Twenty-first century INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: PETROPOLITICS AND PETROCRACY WHO SAID AFRICA WAS WORTHLESS?

Le 15 octobre 2011 par Correspondance particulière - In the last few months, Africa has occupied the central stage of world politics. The world has been awakening, suddenly, by the call

for democracy that Africa has being lacking for decades.
The chancelleries in the western Hemisphere, with big guns, have ‘rescued’ their ideologies on the verge of death. They positioned themselves as the ‘saviours’ of a continent that seems to refuse to catch up with the rest of the world. But, does everyone see the West’s actions as ‘a good Samaritan’s hand’ to a poor continent? Or, simply as the return of the cowboys who thought that Africa ‘was dead’, therefore left it in the hands of the Red Dragon, China to scavenge in the debris?

The ‘rise for democracy’ took many countries by surprise during the second half of 2010 and the first half of 2011. Essentially, these countries are from two continents: Asia and Africa. But, our work would focus on what happened on the African continent during the period mentioned above.
To give a global picture of the West’s retreat from Africa, we have chosen to go back to the war that balkanised Yugoslavia. And, here again, we would just mention the fact that the atrocities that choke the world to its core, the West almost withdrew its interest from Africa or the West thought that Africa was ‘un fait accompli’ so that there was nothing to worry about.
After a very long moment of hesitation and with a huge embarrassment cause by the inaction of the western leaders at their doorsteps (in Bosnia), the NATO decided to put an end to the sufferings of the Muslims and other innocent people of that part of the world where Milosevic and his army were reigning as Adolph Hitler and his anchormen. Luckily, the NATO with its machineries succeeded, but did not arrest one of the masterminds behind all these assassinations and other cruelties. He got caught around for years, in the same country before people recognised him. This person, General Radovan Karadzic, even defied the judgement of The Hague while elsewhere, but in similar circumstances, Sadam Hussein was purely and simply hung.
The West chose the policy of ‘cleaning its own doorsteps before getting involved in others’ businesses’. Anyway, Africa has always been presented as the ‘incurable’ continent, so why someone should bother at all? The African leaders themselves are refusing to change the image of the continent; this is what is said and fed to the public in the West. But, what is never said by the media and other PR channels in the developed world is that the dictators whose faces become the head lines are maintained in power by the West. It is just when the dictator is very old that the West discovers his sadistic side. Some examples to refresh our mind. How many years Mobutu stayed in power after taking part in the killing of Premier Minister Patrice E. Lumumba? For how long did Eyadema senior stay in office, after the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio? Again, in the Ivory Coast, Houphouët Boigny led the country from Independence Day (1960) to his last breath (1993). In Gabon, Bongo senior spent decades leading the country with the backing of France. Egypt was not an exception. The West, in its fear for the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, cuddled President Mubarack like a newborn baby for years while the opposition was kept in control by ‘any means necessary’. Kaddafi, after seizing power following his war against the occupant, did not rule Libya as a saint. But, as the oil was flowing, no one really cared for the people on the ground and many more who left the country to seek refuge abroad. President Paul Biya has almost spent thirty years in office. But, France still praises him as a great leader to take Cameroon forward. One of the worst things the West intentionally ignores is the fact that the democracy it is pushing for in Africa is not one. It is what we call ‘une reculoncracy’ (literally a ‘backwardcracy’). It is a situation where the real winner is kept aside and for the sake of the West’s interests, a puppet gets to the office to manage the West’s businesses. In Gabon and Togo, after the death of the two fathers, their sons ‘won’ the general elections in either country. The protests from the opposition landed in death ears. Even in Senegal, Wade is trying to change the Constitution so that Karim, his son could become the president after his death, at least for a moment before any elections could take place. This is what the West must tell its populations. From this pint, these populations would make up their minds properly before they allow their leaders to wage war in any African countries.
So, the West is not back to Africa for democracy. The use of the concept of democracy is just an excuse, a cover up to mislead everyone. The western leaders have destroyed the world economies with their friends appointed as big money earners. Now it is time to be ‘inventive or creative’. This creativity, among many other things, includes the creation of wars in countries labelled as ‘the world poorest states’ so that when those countries are in pieces, the same western leaders and their tentacles or antennas steal whatever they can from ‘the poor’ who need to be fed and saved by some maize and rice bags thrown from air to the ground.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are dozens of western companies fighting for the acquisition of lands from where they extract gold and other minerals dearly wanted by businesses in the West. To sum up the tragedy of this African country, one should just say that the DRC is a victim of its own riches. It is very rare to see any European countries that are not exploiting directly or indirectly the soil of Congo. So, there is no need to cite the numerous western companies that are overwhelmingly, savagely and with no respect to the nature, exploiting Congo whilst the local populations have one meal per day, if they are lucky enough. In Somaliland, while the other Somalia is dying, British and American companies (Conoco, SCG, Amoco, Chevron, Phillips and many more) are pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oils per day. In Ivory Coast, for years, France and its associates stole diamond, gold and other riches from the northern part of the country.
To stay in the limits of our work, we ought to say that the return of the cowboys in Africa is motivated by two major elements. The first is the huge oil reserves that run from the pick of South Africa and go up passing Ivory Coast, Senegal and so on. The second element is the (old) new client Africa has come across with Chinese companies backed up by their government. The West could not stop Sudan being divided into two countries because China is the biggest sponsor of president Bashir, the killer of non-Muslims in that country. China has also become a big money lender in the world. Declan McCullagh, in his article ‘If China Stops Lending Us Money, Look Out’, stated that: “China is the single largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury. The money it lends to the Feds, finances our significant budget deficits. (Americans have been paying about $450 billion a year in interest on the national credit card; without that debt to pay off, personal income taxes could be almost 40 percent lower…………to the US…….)”.
Richard (Rick) Mills (www.aheadoftheherd.com, Friday, Oct 7, 2011) in his work ‘United States versus China Round Two’, mentioned that: “China was the United States' largest supplier of goods imports in 2010 - goods imports from China totaled $365 billion, a 23.1 % increase ($68.6 billion) from 2009, and up 841% over the last 16 years”. He then continued as follows: “U.S. exports to China accounted for 7.2% of overall U.S. exports in 2010 while U.S. imports from China accounted for 19.1% of overall U.S. imports during the same time period”.
Professor Linda Lim, a specialist of corporate strategy and international business at the University of Michigan, talking about George W. Bush’s protectionism against China, said: “the risk is that the Bush administration is getting on the warpath with China. Who will be the losers? The U.S. consumers. Cheap imports from China hold down inflation and interest rates [in the United States.] Low interest rates keep the economy humming. It’s not clear you want consumers to suffer higher prices and higher interest rates.” It is up to you, readers, to see the very important role China is playing in the U.S. economy and in the strategy of any present and future government that will not face a serious discontent coming from the populations.
So, no one dares to up set a country which is so kind in giving even if from time to time some leaders take the step to denounce China’s Human Rights Records. For how long the West, we mean the leaders of the West, would keep the entire world in the darkness? Why is it so difficult to resolve the problems the world economies or financial system face once for all? With the Euro Zone on the edge of peril, how many ‘democratic crusades’ the West has to enterprise or mastermind to sort out the political, social and economical mess many countries, worldwide, are forced into?

In the end, the West has run from Africa thinking that the hot continent has become worthless. But, after a reality checking, the race to Africa is back on like during the time of slavery and colonisation with a pace never witnessed before. Another different is the might of guns used by the post neo-colonisers in their quest for lands, mines, oil, gold and power. China who seems to be the only communist biggest head around is not ready to play the ‘armament game’ that used to divide the world in two blocs. For the Chinese leadership, the game should be summed up as ‘business for all’. How Africa should or would react in front of the new scramble toward her this time depends on the kind of leaders the continent is dealing with. And, in a world where there is only one dominant ideology, we believe that the Africans, at home and abroad, need to think and act faster than before. This new and sole ideology is called ‘Oil’. From this single word, we have some concepts such as: Oiltocracy, Petrocracy and Petropolitics. Finally, Africans wake up as we must not forget that “Countries have no friends, they have only their interests to look after”, said De Gaulle of France!

Une contribution de SYLVAIN DE BOGOU
(Writer and Political Analyst)