Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:45:49 +0200
Growing CIA and Pentagon Involvement in Africa
African Union Summit Held Amid Growing Insecurity and Western Intervention
By <http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/abayomi-azikiwe> Abayomi Azikiwe
Global Research, June 24, 2014
africa
A major annual summit of the African Union (AU) will be held this week in
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. A number of key issues will be discussed by the
continental organization composed of heads-of-state.
This summit will be followed later by one convened at the White House on
August 5-6 that will bring together African leaders with President Barack
Obama. The U.S. is late in following numerous other conferences over the
last several years involving African presidents along with the leaders of
China, South American states, Iran and Japan.
In light of the growing Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pentagon
involvement in key African states such a meeting with the Obama
administration could not be held from a position of strength by the regional
leaders. Such meetings only re-emphasize the dependent and subordinate role
of the continent, its leaders and people to the whims and caprices of the
western imperialist countries.
The primary focus of U.S. imperialism in Africa is military subordination,
economic exploitation and the containment of China and other rival
geo-political regions. Yet what Africa really needs is cooperation and
capacity-building that can only grow out of mutual cooperation and genuine
political and economic partnerships which Washington is incapable of
providing.
This AU summit is being held under the theme of "Transforming Africa's
agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods; harnessing
opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development." The
gathering began on June 20 and will extend until Friday the 27th.
The AU is the successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which was
formed in 1963 at a summit held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. At
the time of its founding, African people throughout the continent and the
world were fighting militantly in various revolutionary struggles aimed at
national liberation and socialism.
Real Growth in Imperialist Militarism
Today when Africa is being deemed as a rapidly growing continent
economically, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union Forces (EUFOR), the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) and the French Armed Forces are increasing their
interventionist policies throughout the region. In various conflicts taking
place in South Sudan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Egypt,
the AU's role is closely tied with a more prominent and decisive mandate by
AFRICOM, France and NATO.
The role of these imperialist forces is by no means bringing about peace and
stability. In fact just the opposite is taking place in all of these
geo-political regions.
In the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Africa's most populous state and now
registered as the largest economy on the continent, the abduction in April
of nearly 300 school girls and the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram in the
northeast, has provided an opening for further western militarist
interventions. Apparently there is no significant positive correlation
between economic growth and security capacity-building.
Even President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed concerns about the existence
of supporters of Boko Haram within the national officialdom inside this
oil-rich state. The military forces within Nigeria on the other hand have
complained about the lack of commitment and efficiency on the part of the
federal government in providing the armed forces with the necessary
resources needed to combat Boko Haram.
The situation in Nigeria is replicated in various states throughout Africa
where the escalating of instability is prompting imperialist invasions
through their intelligence and military apparatuses. In Mali the French
entered the country in January 2013 and remain there ostensibly due to the
fact that the government in Bamako cannot defeat or reach a political
settlement with various rebel and separatist movements in the North.
South Sudan, a close ally of Washington, is on the verge of political and
social collapse resulting from a major split within the ruling Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Since Dec. 15, 2013, fighting
between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and ousted Vice-President Riek
Machar has resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacements of at
least hundreds of thousands more.
Instability and conflict in Somalia has brought the internal and external
displacement of several million people. Hunger and famine has occurred
repeatedly since the U.S. sponsored the intervention of Ethiopian forces in
December 2006 designed to weaken the influence of the Union of Islamic
Courts (ICU) which had taken a position independent of Washington's foreign
policy influence.
With respect to the North African state of Egypt, a military coup in July
2013 prompted the AU to suspend Cairo's membership. Yet all it took was the
massacre of thousands of Egyptians, the harsh and indefinite detention of
thousands of others and the changing of uniforms by General Abdel-Fattah
al-Sisi from military garb to civilian clothes to qualify this U.S.-backed
regime for readmission to the continental body. Reports in the Egyptian
media indicated that the newly-elected President Al-Sisi will address the AU
Summit in Malabo.
50th Anniversary of the 1964 Summit in Cairo: From Nasser to Malcolm X
In July 1964 the second summit of the OAU was held in Egypt. During this
time period anti-imperialist movements for national liberation and socialism
were in evidence around the world including Africa.
President Gamal Abdel Nasser was ruling Egypt at the time and the country
was a base for organizations seeking to overthrow colonialism and
neocolonialism on the continent, in the Middle East and throughout the
world. Egypt had fought a war with Britain, France and Israel in 1956 to
regain control of the Suez Canal.
That same year (1964) Malcolm X traveled to Egypt to present an eight-page
memorandum to the OAU requesting the assistance of the newly-independent
African states and independence movements in the fight against national
oppression and racial exploitation in the U.S. Malcolm X, representing the
Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), patterned in many ways on the
framework concept of the-then OAU, asserted that Africa could not be truly
free without the elimination of second-class citizenship and discrimination
against their brothers and sister in the U.S.
In the memorandum Malcolm X said on behalf of the OAAU that "Our problem is
your problem. It is not a Negro problem, nor an American problem. This is a
world problem, a problem for humanity. It is not a problem of civil rights,
it is a problem of human rights."
He went on to poignantly note that "We pray that our African brothers have
not freed themselves of European colonialism only to be overcome and held in
check now by American dollarism. Don't let American racism be 'legalized' by
American dollarism."
Some five decades later despite claims of phenomenal growth there is still a
tremendous lack of development which manifests itself in the growing
security crises in Africa. Without continental unity, political and economic
integration Africa will remain subject to western imperialist interventions
and destabilization led by the U.S.
During the 1964 OAU Summit, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the-then President of the
Republic of Ghana and the leading strategist and tactician of the African
Revolution, told the gathering that the formation of a united continent was
central in achieving genuine development, independence and sovereignty. The
cornerstone of Ghanaian foreign policy under Nkrumah and his Convention
People's Party (CPP) was the realization of a United States of Africa.
Nkrumah said "How much more effective would our efforts have been if we had
spoken with the one voice of Africa's millions. With all our minerals and
waterpower and fertile lands, is it not a cause for shame that we remain
poor and content to plead for aid from the very people who have robbed us of
our riches in the past?"
The Pan-Africanist leader then asked "How can Egypt, strategically situated
as is it, combat imperialism and neocolonialism and solve the pressing and
urgent problems of the Middle East unless it has the backing of a Union
Government of Africa? Only a Union Government can assist in the solution of
the problems of the Middle East, including the Palestinian question."
These words from both Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah ring loud today in
relationship to the conditions of African people on the continent and those
abroad. A renewed Pan-African movement is necessary to continue the struggle
for sustainable unity, peace and security.
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