Whither Africa Now?

[XXPANTHAXX]

Let me get a few things off my chest...

Just a little more than a year before the Sirte, Libya decision to
create the African Union 9/9/99, the African states gave complete
control of the African Development Bank, a bank that Nkrumah look to
provide capital for Africa, WITHOUT western interference and criminal
connivance, to these very same western financial and commercial entities.
I quote from the UN's Africa Recovery site:
African governments are looking for at least a $3 bn replenishment of
the African Development Bank's soft-loan fund in negotiations with
financing institutions. This follows tortuous negotiations at the
ADB's 27-29 May annual meeting in Abidjan of a 35 per cent capital
increase (about $7 bn) for the bank and new voting rules on its board
favouring the non-regional (predominantly Western) shareholders. After
late objections from Nigeria and Libya had been overcome, the
non-regionals backed the capital increase, took an extra 7 per cent
stake in the bank and won a veto on executive board decisions.
…
There is also the increasing tendency for bilateral aid to be
targeted to promoting private sector initiatives -- even in
infrastructure projects in such areas as telecommunications and
electric power generation. "Donors will ask what value-added does the
African fund contribute," one non-regional official argued.
Another said it is too early to comment on non-regional support for a
$3 bn replenishment. The agreement on the bank's capital increase and
new voting procedures signals a "new stage in the partnership" between
the non-regional shareholders and African governments. He added that
while the core governance issues at the ADB and ADF had been
addressed, negotiations would focus on the operational efficiency of
the ADF, its effectiveness in reducing poverty, and its ability to
promote gender and environmental criteria in the projects it supports.

From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#1 (August 1998), page 13
African bank secures more funds
Non-Africans get veto power; soft-loan facility back in action
By Patrick Smith* in Abidjan
* Editor of Africa Confidential, based in London.
African bank secures more funds

Given such rank capitulation by Africa on such a vital issue, the
finances, economic development and general independence of Africa, is
there any wonder that the western power believe they can overthrow any
African state they choose? Zimbabwe, Sudan, Libya…all of Africa
indeed, is fair game for poaching as far as the western powers are
concerned..

Look at the recent news from southern Africa for example. There is
increasing financial and economic pressure being put on South Africa.
Now, South Africa is already a neo-colonial state. The overwhelming
majority of Africans are still deeply impoverished, there are still
many of the actual freedom fighters, from both Umkhonto we Sizwe (ANC)
and especially AZNLA fighters (that is PAC's military wing), still
languishing in prisons, while the criminals who ran and financed the
settler state are still free to reap "hugemongus", obscene profits.
This is thinly disguised by terms such as second and first tier
economy. But we all know the deal, the racists, imperialists, get
richer and more powerful, and the people grow poorer and poorer, and
even more politically impotent because of the haze and tom-foolery of
so-called universal suffrage.

Nevertheless, the South African financial sector is reeling the key
banks such as Standard have bemoaned the negative climate as recently
as within the last few hours..

"South African financial services firm Sanlam expects to report a
20-25 percent drop in first-half headline earnings per share due to
volatile debt and equity markets, it said on Tuesday, hitting its shares.
"The company said in a statement normalised headline EPS for the six
months to end-June were expected to be between 55 and 60 percent
lower, adding it was particularly hard hit because it was overweight
in poorly performing financial and industrial stocks.
"Sanlam said it expected its core earnings for the period to be
slightly higher than in the corresponding period in 2007.
"Sanlam shares were trading down 2.74 percent at 17.40 at 1436 GMT,
underperforming the Johannesburg Top-40 index, which was down 2.03
percent at 24,220.51 points.
"The group said in April volatile markets had hit its business and
said on Tuesday those conditions had continued in May and June. The
company previously warned 2008 would be tough as higher interest
rates, inflation, a power supply crunch and market volatility took
their toll.
"South Africa's central bank has raised interest rates by 500 basis
points since June 2006 in a bid to deal with inflation.
"Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank all warned of rising bad debts and
slower business in their retail units when they recently released
their interim results."
Sanlam will release its results on Sept. 4. (Reporting by Serena
Chaudhry, editing by Will Waterman)
"Sanlam sees H1 headline EPS down 20-25 pct"
Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk

What's more there is new pressure on the rand relative to the dollar
and other currencies, as commodity prices, particularly gold and
platinum are manipulated down. So, what is billed as Africa's leading
economy is heading further and further into problems.

And the Fishmongers Group is doing their level best to continue
applying the pressure on Zimbabwe. Having suffered a serious setback
by the defection of the smaller of the two MDC factions, led by Mr.
Arthur Mutumbara's ,who signed an agreement with the ZANU-PF
government, the west has all its mouthpieces in London, the US, Africa
and elsewhere, warning that without the western bailout Zimbabwe is
doomed, and that it cannot get the bailout without the dismantling of
the ZANU-PF elected government.
As one UK rag put it:

"The EU, including Britain, is ready with a multi-billion-pound rescue
plan, but the funding will only be forthcoming if Mr Tsvangirai takes
a leading role in running Zimbabwe and the chances of that are
diminishing by the day."
Mugabe Clings To Political Power
Sky News UK
Emma Hurd, Africa correspondent
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wor...haring%2BTalks



Another mouthpiece of the UK put it this way:

"A deal acceptable to international donors could usher in some $1.5
billion in aid and ease political risk across the region, boosting the
rand and prompting a re-rating of South African equities, particularly
those with Zimbabwe exposure."
…
"The barriers to investment in Zimbabwe are huge: the banking system
is in disarray, power shortages are acute and hyper inflation would
have to be tamed.
A World Bank report ranks Zimbabwe in 152nd place of 178 countries for
ease of doing business, and analysts urge caution until the terms of a
deal and Mugabe's role in it are clear.

"If there is a coalition controlled by Mugabe then it means donors are
financing his crazy economic policies," Moeletsi Mbeki of the South
African Institute of International Affairs, said. "There will be no
economic rescue." "

S.African firms set to cash in on post-Mugabe deals By Rebecca
Harrison (Additional reporting by Phakamisa Ndzamela and Serena
Chaudhry; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk

All this in despite of the fact that the agreement between the smaller
MDC group and the government represents the majority of the as yet to
be convened parliament, and thus speak for the majority of Zimbabwe
people. You will note that there is now talk about the need to
convene the parliament.

So much for democracy, what it all means is that even with the adroit
diplomacy of Messr. Mugabe and Mbeki, the west still intends to screw
them. That is why the regional solution cannot work, even when they
do their level best to do a reasonably "right thing", they do not have
the clout to stand up to our adversaries.

However the west reaction should not surprise anyone given the fact
that they had Botswana boycott the whole SADC session.

The weaknesses of the regional approach pursued are very obvious … for
example the position of Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, southern
Africa is being compromised by the neo-colonial onslaught against the
ZANU-PF government. They have manipulated the Zimbabwe economy via
World Bank, IMF and their other financial institutions, their control
of the mining sector, agricultural sector, manufacturing, and other
industrial and commercial elements and now that they have crippled the
eagle's wing so it cannot fly as Malcolm X wrote in Zionist Logic,
they are "white-"mailing Africa. Get rid of Mugabe or face economic
disaster they say.

As I have said, so far, the team of Mbeki and Mugabe has managed to
exploit the split in MDC, very adroitly. But the chorus from the
Fishmonger press maintains the same position. Apparently a deal with
one faction of the MDC is not considered democratic enough, even
though, as we have said, as confirmed by the March election results,
which everyone including the larger MDC faction agreed was accurate,
the ZANU-PF and MDC spin off faction hold the majority in parliament.
So they have every right to convene parliament whatever the MDC
faction the west favors most agrees or not.
But again, when has the criminal, especially imperialism, which makes
most crimes look like playground shenanigans, cared about things like
that? They only wanted control of the wealth. And that is all. No
what Africa needs the necessary clout to beat these beast back into
the wilderness from whence they came.

For the necessary clout, as Nkrumah told Africa over and over again,
you need a Union Government, not a hat in the hand begging club of
confused and / or corrupted "leaders".

The formulation of a Union Government gives Africa the command,
control, communication and intelligence capabilities it needs to
respond to attacks, because that is what these things are, attacks on
African interest and more to the point the sovereignty of Africa, by
means picking off certain "unruly" countries, for unruly read, not
willing to obsequiously bow to western power and we know that Zimbabwe
is not the only target.

Isn't it time the leaders woke up to this? If they don't the people
will have no choice, but to shove them aside…we fervently hope that
some of the leadership on the continent will take note of how things
are going. And really do the right thing.

Further, Nkrumah was crystal; clear on economic development, we had to
do it quickly, we had to utilize industrial development to promote
agricultural development, we had to have structures in place to
acquire capital from outside sources while preventing the compromise
of African political power and independence, we must assimilate the
latest forms of science and technology, including nuclear power,
automation, cybernation and the like. But he constantly reminded us
that none of this could happen without the foundation of Union
Government. Yet the AU is still talking about gradualism, regionalism
via regional economic groupings, like SADC and the rest of that drivel.

Now we all recognize that economics are important. Many of our people
have prescribed economic solutions, for example in the diapora, alone,
we know that Booker T. Washington, Hon. Marcus Garvey and UNIA-ACL,
Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, Dr. King and SCLC's Poor
Peoples Campaign and the offshoot Operation Breadbasket – now evolved
(or devolved, depending on your perspective) into Push – Rainbow
Coalition…and numerous others have proffered economic solutions to our
situation.

Of course the overwhelming number of these programs, organizations,
movements, institutions and what not had only minimal, negligible
success and indeed those which that were most successful, were not
strictly speaking merely economic in their / its focus. For example
the UNIA-AC, Garvey movement, for instance put the establishment of an
all-African government as the prime preoccupation, as well as
political and other questions. The Nation of Islam, SCLC, both
addressed social, moral and directly or indirectly political issues.
Booker T. Washington also, as his main institutional base used the
black university model, Tuskegee, which is essentially his creation
and he emphasized more than industrial and related education, for
example there was a heavy emphasis on moral and spiritual matters as
well as physical fitness. .

That this is true does not surprise us one iota, as history makes it
abundantly clear that economic solutions alone are not sufficient and
indeed cannot stand on their own. Which is precisely why even
primarily economic efforts and movements, have to include non-economic
matters on their agenda.

Objectively speaking history agrees with Dr. Nkrumah, Seku Ture,
Omowale Malcolm X, Kwame Ture and countless others, who held that
economics is in reality a function of politics and not the other way
around. That is the political control of the land mass, the people,
the state, the physical institutions, and non physical ones, such as
the laws, is the basis of economic power. If you control the
politics, you can determine the fate of the land; you can dominate and
manipulate the people, you own the state, because you create and
sustain it, as long as you have the political power, that is, if you
control the politics you control the schools, the social welfare
system, legislation, morality and so forth. While it is true that
these things are often seen as economic phenomena, because that is
when most people become aware of it, when resources are taken from
them and used for purposes other than those which benefit the people
or the individual, it is in fact the political power that the thief
has which allows the theft to happen in the first place.

As Kwame Nkrumah wisely (and courageously I must add) observed:

"While we are assuring our stability by a common defence system, and
our economy is being orientated beyond foreign control by a common
currency, monetary zone and central bank of issue, we can investigate
the resources of our continent. We can begin to ascertain whether in
reality we are the richest, and not, as we have been taught to
believe, the poorest among the continents. We can determine whether we
possess the largest potential in hydroelectric power, and whether we
can harness it and other sources of energy to our own industries. We
can proceed to plan our industrialization on a continental scale, and
to build up a common market for nearly three hundred people."

" Common Continental Planning for the Industrial and Agricultural
Development of Africa is a vital necessity. "

"So many blessings flow from our unity, so many disasters must follow
our continued disunity, that our failure today will not be attributed
by posterity only to faulty reasoning and lack of courage, but to our
capitulation before the forces of neocolonialism and imperialism.

"The hour of history which has brought us to this assembly is a
revolutionary hour. It is a hour of decision. For the first time, the
economic imperialism which menaces us is itself challenged by THE
IRRESISTIBLE WILL OF OUR PEOPLE.

"The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity…"

"It is this popular determination that must move us on to a Union of
Independent African States…"

Address to the Conference of African Heads of State and Government,
May 24, 63 can be found at page 243 of the book Revolutionary Path

That was in 1963 at the very first meeting of the then fledging OAU.
But unfortunately there were too many stooges among the leadership to
see the logic in Nkrumah's reasoning.

Yet, in another millennium, another century, we still face this same
set of circumstances. Look at the majority of the AU – the successor
organization to the OAU, what has been their achievement to date on
the subject of Union Government? What has been their posture on the
matter? We all know the answer, constant procrastination, stalling,
hedging, hemming and hawing, filibustering, in short, to use a
legislative term, the issue is continually tabled, or if not tabled,
sent to a committee for further consideration from which
recommendations will be reported, but alas when these recommendations
are reported, what happens then? Why we start all over again…it is
nothing but the old Coussey Commission approach, make appear as if
there is progress being made but never quite getting down to the real
nitty-gritty. It was the last straw that broke the camels back – the
camel being the unity between the radical wing of the UGCC, led by
Nkrumah, who was by the way excluded from the Coussey Commission set
up by the British Colonial government, the only UGCC leader to be
excluded, in fact, and the reaction in the UGCC. This was the birth
of the mighty Convention Peoples Party (CPP),

As you know, the CPP went on the offensive, against both the Coussey
Commission and the UGCC…and the people of Ghana, led by their Party,
won the independence .they sought and fought for.

As we also know, the real goal of the Nkrumah led movement was not too
form a small enclave on the west coast of Africa but to serve as a
base for the liberation of Africa. Now, given everything, the people
of Ghana and the Ghanaian state of the era, did a remarkable service
for the entire African world, and indeed the world in general.

But the reaction in Africa, ranging from more sophisticated types such
as Nyerere to Senghor to the overt button men such as the Tshombes and
Mobutus made the real goal impossible. Today there are still such
people occupying official seats of power in Africa. Clearly, as long
as they are in the way Africa, nor Africans any where in the world,
will make any progress.

For example the AU's emphasis on NEPAD is misplaced and inappropriate,
and what's more it makes it less likely that Africa will be able to
establish good trade, that is beneficial for Africans, relations with
the former colonial powers, who are in fact now the neo-colonial powers.

Instead of following Nkrumah's advice, you know fight neo-colonialism,
so you can keep your independence, they – a large chunk of the leaders
of the AU-- have too often run to the neo-colonialist asking, begging
even, for some small token, some measly crumb, that they could use to
show that indeed the ex-colonials are now friends. The whole process
is just a disastrous sham.

Now, what can we learn from that?

It would be better if they were man and woman enough to go it alone
and build up the internal capacity of the continent, trade and
otherwise deal with elements not as anxious to stick it to Africans,
such as they are doing with China and to some extent others, and then,
with whatever institutional power they can create internally and with
less predatory trading powers offer the predators a deal formulated by
and for the interest of Africa.

-RWalker