A New War in Africa?

First Libya, next Sahel

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Africa? A Proxy War?

Is the next major proxy war in Africa?   American soldiers have already died in Niger, the result of operational and command incompetence with the full story only coming out now six years later.  A lot is  still “redacted”.  After all, they were only four, right?

Right now, the Western Media sees Niger as the trigger for killing on a bigger scale -- following a coup that deposed a not very popular Western and neocolonialist-oriented President in favor of a Sino-Russian friendly regime, like that in the neighboring states of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. Russian flags are everywhere. And we can’t have that, can we? 

 Ukraine was getting boring. Syria?  Same old, same old.   But never fear there will be a Season 2. The Writers are working on it.

The Coup clearly alarms the White House.  Biden wanted to know where Africa was.  Anthony Blinken blinked.   

Vicky Nuland went to Niger.

Nuland, of course, was one of the architects of the neo-Nazi coup that overthrew the legitimately elected, democratic government of Ukraine because it liked vodka instead of Budweiser. It did not want to buy American.

The hypocrisy is staggering.  The US has been directly or indirectly involved in coups of one kind or another all over the world. There are coup specialists.   If military coups don’t work, it tries “color revolutions” or some other way of getting its way. Its definition of a “democratic” government is not one that represents a people’s interests –but US interests—the people be damned.

And damned they often are.     

Coups are on a spectrum between “soft” and “hard”.   If the US can persuade a country’s people to follow it – fine – if the carrot doesn’t work — then there’s a big stick or cattle prod or a gun.

Government of the US, by the US, for the US .

One World Under the Almighty Dollar.

Coups Inc.

In the Western hemisphere alone….

2002 Venezuela  (Failed)

2004 Haitian coup

2009 Honduras

2018 Nicaragua (Failed)

2019 Boliva

2022 Peru

In Africa, the biggest coup was arguably the overthrow of Gadaffi, and the destruction of Africa’s most prosperous and successful state.

Why?  Gadaffi was working on a Pan-African currency. That could have been the straw that broke the dollar’s back.

After that, the US expanded its involvement continent wide supposedly to combat endemic sectarian and tribal strife that worsened with the fall of Libya, especially in the Sahel.   Much of this was covert as an intelligence “snafu” revealed.   A fitness tracker, Strava showed heatmaps for US troops all over Africa where no one knew they were.   AFRICOM is literally running all over the continent.

To support this flurry of activity, new US bases sprang up all over the place but especially in resource-rich Sahel, south of Libya—a kind of franchise --   like Starbucks not coffee in a cup –but blood —all so Western global corporations, can secure resources— or, as in Syria, steal them—fomenting violence while pretending to suppress it—again, just as they have done in Syria.   There goes the neighborhood!

The Agadez drone base in Niger cost $110 million to build – and about 10-to 15 million a year to maintain.  It contributes nothing to the local people-- but protects mining operations in the region, which among other things poison food and water.    It also did little to protect the four US soldiers killed in a poorly planned raid across the border into Malian territory home to Islamic separatists.  Jihadism continues under watchful drone-ish eyes, just as it does in Syria.

There is no military solution to violence in the Sahel – not in the long term. Rather, it’s Wack-A-Mole. 

The Moles die. But so do the Wackers on occasion, like those four Americans.

From Colonialism to…Colonialism

The only real solutions are economic and social as Gadaffi proved in Libya until overthrown.  In a continent without any history of democracy or democratic traditions, where a lot of people can’t read or write or have access to clean water, elections don’t matter much.

The US is not interested in building functional democracies in Africa any more than it is interested in doing it at home. It just likes building bases. With air conditioning. And Starbucks, of course. More money for military contractors. Agadez doesn’t have a Starbucks yet. So, of course, the Americans don’t want to leave.

Colonialism never disappeared—it just evolved and became neo-colonialism which is an expression of neoliberalism.  It is still use and abuse.

So it is that while Africans starve, foreign corporations rape their country for resources—and as in many rapes then blame the victim: “You know how Africans are…” say fat guys in Washington, black or white or brown— but oh so American — shaking their heads and their martinis. It’s the African’s fault.

In any case, the AFRICOM presence – and its US and French bases—are not there to help Nigeriens or any African-- but to make sure that nothing changes—that money keeps on flowing – out.  

Oxfam estimates that the G7 owe the Global South $13 trillion in debt.  OK. That’s Oxfam whose hearts not only bleed but all their other organs.  Just cut that number to a trillion even.  I am not good at arithmetic, but I know it’s a lot and it has increased – is increasing—over time.

Colonialism and slavery.  We just changed the names and made them more efficient.  

But Africa is evolving and doing more than changing labels.

What I called ethnogenesis in my last article is at work. The Military juntas that have taken charge in the Sahel are representative of a new generation – and a new kind of world.

Why are countries like the Sudan, Somalia, and of course Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso -- not to mention the Central African Republic are all on the G7 shitlist as “dysfunctional”?  Why is Vicky Nuland in Niger?

Russia and China.  In one way or another these African countries are flirting with the Devil, of rather Devils.  Africans are now increasingly looking to St. Petersburg not Washington.

Russia and China are offering a New Deal.  Multipolarism not Hegemonism.  Freedom not slavery.  Aid without strings attached.

And that is where the prospect of war comes in.

Will it happen?

More in my next article.

My Friends

One of my good friends at the Zoo was a mongoose named Sally. There are several species of mongooses. And most of them can become quite familiar with people. In India they live symbiotically in villages where they are welcome as snake killers. In any case, Sally and I became good friends and Sally liked to sit on my shoulders while I cleaned her cage in the Nocturnal House. I would often lock the doors and let her explore. And occasionally I would bring her snakes. Just ordinary local snakes— not the poisonous kind which are too expensive to waste. No, don’t think of getting one as a pet. They are still wild animals. If you work with wild animals, you need to respect their difference. The same applies to people.

But you can buy me a coffee in memory of Sally. Click here or on the picture.