AFRICOM and the perception mess

[KingJaja]

There are several members herein that live in the South and can better address that subject than I can. I don't see even the most remote grievance you speak of and don't take much stock in listening to someone with a flag in his pick-up that can't even tell me why, yet alone the fact that the very same individual probably did not study history nor can tell me much about our history.

I'm no expert on America, but where does the antagonism against the Federal Government come from? Isn't it a throwback to the failure of Reconstruction and the overbearing presence of the Federal Government? Isn't the cry for States Rights a throwback to Jefferson Davis?

It is benign, but I think it is still there.

[KingJaja]

I meant personal memory.
The Portuguese left over 30 years ago. The median African person is much younger than that.

They may know about colonialism - because they learned about it. They did not experience it (unless we consider apartheid South Africa).

Now as I understand it, that's not remembering, but being informed.

What's the real difference? Shias and Sunnis still fight over an event that occurred more than a thousand years ago. King Billy invaded Ireland in the 1690's and that event was still being fought over in the 1990's. The Serbs and the Croats seemed to get on well, until they didn't. Most Chinese weren't alive during the rape of Nanking, the Boxer Rebellion or the Opium Wars, but these events have a place in modern Chinese consciousness.

[Fuchs]

The difference is huge.

Personal memory cannot be controlled by outside, thus it's not prone to controlled distortions. A cultural memory based on teaching/propaganda on the other hand is much easier to distort, to shape in order to exploit it.


Your examples all share one characteristic; the events from the distant past were exploited as a kind of rallying cry, but the actual conflict was from recent times - and pretty much manufactured or not really resembling the original conflict.
One must not believe that the ancient events are the cause for current conflicts; they're excuses. The causes are in our time, and unlike history they can sometimes be addressed if there's enough goodwill left.


Just look at my Greece/Germany example. The cause of the street-level political conflict is the current economic/fiscal crisis, Nazis were merely the rallying motive for primitive conflict mongering (and for shaping Germans as scapegoats, something that doesn't work so well in Europe any more).

[KingJaja]

Personal memory cannot be controlled by outside, thus it's not prone to controlled distortions. A cultural memory based on teaching/propaganda on the other hand is much easier to distort, to shape in order to exploit it.

The outcomes are similar, if not the same: distrust and/or conflict.

Sometimes perceptions are more important than reality. AFRICOM's PR handling was a disaster and I am surprised that nobody could see that coming.

Europe has enjoyed an unprecedented sixty year boom since World War II. The levels of peace and prosperity in Europe are a historical anomaly. The Greeks never forgot the brutality of German occupation, prosperity merely attenuated the memory of that ugly episode. If the European economy nosedives further, be in for some rude shocks - the French, Belgians and Dutch will suddenly remember all the bad things the Germans did.

Growing up in Africa, I have developed a more cynical, less optimistic view of human nature. For example, Nigeria was fine when we benefited from the Oil Boom, but immediately the boom went bust, ancient tribal animosities were dusted up - and here we are today.

[Dayuhan]

You don't get it, the West has history stacked against it in a way the Chinese never will. It happened, it is unfortunate and we are trying to get past it, but the effects linger.

Never say never... and don't underestimate the Chinese. It's early days yet, and they might well write a history to rival that of the West... if Africans choose to let them do it, of course. The difference today is not that the Chinese have better intentions or more benign methods, but that this time around Africans have a choice. Whether or not they use it remains to be seen.

It's not really about getting past anything, or about forgetting or forgiving. It's about being a slave to your past and the knee-jerk reactions it provokes, reactions that some choose to encourage to advance their own interests. Latin America and SE Asia share that past, and they haven't forgotten it, but in most cases they've chosen not to be slaves to that past. Instead they make today's decisions based on today's interests and today's conditions.

I actually think I do get it. What you're saying is exactly why I want the US to disengage from Africa to the greatest possible extent, unless engagement is explicitly sought by governments that have a real claim to represent their populace. There's no reason for us to be where we're not wanted, in any form. There's even less reason to plow into a herculean effort to buy our way back into the good graces of Africans. It won't work, we'll spend a pile, and most of the money will go to people who already have plenty. No reason for the US to try to compete with the Chinese for position and influence: that just sets us up for manipulation and encourages a new round of the proxy competition that has never done anyone any good.

I'm sure there are many who would love to play the Chinese against the US and work both for favors. I don't think the US should play along with that game.

[KingJaja]

Never say never... and don't underestimate the Chinese. It's early days yet, and they might well write a history to rival that of the West... if Africans choose to let them do it, of course. The difference today is not that the Chinese have better intentions or more benign methods, but that this time around Africans have a choice. Whether or not they use it remains to be seen.

It is highly unlikely that the Chinese will repeat what the West did in Africa. The World has moved on from that and the Chinese are not that stupid.

We also still have very favourable ratings of the US, as the BBC World Service poll shows:

The most favourable views are found in the Philippines (90%, up 8 points), Ghana (84%, up 12 points), and Nigeria (76%, up 12 points). South Korean views on US influence markedly improved as positive ratings rose to 74 per cent (up 17 points), while negative ratings dropped from 38 per cent to 19 per cent.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pi...ons_bt/680.php

(George Bush recently went on a very well received trip to a couple of African nations. Sub Saharan Africa is the only part of the World where George Bush would receive such a warm reception)

However, the US Military does not have and is not likely to have favourable ratings among Africans. That is the difference.

[Dayuhan]

It is highly unlikely that the Chinese will repeat what the West did in Africa. The World has moved on from that and the Chinese are not that stupid.

Of course the Chinese won't repeat what the west did in the colonial age... they can't. That doesn't mean they won't come up with their own unique way of making a mess.

What the Chinese are doing falls neatly in the bracket of neocolonialism, loosely defined as the pursuit of colonial objectives by means not requiring physical control of the state. Chinese neocolonialism doesn't look exactly like the post-independence Western neocolonialism, mainly because Western neocolonialism was concurrent with and largely shaped by the Cold War, which the Chinese don't have to deal with. Ultimately the objectives are not much differen. and I suspect the outcome won't be much different either.

[KingJaja]

Looking at the various successive US administrations’ record in Africa, it is one long script of betrayal, destabilisation, political blackmail and even worse. Is it then therefore such a surprise that Africa is concerned about its formation? Of course, the bigger African powers also see AFRICOM as an attempt to overshadow their hegemony and undermine them and their interests in Africa. African governments are willing to accept the US Dollar in times of financial crisis but, at the moment, that is as far as it goes. They remain extremely reluctant and wary to allow the wolf to guard their sheep.

As for the few whites that remain in Africa, they too have seen and experienced US betrayals first-hand. AFRICOM is therefore not seen as their saviour either in any shape or form. Instead, they know that their advice and knowledge of the continent will be turned down and thus they view it as another disaster in the making.

US foreign policy has in many ways been shaped by the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) (mis)adventures in Africa, both covert and overt. Whereas there have no doubt been some successes, the failures have been spectacular. Casting a look at the continent, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and many others immediately spring to mind. Indeed, the US Special Forces are still active in Africa – training the Rwandan Armed Forces (amongst others) – nothing wrong with that - but who in turn are accused of providing support to the rebels in the DRC. “Are they part of AFRICOM?” asked an African minister.

http://eebenbarlowsmilitaryandsecuri...g-or-what.html

[Stan]

First and foremost, you really should check out some of these blogs you go to for source data.

I mean c'mon - the stuff is dated 2008 when AFRICOM was barely manned and operating. Secondly, the "about me" para is pure ego and Bravo Sierra - he's looking for a merc job for crying out loud.

It is evident he never served a day in the US Military. Had he, he would know first hand that the SF teams teaching in Rwanda are most definitely not AFRICOM's. They are however part of AFRICOM's programs and the funding for such a team comes from AFRICOM's pot.

This is the lamest Sierra I have ever read !!!

[davidbfpo]

In the last few days there have been posts on AFRICOM on the live thread 'Nigeria: the (wide) context for violence':http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=7914 and it maybe worth checking in there. Perception remains an issue.

[KingJaja]

News story from BBC. Will only add to the common perception that the USG is up to no good in Africa. Does not help AFRICOM's perception.

Liberians are now openly saying that the reason why the US was reluctant to intervene in Liberia "was because their man was in power". Liberians feel betrayed by the US. (Liberians still regard the Nigerian Military as their (flawed) saviours).

US authorities say former Liberian leader Charles Taylor worked for its intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the Boston Globe reports.

The revelation comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper.

A Globe reporter told the BBC this is the first official confirmation of long-held reports of a relationship between US intelligence and Mr Taylor.

Mr Taylor is awaiting a verdict on his trial for alleged war crimes.

Rumours of CIA ties were fuelled in July 2009 when Mr Taylor himself told his trial, at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Hague, that US agents had helped him escape from a maximum security prison in Boston in 1985.

The CIA at the time denied such claims as "completely absurd".

But now the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy arm, has disclosed that its agents - and those of the CIA - did later use Mr Taylor as an informant, the Globe reports.

Globe reporter Bryan Bender told the BBC's Network Africa programme that Pentagon officials refused to give details on exactly what role Mr Taylor played, citing national security.

But they did confirm that Mr Taylor first started working with US intelligence in the 1980s, the period when he rose to become one of the world's most notorious warlords, Mr Bender says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16627628

[KingJaja]

Expect the "Pan-Africanist" brigade, the "Anti-Imperialist" legion and the likes of Al Jazeera to milk this story for all it's worth.

Americans assume that they have a favourability advantage over the Chinese in SS Africa - just wait until this story grows wings, and flies.

[Dayuhan]

Americans assume that they have a favourability advantage over the Chinese in SS Africa - just wait until this story grows wings, and flies.

What Americans assume that? Most seem to assume the opposite, and they're probably right, for now at least. Eventually Africans will figure out that just as the US was in bed with yesterday's African despots, China is in bed with today's. We'll see. I trust the Chinese to push a little too hard and a little too far, and to keep right on pushing. They're new at this yet, give them time...

[KingJaja]

What Americans assume that? Most seem to assume the opposite, and they're probably right, for now at least. Eventually Africans will figure out that just as the US was in bed with yesterday's African despots, China is in bed with today's. We'll see. I trust the Chinese to push a little too hard and a little too far, and to keep right on pushing. They're new at this yet, give them time...

I guess we've been talking to different sets of Americans...

Have you been to Tanzania, seen the TanZam railway line? The Chinese have been around for quite some time. We don't know what the future holds, but the Chinese seem to have managed the transition in South Sudan and Zambia quite well.

Another thing you are missing are the growing number of inter-personal / business relationships between Chinese and Africans. The worst the Chinese can do is to be considered modern-day Indians and Lebanese (not exactly liked nor hated).

Africans are beginning to make a distinction between the Chinese people and the Chinese government - and the Chinese government does its best not to attract headlines. Cannot say the same thing for the USG

[Stan]

I'm having dinner in 30 minutes with officers from AFRICOM

I can hardly contain myself thinking about when and how I tell them they are the boogieman

More serious discussion to follow !

[davidbfpo]

Stan,

Even if AFRICOM is based in Stuggart (35F currently) and you're 23F the visitors have hardly come to go skiing!

[Stan]

Stan,

Even if AFRICOM is based in Stuggart (35F currently) and you're 23F the visitors have hardly come to go skiing!

Hey David,
Before we discuss why members of AFRICOM were here, I should warn you about the BBCs weather information service.

It was minus 18 C. last night and this morning, not minus 5 C. I love it when people get paid to guesstimate weather forecasts

Our meetings were typical 5-year budget conferences between the Baltic States and EUCOM. Participating members were from both EUCOM and AFRICOM. As far as I can tell there are manpower shortages as well as EUCOM gearing their (bastard) sister command to assume duties (again) under EUCOM once AFRICOM mobilizes elsewhere.

The AFRICOM guru was not at all surprised at being considered the boogieman -in fact he liked it !

What I had not realized was just how much had been budgeted to plant AFRICOM on African soil. The amount staggers the total sum for all of Africa and then some. Some of these folks estimated hiring over 2,500 locals in addition to construction, maintenance and transportation contracts.

I asked if any of this information was provided to the potential host countries and the answer was NO.

The current line of defense budget cuts will now make that proposal impossible

[M-A Lagrange]

What I had not realized was just how much had been budgeted to plant AFRICOM on African soil. The amount staggers the total sum for all of Africa and then some. Some of these folks estimated hiring over 2,500 locals in addition to construction, maintenance and transportation contracts.

I asked if any of this information was provided to the potential host countries and the answer was NO.

The current line of defense budget cuts will now make that proposal impossible

Hey Stan,

US are building new embassies all over Central Africa. Is there some plans to set AFRICOM in that part of Africa?
By the way a unique central command center for all africa is not what I would qualify as a extremely smart decision. France, UK... had several bases and that was for a good reason: you can't deploy troops all over Africa only from Djibouti. (It's too hot anyway there)

[KingJaja]

The AFRICOM guru was not at all surprised at being considered the boogieman -in fact he liked it !

I'd be very interested to know why he likes it.

The AFRICOM HQ construction (if it was approved) would not have been the largest construction project in SSA. There are many other non-controversial construction projects in going on right now (Nairobi-Thika Road, Bui Dam etc).

[KingJaja]

This is off topic, but I thought it needs a mention. What many people don't realise is how much South Africans (Blacks) and Nigerians loathe each other. This isn't on a governmental/diplomatic level, but on a personal level.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A series of airport deportations by South African and Nigerian authorities has sparked a growing diplomatic row between the two African nations.
Last week, South Africa deported 125 Nigerians arriving to Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport on an Arik Air Ltd. flight from Nigeria. Health authorities there said those passengers carried fraudulent yellow fever cards, Nigeria's government has said.
Since those deportations, authorities at Lagos' Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Nigeria have deported at least 84 South Africans over similar claims about their vaccination cards, two government officials who requested anonymity said Wednesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak about the issue.
Yellow fever vaccination cards, though required throughout much of Africa, often serve as a means for officials to extort bribes from travelers who forget their cards. In Nigeria, health authorities often target foreigners coming in for work at foreign oil firms in the nation's crude-rich southern delta. Yellow fever cards also remain easy to purchase, with hawkers selling properly stamped cards outside of Lagos' international airport for the equivalent of $5.
Nigeria Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru, speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday, said the deportations represented something more than a vaccination concern. Ashiru said it represented the ongoing "xenophobia" faced by Nigerian immigrants living in South Africa who face rampaging police who arrest them without cause.
In South Africa, many there blame Nigerian immigrants for contributing to the nation's high crime rate.
"When you deport two Nigerians from your country on flimsy excuses, there will be appropriate reaction. It will not be retaliation but you will know that we are reciprocating one way or the other," Ashiru said. "South African immigration authorities or officials do not have a monopoly of deporting travelers."
Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for South Africa's Foreign Ministry, said his country planned to issue a statement Wednesday.
Visa requirements remain strict between the two countries. Diplomatically, the two nations also hold differing views, including Nigeria supporting Libya's rebels during the nation's recent civil war. Nigeria also joined international forces calling for the ouster of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo in 2010, while South Africa largely remained quiet.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...8ced0c83fa2636

Nigerians, understandably, have a tough time with immigration authorities all over the World. While we might be willing to accept rude behaviour from US immigration authorities (I was sexually assaulted in Chicago in 2005), but we will not accept the same behaviour from African nations (especially from an African nation with one of the highest HIV infection rates and public health challenges of its own).

Nigeria and South Africa also tend to find themselves on different sides of major diplomatic issues like Ivory Coast and Libya.