Why Africans must support Captain Traore, Alliance of Sahel States
The recent fulmination against Cpt Ibrahim Traore by General Langley, Commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), was just an expression of exasperation at the failure so far of the U.S. and its imperialist allies to derail the revolution unfolding in the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States.
This is especially with regard to the young and charismatic Burkinabe Head of State, Captain Ibrahim Traore, whom the General described as a 'threat to his own people' and also accused of misusing his country's gold for his personal protection rather than for the public good.
Such effusions from the imperialist hegemon are quite familiar. They are usually the harbinger for the manufacture of consent for the sabotage, subversion and even elimination of patriotic leaders in this our part of the world.
When imperialism is attacking its victim this way, it means the victim is doing something right for the masses of his people.
Captain Traore has managed to free Burkina Faso from the economic and military stranglehold of France and is committed to ending the wider imperialist domination over his country.
Under his leadership, Burkina Faso is taking control of its natural resources from predatory multinationals.
In addition, he has launched a militant programme of national self-reliance with a focus on agriculture and industrialisation.
Above all, he is setting a good example of what a government of the people, by the people and for the people should be, and because of that he is immensely popular, not only among the masses of the people of Burkina Faso, but also throughout the entire African continent and among the African Diaspora.
This is what has incensed General Langley.
In fact, what imperialism is panicking about is the potential fallout of the revolutionary experiment in Burkina Faso if Captain Traore is allowed to get away with his militant patriotism and is able to create a model of a successful alternative to neocolonial subservience.
If one African country is allowed to pivot away from the imperialist orbit and succeeds at some form of independent development, what will keep other African countries from trying their luck?
Captain Traore is, therefore, upsetting the imperialist applecart. But as is always the case, imperialism is never in the mood to tolerate any visionary and patriotic African leader committed to liquidating underdevelopment and shedding off the imperialist yoke.
It will attempt to wreck the process first by bribery, then by economic sabotage and finally by assassination or a coup d'état.
This was what was done to Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Gen. Muritala Rufai Muhammad, Thomas Sankara and Muammar Gaddafi.
At the U.S. Senate hearings where he launched his tirade against Captain Traore, General Langley also stated that one of the objectives of the US military presence in Africa was to safeguard 'vital U.S. interests … work together with like-minded allies and partners to enable security solutions that protect our [U.S.] interests.'
This begs the question of what constitutes 'U.S. interests' in a continent half the globe away, and whether in its geopolitical calculations, the U.S. takes into account Africa's interests.
Everything is about America, and AFRICOM's overarching objective, as the General admitted in his testimony, is to secure for the U.S. Africa's 'well known … wealth of critical minerals that serve as foundational materials for emerging technology products used in military and defence systems'.
China, Russia
He also admitted that America's military presence in Africa is about 'access and influence' to counter Russia and China, accusing these countries of malign intentions on the continent when, in fact, the opposite is the case.
It is the collective West which has had malign intentions towards Africa for centuries, and he, General Langley, ironically, is evidence of this.
He is a direct descendant of Africans, dragged from our shores to the Americas, as slaves to work in plantations owned by people of the Western European race during the infamous Transatlantic Slave Trade.
With such an ignominious history, it is not for America to determine who Africa's friends should be, and how we should recalibrate our political and military alliances to suit our circumstances today.
Moreover, China and Russia come to Africa with a cleaner conscience as they do not carry the burden of guilt associated with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
They were not there at the infamous 1844 Berlin Conference, where Africa was ruthlessly partitioned.
On the contrary, Russia and China actively supported Africa during the anticolonial struggles and in the fight against the obnoxious apartheid regime in South Africa at a time the U.S. and its vassals were offering it political, diplomatic and economic support and labelling the African freedom fighters as terrorists.
Imperialism cannot tell Africans who the bad guys are. Africa will decide that for itself as the unfolding revolution in Burkina Faso and in the Alliance of Sahel States is demonstrating.
The writer is with the Islamic University College, Ghana.
E-mail: agnasser@gmail.com
