Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

America and the Politics of Genocide in Africa
07 Nov 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Uganda threatened to pull out of the dirty war in Somalia unless it was afforded continued immunity for its mass murders in Congo. Washington is the Big Daddy of both bloodbaths. Within days, Uganda backed down, since a “withdrawal from Somalia would amount to going on strike against its employer, the United States.”

 

America and the Politics of Genocide in Africa

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The genocide in Congo is the deliberate result of American and British policy.”

On Tuesday, the vast majority of African Americans cast their votes for a man whose hands are soaked in the blood of millions of Congolese. Barack Obama, like his predecessors George Bush and Bill Clinton, has pulled the strings, paid the cash, and sent the weapons that Uganda and Rwanda have used to cause the deaths of six million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since invading that country in 1996. Various organs of the United Nations have repeatedly found America’s two top allies in Black Africa complicit in the Congo genocide, and on every occasion, the U.S. and Great Britain have protected the mass murderers. And why not? The genocide in Congo is the deliberate result of American and British policy. Uganda and Rwanda are merely henchmen, who commit mass murder in return for a cut of Congo’s vast stores of mineral resources. Western businesses are the ultimate beneficiaries.

The International Court of Justice found Uganda guilty, in 2005, of killing and torturing Congolese civilians and plundering the country’s resources. Congo asked for $10 billion in reparations, but Uganda has paid nothing. Why should it? Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, was Ronald Reagan’s favorite African dictator and has served U.S. African policy, ever since. Uganda does not act on its own, but as a military asset of the United States. The same goes for Rwanda, which has been repeatedly cited for virtually annexing the eastern Congo in close collaboration with Ugandan forces. Rwanda President Paul Kagame acts as a puppet for U.S. policy in Africa, in return for lavish American military and economic aid and free rein to plunder and kill in the Congo.

Rwanda and Uganda are immune from international law because they do Washington’s bidding, sending troops wherever they are needed to buttress U.S. interests in Africa.

“What is a samurai without a lord and master?”

Last week, Uganda pitched a kind of puppet tantrum, threatening to pull its troops out of so-called peace-keeping duties in Somalia. Museveni’s government is angry, because yet another United Nations report has been leaked, showing that Ugandan and Rwandan military officers are directly in charge of the so-called rebels that are wreaking havoc in Congo. This is not a Congolese civil war, but a continuation of a 16-year aggression by its two neighbors, financed and directed by the United States and Britain.

Uganda’s threat to pull out of Somalia has proven to be empty. After all, what is a samurai without a lord and master? Uganda’s value to the United States lies in its willingness to kill other Africans on orders from Washington. A Uganda withdrawal from Somalia would amount to going on strike against its employer, the United States – a very dangerous thing to do. Besides, who else is going to employ the Ugandan and Rwandan mercenaries?

By the time the Uganda delegation got to New York, there was no more mention of leaving Somalia, much less a Ugandan disengagement from the U.S. Special Forces units that President Obama sent into the Great Lakes region, last year. Uganda had temporarily forgotten its place as a servant in the neocolonial scheme of things. But, in truth, the Ugandans and Rwandans need not worry about the U.S. cracking down on their genocidal activities in Congo, because that, too, serves America’s purpose: to control Africa by drowning it in chaos and blood.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20121107_gf_UgandaCongoSomalia.mp3

More Stories


  • Socialism is the Key to Peace
    Fred M'membe
    Socialism is the Key to Peace
    12 Apr 2022
    The President of the Socialist Party of Zambia explains that imperialism is the root of the Ukraine anf other crises and that socialism is the solution.
  • US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court –  Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
    Roger D. Harris
    US’s Flaunting of Diplomatic Immunity Challenged in Court – Imprisoned Venezuelan Diplomat Contests Extraterritorial Judicial Abuse
    12 Apr 2022
    The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations protects the rights of Alex Saab. But the Trump administration violated international law in charging him with a crime and the Biden administration…
  • US Officials Admit They’re Literally Just Lying To The Public About Russia
    Caitlin Johnstone
    US Officials Admit They’re Literally Just Lying To The Public About Russia
    12 Apr 2022
    Intelligent observers know that the state uses corporate media to spread its narrative. Recently the Biden administration admitted what was already obvious.
  • International Law and "European Civilisation"
    Christopher Gevers
    International Law and "European Civilisation"
    12 Apr 2022
    Despite its promises of universalism, international law has clearly not yet shaken its foundation as a racial order. The author observes the contradictions in South Africa.
  • Imperialism and GMOs in Kenya: A Perspective from Social Movements
    Review of African Political Economy
    Imperialism and GMOs in Kenya: A Perspective from Social Movements
    12 Apr 2022
    Noosim Naimasiah interviews Irene Asuwa and Cidi Otieno about food sovereignty, ecologically appropriate production, distribution and consumption, social-economic justice, and local food systems…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us