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07/17/2004:

"The George Bush of Africa"

by Patrick Bond counterpunch.org
Pretoria Chooses Subimperialism
The first week of July witnessed two important markers of Africa's geopolitical trajectory. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the African Union (AU) summit, the South African government took major steps to influence the organization, by winning contests to host its parliament and to dominate its peace/security division (the AU's New Partnership for Africa's Development is already located near Pretoria). Meanwhile, in Washington, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) publicly launched a U.S.-Africa policy blueprint, requested by Colin Powell and the Congress.

The main controversy in Addis was a two-year old report on the Zimbabwean government's systemic human rights abuses, which Robert Mugabe's government dubiously denied having seen, although it had been circulating for four months. Harare's delaying tactics won support from Pretoria's foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who a year earlier had pronounced, "We will never criticize Zimbabwe." As the disappointed Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Pious Ncube, concluded of the AU delegates, "All they do is back each other up and drink tea."

The CSIS report on "Rising US Interests in Africa" emphasizes seven interventions: Sudan, whose oil is craved by Washington; Africa's decrepit capital markets, which could "jump start" Bush's gimmicky Millennium Challenge Account; energy, especially the "massive future earnings by Nigeria and Angola, among other key West African oil producers;" wildlife conservation; "counter-terrorism" efforts, which include "a Muslim outreach initiative;" peace operations, which can be transferred to African troops thanks to new G8 funding; and AIDS, whose treatment is feared by pharmaceutical corporations because it will require generic drugs.1 In all but Sudan, South African cooperation will be crucial for the new U.S. imperial agenda. full article