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Africa now contested sphere of influence

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By Elizabeth Sitotombe 

WESTERN imperialism is failing in Africa. 

Countries in Africa have started standing up to the world’s bullies.

Uncle Sam and the West have plunged into recession and never has Africa looked this inviting to them.

Desperately, albeit stealthily, they have turned to Africa hoping to again loot the natural wealth the vast continent holds.

But how to do so is now tricky when Africa has adopted the ‘Look East’ policy.

And one cannot deny that the relationship between Africa and Russia as well as China has unsettled Uncle Sam and the West. 

The two giants have reshaped global politics, rendering Uncle Sam and the West powerless in the face of so many unexpected changes and challenges.

Africa’s mineral wealth has made it a target for destabilisation by imperialists. And with a manipulative foreign policy, the US has been trying to ‘whip errant African countries into line’.

Uncle Sam released  a document  stressing the importance of the threats posed by China and Russia while vowing to extend “…defence co-operation with like minded African countries.”

With that in mind, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, embarked on a tour that turned out to be unpleasant and not so fruitful.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, speaks while outlining US strategy toward China at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. US, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. Blinken used his remarks to explain existing policies rather than unveil any bold new direction that includes a strategy of investing in democracy and innovation at home. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg

It just did not turn out as Blinken expected.

The well known warmonger visited South Africa,  Rwanda and the DRC. 

Last year the visits were to Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal. 

The appointment of Blinken by President Joseph Biden’s administration itself has been a threat to those who are against Uncle Sam’s interests. 

Writing in November 2020 after it had emerged that Biden would appoint Blinken as Secretary of State, senior research fellow at Global Policy Institute (London) and author of Bombs for Peace: NATO’s Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia, George Szamuely said the Biden administration would embark on bombing other nations and pursuing illegal regime changes.

“A US foreign policy run by Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the likely next Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, will mean more global interventions and regime-change operations, Clinton and Obama style,” says Szamuely.

“Blinken played a prominent foreign policy role in both the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, while Sullivan was part of the Obama one.”

According to the document released in line with the 2022 US National Defense Strategy,  the Pentagon would engage African partners to expose and highlight the risks of negative China and Russian activities in Africa. 

“We will leverage civil defense institutions and expand defense cooperation with strategic partners that share our values and our will to foster global peace and stability, we will also review and reinvest in ways to engage with African militaries, especially in programs that help build institutional capacity, combat corruption and advance reforms. Effective, legitimate and accountable militaries and other security forces are essential to support open, democratic, and resilient societies and to counter destabilising threats, including in Africa.” reads part of the document. 

Furthermore, US allies and partners in Europe, the Middle East  and the Indo-Pacific considered Africa integral to their national security and were committed to working with Washington. 

According to Uncle Sam, China saw the region as an important arena to challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness as well as weaken US relations with African peoples and governments. 

Ironically, Uncle Sam is well known for creating fake scenarios of strife and instability in targeted countries, creating a fertile environement for resource looting while the indigens are left to pick up the pieces. 

When the US and its allies attacked Iraq, thousands of civilians were killed with impunity. 

Similarly Vietnam, Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe  and many others have been sanctioned by the US for having rich minerals and resources that Uncle Sam covets.

But unashamedly and desperately Uncle Sam begs and diplomatically demands that Africa cuts ties with other countries, namely Russia and China. 

But those same countries have never asked any African nation to cut ties with the US,.

The US Secretary of State, Blinken, accused powerful Western nations of making moves to destabilise Africa in order to promote their mineral interests. On his visit to South Africa,  Blinken wanted to do nothing but talk about democracy and interference  by Russia and China in Africa.

Blinken said: “If we allow a big country to bully a smaller one, to simply invade it and take its territory then it’s going to be open season.” 

The irony of this statement was completely lost on Blinken.

But the Minister of International Relations in South Africa, Naledi Pandor, would have none of this hypocrisy.

She was quick to put Blinken in his place: “Countries are free to establish relationships with other countries, we can’t be made party to conflict between China the United States of America and l may say that causes instability for all of us because it affects the global economic system. 

You just can’t come in and claim to lecture about democracy. Foreign interference has created instability, including funding opposition groups against liberation fighters.”

Rwanda would also put Blinken in his place, diplomatically urging him to avoid putting his nose where it did not belong.

This is exactly what Zimbabwe has always been opposing — the blatant interference in sovereign nations’ affairs by the West. 

The US  has poured in millions of dollars into the country’s opposition in a bid to effect regime change. 

And they have failed dismally over the years. 

Our friends in Zambia have taken a stance in going to bed with Uncle Sam; it is only a matter of time before they cry foul.

If the events in the Ukraine are anything to go by, then the comedian Volodymyr Zelensky’s dream has just turned into a nightmare. 

The Ukrainian President is nursing his wounds with a mountain of debt on his back. America created the perfect debt trap for Zelensky.

Ukraine is now one of the World Bank (IMF)’s largest borrowers.

In 2014, Ukraine borrowed US$17 billion from the IMF. In return they had to lift the ban on private sector land ownership in country. Since then, Monsato, BlackRock and Vanguard have purchased over 20 million hectares or 70 percent of all Ukraine farmland.

This is a lesson that Nelson Chamisa should learn before we lose what our freedom fighters lost their lives for — our land and our sovereignty. 

 Libyan rebels who ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi have had to suffer in silence after being dumped once they had served their purpose to Uncle Sam. 

Africa is not asking for much except to be treated with dignity and be left alone to shape its own destiny without being partenalised by external forces.

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