Introduction
On October 1st, the criminal and genocidal US military command, AFRICOM, will have been in existence for 14 years. In those 14 years, a sizable amount of awareness on the program has been raised by committed individuals and organizations who want to see our homeland released from the clutches of the US empire. But as that fourteenth year begins, the necessity of ending this initiative, once and for all, grows more and more dire. We are dedicating this entire newsletter to laying out the best resources for learning about AFRICOM that we can find. Read and share with your networks who can use this information. You can not fight a beast that we do not understand. #ShutDownAFRICOM
– The Hood Communist Collective
What Is AFRICOM?
The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established October 1, 2008. The purpose of AFRICOM is to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control of African land, resources and labor to service the needs of U.S. multi-national corporations and the wealthy in the United States.
When AFRICOM was established in the months before Barack Obama assumed office as the first Black President of the United States, a majority of African nations—led by the Pan-Africanist government of Libya—rejected AFRICOM, forcing the new command to instead work out of Europe. But with the U.S. and NATO attack on Libya that led to the destruction of that country and the murder of its leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, corrupt African leaders began to allow AFRICOM forces to operate in their countries and establish military-to-military relations with the United States. Today, those efforts have resulted in 46 various forms of U.S. bases as well as military-to-military relations between 53 out of the 54 African countries and the United States. U.S. Special Forces troops now operate in more than a dozen African nations.
#ShutDownAFRICOM Reads From Hood Communist:
Demand An End to the U.S. Shadow War in Somalia
by Pan- Africans For Liberation and Solidarity (March 2020)
The reality is, there has long been transnational interest in Africa’s natural resources. AFRICOM is ushering in another scramble for Africa, and in the case of Somalia, the oil corporations of Europe, the U.S. and Canada are engaged in the search for petroleum. Somalia’s coastline is on the Indian Ocean and is an access point to the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, both areas being significant geo-politically for the control of shipping lanes as it relates to energy resources and the military.
“BLACK ALLIANCE FOR PEACE: Rise Up to #ShutDownAFRICOM”
By The Black Alliance For Peace (May 2020)
Globally, the African working class is locked in mortal combat against the forces of neoliberal capitalism, which is concentrated in the geostrategic interests of the U.S. ruling classes.
To preserve these interests, the U.S. is involved in an aggressive military re-conquest of Africa through its United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) formed in 2008 with the goal of imposing an enhanced U.S. influence throughout the African continent. AFRICOM has made African nations vassal states following the dictates of U.S. foreign policies, which are antithetical to the needs of African people.
AFRICOM Crying Russia in Libya: A Pot and Kettle Syndrome
By Netfa Freeman (August 2020)
Maybe the US doesn’t use mercenaries in Libya but it is only because of the bloody US-NATO decimation of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2011 that international sharks now circle the war torn nation. There, imperialist militarism is waged by proxy with neocolonial powers vying for unfettered access to the country’s oil and others, like Syria, trying to find some level of regional security against rivals entangled in the conflict.
AFRICOM lessens the need for the US to use mercenaries in Africa. And with some quarters of the US government wanting to reduce its footprint on the continent while US Defense Secretary Mark Esper denies that there will be withdraw from Africa, it should be remembered that AFRICOM is an orchestrator of African military operations. It can then theoretically achieve both seemingly conflicting claims and still maintain its white supremacists, neocolonial hegemony over the Black motherland.
Expanding US Drone War to Kenya is Madness
By Netfa Freeman (September 2020)
The persistence of the civil disobedience against racist police terror in the US is admirable. That the US, however, can at the same time expand a murderous predator drone war in Africa without a concomitant denunciation shows a collective disconnect in the understanding of the essential problem. The absence of a domestic backlash against US Africa policy is testament to the blind spots of our movement.
How can the US, whose wealth and power is based on economic exploitation and repression of the indigenous and Black working class, gain tacit permission to police our motherland? Imagine another country conducting 46 airstrikes on the US in eight months, as the US has done against Somalia.
Africa’s Biggest Terrorist Threat: AFRICOM and NATO
By All- African People’s Revolutionary Party (October 2020)
The US and NATO continues destroying secular states in Africa and around the world like Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Iran (before the Shaw) and Afghanistan (before the Taliban) in concert with right wing fascist hiding behind Islam, they are aligned with feudal empires, the Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. The US, who trained and supplied Bin Laden in Afghanistan (a country with which they have actively waged a destructive war for 15 years) is actively trying to destroy another country in the region, Syria.
Why We Focus on Africa
By Black Alliance For Peace (October 2020)
Western domination of Africa’s wealth by military force hurts Africa, but it also hurts African people in the U.S. Although many harbor stale beliefs that the people of Africa care nothing about their stolen African family members in the United States, the contrary was proven dramatically by Africa’s outpouring of support and solidarity in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. Imagine the changes that would have occurred if those demonstrations of support had been accompanied by financial support to the movement, diplomatic arm-twisting and economic pressure. Africa cannot demonstrate that type of independence and power because the entire continent has a giant U.S. military boot on its neck. It falls to those of us who are up-close and personal to AFRICOM to untie the laces of that boot and cause the U.S. military operations in Africa to trip and crash.
Building a Movement to #ShutDownAFRICOM
By Tunde Osazua (September 2021)
AFRICOM’s operations in Africa over the last decade, including hundreds of drone strikes, billions of dollars in “aid” and “development” projects, and countless massive military exercises, correlate with a 500% spikein incidents of violence attributed to Islamist terrorist organizations. Part of AFRICOM’s stated mission is to “promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.” But its very nature precludes the development of any of these conditions and really brings about destabilization and the furthering of U.S. interests on the continent.
Guinea and the Military Coup Incubator, AFRICOM
By Netfa Freeman (September 2021)
Reminiscent of the coup in Mali that took place in May of this year, Guinea seems to validate AFRICOM as an incubator of military coups in Africa. Rather than embark on an agenda that addresses mass poverty and abolished austerity, comprador leadership seeks protection from the people through neo-colonial relationships with the Pan-European, capitalist patriarchy. Then their youthful and neo-colonial trained military personnel get it into their heads that, rather than serve an aged and widely unpopular dictator, they will take control themselves.
Eritrea Versus AFRICOM
By Dina M. Asfaha and Tunde Osazua (December 2021)
Eritrea is the only country on the African continent without US military relations. In 1977, the last Americans at Kagnew Station, the U.S. military station in present-day Asmara, Eritrea, officially left the US’s listening post in the region. Kagnew was initially acquired through a deal with the Ethiopian government in 1943, an important geostrategic location for the US Navy during the Cold War. At the time, the Eritrean Armed Struggle for Independence against imperial Ethiopia (1961-1991) was ongoing; it was fear of heightened violence and warfare in Eritrea that led to the US’s ultimate and official withdrawal from Asmara and its closure of Kagnew in 1975.
This history is important in understanding the West’s contemporary vilification of Eritrea, as it is the only country on the African continent without a relationship with AFRICOM. We can’t and shouldn’t ignore the significance of this vilification as it relates to any African country’s sovereignty and the refusal to govern based on directives from the United Nations (or its allied entities).
The House Is Burning
By Hood Communist Collective (February 2022)
Africa today is a continent full of contradictions. It’s riddled with puppet leaders who’s only allegiance lies with the West, and imperialism of the US/EU/NATO varieties to such an extent that you would be hard pressed to find any African soldier today who hasn’t been trained by the West. The African Union has been functionally useless and now can’t seem to get away from its decision to grant the genocidal state of Israel observer status. For every radical movement being built, you can find the budding presence of technologies like cryptocurrency and data mining being held up as solutions for African people. As the African bourgeoisie gains more and more access to comforts and western privileges, the African masses continue to see a decline in their living standards. But Africa is also a land that is ripe for revolution, even when it can’t be immediately seen.”
NATO in Africa: Colonial Violence and Structural White Supremacy
By Djibo Sobukwe (March 2022)
“Since NATO was founded with the purported purpose of halting possible Soviet aggression and stopping the spread of Communism it would seem to follow that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 there would no longer be a need for NATO. Since then however, NATO has expanded from the founding twelve to at present thirty member states many of whom are eastern European countries, formerly Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact allies. Today, NATO has become a huge axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex controlled by US empire for the purpose of full spectrum dominance , driven by the ferocious appetites of corporate capital.
Dis Naija na banana republic
By Otobong Inieke (March 2022)
There is a general lack of class analysis and revolutionary consciousness owing mostly to decades-long imperialist propaganda and baked-in capitalist ideals across much of Nigerian society. The driver, a worker like myself, can point out these stark problems through generalizations e.g., ‘dis politicians dey benefit from how tings don spoil’, or can bring up specifics related to long fuel queues or poor power supply. The challenge lies in making the larger connections between these issues and informing the masses that Nigeria, regardless of its profile on the world stage is still very much a banana republic trapped in servitude to imperialist machinations and trickery.
Dining at the Obama Inn (Liberation Archives)
By Affiong L. Affiong (May 2022)
My friend said the visit was to lobby the new Ghanaian president on AFRICOM, America’s Greek gift to Africa. AFRICOM again? I thought we had finished with that matter, that Africans (except our sister in Liberia) made it clear AFRICOM was not welcome anywhere on the continent, and Africans were not interested in hosting foreign bases. My friend revealed that American military doctors have diagnosed AFRICOM as being unsuited to European weather, inherently allergic to German cuisine, and have advised them to relocate to Africa by any means necessary, apologies to Malcolm X. The doctors helpfully suggested a location very close to the Gulf of Guinea would instantly improve the health of the ailing AFRICOM. “But”, I said, “Barack is our brother, he would not be part of a neo-colonial conspiracy against Africa. Or would he?” There was a pregnant silence…
African Liberation Day 2022: Smash Neo-Colonialism!
By Hood Communist Collective (May 2022)
Today there exist 54 “independent” African countries and countless African cultures around the world. And yet, these African nations which fought to the bone more than 60 years ago are no more free from colonization today than they were yesterday. The Africans of now have a historical duty to SMASH neo-colonialism, but before we can fight effectively we must understand the terrain we fight upon. In this statement, we seek to clarify some of the confusion that exists today about neo-colonialism and emphasize why Kwame Nkrumah warned us that unless we can rid ourselves of it, it will drown us.
BAP Condemns US Backed Massacre of African Migrants in Morocco
By Black Alliance For Peace (July 2022)
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) denounces first, the Moroccan government’s security forces and the Spanish government for their collaboration in this massacre and their ongoing dehumanizing treatment of African asylum seekers. We must note that, as the Moroccan police were beating and hog-tying the African migrants, AFRICOM was carrying out “Operation African Lion” – military exercises in Morocco with more than 7,500 troops from Western nations and African neo-colonies. Soon after, NATO nations (the coterie of U.S. minions) held their meeting in Spain, with no acknowledgement of the massacre.
Videos:
- #What is AFRICOM? presented by the Claudia Jones School for Political Education
- What Is AFRICOM and How Does It Affect Me? presented by the Black Alliance for Peace [Baltimore]
- #ShutDownAFRICOM In Somalia: A Conversation On U.S Militarism In Somalia presented by Horn of Africa PALS
- Soweto Day Event: Rise Up to #ShutDownAFRICOM presented by the Black Alliance for Peace
- AFRICOM & U.S. Militarism in Africa with Prof. Horace Campbell presented by NLG International
- Weekly Pan-African News: #ShutDownAFRICOM! with Tunde Osazua of Black Alliance for Peace Presented by All- African People’s Revolutionary Party – SouthWest US
- Weekly Pan-African News: US Out of Africa, the Movement to #ShutDownAFRICOM Presented by All- African People’s Revolutionary Party – SouthWest US
- Djibo Sobukwe on NATO’s Role in Africa Presented by The Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
- Africa Stands Up to US Cold War Bullying Against China & Russia, w/ Kambale Musavuli Presented by Rania Khalek for Breakthrough News
Podcasts:
The Fight to Free Africa: Africans Vs. AFRICOM
Additional Reading to #ShutDownAFRICOM 🤓 📚:
U.S. out of Africa (Africa Watch Bulletin interviews Gerald Horne)
Monthly Review
“A central problem with “Terrorism” as a lever for imperial intervention in Africa is the dearth of self-criticism. That is, during the Cold War, Washington collaborated with religious zealots and fanatics, not least in Afghanistan, not least with the rulers of certain Gulf monarchies, in order to weaken various socialist projects. Now like a perpetual motion machine, imperialism has now decided—at least on the surface—to target this phenomenon. I say “on the surface” because there is still collaboration with, e.g. Saudi Arabia and the vulturous regimes who signed the so-called “Abraham Accords” in September 2020 in order to weaken Palestinian resistance. Of course, today this phenomenon is now wreaking havoc in northern Mozambique.”
Q&A with Gerald Horne on AFRICOM, Terrorism and Zionism
Toward Freedom
“We must continue what we have been doing–with more. We must organize more picket lines and study groups. We must make more media appearances. We must launch more documentary projects. We must establish a presence at the African Union in Addis Ababa and CARICOM too. We must picket the OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, especially re: the crisis in Colombia. We must **organize**.”
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #21
The Black Alliance for Peace
“AFRICOM and the entire command structure allow the U.S. to attempt to keep as much of the world as possible under its hegemony. It increases the military budget, which now comprises 60% of all discretionary spending and deprives people in this country of the public funds that would improve the quality of their lives. AFRICOM also reduces democracy and the sovereignty of African people on the continent and deprives them of the right to direct their governments as they see fit.”
On African Liberation Day Biden’s Troop Deployment to Somalia Confirms Africa is Not Free
The Black Alliance for Peace
“Rep. Meeks and the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) – the “Black misleadership class” – are fully aligned with the Biden administration and Democratic Party leadership, defending every imperialist effort to exercise U.S. dominance in Africa. The U.S. bombed Somalia on February 22, two days before the Russian Federation began its military operations in Ukraine. Yet Somalia has not become a focus of concern of Meeks and the rest of the Black misleaders, despite years of constant drone bombings by the U.S. having caused an estimated 250,000 deaths and the displacement of 3 million people. Meanwhile, these same CBC members won’t address domestic problems, but will lob billions to wage a proxy war against Russia and to support Nazi groups in Ukraine. The U.S. Black misleadership class demonstrates over and over that they do not care about African people – neither on the continent nor at home.”
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #41
The Black Alliance For Peace
“White supremacy is the combined ideological and structural expression of “white power.” In its ideological expression, it posits that the descendants of people of the territory/idea referred to as Europe represent the highest examples of human development. That their culture, social institutions, religions, and way of life are inherently and naturally superior. This position is combined with what BAP calls the global structures and institutions of white supremacy, the material means to maintain and advance global white power: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO), the global banking system, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. dollar hegemony.”
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