AFRICOM, Terrorism And The Future Of Africa In The 21st Century

The world has become a dangerous place and the future of humanity is threatened by the emerging world powers threatening to destroy the civilization they themselves built. We are standing at a moment in history where we are forced to agree with the Social Darwinism ideology.

In all this confusion when man is threatening to destroy fellow man using the nuclear weapons, which he developed through his technological advancement, Africa stands a powerless continent. The people of Africa therefore, have come at last to destiny's crossroads. They must make some fundamental decisions as a single people.

In this 21st century,the African is insecure standing on the mercy of his number one enemy the imperialist. The African continent remains the only powerless continent in this era of globalization with a thinking that the UN will protect us forgetting that it's UN, which has been responsible for all the wars, which we have experienced.

Our descendants within the 21st century will most probably be deliberately kept in prison of national poverty like the Haitians have been since 1804; or Africans will be driven out of the mineral-rich parts of Africa, like the Cherokee nation was ethnic cleansed out of its homeland in the USA in 1838; or they will be exterminated altogether, like the Tasmanians were in the early 19th century.

The reason is that, like the Haitians, the Cherokees and the Tasmanians before them, Black Africans have now arrived at a position of absolute strategic vulnerability. The situation of the African forced Prof Chimweizu to say in his book The West and The Rest of Us that;

“The 20th century has been the most disastrous century, so far, for Black Africa. It was the century in which, under colonialism, Black Africa was subjected to culturecide at the hands of White Power. That culturecide destroyed our ability to resist the genocide that is now taking place. As a result, this 21st century is likely to see the physical extermination of Black Africans, unless those now under 30 organize and defeat the extermination campaign that white power has already unleashed on Black Africa. Therefore,

The problem of the 21st century is the problem of African Power – how to build it, and enough of it, to end the long era of our defeats and disasters in the race war, to prevent our extermination, and to ensure our dignity.

In setting forth to build African power, you must understand that Lugardism is a false framework and the Lugardist states are the wrong foundation for building African Power. Escape from these coffins and start afresh.”

AFRICOM and Terrorism in Africa
The USA Africa Command, which America calls 'AFRICOM', is a military structure of the Defense Department of America. AFRICOM was formed in 2007 during President George W Bush's second term of office. That was two months after America had bombed a small African country, Somalia, destabilizing it to the ashes it is today and to the danger it now poses to Africa and international trade. The coast of Somalia is infested with sea piracy and kidnappings. This is as a result of the earlier American invasion of Somalia, in pursuit of its illegitimate economic interests in Africa. The political instability of Somalia has now caused the problem of 'terrorism' for East African countries such as Kenya.

By hosting the US military Africa cedes its independence to the United States military and begins the process of recolonization by an army that can stifle any attempt by Africa to showcase its military capability. By its origin, AFRICOM will be technically and financially superior to any African army and decide at will to change regimes in any country, and further, direct and accelerate the North American exploitation of natural resources. If the current African leaders give in to US, wishes and accept its army operating in Africa, they will remain in history as the generation of politicians who accepted the prevalence of the evils to come. William Shakespeare would turn over in his grave and exclaim; “----All that is needed for evil to triumph it that good men do nothing.”

It seems that even in the 21st century the United States of America government does not respect the sovereignty of African States and the territorial integrity of the continent. If it did, it would know that Africans have national and continental interests and the right to protect them. Africans have a painful history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, racism and colonialism by nations that claim to be “civilized” but have behavior that is contrary to civilization. They dehumanized Africa's people and saw nothing wrong with that. They have never shown any remorse for their inhuman deeds to Africans or offered any reparations for the colossal damage they inflicted on Africans. America's persistence to impose Africoms on Africa proves this beyond reasonable doubt.

Anyway, the architect of “AFRICOM” President George W Bush said that the United States' Africa Command “will co-ordinate all United States security interests throughout Africa.” If this is not imperialist arrogance and contempt for the sovereignties of African States, then the proponents of “Africoms” must be sent to a mental hospital for treatment. On April 19, 2008 The Times (London) published an article by Matthew Parris entitled “The new scramble for Africa begins” in which he said;

“Fifty years ago the decolonization of Africa began. The next half-century may see the continent recolonized. But the new imperialism will be less benign. Great powers aren't interested in administering wild places any more, still less in settling them; just raping them. Black gangster governments sponsored by self-interested Asian or Western powers could become the central story in the 21st century African history.”

Some African countries have been threatened with sanctions and 'regime change.' One of them is Libya, where Colonel Maummar Gaddafi was killed under the dark cloud of NATO and United States of America. When Africans raise concerns about 'AFRICOM' they are said to suffer 'misconceptions, misapprehensions, rumors, and fiction.' Now, is the United States of America government prepared to allow Russia or China to establish their own 'American Command' and call it 'Americom' in pursuit of their national interests in America? How would Americans react to this? Would they go to the streets and say, 'Welcome messiah?'

US imperialism built its foundation by enslaving Africans within its own borders, and did so into the later half of the 19th century. However, it was not until the middle of the 20th century that the corporate masters of US imperialism set their direct sites on the African continent. During this period, the European colonial powers were severely weakened from WWII. European colonialism relinquished settler status in response to national liberation movements in Africa and domestic financial crisis from post WWII destruction. Washington saw the exit of European settler colonialism from Africa as the perfect opportunity to exploit the great wealth of the continent through US military intelligence (CIA) and Bretton Woods's institutions (IMF and World Bank).

Kwame Nkrumah, the first revolutionary President of independent Ghana, was deeply critical of US imperialism in Africa. Nkrumah wrote in “Class Struggle in Africa” that Washington aided neo-colonialism by financially and militarily supporting the development of an African bourgeoisie. Political leaders and freedom fighters who envisioned an economically independent and unified Africa were assassinated or overthrown by the CIA such as Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nkrumah himself. After propping up compliant African states and fueling internal strife, Washington exerted its influence in the IMF and World Bank to establish friendly “trade” deals that transferred Africa's wealth straight to US multinational corporations and these allied nation-states. In such favorable conditions, US capitalism profited from the neo-colonial exploitation of Africa into the 21st century.

Today, US economic hegemony is increasingly being challenged both in the region and the world by socialist China. US imperialism's response is to further entangle Africa into its war machine. The US African Command (AFRICOM) currently has relations with all but two African countries (Eritrea and Zimbabwe). In every corner of Africa, AFRICOM has vastly increased its footprint through drone surveillance, weapons distribution, and the training of African security forces in friendly states AFRICOM's purported mission is to protect US “national security” interests, a euphemism for the protection of plundered resources. The agency does this by arming and training African armies to serve the interests of US imperialism.

US imperialism has been conducting military operations in Nigeria since at least 1999. AFRICOM became involved in the training and deployment of security forces in the Niger Delta. It is in this resource rich region where Shell Corporation exports much of Nigeria's vast oil reserves to the West. The Shell Corporation is responsible for the mass impoverishment of Nigerian farmers and workers. The “Bring Back Our Girls” support for further intervention from the US puppet state in Nigeria masks the reality that US imperialism is protecting the corporate theft of the country's wealth from Nigerian people.

And in 2011, the US-NATO armed foreign terrorist insurgents in Libya responsible for toppling one of the last economically independent countries in Africa. The Libyan Jamahiriya nationalized oil wealth and provided Libyans with free healthcare, education, and housing. Chairman Muammar Gaddafi was a staunch supporter of African liberation movements. He also supported Palestinian resistance against Zionism and Israel settler colonialism. For his opposition to US hegemony, Gaddafi was murdered without trial and Libya was bombed to bits. In NATO's 2011 bombing campaigned, an estimated 100,000 Libyans were murdered and 50,000 were reported disappeared. In cities like Sirte, Black Libyans were lynched and driven into exile by racist, Western-backed terrorists. Since the fall of independent Libya, evidence of terrorist elements causing chaos across Northern Africa has become impossible to ignore. Seymour Hersh's revelation that Libya was a virtual supply station for US-NATO backed terrorists in the campaign to destabilize Syria exposes US imperialism's role in the proliferation of terrorism in Africa.

US imperialism is the real terrorist for African people and the root of terrorism in Africa. The vision of a liberated and decolonized Africa promoted by Kwame Nkrumah cannot occur if US imperialism is allowed to exist in Africa. US military intervention finds ideological justification in the Western worldview that claims Africa is ungovernable without “aid” from US imperialism. Yet “aid” from US imperialist interests has been happening for years in Africa and all that has come from it is more poverty, internal conflict, and land theft.

What is needed for Africa to Progress?
How can Africans organize to survive in the world, and with security and respect?

That question has remained unanswered for 25 centuries. We must today face and answer it correctly for the conditions of this 21st century, or we perish. For the sake of continuity, we must ask; is any of the 20th century brands of Pan-Africanism still relevant to our situation today? Can any of them help us to organize and survive, with security and respect, in the world of the 21st century?

We are clear that Pan Africanism is the primary objective and condition for alleviating our suffering and better enabling our progress and development. We must politically educate and organize the scattered, suffering, and struggling African Masses worldwide into the movement and organization for the total liberation and unification of the entire black Africa. We accept, as a historical fact and current reality that all persons of African descent, wherever we are scattered, in Africa (north and south of the Sahara) and the African Diaspora, are African, and belong to Africa.

We understand that the scattering of Africans all over the world and our continuing untold suffering is due primarily; to the racist, capitalist, imperialist system and that nation, class and gender struggle is the motive force for qualitative, revolutionary, change and progress in Africa and the World. The struggle is for the complete independence, unification and revolutionary development of Africa.

Pan-Africanism must be our objective for the total liberation and unification of Africa. The African people must be politically educated and organized in a mass, revolutionary movement to achieve the Pan-African objective; and that ideological struggle and revolutionary work are the essential determining forces in our struggle to achieve Pan-Africanism. Just over a decade into the 21st century, things are critical for African people. Capitalist Imperialism has continued to experience the crises that have convulsed it since its initiation as a dominant global political economy.

What Africa needs is a mechanism to respond to peace missions in Africa to stabilize this continent politically, for rapid economic development, control of her resources and speedy technological advancement of her people. The solution to Africa's problems lies in strengthening the African Union and accelerating the economic development of Africa. Africa's underdevelopment was brought about by the Trans Atlantic Slaver Trade and colonialism, which subsequently enriched and developed European countries and underdeveloped Africa.

AFRICOM will destroy Africa. AFRICOM will undermine the United Nations and the African Union. It will deeply divide Africa into moderates and militants. AFRICOM is a handy imperialist tool for 'regime change.' It will be used to install puppet governments on the African people to serve the interests of imperialism.

What Africans need is the collective defense of Africa against imperialism. This means increasing Africa's military capability to defend Africa's interests against external aggression. All African states have a national and continental obligation to refuse the presence of AFRICOM on the African soil. African leaders who play the American AFRICOM game are digging a mass grave for African people and their children. Such leaders are a security risk for the people of Africa and of African descent.

They cannot advance Africa economically and technologically, control Africa's riches, use them for Africans and defend Africa's people from those who still see Africa as a place of their enrichment and think the raw materials of this continent belong to them. Imperialism is becoming more dangerous and desperate. This is its last kicks before it crumbles. Its economies are in a shambles. Imperialist countries are heavily in debt. 'AFRICOM' is a tool to save an anachronistic, decaying, vile system of ruthless economic oppression. The youth of Africa must rise and protect the riches of Africa for the benefit of Africa's people. Africa's youth wherever they may be must defend what is theirs by all means necessary.

The time has indeed come for the youth of Africa to respond to the clarion call of complete self-reliance in to attain the dreams of forebears.

“CURBING TERRORISM INSURGENCIES IN AFRICA” the time now.

PAUL WORLANYO ADANU
COORDINATING SECRETARY,
NATIONAL UNION OF GHANA STUDENTS.