"The natives are getting restless."
Once the bear's claws tore away the veneer, a new era was launched. But it would not have happened without a fire-breathing dragon in the background. Now the long oppressed colonies are standing up. Empire is about securing cheap resources and cheap labor from the colonies, without which the lifestyle of the imperial elite cannot be sustained.
Consortium NewsPepe Escobar: No Respite for France as ‘New Africa’ Rises
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Africa's oppressors are African. From colonialism to nepotism.
Even though the West spent decades stealing Africa’s resources, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya gave good jobs to Africans from neighboring countries, thereby offsetting the poverty that would have created a migrant crisis, and would have created “Road Warrior” gangs in West Africa and Central Africa.
Gaddafi warned that all this would change if the West murdered him and destroyed Libya. NATO ignored him, and disaster resulted, just as Gaddafi predicted. (“We came, we saw, he died!” Cackle-cackle ~ Hillary Clinton.)
Since then (2011) there have been endless waves of African migrants to Europe, plus endless violence by “Road Warrior” gangs in Africa, all driven by poverty and despair.
Western media outlets call these Road Warrior gangs “Islamist insurgents,” even though they care nothing about religion. (Pepe Escobar calls Africa’s struggle with these gangs a “war on terror.” Sometimes Escobar guzzles the Kool-aid.) These are young people who serve warlords in order to survive. The gang members commit endless atrocities, and they continually kill each other off. However in the short time they have until death, they enjoy girls, drugs, and designer sneakers. They traffic in drugs, arms, human flesh, and so on. We see this same phenomenon in Latin America and everywhere else there is poverty, including Democrat-run areas of the USA.
Now the entire West is committing suicide, while Russia and China are strong enough to provide alternatives for Africa. Hence Africa is having these independence movements. Over 10,000 Chinese firms now operate in Africa. Russian firms are also moving in.
France had long controlled its African slaves via the CFA franc currency, and via installing puppet dictators protected by Praetorian Guards. However, as France committed suicide, and joined the U.S. war on Russia, France focused only on stealing Africa’s wealth, and no longer even pretended to care about Africa. Poverty and the “Road Warrior” gangs became worse and worse until Africa reached a breaking point -– and here we are.
Q. Why do Africans see China and Russia differently from the West?
A. Because the Chinese and Russian attitude is “win-win,” while the Western attitude is “win-lose.” In practice the difference between these attitudes is the difference between heaven and hell.
For the West there can be no equal partners; only masters and slaves. No multi-polarity; only uni-polarity. For the West, in order for me to feel wealthy, everyone around me must suffer. I feel wealthy not because of how much money I have, but because of the gap between me and everyone around me. The greater the gap, the greater my “wealth.”
Therefore France saw its African slaves as livestock to be “cared for” (i.e. crushed under France’s heel). This model is unsustainable, and it creates perverse ironies. France treats blacks in Africa as inferiors, and treats blacks in France as superior. All whites in France are “racists” who must serve migrants. Indeed, throughout the West, because of diversity quotas, only non-whites get hired, and only non-whites rise effortlessly to the top – and they are not prosecuted for their crimes.
Meanwhile the same liberals who see all whites as racists continue to see all Africans as inferiors who must be “saved” by having “democracy” (i.e. by having Western-imposed puppet dictators who rule for life with an iron fist).
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Pepe Escobar says that Africa still has a long way to go in “breaking the shackles of neocolonialism.”
“Africa faces horrendous odds in its fight against the deeply entrenched financial and political institutions of colonization, especially when it comes to smashing French monetary hegemony in the form of the CFA franc.”
I disagree. The West is committing suicide so rapidly that resource-rich Africa will suck in multi-polarity rapidly.
Pepe Escobar says the USA has three bases in Niger with up to 4,000 military personnel. Senor Pepe is confused. As far as I know, the USA has only two military bases in all of Africa. One is in Djibouti. The other, Air Base 201, is in the middle of the desert in Niger, with about 1,100 personnel. Escobar mentions this. Air Base 201 serves as a hub for armed drones that destroy anyone throughout West Africa who interferes with the resource theft. The USA is >desperate< to keep it, which may be why Biden’s handlers have not called the Niger coup a “coup.” Maybe the USA hopes to make special deals with the new Niger government.
Meanwhile that government wants to expel the French military base in Niamey (Niger’s capital).
Regarding the Trans-Sahara gas pipeline from Nigeria across Niger to Algeria, this has been talked about for 20 years. Russia and China want to build it, but the USA wants to checkmate it, and instead have a gas pipeline go from Nigeria around the coast of West Africa to Morocco (which is pro-West) and on to Spain and Europe.
Escobar: ” The CFA racket makes the Mafia look like street punks. It means essentially that the monetary policy of several sovereign African nations is controlled by the French Treasury in Paris.”
Yes, and the French Treasury is in turn controlled by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, and the European Commission in Brussels.
Fourteen African states have complained about the CFA franc for decades, but the West ruled those states through puppet dictators. Now the world is changing.
One of the biggest factors that soured West Africa on France was the “Road Warrior” gangs, as I call them. Western corporate media outlets misleadingly call them “jihadists,” and “Islamist insurgents” and “ISIS” and “Al Qaeda,” and other fake labels for Western peasant consumption.
Here’s what happened…
When NATO gratuitously destroyed Libya, young males in West Africa were faced with a lifetime of poverty and despair. Many migrated north to Europe. Many others joined “Road Warrior” gangs that robbed and terrorized West Africa. Any African who traveled from one town to another was liable to be robbed on the road. Women were liable to be raped and kidnapped as sex slaves. The Road Warrior gangs raided villages for whatever they could steal, leaving Africans poorer than ever. Drunken thugs took over whole towns, brutalizing the locals.
It was such a nightmare, especially in Mali, that local crowds cheered on 11 Jan 2013 when 4,000 French troops plus 1,100 support personnel, arrived in Mali to restore order. In addition, the Mali government asked for U.N. troops. ECOWAS provided another 2,900 troops.
France called this “Operation Serval.”
YES! West Africa was saved!
Three weeks later (2 Feb 2013) Africans cheered when French President Francois Hollande visited Mali’s capital of Bamako. Hollande promised to finally bring the Road Warrior gangs under control. France was mighty. YES! Vive la France! Vive Francois Hollande!
“Operation Serval” had moderate success at first, but the French troops quickly settled into a routine of uselessness, while the Road Warrior gangs became worse than ever. “Operation Serval” was a failure, and after 18 months it was canceled on 15 July 2014.
France regrouped, and two weeks later it launched a much larger and more ambitious plan called “Operation Barkhane” (1 Aug 2014). This one involved troops from France, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Estonia, the USA and others.
YES!! This time France would surely save West Africa!
Except it didn’t.
On the contrary, France found it useful to let the Road Warrior gangs terrorize the locals. It kept Africans submissive while the resource theft continued. French troops could exterminate any gang members that threatened Western interests (e.g. uranium mines), but other than that, the Road Warrior gangs roamed free.
“Operation Barkhane” was a total failure (intentionally so) and it dragged on for nine years.
Finally Mali had enough, and ordered the French to leave. “Operation Barkhane” was formally canceled on 9 Nov 2022, and the French troops left Mali. Most went home, but 1,500 went to occupy neighboring Niger to guard Western interests there.
Now the locals are tired of all this. They want the French out of West Africa altogether.
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Enter the Dragon
Western media outlets constantly vilify the mercenaries known as Russia’s Wagner Group -- as though the West does not use its own mercenary groups like Constellis Holdings, formerly Academi, formerly Xe Services, formerly Blackwater. (The West calls its mercenary killers “private contractors.”)
The Wagner Group is most active in the Central African Republic. Some sources claim that Wagner is also in Libya, Mali, and Sudan, but this is open to question.
China moves more quietly and more effectively. This is one reason why the West so fears and hates China. Instead of sending troops or mercenaries to West Africa to control the Road Warrior gangs, China sends whatever local governments need to do it themselves. For example, on 3 June 2023 China sent over 300 armed vehicles to Mali’s government.
These are combat-hardened MRAP vehicles (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) and IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles) such as the Norinco WZ-551 and VP11. They are very heavily armored, and they form convoys of 50 vehicles at a time (each full of troops) that penetrate and control areas where Road Warrior gangs were active.
China has also sent VN2C 6×6 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Norinco VN2C BMPs, a contingent of 50 robust Kia KM450 military trucks, versatile wheeled Dongfeng EQ2050 vehicles, six BRDM-2 amphibious reconnaissance vehicles, several BTR-70 8×8 armored personnel carriers and six Puma M36 APCs.
With China, Mali has taken a game-changing leap forward. Mali doesn’t need France. And Mali has promised military help to Niger if the French or their puppet (ECOWAS) gets frisky.
Many nations are now buying these vehicles from China, and not only in Africa.
I’m sorry to break it to you, kids, but the West is in its twilight – at least in its current form. Russia and China are on the move, while the West is stuck whining about “white privilege,” “trans rights,” and the “danger” of carbon dioxide (which plants cannot live without).
Nobody cares about these loser nations in Africa….
The concerns of ordinary Americans don't matter to Washington. Yet somehow the concerns of ordinary Africans are going to matter to future local despots?
Bongo family ruled for 56 years in Gabon. Finally got removed by his presidential guard. Gabonese people are merely spectators.
”The concerns of ordinary Americans don't matter to Washington. Yet somehow the concerns of ordinary Africans are going to matter to future local despots?
I could live with a despot as long as the despot ruled wisely. At least I would have someone clear to blame. Democracy has always been a ruse to make the peasants think they have a choice as they are enslaved by landowners and creditor oligarchs.
Anyway, for the last century Africa’s despots have been puppet dictators installed by the West. They have lived in splendor and kept their people in grinding poverty while the West extracted Africa’s resources. Whenever Africans tried to throw off these puppet dictators and improve their nations, the West invaded militarily or economically (with sanctions) or had the new leaders assassinated (e.g. Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lamumba, etc.) Most of Latin America is the same.
Now with the collapse of the West, and the rise of China and Russia, plus new relationships between nations, a better life is not guaranteed, but at least African states will have more options.
Q. So what? Who cares about Africa?
A. The current political and economic order worldwide is increasingly oppressive and unsustainable. Africa symbolizes changes happening worldwide. We might say (in a manner of speaking) that Americans will get their freedom when Africans get theirs.
Bongo family ruled for 56 years in Gabon. Finally got removed by his presidential guard. Gabonese people are merely spectators.
Yes. More puppet dictators, surreounded by Praetorian Guards that turned on them. Regarding the masses being mere spectators, is the nature of any human group, corporation, society, or nation to adopt the general characteristics of its leaders. If the leaders are scum, then the general group will be scum. Every company I ever worked for had the characteristics of its leaders. If the company leaders were miserable creeps, then most employees were too. Employees who would not tolerate this were dismissed, or else they resigned. Such companies don't last very long.
Will Africa’s new leaders be any better? Nothing is guaranteed, but at least change is becoming possible.
All just switching Imperial Masters...
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