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Re: Africa

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:32 am
by blindpig
Revealed: The U.S. military's 36 code-named operations in Africa
Nick Turse and Sean D. Naylor Nick Turse and Sean D. Naylor ,Yahoo News•April 17, 2019

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Many Americans first became aware of U.S. military operations in Africa in October 2017, after the Islamic State ambushed American troops near Tongo Tongo, Niger, killing four U.S. soldiers and wounding two others.

Just after the attack, U.S. Africa Command said U.S. troops were providing “advice and assistance” to local counterparts. Later, it would become clear that those troops — the 11-man Operational Detachment-Alpha Team 3212 — were working out of the town of Oullam with a larger Nigerian force under the umbrella of Operation Juniper Shield, a wide-ranging counterterrorism effort in northwest Africa.

Until poor weather prevented it, that team was supposed to lend support to another group of American commandos who were trying to kill or capture Islamic State leader Doundoun Cheffou as part of Obsidian Nomad II.

Juniper Shield and Obsidian Nomad II were not isolated efforts but part of a panoply of named military operations and activities U.S. forces have been conducting from dozens of bases across the northern tier of Africa. Many of these operations are taking place in countries that the U.S. government does not recognize as combat zones, but in which U.S. troops are nonetheless fighting and, in several cases, taking casualties.

Between 2013 and 2017, U.S. special operations forces saw combat in at least 13 African countries, according to retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who served at U.S. Africa Command from 2013 to 2015 and then headed Special Operations Command Africa until 2017. Those countries, according to Bolduc, are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Tunisia. He added that U.S. troops have been killed or wounded in action in at least six of them: Kenya, Libya, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Tunisia.

Yahoo News has put together a list of three dozen such operations across the continent.

The code-named operations cover a variety of different military missions, ranging from psychological operations to counterterrorism. Eight of the named activities, including Obsidian Nomad, are so-called 127e programs, named for the budgetary authority that allows U.S. special operations forces to use certain host-nation military units as surrogates in counterterrorism missions.

Used extensively across Africa, 127e programs can be run either by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the secretive organization that controls the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, the Army’s Delta Force and other special mission units, or by “theater special operations forces.” These programs are “specifically designed for us to work with our host nation partners to develop small — anywhere between 80 and 120 personnel — counterterrorism forces that we’re partnered with,” said Bolduc. “They are specially selected partner-nation forces that go through extensive training, with the same equipment we have, to specifically go after counterterrorism targets, especially high-value targets.”

Using documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, interviews, published reports and a Defense Department list of named U.S. military operations that leaked online, Yahoo News put together the following list of 36 operations and activities that are (or were until recently) ongoing in Africa.

Where possible, Yahoo News has also listed the bases that support these operations, relying mostly on information sheets about those locations obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. Yahoo News does not claim that this list is comprehensive.

While the Defense Department has acknowledged the names, locations and purposes of some of these operations, others are far lower-profile. Almost all are unknown to the general public:

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ARMADA SWEEP: A U.S. Navy electronic surveillance effort conducted from ships off the coast of East Africa, Armada Sweep supports the U.S. drone war in the region.

Bases used: Unknown

ECHO CASEMATE: This operation covers a series of activities in the Central African Republic. It began in 2013 as a support mission for French and African forces deployed to the troubled Central African Republic for peacekeeping purposes and continued as an advise-and-assist mission to those African peacekeeping forces. However, U.S. forces neither accompanied their partners in the field nor formally trained them. The operation also covered the introduction of contractors and Marines to secure the U.S. Embassy in Bangui and the deployment of a small U.S. special operations contingent to assist the U.S. ambassador in missions to counter the Lord’s Resistance Army. In the first days of the operation, the U.S. military airlifted hundreds of Burundian troops, tons of equipment and more than a dozen military vehicles into the Central African Republic, according to Africom. The U.S. military continued transporting French forces in and out of the Central African Republic, and the mission was still underway in early 2018.

Base used: Abeche, Chad

EXILE HUNTER: One of a family of similarly named counterterrorism efforts that U.S. special operations forces have conducted in East Africa. Exile Hunter was a 127e program in which elite U.S. troops trained and equipped an Ethiopian force for counterterrorism missions in Somalia. Bolduc says he shut it down in 2016 because the Ethiopian government was uncomfortable about the force not falling under its command. However, a February 2018 Defense Department list of named operations suggests it had been resurrected.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti

JUKEBOX LOTUS: Operation Jukebox Lotus began as the crisis response to the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, but continued until at least 2018. It gives Africa Command broad authority to conduct a variety of operations in Libya as required and is specific to neither special operations nor counterterrorism.

Bases used: Faya Largeau and N’Djamena, Chad; Air Base 201, Agadez, Niger

JUNCTION RAIN: A maritime security effort in the Gulf of Guinea involving African and U.S. Coast Guard boarding teams operating from U.S. Navy ships or those of African forces. In 2016, the hybrid teams conducted 32 boardings, resulting in $1.2 million in fines levied for more than 50 maritime violations, as well as the recovery of a diesel fuel tanker that had been seized by pirates. Last year, operations with the Senegalese and Cabo Verdean navies resulted in at least 40 boardings — mostly of fishing vessels — and $75,000 in fines handed down for two fishing violations.

Base used: Dakar, Senegal

JUNCTION SERPENT: A surveillance effort in Libya that, as part of the 2016 campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in the Libyan city of Sirte, gave Joint Special Operations Command specific authorities to coordinate assets in order to develop targeting information for the campaign

Bases used: Unknown

JUNIPER MICRON: In 2013, after France launched a military intervention against Islamists in Mali code-named Operation Serval, the U.S. began Operation Juniper Micron, which involved airlifting French soldiers and supplies into that former French colony, flying refueling missions in support of French airpower, and assisting allied African forces. Juniper Micron was ongoing as of October 2018, with plans for it to continue in the future.

Bases used: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Istres-Le Tube Air Base, France; Bamako and Gao, Mali; Air Base 201 (Agadez), Arlit, Dirkou, Madama and Niamey, Niger; Dakar, Senegal

JUNIPER NIMBUS: Juniper Nimbus is a long-running operation aimed at supporting the Nigerian military campaign against Boko Haram.

Bases used: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; N’Djamena, Chad; Arlit, Dirkou and Madama, Niger

JUNIPER SHIELD: The umbrella operation for the mission that resulted in the deadly ambush in Niger, Juniper Shield is the United States’ centerpiece counterterrorism effort in northwest Africa and covers 11 nations: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. Under Juniper Shield, U.S. teams rotate in every six months to train, advise, assist and accompany local partner forces to conduct operations against terrorist groups, including ISIS-West Africa, Boko Haram and al Qaida and its affiliates.

Bases used: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Garoua and Maroua, Cameroon; Bangui, Central African Republic; Faya Largeau and N’Djamena, Chad; Bamako and Gao, Mali; Nema and Ouassa, Mauritania; Air Base 201 (Agadez), Arlit, Diffa, Dirkou, Madama and Niamey, Niger; Dakar, Senegal

JUPITER GARRET: A JSOC operation aimed at high-value targets in Somalia, Jupiter Garret first came to light in a 2012 Washington Post article. It was ongoing as of February 2018

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier and Chebelley, Djibouti; Laikipia, Manda Bay and Wajir, Kenya; Baidoa, Baledogle, Bosasso, Galcayo, Kismayo and Mogadishu, Somalia

JUSTIFIED SEAMOUNT: Another counter-piracy effort in the waters off East Africa

Bases used: Chebelley, Djibouti; Laikipia, Mombasa and Wajir, Kenya; Victoria, Seychelles; Baidoa, Baledogle, Kismayo and Mogadishu, Somalia

KODIAK HUNTER: A 127e program in which U.S. special operators trained and equipped a Kenyan force to conduct counterterrorism missions in Somalia

Base used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Manda Bay, Kenya

MONGOOSE HUNTER: A 127e program in which U.S. special operations forces trained and equipped a Somali force for counterterrorism missions against al-Shabab

Base used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Baledogle, Somalia

NEW NORMAL: An Africa-wide crisis response capability established by the U.S. military after the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Libreville, Gabon; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Entebbe, Uganda

NIMBLE SHIELD: A low-profile effort targeting Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa

Bases used: Douala, Garoua and Maroua, Cameroon; Bangui, Central African Republic; N’Djamena, Chad; Diffa, Dirkou, Madama and Niamey, Niger

OAKEN SONNET I-III: A series of three contingency operations in South Sudan. Oaken Sonnet I was the difficult 2013 rescue of U.S. personnel from that country at the beginning of its civil war. Oaken Sonnet II took place in 2014 and Oaken Sonnet III in 2016.

Base used: Juba, South Sudan

OAKEN STEEL: The reinforcement of the U.S. Embassy in Juba, South Sudan, to protect State Department personnel during a conflict between rival factions in that country’s civil war, Operation Oaken Steel, which ran from July 12, 2016, to Jan. 26, 2017, saw U.S. forces deploy to Uganda to provide for rapid crisis response during the unrest.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Moron Air Base, Spain; Entebbe, Uganda

OBJECTIVE VOICE: In 2010, the first head of Africa Command, Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Operation Objective Voice was an “information operations effort to counter violent extremism by leveraging media capabilities in ways that encourage the public to repudiate extremist ideologies.” Coordinated with other government agencies, this propaganda effort included “youth peace games” in Mali, a film project in northern Nigeria, and, according to his successor, Army Gen. Carter Ham, a “variety of messaging platforms, such as the African Web Initiative, to challenge the views of terrorist groups.” Objective Voice continues today.

Bases used: Garoua and Maroua, Cameroon; Bangui, Central African Republic; Abeche, Faya Largeau and N’Djamena, Chad; Bamako and Gao, Mali; Nema and Ouassa, Mauritania; Air Base 201 (Agadez), Arlit and Madama, Niger; Dakar, Senegal; Entebbe, Uganda

OBLIQUE PILLAR: A program to provide private contractor helicopter support to Navy SEAL-advised units of the Somali National Army fighting al-Shabab in Somalia. The operation was in existence as of February 2018.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Mombasa and Wajir, Kenya; Baidoa, Baledogle, Kismayo and Mogadishu, Somalia; Entebbe, Uganda.

OBSERVANT COMPASS: An operation to capture or kill Joseph Kony and eradicate his Lord’s Resistance Army, a militia that has committed atrocities since the 1980s. In 2017, with around $780 million spent on the operation, and Kony still in the field, the United States wound down Observant Compass and shifted its forces elsewhere. But the operation didn’t completely disband, according to the Defense Department. “U.S. military forces supporting Operation Observant Compass transitioned to broader scope security and stability activities that continue the success of our African partners,” Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Candice Tresch told Yahoo News.

Bases used: Obo, Central African Republic; Abeche, Chad; Dungu, Democratic Republic of Congo; Juba and Nzara, South Sudan; Entebbe, Uganda

OBSIDIAN LOTUS: A 127e activity concentrated on Libya, in which U.S. commandos trained and equipped Libyan special operations forces battalions. One of those units ended up under the control of renegade warlord Gen. Khalifa Haftar, according to Bolduc.

Bases used: Unknown

OBSIDIAN MOSAIC: A 127e counterterrorism effort focused on Mali.

Bases used: Unknown.

OBSIDIAN NOMAD I and II: Two 127e counterterrorism programs in Niger: Obsidian Nomad I in Diffa and Obsidian Nomad II in Arlit. The operational name emerged in the wake of the October 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.

Bases used: Arlit and Diffa, Niger

OCTAVE ANCHOR: A psychological operation focused on Somalia

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Mogadishu, Somalia

OCTAVE SHIELD: An Africa Command psychological operation focused on Somalia, carried out under the aegis of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, based at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier and Chebelley, Djibouti; Laikipia, Manda Bay, Mombasa and Wajir, Kenya; Victoria, Seychelles; Baidoa, Baledogle, Bosasso, Galcayo, Kismayo and Mogadishu, Somalia; Entebbe, Uganda.

OCTAVE SOUNDSTAGE: A JSOC psychological operation focused on Somalia.

Bases used: Unknown

OCTAVE STINGRAY: A JSOC psychological operation focused on Somalia

Base used: Mogadishu, Somalia

OCTAVE SUMMIT: A JSOC psychological operation focused on Somalia

Base used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti

ODYSSEY LIGHTNING: The campaign of special operations-directed airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Sirte, Libya, between August and December 2016

Base used: Naval Air Station, Sigonella, Italy

ODYSSEY RESOLVE: Another component of the 2016 special operations campaign of air strikes against the Islamic State in the Libyan city of Sirte, Operation Odyssey Resolve consists of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights. It was ongoing as of February 2018.

Bases used: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Faya Largeau, Chad; Benina and Misrata, Libya; Bamako and Gao, Mali; Nema and Ouassa, Mauritania; Arlit and Niamey, Niger; Dakar, Senegal; Bizerte, Tunisia; Entebbe, Uganda

PALADIN HUNTER: A 127e counterterrorism program in the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti; Bosasso and Galcayo, Somalia

RAINMAKER: A highly sensitive classified signals intelligence effort

Bases used: Chebelley, Djibouti; Baidoa, Baledogle, Kismayo and Mogadishu, Somalia

ULTIMATE HUNTER: A 127e counterterrorism program using a U.S.-trained, equipped and directed Ugandan force in Somalia.

Bases used: Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.

*Information on which operations the following bases support was partially redacted: Douala, Garoua and Maroua (all Cameroon); N’Djamena, Chad; Bangui, Central African Republic; Diffa, Dirkou, Madama and Niamey (all Niger). The list of operations supported by Tobruk and Tripoli (both Libya) was fully redacted. Other data were likely withheld completely.

https://news.yahoo.com/revealed-the-us- ... 00841.html

If this is on Yahoo then it's the tip of the iceberg. Getting people used to the idea, I guess.

Re: Africa

Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2019 11:42 am
by blindpig
Sudan suspended African Union

After the Monday massacre, the AU asks for a civil authority. The UN withdraws its staff from the country, the Ethiopian premier today in Khartoum as a mediator. Oppositions insist: forward with civil disobedience

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The RSF paramilitaries in the streets of Khartoum (Source: Twitter)

by Chiara Cruciati - Il Manifesto

Rome, 7 June 2019, Nena News - The streets of Khartoum have almost been emptied, journalists say, are the young people who keep some barricades. For the rest it is an Eid of patrolled roads (aboard, say the opponents, of brand new armored vehicles, made in Abu Dhabi) by the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces , the same responsible for the massacre on Monday.

The number of deaths rises, at least 108 victims according to medical sources and 500 wounded. The military junta denies, speaks of 46 victims, as if they were few, and yet 40 are the bodies recovered by the Nile only on Tuesday. And the current budget will get worse, many injured are serious and the conditions of the hospitals, crowded and with little means, are critical: photos show the wounded piled on the ground, side by side.

The African Union was yesterday to respond, three days after the massacre of protesters and the destruction of the garrison in front of the headquarters of the Sudanese armed forces: Sudan has been suspended by the organization with immediate effect "until the effective creation of a civil transition authority , the only way to get out of the current crisis ", the Department of Peace and Security of the AU wrote in a post on Twitter.

The announcement came after the emergency meeting held in Addis Ababa (among other things, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is expected today in Khartoum as a mediator). Already on Monday, as the first news of the massacre arrived, the organization had requested "a rapid and transparent investigation". The UN also reacts, which for now limits itself to leaving, announcing the withdrawal of its civilian personnel, "temporarily", due to the situation.

But it reacts, after the shock of military violence, even the Association of Professionals (Spa), leader of the protests from the beginning, in mid-December: yesterday it appealed to the people to return to the square , block roads and bridges, "paralyze the public life ". In short, that you do not abandon the path of civil disobedience.

The goal is to cancel the terror effect that the military junta wanted to provoke with methods that recall the genocide in Darfur, the methods of the Janjaweed (tents set on fire, rapes, assaults in hospitals and not only in Khartoum), with which the Council transitional military attempts to dope with the opposition negotiations. Dialogue that civilians have already rejected.

And foreign responsibilities also begin to emerge. The destruction of the garrison in front of the headquarters of the Sudanese army in Khartoum and the massacre of protesters at the hands of the military junta, last Monday, would have been agreed by the head of the Military Transitional Council (Tmc) with the Gulf countries during the recent visits by General al-Burhan to Cairo, Abu Dhabi and Mecca, while his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo saw Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.

To say it is a source very close to the junta, anonymously, to the Middle East Eye agency . Already Tuesday, the day after the massacre, the opposition had accused "foreign countries" of interference and support for the Tmc. And to provide another piece of the puzzle is the US State Department which in a note reported the discussion it had with the Saudi Deputy Defense Minister on the suppression of protests in Sudan.

It is true that Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates (which with Egypt are the main sponsors of the Tmc) on 21 April last spoke of a financial aid of three billion dollars to the military junta.

Chiara Cruciati is on Twitter: @ChiaraCruciati

http://nena-news.it/sudan-sospeso-dallunione-africana/

Google Translator

Re: Africa

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 12:47 pm
by blindpig
Official Documents: How the US Overthrew Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah

How the US Overthrew Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah

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Tatenda Gwaambuka

Thu, Aug 11, 2016
The success of Ghanaian industrialisation would have further cemented the fact that African countries did not necessarily need White rule to be successful.

Kwame Nkrumah was a futurist, a born visionary. His plan as leader of Ghana was to make it an industrial hub within a generation. He dreamt of a united and successful African continent and the narrative he was creating for Africa was a foreign policy concern for the United States of America. In a Memorandum from the President’s Acting Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer) to President Johnson, the coup that led to Nkrumah’s downfall was described as a fortuitous windfall because, “Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western.” In other words, the military regime was a shadow of the West, a whole puppet show mistaken for governance.



Before the declassification of the official documents by the USA, a C.I.A operative, John Stockwell, shared his knowledge on how the United States had been involved in evoking anti-Nkrumah sentiment and in the end causing the coup. He said, “Howard Bane, who was the CIA station chief in Accra, engineered the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah. Inside the CIA it was quite clear. Howard Bane got a double promotion, and was awarded the Intelligence Star for the overthrow of Kwame.”

Nkrumah had ascended to power when Ghana gained its independence in 1957. Ghana adopted a flag with a Black Star in a nod to Marcus Garvey and his Black Star Line. Nkrumah was one of the leaders behind the Organisation of African Unity established on 25 May 1963. The visionary’s end goal for Ghana had been to industrialise it within a generation. He had used an accelerated eduction programme and set up a Ghana Education Trust (GET) to build schools in a bid to empower the people of Ghana with the requisite expertise for industrial take-off. He also led a promising scientific research drive which in 1965 had expanded to no less than five different research institutes for food sciences and technology, aquatic biology, geology and geophysics, industrial standards and marine fisheries. In 1966, Nkrumah said, “Many more research institutes are in an advanced stage of physical development or of planning. These include the Institute of Glass and Ceramics, the Institute of Metallurgy, the Institute of Wild Life research, the Institute for Research Development and a Centre for the Production of Scientific Instruments.” Education was only one of the chapters of the multi-faceted growth he envisioned for Ghana but it formed the very base. By the time of the coup, his country had 68 state owned factories. It is this futuristic industrial policy that was soon dropped by the military regimes that followed for reasons largely unreasonable in retrospect.



The danger of Nkrumah to the colonialists
Nkrumah’s ideology was a threat to the imperialist cause and it still is 50 years after. Within 10 years of Ghana’s independence, 31 other countries had gained their own independence. Ghana was a trailblazer in Africa and would rearrange the matrix of how the West related to Africa. The success of Ghanaian industrialisation would have further cemented the fact that African countries did not necessarily need White rule to be successful. Ghana was supposed to fit the narrative of a country which gained black majority rule and became a melting pot of tension and warfare. After deposing Nkrumah, that became the reality of the day with the country having 7 violent military transfers of power. Having undone Nkrumah, the United States started to control affairs with the IMF putting a stop to Nkrumah’s industrialisation policy. The regime that followed was a USA puppet. In Komer’s Memorandum to President Johnson, he said, “I am not arguing for lavish gifts to these regimes-indeed, giving them a little only whets their appetites, and enables us to use the prospect of more as leverage.”



Even now, the USA will pursue such a policy of giving a little and gaining a lot in the manner of African allegiance and loyalty. African leaders who are a part of this ploy to undo Africa are nothing but sell-outs. They insult the legacy of Nkrumah and so many others who were victims of the imperialists’ twisted scheming. Nkrumah’s fall had been discussed a year before it happened by the Director of Central Intelligence, the Ambassador to Ghana and the Deputy Chief of the African Division in March 1965 as shown by their Memorandum of Conversation. Africa should know there are discussions about derailing continental development that are consistently being carried out and it is up to Africans to stand strong and united.



At a January 1961 Casablanca Conference, Nkrumah himself had called for political unity in Africa or else “we will be fighting and warring among ourselves with the imperialists and colonialists standing by behind the screen and pulling vicious wires, to make us cut each other’s throats for the sake of their diabolical purposes in Africa.”

https://www.africanexponent.com/post/78 ... me-nkrumah

Re: Africa

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 1:31 pm
by blindpig
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Africa Produces 75% of Cocoa But Gets 2% of $100b Chocolate Market Revenue | Ghana Business News
JUNE 3, 2019
EMMANUEL K. DOGBEVI, GHANA BUSINESS NEWS

For centuries, the economies of African countries have been made dependent on advanced economies, and despite the enormous amount of natural resources in Africa, over 500 million citizens continue to live in poverty.

A case in point is the cocoa and chocolate industries. Even though Africa produces 75 per cent of all the cocoa in the world, the continent gets only 2 per cent of the $100 billion revenue from the chocolate industry.

It is not any different with the mining sector either.

Jean Noel Francois, the Acting Director, Department of Trade and Industry at the African Union (AU) Commission said at the second conference of African Ministers responsible for mineral resources and development December 12, 2011 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, that even though Africa’s mineral resources are fuelling growth and development in many industrialised and emerging economies of the world, Africa still remains poor, under-developed and dependent on donor assistance for national budget support.

He further reiterated the fact that Africa consumes very little of its own mineral resources and exports most of it as raw materials, “with little or no local value addition and beneficiation.”

Dr. Stephen Karingi of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) cited figures showing how much the mining companies are making in Africa. “The figures are there for all to see,” he said, “in 2010 alone, net profits for the top 40 mining companies grew by 156 per cent to $110 billion and the net asset base of these companies now exceeds $1 trillion.”

Addressing the opening of the 51st edition of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Annual Meetings in Lusaka, Zambia, Tuesday May 23, 2016, its president, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, outlined what the Bank intends to do towards the private sector, infrastructural development and industrialization of the continent. He also announced that the Bank has a new Vice Presidency on private sector, infrastructure and industrialization which will drive private sector operations to deepen financial markets, private sector growth, scale up infrastructure investments, and sharply focus on the industrialization of Africa.



“The formula for the wealth of nations is clear: rich nations add value to exports, poor nations export raw materials,” he said.

Citing the cocoa sector as an example, he said while Africa accounts for 75 per cent of the global production of cocoa, the continent reaps only 2 per cent of the $100 billion annual market for chocolate.

“This model can no longer create the desired wealth for Africa. Africa must no longer be stuck at the bottom of the value chains. Africa must now rapidly diversify its export mix and add value to all of its raw materials by developing efficient and competitive value chains. This is especially critical, as Africa only accounts for 1.9 per cent of global value added in manufacturing, and this has not changed for decades. It is now time to industrialize Africa,” he said.

The AfDB, which is one of the financiers of development in Africa, loaned $9 billion to African countries in 2015.

Announcing that it is leading the charge to industrialize Africa, the Bank says it will triple its climate finance on the continent to $5 billion annually till 2020.

In 2015, the Bank provided $1.3 billion for energy projects. The Bank financed the 300 MW Lake Turkana wind power station – the largest wind power plant in Africa.

“We supported the Noor complex, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant in Morocco with capacity to provide power for over one million homes by 2018. The Bank financed the power interconnection to link Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia, expanding regional power pools. In December 2015, we provided $138 million to finance the Ruzizi III 147 MW power plant, to provide electricity to Rwanda, Burundi and Republic of Congo,” Adesina said.

The Bank also says it intends to support digital literacy, logical thinking and computational skills in secondary and primary schools through its Jobs for Africa’s Youth Initiative.



“We will also support coding academies that will drive advanced computational skills for employment focusing on youths in universities and polytechnics. Through our Boost Africa Initiative, with our partners, the European Investment Bank, private equity funds will be established to help boost businesses of young people. We plan to leverage $5 billion to support businesses of young African entrepreneurs. Our goal: create 25 million jobs for the youth, over a ten-year period, in agriculture, ICT and other sectors,” he added.

The Bank’s efforts and initiatives must however, be complemented by governments of the individual African countries. Most African governments lack the political will to take decisions that would cascade into economic benefits for most of their citizens. The evidences of mismanagement in countries of the continent are numerous. There is corruption and illicit financial flows out of the continent, which is costing Africa about $60 billion every year in lost funds.

The activities of multinational corporations have been identified to be responsible for 60 per cent of the outflows, while criminal activities such as human trafficking and money laundering drive 35 per cent, corruption plays a five per cent role in shifting all these money out of the continent.

While global volumes of illicit financial flows reportedly reached $1.1 trillion in 2013, the developing world lost $7.8 trillion between 2004 and 2013, the last year for which data are available, according to the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advisory organization.

The report also found that sub-Sahara Africa is the hardest hit region suffering the largest illicit financial outflows—averaging 6.1 per cent of GDP.

Curiously, when the so-called Panama Papers were published majority of the individuals and companies in the papers were PanamaPapers_infographpoliticians or connected to them. An infographics (right) put together by Gerard Meijssen highlights that.



African countries must break the jinx, be bold and shed the negative attitudes leading to self-inflicted and self-destructive needless poverty. The ignoble face of cronyism and corruption must be tackled headlong.

It is important to seal the holes through which all the funds are leaving Africa, and committing to and actualizing beneficial ownership registers are the ways to go. So far, only South Africa has committed to doing that.

While in Africa about 70 per cent of the people are engaged in agriculture, most citizens are hungry and malnourished.

The AfDB says it is attacking malnutrition too.

The Bank says its Vice Presidency for Agriculture, Human and Social Development will drive its “Feed Africa” agenda, with a major focus on transforming agriculture into a business for farmers across African countries.

“Our goal is clear: achieve food self-sufficiency for Africa in ten years, eliminate malnutrition and hunger and move Africa to the top of agricultural value chains, and accelerate access to water and sanitation,” Adesina said.

Africa must rise to the occasion, her long suffering people deserve better.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi, in Lusaka, Zambia

Email: edogbevi@gmail.com

https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2016/05/25/157624/

Re: Africa

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:06 pm
by blindpig
Coronavirus in Africa and Asia: Avalanche is growing
04/09/2020

Capitalism Can't Cope

World media focused on the development of the COVID-19 epidemic in Europe and the United States. Events in Asia and Africa remain behind the scenes. Meanwhile, it is the “third world" that remains the most vulnerable to the virus. Not enough tests, not enough medicines, not enough food. We publish a brief overview of the situation on both continents, prepared by foreign left activists.

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Through the network of the “Assembly of the Nations of the World”, our editors received materials testifying to the growing crisis. Information is relevant on April 7th.

According to these data, only Lesotho and the Comoros have so far not reported coronavirus infection from African countries . The most developed continent is considered the Republic of South Africa . Private health is well developed in South Africa, and the public sector is weak. There are a total of 7,000 intensive care beds, of which only 3,000 are available for use. South Africa currently has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection on the continent with 1,686 confirmed cases and 12 deaths (now more than 1,800 cases of infection - Ed. ). In general, “black Africa” (that is, sub-Saharan Africa) has the worst health care in the world. Therefore, the context in which COVID-19 threatens the African continent is determined by the crisis that already exists there.

In South Africa, the inhabitants of the shacks continue to resist the forced evictions carried out by state bodies under the slogan “social distance due to the disintegration of settlements” . The South African government is "isolating" the method of illegal evictions, and at the same time it is solving political problems. For example, in Etequini (KwaZulu-Natal province), the municipality organized a forced eviction of residents against the Abahlali Basemjondolo social movement. The operation was carried out by private security forces, the police and the army and led to the destruction of houses and the destruction of property of people. Several people were mutilated and hospitalized. And this despite the fact that a moratorium on eviction was proclaimed at the state level.

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In Zimbabwe, population isolation was introduced for a week. This was done at the height of the already existing severe economic crisis, as a result of which 60% of the country's territory were qualified as regions with food shortages. Prior to the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Zimbabwe, its economy began in 2020 with an inflation rate in excess of 500% . Hyperinflation made the cost of living prohibitive and dropped more than 34%its population into extreme poverty. Competition for scarce resources (such as cornmeal) means that the poor in Zimbabwe, especially those living in rural areas, are most affected by isolation measures. Therefore, citizens are forced to resort to any means to feed themselves and their families. Obviously, the poor continue to be the most vulnerable in the fight against COVID-19, as they are more likely to not abide by the rules restricting their movement.

In Kenya, police shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who went out on a balcony during curfew. Similar cases have been reported throughout the continent. For example, in Nigeria, soldiers shot those who violated the rules of "isolation."

In Tanzania, the state took a different path. When the first case of the disease was recorded in the country on March 16, the President of Tanzania called on the people to pray. On March 23, the country imposed travel restrictions. Recently, they have been softened to increase economic activity.

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The situation in Asia is getting worse.

In India , more than 2,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported. (Today, more than 6.5 thousand. - Ed. ) India has been completely isolated over the past few weeks, but last week thousands of migrant workers crowded at bus stops or roamed the roads, as if mocking this regime. Massive movements can bring the virus to hitherto unaffected rural India, where the healthcare system is virtually non-existent.

Nepal also closed its borders. Schools and universities are closed, trade and transport have stopped, life in the state has actually stopped in recent weeks. Peasants and migrant workers were hit hard by this. The number of reported cases of infection in Nepal is small (today 9 - Ed. ) , But tracking and testing is very slow. The government has introduced a small aid package, but it is not enough for the working class. For peasants, there is no proper reimbursement program. Farmers are suffering. Some milk producers literally poured their milk, and vegetable producers and poultry farmers were forced to throw away their spoiled products.

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The Government of Thailand March 3 imposed a curfew restricting the movement of people at night, since the country's growing number of cases of coronavirus infection. Most workers and employees continue to work.

The Philippines Congress recently took several emergency measures in an attempt to deal with an outbreak of coronavirus. Some extraordinary powers included giving the president nationalization rights to private firms and enterprises. Unlike Thailand, the Philippines does not resort to a narrow concentration of emergency powers, since a significant part of social distance measures and curfew regimes are introduced not by the Government of Manila, but by local authorities.

Indonesia has recorded one of the highest coronavirus mortality rates in Asia outside of China. It is not yet possible to establish an effective fight against the epidemic. The country has a very low level of testing, now it ranges from 3 tests for every 100 thousand people. The highest level of testing - 80 per 100 thousand of the population - in Jakarta, which is the epicenter of the disease in the country.

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In Malaysia in recent weeks, the number of cases began to grow many times. The government’s response to the outbreak was slowed down by the struggle within the ruling class in connection with the recent political upheaval. On March 13, the government imposed curfews and martial law. At this point, more than 3,300 cases of the disease were recorded in the country .

Although the United States and European countries remain the most powerful infection epicenters, it cannot be ruled out that the real picture is far from official figures. Unlike the West, the “third world” does not have sufficient resources for independent production of tests for coronavirus. A new avalanche of coronavirus can come from countries where ordinary capitalism reigns, not burdened with any developed system of health care and disease prevention.

https://www.rotfront.su/koronavirus-v-a ... avina-nar/

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Re: Africa

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 9:56 pm
by blindpig
AR: COVID-19 pandemic kills up to 3.3 million lives in Africa
04/18/2020
33
While African children were looking for cobalt for overseas owners ...

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) within the UN has warned of the need for emergency measures to reduce coronavirus mortality in Africa. With the best development of events, according to ECA forecasts, the number of deaths on the continent will be more than 300 thousand, the worst variant assumes up to 3.3 million deaths, the Assosiated Press agency reports.

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The number of infected in Africa during the implementation of the worst-case scenario will be 1.2 billion people - about 1/6 of the world's population. The best option, involving "intensive social distance" on the entire continent, involves 122 million cases. These figures are given by ECA in the report "COVID-19: protecting the life and economy of African countries . "

“In Africa, 56% of the urban population lives in slums and houses that lack basic amenities, including running water,” the document says.

This situation creates the prerequisites for the uncontrolled distribution of COVID-19. The continent is particularly susceptible to coronavirus due to the densely populated African cities and critical health problems.

“... of all continents, it is in Africa that there is the highest prevalence of diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV,” the researchers add.

The amount of funds needed to combat the virus in the implementation of the worst-case scenario is $ 446 billion .

ECA has called on the nations of the world to help African countries struggling with COVID-19 and retreating against the onslaught of a monstrous continental epidemic.

“The continent’s economic growth will slow to 1.8%, resulting in 27 million people in extreme poverty,” said ECA Executive Secretary Vera Songwe .

Despite the declared economic progress, Africa has begun to live worse in recent decades than in 1990.

“And in any scenario for the development of the global economy, extreme poverty will continue to be measured in double digits in sub-Saharan Africa,” the World Bank experts concluded .

In 2018, they calculated that half of the world's population spends less than $ 5.5 per day. In the year of the study, this amount was equal to the price of a cup of coffee with cookies at Starbucks. Nearly 11% of the world's population lives on just $ 1.9 a day. But the situation in Africa is much more tragic: in Chad, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, in Burundi - over 50%, in Ethiopia - about 40%.

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All countries in Africa provide the welfare of the countries of the Center - the USA and Europe. Agriculture, oil, gas, coal, rare metals, bauxite, forests - for the sake of this, world capital exploits Africa, for the sake of this silence the continent’s deep poverty.

While dirty African children were looking for cobalt for overseas owners, death grew in Africa - hunger, poverty and everyday exploitation - today death will hit the exploiters who have stuffed their pockets.

https://www.rotfront.su/ar-pandemiya-co ... iznej-v-a/

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Re: Africa

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 1:48 pm
by blindpig
Africa’s Response to the George Floyd Murder
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist 10 Jun 2020

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Africa’s Response to the George Floyd Murder

Outrage towards the US emanated from the Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all condemning the killing.

“Africa’s relation to the Floyd murder was swift and resolute.”

The African response to the heinous murder of George Floyd, has been largely ignored by the American and European press. Nightly reports of the reaction in various European capitals have demonstrated Europe’s disbelief and distancing from its violent and pathologically violence-addicted cousin. The addiction to black blood and the murder/sexual assault of black bodies has framed the American experience. The murder of George Floyd was simply another chapter in a voluminous book of life experiences that characterize the extreme brutality and genocide of the African in America experience. But, did Africa have a reaction to the global reaction to the George Floyd murder? Was there a particular familiar reaction that the American and European press should have noted?

Undetected by mainstream press, Africa’s relation to the Floyd murder was swift and resolute. The African Union on May 29th issued a statement condemning the murder from its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia stating:

“The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat strongly condemns the murder of George Floyd that occurred in the United States of America at the hands of law enforcement officers, and wishes to extend his deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. Recalling the historic Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) Resolution on Racial Discrimination in the United States of America made by African Heads of State and Government, at the OAU’s First Assembly Meeting held in Cairo, Egypt from 17 to 24 July 1964, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission firmly reaffirms and reiterates the African Union’s rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America. He further urges the authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure the

total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin.”

“The African Union rejects the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America.”

In South Africa demonstrators gathered outside the parliament in Cape Town to denounce US policies of racism and white supremacy. Protestors expressed their solidarity with African-Americans and disgust with the brutal murder of George Floyd: “The black solidarity campaign wants to establish a process of movement-building. The end state will be the creation of an anti neo-colonial, anti-imperialist movement, anti new world order movement.”

In Johannesburg , the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) , led by Julius Malema, issued a statement condemning “the ruthless murder of George Floyd by racist police officers in the United States (US).” The party said Floyd's killing represented a deep tradition of racial prejudice and violence against African Americans by law enforcement in America. The party has also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to immediately convene a meeting with representatives of the US in South Africa and demand they recall the deployment of the military against protesters.

“Floyd's killing represented a deep tradition of racial prejudice and violence against African Americans by law enforcement in America.”

African news and newsmakers are treated as though they do not exist. The killing of George Floyd touches “a nerve ” throughout Africa. Outrage towards the US emanated from the Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all condemning the killing. Even Black American Ambassadors, such as Brian Nichols in Zimbabwe, were forced to comment on the Floyd murder: “As an African American, for as long as I can remember I have known that my rights and my body were not fully my own. I have always known that America, conceived in liberty, has always aspired to be better—a shining city on a hill—and that’s why I have dedicated my life to her service.”

The murder of George Floyd also reminded the continent of the police murder of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant, who was shot 41 times by New York police officers back in 1999.

Nigerians stormed the US Embassy over the death of George Floyd shouting “enough is enough! The US should not think that Black people are not human…We are black and beautiful and bold people….We will not be eliminated. It is time for Blacks to take their destinies in their hands.”

“The US should not think that Black people are not human.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority and Coordinator of Beyond the Return , Akwasi Agyeman commented : “One of us was murdered in such cold blood, so we cannot be and we cannot look on. So on behalf of the Beyond the Return Committee we are here to show solidarity to our brothers and sisters who are here as we all march to present our petition that enough is enough. This is one more death too many and it must stop."

The voices from Africa were defiant and courageous. Nevertheless, Western news outlets found little to report from the continent where George Floyd hailed. It is this kind of Eurocentric reporting that accentuates the importance of an independent African-centered press.

Dr. Marsha Adebayo is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated: No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA . She worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered South African vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). Marsha was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, March 2017. Currently, she is working to stop HOC from its continue desecration of an African burial ground in Bethesda, Maryland.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/afric ... oyd-murder

Re: Africa

Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:01 pm
by blindpig
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, 1964—2020
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 24 Jun 2020

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Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, 1964—2020

Burundi is Africa’s Syria and Venezuela, a developing nation that dared to defy US dictates under Nkurunziza’s leadership.

“His legacy is his effort to reconcile Burundi’s Hutu and Tutsi classes and end the deep-seated, centuries-old hatred between them.”

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, died suddenly on June 8th, reportedly of a heart attack. The new president, Évariste Ndayishimiye , who had been elected on May 20th, was sworn in ten days later, two months earlier than planned, in accordance with a decision by Burundi’s judiciary.

Burundi is a tiny East African nation bordering Rwanda to the north, Democratic Republic of Congo to the east, and Tanzania to the west and south. It is Africa’s Syria and Venezuela, a developing nation that dared to raise an independent head, contracted with a Russian firm to mine its nickel reserves, then survived the ensuing Western propaganda and covert operations. Russia and China came to Burundi’s aid by vetoing UN Security Council resolutions to censure it, which would have laid ground for a military intervention of one sort or another. Samantha Power, the USA’s violent, know-it-all Ambassador to the UN from 2013 to 2017, was as furious as she was when Russia and China vetoed resolutions to censure Syria.
Burundi is on the western edge of China’s One-Belt, One-Road Initiative in Africa. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was quick to send his condolences to Burundians upon Nkurunziza’s death, writing, “We express our condolences to the people of the Republic of Burundi for the regrettable and unexpected physical departure of its president, Pierre Nkurunziza. My respect and solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Mother Africa at such a difficult time. Embrazos!"

I spoke to Edgar Muvunyi Tabaro, the author of an eloquent tribute first published in The Observer , a Ugandan outlet.

Ann Garrison: Edgar, your essay "Fare Thee Well, President Nkurunziza" is complex, nuanced, and historical, and I recommend it to anyone seeking to further understand the African Great Lakes Region. Could you summarize what you most hoped to make people understand about President Pierre Nkurunziza, what you hope his legacy will be?

Edgar Muvunyi Tabaro: President Nkurunziza taught at Burundi University and the military academy. His mother was a Tutsi nurse and his father a Hutu governor. The Hutu and Tutsi identities transfer patrilineally, from father to children, so he was a Hutu, but nevertheless born to an elite class. Despite privilege, he conducted his presidency in humble simplicity. He was very much in touch with the Hutu peasant majority, very accessible to them. His legacy is his effort to reconcile Burundi’s Hutu and Tutsi classes and end the deep-seated, centuries-old hatred between them.

He also kept his promise to step down and hand power over to a successor chosen by the people in a democratic election. Word had it that he wanted his party’s 2020 nomination to go to the president of the national assembly, the lower chamber of Burundi’s legislature, but the party’s executive committee preferred General Évariste Ndayishimiye, and he accepted that.

AG: You wrote about the assassination of Louis Rwagasore, a Tutsi prince who married a Hutu and joined a prominent Hutu politician to forge a movement that would move Burundi beyond polarization of the Hutu and Tutsi classes. Tutsi supremacists assassinated Rwagasore just before he was to become prime minister, then assassinated two Hutu prime ministers elected to follow him. The tyrant who then came to power committed genocide against 300,000 Hutu people. Can you explain what was so extraordinary about the way that President Nkurunziza engaged with this history?

EMT: Military leaders of elite Tutsi clans were responsible for three Hutu genocides, in 1972, 1988, and 1993, all of which were intended to wipe out the educated Hutu elites. Nkurunziza nevertheless engaged with these groups and never discriminated against them. He appointed one of their members to serve as vice president in his first government, from 2005 to 2010. He extended an olive branch to them, including them in his cabinet and treating their previous presidents with respect.

AG: Amnesty International and the Institute for Security Studies both responded to President Nkurunziza's death by calling him "divisive," which is the opposite of what you write. Why do you think Western governments, think tanks, and NGOs held such animosity toward him?

EMT: The outside world, and especially the Western media, grossly misunderstood President Nkurunziza. Much of the narrative they report has been that of the narrow political class that lost power when democracy took root in Burundi. The bitter elements of that class drive the bulk of Western press and social media about Burundi. But I'm very certain that if you had a chance to discuss him with ordinary people in the farms and grazing lands in Burundi, you would learn that they loved him, honor his memory, and disagree with these dominant Western institutions.

I am a lawyer and a former law professor. I practice law in Kampala, Uganda, and East Africa in general, and I am most interested in dialogue and conflict transformation between warring parties in the African Great Lakes Region, which has undergone civil wars and genocides for many decades. I am among those who think we should take careful, purposeful steps to address the reasons for conflicts and establish the best paths to conflict resolution and peaceful, productive society.

You are in an industrialized country where what matters at the end of the day is the relation between the producer and the consumer, not the relationship between clans or ethnicities. What matters is whether or not all your people have a sustainable way of living and reproducing. That is what we are pursuing here in the African Great Lakes Region, and I hope we will achieve it before I meet my creator.

Thank you very much for your time and attention. God bless you.

Edgar Muvunyi Tabaro is a Ugandan jurist. His essay “Fare Thee Well, President Nkurunziza” can be read on the websites of " The Observer ” and “San Francisco Bay View .”

https://www.blackagendareport.com/burun ... -1964-2020

Re: Africa

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 2:04 pm
by blindpig
Open Defecation Zones and the Shaming of Africa 3.0
Zanga Chimombo 26 Aug 2020

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Open Defecation Zones and the Shaming of Africa 3.0

“Voluntourists” in Africa are actually jihadists for the West who defecate all over the continent in every way that defecation is possible.

“Time to wake up, Africa. These sheikhs ain’t royal!”

Photo: Kalumbu Open Defecation Free Zone

Msinja is one of the holiest sites in Malawi. The others are Khulubvi in the South, Bimbi in the East and Chikang’ombe in the North. The first three are associated with the medieval Maravi kingdom though, now, only Msinja remains the heartland of the Chewa nation proper; Khulubvi is associated with the Mang’anja splinter Maravi nation and now the Sena too, from the south; Bimbi now also with the Yao from the east, but Maravi through and through; Chikang’ombe with the Tumbuka, like the Chewa, northerners from the heart of Africa if we are to believe the griots. All – but Khulubvi and Bimbi specially so still – are associated with rainmaking. It is an entire topic on its own: Schoffeleers’s Guardians of the Land explores traditional territorial shrines in this part of the continent.

Traditional Authority (T/A) – as the British called them – or Chief (more of a Baron perhaps, just less rapacious) Kalumbu is one of the guardians of the shrine. Chitseko or doorstop literally means “stopper.” If there is anything to unify Africa it is the simple ritual of libation, venerating the creator through the spirits of the ancestors. Too humble to approach the creator directly: typically non-western. We found the universe as it is – more or less – we shall probably leave it as it is – more or less – let’s just get by as our forebearers did while we pass through shall we? So long and thanks for all the fish. If there are any extras after we pass then all the better: cherries atop the icing atop the cake!

“If there is anything to unify Africa it is the simple ritual of libation.”

So, it has come to pass that an entire race is associated with open defecation zones. A sort of golden star to be worn by lesser folks, certainly a mass racial humiliation of sorts. Not the first of its sort, probably not the last. I don’t know what sick mind conjured this one up but someone somewhere is getting off on this. Where? Who cares? It should be a wakening call. A slap across the face. Time to wake up, Africa. These sheikhs ain’t royal!

The slur is so blatant that it is hard to imagine that it was unintended: taking the piss – taking the crap, in this case – out of our diminished status. The implication being that the other “villages” – the rest of Africa really – remain open defecation zones. Shitholes, to put it bluntly. Let us consider the historical record. Let us probe the historical account with an eye on hygiene. Without spending too long with Duck Duck Go, we are swiftly informed that the toilet first manifested itself in Africa. Thanks Herodotus, who documented that the Egyptians eased themselves inside the house in contrast with other peoples he was acquainted with, the Greeks, Assyrians, Persians and Arabians to mention a few who eased themselves in the outdoors.

So Black people, in Africa, created the first toilet. I would use the word invented, but that would suggest it were a big deal. (There have been many and much bigger deals, invented in Africa). If you want proof, and London, Paris and Berlin are on your itinerary, please pop by the British, Louvre and Berlin Museums. Right there behind the gold that christians took from pagans: BAM! A toilet! A water closet! Garde à l’eau!

A papyrus with PI to six decimal places. Those are big deals.

“The toilet first manifested itself in Africa.”

The villagers that I know – many, I am related to – have their homes usually at quite a distance from their fields. So what if they respond to the call of nature while tending to their fields and have a thicket to do it in? How do hikers in Europe and North America respond to nature on their hikes? B*mb*kl**t!

Obviously all sorts of types that are quite vocal at the moment will claim that they are personally related to Nefer-Titi. Personally and without equivocation. Not to be challenged, not if you don’t fancy a quasi-fatal accusation of being anti-somethingic. Thrice removed.

When we Africans lost literacy – it hadn’t been a mass calling and them scribes had let us down so considerably – we collectively abandoned intellectualism and turned against that caste: after all, what’s the point of predicting heliacal risings of the binary star Sirius with any degree of accuracy (and precessions of equinoxes too for that matter) but succumbing to sea and desert invaders? However, when we uprooted from the Nile and had to reinvent ourselves in the west and then the south, it was mere postponement of our trials and tribulations.

We can run no more as Dingiswayo’s protégé Tchaka wa Senzangakhona figured when the invaders bit us again from the Southern tip of Africa – the backside. Back to that topic.

We are used to such name calling. It is no stranger to us. We have encountered it before. It accompanied the maafa holocaust. It accompanied the mfecane holocaust. The European slavers needed to tell themselves (and their good folk back home) that they were doing god’s work. Shame 1.0.

David Lingstone and the sham saving-of-Africa-from-slavery pretext for colonization – a final solution – pretty much sums up Shame 2.0. No further explanations required there.

“Name calling accompanied the maafa holocaust and the mfecane holocaust.”

Today, the traffic continues: well-intentioned lighter folk full of ideas and ideals come to the periphery while able-minded and bodied darker types head to the core to feed the machine that keeps even the oppressed full of hopes and aspirations. Now, however, it is “voluntary.” Lies have replaced whips. Marketing lies that there is only one true way and progress is linear, as opposed to, say, cyclical.

Too arrogant to consult seemingly ignorant village elders, latter-day voluntourists continue in the wake of slavers and settlers to brand each and every novelty as an attraction to tick off their bucket lists. (I hope the creator has a bucket for them and their like(s)!). Or a deploration worth the invoking of R2P – the responsibility to protect. I wish capitalism would embrace the responsibility to protect mother earth.

The shame of rubbing-in repeated humiliations aside, core to periphery charity breeds a false consciousness. The type that Fanon warns us against. And it is not just that it is false. It is detrimental to peripheral self-actualization. Just as noblesse oblige breeds a middle class in opposition to the masses. The bigger the middle class the larger the extent of domestication.

Individualism’s rationalization of individuals helping other individuals becomes a head-in-the-ground excuse for not collectively addressing the root causes of inequality (back home, in the core). Thus, a rabid Trump supporter can become a caring philanthropist by feeding a third world village for a year, while destroying the planet at large and justifying police brutality at home. A variation of the “but I have a black friend” defence.

How long will the African 1% maintain the pretence that multiculturalism is working for us? How many Stephen Lawrences while we buy into a collapsing edifice? Do we need the skies to be torched before we admit that the short upstart pan-European experiment is doomed?

“A rabid Trump supporter can become a caring philanthropist by feeding a third world village for a year, while destroying the planet at large and justifying police brutality at home.”

Numerous historians and novelists inform us that the slavers thought (and some writers still do) or pretended that they were doing god’s work. Closer to now, Malawians are still taught that the British colonialists brought commerce, civilization and christianity. Well, today, NGO staff of all hues are still dancing to that tune: there’s something wrong with Africans and neoliberalism is essential to the solution. Jihadists really, but too blind to see that. Too much skin in the game to acknowledge it. Which is what happens almost without exception by the time many complete westernized university education.

Some needed a book (and literacy) to tell us that we come from the earth and return to the earth. Personally, I think the solution is to leave us alone. Maybe Africa will again do the globe a favor by restoring sanity to a world in overdrive to its own doom! By the way, water will soon be in short supply. Maybe it is time to reconsider those shrines.

Shame 3.0 is the fact that Africans abandoned a God in their own image – their ancestral religion – for another. How could we allow our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters to be raped in front of us; our sons to be taken away from us, and still adhere to the ancestral beliefs that seem to have betrayed us?

Yet how are the twin Abramic religions working for us, Africa, the world now?

Dear West, when an African villager defecates in the bush it’s because s/he possesses enough acres to do so without worrying about police brutality. It’s called freedom.

Indigenous people of the world, resist domestication!

Zanga Chimombo can be reached at z.chimombo(at)gmail.com

https://www.blackagendareport.com/open- ... -africa-30

Re: Africa

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:28 pm
by blindpig
The Communist Party of South Africa in the fight against apartheid

by Giuseppe Sini

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The day following the death of Joe Slovo, which took place on January 6, 1995, the New York Times published an article on the figure of the former secretary general of the South African Communist Party (SACP), as well as an executive of the African National Congress (ANC) and the its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, Spear of the Nation , or "Spear of the nation"); the article, although it tried to give a balanced portrait of it, already from the title revealed the priorities of the US press in reconstructing the South African events: "Joe Slovo, the anti- apartheid Stalinisthe disappeared at 68 ”. The text, the work of a well-known journalist, who later distinguished himself for his vociferous support for the US aggression in Iraq in 2003, is obviously full of references to the doubts of Slovo and his wife, Ruth First - cited coincidentally only by the way, to the detriment of the anti- apartheid commitmentthat would cost her her life - about the Soviet Union. After all, these were years in which Nelson Mandela, whenever he set foot in the United States, was plagued by insulting grievances about his unwelcome acquaintances in Washington; complaints to which he responded with admirable impassivity, as when to Reagan's lackey Kenneth Adelman, who challenged his applause for Arafat, Gaddafi and Castro, he replied that those whom the US identified as enemies were not necessarily so for its cause.

Later, in the Western media, the tendency to sweeten the history of the struggle against apartheid prevailed., presenting it - similarly to the case against segregation and civil rights in the United States - as a sort of harmonious march towards freedom resulting from a generic non-violence; his incarnation, that same Mandela not many years ago insolent because of the allies considered unpresentable, now reduced to the pathetic figure of a wise and benevolent grandfather to be revered and with whom to be portrayed in a photo. Leader of the ANC counted, it is always good to remember him, together with other members of the same organization, in the grotesque "terror watch list" of the USA until a few years ago; but also pointed out by some reactionary press as to whether or not he actually belongs to the South African Communist Party, a very sterile debate considering the close relations between the latter and the ANC.

This paper, therefore, wants to be - on the basis of a previous article on Communists and the liberation of African Americans - a re-enactment, without any claim of completeness or objectivity, of some events and figures of the South African Communist Party, in the context of the battle against ' apartheid , not ignoring its contradictions and ambiguities, especially at the beginning; without neglecting the role that the armed struggle and internationalism played in it, that is the Soviet Union and China, but also the anti-colonial movements and governments of Africa and Cuba [1].

AT THE ORIGINS OF APARTHEID: COLONIALISM, SLAVERY AND SEGREGATION

Although known to the Portuguese and the English, the area of ​​the Cape of Good Hope was first colonized by the Dutch, as part of the activities of the Dutch East India Company, consisting in procuring slaves, raw materials and other goods to what, in the first mid-17th century, it was the dominant European maritime power in Southeast Asia; and right on the way to the eastern Dutch possessions was the Cape of Good Hope, colonized starting from 1652 to serve as an outpost for the Company's trade, but above all as the base of a colony founded on the exploitation of slaves. Slaves mainly imported from Indonesia, India, Ceylon, Madagascar and Mozambique to work in the service of the Boer settlements, which would progressively expand far beyond the Cape, to the north and east,

When the British took possession of the Cape Colony in 1795 they found a society in which white settlers were united in exploiting the labor provided by slaves and native populations, but divided between the interests of merchants and farmers in the Cape area and the trekboer- immigrant Boer breeders - constantly expanding north and east at the expense of indigenous communities; regained control of the Colony in 1806, after the brief reassignment to the Dutch with the Batavian Republic, the British in turn began the expulsion and devastation of the indigenous populations and the settlement of settlers. With the British would come the abolition of the slave trade first and the emancipation later, through intermediate steps for various forms of servile work up to wage, without this substantially diminishing the oppression of the black population. The expansion of the British would have clashed with the hostility of the Boers to be annexed and the revolts of the Africans, aimed at recovering the lands stolen from them as well as rejecting the "civilizing" claims of British imperialism. Meanwhile, during the second half of the nineteenth century the English entities were consolidated, namely the Cape Colony and Natal, and the Boer entities, or the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which - all characterized by white supremacy and surpassed the hostilities that resulted in the two Anglo-Boer Wars - they would have formed the South African Union in 1910.

Meanwhile, the development of the mining industry, in particular diamonds and gold, was accompanied by a structuring of the industrial workforce on a racial basis, in which white workers enjoyed privileged conditions compared to black ones, subjected to forms of segregation in every area of ​​life; a system that guaranteed huge profits not only to local capitalists, but also to investors residing in the imperialist metropolis, Europe and the United States. The same white population differed among Afrikaners, descendants of the Boer settlers, mainly based in rural areas, and nineteenth-century immigrants, mostly English, to which were added Germans and Eastern Europeans, mostly Jews; in addition to the linguistic and religious differences between the two groups, there were the economic-social inequalities transversal to them, in terms of ownership, income, qualifications, education and therefore class. The other part of the population was also very diverse, not only in origin - including descendants of natives and slaves imported from Indonesia, Madagascar and other parts of Africa - but also in occupation, religion and, in the case of native blacks, greater o less attachment to traditional forms of society superficially identified by whites as "tribal"; finally, the presence of a large Indian community should be mentioned, the result, especially in Natal, of the immigration of workers favored by the government. Parallel to the growth of the mining industry, the suppression, with more or less violent methods, of the remaining native communities and their attempts at rebellion - in particular the uprising of the Zulu in 1906 - communities already devastated by over two centuries of contacts with the colonizers was completed. whites [2].

BIRTH OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY

The constitution of the South African Union as a dominion of the British Empire, the result of a convention that met starting in 1908 in Durban - made up of only men, all white - created a unitary state on the British model, of which the four colonies constituted the provinces, with a lower house, a senate, and an executive accountable to a majority in the former; in all four founding entities the voting and eligibility rights were severely limited (Natal and Cape Colony) or completely forbidden (Transvaal and Orange Free State) for those who were not white, which did not actually change in the Union . Precisely in the context of these discriminations and to oppose them, the South African Native National Congress was born in 1912, forerunner of the ANC, whose leaders - like other organizations such as the African Political Organization - had a Western background as lawyers, clerics or publicists, and pursued a reformist policy aimed at persuading whites to meet their grievances, achieving little and failing to mobilize the black masses. More radical was the activity of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), founded by the black Clements Kadalie - a native of present-day Malawi, at the time Nyasaland - who was the protagonist of strikes of a certain importance between 1919 and the early 1920s. , clashing with the harsh repression of the authorities and the strike-breaking of white workers.

Among the first movements to explicitly refer to Marxism, the International Socialist League (ISL-Jhb), formed in Johannesburg in 1915 following a split between the ranks of the South African Labor Party, regarding participation in the First World War ( SALP), an advocate unlike the latter, firmly deployed in defense of the privileges of white workers, of mobilization on a class rather than racial basis. On similar premises, but in Cape Town, from a split of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) the Industrial Socialist League (ISL-CT) was born which, animated mainly by militants of Jewish origin, practiced a sort of revolutionary syndicalism in the wake of 'Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and enthusiastically welcomed and supported - like ISL-Jhb - the October Revolution. Both organizations, however, while advocating solidarity between black and white workers, entrusted the latter with the leading role. Starting from 1920 the two acronyms would have given rise to several and concurrent attempts to affiliate with the Communist International (Comintern), in particular the ISL-CT and one of its branches in Johannesburg, the Communist League , merged into a premature Communist party of South Africa . Finally, on July 30, 1921, with the convergence of ISL-Jhb and other formations, a handful of delegates - all white and English-speaking - gathered in Cape Town founded theCommunist Party of South Africa (CPSA); the influence of ISL-Jhb in the newborn party was evident in the appointments, respectively, to secretary and treasurer, of two of its representatives, WH Andrews and SP Bunting.

The Manifesto approved on that occasion called for "all South African workers [...] black and white, to join [the party] in promoting the overthrow of capitalism" and yet for several years to come black militancy in the party it would have been the subject of bitter discussions; accompanied moreover by unfortunate choices, such as support and participation, albeit marginal, in the so-called Rand Revolt of 1922, a strike by white miners which quickly turned into an armed insurrection in the mining area of ​​the Witwatersrand. Triggered at the end of 1921 by the decision of the Chambers of Mine - taken in the context of the economic difficulties following the First World War - to end the agreements that guaranteed the privileges of white workers, the uprising,National Party (NP), spokesman for the Afrikaner grudge , would have resulted, before being quelled, in real pogroms against blacks. Among the consequences of the story, also the unleashing of the anti-communist paranoia, conveyed by the police, the army, the press and the government, with Prime Minister Jan Smuts who pointed to the racists Labor and National Party as a cover for the Communists, giving rise to the unfounded conspiracy that saw the rebellion as orchestrated by Moscow; a lesson also for today on how counterproductive, as well as execrable on the level of principles, the ambiguity even if only tactical on issues such as that of racism [3].

THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL

The III Congress of the Communist Party, in 1924, was animated by the debate between those who continued to attribute to white workers a prominent role - first of all WH Andrews - and a wing, especially young militants like Eddie Roux, convinced of the strategic importance of organization of black ones; this second orientation was imposed with the rise to the top of SPBunting, which together with another former member of ISL-Jhb, David Ivon Jones, had already been advocating it for some years also at the Comintern. Among the first blacks to join the Communist ranks, TW Thibedi, skilled organizer and educator, would train numerous future black militants and cadres, Albert Nzula, John B. Markx, Moses Kotane, Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana, all four who joined the party in the late 1920s and early 1930s would later become secretaries, John Gomas, Johannes Nkosi and James La Guma. In addition to sharing almost all proletarian or peasant origins, some had formal education as teachers, others had alternated with various jobs - from miner to tailor, passing through housework - training as self-taught and in party schools, as well as trade union and political activity. Meanwhile, the ephemeral collaboration undertaken with the ICU in order to exploit its mass potential among blacks, a collaboration sanctioned by the presence in its National Council of some members of the CPSA, including La Guma and Gomas, expelled in 1926 from organization of Kadalie following the latter's anti-communist turn.

In 1927, the "League Against Imperialism" (LAI) was launched in Brussels during the anticolonial World Conference and, for South Africa, JT Gumede of the African National Congress - name taken by the South African Native National Congress - participatedstarting in 1923 - and James La Guma of the CPSA; the two were able to travel to the Soviet Union where La Guma came into contact with the leaders of the Third International, an occasion on which the so-called thesis of the native republic emerged. Similar to the one on self-determination for African Americans in the US states where they constituted the majority, that of the Native Republic called for - in the resolution on the South African question adopted after the VI Congress of the Comintern in 1928 - an "independent native South African Republic, as a step towards a worker and peasant republic with full and equal rights for all races ”. This slogan met with opposition from part of the CPSA, in particular Bunting and Thibedi: some feared it might alienate the party's sympathies from white workers and that - in Roux's words,

However, the line that emerged at the Sixth Congress of the Comintern was eventually accepted by the party during its VII annual conference, held from December 1928 to January 1929, and implemented by increasing the number of black militants in its ranks and at the top, up to the appointment of Albert Nzula as secretary in 1929. Nevertheless, during the 1930s the internal conflicts between the CPSA and between a part of the latter and Moscow did not abate, leading to the expulsion of Bunting, and the brief rise of Lazar Bach , a communist of Latvian origins initially supported by the Comintern, an advocate of the removal of elements considered to be right-wing, mostly critical of the native republic, but who also ended up hitting its promoters such as La Guma. Even relations with the ANC - which strengthened starting from 1927 under the leadership of Gumede, favorably impressed by the USSR and the openness of the CPSA towards blacks - they deteriorated; on the one hand, in 1930, the emergence at its top of a conservative faction led to the ouster of Gumede, on the other hand attacks by the Communist side, as well as embarrassing those who militated in both organizations, such as Moses Kotane, would have made collaboration difficult throughout the decade. A decade during which the CPSA did not fail to fight for the rights of black workers, in particular against in addition to embarrassing those who militated in both organizations, such as Moses Kotane, they would have made collaboration difficult throughout the decade. A decade during which the CPSA did not fail to fight for the rights of black workers, in particular against in addition to embarrassing those who militated in both organizations, such as Moses Kotane, they would have made collaboration difficult throughout the decade. A decade during which the CPSA did not fail to fight for the rights of black workers, in particular againstpass law - a series of rules introduced since the 18th century - which limited the movement and residence of the black population, also strengthening the control exercised by the white bosses; just during an anti- pass campaign in Durban, on December 16, 1930, Johannes Nkosi, one of the first black leaders of the party, was assassinated by the police [4].

REORGANIZATION, BANNING AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PARTY

The transition from the 1930s to the 1940s was marked by efforts to reorganize the party, in which Moses Kotane, secretary since 1939, played a leading role, managing the CPSA during the Second World War and taking action to restore good relations with the ANC, in which new recruits such as the young Mandela made their way. Important years also for the emergence of figures such as Hilda Watts, elected to the Central Committee like Betty Sacks, former editor of the party newspaper The Guardian, Rachel ("Ray") Alexander and, among the black militants, the trade unionist Rahima Ally, Dora Tamana and Josie Palmer. All involved, as well as in party activity, in trade union activity on a multiracial basis - in particular with the Food and Canning Workers' Union(FCWU) founded by Alexander in 1941 - and in the fight against segregation, for example by participating in the aforementioned anti- pass campaigns , as well as cooperating with other progressive women's organizations and thus contributing to the birth of larger movements, such as the Federation of South African Women (FSAW) founded in 1954.

Meanwhile, 1948, with the electoral victory of the National Party (of explicit Nazi-Fascist sympathies), started almost half a century of intransigent reaffirmation of white supremacy, with the consolidation of the already drastic forms of segregation: the Population Registration Act of 1950 allowed the racial categorization of people into white, colored , Indian and black people, the Proibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act(1949-50) raised the color barrier for interpersonal relationships. To the de facto elimination of the right to vote and eligibility was added the transformation of the reserves, in which part of the black population languished, into so-called Homelands designated as independent areas of a separate development, actually placed under white protection and destined for underdevelopment and exploitation.

In 1950, a CPSA already overwhelmed by repression due to the role played through the African Mineworkers 'Union , led by the communist exponent and ANC member, JBMarks, in the great African miners' strike of 1946 - mobilizing in the Witwatersrand, otherwise since 1922, thousands of black workers - was banned under the Supression of Communism Act ; after the strike of 1 May called by the party and repressed in blood, with 18 strikers killed, the leaders pronounced themselves in favor of the dissolution, believing that there were no conditions to go underground. The ANC and the South African Indian Congress(SAIC), resolutely opposed to the ban, allowed numerous non-white CPSA militants to pursue legal political activity; ANC that was radicalizing itself, overcoming the mistrust of some members, such as Mandela himself, regarding communists and Marxism, opting for civil disobedience and thus proving its ability to mobilize in the "Challenge Campaign", organized in 1952 together with SAIC. Meanwhile, despite the initial exclusion of clandestinity, some communist militants worked to reconstitute the party: in addition to Kotane, among them there were men and women who would have played a decisive role in the fight against apartheid , such as Joe Slovo, Ruth First and Bram Fischer; the result of this activity was the constitution, in 1953, of theSouth African Communist Party (SACP) with Yusuf Dadoo - son of Indian immigrants, party member since 1939 with solid international relations, in particular with the Indian National Congress (INC) - as president and Kotane secretary.

1953 during which the Colored People's Organization (SACPO), later renamed Colored People's Congress , was founded, also thanks to the initiative of SACP militants such as the writer Alex La Guma (son of James) , in order to mobilize non-whites against the erosion of their right to vote; the same year the Congress of Democrats (COD) was formed , a small but influential group consisting mainly of white Communists. In the trade union field, anti-communist legislation and conservative leanings regarding organization on a non-racial basis led to the exit of white unions from the South African Trades and Labor Council in 1954(SATLC); the other organisms making up the latter, mixed and hegemonized by the SACP, formed the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) the following year . The organizations mentioned, together with the ANC and the SAIC, met in 1955 in the Congress of the People , giving life to the Congress Alliance and adopting the Freedom Charter as a programmatic manifesto, an inevitably generic document, but still relevant as the result of cooperation between forces heterogeneous. It obviously called for the elimination of all “ apartheid laws and practices", Equal rights in terms of voting and eligibility regardless of race, color and sex" and, among other things: the "transfer to the people as a whole of mining wealth, banks and industry", the end of "Racial restrictions on land ownership" and its "redistribution" among those who worked it, "free, compulsory and universal education", housing policies to guarantee the right to housing and "free care".

All this would have led in 1956 to more than a hundred arrests and to a trial for treason - which ended in 1961 with the acquittal of the accused - against, as well as Mandela, other members of the ANC and the SACP, such as Lilian Ngoyi, Walter Sisulu , Moses Kotane, Joe Slovo and Ruth First; in the course of the trial the prosecution defined the Freedom Charter as communist, accusing the accused of conspiring to overthrow the South African government and foment the conflict between whites and blacks [5].

THE PASSAGE TO THE ARMY STRUGGLE, THE SUPPORT OF THE USSR AND CHINA

In 1959, as a result of an internal break in the ANC, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) was founded , close to the ideas of the former communist militant, who became an important theorist of pan-Africanism, Geoge Padmore; the movement intended the national liberation of Africans as a process independently managed by the latter and this, in the South African case, translated into a harsh criticism of the ANC's alliance policy. Just on the occasion of a dispute against the passesorganized in 1960 by the PAC in Sharpeville, not far from Johannesburg, the police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding over 180; to the massive protests following the massacre, also severely suppressed, the Pretoria regime reacted with a state of emergency and a ban by the ANC and the PAC. The following year, with a referendum passage, the government converted the Union into a Republic, abandoning the Commonwealth following the criticisms of apartheid made by its African members supported by Canada and India. 1961, in the context of repression following Sharpeville, also marked the abandonment, sponsored for the ANC first of all by Mandela and, for the SACP, by Michael Harmel, of non-violence as an almost exclusive instrument of struggle; in particular Harmel, in his documentSouth Africa What's Next? , considered the absolutization of this principle "futile" and even "insidious" in that phase of the country's history. The new political line, overcoming the internal resistances of the ANC, especially of President Albert Lutuli, and of the SACP, primarily Kotane, materialized with the constitution of Umkhonto we Sizwe(MK), whose command included Sisulu, Slovo and Mandela; according to the latter, the fledgling formation opted - excluding, both for practical reasons and for possible negative consequences, the open revolution, guerrilla warfare and terrorism - for sabotage. In December 1961, in ways aimed at minimizing the possibility of civilian casualties, a series of bombs exploded in government offices and infrastructures, in conjunction with a propaganda campaign to publicize the formation of MK.

In 1962 the ANC, also via a tourof Mandela, established links with governments and movements of the continent: from Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana to Ethiopia, passing through Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Guinea, Liberia and Tanganyika, some of which would later provide training for MK; China and the USSR also contributed to the training of recruits sent by the SACP, in training camps located near Nanjing and Odessa, the Soviet Union which also supported a number of movements - such as the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the Union People's African People of Zimbabwe (ZAPU) and the People's Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA) - allies of the ANC. On the other hand, the United States, despite the Kennedy administration's rhetoric on human rights and a flimsy embargo on military supplies to the South African government, opposed, like Britain, to any imposition of sanctions against Pretoria, due to the considerable economic and strategic interests of US imperialism in the country and in Africa in general, also expressed by the close relationship between the respective secret services. The CIA was probably no stranger, in August 1962, to the arrest of Mandela, who the following year was co-accused, along with nine other ANC and SACP militants, in the so-called Rivonia Trial, with charges ranging from sabotage to violation of theSupression of Communism Act , passing through the conspiracy aimed at fomenting a violent revolution; in the team of lawyers was Bram Fischer, who was given some credit for taking the accused, eight of whom sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, to the death penalty. Fischer - a staunch communist and staunch opponent of apartheid , despite being a member of a well-known Afrikaner family and which, according to Mandela, could have aspired to the office of prime minister - after a brief hiding was also sentenced to life imprisonment, dying in 1975 a few months after his release from prison due to serious conditions of health.

In 1963, JB Marx and Joe Slovo left South Africa, the latter did not return for nearly three decades, while Ruth First, who left the following year, and whose engagement would have intertwined academic and political activity between England and numerous countries Africans, was murdered in Maputo in 1982 by an agent of the South African regime. In 1969, partly due to the harsh criticism of Chris Hani, a rising militant of the SACP and MK, of the failed joint operation MK-ZIPRA ( Zimbabwean People's Revolutionary Army) aiming to establish a base in Rhodesia and thereby create a corridor for South Africa, the ANC called a conference in Morogoro in Tanzania. Among the decisions taken there - in addition to the opening of the ANC, limited to its external mission, to whites and Indians - the creation of a Revolutionary Council, aimed at preparing and executing MK operations, with a strong communist presence; nevertheless, the transition from the 1960s to the 1970s was characterized by difficulties in establishing a presence both in South Africa and in the surrounding countries, as well as by tensions with hitherto hospitable ones such as Zambia and Tanzania. Years in which moreover new subjects emerged within South Africa, such as the Black Consciusness Movement(BCM) which, following the need for political autonomy advocated by the pan-Africanist PAC in the emancipation of blacks, accompanied - on the basis of Fanon, Black Power USA and Malcolm X - the insistence on overcoming the psychological and cultural factors of oppression. Perspective to which the students were referring, which would also be joined by many workers, protagonists of the Soweto Uprising which began in 1976 and bloodily repressed by the Pretoria regime, also responsible the following year for the death in detention of Stephen Biko, a leading exponent BCM plan [6].

THE CUBA INTERVENTION AND THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE APARTHEID

1974, with the fall of Caetano in Portugal, paved the way for the rise of MPLA in Angola, opposed by Washington and South Africa through the support of Jonas Savimbi's National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) , as well as the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), also backed by Mobutu's Zaire. The movement led by Agostinho Neto, on the other hand, could count on the decisive military support of Cuba which, materialized between November 1975 and April 1976, helped to stop the advance of Pretoria - which, in October 1975, had invaded the former Portuguese colony - and US interference. The independence of the other Portuguese colony, Mozambique, the difficulties in Namibia, due to the guerrillas of the People's Organization of South West Africa (SWAPO),apartheid of many hitherto sympathetic neighbors; instead bringing to power or strengthening movements on good terms with the ANC and the SACP and therefore with MK, whose main training camp, Novo Catengue, would find its headquarters in Angola with Cuban and Soviet instructors. Furthermore, in 1978, a delegation led by the ANC president Oliver Tambo and including, in addition to the commander of MK Joe Modise, also Joe Slovo, arrived in Vietnam having the opportunity to consult with General Giáp ; the enhancement promoted by the latter of the political aspect of the operations, favored over their exclusively military success, had a certain influence on the reworking of the MK strategy, summarized in the so-called Green Paper, largely the work of Slovo.

From 1980 MK therefore carried out a series of attacks - planned by the Special Operations Unit, an entity conceived by Tambo and Slovo, in fact under the leadership of the latter - with whom it went to hit targets within the South African territory, thus demonstrating its recovered ability to operate within the country. Pretoria's reaction, in addition to a campaign, also amplified by the US press, aimed at portraying the raids as the work of a terrorist group dominated by white communists, materialized with the killing in Mozambique carried out by South African commandos of numerous MK paintings, in addition to frequent infiltrations, the result of heavy aftermath, among the ranks and even at the top of the armed wing of the ANC. In this context, in 1983, MK units commanded by Chris Hani among others assisted, albeit with mixed success, the MPLA against a series of attacks by UNITA, which continued to enjoy the support of the US Congress; the same assembly, in 1986, would have decided to override Reagan's veto on sanctions against South Africa which, moreover, could count on Israel's continued violation of the arms embargo imposed on it by the UN in 1977.

The first half of the Eighties was a troubled period for the apartheid regime also in domestic politics, in particular the two-year period 1984-85 was characterized by numerous strikes - especially those of black miners - frequent clashes with the police in the urban as well as rural areas, boycotts of schools and transport. The government's brutal repression, while putting it in a bad light internationally, did not deter Margareth Thatcher from trying to prevent concrete action against apartheid by Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries.

South Africa continuing its dirty war against its unwanted neighbors Angola, Botswana and, as it emerged in 1986, in open violation of the Nkomati agreement with which it had pledged not to operate in the former Portuguese colony, Mozambique ruled by FRELIMO under the leadership of Samora Machel, against whom Pretoria supported the self-styled Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). That same year, Joe Slovo took over as party secretary, replaced at the top of MK by Chris Hani. But the fate of the apartheid regimethey decided once again in Angola, the scene of a battle, between 1987 and 1988, during which MPLA forces besieged at Cuito Cuanavale managed, with the decisive contribution of Cuba, to contain the joint forces of UNITA and South Africa. Although the outcome of the military operations is the subject of debate, the consequences clearly constituted a political-symbolic defeat for Pretoria, summarized as follows by Mandela: "it destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor [...] South Africa […] Cuito Cuanavale was the turning point for the liberation of our continent - and of my people - from the scourge of apartheid"; in practice, South Africa withdrew completely and definitively from Angola, also losing the de facto control hitherto exercised in Namibia, which reached independence in 1990.

The apartheid regime by now increasingly isolated internationally, as well as unable to put an end to internal tensions - in 1987, despite the state of emergency in force since the previous year, 250,000 black miners were on strike for three weeks - was forced to first contacts with ANC leaders in prison or in exile; between the second half of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the laws constituting the formal framework of segregation, such as the Population Registration Act , were repealed and in 1990 the ban against the ANC and the SACP fell [7].

1) https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/07/obit ... at-68.html ; https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/opin ... -club.html ; https://twitter.com/OttobreInfo/status/ ... 3829847040 ; https://time.com/5338569/nelson-mandela-terror-list/ ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7484517.stm ; https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-commu ... 1386963879 ; https://ottobre.info/2020/07/16/afroame ... -rassegna/ .

2) Hosea Jaffe, South Africa. Political History , Jaca Book, 2010, pp. 39, 41-73; Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa , Yale University Press, 2001, pp. xix, 33, 45, 51-52, 54-55, 112-113, 117-132; Charles H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa. Conquest, Discrimination and Development , Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 14-16, 97; J. Vansina, Les Mouvements de populations et l'émergence de nouvelles formes sociopolitiques en Afrique , in Histoire generale de l'Afrique , vol. V, Éditions UNESCO, 1999, pp. 76-77, 83, 92, 1088; Ngwabi Bhebe, Les Britannique, les Boers et les Africaines en Afrique du Sud , 1850-1880, in Histoire Generale de l'Afrique, vol VI, Éditions UNESCO, 1996, pp. 173-209; THR Davenport and Christopher Saunders, South Africa. A modern History , Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, pp. 240-242, 270-273; Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa , Verso, 2018, pp. 179-182.

3) Thompson, 2001, pp. 149-153, 159-160, 174-177; Davenport and Saunders, 2000, pp. 262-264, 275-276, 283; Jaffe, 2010, pp. 208-209; Wessel Pretorius Visser, The Star in the East: South African Socialist Expetations and Responses to the Outbreak of the Russian Revolution , in South African Historical Journal 44, May 2001, pp. 40-71; https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/ch ... -1918-1921 ; https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/19 ... ers-strike ; https://www.marxists.org/history/intern ... native.htm ; Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova, Valentin Gorodnov, Sheridan Johnes (edited by),South Africa and the Communist International. A documentary History , Vol. I, Frank Cass Publishers, 2003, pp. 80-83; https://www.marxists.org/history/intern ... ifesto.htm ; Jeremy Krikler, White Rising. The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa , Manchester University Press, 2005, pp. 109-110, 130-150; Steven G. Marks, "Workers of the World Fight and Unite for a White South Africa": The Rand Revolt, the Red Scare, and the Roots of Apartheid " , in The Global Impacts of Russia's Great War and Revolutions , Book 2, Part 1, The Wider Arc of Revolution (Bloomington, Slavica, 2019), pp. 195-226.

4) Stephen Ellis and Tsepo Sechaba, Comrades Against Apartheid. The ANC and the South African Communist Party in Exile , Indiana University Press, 1992, pp. 15-20; Allison Drew, Bolshevizing Communist Parties: The Algerian and Sout African Experiences , in International Review of Social History 48, 2003, pp. 189-193; Oleksa Drachewych, The communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions , Routledge, 2019, pp. 75-97; Davidson, Filatova, Gorodnov, Johnes (eds), 2003, p. 12; brief biographical portraits of the above blacks can be found at militants https://www.sahistory.org.za/ ;https://www.marxists.org/history/intern ... unists.htm ; Akim Hadi, Pan-Africanism. A History , Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 67-71; https://www.marxists.org/history/intern ... intern.htm ; Allison Drew, Betwen Empire and Revolution: A life of Sidney Bunting , 1873-1936, Pickering & Chatto, 2007, pp. 149-165; https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/do ... -july-1928 ; Thompson, 2001, p. 166; Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu, Johannes Nkosi and the Communist Party of South Africa: Images of "Blood River" and King Dingane in the Late 1920s-1930 , inHistory and Theory , Vol. 39, No. 4, 2000, pp. 111-132.

5) Ellis and Sechaba, 1992, p. 21-28; Cherryl Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa , Monthly Review Press, 1991, pp. 97-100, 153-235; Peter Alexander, Workers, War and the origins of Apartheid. Labor and Politics in South Africa 1939-48 , Ohio University Press, 2000, p. 41; Thompson, 2001, pp. 187-191; Silvia C. Turrin, The Black Awareness Movement in South Africa. From the origins to the legacy of Stephen Biko , Erga Edizioni, 2011, pp. 32-47; Claude Meillassoux, The last whites. The South African model , Liguori editore, 1982, pp. 16-17; T. Dunbar Moodie, The moral Econmy of the Black Miners'Strike of 1946 , in Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, October 1986, pp. 1-35; Nelson Mandela, Long Path to Freedom. Autobiography , Feltrinelli, 2004, pp. 105-106, 113, 118-123, 129-134; http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/johns_fall07/ ; Alan Wieder, Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid , Monthly Review Press, 2013, pp. 65-68, 92-93; Arianna Lissoni, Yusuf Dadoo, India and South Africa's Liberation Struggle , in Anna Konieczna and Rob Skinner (eds), A Global History of Anti-Apartheid. “Forward to freedom” in South Africa , Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, p. 203-238; https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/so ... tion-sacpo ;https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/so ... ocrats-cod ; https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/so ... ions-sactu ; William Freund, Organized Labor In South Africa: History and Democratic Transition , in Jon Kraus (ed.), Trade Unions and the Coming of Democracy in Africa , Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, p. 206; http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/ ... 1-jpeg.pdf ; Helen Joseph, If This Be Treason , Andre Deutsch, 1963, pp. 13-20.

6) Turrin, 2011, pp. 70-76, 80-92, 140-141, 182-196; https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/fu ... ary-1959-0 ; Thompson, 2001, pp. 188, 209-210; Stephen R. Davis, The ANC's War Against Apartheid. Umkhonto We Sizwe and the Liberation of South Africa , Indiana University Press, 2018, pp. 4-14; Wieder, 2013, pp. 119-120, 127, 142-143, 250-253; Thula Simpson, Umkhonto We Sizwe: The ANC's Armed Struggle , 2016, Penguin House Randome https://books.google.it/books?id=6gxbDw ... &q&f=false ; https://academic.oup.com/past/article/245/1/221/5580560; Mandela, 2004, pp. 95, 273; Stephen Elllis, External Mission. The ANC in Exile, 1960-1990 , Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 32; Alex Thomson, US Foreign Policy Towards Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1994 , Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp 34-45; Joel Joffe, The State vs. Nelson Mandela. The Trial that Changed South Africa , Onewolrd, 2007, pp. 41-42, 254, 272-278; https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/abram-bram-fischer .

7) Piero Gleijeses, Conflitting Missions. Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976 , University of North carolina Press, 2002, pp. 246-346; Piero Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom. Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 , University of North Carolina Press, 2013, pp. 87-89, 186, 237-238, 289-296, 393-502; Wieder, 2013, pp. 217-220, 231-239, 286-287; Davis, 2018, pp. 17-19; Thompson, 2001, pp. 228-230, 232,239; 246-247.

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