West's Bid to Dominate Africa

Libyan revolutionary Muammar Gaddafi and his supporters demonstrate their animosity toward the US imperialist-led war against this North African oil-rich state. Libya fought for eight months in defense of their country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

West Africa last straw for Western dominance

By William Festus
Sat Feb 2, 2013 10:16AM GMT

Africa is a land flowing with milk and honey because from the Horn to West, East, Central and South there are various mineral resources such as steel, metal, copper, iron ore, gold, diamond etc.

There are also marine, aquatic and wild lives, abundant produces such as cocoa, coffee, tea rubber, palm oil and other agricultural seeds, some of which are suitable for bio-fuel (not crude oil and gas) and of course crude oil and gas (reasons for Western terrorism in the Middle East).

The resources in Africa are consumed in other continents of the world from Asia, Middle and Far East. And Western Europe is the only exploiting continent using educational scholarship as barter trades in the 1960s hence creating mass exodus of mainly West Africans into Europe and the US such that was never seen since days of slavery.

The African continent, particularly West Africa, has used meager income received from its resources sold to Western European buyers to fund scholarship for its citizens to gain Western qualification. In the 1970s some of those migrants who could not stand high level of daily social injustices and oppression (racism, prejudice etc.) while living with their host countries, decided to return without completing their studies.

They came back with personal effects hence Western luxury goods replaced their qualification and snowball effect was soaring demands for Western education as households wanted to own Western goods.

There are those individuals from poor background in West Africa whose families sold all they had to privately sponsor a family member, but on arrival in the West they got carried away with the Western way of lives hence becoming permanent sojourner in the West until today with no qualification and living in abject poverty.

The increased demands of Western education in West Africa were made worst by the increased demand of Western qualifications in both public and private organizations all over Africa. Also the demand for Western goods increased alarmingly because owning Western goods became an indication of individual Western connection amongst Africans hence enhancing social status.

However, 1980s became an era where there was excessive increase of investment into foreign housing, property portfolios including luxury goods such as private airplanes and expensive vehicles by many West African leaders through to civil servants as well as rich individuals, hence their country suffered decline in foreign reserves and an increase in ‘I owe you’ (IOU) to bridge the gap.

The snowball effect of many IOUs led to borrowing from the IMF and the World Bank to service those debts and close the gap in foreign reserves, but instead of the situation improving, it became worst because of misappropriation of public funds leading to increased poverty, hence the inception of economic migrations into the West.

The IMF and the World Bank pile pressure on some West African leaders to put ‘their house in order.’ In other words, they (leaders) should stop misappropriating public funds hence austerity measures were forced on West African countries by the IMF and the World Bank with little or no effect because poverty and civil disobedience increased.

West African countries have endured years of Western slavery and colonialism and even after gaining independence most countries in West Africa adopted Western lifestyle that was too expensive to maintain, thereby deepening most of them into negative balance of trade, increased national debt and permanent recession.

These have created resentment of Western domination, because it does not guarantee better economic, social and technological advancement for their generations and their resentment started with civil unrest and wars in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria (Boko Haram), and most recent being Mali.

It is right to mention a similar situation in the Horn of Africa like Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, popularly known as awakening. Though the initial demand was political change but the resentment is really against Western dominance and the support of those leaders as well as the lack of economic plans that will guarantee better financial future for the people.

Western dominance has been a cause for concern within the African continent since 1960 because of their (West) involvement in the internal affairs of many African countries; such as dictating which ruler or leader is right or wrong for nations in the continent (political interferences).

They (West) also impose their will on the ways African nation’s economy should be managed such as exchange rate mechanism, national budget planning and fiscal policy and any resistance is met with propaganda and lies followed by sanction and embargoes (withdrawal of aids).

Ordinary people in many nations in the African continent, particularly West Africa, embed these beliefs, “West Africa has partial political freedom and no economic, social and technological freedom,” and such embedment has become a fertile ground for anti-Western seed planting.

Western support enjoyed by some African leaders particularly in West Africa, because they aligned their nations with Western demands, includes personal financial investment within the Western banking system while the nations they govern are in abject poverty.

However, when those leaders turn their back on their masters (West), the Western propaganda machine steps in to expose those leaders and they (West) will incite some of those leaders’ followers to break ranks, thereby creating civil unrest and sometimes civil war and such conflict will give the West an opportunity to do what they are good at doing (asset freezing).

The facts and evidence as they unfold during the conflicts or unrest usually form social conversation in cafes, bars and family gatherings amongst individuals in West African cities, towns and villages hence seeds of resentment are sown in the mind of those individuals.

These individuals are angry because they (West) support those leaders to loot national wealth using Western banking systems to hide the loots but only expose them after such leaders fall out of grace with them (West) and the wealth is never returned to the country of origin hence creating permanent economic recessions.

The political conflict and economic instability happening in many African countries since 1960 until now was a Western ploy to keep the continent busy because Pan-Africans of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah did not see the light of day and former Organization of African Unity (OAU) dealt with conflict resolution more than economic issues before renaming itself as African Union (new wine in old wine skin).

Since 1960 the West uses its propaganda machine to stigmatize all the continent apart from Europe and of course the US; the Asian continent through ‘war on communism,’ the Western Asia/Middle East continent through ‘war on terrorism’ and the African continent ‘unfit to govern itself and in need of AIDS.’

African leaders that refuse to align with their (West) demands in order to prove them (West) wrong that Africa can indeed govern itself well are bound for deposition by all means and they (West) will incite in-fighting in such a way that leads to breaking ranks and possibly civil war.

The West will employ its propaganda machine to spread lies against such leaders calling them dictators and war criminals particularly where such leaders want to stop some individuals from becoming Western saboteurs.

The African continent since 1960s has been ruled in the north by self-imposed family dynasty (one party rule) supported by the West, the south was under apartheids for a long time, the west was plundered into civil wars, conflict and corruption, while some parts of the east were the Western haven for holidays and relaxation and the other parts plunged deeper into sectarianism (Sudan and Somalia).

Western dominance is now openly making its way into West Africa, but not as the war against Communism as the case with the Asian continent neither as the war against terrorism as the case with the Western Asia/Middle East. But they (West) are desperate to give it a name, hence why France is used to kick the ball rolling in Mali.

North Africa has awakening to defeat self-imposed leaders, South Africa has people power to defeat apartheids. Dividing Sudan in East Africa into north and south has limited the presence of any strong resistance to the coast of Somalia and I am sure the US invasion of Somalis says it all, and now desperate to settle old fight with Mali in West Africa, France fighting the Tuaregs seems a perfect start.

Escalating the conflict with Malian Tuaregs will trigger other ‘Tuaregs’ in Niger, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Libya (already volatile) and Chad to join because of their loyalty culture and other tribes in West Africa who have been nurturing anti-Western values (dominance, hegemony) may seize the opportunity to rise.

The resistance in West Africa will be a fierce, bloody territorial guerilla warfare and mark the end of the Western dominance, because the level of resentment of the Western values and way of life is ripe, waiting to burst and the conflict with the Tuaregs of Mali is bound to be the start of a long war (waiting for the West to give it a name).