US troops are currently present in 53 out of 54 African countries, without Congress’ knowledge or approval. Missions tend to be small and carried out under the radar.

On October 4 2017, four US soldiers were killed in Niger by what the US military alleged were “ISIS-affiliated militants travelling by vehicle, carrying small arms and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.” Africa hosts some

South Carolina senator at the time, Lindsey Graham – a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services – would initially admit that he did not know about the presence of 1,000 US troops in Niger.  He would soon pledge his support to those troops, stating that the US military “determines who the threats are.”

“The war is morphing,” Graham said. “You’re going to see more actions in Africa, not less; you’re going to see more aggression by the United States toward our enemies, not less; you’re going to have decisions being made not in the White House but out in the field.”

It is a fundamental American myth that the American war machine has always fought against terrorism.

Following on from the propaganda machine of WWII, America has always been at war against its enemies, not the ideologies of said enemies. This was the same belief that fuelled the physical brutality and torture meted against black slaves in the US. Although already fully oppressed, they had to be crushed with physical violence, because they were threats to white America. The US army determines ‘who’ the threats are, not ‘what’ the threats are.

US military troops have long been accused of imperialist ideologies. Military veteran turned author, Bevin Alexander, wrote a book in 2005, titled, How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy. Two years later, Alexander published a book on the Nazi war machine: How Hitler Could Have Won World War II: The Fatal Errors That Led to Nazi Defeat.

Alexander would apply this same logos to his 2008 publication of, How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat. In it, he appeals to the reader not to take from his book any pro-slavery or pro-aristocratic sentiments.

“I sincerely hope no reader will conclude that this book’s title implies in any way that I am advocating some reappraisal of the Lost Cause or some nostalgic longing for what is gone with the wing,” he writes.

Yet, How America Got It Right speaks to the pro-imperialist sentiments of the US military since its victory in World War Two. It is no surprise that Alexander would pen a book titled: Korea: The First War We Lost.

Washington has spent billions of dollars in its African Command (AFRICOM). In December 2018, President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton announced: “Under our new approach, every decision we make, every policy we pursue, and every dollar of aid we spend will further US priorities in the region.”

“Our first priority, enhancing US economic ties with the region, is not only essential to improving opportunities for American workers and businesses. It is also vital to safeguarding the economic independence of African states and protecting US national security interests.”

Today, Africa holds the highest number of US military deployments after the Middle East. This number rose from three per cent to 17 per cent between 2010 and 2016.

Currently, China is Africa’s top trade partner. The USA’s economic trade with Africa lies in energy, finance and aid. 90 per cent of US-Africa trade, for example, is in crude petroleum exports.

China’s strategy for neocolonialism is financial; the USA’s strategy is militarisation. By indebting the continent into billions of dollars that it cannot afford to pay back, China’s power over Africa grows. The US, on the other hand, is following its centuries-long strategy of creating a huge ideological monster out of a smaller enemy.

The US wants to “defeat violent extremism in West Africa,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said.

“This area is inherently dangerous. We’re there because ISIS and Al Qaeda are operating in that area.”

Neocolonialism plagues Africa. The USA, China and, now, Russia, are on the hunt for imperialism in the continent. The same hard power techniques the US operates in Latin America is slowly and secretly taking over Africa. Once again, the rise of the continent would be destroyed by the imperialist war machine of the Pentagon.

L'articolo Why are US Troops Present in 53 Out of 54 African Countries? proviene da InsideOver.

Benin President, Patrice Talon, has announced that West African nations will withdraw their foreign reserves of the CFA franc from France.

“We unanimously agree on this, to end this model,” he said. “The central banks of African countries of WAMU (West African Monetary Union) will manage all of these foreign currency reserves and will distribute them to the various central bank’s partners in the world.”

Countries under WAMU include Benin, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea-Bissau.

The Central African CFA, whose central bank is the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), will not be affected by this move. It includes the Congo Republic, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Central African Republic.

Africa has kept its West African and Central African CFA reserves in France since 1945. Following World War Two, the CFA was pegged to the French francs and, later, to the Euro.

At the time of creation, the CFA franc made its first declaration of parity to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Its name stood for “Franc of the French Colonies of Africa”. During the 1960s, after the independence of African nations, the CFA came to mean ‘Communauté Financière Africaine ‘ (African Financial Community), but the independence of the continent would not be reflected in the CFA name.

In 2012, African Business magazine pointed out the CFA as a symbol of “lingering neocolonialism”. It asked, “whether the degree of autonomy achieved since 1960 is sufficient to be truly independent”? At the time, the CFA was still guaranteed by the French treasury.

Today, the CFA franc is completely dependent on Europe’s financial rule. It must follow the same monetary policies set by the European Central Bank. 65% of its external reserves are held in the Operations Account in Paris. Similarly, converting the CFA franc to the euro is only guaranteed by the French Treasury.

“In a show of her generosity and selflessness, metropolitan France, wishing not to impose on her faraway daughters the consequences of her poverty, is setting different exchange rates for their currency,” French Finance Minister, René Pleven, would say about the creation of the CFA.

In Africa, the CFA is a symbol of neocolonial dependence. In France (and Europe) it is a symbol of Western generosity to former colonies who, in centuries past, needed to be “saved” by European colonisation.

African no longer wants to be “saved”. That it needed to be saved in the first place is questionable. France’s “generosity” would come at a great cost, when, following Africa’s independence, the IMF began lending the continent loans with great interest rates attached. This action alone would send Africa plunging into poverty a state in which it is still trying to escape today. It was also the West’s intervention that would kill the Pan African movement of the 1960s, as newly-independent African nations tried to collectivise to strengthen the continent.

The decision to withdraw the West African CFA from France follows Africa’s attempt to unionise, to “transform Africa into the global powerhouse of the future”.

“Agenda 2063” is the new Pan African dream: “The Africa We Want”, its slogan reads. It is a “concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”.

“The current [CFA] model is more of a phycological problem than a technical,” Benin President, Patrice Talon continued.

“I can’t give you the date, but the willingness of everyone is already there,” Talon said, responding to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s openness to a reform of the currency. “Psychologically, with regards to the vision of sovereignty and managing your own money, it’s not good that this model continues. ”

Last month, Bruno Le Maire said: “What I can tell you is that the President of the Republic is ready for an ambitious reform of the franc zone. But I repeat: it is up to the member states of the franc zone to take the initiative, make proposals and measure how far they wish to go.“

Outward willingness to a cause does not necessarily equate inward intent. In the last few centuries of Africa’s history, up until the present, the continent’s advancement has continuously been derailed by positive promises from more advanced nations: promises which belie neocolonial intent.

In recent years – taking examples from the IMF – China has trapped Africa in debt that the continent cannot afford to pay back. (Africa may be forced to sell off its land and resources to Chinese ownership, creating a new neo-colonial servitude to China.)

Africa must learn from the blind spots of the Pan African leaders of the 1960s. Neocolonial powers will simply not give up their financial chokehold on a nation enriched with natural resources and mass population power. With complete financial freedom, Agenda 2063 would otherwise be easily realised. To take back financial control of Africa, the West may begin to spearhead more political turmoil for the continent.

L'articolo As West Africa Withdraws its CFA Reserves, Will France Retaliate? proviene da InsideOver.

African leaders must decline attending “begging meetings” in Japan, China and the rest of the world, a Kenyan professor has said.

Professor Makau Mutua, the board chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, labelled the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) a disgrace last month.

“TICAD is a disgrace to Africa. When will Africa stop these begging meetings?” he asked in a tweet.

“We should be ashamed of our leaders. Let’s make Africa an attractive destination for investment so we can stop begging. I can’t understand how African leaders can celebrate this atrocity! SHAME!”

Over twenty African leaders were present in 2019’s TICAD event last month. The triennial event is co-hosted by the Japanese government and the African Union.

A month after the 2019 TICAD summit, three new terminal buildings were opened at Malawi’s Kamuzu International Airport. The buildings were completed thirty-seven years after Japan built the original airport. In a PR piece distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan claimed that:

“The opening of the three new terminal buildings and the installation of the radar surveillance system are expected to contribute significantly to the airport’s operational efficiency; expanding its passenger handling capacity from 50 to 500 people per hour, as well as greatly improving the safety levels of the aircraft.

“Japanese companies … have played an important role in this project. They actively transferred technology to the Malawian people at the construction site. They have even organized study tours for local students in the neighbouring areas.

“Malawian government officials highly appreciated this project and said they would look forward to seeing more travellers coming to Malawi.”

In the same month, the East Asian nation said that it wanted to “re-orient” its relationship with Africa by focusing more on business.

“Japan wants the public and private sectors [in Africa] to be closely linked and hopes that they can, together, make efforts to develop Africa,” Japan’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hiroshi Karube, said.

“The priority of TICAD 7 is to strengthen relations between Africa and Japan, but also to involve the private sector in Africa’s development.”

In 2016, at TICAD 6, Japan pledged $30 billion for Africa’s development. Most of that money was invested in South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.

“Japan’s slow investment in French-speaking countries can only be justified by language problems,” the ambassador continued.

Although Japan claims that its economic focus in Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa is due to “language problems”, the three nations are Africa’s biggest economies. Ahead of TICAD 7, Japan’s Foreign Ministry refused to release the names and number of African guests due to appear at the three-day summit. Japan Times reported that this was due to fear that China would pressure African guests to cancel their appearance at the summit.

The competition between Japan and China over Africa is akin to the race among European nations for the colonisation of Africa. It is East Asia’s neocolonialism of Africa under the guise of investment. This period of Africa’s neocolonial history with East Asia follows Africa’s history with the West, under the Washington Consensus, when Africa borrowed massively from the World Bank and the IMF. To keep imperial control over Africa, both organisations would force the continent to privatise its institutions, and to allow Western companies to head these now-private markets.

Japan, however, denies imperial strategies. “Japan respects the African population,” Mr Karube stated.

Speaking on the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said: “The DRC defines it politics, and Japan has no rights, no intention to give directions. However, if we are consulted, we are always ready to contribute. Japan will support the economic development of the DRC in the implementation of its own policies. Japan will only start considering assistance when a specific request is made by partner countries.”

Shinichi Takeuchi, head of the African Studies Center at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies said: “Africa is an important region both politically and economically. That perception is now shared by top political and business leaders of the world. A huge market will certainly be formed in Africa.”

But the view of Africa among the international community cannot continue to be one of imperialist domination. The West has already built its wealth on the domination, colonisation and enslavement of Africa. African leaders must find a way to avoid a third era of (neo)colonisation under new colonialist leaders.

Perhaps by making Africa an attractive destination for investment, especially among millennials, Generation Z and people of African descent worldwide, the continent can continue to promote Pan Africanism, offering opportunities to groups of people who have little economic power in a failing, capitalist global system.

L'articolo African Leaders Pressured to Stop “Begging” The West proviene da InsideOver.

Political experts are worried about the increasingly close partnership between Russia and China, which is resisting international pressures and internal issues beyond any forecast. The West could have tried to exploit the existing frictions between the two giants, from Siberia to other geopolitical battlefields, to undermine the efforts made by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to give rise to a world order alternative and an antagonist to the Western-led one, but it did not.

Russia’s vulnerability and weakness concerning China may have been widely overestimated, since it seems that Putin knows very well what he does. After having opened the Arctic, Siberia and the Far East to Chinese investments and workers, now India’s moment has come.

Russian president is offering New Delhi the same opportunities which were made available to Beijing, that is to have access to Siberia’s natural resources, to acquire thousands of square kilometres of uncultivated lands in Eastern Russia, to have the chance of an Arctic’s slice, and more cooperation on trade, energy, security, technology.

The Latest Announcements

New Delhi’s prime minister Narendra Modi was undoubtedly the main protagonist of the latest Eastern Economic Forum, which takes place annually in Vladivostok. The EEF is a government-sponsored initiative which started in 2015 to attract international business in the investment-hungry Russian Far East.

This year the forum was monopolized by India’s outstanding promises and declarations: the opening of a $1 billion line credit for the development of the Far East, the building of the long-discussed Vladivostok-Chennai sea route to halve the time it takes for goods to be shipped from the current period of 40 days to 24 days, the possible introduction of payments in national currencies to boost bilateral trade and de-dollarize the respective economies, and the signing of 15 agreements worth $5 billion to enhance cooperation on energy, mining, wood industry, healthcare, education, and many other sectors with the medium-term goal of tripling bilateral trade by 2025.

The building of Vladivostok-Chennai maritime route must be read in a context much wider than the mere bilateral trade because it intersects the Belt and Road Initiative, New Delhi’s Indo-Pacific project, Japan’s national interests, and is going to go through the disputed South China Sea. By developing this channel, the two countries are sending a clear message to China and they are also offering Japan to play a part in the coming Euriasan order.

It is no coincidence that the Indo-Russian approachment is taking place in the background of Moscow-Tokyo talks to solve the Kuril islands issue. The three countries are led by different views on several international dossiers, but they all agree on one issue: China must not be allowed to rule over Eurasia, which must be multipolar.

India’s Arctic Dreams

In the same week of the EEF, Vladivostok hosted the Russia-India summit. Modi and Putin had the chance to talk about more issues and the Arctic was one of them. Indeed, with the announcement of the likely-coming opening of Vladivostok-Chennai sea route, India was implicitly welcomed in Russian-ruled Northern Asia and have the chance to leave a footprint in the Arctic.

India entered the Arctic Council as an observer member in 2013 and is showing growing willingness to play a more significant role in the polar region utilizing investments in Russian energy-related projects. During the bilateral summit, Indian firms H-Energy and Petronet signed some memorandums of understanding with Russian-owned Novatek, which is actively involved in the exploitation of Arctic’s natural gas and recently built the Yamal LNG plant.

According to the MoUs, Indian firms are expected to invest in Novatek’s future LNG projects and to establish joint ventures. But H-Energy and Petronet are not alone, because another Indian energy firm is looking at the Arctic: the gas company Gail. The entity recently started talks with Novatek to acquire a minority stake in the Arctic LNG-2 plant.

The Potential Outcomes

To date, Russia and India were mostly tied by agreements on security issues and military cooperation, but what was decided at the EEF is ground-breaking since it may open new potentially-revolutionary developments in Eurasia. India is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies and is currently basing its economic growth on the import of foreign-originated energy, such as oil and gas, mainly from Middle Eastern countries.

But the recent Iranian crisis has made India much more aware about the need of diversifying the suppliers to not experience energy-related issues which may harm both the economic growth and the energy security; Russia was seen as the answer to India’s problem.

Furthermore, this may be the right occasion for India to counter-balance China’s growing influence over the continent employing strategically-thought investments in regions and fields in which Beijing is already present and is expected to be more aggressive in the next future; and Russia is one of these regions.

By opening the Far East and the Arctic to India, Putin is playing the same game. Chinese investments within the sanctioned and money-lacking country were useful and helpful, but allowing them to grow further may be dangerous for national security and the Kremlin’s China-watchers are aware of this.

And yet, there is one important element: India and Russia share a long history of high-quality relations and common visions on many international dossiers, contrarily to China with which the cooperation was started only recently and because of world-level events that made it mandatory to establish a survival-oriented partnership.

This is Russia’s chance to deepen the already-good relations with India to improve the country’s position in the continent and make Putin’s Eurasian dream closer than ever, to counter-balance China’s influence in Eastern Asia and within Russia itself, and to weaken the power of American lobby within India in favour of the Russian one. The latest is as important as the China game, because an India that is more Russian-friendly would be a great hit against Eurasia’s American grand strategy.

L'articolo The Bear, the Dragon and the Elephant: Putin’s Vision for Eurasia proviene da InsideOver.

More than 50 African leaders have been invited to take part in the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi.

Co-chaired by Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt (who also chairs the African Union) the event aims to spotlight “the expansion of the political, economic, technical and cultural cooperation” between Africa and Russia.

The Russian government boasts that the October 24 summit “is the first event of this level in the history of Russian-African relations, with the heads of all states of the African continent invited, as well as leaders of major subregional associations and organisations.”

On October 23, Sochi will also host an economic forum attended by major African and Russian leaders, and representatives of major businesses. Trade, economic and investment agreements are “expected to be signed”.

With roughly 3,000 African businesspersons expected to attend this event, the Russian government has not revealed which businesses will be present.

China, Russia and Japan: Cold War II

Unlike Japan’s strategic policy for African investment, which seeks “Africa’s development’ by strengthening relations between Africa and Japan, Russia’s investment policy bluntly states its plans for African exploitation.

“Economies of most African countries develop progressively, and Africa will play an increasing role in the system of Russia’s foreign economic relations in the long term, as the region becomes more and more attractive for trade and investment,” Anton Kobyakov, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, reported.

On the contrary, Japan’s investment policies in Africa are simply euphemisms for its exploitative designs on the continent. The end of the Cold War began a new chapter in Africa’s economy as Russia and other developed countries scaled back their economic support of African governments. The Cold War was fought in proxy on African and South American land, as both the West, China and the USA struggled for global power through neocolonialism.

During the 1990s, many African nations were rife with poverty and political instability, a far cry from the economic and developmental growth that the continent is currently experiencing. As developed nations pulled back their investment and support in Africa after the end of the Cold War in 1991, Japan would launch Tokyo’s International Conference on Africa’s Development (TICAD) in 1993. Under TICAD, Japan granted Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa for the continent’s economic development and public welfare.

“It’s clear that TICAD has become more and more business-oriented over the past 10 years. Now the No.1 agenda is how to bring Japanese private-sector businesses to Africa,” said Shinichi Takeuchi, professor and head of the African Studies Center at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Following Japan’s euphemistic example, Putin said: “I am glad to note the friendly constructive nature of relations between our countries. I am confident that the Russia–Africa Summit as well as the Economic Forum to be held in Sochi in October will contribute to the sound development of these relations and allow us to outline new forms of fruitful cooperation.”

In China, at the 2018 FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) summit, China and Africa agreed to build an “even stronger community” with a “shared future”.

“We agree to strengthen collective dialogue, enhance traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation, and work together toward an even stronger China-Africa community with a shared future,” the FOCAC 2018 declaration read.

By the next year, Uganda’s auditor-general released a report declaring that public debt between 2017 and 2018 had increased from $9.1 billion to $11.1 billion. With a loan of $3 billion, and conditions which made loans difficult to repay, Uganda’s sovereign assets were threatened with repossession by China.

“China taking over assets? … in Uganda, I have told you, as long as some of us are still in charge, unless there is a catastrophe, and which I don’t see at all, that will make this economy going behind. So, … I’m not worried about China taking assets. They can do it elsewhere, I don’t know. But here, I don’t think it will come,” the country’s finance minister, Matia Kasaija said.

In December 2017, China took over Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port under a 99-year lease, after Sri Lanka struggled to make repayments. Many other nations, such as Papa New Guinea, Laos, the Maldives, Pakistan, Malaysia and Kenya are, today, struggling to repay China’s multibillion-dollar loans.

L'articolo Sochi Will Host the First Russia-Africa Summit in October proviene da InsideOver.