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

Far from a Humanitarian Savior, the U.S. Causes Vast Misery In Africa
25 Jul 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

Americans want to believe their president when he poses as a humanitarian world leader. But Africa knows different. Literally millions have died and been displaced as a direct result of U.S. imperial strategies. “American policy in Africa is to create chaos, and then to present itself as the cure.”

 

Far from a Humanitarian Savior, the U.S. Causes Vast Misery In Africa

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The United States is the main vector of mass carnage and misery, from Somalia to Libya to Congo and so many points in between.”

The United States has finally made a token effort towards reining in its central African client state, Rwanda, whose destabilization of neighboring Congo has contributed to the deaths of six million people over the past 16 years. A United Nations panel charged that Rwanda has been supporting a Tutsi tribal rebel group in Congo. Rwanda and another U.S. puppet regime, Uganda, have profited enormously from stealing the mineral resources of eastern Congo, in collaboration with U.S. and European mining companies. At the end of last year, 1.7 million Congolese remained homeless, largely because of Rwanda’s continued interference in Congolese affairs.

Bowing ever so slightly to world opinion, Washington announced that it would cut military assistance to Rwanda. As it turns out, the only money the U.S. is withholding is for an academy for Rwandan non-commissioned officers – a measly $200,000 out of a total Rwandan aid package of $528 million. The gesture is an insult to the millions of Congolese who have been killed or displaced by the U.S. and its Rwandan and Ugandan mercenaries.

The United Nations Refugee Agency reports that the number of Somalis forced to leave their country has reached the one million mark. At root, this is also an American crime against humanity. Somalia ranks behind only Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia in its number of displaced persons. And, like the other three countries, Somalia’s humanitarian crisis is the result of Washington’s imperial military strategies.

“The number of Somalis forced to leave their country has reached the one million mark.”

The U.S. dragged Somalia into hell in December of 2006, when it funded and armed an Ethiopia invasion of the country. Tens of thousands were killed outright, and Somalia was robbed of a chance to build peace under a moderately Islamist government. In the capital city, Mogadishu, alone, nearly two million people were forced from their homes, and soon the United Nations declared Somalia “the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa.”

In the ensuing five years, the United States methodically attempted to starve out the Somali Shabaab resistance forces, so that when the worst drought in 60 years struck the region, last year, mass deaths were inevitable. By now, the U.S. had ensnared most of Somalia’s neighbors in its war – Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, a whole region in flames – in order to facilitate an expansion of U.S. military influence in the region.

Far from playing a humanitarian role in Africa, the United States is the main vector of mass carnage and misery, from Somalia to Libya to Congo and so many points in between. American policy in Africa is to create chaos, and then to present itself as the cure. Economically, the U.S. offers nothing to Africa, except rigged deals and endless debt. Years ago, China eclipsed the U.S. as a trading partner, and now offers Africa more and better quality foreign aid than the Americans. Unable to compete on a level laying field, Washington exports death to Africa, in the form of weapons systems and Green Berets. There is nothing good that the United States can do for Africa, but leave.

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/20120725_gf_CongoSomalia.mp3

More Stories


  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 5, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 5, 2021
    06 Apr 2021
    Two Black Martyrs' Mothers Confront Black Lives Matter
  •  Black Alliance for Peace: Fascism Born in the Colonies, Not Europe
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Alliance for Peace: Fascism Born in the Colonies, Not Europe
    06 Apr 2021
    Ajamu Baraka, the former Green Party vice presidential candidate and current national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace – a member of the Black is Back Coalition -- says E
  •  Black Is Back Coalition: When Colonialism Turned on Whites, They Called it Fascism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Is Back Coalition: When Colonialism Turned on Whites, They Called it Fascism
    06 Apr 2021
    When capitalism turns vicious in its treatment of white people’s rights, Europeans and Euro-Americans call it fascism, according to Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back C
  •  Two Black Martyrs' Mothers Confront Black Lives Matter
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Two Black Martyrs' Mothers Confront Black Lives Matter
    06 Apr 2021
    Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, the 12 year-old killed by Cleveland cops in 2014, has teamed up with Lisa Simpson, mother of Richard Risher, the 18 year-old gunned down by Los
  • Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Andrew Cuomo and the Black Political Class
    31 Mar 2021
    Black politicians shamelessly rallied to Cuomo, ridiculously comparing him to Emmett Till and the Central Park Five, in hopes that he will dispense patronage their way if he remains in of
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us