and practice
390 The Conspiracy against Africa

of development in the third world, problems of African development, the African

diaspora, comparative political analysis, and public affairs and management.
See Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle, “The Politics of one-sided Adjustment in Africa”
(PDF).
36. Victoria Stanford, “Aid Dependency: The Damage of Donation”, University of
Edinburg, July 31, 2015. https:/www.twigh.org
37. Collinson S and Duffied M (2013) Paradoxes of Presence: Risk Management
and aid culture in challenging environments, Humanitarian Policy Group,
Overseas Development Institute [Online] Available at: http://www.odi.org/
sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8428.pdf [Accessed
02 January 2015].
38. Moyo D (2009) Dead Aid, Penguin; London, pp.12
39. Thomas A, Viciani L and Tench J et al (2011) Ending Aid Dependency, Action
Aid; London.
40. Victoria Stanford, “Aid Dependency: The Damage of Donation”, University of
Edinburg, July 31, 2015. https:/www.twigh.org
41. Bräuntigam D and Knack S (2004) Foreign aid, institutions and governance in
Sub-Saharan Africa, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol 52;2,
pp.255-285.
42. Clemens MA, Radelet S and Bhavnani R (2012) Counting Chickens when
they Hatch: Timing and the Effects of Aid on Growth, The Economic Journal,
122(561), 590-617.
43. Shah A (2012) Food aid, Global Issues [Online] Available at: URL: http://
www. Global issues. org/article/748/food-aid [Accessed January 02, 2015]
44. Thomas A, Viciani L and Tench J et al (2011) Ending Aid Dependency, Action
Aid; London.
45. Bräuntigam D and Knack S (2004) Foreign aid, institutions and governance in
Sub-Saharan Africa, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol 52;2,
pp.255-285.
46. Bräutigam, D. (2000). Aid dependence and governance, Almqvist & Wiksell
International; Stockholm pp.14.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 391

47. Ibid
48. Moss T, Pettersson G andVan de Walle, N (2006) An aid-institutions paradox?
A review essay on aid dependency and state building in sub-Saharan Africa,
Centre for Global Development; Working paper No. 74.
49. Foster M and Leavy J (2001) The choice of financial aid instruments. London:
Overseas Development Institute, pp.4.
50. Cliff J, Walt G and Nhatave, I (2004) What’s in a Name? Policy transfers in
Mozambique: DOTS for tuberculosis and syndromic management for sexually
transmitted infections. Journal of Public Health Policy, 25;1, p.38-55
51. Bräutigam D and Botchwey K (1999) The institutional impact of aid dependence
on recipients in Africa. Chr. Michelsen Institute; Working Paper 1.
52. Chang D (1965) US Aid and Economic progress in Taiwan, Asian Survey, Vol
5;3, pp.152-160.
53. Moss T, Patterson G and Van de Walle, N (2006) An aid-institutions paradox?
A review essay on aid dependency and state building in sub-Saharan Africa,
Centre for Global Development; Working paper No. 74.
54. Victoria Stanford, “Aid Dependency: The Damage of Donation”, University of
Edinburg, July 31, 2015. https:/www.twigh.org
55. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org
56. Ibid
57. Ibid
58. Ibid
59. Ibid
60. Al Bashir Case, “The Prosecutor vs Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir”, ICC-
02/05-01/09 (Pre-trial)
61. Claire Klobucista (2002), “The Rise of the International Criminal Court”. See
www.cfr.org. see also Olympia Bekou and Sangeeta Shah, Human Rights Law
Review.
392 The Conspiracy against Africa

62. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
63. ICC Deputy Prosecutor, Bensouda made this statement in an interview with
Newsweek, quoted in Stephanie Hanson (2008), op. cit.
64. Claire Klobucista (2002), op. cit.
65. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
66. Ibid
67. Nicholas Waddell and Phil Clark, “Counting Conflicts? – Justice, Peace,
and the ICC in Africa” quoted in Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the
International Criminal Court”, Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.
org.
68. Alexander Murdoch Mackey, the Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Uganda
made this observation in 1889.
69. African Union made this formal accusation against the ICC.
70. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
71. Judge Richard Goldstone (the ICC enthusiast from South Africa) has highlighted
the political nature of the international criminal tribunals that preceded the
ICC, quoted in Stephanie Hanson (2008).
72. Professor Mahmood Mamdani, the influential Uganda academic made this
submission, quoted ibid.
73. Ibid
74. Ibid
75. Ibid
76. Jacqueline Geis and Alex Mundt, “The Impact of Timing of International
Criminal Indictments on Peace Processes and Humanitarian Action”, quoted
ibid.
77. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 393

78. Ibid
79. Ibid
80. Geis and Mundt have noted how the ICC’s Africa focus in fragmenting
international opinion, quoted ibid.
81. Paul Kigame had dismissed the ICC as a new form of imperialism created by
the West. Ibid.
82. Professor Ramesh Thakur, a distinguished international peace researcher and
a senior vice rector of the United Nation’s University reflects on the growing
consensus within the developing world.
83. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
84. International Criminal Court, September 2010, Communications, Referrals
and Preliminary Examinations, Accessed 27 February 2011
85. “Situations under investigation”. ICC. Archived from the original on 2021-
12-28. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
86. “Preliminary examinations”. ICC. Archived from the original on 2022-
03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-01. See also “Statement of the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, concerning referral from the
Gabonese Republic”. ICC. 2016-09-29. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
87. “Preliminary examinations”. ICC. Archived from the original on 2022-
03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-01. See also “Statement of the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, concerning referral from
the Gabonese Republic”. ICC. 2016-09-29. Retrieved 2016-09-30. See also
“Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou
Bensouda, concerning referral from the Gabonese Republic”. ICC. 2016-09-
29. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
88. “Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou
Bensouda, concerning referral from the Gabonese Republic”. ICC. 2016-09-
29. Retrieved 2016-09-30. See also International Criminal Court 20 August
2008. “ICC Prosecutor confirms situation in Georgia under analysis”. Accessed
394 The Conspiracy against Africa

on 20 August 2008. See also “ICC prosecutor eyes possible Afghanistan war
crimes”, Reuters, 2009-09-09.
89. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
90. Ibid
91. Moreno-Ocampo has always demanded his narrow focus of all his cases and
investigations on Africa alone claiming that they’re all “delf-referrals” by the
African countries themselves.
92. Ibid
93. On 3 September 2008, the US Congressional Research Service confirmed and
indicted Moreno-Ocampo, ibid.
94. Reports from Human Rights Watch
95. Inner City Press noted on the 17 July 2008 that Ocampo invited Uganda and
DR Congo to refer their situation to ICC.
96. ibid
97. The American Non-Governmental Organization Coalition for the ICC
confirmed that Ocampo found Uganda as an area of concern.
98. In December 2003, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni was forced to
“refer” the situation in his country to the ICC.
99. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
100. Ibid
101. Ibid
102. Ibid
103. Ibid
104. Ibid
105. Ibid
106. Ibid
107. Ibid
 The Subtle Re-Colonization of Africa 395

108. Human Rights Watch has also confirmed that the ICC’s impartiality has come
into question in Uganda.
109. Stephanie Hanson (2008), “Africa and the International Criminal Court”,
Council on Foreign Relations. See www.cfr.org.
110. Ibid
111. Ibid
112. Ibid
113. A number of sources substantiate this: Jackie Cilliers, “Violent Islamist
Extremism and Terror in Africa,” Institute for Security Studies, (October
2015), retrieved from https://issafrica.org/research/papers/violent-islamist-
extremism-and-terror-in-africa, pp. 1-31; Laurence Wright, The Looming
Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, (New York: Vintage Books, 2006);
“Bitter Rivals,” documentary film, Frontline PBS, (February 20, 2018),
retrieved from www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/bitter-rivals-Iran-and-Saudi-
Arabia.
 Chapter 7

SOLUTION AND STRATEGY FOR AFRICA

UNITY AND PROGRESS

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!”
-Bob Marley

A. Pan-Africanism (from OAU to AU)

Pan-Africanism is the idea that peoples of African descent have common interests
and should be unified. Historically, Pan-Africanism has often taken the shape of a
political or cultural movement. There are many varieties of Pan-Africanism. In its
narrowest political manifestation, Pan-Africanists envision a unified African nation
where all people of the African diaspora can live. (African diaspora refers to the
long-term historical process by which people of African descent have been scattered
from their ancestral homelands to other parts of the world.) In more-general terms,
Pan-Africanism is the sentiment that people of African descent have a great deal in
common, a fact that deserves notice and even celebration.1

B. The Pan-African Congress movement

During the 20th century advocates of Pan-Africanism made many efforts to
institutionalize their ideas and to create formal organizations to complement the
work of Pan-Africanist intellectuals. The first meeting designed to bring together
peoples of African descent for the purpose of discussing Pan-Africanist ideas took
place in London in 1900. The organizer was Henry Sylvester Williams, a native of
Trinidad. The meeting was attended by several prominent Blacks from Africa, Great
Britain, the West Indies, and the United States. Du Bois was perhaps the most-
prominent member of U.S. delegation.2
The first formal Pan-African Congress (the first to bear that name) took place
in 1919 in Paris and was called by Du Bois. That meeting was followed by a second
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 397

Pan-African Congress two years later, which convened in three sessions in London,
Brussels, and Paris. The most-important result of the second Pan-African Congress
was the issuance of a declaration that criticized European colonial domination in
Africa and lamented the unequal state of relations between white and Black races,
calling for a fairer distribution of the world’s resources. The declaration also challenged
the rest of the world to either create conditions of equality in the places where people
of African descent lived or recognize the “rise of a great African state founded in
Peace and Goodwill.”3.
After a third Pan-African Congress in 1923 and then a fourth in 1927, the
movement faded from the world picture until 1945, when a fifth Pan-African
Congress was held in Manchester, England. Given that Pan-Africanist leadership had
largely transferred from African Americans to Africans by the mid-1940s, Nkrumah,
Kenyatta, and Padmore played the most-prominent roles at that congress. The only
African American present was Du Bois.4
With the coming of independence for many African countries in the decades
following World War II, the cause of African unity was largely confined to the
concerns of the African continent. The formation of the Organization for African
Unity (OAU) in 1963 solidified African leadership, although a sixth Pan-African
Congress was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1974. A successor organization to
the OAU, the African Union (AU), was launched in 2002 to further promote the
social, political, and economic integration of Africa.5

C. The Need for a United States of Africa: Matters Arising!

Yes, the idea of a United States of Africa is a hypothetical concept of a federation
of some or all of the 54 sovereign states and two disputed states on the continent
of Africa. The concept takes its origin from Marcus Garvey’s 1924 poem “Hail,
United States of Africa”. The idea of a multinational unifying African state has been
compared to various medieval African empires, including the Ethiopian Empire,
the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire, the Benin Empire,
the Kanem Empire and other historic nation-states. Former President of Senegal
Abdoulaye Wade had indicated that the United States of Africa could exist as early
as 2017. However, the African Union has set itself the task of building a “united and
integrated” Africa by 2025.
398 The Conspiracy against Africa

Colonel Gaddafi pushed for the creation of the United States of Africa at the
African Union Summit in Lomé, Togo in the year 2000. He went on to provide
financial incentives to encourage agreement with his ideas.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the strongman at one point bankrolled
African Union expenses by providing at least 15% of the African Union membership
fees and helping nations in arrears like Malawi clear their balances. He then presented
the USA idea in June 2007 in Conakry, Guinea and then again in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia in February 2009. 6
It is however true that the current hastily drawn state boundaries are a Western
caricature of sorts. They are a disturbingly sharp echo of the Berlin conference and
how men from without decided the fate of Africa’s within. It was an arbitrary process
meant to save face and pretend an almost inevitable war at the time. These men
ended up drawing boundaries on geographic lines, yet Africa was based on ethnicity
and tribe which blurred boundaries.
Gaddafi’s idea was therefore a corrective measure which did not pretend to solve
the complexities of African society. The Colonel was therefore very much in the right
and to make certain he was going to be successful he approached traditional leaders
because these are in facts the true leaders of Africa. Modern day political leaders
are again a shadow of Western civilization forced on Africa to strip tradition of its
powers. Obviously, people may roll their eyes at this seemingly idealistic and slightly
quixotic idea, but it is the truth. Gaddafi sought to bring back Africa to its state of
nature where he would be royalty. The last bit did not get him any new friends and
made his plans a toll order.7
More so, the Colonel had suggested that the continent have one currency,
the Afro.8 Clearly, a United States of Africa would do away with boarders between
territories and enhance trade and travel. It has been estimated that intra-African
trade hovers around the 12% range compared to Europe’s 60% and North America’s
40%.9 One Africa would take away the unnecessary boundaries that prevent free
trade and impose unnecessary tariffs and punishment on trade.
The earlier suggestion of one currency would again do wonders for internal trade
and create one robust economy. Some conspiracy theorists claim this is why he was
killed. He wanted to create an economy that would challenge Western dominance.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 399

Now that he is gone, the world may never know. For now, everyone must be content
with regional trading blocs which have increasingly become a force in African
economics and internal trade.
In fact, Gaddafi’s idea of a single currency was approved in 1991 marking 2028
as the year by which this currency which Gaddafi hoped would be called the Afro
would have been brought into circulation in the continent. Already, eight countries
in West Africa maintain a single currency and six more in Central Africa are doing the
same. The philosophy bankrolling these moves is that Africa can only be recognized
as a force if and only if it stands up as a synergy in one accord to do away with the
imperial powers’ divide and conquer strategies.10
Though Colonel Gaddafi was buried together with Africa’s best chance of the
United States of Africa, the dream has not entirely died off. It was not a Gaddafi
original creation anyway since Bob Marley had sung about it and Marcus Mosiah
Garvey had penned catchy poetry way before Gaddafi started advocating for it.
It is a known fact that Gaddafi had tried to form some sort of coalition for the
Arab nations and when this failed, he turned to Africa (maybe inspired by Garvey?)
which resulted in his domestically unpopular “Africanization of Libya”. Maybe this
was just a man trying to push his ends and achieve supremacy.
President Zuma, in a speech soon after Gaddafi’s death said he was happy no
one would intimidate other AU members in the manner Gaddafi did.
However, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been heard to have accused the
AU of an underwhelming discharge of its duties. He then suggested that a US of
Africa would be better equipped to do away with the challenges the continent has
been confronted with in the past few decades. Maybe the Gaddafi dream will come
alive… maybe not but unity has become an essential ingredient for African progress.
It is no longer a matter of conviction and feeling but a necessity if the continent is
to develop.11
400 The Conspiracy against Africa

D. The United States of Africa: The challenges

‘Africa must unite or perish!’ – Kwame Nkrumah, for President of Ghana.
1. Introduction:
2023 marks the 66th anniversary of the independence of Ghana, the first sub-Saharan
African country to break from the dreadful colonial yoke. It was under the leadership
of President Kwame Nkrumah, enlightened, visionary and Pan Africanist leader,
who devoted time and energy to liberating other African countries. Nkrumah fought
tirelessly for the unity of African countries into a single African Federal State. He
was convinced that the newly independent countries needed to unite to liberate
other African countries and lay the ground for their economic emancipation. He
understood that a divided Africa would remain under domination and be an easy
prey for global capitalism.
It is in part for his vision and far-sightedness that the Anglo-American imperialism
co-opted Ghanaian felons to stage a coup that toppled Nkrumah and sent him into
exile until his death. But Nkrumah’s vision and dream did not die with him. Quite
the contrary: they remained very much alive throughout the years. As Africa got
deeper into crisis, as its external dependence worsened, bordering on the threat of re-
colonization, Nkrumah was largely vindicated while the proponents of ‘balkanization’
were completely discredited.12
An illustration of this is the foundation of the African Union (AU) in 2001
and the decision of the Heads of State and Government to move toward the United
States of Africa by the year 2015. This is a fitting tribute to the memory of President
Nkrumah!
But the road to realizing this dream faces great hurdles, both externally and
internally. In particular, the current world system, characterized by an increasing
militarization of neoliberal globalization, presents overwhelming challenges for the
African continent.
According to an article on African Liberty, there are several reasons why a United
States of Africa may not work. One of the reasons is that Africans are historically
autonomous and that colonialism brought different tribes together without
considering their distinct cultures. Another reason is the language barrier. There are
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 401

over 2,000 languages spoken in Africa, which could make communication difficult.
The article also mentions that there is no ideal administrative system for such a union
and that different economic values could be a challenge. Finally, the article suggests
that a United States of Africa could be a pathway to tyranny.
Another article on CSIS highlights the security challenges that Africa faces.
The threats to the US and African interests have become more diverse, diffuse, and
complex. Extremist groups continue to haunt many countries in the region. The
10-month civil war in Ethiopia has displaced 2 million people, has contributed
to massive human rights violations, and risks the onset of famine in the northern
Tigray region. The Gulf of Guinea is the world’s global hotspot for piracy. Drug
trafficking is an enduring concern in West and Central – West and East Africa. And
cybercriminals are operating across the region.
However, there are positive prospects. According to an article on Brookings,
African countries have made significant progress in governance and human
development since 2000. Thirty-four countries, home to 72 per cent of Africa’s
citizens, have improved their governance performance over the last 10 years, and
significant improvements have been seen in participation, rule of law, and rights,
among other categories. Over the past five years, many countries have also shown
improvements in transparency and accountability. However, challenges remain.
Elections are sometimes marred by corruption and fraud, and improvements in some
dimensions of governance have stalled or declined in recent years or have not reached
all countries.
Another article on UN suggests that climate change does not respect boundaries
hence it is necessary for African countries to work together to build resilience to its
adverse weather effects. Many of the countries in Africa’s five regions share trans-
border natural resources on which millions of livelihoods depend.
2. The challenge of globalization:
The decision comes at a time when corporate-led globalization has entailed very high
costs for the African continent, because of the acceleration of trade and financial
liberalization and privatization of national assets to the benefit of multinational
corporations. According to Christian Aid (2005), trade liberalization, combined
with western countries disguised or open protectionism and subsidies, resulted in
402 The Conspiracy against Africa

the deterioration of sub-Saharan Africa’s terms of trade. Trade liberalization alone

has cost the region more than $270 billion over a 20-year period.13 An illustration of
these costs is Ghana, which lost an estimated $10 billion.14
According to Christian Aid, it is as if the entire country had stopped working for
18 months! Capital flight, fuelled by trade and financial liberalization, has reached
alarming proportions, estimated at more than half of the continent’s illegitimate
external debt15, according to the Commission for Africa (2005).
The privatization of State-owned enterprises and public services has resulted in
a massive transfer of the national patrimony to foreign hands, precisely to western
multinational corporations. This, combined with the illegitimate and unbearable
external debt, has deepened external domination, and increased the transfer of wealth
from Africa to western countries and multilateral institutions16, as acknowledged by
the Commission for Africa (2005), put together by the British Prime Minister, Tony
Blair. And members of the Commission had reliable sources to back up their claim,
since Britain is one of the main beneficiaries of this transfer of wealth. Quoting a
study published in 2006 by Christian Aid, Archbishop Ndungane (2006) indicated
that:
‘’Britain took away far more money from sub-Saharan Africa than it gave in aid
and debt relief last year, despite pledges to help the region. In all, it took away
£27 billion from Africa. In the 12 months since an annual Group of Eight (G8)
summit in Scotland last July, the British economy gained a net profit of more than
£11 billion ($20.3 billion) from the region. The charity calculated that almost
£17 billion flowed from Britain to sub-Saharan Africa in the past year, including
donations, remittances from salaries earned by Africans in Britain and foreign
direct investments. At the same time, more than £27 billion went in the opposite
direction, thanks to debt repayments, profits made by British companies in Africa
and imports of British goods and capital flight.’’17
This is just one example of the financial haemorrhage hurting Africa. This is
compounded by the ‘brain drain’, which has deprived Africa of thousands of highly
trained workers in all fields. The World Health Organization (2006) says that more
than 25% of doctors trained in Africa work abroad in developed countries.18 About
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 403

30,000 highly skilled Africans leave the continent each year for the United States and
Europe19. Still according to Archbishop Ndungane (2006), in the US alone
‘‘African immigrants are the highest educated class in the range of all immigrants…
there are over 640,000 African professionals in the US, over 360,000 of them hold
PhDs, 120,000 of them (from Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, and Uganda) are medical
doctors. The rest are professionals in various fields – from the head of research for
US Space Agency, NASA, to the highest paid material science professors. …’’20
3. The challenge of the US ‘War on Terror’
The challenge posed by neoliberal policies to Africa will be aggravated by the
militarization of globalization, with the doctrine of ‘pre-emptive strike’ adopted by
the Bush Administration. One of the tragic illustrations of this doctrine is the illegal
aggression and occupation of Iraq with the numerous crimes against Humanity
committed by the occupying forces the world has been witnessing since the invasion.
Another illustration of that doctrine is the threat of war against other sovereign
countries, such as Iran, North Korea, or Syria.21
These aggressions and threats are part of what the US imperialism calls ‘war
on terror’. The Bush Administration attempted drawing African countries into that
strategy, which poses an even greater threat to Africa’s security and development.
Since 2002, the US government has put together a special program, named “Pan
Sahel”, whose stated objective is to train the armed forces of the countries involved
to enable them to track down groups supposed to be linked to Al Qaeda.22
The recent announcement of the creation of a US military command for Africa
- Africa Command (AfriCom) - is a major step toward expanding and strengthening
the US military presence in Africa through more aggressive policies to enlist support
from African countries for its ‘war on terror’. According to George W. Bush, ‘the
new command will strengthen our security cooperation with Africa and create new
opportunities to bolster the capabilities of our partners in Africa.”23.
The objectives of the Africa Command are to be found in the US drive for
global dominance and its growing appetite for Africa’s oil. US imperialism seeks to
protect oil supply routes and American multinational corporations involved in oil
and mineral extraction. In fact, several studies have forecast that the United States
may depend for up to 25% of its needs on crude oil from Africa over the next decade
404 The Conspiracy against Africa

or so. One clear sign of this trend is that several US oil companies are investing
billions of dollars in oil-producing countries, notably in the Gulf of Guinea region.
Thus, oil is one of the main driving forces behind the US activism on the continent.
It has nothing to do with Africa’s ‘security’. On the contrary, this is likely to increase
the insecurity of the continent! 24
Therefore, the US strategy aims to secure strategic positions in Africa by using
the threat of “terrorism” to gain military facilities and bases to protect its interests.
The countries which accept to cooperate with the US may become more and more
dependent on the US and inevitably on NATO for their “security”. They will be
forced to provide military bases or facilities for US forces and serve as a cannon
fodder in the US ‘war on terror’, as Ethiopia has done in Somalia. The US strategy
will sow more divisions among African countries and undermine the goal of African
Unity.25
4. Internal challenges
To the challenges posed by the global context described above one should add the
internal challenges facing African countries.
As indicated above, the neoliberal policies imposed by the IMF and World
Bank and the violence of corporate-led globalization have further weakened Africa.
The principal characteristic of the continent is its weakness and divisions, despite
the foundation of the African Union and the adoption of the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The divisions are ideological and political. Neo-
colonial ties are still strong with former colonial powers. There are still many foreign
military bases and facilities on the continent. Several countries still depend on western
countries for their “security”. France is intervening in the Central African Republic
to help the government push back attacks by rebel groups.
A similar operation took place a few months ago to help the Chadian government
repel a rebel attack that threatened some parts of the capital. These countries are home
to foreign military bases and have signed defence agreements with their ‘protectors’.
These military bases are also used to launch criminal aggressions against other African
countries, as the United States did when it launched air strikes against innocent
civilians in Somalia from their air base in Djibouti! France is using its military bases
in West Africa – Senegal and Togo- to destabilize Cote d’Ivoire. 26
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 405

These examples underscore the vulnerability of the continent and the fragile
nature of many States, some of which have all but collapsed, in large part because of
structural adjustment policies. Africa’s vulnerability is also reflected in the widespread
poverty affecting its population, in the deterioration of the health and educational
systems and in the inability of many States to provide basic social services for their
citizens. Poverty is the result of policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank, using
the pretext of the illegitimate debt with the complicity of African governments. This
has aggravated economic, financial, political dependence on western countries and
multilateral institutions. Food dependency has dramatically increased. According to
the FAO and other UN agencies, more than 43 million Africans suffer from hunger,
which kills more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined! As a
result, Africa spends billions of dollars in food imports, paid for by credits and ‘aid’
from western countries and multilateral institutions.27
The external dependency and the extreme vulnerability of the continent are
also reflected in the surrender of economic policies to the World Bank and western
“experts” by many countries.

E. Can Africa overcome these challenges?

In view of these formidable challenges, building the United States of Africa may seem
an impossible task, a Promethean undertaking. Indeed, one should be sceptical about
the ability and willingness of current African leadership to build a genuine African
unity. Because not only are the odds overwhelming but also experience does not
show any sign of optimism. Therefore, if African leaders are serious about achieving
this noble objective, they need to make tough and courageous decisions.
1. Need for political will!
The document on the United States of Africa, published by the African Union (2006)
claims: ‘it should be realized that what unites Africans far surpasses what divides them
as a people’28 (page 8). Yet, this did not translate into a political will to overcome
their divisions and move toward strengthening African unity. Therefore, what African
leaders need primarily is the political will to make the tough decisions and the courage
and determination to implement them. The decision to establish the United States of
Africa is the latest in a long series of decisions and agreements, most of which were
406 The Conspiracy against Africa

never implemented. Some of the agreements on regional integration are more than
30 years old, but they are still lagging for lack of genuine will to implement them.
The slow pace of integration and lack of solidarity reflects the unwillingness of many
African leaders to place the fundamental interests of the continent above national or
even personal interests to move decisively toward genuine unity and cooperation.29
The lack of political will is better illustrated by the fate of key documents adopted
over several decades and that should have strengthened African unity and laid the
foundations for the United States of Africa. Think of the Lagos Plan of Action
(LPA), adopted in 1980 and which was quickly forgotten in favour of the IMF and
World Bank-imposed structural adjustment programs (SAPs).30 Think of the African
Alternative Framework, which was among the first documents to level a devastating
critique of SAPs in 1989.31 Think of the Arusha Charter for Popular Participation
in Development and Social Transformation, adopted in 1990 and which contains
a blueprint for citizen participation in the design and implementation of public
policies within a democratic and participatory decision-making process.32 Think of
the 1991 Abuja Treaty, for the creation of the African Economic Community. This
list is not exhaustive. Yet, when some African leaders proposed NEPAD in 2001, it
made a scant mention of these documents. Instead, it attempted to rehabilitate failed
and discredited neoliberal policies.33
2. Freeing the African mind.
The political will has an ideological dimension, which is the need for African leaders to
free their minds and understand once for all that they must take responsibility for their
own development. No country or group of countries, no international institution,
no amount of external ‘aid’ will ever ‘develop’ Africa. Likewise, no foreign country,
no matter how powerful, will ever guarantee the ‘security’ of African countries. It is
therefore illusory to assume that the United States, France, or Britain will provide
‘security’ for Africa! Quite the contrary: these countries’ interest is to see a weak,
divided, and defenceless Africa. African countries must take responsibility for their
own collective security! In this regard, African governments must close all foreign
military bases and scrap all defence agreements signed with former colonial powers
and US imperialism. Furthermore, African governments must end their allegiance
to neo-colonial institutions, such as ‘Francophone’, Commonwealth and so forth.34
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 407

3. An enlightened leadership
For these dramatic changes to take place, Africa needs an enlightened and visionary
leadership, who would listen to the voices of the people. This also means promoting
leaders who are accountable to their own citizens, not to outside powers or institutions,
as is the case in many countries. Furthermore, Africa needs leaders who can define
an agenda consistent with Africa’s interests, not let someone else do it in their place.
In other terms, African leaders must no longer accept that others speak or define
policies in their place for their continent. A case in point is the US “war on terror”.
As indicated earlier, some countries are supporting the US agenda. But fighting
‘terrorism’ is not a priority for Africa. The continent has other priorities, which have
nothing to do with terrorism.35
4. Involve the African people.
So far, African leaders seem to have forgotten the African people in the conception
and implementation of their agreements. To overcome the challenges outlined above,
African leaders must understand that they must move from a union of States to a
union of peoples. This means that the success of the United States of Africa depends
on putting African the people at the centre of the project. The popular participation
in decision-making and implementation of public policies, as called for by the Arusha
Charter, is a critical factor in building a genuine and strong Union. This seems to
be understood by the document published by the African Union (2006), which says
that ‘the Union Government must be a Union of the African people and not merely
a Union of States and Governments’ 36(page 4).
This seems to be just a lip service paid to the idea of popular participation, because
so far, there are no concrete steps to make it a reality. Despite the establishment of
some institutions, like the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC),
the people have no say in the decisions of the Union. To achieve a genuine Union of
the African people, the first step should be to allow a free movement of people –on
the continent and in the Diaspora- throughout the continent. It is unthinkable to
build the United States of Africa by keeping the current borders in place and limiting
the free flow of African citizens across the continent. The building of the Union must
be rooted in the mobilization of the African masses across the artificial borders set by
former colonial powers to divide and weaken the African people.37
408 The Conspiracy against Africa

5. Conclusion
The book has reviewed the challenges facing Africa in its attempt to build the United
States of Africa. External factors, such as the high costs of neoliberal globalization
and the US ‘War on Terror’, are likely to hamper African efforts at unity and
independence. These external factors take advantage of Africa’s internal weaknesses
and tend to aggravate them.
But does the current African leadership have the capacity and will to overcome
the internal and external challenges in the process of building the United States
of Africa? It is doubtful. Most of current African ‘leaders’ take their orders from
western capitals and have surrendered their policies to the IMF, the World Bank, and
the World Trade Organization. In the words of the late Professor Joseph Ki-Zerbo
(1995), these are ‘ “leaders” with frightened minds’ who can only ‘imitate” their
western masters.38 How can anyone trust such ‘leaders’, some of whom contemplate
providing military bases to the United States in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’?
The building of the United States of Africa requires a new leadership with the
political will to follow through their commitments. This means promoting a new
type of leadership in Africa, imbued with the ideals of Pan Africanism, genuinely
dedicated to the unity, independence, and sovereignty of the continent and to
promoting the welfare of their citizens. It is a visionary leadership, like Nkrumah
and others of his generation. A leadership who refuses Africa’s enslavement and will
never accept that others speak or define policies for Africa.
So, building the United Sates of Africa requires a different kind of leadership
with decolonized minds, who are willing to stand up to foreign domination,
who would listen to their own citizens and promote policies aimed at recovering
Africa’s sovereignty over its resources and policies. In other words, the success of
such undertaking requires a leadership imbued with the values and ideals of Pan
Africanism and genuinely committed to the unity, independence, and sovereignty of
Africa.39

F. United States of Africa: An African Elitist Revolution

Politically, economically, and socio-culturally, the Africa continent has been stuck
and paralysed. The Continent is still dependent on foreign aid and impoverished
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 409

as ever with most of its youthful population unemployed or underemployed and

critical infrastructure left underdeveloped or underinvested in. Worse than that, the
continent is plagued perpetually with conflicts and violence mostly instigated by
political greed and has no real answers to mitigate the burgeoning damages of climate
change. All these challenges, coupled with much more difficult ones are bestowed
on the Continent as she struggles in navigating through the devastating effects of
Covid-19.
The fundamental truth about our situation is the fact that the myriad challenges
Africa Continent face today has driven her to the conundrum where there is no
single solution no single idea can relieve the Continent of its tribulations. Africa is at
a point where the ebb and flow of prosperous life has been arrested and no singular
idea will fix it. Therefore, I sometimes think it is important that the uniqueness of
the trials faced by Africa and Africans are spelt out candidly and bluntly.
There are protagonists – both individuals and groups - who propose and support
an idea of a single unified continental African government as the solution that could
presumably administer African’s resources more efficiently and equally. The great dream
proposed and cherished from the earliest days of Pan-Africanism. Pan-Africanist ideas
first began to circulate in the mid-19th century in the US, but it began to take roots
in African by the late 1940s with Africans now taking the lead in propagating these
ideas. Specifically, brilliant individuals such as Kwame Nkrumah as well as despots
like Muammar Gaddafi and Robert Mugabe particularly cherished the grandiose idea
of a single African government that will seemingly enable the continent to fulfil its
potential to independently provide for its people. One would have thought that this
idea could have died when these prominent advocates, important African historical
figures, died. And that the United States of Africa movement receded.40
In recent years, however, the idea of a United States of Africa continues to resonate
in the discussions of finding solutions for Africa’s prosperity. Groups and individuals,
both young and old, politicians and academics alike continue to purvey the idea.
Prominent amongst them being Julius Malema of South Africa and Professor Arthur
Mutambara of Zimbabwe. For these folks, the failure of the post-colonial state is
the root cause of the upsurge in the forces that have combined to plunge swathes of
Africa into chaos and underdevelopment. More importantly for these modern pan-
410 The Conspiracy against Africa

Africanists is that their push for a single state Africa hinge on two broad and very
modern arguments. 41
• First, embracing an ever-closer union through the African Union (AU) has
failed. Hence, Africa needs the United States of Africa, a country, and not a
union of sovereign states. Put simply, abolish national sovereignty, and embrace
continental sovereignty. Now, it could be rightly said that the AU has failed to
advance adequate socio-political and economic development of Africa since its
formation in 1963. It could be further argued that the AU has allowed African
leaders enough room to pay lip service to continental economic integration and
African Unity. Further, as it is sometimes argued in the pan-African circles, it
could be said that the AU has been a very passive organization. Many Africans
don’t know what the organization does to mitigate conflicts and violence on
the continent. Yes, these reasons might be true. And yes, these reasons could
be valid.41
• Second, pan-Africanists tout the United States of Africa as a solution
to globalization, the doomsday evil that is coming for all of us. For them,
corporate-led globalization has intensified Africa countries’ dependence on the
western world for essential goods and services. This has made African countries
susceptible to privatizing national assets to the benefit of western multinational
corporations, which coupled with the western countries’ protectionism and
subsidies have resulted in the deterioration of Africa’s terms of trade, especially
sub-Saharan Africa. The purveyors of these gloomy reasons often purport the
United States of Africa as a solution to the adverseness of globalization. The
rationale here is that a United States of African that has one currency and with
one economy enabled by free movement of goods and services can provide the
markets for African businesses to flourish and its people to thrive. Now, that
makes sense until it is further argued that if that United States of Africa is to
succeed, it will need one president, with one parliament and one judiciary.
This position was made clear when Julius Malema, after he was re-elected as
leader by his party on 16 December 2019, disturbingly opined to his delegates:
“We need to lead Africa, we want a United States of Africa. With one currency,
with one economy, with one parliament, with one president and with one
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 411

judiciary”. His words should send chills down your spine when you take your
time to properly analyse them.42
But let us hang on for a minute and think hard, think hard about this grand
United States of Africa idea that is continuing, louder than before, to take
roots and gain traction in discussions on the continent. 43
• Where is the individual’s – the average African who goes about his or her daily
life without government interference – place in this grand idea of a United
States of Africa?
• How does a one African parliament help mothers living off in remote villages
who want very good schools for their children?
• How does a very bureaucratic one African parliament help a social enterprise
that has got a great idea for tackling poverty?
• How does one Africa judiciary help a pensioner who doesn’t want pity but
wants dignity and security in old age?
• How does a one Africa president help most people who are already ignored by
the political systems in their respective countries: the people who work hard,
the people who set businesses, the people who work in factories, the people
who teach children, the people who keep our streets safe, etc?
• These questions only bring us to a plausible and far more troubling conclusion –
that the idea of a United States of Africa is curiously an African elitist revolution
and Africans need to truly understand what it is.
These African elites – made up of moneyed elites, politicians, academics,
unaccountable individuals, and organizations among others – can advance their
vested interest because African’s problems have made Africa vulnerable to influence.
The absence of checks and balances in our systems, the ever centralization of power
democratically or undemocratically in some cases, and the impoverishment that
continues to threaten the survival of thousands of people have allowed these elites
to operate almost like the old colonial masters: indoctrinating young Africans and
much of it is invisible. 44
412 The Conspiracy against Africa

These protagonists appear to be all united if somewhat from different directions,

by a hard-line, socialistic, and communistic, let’s create more bureaucracy and give
those bureaucracies more power to control the masses’ view of the world. That Africa
needs to move to a United States of Africa, a one African state, to gain our economic
virility. That Africa needs to pursue a communist-style state like China or Russia, or
the union of states-style of the US to prosper is quite simply ludicrous. 45
The antagonists countered saying that the whole impression that Africa needs a
United States of Africa – such a grand solution – to solve Africa’s many problems is
dangerous. This reasoning, according to them, is stuck in the past. It is not in keeping
with the spirits of our age, the technology age. But more frustratingly dangerous is the
idea of a United States of Africa itself. They went further to argue: What does Ahmed
Sékou Touré, Muammar Gaddafi, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, and Robert
Mugabe – all African pan-Africanist political leaders who were at the forefront of calls
for a United States of Africa- have in common? What is the common denominator
for all these African political leaders? All these are leaders who were powerful men
and wanted to stay in power for long extended periods. Some succeeded in precisely
doing that, others didn’t.46
“This is not to say that Pan-Africanism or Pan –Africanist ideas promote
despotism. But perhaps, Malema and his comrades need to realize that there is
a greater possibility of tyranny when a more powerful government exists. The
tendencies of some of these pan-Africanist political leaders who all had control
of powerful governments and sought to cling on to power for long is enough
evidence to this fact. It could be advanced that some of these leaders and, dare
I say it, all these leaders abused power and contributed heavily to the problems
facing Africa currently. One political leader in control of as huge an entity
as the Government of the United States of Africa with enormous resources,
judging by the political history of African leaders, is extremely dangerous and
simply frightening. 47
Further, if pan-Africanists argue that the strategy to consolidate African states
first and gradually integrate the continent through regional blocs like AU
hasn’t worked, how is jumping to quickly unify into a United States of Africa
an answer? It should be argued then that Africa needs to cooperate more on
economic integration to allow for much freer trade of goods, capital, and labour
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 413

amongst countries on the continent to advance economic growth and realize

the full benefits of free trade. This, I believe, is what the Africa Continental Free
Trade Area (ACFTA) is here to achieve. And if Africa should learn anything
from the failure of AU to integrate Africa politically, it is precisely that the
ever centralization of power won’t work because it is hard to achieve given the
geopolitical and geo-socioeconomic conditions. Therefore, countries within
Africa should work to decentralize political power instead. These countries need
to allow for more democratic, autonomous, and accountable local governance.
The solution is not to jump to a potentially forceful and coercive catastrophic
political unification with a unitary government and one president”.
In another important sense, among other things, how do we reconcile the
heterogeneity of the African people under a United States of Africa? Just take a
glance at the North (Maghreb) and the rest of the continent, you will see what I am
talking about – different Languages, different ethnicities with around 3000 different
tribes, different values, and economic principles? This is sure to be a problem, and
thereby, the question of how exactly a one African parliament can comprehensively
accommodate and represent these heterogeneities. A more reason to believe that a
United States of Africa is just another scheme to funnel more money into the vested
interest of the political elites, the antagonists posit.48
From the arguments laid out above, the antagonists have always argued that
there is something fundamentally wrong when a continent like Africa, which has
come a long way, flirts with and is seduced by such an ideology. An ideology which
represents such a radical and abrupt, and in their view, self-harming, and destructive
departure from even pre-colonial times where people could break away from their
original tribes to form new communities for self-determination and liberty. The
thought that this way of life, the African spirit that longs for freedom always, can be
changed by imposing a single identity under a United States of Africa, they believe,
is simply in the long run unsustainable. According to them it is absurd and deeply
un-African.49
So, the African youth must mobilize and make their voices heard. The youth must
mobilize, make their voice heard and say that discussions surrounding establishing a
United States of Africa will not happen in their name. The youth must mobilize, make
their voice heard and say that discussions surrounding establishing a United States of
414 The Conspiracy against Africa

Africa will not be fuelled on their watch. It is not going to be easy. Most people who
support the idea of a United States of Africa have nowadays transformed themselves
from vigorous idealistic individuals into a cabal that kneecaps any opposition to
the idea and delegitimizes and discredits them. Anyone who now speaks against the
trajectory that they want is treated, in an organized fashion, to an industrial scale
attack.
But that doesn’t mean that the vitriol is will forever carry on. Since for every
action in life, there is always a reaction. And Africa has much to be proud of. What
Africans must fear though more than anything else is passivity, cynicism, hopelessness,
and a sense of complete disempowerment. The destiny of Africa is in the hands of the
African people, all the people regardless of class, gender, race, religious orientation
etc. and not in the hand of the elites alone. Africa is a special continent. The world
knows it and Africans know it too in their innermost thoughts. Africa is the greatest
continent on earth. As I told you in the beginning, I am an optimist about life!

G. Integration with the Continental free trade in view and Co-

operation on all Economic Fronts
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)50 is a free trade area encompassing
most of Africa.51 It was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade
Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest
free-trade area by number of member states, after the World Trade Organization,52
and the largest in population and geographic size, spanning 1.3 billion people across
the world’s second largest continent.
The agreement founding AfCFTA was brokered by the African Union (AU) and
signed by 44 of its 55 member states in Kigali, Rwanda on 21 March 2018.53 The
proposal was set to come into force 30 days after ratification by 22 of the signatory
states.54 On 29 April 2019,55 the Saharawi Republic made the 22nd deposit of
instruments of ratification, bringing the agreement into force on May 30; it entered
its operational phase following a summit on 7 July 2019,56 and officially commenced
1 January 2021. AfCFTA’s negotiations and implementation are overseen by a
permanent secretariat based in Accra, Ghana.57
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 415

Under the agreement, AfCFTA members are committed to eliminating tariffs

on most goods and services over a period of 5, 10, or 13 years, depending on
the country’s level of development or the nature of the products.58 General long-
term objectives include creating a single, liberalised market; reducing barriers to
capital and labour to facilitate investment; developing regional infrastructure; and
establishing a continental customs union.59 The overall aims of AfCFTA are to increase
socioeconomic development, reduce poverty, and make Africa more competitive in
the global economy.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that AfCFTA
will boost intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2022.60 A report by the World Bank
anticipates that AfCFTA could lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty, boost
the incomes of nearly 70 million people, and generate $450 billion in income by
2035.61 On January 13, 2022, AfCFTA took a major step towards its objective with
the establishment of the Pan-African Payments and Settlements System (PAPSS),
which allows payments among companies operating in Africa to be done in any local
currency.62
1. Background
In 1963, the Organization of African Unity was founded by the independent states
of Africa. The OAU aimed to promote cooperation between African states. The 1980
Lagos Plan of Action was adopted by the organization. The plan suggested Africa
should minimize reliance upon the West by promoting intra-African trade. This began
as the creation of a few regional cooperation organizations in the different regions
of Africa, such as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference.
Eventually this led to the Abuja Treaty in 1991, which created the African Economic
Community, an organization that promoted the development of free trade areas,
customs unions, an African Central Bank, and an African common currency union.63
In 2002, the OAU was succeeded by the African Union (AU), which had as
one of its goals to accelerate the “economic integration of the continent”.64 A second
goal was to “coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future
Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the
Union.”63
416 The Conspiracy against Africa

2. Negotiations
At the 2012 African Union summit in Addis Ababa, leaders agreed to create a new
Continental Free Trade Area by 2017. At the 2015 AU summit in Johannesburg,
the summit agreed to commence negotiations. This began a series of ten negotiating
sessions which took place over the next three years.64
The first negotiation forum was held in February 2016 and held eight meetings
until the Summit in March 2018 in Kigali. From February 2017 on the technical
working groups held four meetings, where technical issues were discussed and
implemented in the draft. On March 8–9, 2018 the African Union Ministers of
Trade approved the draft.65
3. 2018 Kigali Summit
In March 2018, at the 10th Extraordinary Session of the African Union on AfCFTA,
three separate agreements were signed: the African Continental Free Trade Agreement,
the Kigali Declaration; and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons. The Protocol
on Free Movement of Persons seeks to establish a visa-free zone within the AfCFTA
countries and support the creation of the African Union Passport.66 At the summit
in Kigali on 21 March 2018, 44 countries signed the AfCFTA, 47 signed the Kigali
Declaration, and 30 signed the Protocol on Free Movement of People. While a
success, there were two notable holdouts: Nigeria and South Africa, the two largest
economies in Africa.67
One complicating factor in the negotiations was that Africa had already been
divided into eight separate free trade areas and/or customs unions, each with
different regulations.[note 1] These regional bodies will continue to exist; the African
Continental Free Trade Agreement initially seeks to reduce trade barriers between
the different pillars of the African Economic Community, and eventually use these
regional organizations as building blocks for the ultimate goal of an Africa-wide
customs union.68
• (i). Institutions
The AfCFTA Secretariat will be responsible for coordinating the implementation
of the agreement and shall be an autonomous body within the AU system. Though it
will have independent legal personality, it shall work closely with the AU Commission
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 417

and receive its budget from the AU. The Council of Ministers responsible for trade
will decide on the location of the headquarter, structure, role, and responsibilities.69
The Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government is the highest
decision-making body. It is likely to meet during the AU Summits.70 The Council of
Ministers Responsible for Trade provides strategic trade policy oversight and ensures
effective implementation and enforcement of the AfCFTA Agreement.71
Several committees have been established, for trade in goods, trade in services, on
rules of origin, trade remedies, non-tariff barriers, technical barriers to trade and on
sanitary and phytosanitary measures.72 Dispute resolution rules and procedures are
still being negotiated but will presumably include designation of a dispute resolution
body.73 The Committee of Senior Trade Officials implements the Council’s decisions.
The Committee handles the development of programs and action plans for the
implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement.74
• (ii) Implementation
The AfCFTA is set to be implemented in phases, and some of the future phases
still under negotiation.75 Phase I covers trade in goods and trade in services. Phase
II covers intellectual property rights, investment, and competition policy. Phase III
covers E-Commerce.
At the 2018 Kigali summit, areas of agreement were found on trade protocols,
dispute settlement procedures, customs cooperation, trade facilitation, and rules of
origin. There was also agreement to reduce tariffs on 90% of all goods. Each nation
is allowed to exclude 3% of goods from this agreement.76 This was part of Phase I of
the agreement, which covers goods and services liberalization. Some Phase I issues
that stay to be negotiated include the schedule of tariff concessions and other specific
commitments.77
The 12th Extraordinary Session of the African Union on AfCFTA was called to
launch the new agreement into its operational phase, which was hosted in Niamey
on 7 July 2019.78 At its launch, five operational instruments that will govern the
AfCFTA were activated: “the rules of origin; the online negotiating forum; the
monitoring and elimination of non-tariff barriers; a digital payment system; and the
African Trade Observatory.”79
418 The Conspiracy against Africa

Phase II and III negotiations are expected to be initiated by all AU member

countries and held in successive rounds. In February 2020, the AU Assembly of
Heads of State and Government decided that Phase III would begin immediately
following the conclusion of Phase II negotiations, which were initially scheduled
to conclude in December 2020.80 However, this deadline was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, and a new date (December 31, 2021) was set as the
deadline for the conclusion of Phase II and III negotiations. The AfCFTA officially
but largely symbolically launched on January 1, 2021.81
• (iii). Membership
Among the 55 AU member states, 44 signed the African Continental Free Trade
Agreement (joined text), 47 signed the Kigali Declaration and 30 signed the Protocol
on Free Movement of People at the end of the 2018 Kigali Summit. Benin, Botswana,
Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, and Zambia were among the 11 countries that did
not initially sign the agreement.82 After the 2018 Kigali summit, more signatures
were added to the AfCFTA. At the 31st African Union Summit in Nouakchott on
1 July 2018, South Africa (the second largest economy of Africa), Sierra Leone,
Namibia, Lesotho, and Burundi joined the agreement.83 In February 2019, Guinea-
Bissau, Zambia, and Botswana also joined. Kenya and Ghana were the first nations
to ratify the agreement, depositing their ratification on 10 May 2018.84
Of the signatories, 22 needed to deposit the instrument of ratification of the
agreement for it to come into effect, and this occurred on 29 April 2019 when both
Sierra Leone and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic deposited the agreement.85
As a result, the agreement came into force 30 days later 30 May 2019. At this point,
only Nigeria (the continent’s largest economy), Eritrea and Benin had not signed.
President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari was particularly reluctant to join the
AfCFTA, fearing it would hurt Nigerian entrepreneurship and local industries,86 and
his decision not to was praised by some local groups including the Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria 86 and the Nigeria Labour Congress.87 The Nigerian government
intended to consult further with local businesses in order to ensure private sector buy-
in to the agreement,88 because a key concern was whether the agreement adequately
prevented anti-competitive practices such as dumping.89 In July 2019, just months
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 419

after being re-elected to a new term, Buhari agreed to adhere to the Africa free trade
at the 12th extraordinary session of the assembly of the union on AfCFTA.90
At the same meeting, Benin also committed to signing the agreement, leaving
Eritrea as the only of the 55 African Union Member States not to sign up to the
deal.91 Formally, Eritrea was not part of the initial agreement due to an ongoing
state of war, but the 2018 peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea ended the
conflict and ended the barrier to Eritrean participation in the free trade agreement.92
As of May 2022, there are 54 signatories, of which 43 (80%) have deposited
their instruments of ratification. 93 Additionally, one country (Somalia) completed
its domestic ratification[when?] but had not yet deposited their ratification with
the depository by May 2020.94 Eritrea is the only AU member state which had not
signed the agreement by 2019.95.
The AfCFTA signals a major effort towards a more integrated African regional
economy as well as the will to better include Africa in the global supply chain.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement represents a major opportunity
for countries to boost growth, reduce poverty, and broaden economic inclusion.
Implementing AfCFTA would:96.
• Lift 30 million Africans out of extreme poverty and boost the incomes of nearly
68 million others who live on less than $5.50 a day.
• Boost Africa’s income by $450 billion by 2035 (a gain of 7 per cent) while
adding $76 billion to the income of the rest of the world.
• Increase Africa’s exports by $560 billion, mostly in manufacturing.
• Spur larger wage gains for women (10.5 per cent) than for men (9.9 per cent).
• Boost wages for both skilled and unskilled workers—10.3 per cent for unskilled
workers, and 9.8 per cent for skilled workers.
Under AfCFTA, extreme poverty would decline across the continent—with the
biggest improvements in countries with currently extreme poverty rates.97
• West Africa would see the biggest decline in the number of people living in
extreme poverty—a decline of 12 million (more than a third of the total for all
of Africa).
• Central Africa would see a decline of 9.3 million.
420 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Eastern Africa would see a decline of 4.8 million.

• Southern Africa would see a decline of 3.9 million.
• Countries with the highest initial poverty rates, would see the biggest declines
in poverty rates.
• In Guinea-Bissau, the rate would decline from 37.9 per cent to 27.7 per cent.
• In Mali, the rate would decline from 14.4 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
• In Togo, it would decline from 24.1 per cent to 16.9 per cent.
Of the $450 billion in income gains from AfCFTA, $292 billion would come
from stronger trade facilitation—measures to reduce red tape and simplify customs
procedures.98
• Tariff liberalization is important, but by itself it would boost the continent’s
income by just 0.2 per cent.
• Adding trade facilitation to the mix—including measures to reduce red tape,
simplify customs procedures, and make it easier for African businesses to
integrate into global supply chains—would boost the income gains by $292
billion.
• These gains will require major efforts by countries to reduce the burden on
businesses and traders to cross borders, quickly, safely, and with minimal
interference by officials.
The World Bank report is designed to guide policymakers in implementing
policies that can maximize the agreement’s potential gains while minimizing risks.99
• Creating a continent-wide market will require a determined effort to reduce all
trade costs. In general, this will require legislation and regulations to enable the
free flow of goods, capital, and information across borders; create competitive
business environments that can boost productivity and investment; and
promote increased foreign competition and foreign direct investment that can
raise productivity and innovation by domestic firms.
• In a few sectors facing job losses, governments will need to be ready to support
workers with adequate safety nets and policies to retrain workers.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 421

• Governments will need to design policies to increase the readiness of their

workforces to take advantage of new opportunities.
Achieving the gains from AfCFTA is especially important due to the COVID-19
pandemic, which is expected to cause up to $79 billion in output losses in Africa in
2020 alone.100
COVID-19 has caused major disruptions to trade across the continent, including
in critical goods such as medical supplies and food.
By increasing regional trade, lowering trade costs, and streamlining border
procedures, full implementation of AfCFTA would help African countries increase
their resiliency in the face of future economic shocks and help usher in the kinds of
deep reforms that are necessary to enhance long-term growth.

H. Socio-Cultural Regeneration (Why Africa Remains Behind

in the World: Amilcar Cabral Revisited)
“This alternative — to betray the revolution or to commit suicide as a class — constitutes
the dilemma of the petty bourgeoisie in the general framework of the national liberation
struggle.”
An obstinate fact that prevails in our epoch is how Africa seemingly remains
perpetually behind in all facets of existence. Prosperity in Africa is a material reality
for the elite few, while for the immense poor majority it is always out of reach. This
dehumanizing situation appears an immutable feature of the continent, but this does
not mean that it will forever remain like this.
It is simply a perception that is ruthlessly reified through a conflation of ideas
and myths that are fundamentally fashioned against the collective will of the masses.
That Africa perennially lags despite being exceedingly endowed with an abundant
richness of natural resources and brilliant minds is purely a myth imposed on Africa by
racist, supremacist imperialists—and maintained by the indigenous parasitic looting
class: the elite political, economic, religious, and social ‘leaders’ and ‘influencers.101
An attempt to dissect the status quo of unbridled and relentless oppression,
exploitation, and dehumanization of African peoples on the continent and throughout
422 The Conspiracy against Africa

the world is inescapably an unsettling journey into the painful history of imperialist
domination.
1. A Brief History of Colonial Cultural Domination and Africa’s In-
feriority Complex
The central feature forming the crux of Africa’s seemingly unending problems is
fundamentally rooted in ideas and myths. And these are directly and wholly
attributable to the phenomenon of imperial domination.
What colonialism wrought on Africa was the wholesale change in the ways that
African peoples governed themselves: means of production, ownership, property
relations, food production, trade, political governance, spiritual beliefs and customs,
social norms and practices, and judicial methods of dispute resolution.
And most importantly, the cultural domination that European colonizers
imposed on colonized African peoples. For instance, Nigerians (Africans) and Indians
(Asians) were both colonised by the British. The Indians rejected the British culture,
British worship system (religion), British foods and British ways of doing things but
accepted the British technology. On the other hand, Nigerians, as Africans, accepted
the British culture, British traditional forms of dressing, British religion but rejected
the British technology. We are colonised to believe that once you speak perfect
English, then you’re intelligent. But how many perfect English speakers among us
have invented anything that contributes to civilization of Africa? You have a Ph.D
in Engineering and yet your grandmother shares the same polluted drinking water
with goats because your degree could not be translated to practical application. What
a shame!
In National Liberation and Culture (Return to the Source), Amilcar Cabral writes,
“History teaches us that, in certain circumstances, it is very easy for the foreigner to
impose his domination on a people. But it also teaches us that, whatever may be the
material aspects of this domination, it can be maintained only by the permanent,
organized repression of the cultural life of the people concerned. Implantation of
foreign domination can be assured definitively only by physical liquidation of a
significant part of the dominated population.”102.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 423

The conspicuous absence of a money economy meant that the above-mentioned

ways of governance—which were developing on their own in relation to specific
contexts, time, and space—was violently supplanted by primitive accumulation: the
introduction of a money economy was a triumph of the cultural domination of
Western civilization.
A money economy eroded all intrinsic aspects of African life—cultures that were
developing at their own pace. Africa had a history, but Europe’s cultural domination
inculcated in the collective psyche of Africans that the continent had no history; that
the arrival of Europeans suddenly thrust Africa into the realm of history.
2. Cultural Domination: “Everything European and White is Good,
Everything African and Black is Bad and Inferior”.103
• The money economy came with the classic colonial accompaniments: Christian
religiosity, capitalist cheap labour, taxes, European lifestyles, European
education, European laws and customs, and unrestrained exploitation and
repression.
• Underpinning this massive permutation was the implicit metaphysical myth
(ideas not backed by any scientific proof but racist, imperial, and patriarchal
attitudes) that Europeans are superior to Africans—that Africans are primitive,
barbaric sub-humans who are inferior culturally and must thus be saved from
their perceived and alleged inferiority by Western colonizers.
• And this was done through a dehumanizing conflation of bloodshed,
Christianity, deceit, greed, and European education touted as the immutable
paragon of modernity. Cabral writes that with a “strong indigenous cultural
life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its penetration”.
• This colonial paternalism, a raw manifestation of unashamed imperialism
(the highest stage of capitalism) saw Africans in need of saving, yet without
treating them as humans: hence, there was need to unleash brute force and
pacify Africans with Christian religiosity as the ultimate determinant of “fine
civilization”, i.e., belonging to a “human culture”.
• In this regard, we see Africans defeated on an ideological plane via this cultural
domination. Struggles for independence were essentially national collective
424 The Conspiracy against Africa

resistance battles against this cultural domination. For it was this cultural
domination that gave Europeans a sense of warped justification to commit
egregious, horrendous atrocities of genocide against Africans: keeping them
“racially inferior”.
• Culture is the “fruit of a people’s history” and a determinant of that history:
now, if that culture is conquered by foreign domination, we are left with a
people devoid of identity.
• The identity of the colonized becomes an appendage to the perceived cultural
superiority of the colonizer—and it also follows that the culture of the colonized
people does not totally die, and as such, it within this culture that “we find the
seed of opposition”, which necessarily leads to the structure and development
of the liberation struggle.
This is what Africa needs: to conquer its daily internal contradictions, be proud
of its culture [history, values, norms, identity, and core principles and beliefs for
collective prosperity], for leaders to commit class suicide; through this, the long-
drawn march toward holistic liberation commences, as the shackles of cultural
domination are cast asunder.104
Such concocted justification for racial superiority was the basis of all
dehumanization—Africans living in squalid urban conditions and in unproductive
rural areas, perennially chained to the bottom of the social, economic, and political
hierarchy, treated as a people with no history and culture, and existing solely to fund
Western capitalist profits.105
This ineluctably brings the immortal and iconoclastic revolutionary leader
Amilcar Cabral—he was the leader of the PAIGC which fought valiantly for the
independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Assassinated on 20 January 1973,
shortly before the total liberation of the two former Portuguese colonial territories,
Cabral organized and led one of the most successful and effective anti-colonial
struggles in history.
But this freedom could not have been achieved without Cabral’s revolutionary
acumen in asserting that foreign domination exists first on an ideological plane
through the destruction of culture and identity—and that any revolutionary struggle
must involve revolutionary theory first; that those who participate in the struggle for
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 425

liberation must be thoroughly immersed in theory to counter the ideas of cultural

domination imposed on the colonized by the colonizer.
A quick revisit at Cabral’s revolutionary theory and praxis (critical thoughts,
reflections, and practice) points us to an inescapable truism: the only reason why
Africa is seemingly behind today is because neo-colonial imperial masters still manage
to win over Africans on an ideological plane.
The racist-capitalist notions of superiority that informed colonial cultural
domination have been re-packaged for the continued subservience of post-colonial
Africa. The dearth of revolutionary theory and practice from Africa’s leaders—who
are seized with maintaining the vested interests of private capital for their self-
enrichment—exacerbates this regrettable state-of-affairs.
Trapped in individualistic consumerism and [populist] neoliberal ideologies
of privatization, profit, deregulation, the reduced role of the state in the political
economy (leaving predatory private businesses, local and global, the effective rulers
of African and global trade and economies), foreign aid, and anti-unionism, Africa
seemingly remains mired in unending cycles of poverty, inequality, hunger, and
instability. But such a reality is not peculiar to Africa. This is what prevails across the
whole world, from the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and
Asia.106
3. Amilcar Cabral and the ‘Weapon of Theory’ – Why this is Import-
ant for African Freedom and Material Prosperity
If the fight for Africa’s prosperity—i.e., the total economic, political, social liberation
and self-sufficiency of African peoples everywhere—is hinged on defeating Western
cultural domination and all its purported ideas of success (Religion, modernity,
consumerism, neoliberalism, authoritarianism, etc.), it is of supreme importance to
look at the unrivalled and immortal salience of Amilcar Cabral’s Weapon of Theory.
Delivering a speech at the historic anti-colonial/anti-imperial 1966 Tri-Continental
Conference held in Havana, Cuba, Cabral laid the basis on why ‘theory’ is the effective
weapon for success in the actual struggle against domination. And this speech is
relevant in our unprecedented times of neo-colonial cultural domination.
He resolutely remarked:
426 The Conspiracy against Africa

“On a Tricontinental level, this means that we are not going to eliminate
imperialism by shouting insults against it. For us, the best or worst shout against
imperialism, whatever its form, is to take up arms and fight. This is what we
are doing, and this is what we will go on doing until all foreign domination of
our African homelands has been eliminated. Our agenda includes subjects whose
meaning, and importance are beyond question, and which show a fundamental
preoccupation with struggle. We note, however, that one form of struggle which we
consider to be fundamental has not been explicitly mentioned in this programme,
although we are certain that it was present in the minds of those who drew up the
programme. We refer here to the struggle against our own weaknesses. Obviously,
other cases differ from that of Guinea; but our experience has shown us that in
the general framework of daily struggle this battle against ourselves — no matter
what difficulties the enemy may create — is the most difficult of all, whether for
the present or the future of our peoples. This battle is the expression of the internal
contradictions in the economic, social, cultural (and therefore historical) reality
of each of our countries. We are convinced that any national or social revolution
which is not based on knowledge of this fundamental reality runs grave risk of
being condemned to failure.”107.
In the face of relentless neo-colonial onslaughts manifesting predatory supremacist
imperialism to the detriment of African peoples, the continent’s leaders, and political
parties—some which fought for and won political independence from colonizers—
still fail the “battle against ourselves”. Whatever that is parroted by neoliberal/state
capitalist Western or Eastern powers is adopted as official policy without addressing
our own internal contradictions.
The fundamental question being is there enough social democracy in Africa
by us, for ourselves, for our egalitarian prosperity. The leaders and the citizenry at
large—reflecting populist and reactionary brands of politics—are failing this daily
struggle “against ourselves”. Without ever critically reflecting on our collective
goals, aspirations, and concrete success at such, we continue building castles in the
air as we aimlessly pursue vapid ideas and myths that everything from the West is
good—without conquering this inferiority complex induced by pervasive cultural
domination, it means our leaders still see foreign aid and “investments” as positive
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 427

development! And that is why Africa seemingly remains behind, along with the
oppressed of the world.
To show the truism of the above-mentioned argumentation, we quote Cabral’s
Weapon of Theory again:
“The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, within the national
liberation movements — which is basically due to ignorance of the historical
reality which these movements claim to transform — constitutes one of the greatest
weaknesses of our struggle against imperialism, if not the greatest weakness of
all.”108
“Ideological deficiency” remains the bane of Africa. Where ideological robustness
organically emerges, it is ruthlessly crushed by reactionary elite authoritarian leaders
(key to note is that Africa’s authoritarian practices are a direct inheritance from
colonialism).
Conclusion: The Betrayal of Africa’s Indigenous Parasitic Looting Class and the
Need for ‘Class Suicide’
It is imperative to close off with Cabral’s concluding remarks from the Weapon
of Theory:
“To retain the power which national liberation puts in its hands, the petty
bourgeoisie has only one path: to give free rein to its natural tendencies to become
more bourgeois, to permit the development of a bureaucratic and intermediary
bourgeoisie in the commercial cycle, to transform itself into a national pseudo-
bourgeoisie, to negate the revolution and necessarily ally. In order not to betray these
objectives the petty bourgeoisie has only one choice: to strengthen its revolutionary
consciousness, to reject the temptations of becoming more bourgeois and the natural
concerns of its class mentality, to identify itself with the working classes and not
to oppose the normal development of the process of revolution. This means that in
order to truly fulfil the role in the national liberation struggle, the revolutionary
petty bourgeoisie must be capable of committing suicide as a class in order to be
reborn as revolutionary workers, completely identified with the deepest aspirations
of the people to which they belong.”109.
This alternative — to betray the revolution or to commit suicide as a class —
constitutes the dilemma of the petty bourgeoisie in the general framework of the
428 The Conspiracy against Africa

national liberation struggle. The positive solution in favour of the revolution depends
on what Fidel Castro recently correctly called the development of revolutionary
consciousness. This dependence necessarily calls our attention to the capacity of the
leader of the national liberation struggle to remain faithful to the principles and to the
fundamental cause of this struggle. This shows us, to a certain extent, that if national
liberation is essentially a political problem, the conditions for its development give it
certain characteristics which belong to the sphere of morals.

I. Other Issues
1. Addressing African Union Peace and Security Council’s Concern
The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council have raised concerns about the
proliferation of foreign military bases on the continent. Despite her concerns and
warnings, several African governments are hosting foreign military bases. The AU
is also concerned about its inability to monitor the movement of weapons to and
from these military bases. Despite the prevailing circumstance, AU member states
and these foreign powers reached a host of bilateral agreements which facilitate the
spread of foreign military forces across the continent.
The importance of national and continental security cannot be over-emphasized.
Every nation and continent needs to enhance her national and continental security.
Why do we need to secure our national and continental borders? How can we
improve border security in Africa Continent?
Border Security is all about protecting our borders from the illegal movement
of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people, while promoting lawful entry and exit.
It is essential to homeland security, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty.
For instance, America shares 7,000 miles of land border with Canada and Mexico,
as well as rivers, lakes and coastal waters around the country. These borders are
important economic gateways that account for trillions of dollars in trade and travel
each year. They are also home to some of he US’ largest — and safest — cities and
communities.110
On the other hand, Africa is the second largest continent (after Asia), covering
about one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. The continent is bounded on the
west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 429

the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters of the
Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Africa’s total land area is approximately 11,724,000 square miles (30,365,000
square km), and the continent measures about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) from north to
south and about 4,600 miles (7,400 km) from east to west.111 Its northern extremity
is Al-Ghīrān Point, near Al-Abyaḍ Point (Cape Blanc), Tunisia; its southern extremity
is Cape Agulhas, South Africa; its farthest point east is Xaafuun (Hafun) Point,
near Cape Gwardafuy (Guardafui), Somalia; and its western extremity is Almadi
Point (Pointe des Almadies), on Cape Verde (Cap Vert), Senegal.112 In the northeast,
Africa was joined to Asia by the Sinai Peninsula until the construction of the Suez
Canal. Paradoxically, the coastline of Africa—18,950 miles (30,500 km) in length—
is shorter than that of Europe, because there are few inlets and few large bays or
gulfs.113
Off the coasts of Africa a number of islands are associated with the continent.
Of these Madagascar, one of the largest islands in the world is the most significant.
Other, smaller islands include the Seychelles, Socotra, and other islands to the east;
the Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, and other islands to the southeast; Ascension,
St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha to the southwest; Cape Verde, the Bijagós Islands,
Bioko, and São Tomé and Príncipe to the west; and the Azores and the Madeira and
Canary islands to the northwest.114
The continent is cut almost equally in two by the Equator, so that most of Africa
lies within the tropical region bounded on the north by the Tropic of Cancer and on
the south by the Tropic of Capricorn. Because of the bulge formed by western Africa,
the greater part of Africa’s territory lies north of the Equator. Africa is crossed from
north to south by the prime meridian (0° longitude), which passes a short distance
to the east of Accra, Ghana.115
This poses a huge burden on the Continent to police and protect its integrity
and sovereignty with all its economic and security consequences.
Security is very important for Africa nations, any nation (and continent) as well
as to the people living in it. Without security, there cannot be any development or
growth; therefore, safety must be at the top of the list. Countries spend billions and
trillions of dollars on their defence each year.
430 The Conspiracy against Africa

Security is vital for your country (and continent) as it makes the people within
the country feel secure and also provides them with peace of mind which leads to
development in many domains. Security has become a major concern, especially after
the 9/11 events. People are interested in knowing how their nation (and continent)
stands up against terrorism and what are the repercussions if they fail to identify and
destroy it.116
Security is important for a nation to protect it from external and internal threats.
It also helps to promote tourism, strengthen relationships between countries, fight
against crime, promote businesses and economic growth, protect human rights,
prevent civil unrest, help in the event of a natural disaster or war, and help during a
pandemic.117
It is therefore in this important sense that we need to interrogate our defence
architecture and interface our security situation with why foreign countries are
scrambling to set up military bases in Africa.
For Africa to be great and develop to her full potentials, she must have the
capacity and capability to protect and secure self de void of unnecessary foreign
interventions and meddlesomeness.
The scrambling of foreign powers to set up military bases in Africa is a testament
as to why Africa is failing, has failed to protect and preserve her sovereignty. And,
for Africa to be taken serious in the comity of respected nations (and continent) she
should be able to protect and secure her sovereignty.

1. Why foreign countries are scrambling to set up bases in Africa

At least 13 foreign powers have a substantial military presence on the continent. The
US and France are at the forefront of conducting operations on African soil.118
Moreover, private military groups are active in several conflict zones on African
soil. Northern Mozambique is the most recent case.
These dynamics coincide with claims that Russian MiG-29 and Su-24 warplanes
have now conducted missions in Libya in support of Kremlin-backed private military
forces to extend Moscow’s influence in Africa.119
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 431

• Military base mapping

Currently, the US has 7,000 military personnel on rotational deployment in
Africa. These troops carry out joint operations with African forces against extremists
or jihadists. They are hosted in military outposts across the continent, including
Uganda, South Sudan, Senegal, Niger, Gabon, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.120
In addition, 2,000 American soldiers are involved in training missions in 40
African countries. American Special Forces operate across east Africa in so-called
forward operation locations in Kenya and Somalia.121
Like the US, France has either deployed military forces or established bases in a
number of African countries. The country has more than 7,500 military personnel
currently serving on the continent. Its largest presence is in the Sahel, especially in
the border zone linking Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.122
The presence of foreign military forces in Africa is not limited to Western powers.
China has been particularly active with its military presence in the Horn of Africa.
It has become more engaged since 2008 when it participated in the multinational
anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.
Since then China has maintained an anti-piracy naval presence in the Horn
of Africa and Gulf of Aden. Between 2008 and 2018, the Chinese Navy deployed
26,000 military personnel in a variety of maritime security operations.123
In 2017, China inaugurated its first overseas military base in Djibouti. This
came after the US established Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti in 2003.124
Lemonnier was established alongside French, Italian, Spanish, German and
Japanese bases. China has developed a 36-hectare military facility to host several
thousand Chinese troops and provide facilities for ships, helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft.125
China’s military base in Djibouti was set up to support five mission areas. These
are counter-piracy in the Gulf of Aden; intelligence collection on other countries;
noncombat evacuation of Chinese citizens in East Africa; international peacekeeping
operations where Chinese soldiers are deployed; and counter-terrorism operations.126
432 The Conspiracy against Africa

India is another Asian nation that has increased its naval presence in Africa. The
country has established a network of military facilities across the Indian Ocean to
counter China’s rising military footprint in the region.127
It also wants to protect its commercial sea lanes from piracy.
India has on-going deployments that monitor developments in the Horn of Africa
and Madagascar. The country also plans to establish 32 coastal radar surveillance
stations with sites in the Seychelles, Mauritius, and other locations outside Africa.128
When it comes to the Middle East, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
are the two countries with a notable military presence in Africa.
Turkey joined the international counter-piracy task force off the Somali coast
in 2009. In 2017, it opened a military base in Mogadishu, Somalia. The purpose is
to train recruits for the Somali National Army. Turkey will also support the Somali
navy and coastguard.129
The UAE has had a military base in Eritrea since 2015. It comprises a military
airfield with aircraft shelters and a deep-water naval port. The base has been used in
operations against opposition forces in Yemen.

2. Foreign military motivations

It is clear that the Horn is the epicentre of foreign military activity in Africa. Foreign
troops have been deployed there to counter threats to international peace, subdue
terror groups and pirates, and support foreign security initiatives.
But there are other motivations to establish military bases in Africa. These include
protection of commercial interests, aligning with friendly regimes, and expressing
dominance on a continent that is the focus of rising global competition.130
Of course, Africa is not the exception. The US, for example, also maintains a
substantial military and security presence in the Gulf region. It has bases in countries
such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE.131
For some observers it might seem like foreign governments are imposing their
militaries on Africa, but, in fact, many African governments are keen to host them.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 433

Bilateral agreements with major powers generate income for African states. The
opening of China’s military base in Djibouti is a case in point. Most of Djibouti’s
economy relies on Chinese credit.132
The presence of foreign military forces has also played a significant role in fighting
terror groups. These include groups like al-Shabaab in East Africa and jihadists
in Mali. This explains why several African countries are willing to turn to foreign
governments for advice, intelligence and support.
But there is a downside to the presence of foreign forces on the continent. For
instance, the African security landscape has become overcrowded by a multiplicity
of foreign security and military activities. These activities often function at cross
purposes.
The competition among some of the world’s powers has been heightened by the
increasing presence of Asian powers. China’s expanding presence in Djibouti has
caused concern.
Its influence in Africa and the Indian Ocean has ruffled feathers within Japanese
and Indian political and security circles. A Chinese monopoly could impede their
engagement with the continent.133
Finally, African countries are not agreed on how to regulate foreign security and
military activities. The approach so far has been disjointed.
Though Africa’s peacekeeping capacity has increased significantly, the AU is still
highly dependent on external funding and resources for its peacekeeping operations.
It does not have the freedom to take independent strategic, operational and even
tactical decisions in its operations.
As long as these shortcomings exist in Africa’s response to armed conflict, foreign
militaries and intelligence services will continue to operate on the continent.
These foreign powers in Africa are all “devils” of some sort, no doubt, seeking
after their interests, not African’s. It is therefore germane and fundamental to ask:
Between America, France, Britain, China and Russia, who is the “better devil”?
These are matters that have to be addressed before African states can heed the AU
Peace and Security Council’s concerns about extensive foreign military involvement
on the continent.
434 The Conspiracy against Africa

2. Corruption: Africa’s Second Largest Religion

The Roman Empire, at its height, was the greatest human administration the world
had ever seen. Roman legislation was so effective that it is still the basis of the legal
code of many countries. Despite Roman’s achievements, however, her legions were
unable to conquer one insidious enemy – corruption. Finally, corruption hastened
Roman’s downfall.
As Mike Uzochukwu has noted, corruption is everywhere but the nature of the
approach given to it depends on the level of its reduction.134
“Corruption, experts agree, is a systemic issue which involves society as a whole. It
involves both private and public sectors. It involves education, the basic economic
system, the regulatory system, how the economy is run and more generally the
ethical values which are in place”135 - Africa Renewal
Corruption is killing and haemorrhaging Africa. African continent and her
immunity have been drastically weakened by corruption. It has killed many Africans
more than civil wars. Africa is a continent made up of a mainly “black” race. African
countries in totality have ranked high in the level of corruption by many corruption
ranking organizations. Corruption in Africa has causes, effects, and also possible
solutions.
Okwuagbala Uzochukwu Mike in his “Corruption in Africa: Overview, Causes,
Effects, and Solutions” likens it as the “solid dirt” on the cloth of mad man which
bites and attacks his skin. According to him, this bad act call corruption has made
Africa be in the state of dwarfism. It has made her be in the state of stunted growth.136
In many African countries you can pay off police officers to ignore any crime,
however horrific and devastating – it’s just a matter of price. According to the
Transparency International 2015 report, nearly 75 million people in Sub-Saharan
Africa were estimated to have paid a bribe in the past year – some to escape punishment
by the police or courts, but many forced to pay to get access to the basic services that
they desperately need.137 Today, that figure is inferior to reality.
Corruption parades itself in many public offices in Africa as the politicians in
the countries mismanage and divert the public funds which are supposed to be used
for national and/or continental development for their individual and private use.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 435

Money laundering from African countries to Europe by public officers is not a new
update in the continent.
According to Transparency International, corruption is an “abuse of entrusted
power for personal or private gain.”138 In 1996, James D Wolfensohn, then president
of the World Bank, called it a cancer and challenged all countries to strive for
transparency and accountability to combat the pernicious impact of corruption on
society, defining the consequences as “redirecting resources from the poor to the
wealthy, inflating business costs, discouraging foreign direct investment (FDI),
draining public expenditure, misdirecting aid and undermining equitable national
development.”139
“Corruption erodes the integrity of people and institutions. A synthesis of social,
political and economic forces, it disempowers sovereign states, undermines
democratic institutions and contributes to instability fuelled by the distrust and
resentment of citizens. It attacks democracy by distorting electoral processes,
perverting the rule of law and building new bureaucratic hurdles whose only
reason for existing is to solicit bribes.”140
There are numerous reasons behind corruption – self-interest, fear, greed and
desire for power – but its consequences are always the same, enduring and deleterious.
The Transparency International anti-corruption agencies ranking in terms of
corruption level going on in some continents has Africa as one of the countries
that have been swimming in the ocean of corruption. Documentation and facts
have proved this survey as Africans themselves strongly believe that the governments
ruling in the continent are much corrupt.
Indeed, corruption is a global phenomenon. It is not an exclusive problem of any
society, nation or continent. But whether we believe it or not, the sheer magnitude
which corruption has assumed in Africa Continent and appallingly so calls for more
drastic action than rhetoric. Has corruption been democratised and instituted in
Africa?
It is indeed an understatement to say that corruption has permeated virtually all
the nooks and crannies of our national and continental lives. I have written so much
about corruption in my previous books – Nigeria: Challenges before a Bewildered
Nation, Nigeria: An Experiment in Nation Building and A Nation in Transition.
436 The Conspiracy against Africa

The issue of corruption need not detain us here! But for Africa to progress, it must
tackle the issue of waste and corruption; for corruption is a conspiracy against
Africa’s growth.

3. Brain Drain – the True Cost of Corruption

Human capital flight is the emigration or immigration of individuals who have
received advanced training at home. The net benefits of human capital flight for the
receiving country are sometimes referred to as a “brain gain” whereas the net costs for
the sending country are sometimes referred to as a “brain drain”141
Human capital flight, popularly called Brain drain is a phenomenon in many
developing countries. And for the developed countries it is brain gain. It is human
migration of skilled people, something happening for a very long time in history.
The advantages of brain drain are usually advantages of an individual. Brain
drain helps the individual more than the society. Here are some advantages of the
brain drain:
1. It makes the individual develop financially.
2. The individual gets more opportunities.
3. The individual is able to increase his professional skills from learning new skills
from professionals from other countries.
4. The individual (if he has any plan) can develop his own nation by applying the
skills which he has learnt abroad.
5. The individual gets more exposure to new methods of professionalism and
leads a high standard of life.
However, the following disadvantages suffice:
• The country which the professional is leaving is facing decrease in number of
professionals.
• The country remains underdeveloped since the skilled professionals are leaving
the nation.
• The country’s Human Development Index (HDI) and other economic factors
get reduced due to poor performance of private and public sector industries,
since they have lost the skilled professionals to other countries.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 437

It suffices that the continent of Africa suffers one of the most human capital flight
otherwise known as brain drain. In our clime, most people tend to mischaracterize
the true cost of corruption thinking that the most expensive line of corruption is the
area of economy. Most people tend to ignore what is done to sentiment and what is
done to talent. When you corrupt a system, those less deserving gets opportunities
to which they do not deserve. On the other hand, those deserving leave the country
or the Continent. And when you distort the due process of efforts versus reward
system, talent goes where it will be rewarded.
For instance, it suffices that Nigerians are some of the smartest people in the
world today. If you look at the top 100 investment bankers in Wall Street today, you’ll
discover that a healthy percentage of them are Nigerians. The top brain surgeons in
the world today have a healthy percentage of Nigerians; and the top investment
banking lawyers in the world presently fields a healthy percentage of Nigerians. It
is therefore germane and fundamental to ask: How come Nigeria is struggling with
huge leadership problems, being rated as the most corrupt nation on earth, having no
social cohesion, etc. but yet, some of the smartest of the world are Nigerians. These
incredible talents, skills, competence and abilities are being harvested by another
economy not their economy of birth.
If Africa does not want to destroy her economies, she should not allow their
incredible base of talents to leave the Continent by doing the needful. Brain drain
is a conspiracy against Africa’s growth and development.
Remember: Poverty and underdevelopment is a choice. It is a democratic right
even in the “kingdom of God”. Prosperity and growth is a deliberate choice. The
choice is open to Africa!
438 The Conspiracy against Africa

References
1. Peter Kuryla, “Pan-Africanism”. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 27 Jan. 2023,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pan-Africanism. Accessed 18 February
2023.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Tatenda Gwaambuka, “Muammar Gaddafi and The United States of Africa”
The African Exponent - March 9th, 2016.
7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Ibid
12. African Union (2006). A Study on an African Union Government. Towards
the United States of Africa. Addis Ababa
13. Christian Aid (2005). The economics of failure. The costs of ‘free’ trade for
poor countries. London
14. Ibid
15. Commission for Africa (2005). Our Common Interest. London (March)
16. Ibid
17. Archbishop Ndungane quoted in Ndungane, Njongonkulu, “A CALL TO
LEADERSHIP: The role of Africans in the Development Agenda”. Harold
Wolpe Memorial Lecture (30 November 2006), Howard College Campus,
University of KwaZulu-Natal
18. WHO (2006) quoted ibid.
19. Ibid
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 439

20. Ibid
21. Ibid
22. President George Bush administration used AfriCom to strengthen US support
and cooperation with Africa drawing African countries on the “War on Terror”.
23. Ndungane, Njongonkulu, “A CALL TO LEADERSHIP: The role of Africans
in the Development Agenda”. Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture (30 November
2006), Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal
24. Ibid
25. US strategy aims to secure strategic position in Africa by using the threat of
terrorism to gain military bases and facilities to protect her interests.
26. Foreign military bases are used to launch military offensive to some targeted
African countries.
27. France used her military bases in West Africa – Senegal and Togo – to destabilize
Cote de Ivoire.
28. African Union (2006). A Study on an African Union Government. Towards
the United States of Africa. Addis Ababa
29. Ibid
30. See Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) adopted in 1980.
31. See African Alternative Framework (1980) quoted I African Union (2006) op.
cit.
32. Arusha Charter for Popular Participation in Development and Social
Transformation adopted in 1990.
33. 1991 Abuja Treaty for the Creation of the African Economic Community,
quoted in Ndungane, Njongonkulu, “A CALL TO LEADERSHIP: The role
of Africans in the Development Agenda”. Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture
(30 November 2006), Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal
34. Ibid
35. Ibid
36. Ibid
440 The Conspiracy against Africa

37. ibid
38. Ki-Zerbo, Joseph (1995), Which Way Africa? Reflections on Basil Davidson’s
The Black Man’s Burden.
39. New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
40. Nana Kwaku Asamoah, “United States of Africa: An African Elitist Revolution”,
ADC Editor, 11 November 2020.
41. Ibid
42. Ibid
43. Ibid
44. Ibid
45. Ibid
46. Ibid
47. Ibid
48. Ibid
49. Ibid
50. Loes Witschge (March 20, 2018). “African Continental Free Trade Area: What
you need to know”. Al Jazeera
51. “African states agree massive trade bloc”. BBC News. March 21, 2018.
Retrieved March 21, 2018. See also “Africa Set to Agree $3 Trillion Trade Bloc,
Without Key Economy”. Bloomberg.com. March 21, 2018. Retrieved March
21, 2018.AfricaNews. “Forty-four countries sign historic African Union free
trade agreement | Africanews”. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
52. Justina Crabtree (March 20, 2018). “Africa is on the verge of forming the
largest free trade area since the World Trade Organization”. CNBC.
53. “Forty-four African countries sign a free-trade deal”. The Economist. March
22, 2018. See also “44 African nations sign pact establishing free trade area”.
Arab News. March 21, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
54. “Forty-four African countries sign a free-trade deal”. The Economist. March
22, 2018.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 441

55. Abdi Latif Dahir (April 3, 2019). “Africa’s historic free trade deal now as enough
countries signed up to go into force”. Quartz Africa.
56. “AfCFTA Agreement secures minimum threshold of 22 ratification as Sierra
Leone and the Saharawi Republic deposit instruments”. African Union. April
29, 2019.
57. U.S. International Trade Administration, African Continental Free Trade Area
(3 January 2022). See also “Akufo-Addo commissions and hands-over AfCFTA
secretariat to AU commission”. Joy online. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
58. U.S. International Trade Administration, African Continental Free Trade Area
(3 January 2022).
59. “Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area”.
60. Witschge, Loes (March 20, 2018). “African Continental Free Trade Area: What
you need to know”. Al-Jazeera.
61. “The African Continental Free Trade Area”. World Bank. Retrieved June 27,
2022.
62. U.S. International Trade Administration, African Continental Free Trade Area
(3 January 2022).
63. “African Continental Free Trade Area: Policy and Negotiation Options for
Trade in Goods” (PDF). unctad.org. United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development. 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See also “African Union will
launch operational phase of the AfCFTA at Summit in Niger”. African Union,
July 4, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
64. “African Continental Free Trade Area: Policy and Negotiation Options for
Trade in Goods” (PDF). unctad.org. United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development. 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2019.see also Signé, Landry; van
der Ven, Colette (May 2019). “Keys to success for the AfCFTA negotiations”
(PDF). Brookings. Brookings. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
65. tralac, trade law centre. “African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Legal
Texts and Policy Documents”. tralac.org. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
66. Gwatiwa, Tshepo T.; Sam, Michael Noel. “How the free movement of people
could benefit Africa”. The Conversation. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
442 The Conspiracy against Africa

67. Shaban, Abdur Rahman Alfa (March 21, 2018). “Forty-four countries sign
historic African Union free trade agreement”. AfricaNews. Retrieved July 7,
2019. See also “African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Legal Texts
and Policy Documents”. Tralac. Tralac Trade Law Centre. Retrieved July 7,
2019. See also “African Union Legal Resources and Policy Documents”. Tralac.
Tralac. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
68. “African Continental Free Trade Area: Policy and Negotiation Options for
Trade in Goods” (PDF). unctad.org. United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development. 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See also “African Union Legal
Resources and Policy Documents”. Tralac. Tralac. Retrieved July 8, 2019.see
also Balima, Boureima (July 8, 2019). “Economic ‘game changer’? African
leaders launch free-trade zone”. Reuters. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See also
Erasmus, Gerhard (March 22, 2018). “How will the AfCFTA be established,
and its Legal Instruments be implemented?”. Tralac. Tralac. Retrieved July 8,
2019.
69. “African Continental Free Trade Area - Questions & Answers” (PDF). au.int.
African Union. March 15, 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 3,
2019. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
70. Chidede, Talkmore (March 15, 2018). “The legal and institutional architecture
of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area”. tralac
Discussion. trade law centre. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
71. Ibid
72. Ibid
73. Ibid
74. Ibid
75. Erasmus, Gerhard (March 22, 2018). “How will the AfCFTA be established,
and its Legal Instruments be implemented?”. Tralac. Tralac. Retrieved July 8,
2019.
76. Signé, Landry; van der Ven, Colette (May 2019). “Keys to success for the
AfCFTA negotiations” (PDF). Brookings. Brookings. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 443

77. Ibid., see also Erasmus, Gerhard (March 22, 2018). “How will the AfCFTA
be established, and its Legal Instruments be implemented?”. Tralac. Tralac.
Retrieved July 8, 2019.
78. “AfCFTA Agreement secures minimum threshold of 22 ratification as Sierra
Leone and the Saharawi Republic deposit instruments”. African Union. April
29, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2019. See also Meldrum, Andrew. “African leaders
to launch continent-wide free trade zone”. AP News. Associated Press. Retrieved
July 7, 2019.
79. “Operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area is launched at
Niger Summit of the African Union”. African Union. African Union. July 7,
2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
80. Signé, Landry; van der Ven, Colette (May 2019). “Keys to success for the
AfCFTA negotiations” (PDF). Brookings. Brookings. Retrieved July 8,
2019. See also Erasmus, Gerhard (March 22, 2018). “How will the AfCFTA
be established, and its Legal Instruments be implemented?”. Tralac. Tralac.
Retrieved July 8, 2019.
81. “After months of COVID delays, African free trade bloc launches”. aljazeera.
com. Al Jazeera English. January 1, 2021. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
82. Uwiringiyimana, Clement (March 21, 2018). “Nigeria keen to ensure Africa
trade bloc good for itself: president”. Reuters.
83. “More countries sign the African free trade area agreement”. The East African.
Retrieved April 7, 2019.
84. “Kenya and Ghana to ratify instruments of African Continental Free Trade
Area | African Union”. au.int. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018.
Retrieved May 11, 2018.
85. “African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Legal Texts and Policy
Documents”. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
86. Giles, Chris (March 22, 2018). “44 African countries agree free trade agreement,
Nigeria yet to sign”. CNN.
87. “Why Nigeria, South Africa did not join other Nations to sign Continental
Free Trade agreement”. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
444 The Conspiracy against Africa

88. “Why Nigeria had good reasons to delay signing Africa’s free trade deal”.
Retrieved December 24, 2018.
89. “Nigeria: Why We Are Worried Over African Free Trade Agreement - Dangote,
MAN, LCCI”. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
90. Kazeem, Yomi (July 3, 2019). “Africa’s largest economy is finally backing the
continent’s plans for a single free trade market”. Quartz Africa.
91. AfricaNews (July 6, 2019). “Eritrea now sole outsiders of free trade deal as
Nigeria, Benin sign up”. Africanews. Retrieved July 7, 2019. See also “Nigeria
finally commits to signing the Africa free trade agreement”. The South African.
July 3, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2019. See also Meldrum, Andrew. “African
leaders to launch continent-wide free trade zone”. AP News. Associated Press.
Retrieved July 7, 2019.
92. “African states agree massive trade bloc”. BBC News. March 21, 2018.
Retrieved March 21, 2018. See also “African Union Legal Resources and Policy
Documents”. Tralac. Tralac. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See also “Nigeria signs
African free trade area agreement”. BBC. July 7, 2019. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
See also Jones, Mayeni (July 7, 2019). “Nigeria signs African free trade area
agreement”. BBC News. BBC. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See Ighobor, Kingsley
(August–November 2018). “Africa set for a massive free trade area”. Africa
Renewal. United Nations. Retrieved July 8, 2019. See “Status of AfCFTA
Ratification”. Tralac. Tralac. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
93. Ndlovu, Sitshengisiwe (July 23, 2020). “AfCFTA establishment pushed to
2021 by Covid-19”. The Herald. Retrieved August 21, 2020. See “Statement
of H.E. Mr. Wamkele Mene on the Occasion of Swearing-in as the Secretary
General of the AfCFTA Secretariat”. African Union. March 19, 2020. Retrieved
August 21, 2020. See also “AfCFTA: Towards the African Continental Free
Trade Area”. Tralac. May 6, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
94. “AfCFTA: Towards the African Continental Free Trade Area”. Tralac. May 6,
2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020. See “Somalia approves Africa free trade area
treaty for ratification - Xinhua | English.news.cn”. www.xinhuanet.com.
95. Nigeria signs African free trade area agreement”. BBC. July 7, 2019. Retrieved
July 7, 2019.
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 445

96. Maryla Maliszewska, et al, “New 2022 AfCFTA report! Making the most of
the AfCFTA”, Understanding Poverty, PUBLICATION JULY 27, 2020
97. Maryla Maliszewska – Lead Author, is a Senior Economist in Trade and
Regional Integration Unit (ETIRI) at the World Bank. Her area of expertise
covers various aspects of trade policy and regional integration with a special
focus on the impacts of trade on poverty and income distribution.
98. Ibid
99. Ibid
100. Ibid
101. Hillary Chinwanza Takudzwa, “Why Africa Remains Behind in the World:
Amilcar Cabral Revisited”, Internationalist 360, 22 January 2023.
102. Amilcar Cabral, “National Liberation and Culture (Return to the Source)
103. Ibid
104. Hillary Chinwanza Takudzwa, “Why Africa Remains Behind in the World:
Amilcar Cabral Revisited”, Internationalist 360, 22 January 2023.
105. Ibid
106. Ibid
107. Amilcar Cabral, “Weapons of Theory”
108. Ibid
109. Ibid
110. Border “Security – US Department of Homeland Security
111. Dickson, Kwamina Busumafi , Middleton, John F.M. , Smedley, Audrey , Steel,
Robert Walter , Clarke, John Innes , Gardiner, Robert K.A. , Kröner, Alfred
, Nicol, Davidson S.H.W. , Mabogunje, Akinlawon Ladipo and McMaster,
David N.. “Africa”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Mar. 2023, https://www.
britannica.com/place/Africa. Accessed 18 March 2023.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid
114. Ibid
446 The Conspiracy against Africa

115. Ibid
116. Ayesha Akhtar, “15 Reasons Why Security is Important”, Curious Desire, 16
December, 2021.
117. ibid
118. Theo Neethling, “Why Foreign Countries are Scrambling to Set-up Bases in
Africa”, the Conversation AFRICA, 15 September, 2020.
119. Ibid
120. Ibid
121. ibid
122. ibid
123. ibid
124. ibid
125. ibid
126. ibid
127. ibid
128. ibid
129. ibid
130. ibid
131. ibid
132. ibid
133. ibid
134. Mike Uzochukwu, “Corruption in Africa: Overview, Causes, Effects, and
Solutions”, HubPages, April 15, 2020.
135. Ibid
136. Human Capital Flight – Wikipedia
137. See Report of the 2015 Transparency International on Corruption.
138. Ibid
 Solution and Strategy for Africa Unity and Progress 447

139. In 1996, James D. Wolfensohn when he presided over the World Bank made
this statement on corruption.
140. Kenneth Mohammed, “A Wealth of Sorrow: Why Nigeria’s Abundant Oil
Reserves are Really a Curse”, The Guardian, 9 November 2021.
141. See the 2015 Transparency International on Corruption
 Chapter 8

AFRICA AND CLIMATE CHANGE

CHALLENGE

“Despite contributing only a minute amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, the
African continent suffers the deleterious effects of climate change to a disproportionate
degree. The heavy carbon emitters, like China and the United States, have a moral
obligation to help the nations of Africa, particularly the rural areas of these countries,
mitigate the impact of climate change, not just to help Africa, but to help the rest of the
world.”
–Charles A. Ray “The Impact of Climate Change on Africa’s Economies”

A. Background Studies
Climate change is one of the major issues affecting lots of countries right across the world.
According to the United Nations (UN), changes in weather patterns are expected
to have more of an impact on Africa than any other continent in the world.
According to climate specialist Richard Washington, Africa is more vulnerable
than any other region to the world’s changing weather patterns. He however gave
four key reasons for this: 1
• First, African society is very closely coupled with the climate system; hundreds
of millions of people depend on rainfall to grow their food.
• Second, the African climate system is controlled by an extremely complex mix
of large-scale weather systems, many from distant parts of the planet and, in
comparison with almost all other inhabited regions, is vastly understudied. It
is therefore capable of all sorts of surprises.
• Third, the degree of expected climate change is large. The two most extensive
land-based end-of-century projected decreases in rainfall anywhere on the
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 449

planet occur over Africa; one over North Africa and the other over southern
Africa.
• Finally, the capacity for adaptation to climate change is low; poverty equates
to reduced choice at the individual level while governance generally fails to
prioritise and act on climate change.
Is Africa sleepwalking into a potential catastrophe?
• Monsoons altering
African climate is not a stranger to complexity and marvels. The Africa’s Sahara
is rated the world’s largest desert with the deepest layer of intense heating anywhere
on Earth.2
In June and July the most extensive and most intense dust storms found anywhere
on the planet fill the air with fine particles that interfere with climate in ways that
humans are yet to comprehend.3
The region is almost completely lacking but desperately in need of weather
measurements yet it is a key driver of the West African monsoon system, which
brings three months of rain that interrupts the nine-month long dry season across
the Sahel region, south of the desert.4
Between the 1960s and 1984, there was a setback of rainfall of some 30% across
the Sahel, which led to famine and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people
and the displacement of many millions. No other region other than Africa has
documented such a long and spatially extensive drought.5
The cause of this downturn, according to evidence, points to Western industrial
aerosol pollution, which cooled parts of the global ocean, thereby altering the
monsoon system.
Presently, the recovery of the rains we observe is projected to continue through
the 21st Century, particularly over the central and eastern Sahel.
Africa’s capacity to adapt to climate change is low - and led to landslides in
Kenya in 2019.6
But that change seems to depend on exactly where future heating in the central
Sahara peaks, emphasising cruelly the region we least understand.
450 The Conspiracy against Africa

In southern Africa we are experiencing a delay in the onset and a drying of early
summer rains, which is predicted to worsen in forthcoming decades.
Temperatures there are expected to rise by five degrees or more, particularly in
the parts of Namibia, Botswana and Zambia that are already intolerably hot.7
• The East African paradox
Meanwhile over Kenya and Tanzania, the long rains from March to May start
later and end sooner - leading to an overall fall in rainfall.
This observed change sits uncomfortably next to predictions of a wetter future in
the same season - problem scientists have termed the East African Climate Paradox.8
Central Africa, one of three regions on the planet where thunderstorms drive the
rest of the planets tropical and sub-tropical weather systems, lives perilously close to
the rainfall minimum needed to support the world’s second largest rainforest system.
It is essential to note that rainforests play a huge role in driving global weather
systems. Even a little less rainfall in the future could endanger the forest and its
massive carbon store.
Africa’s complex climate system is, unusually, influenced by the three main global
ocean basins.
Emerging from one of those rapidly warming oceans, tropical cyclones Idai and
Kenneth in March and April 2019 destroyed parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and
Malawi, with Kenneth following a particularly unusual path over Tanzania.9
It was reported that more than 1,000 people died after Cyclone Idai hits
Mozambique and Zimbabwe.10
• Scientific Breakthrough
Through efforts such as the on-going Future Climate for Africa (FCFA), a
programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and
Natural Environment Research Council, the experience and insights of African
climate scientists have led to a discernible jump in our ability to understand and
model African climate.11
We have new insights brought through that scientific ingenuity.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 451

Each region and sub-region of Africa is changing differently but an emerging

commonality is a shift towards more intense rainfall - even where there is observed
and projected future drying.12
The rainfall arrives in shorter bursts, causing more runoff and longer dry-spells
in between.
New models, developed as part of FCFA, are now run at extremely high resolution
with grid spacing of around 4km (2.5 miles) for the entire continent.13
• Understanding thunderstorms
The results point unambiguously to an increase in both rainfall intensity and the
length of dry spells, and we have strong reason to believe them.
Central to that rainfall change is the behaviour of thunderstorms, which deliver
around 70% of African rain.

B. Five Important Climate Issues in Africa

Flooding, drought and rising temperatures are all leaving the people living in
African countries with consequences.
Many of the climate issues in Africa aren’t widely known, something which
young African climate activists are eager to change.
Do you want to know more about how climate change is impacting the world’s
second largest continent after Asia? Here are five important climate issues in Africa.
• The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen a big increase in deforestation.
The Congo Basin is the world’s second biggest rainforest after the Amazon. It
covers an area totalling a whopping 1,780,000 km2 and stretches across a number of
different countries including Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial
Guinea and Gabon. Around two thirds of the forest is in the DRC.14
More than 12,000 different species, which includes tropical plants, birds, fish
and mammals, can be found in the Congo Basin.15
The rainforest also provides important resources like food, fuel and shelter for
more than 75 million. 16
452 The Conspiracy against Africa

However, the rainforest has seen a huge increase in the rates of deforestation -
which is when large areas of trees are cleared - particularly in the DRC. Trees absorb
carbon dioxide from the air, but this is released back into the atmosphere when they
are cut or burned down and this contributes to global warming.17
• Flooding in the Central African Republic
Lots of people in the Central African Republic lost their homes because of severe
flooding
The Central African Republic (CAR), which is located in central Africa, was
hit by major flooding at the end of 2019. Heavy rain in the country caused the
Oubangui River to overflow.18
The recent flooding is thought to have been the worst to hit the country in the
last 20 years. More than 10,000 homes have been destroyed and more than 30,000
people have been made homeless.19
Lots of other countries in East Africa have also been affected by flooding in
recent times including Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.
• Droughts in South Africa
South Africa is currently experiencing a severe drought. Some areas in the
country haven’t seen rainfall for several years. The extreme weather is bad news for
South Africa’s wildlife industry.
Temperatures in Southern Africa are said to be rising at twice the global average
rate according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and water levels
in South African reservoirs are falling.20
• Other African countries have also been impacted by drought including Malawi,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.21
Lots of Africa countries, including Zimbabwe, have been affected by hot
temperatures
Sub-Saharan Africa is made up of lots of different countries including Angola,
Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone.
Temperature increases are expected to be higher compared to average temperature
increases globally and it’s been predicted that regions close to the equator will
experience more heat-waves and hotter nights.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 453

• Cyclones in Southern and East Africa

Africa was hit by several cyclones last year. Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique
in March 2019, affecting more than 1.5 million people. Thousands in Malawi and
Zimbabwe were also negatively impacted by the extreme weather conditions.22
Tropical storm Pawan hit Somalia in December 2019, leading to strong winds
and heavy rainfall. Almost 5000 people lost their homes as a result of the storm.
In conclusion, Africa will be hardest hit by climate change, but has contributed
the least to causing that change.

C. Demographic Transition: Is Africa being Prejudice?

• The Need for the Death of one-third of Human Race to Secure the Sustainability of
Civilization: Matters Arising!
The world’s population in 1800 was around 1 billion people. Ever since it has increased
eightfold to reach 8 billion in 2022, and is forecast to top 10 billion by 2050.23
The rate of population growth reached new heights in the 20th century, and
the world population doubled faster than ever before. It is estimated that the world
population reached one billion in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached
two billion in 1927, but took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960. Thereafter,
the global population reached four billion in 1974 (14 years), five billion in 1987
(13 years), six billion in 1999 (12 years) and seven billion in 2011 (12 years).The
consequences are currently being felt and, if the population growth is not checked,
will continue to be felt for decades to come.24
Will population growth inevitably continue? Will it level off over the long term?
Should we try to reduce or stop this growth?
Evidently, the population of the world is increasing because the number of births
outnumbers deaths by two to one. A surplus of births first occurred two centuries
ago in Europe and North America, when mortality started to decline. This marked
the beginning of what scientists call the demographic transition. Subsequently, this
transition spread to the rest of the planet as social and economic progress, supported
with advances in hygiene and medicine, began to reduce mortality rates.25
454 The Conspiracy against Africa

Still, the annual population growth rate actually peaked 60 years ago at more
than 2%, and has fallen by half since then, to 1% in 2022. This trend should continue
in coming decades because fertility is decreasing at global level, from 5 children per
woman in 1950 to 2.3 today. In 2022, the regions where fertility is (still) high –
above 2.5 children per woman – include practically all of Africa, some countries of
the Middle East, and a part of Asia stretching from Kazakhstan to Afghanistan and
Pakistan. These are the regions that will drive future world population growth. 26
A key trend in future decades will be population growth in Africa. Including
North Africa, the continent’s population could triple by the end of the century,
rising from 1.4 billion inhabitants in 2022 to 3.9 billion in 2100 according to the
UN medium projection. While, globally speaking, one person in six currently lives
in Africa the proportion will probably be more than one in three a century from
now. Growth should be especially rapid in sub-Saharan Africa, where, under this
same scenario, the population is set to rise from 1.2 billion in 2022 to 3.4 billion in
2100. 27
But where did the idea of overpopulation come from? It was an economist
Thomas Malthus who, in 19th century argued that population growth would always
outstrip available resources. That’s known as a “Malthusian argument”. So what is
the optimum number of humans?
Nobody knows. Overpopulation is defined as when a species exceeds the current
capacity of its ecosystem. We’re consuming the resources of 1.6 planet Earths each
day. 28
A coalition of American scientists have announced that one-third of the world
population must die to prevent wide-scale depletion of the planet’s resources—and
that humankind needs to figure out immediately how it wants to go about killing off
more than 2 billion members of its species.29
According to researchers from multiple fields of study, including ecology,
agriculture, biology, and economics, humanity has far exceeded its sustainable
population size, so either one in three humans can choose how they want to die
themselves, or there can be some sort of government-mandated liquidation program—
but either way, people have to start dying.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 455

“I’m just going to level with you—the earth’s carrying capacity will no longer be
able to keep up with population growth, and civilization will end unless large
swaths of human beings are killed, so the question is: How do we want to do this?”
30

Dr Edwin Peters, an ecologist from Cambridge University said. “Do we want

to give everyone a number and implement a death lottery system? Incinerate the
nation’s children? Kill off an entire race of people? Give everyone a shotgun and let
them sort it out themselves?”31
“Completely up to you,”32 he added, explaining he and his colleagues were “open
to whatever.” “Unfortunately, we are well past the point of controlling overpopulation
through education, birth control, and the empowerment of women. In fact, we
should probably kill 300 million women right off the bat.”33
Because the world’s population may double by the end of the century, an outcome
that would lead to a considerable decrease in the availability of food, land, and water,
researchers said that, bottom line, it would be helpful if a lot of people chose to
die willingly, the advantage being that these volunteers could decide for themselves
whether they wished to die slowly, quickly, painfully, or peacefully.34
Additionally, the scientists noted that in order to stop the destruction of global
environmental systems in heavily populated regions, there’s no avoiding the reality
that half the world’s progeny will have to be sterilized.
According to Dr Chelsea Klepper, head of agricultural studies at Purdue
University, and the leading proponent of a worldwide death day in which 2.3 billion
people would kill themselves en masse at the exact same time;
“The longer we wait, the higher the number of people who will have to die, so
we might as well just get it over with … At this point, it’s merely a question of
coordination. If we can get the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Beijing,
India, Europe, and Latin America to voluntarily off themselves at 6 p.m. EST
on June 1, we can kill the people that need to be killed and the planet can finally
start renewing its resources.”35
Thus far, humanity has been presented with a great variety of death options,
among them, poisoning the world’s water supply with cadmium, picking one person
per household to be killed in the privacy of his or her home, mass beheadings, and
456 The Conspiracy against Africa

gathering 2.3 billion people all in one place and obliterating them with a single
hydrogen bomb.36
It has been rumoured that if a death solution is not in place by a certain date,
the U.N., in the interest of preserving the human race, will mobilize its peacekeeping
forces and gun down as many people as necessary.
And finally, Dr Henry Craig of the Population Research Institute said:
“I don’t care how it happens, but a ton of Africans have to go, because by 2025,
there’s no way that continent will be able to feed itself … And by my estimation,
three babies have to die for every septuagenarian, because their longer life
expectancy means babies have the potential to release far more greenhouse gases
going forward.”37
However, a number of scientists and researchers have said that a quadrillion
dollar enterprise using synthetic molecule is decimating human family intentionally
by using molecular aids designed to cause cancer, aids, etc. According to this
narrative, for the purposes of population control, more than two billion people – in
the words of Bill Gates three billion people – need to die and that they need to start
from Africa. According to them, Africans need to be eliminated because they are
“deplorable, worthless … they are not part of the world economy … so they have
their right taken away … they are suppressed …”
While the majority of the advanced civilization reportedly understands this is
the only option left to save civilization, not all members of the human race are eager
to die.
Norwich, CT resident and father of three Jason Atkins said:
“I personally would rather live, but taking the long view, I can see how ensuring
the survival of humanity is best … I guess if we were to do it over again, it would
make sense to do a better job conserving the earth’s finite resources.”
“Hopefully, the people who remain on the planet will use the mass slaughter of
their friends and loved ones as an incentive to be more responsible going forward,”
38
he added.
In conclusion, it is life choices that matter. It is human activities that instigate
and cause the destruction of the ecosystem and adversely alter the climate. Over-
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 457

population, as a matter of fact, also instigates destructive tendencies towards the

ecosystem and cause climatic change due to human activities.
Population control is necessary, if not recommended, as one of the measures to
check the depletion of our ecosystem. To start with, the recommendation that two or
three billion people must die is not necessary. It is necessary to adopt birth-control
measures to checkmate hitting up the population. With time, it will affect the world
population drastically.
It is satanic to advise that trimming down the world population must be carried
out and must start from Africa because they are not valuable enough and do not
contribute to the world economy.
To appreciate why we experience climate change and why there is depletion of
the ecosystem, we need to understand and appreciate the following: (a) countries
with the largest and smallest ecological footprint as ranked by Global Hectares,
(b) countries with the largest and smallest ecological footprint as ranked by Global
Hectares per person, (c) countries with the most and least bio-capacity as ranked by
Global Hectares, and (d) countries with the most and least bio-capacity as ranked by
the Global Hectares per person.

D. Why Climate Change?

We are all living witnesses to how human-caused global warming happening presently
appears irreversible for people alive today, and will worsen as long as humans add
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We have experienced, are experiencing how
changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping
greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers
and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal
geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.39
Occurring before our very eyes and quickly too, are effects that scientists had long
predicted would result from global climate change, such as sea ice loss, accelerated
sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.
“Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage
costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.” 40
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
458 The Conspiracy against Africa

Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening
faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess
the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the
observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible
over the next hundreds to thousands of years.
Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for
many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.41

E. Destruction of Ecosystem
Destruction of Ecosystem refers to the degeneration of the ecosystem through the
depletion of natural resources such as water, air, and soil. Any disturbance or change
to the environment perceived to be harmful or undesirable is also considered to
be the destruction of the ecosystem. This unfortunate happening is one out of the
ten hazards marked out officially by the High-level Panel on Threats, Change, and
Challenges of the United Nations.42
Furthermore, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines the
destruction of the ecosystem as the decline in the ability of the environment to fulfil
ecological and social objectives and requirements.43
• Causes for Destruction of Ecosystem
Factors that are destroying our ecosystem include: 44
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Land clearing
• Resource exploitation
• Population decline
• Construction of infrastructure like roads
• Hunting of animals
• Clearing the planet of trees.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 459

F. Which Countries Destroy the Environment the Most (and Least)?

It suffices that in 1970, human beings first used more environmental resources than
the world could produce.
Since then, the gap between demand and nature’s ability to meet that demand
has grown steadily since. Each year we live in ecological deficit–taking more than
can be replenished–we draw down the world’s reserves of natural resources. While
we (global effort) must all ensure that we don’t use up the world’s resources, it is
important to interrogate our relationship with our ecosystem and interface why some
countries use up more resources than others.
What countries were the heaviest users of environmental resources, and which
ones have the lightest footprint?
Expectedly, we found that on average people across the world use vastly more
resources than nature can replace.
Countries in Western Europe, East Asia and oil-producing countries typically
run the largest per person deficits. Luxembourg has a per person deficit 10 times larger
than the world average. Sparsely populated and densely forested South American
countries like Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana have the largest per person
surpluses.
It suffices that a country’s affluence is a strong predictor of its natural resource
consumption. Looking just at the 50 largest economies, Canada is the most
environmentally responsible and South Korea the least. Of these large economies,
the United States has the second worst environmental track record.
Ecological footprint measures how much biologically productive area a country
needs to fuel its resource consumption and absorb its waste.
The more fruits, vegetables and grains a country consumes the more farmland it
needs to supply that demand. The more animal product it consumes, the more fishing
and grazing area it needs. The more carbon emissions it puts out, the more land it
needs to pull that carbon back out of the atmosphere and trap it. If you’re concerned
with the environment, having a large ecological footprint is a huge negative.
On the other hand, “bio-capacity” is a positive for the environment. Bio-capacity
measures how much a country’s land and water can produce.
460 The Conspiracy against Africa

Densely forested land can be logged for lumber, or left to convert carbon in the
air into leaves and stems on the ground. Farmers need land to grow crops or raise
livestock. How much the land can provide depends on both how rich it is, and what
people use it for.
Both ecological footprint and bio-capacity are measured in a common unit,
global hectares. A global hectare is the average amount of resources a hectare (roughly
two and a half acres) of productive land produces.
We shall begin by looking at total resource consumption to see which countries
have the largest (and smallest) ecological footprints. The biggest consumers are
among the most populous, most expansive, and most developed countries in the
world. Small island countries make up the other extreme.

1. Countries with the Largest and Smallest Ecological Footprints

Which countries destroy the environment the most (and least)? Luxembourg, a micro
nation neighbouring Germany, ranks number one with an 11.51 global hectare per
person deficit. Singapore, Belgium, South Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland,
Malta and the United Kingdom all place in the top 25 biggest ecological debtors. Oil
producing countries such as Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Libya
also rank highly.45
Of course, humans must start thinking today about the need for long-term
equilibrium, but it is the next few decades that are of most urgent concern.
Expectedly, the world population will inevitably increase by 2 billion between
now and 2050 because of demographic inertia that no one can prevent. Nevertheless,
we have the power to change our way of living – and there is an urgent need to do
so – by ensuring greater respect for the environment and more efficient use of natural
resources. All in all, the long-term survival of humankind depends more on its
choice of lifestyle than on its population size.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 461

• Countries with the Largest and Smallest Ecological Footprint (Ranked by

Global Hectares in 2013)

Data source: data.world and GFN

The absolute amount of demand fall rapidly the further down the list. The United
States ranks second largest, with just over half the demand of number one China.
India, the next largest, consumes about half what the United States does. Two more
spots down the list, Japan comes in at fifth largest with half the demand of India.
Rounding out the top 10, the United Kingdom has a footprint half the size of Japan’s
footprint–and roughly one-sixteenth the size of China’s footprint.
It’s not very surprising, however, that countries with the most people also have
the largest footprints. But if you control for population, which countries use the
most per person?
462 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Countries with the Largest and Smallest Ecological Footprint (Rated by Global
Hectares per Person in 2013)

Luxembourg, a country with a little over half a million people and just under a
thousand square miles, sits atop the list. Each Luxembourger uses the equivalent of
13.092 hectares of productive land. The bottom 10 countries, on the other hand,
need less than one global hectare per person. It takes approximately 26 Eritreans to
match one Luxembourger’s ecological footprint. Island countries, such as Timor-
Leste in the south Pacific or Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, show up at both
extremes.
Countries use natural resources in different ways. Different spending habits
means a country has to sacrifice different things to start living within its means again.
We found the 10 countries that put the largest burden on the earth, and show how
they spend their resources.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 463

• Ecological Footprint by Source

Carbon emissions are the largest demand most countries place on natural
resources. Typically discussions about carbon emissions revolve around tons of
carbon. The ecological footprint measures carbon in the amount of productive land
and sea needed to pull the carbon out of the air. Indonesia and Brazil place a heavier
burden on their resources for food production than removing carbon. For the 10
countries with the largest footprint, growing food makes up the second largest part
of demand.
Consumption is only half of the equation. A country that consumes less than it
produces will have resources to export. So, which countries are rich in environmental
resources and don’t have large ecological footprints?
To begin with, we investigated who had the most in terms of sheer natural
resources. The table below shows the countries with the most and least bio-capacity:
464 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Countries with the Most and Least Bio-capacity

(Ranked by Global Hectares in 2013)

As could be expected, many of the countries that have the most productive land
are also some of the largest countries by area. Eight out of 10 are also in the 10 largest
countries by area. Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two that
fall below top 10 by area. Like we’ve seen above, the chart of the least bio-capacity is
a list of the smallest island countries.
Sorting countries by the amount of resources their populations use on average
drastically changes who comes out on top. Many of the largest, most resource rich
countries also happen to have large populations.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 465

• Countries with the Most and Least Bio-capacity

(Ranked by Global Hectares per Person in 2013)

Citizens of large, sparsely populated countries, such as those of French Guiana,

have their footprints made up for several times over by the lush vegetation in their
countries. A couple of the countries that top the list of ecological consumers notably
Australia and Canada also appear in the top 10 for most bio-capacity as well. Densely
populated and sparsely-vegetated countries like Singapore and Jordan have few
resources to spread across their populations.
Several different resources contribute to a country’s overall bio-capacity. Managing
these resources helps countries remain as overall producers of bio-capacity. We looked
at the 10 countries that replenish the most resources to see how they break down.
466 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Bio-capacity by Source (Presented as % of 2013 Total Global Hectares)

Data source: data.world and GFN

Forest land is capable of absorbing large amounts of carbon. The forests in the
Congo and Brazil, two of the most resource rich countries, generate over three quarters
of their available natural resources. Land used for food production–growing crops,
raising livestock, or fishing–provides over half of the resources available from six of
the ten most resource rich countries. Built-up land contributes a nearly negligible
portion.
After ranking countries by the size of their demand for natural resources and the
size of the country’s ability to produce and replenish those resources, we wanted to
know which countries live within their ecological means, and which countries rack
up ecological debt.
To do this, we subtracted a country’s ecological footprint (how much it takes
from the environment) from its bio-capacity (how much it puts back into the
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 467

environment) to find its net bio-capacity in global hectares per person. Below are the
top ecological creditors and debtors ranked by net per capita footprint.
• Biggest Ecological Creditors (Ranked by Global Hectare per Person in 2013)46

Data source: data.world and GFN

South American countries like French Guiana and Suriname contribute the
most net bio-capacity per person. Forests are highly productive in terms of natural
resources. More than just the goods that come from forests, they consume and trap
carbon. However, those countries are fairly small and consume a fraction of what the
most resource-hungry countries consume.
The next list features the other end of the spectrum, the biggest ecological debtors.
468 The Conspiracy against Africa

• Biggest Ecological Debtors (Ranked by Global Hectare per Person in 2013)

 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 469

• Gross Domestic Product correlates strongly with Footprint

Data source: data.world and GFN

470 The Conspiracy against Africa

• 50 Largest Economies Ranked by Net Footprint per Person

Data source: data.world and GFN

Luxembourg, a micro-nation neighbouring Germany, ranks number one with
an 11.51 global hectare per person deficit. Singapore, Belgium, South Korea, the
Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, Malta and the United Kingdom all place in the
top 25 biggest ecological debtors. Oil producing countries such as Qatar, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Libya also rank highly.
We wondered if a country’s affluence was related to the amount of natural
resources it could consume. Are the countries that don’t destroy the environment
simply the ones who haven’t yet built up their economies?
We plotted the size of the ecological footprint against Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) for each country. There’s a large amount of inequality in how GDP and
ecological footprint are distributed, with the top few accounting for as much as all
the rest combined. To keep those outliers at the top from distorting the picture, we
performed a log transformation on both sets of numbers.166
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 471

2. Contemporary Data about Ecological Footprint, Bio-capacity

Reserve, etc., 2017
1. Top 10 Countries with the Highest Ecological Footprint (in gha, 2017)47
• Qatar — 14.72
• Luxembourg — 12.79
• United Arab Emirates — 8.95
• Bahrain — 8.66
• Trinidad and Tobago — 8.23
• Canada — 8.08
• Mongolia — 8.05
• United States — 8.04
• Kuwait — 8.03
• Oman — 7.29

2. Top 10 Countries with the Highest Bio-Capacity Reserve (in gha,

2017)48
• Suriname — 80.87
• Guyana — 63.98
• Gabon — 19.28
• Bolivia — 12.41
• Congo (Rep. of ) — 7.87
• Canada — 6.90
• Paraguay — 6.74
• Finland — 6.61
• Central African Republic — 6.35
• Brazil — 5.80
The world-average ecological footprint was 2.77 global hectares per person (12
billion total) in 2017, with an average bio-capacity of 1.60 global hectares. This
472 The Conspiracy against Africa

computes to a global deficit of 1.17 global hectares per person, or a bio-capacity

reserve of -1.17, meaning humanity’s consumption of natural resources is currently
outpacing the Earth’s ability to replenish those resources.49
1. Eco-footprint success story: the United Kingdom
However, it is notable that the United Kingdom, which had the fifth-largest
ecological deficit just a few years ago, has dropped to ninth place and is on track to
keep falling. Between 2007 and 2017, the United Kingdom’s ecological footprint
dropped nearly 27%, due mostly to reductions in fossil fuel use, which trimmed the
country’s overall ecological deficit from -307.9 billion gha in 2007 to -206.2 gha in
2017.50
2. Ecological Footprint by Country in 2023 51

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Qatar 14.72 0.97 2,716,391
Luxembourg 12.79 1.21 654,768
United Arab
8.95 0.53 9,516,871
Emirates
Bahrain 8.66 0.48 1,485,509
Trinidad And
8.23 1.54 1,534,937
Tobago
Canada 8.08 14.98 38,781,291
Mongolia 8.05 13.76 3,447,157
United States 8.04 3.45 339,996,563
Kuwait 8.03 0.00 4,310,108
Bermuda 8.00 0.14 64,069
Cook Islands 7.34 1.41 17,044
Oman 7.29 1.46 4,644,384
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 473

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Australia 7.27 12.64 26,439,111
Estonia 7.16 9.74 1,322,765
Denmark 6.93 4.22 5,910,913
Aruba 6.64 0.56 106,277
Belgium 6.60 0.82 11,686,140
Latvia 6.13 0.48 1,830,211
Sweden 6.08 9.43 10,612,086
Austria 6.02 2.73 8,958,960
Brunei 6.00 2.75 452,524
Kazakhstan 5.99 3.55 19,606,633
Belize 5.99 3.76 410,825
Singapore 5.87 0.06 6,014,723
Lithuania 5.86 5.14 2,718,352
Cayman Islands 5.86 0.30 69,310
Finland 5.84 12.45 5,545,475
Norway 5.78 7.15 5,474,360
Saudi Arabia 5.77 0.42 36,947,025
Malta 5.68 0.58 535,064
Israel 5.55 0.22 9,174,520
Russia 5.48 6.96 144,444,359
Czech Republic 5.47 2.36 10,495,295
Turkmenistan 5.22 2.36 6,516,100
Netherlands 5.02 0.81 17,618,299
474 The Conspiracy against Africa

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Ireland 5.01 3.34 5,056,935
Slovenia 4.90 2.18 2,119,675
Poland 4.71 1.97 41,026,067
Germany 4.70 1.54 83,294,633
Japan 4.65 0.59 123,294,513
France 4.60 2.53 64,756,584
Switzerland 4.47 1.02 8,796,669
Montserrat 4.45 1.33 4,386
Italy 4.41 0.88 58,870,762
Slovakia 4.41 2.69 5,795,199
Portugal 4.40 1.28 10,247,605
Bhutan 4.37 4.90 787,424
New Zealand 4.32 9.16 5,228,100
Martinique 4.31 0.39 366,981
Chile 4.28 3.41 19,629,590
Antigua And
4.27 0.83 94,298
Barbuda
United Kingdom 4.20 1.08 67,736,802
Belarus 4.20 3.09 9,498,238
Greece 4.12 1.39 10,341,277
Montenegro 4.09 3.01 626,485
Guadeloupe 4.05 0.46 395,839
Spain 4.03 1.20 47,519,628
Malaysia 3.91 2.29 34,308,525
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 475

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Cyprus 3.88 0.24 1,260,138
French Polynesia 3.84 1.34 308,872
Barbados 3.73 0.17 281,995
Croatia 3.72 2.99 4,008,617
China 3.71 0.92 1,425,671,352
Hungary 3.67 2.51 10,156,239
Bulgaria 3.64 3.30 6,687,717
Bahamas 3.63 9.06 412,623
Turkey 3.51 1.40 85,816,199
Bosnia And
3.49 1.77 3,210,847
Herzegovina
Libya 3.46 0.65 6,888,388
British Virgin
3.43 1.86 31,538
Islands
Romania 3.40 3.09 19,892,812
Lebanon 3.33 0.26 5,353,930
Argentina 3.30 6.58 45,773,884
Tonga 3.24 1.60 107,773
South Africa 3.16 1.03 60,414,495
Paraguay 3.09 9.83 6,861,524
Bolivia 3.08 15.49 12,388,571
Guyana 3.07 67.05 813,834
Mauritius 3.06 0.70 1,300,557
Brazil 2.81 8.61 216,422,446
476 The Conspiracy against Africa

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Fiji 2.81 2.16 936,375
Suriname 2.76 83.63 623,236
Grenada 2.76 1.98 126,183
Serbia 2.75 1.34 7,149,077
Botswana 2.74 3.02 2,675,352
Ukraine 2.66 2.58 36,744,634
Mexico 2.62 1.14 128,455,567
Thailand 2.58 1.22 71,801,279
Costa Rica 2.57 1.51 5,212,173
Samoa 2.52 1.82 225,681
Saint Lucia 2.50 0.33 180,251
French Guiana 2.33 94.42 312,155
Mauritania 2.31 3.91 4,862,989
Algeria 2.30 0.50 45,606,480
Dominica 2.29 1.02 73,040
Panama 2.27 2.71 4,468,087
Djibouti 2.25 0.72 1,136,455
Vietnam 2.24 1.00 98,858,950
Georgia 2.18 1.27 3,728,282
Gabon 2.17 21.45 2,436,566
Peru 2.15 3.62 34,352,719
Tunisia 2.15 0.68 12,458,223
Namibia 2.10 6.19 2,604,172
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 477

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Albania 2.05 0.99 2,832,439
Ghana 2.04 1.35 34,121,985
Uzbekistan 2.00 0.94 35,163,944
Laos 2.00 1.76 7,633,779
El Salvador 1.99 0.57 6,364,943
Azerbaijan 1.97 0.74 10,412,651
Jordan 1.93 0.16 11,337,052
Colombia 1.91 3.60 52,085,168
Solomon Islands 1.88 4.00 740,424
Moldova 1.87 1.25 3,435,931
Cuba 1.82 0.78 11,194,449
Papua New Guinea 1.82 3.48 10,329,931
Jamaica 1.81 0.39 2,825,544
Iraq 1.80 0.19 45,504,560
Armenia 1.80 0.63 2,777,970
Equatorial Guinea 1.80 2.52 1,714,671
Egypt 1.78 0.40 112,716,598
Guatemala 1.78 0.96 18,092,026
Morocco 1.77 0.73 37,840,044
Dominican
1.75 0.60 11,332,972
Republic
Nicaragua 1.74 2.20 7,046,310
Myanmar 1.71 1.83 54,577,997
Ecuador 1.71 1.95 18,190,484
478 The Conspiracy against Africa

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Guinea 1.68 1.99 14,190,612
Chad 1.67 1.78 18,278,568
Indonesia 1.66 1.22 277,534,122
Sao Tome And
1.62 0.83 231,856
Principe
Niger 1.56 1.28 27,202,843
Kyrgyzstan 1.55 1.18 6,735,347
Honduras 1.54 1.53 10,593,798
Sri Lanka 1.49 0.42 21,893,579
Lesotho 1.47 0.77 2,330,318
Guinea Bissau 1.45 2.77 2,150,842
Mali 1.44 1.45 23,293,698
Ivory Coast 1.42 2.00 28,873,034
Benin 1.41 0.89 13,712,828
Philippines 1.34 0.54 117,337,368
Sudan 1.33 1.21 48,109,006
Cambodia 1.33 1.07 16,944,826
Cameroon 1.26 1.60 28,647,293
India 1.19 0.43 1,428,627,663
Central African
1.17 7.52 5,742,315
Republic
Syria 1.16 0.44 23,227,014
Senegal 1.16 0.94 17,763,163
Comoros 1.14 0.33 852,075
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 479

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Burkina Faso 1.12 0.89 23,251,485
Liberia 1.11 2.24 5,418,377
Nepal 1.09 0.56 30,896,590
Togo 1.09 0.51 9,053,799
Republic Of The
1.07 8.94 6,106,869
Congo
Uganda 1.04 0.46 48,582,334
Zimbabwe 1.03 0.48 16,665,409
Nigeria 1.02 0.63 223,804,632
Ethiopia 1.01 0.57 126,527,060
Sierra Leone 1.00 0.87 8,791,092
Kenya 0.99 0.47 55,100,586
Zambia 0.97 1.85 20,569,737
Tajikistan 0.97 0.51 10,143,543
Somalia 0.95 0.83 18,143,378
Gambia 0.93 0.69 2,773,168
Angola 0.92 1.87 36,684,202
Madagascar 0.92 2.28 30,325,732
Malawi 0.90 0.69 20,931,751
Pakistan 0.86 0.35 240,485,658
Bangladesh 0.83 0.40 172,954,319
Palestine 0.81 0.09 5,371,230
Mozambique 0.80 1.73 33,897,354
Timor Leste 0.74 1.49 1,360,596
480 The Conspiracy against Africa

Ecological Footprint Biocapacity (per

Country 2023 Population
(per capita) capita)
Rwanda 0.67 0.36 14,094,683
Afghanistan 0.66 0.37 42,239,854
Haiti 0.64 0.29 11,724,763
Burundi 0.63 0.36 13,238,559
Yemen 0.61 0.37 34,449,825
Venezuela 0.57 0.54 28,838,499
Eritrea 0.51 1.58 3,748,901
Tanzania 0.28 0.28 67,438,106
South Korea 0.17 0.00 51,784,059
Iran 0.10 0.07 89,172,767
DR Congo 0.01 0.26 102,262,808
North Korea 0.00 0.00 26,160,821

5. The Impact of Climate Change on Africa’s Economies

“Despite contributing only a minute amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, the
African continent suffers the deleterious effects of climate change to a disproportionate
degree. The heavy carbon emitters, like China and the United States, have a moral
obligation to help the nations of Africa, particularly the rural areas of these countries,
mitigate the impact of climate change, not just to help Africa, but to help the rest of
the world”. –Charles A. Ray “The Impact of Climate Change on Africa’s Economies”
The data tells a horrifying or frightening story that should make everyone commit
to implementing policies, allocating resources, and taking the necessary actions to
address the situation whether they are leaders of the major polluting nations and
donor countries, as well as the leaders of African nations.52
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 481

• Increased temperatures cause deadly heat waves.

• Varying rainfall leads to flooding in some areas and droughts in others, both of
which reduce agricultural production,
• increase food insecurity and food prices, and
• Cause dislocation of poverty-stricken rural populations to already overcrowded
urban areas that are ill-equipped to accept them, or to other nations, including
those outside Africa, that are wrestling with their own climate-related problems.
It is either the on-going United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26)
specifically address the climate change impact on Africa or in the case of its default,
the African Union (AU) should call for an Africa-specific conference to address this
issue.
1. Climate Change Hits Africa Hard—Rural Areas Hardest of All
Climate change endangers the lives and livelihoods of more than 100 million
Africans in extreme poverty. In the next few decades, global warming is anticipated
to melt Africa’s remaining glaciers, and the reduction in water essential to agricultural
production will create food insecurity, poverty, and population displacement. By
2050, the gross domestic product (GDP) could be reduced by up to three per cent
in Sub-Saharan Africa. Global poverty is one of the world’s worst problems, even
without the inimical impact of climate change. It is estimated that one in three
Africans, or over 400 million people, live below the global poverty line, which is
defined as less than $1.90 per day. The world’s poorest people are often hungry, have
less access to education, have no light at night, and suffer from poor health.53
Agriculture is essential to Africa’s economic growth. Climate change could
destabilize local markets, increase food insecurity, limit economic growth, and increase
risk for agriculture sector investors. African agriculture is particularly vulnerable to
the impacts of climate change because it is heavily dependent on rainfall, and climate
change has seriously affected rainfall throughout the continent. The Sahel, for
instance, is largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and it is already hit regularly
by droughts and floods, both of which kill crops and reduce yield. With temperatures
expected to increase 1.5 times higher than the rest of the world by the end of the
482 The Conspiracy against Africa

21st century, African countries will see shorter wet spells (leading to droughts) or
heavier rains (causing floods), leading to reduced food production because they lack
the infrastructure and support systems present in wealthier nations. By 2030, crop
yields across the continent are projected to decrease by varying amounts depending
upon the region. Southern Africa, for example, is expected to experience a 20 per
cent decrease in rainfall.54
2. When Rural Areas Catch Colds, Cities Sneeze
While suffering the most from climate change, rural areas in Africa, are not alone.
Crises in rural areas often lead to dislocation of rural populations to urban areas. The
United Nations’ 2017 report claims that, more than half the global population lives
in urban areas. The African continent has the world’s fastest rate of urbanization.
In 1960, only 20 per cent of the populations lived in cities. At present it is over 40
per cent, and, by 2050, the number is projected to be 60 per cent. Sub-Saharan
Africa is regarded as the world’s fastest urbanizing region, with an urban population
of 472 million in 2018, which is expected to double by 2043. Climate issues will
only intensify or worsen urbanization and associated crises. In developing countries,
relocation from rural to urban areas often leads to an improvement in living standards.
This is seldom the case in Sub-Saharan Africa.55
Charles A. Ray noted that while urbanization has historically led to prosperity
in some other climes, in Africa, most weather-related relocations involve moving
from rural privation to urban poverty. According to him, up to 70 per cent of Africa’s
urban population lives in slums. Living conditions in these urban areas are poor
due to relative wealth levels, lack of economic development in cities to match the
rate of urbanization, unemployment, poor access to services, and resentment that
occasionally erupts in xenophobic violence.56
He, however, noted that people fleeing from climate-affected rural areas will
not be safe after all from climate change in urban areas because these urban areas are
environmentally vulnerable to flooding. Some areas are affected by poor land use and
choice of building materials, which trap heat and contribute to the urban heat island
effect, leading to extreme heat waves with their attendant health risks.
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 483

3. Mitigating the Impact

By 2050, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI),
climate change will lead to 57
• higher temperatures and mixed rainfall,
• leading to changes in crop yields and growth of the agricultural sector,
• higher food prices,
• less availability of food, and
• Increased child malnutrition.
Warming in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be higher than the global average,
and many regions of the continent will get less rainfall. Reduced rainfall will be
particularly devastating in those countries that are heavily dependent on rain for
agricultural production. With Africa’s rate of population growth, food supply will be
hard-pressed to keep up with demand.
“Failure to reduce global warming hurts all countries on the globe, but African
countries, because they are most vulnerable, will be hurt most. High levels of
poverty, dependence on rainfall for agricultural production, weak or missing
infrastructure, and lack of social safety nets combine to exacerbate an already
dire situation. While some of the responsibility to address these problems rests
with African governments, climate justice demands that there be international
cooperation to tackle this existential threat. African governments, in partnership
with the international community, should commit to sustained action to mitigate
the impact of climate change, in particular the effects on the most vulnerable
within their countries.”58
4. Climate Change Mitigation Action Plan
Charles A. Ray “The Impact of Climate Change on Africa’s Economies” offers some
priority action items that should be taken up immediately, either at COP26 or an
AU-sponsored conference. He admitted that this is not an all-inclusive list, but
implementation of these actions would move the ball forward significantly.59
1. Factor weather-driven migration into the design and construction of urban
areas.
2. Promote sustainable growth, especially in rural communities.
484 The Conspiracy against Africa

3. Promote climate-friendly agriculture, such as, efficient, clean energy and micro-
irrigation.
4. Provide easy access to weather and climate information, especially to women
who make up a large percentage of the agricultural workforce and are the most
vulnerable.
5. Substantially increase investment in agricultural research. Africa currently has
17 per cent of the world’s population and is heavily dependent on agriculture,
but only receives four per cent of investment in agricultural research from
all sources, including donors or internal government budgets. An increased
investment in research will provide a better understanding of Africa’s climate
and the impact of climate change. The bulk of this research, though it might
be primarily internationally funded, should be done by Africans.
6. Provide broad and sustained support for food security and expanded access to
health care, with emphasis on the most vulnerable.
7. Increase intra-African cooperation to manage conflict and provide disaster
relief.
Finally, let me conclude by quoting Charles A. Ray:
“Despite contributing only a minute amount of global greenhouse gas
emissions, the African continent suffers the deleterious effects of climate change to
a disproportionate degree. The heavy carbon emitters, like China and the United
States, have a moral obligation to help the nations of Africa, particularly the rural
areas of these countries, mitigate the impact of climate change, not just to help
Africa, but to help the rest of the world”.60 –Charles A. Ray “The Impact of Climate
Change on Africa’s Economies”
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 485

References
1. Richard Washington, “How Africa will be affected by Climate Change”, BBC
News, 15 December 2019. Richard Washington is Professor of Climate Science
at the School of Geography and the Environment and Fellow of Keble College,
Oxford. His specializes in African climate science and runs the African Climate
research group. See https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwashington.html
1. Ibid
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. See www.bbc.com
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Richard Washington, “How Africa will be affected by Climate Change”, BBC
News, 15 December 2019.
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. Ibid
15. Ibid
16. Ibid
17. Ibid
18. Ibid
19. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in South Africa,
the country’s climate is said to be rising at twice the global average rate and the
water level reservoir is falling.
486 The Conspiracy against Africa

20. See www.bbc.com, op. cit.

21. ibid
22. See Issues on Overpopulation; on www.prb.org
23. See www.populationmedia.org
24. Gilles Pison, “8 Billion People in 2022: Is the Earth Overpopulated?”, https://
the conversation.com
25. Ibid
26. Ibid
27. Issues on Overpopulation See www.theguardian.com
28. See www.theonion.com
29. Ibid
30. Ibid
31. Ibid
32. Ibid
33. Ibid
34. Dr Chelsea Klepper, head of agricultural studies at Purdue University was
one of the leading proponent of a worldwide death day in which 2.3 billion
people would kill themselves en masse at the same time, made the following
submission. See www.theonion.com
35. Ibid
36. Dr Henry Craig of the Population Research Institute, quoted in www.theonion.
com
37. Ibid
38. “The Effects of Climate Change”, Global Climate Change. See www.climate.
nasa.gov
39. See United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
40. “The Effects of Climate Change”, Global Climate Change. See www.climate.
nasa.gov
 Africa and Climate Change Challenge 487

41. See https://leap.unep.org

42. UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines the destruction of
the ecosystem as the decline in the ability of the environment to fulfil ecological
and social objectives and requirements.
43. “What are the Causes of the Destruction of Ecosystem?” See sciencing.com
44. I used data from Priceonomics customer data.world
45. “Countries with the Largest Ecological Footprints”, See www.worldatlas.com
46. Paulo Rebelo, “Most Environmental Destroying Countries (and Least)?”,
47. see the “Ecological Footprint by Country 2013” worldpopulationreview.com.
48. Ibid
49. Ibid
50. Ibid
51. Charles A. Ray, “The Impact of Climate Change on Africa’s Economies”,
https://www.fpri.org, October, 2021. Charles A. Ray, a member of the Board
of Trustees and Chair of the Africa Program at the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the
Republic of Zimbabwe.
52. Ibid
53. Ibid
54. Ibid
55. Ibid
56. Ibid
57. Ibid
58. Ibid
59. ibid