Post-colonial meddling: when the European colonizers were the world's superpowers they messed up the internal affairs of most African nations and earned the loathing of many African people.

Now, the United States is the world's unchallenged superpower and it too is trying to influence events in Africa to suit its own purposes and, just as with the Europeans before them, the Americans are hated by the people whose lives they affect negatively. (Africa -- Foreign Interference)

Patrice Lumumba might have made a great leader in Africa; we'll never know. He was elected as prime minister of the Congo (later called Zaire, now called Congo again) at the time of its independence in 1960. The country had been brutally exploited by King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) and those who came after him. Rich in copper, cobalt, diamonds, iron, and many other natural resources, Congo might have enjoyed a prosperous independence. Prime Minister Lumumba was in favour of a strong central government and against the division of the country along tribal or regional lines. He said his goal was to return to African values and to reject any imported ideology. Such ideas did not go down well with some very powerful outside interests; they didn't like the notion of an assertive Patrice Lumumba leading his country into the future.

The view among the movers and shakers of Western power, was that Mr. Lumumba was a dangerous figure who was about to take the newly independent Congo either into social chaos or into an alliance with the Soviet Union. The Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Allen Dulles, called the Congolese leader "An African Castro," and a "mad dog," who threatened the capitalist system.

On a chilly night in January 1961, an open patch of Congolese savannah was illuminated by the headlamps of police cars. A police officer took Patrice Lumumba by the arm and led him to a big tree. He walked wearily; he had been tortured for hours, perhaps days. A four-man execution squad stood by, while about 20 soldiers, policemen, and government ministers watched silently. An officer gave the order to fire and a rain of bullets mowed down Mr. Lumumba and two of his former ministers. Later, the bodies were hacked to pieces and dissolved in acid.

For the next 40 years, the official version of Patrice Lumumba's death was that the whole thing was plotted and carried out by the Congolese. In 1999, the Belgian writer Ludo De Witte published his book, The Assassination of Lumumba. The book documents a strong case that Patrice Lumumba was deposed and murdered with the encouragement and help of the governments of Belgium and the United States. In 2001, a parliamentary enquiry in Belgium began an attempt to uncover the truth behind Mr. Lumumba's death.

After the murder, the country was in chaos. Then, in 1965, Colonel Joseph Mobutu seized the government in a military coup. Backed by America, France, and other Western nations, President Mobutu spent the next 30 years plundering his country. He became one of the richest people in the world by stealing mineral royalties paid to his country by the corporations that ran the mines.

Western banks and construction companies were equally eager to help Mr. Mobutu realize his elaborate development plans, such as the Inga dam. It was supposed to generate one-third of the world's hydroelectricity, The dam and many other projects failed, as the president and his friends pocketed the funds.

Patrice Lumumba might have become as evil and corrupt as Joseph Mobutu, but in death he has taken on an almost saintly stature. Today, he still lives on as a genuine and honest revolutionary for many thousands of African workers and youth who try to find a way out of the meddling from outside the continent.

The United States and its allies propped up President Mobutu and his corrupt regime because he opposed communism and the Soviet Union. But, he was the kind of person who would have supported the Soviets if they could have paid him more than the Americans. The Cold War struggle between the West and the Communist bloc ended in 1989, but foreign meddling in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo didn't cease then.

Wayne Madsen is the go-to guy on this file. He spent years researching American activities in Central Africa. The result of his work is the 2001 book Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999. What the book lacks in terms of a good title it makes up for in content. Among the many accusations Mr. Madsen documents are:

* U.S. troops and intelligence agents trained and equipped rebel soldiers fighting to overthrow the government of President Mobutu;

* French officials recovered the bodies of two U.S. soldiers killed in action alongside rebel forces in 1997;

* The United States, Germany, Belgium, and Kazakhstan have been identified by the United Nations as leading buyers of the illegally exploited resources from the Congo;

* Americans had knowledge of the extermination of Hutu refugees by Tutsis in both Rwanda and eastern Congo and did nothing about it. There is reason to believe that some U.S. forces, either Special Forces or mercenaries, may have taken part in the extermination of Hutu refugees.

Wayne Madsen works for the public interest group Electronic Privacy Information Center. In testimony to a U.S. Congressional Subcommittee in May 2001 he gave reasons why these secret operations are going on.

"Former [U.S.] Secretary of State Madeleine Allbright was fond of calling pro-U.S. military leaders in Africa who assumed power by force then cloaked themselves in civilian attire, `beacons of hope.'

"In reality, these leaders who include the current presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Angola, Eritrea, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo preside over countries where ethnic and civil turmoil permit unscrupulous international mining companies to take advantage of the strife to fill their own coffers with conflict diamonds, gold, copper, platinum, and other precious minerals, including one -- columbite-tantalite or `coltan' -- which is a primary component of computer microchips and printed circuit boards.

"Some of the companies involved in this new `scramble for Africa' have close links with private military contractors (see box on page 7) and America's top political leadership."

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is just one of the places in Africa where outsiders have had a negative influence. The meddling is usually associated with the extraction of resources, such as oil in Nigeria.

Democracy Now! is an activist group that has been on the Chevron Corporation's case for several years over its oil business in Nigeria. From 1983 to 1999, Nigeria was governed by a series of military dictators, the next to last of whom was General Sani Abacha. General Abacha was one of the most corrupt and brutal dictators in Africa's history, which was quite an achievement as it's a pretty crowded field.

During his six years in power, the general managed to siphon off about $4 billion U.S. from his country's oil income and stuff it into his own Swiss bank account.

An activist group, The Public i, says that "Since the early 1990s, civil unrest has increased in the Nigerian delta as the rivers and streams have become polluted, farmlands contaminated by oil spills, and the air polluted by gas flaring. Local citizens say multinational corporations and the government have reaped the benefits of their petroleum-rich land while they suffered the consequences of the energy business." According to Salih Booker, writing in the May 2001 issue of Current History, Chevron "... buttressed military rule in Nigeria and even hired the regime's soldiers for crowd control work -- work that included firing on unarmed protesters at the sites of its operations in Nigeria."

Meanwhile, Democracy Now! alleges that Chevron company helicopters were used to carry Nigerian government soldiers on a deadly mission in 1999. U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has called for an investigation "into the allegation of killings of innocent civilians, human rights abuses, and harassment of environmental activists by the Nigerian security forces in collaboration with U.S. multinational oil corporations in the Niger Delta."

Until 2001, Condoleezza Rice sat on Chevron's Board of Directors. Ms. Rice now sits in the Cabinet of U.S. President George W. Bush as his National Security Adviser. Another member of Mr. Bush's Cabinet is Vice-President Dick Cheney, who until recently was the Chief Executive Officer of the Halliburton Company. It is the world's largest oil services company, which according to Salih Booker in Current History was "complicit in lining the pockets of the dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha ..."

Other members of the Bush administration cause concern among Africans. Walter Kansteiner III has been chosen by President Bush to be his top Africa policy-maker. Mr. Kansteiner comes from the right-wing Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). Ann-Louise Colgan of Africa Action writes that IRD: "Displays virulent opposition to social justice movements in the developing world. It has been particularly critical of U.S. religious groups supporting liberation theology in Latin America and liberation movements in Africa."

One such movement is the African National Congress (ANC). Under its leader, Nelson Mandela, the ANC led the fight to defeat the racist policy of apartheid in South Africa. Walter Kansteiner has written that the African National Congress does not represent majority opinion in South Africa even though the party has won two-thirds of the popular vote in that country's last two elections.

And, while we're in South Africa, we should remember Dick Cheney's remarks. The U.S. Vice President, when he was a member of Congress, did not support releasing Nelson Mandela from jail. Mr. Mandela had already spent more than 20 years in prison for his opposition to the racist policies of the South African government.

After his freedom was granted in 1990 Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa. He remains an enormously popular, stately, and respected figure throughout the continent.

However, it's unfair to blame the United States for all of Africa's troubles. The European powers, in carving up Africa among themselves, took no account of the local populations. Boundary lines were drawn to create nations where nations had never existed before. Traditional tribal homelands might be split between two countries. Peoples with a history of enmity towards each other were forced to coexist in the same state.

When the colonizers departed, they left the Africans to sort out many of the messes they had created.

In many cases, the newly independent states were poorly equipped for the task. Here's what the BBC History of Africa says on that point: "On the eve of independence, the Congo, a territory larger than Western Europe, bordering on nine other African colonies/states, was seriously underdeveloped. There were no African army officers, only three African managers in the entire civil service, and only 30 university graduates."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. The mineral columbite-tantalite, or coltan as it's known, is vital to the computer industry, and 80% of the world's known reserves of coltan are in the eastern Congo. Because of the turmoil in that region, governments of Western industrial nations must do whatever they deem necessary to ensure a secure supply of coltan. Discuss.

2. In the words of U.S. President George W. Bush, Africa does not "fit into the national strategic interests" of the United States. But, why should it? Many of Africa's problems are self-inflicted, the result of appallingly bad leadership and corruption. Why should America be expected to sort this out? Discuss.

3. On 30 June 1960, Belgium officially gave the Congo its independence. At the ceremony to mark the occasion, the Prime Minister spoke bluntly about some of the suffering and humiliation of the Congolese people under colonial domination. Have a student perform this speech to the class (an English translation is available at http://www.urbanfacez.com/ lumumbaspeech.html) and encourage reaction.

FACT FILE

The United Nations estimated in 2000 that 15 million people were homeless as a result wars on the African continent.

FACT FILE

In January 1972, Joseph Mobutu changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which means "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake." He adopted his trademark leopard-skin cap and wooden walking stick topped with an eagle, a symbol of power that allegedly took the strength of eight normal men to carry. He ordered all citizens to adopt African names and dress and changed the name of Congo to Zaire.

Websites

Africa Action - http://www. africapolicy.org/

Institute on Religion and Democracy - http:// www.ird-renew.org/

Testimony of Wayne Madsen to a U.S. Congressional Subcommittee - http://www. africanfront.com/madsen.php

United Nations Report on Mineral Exploitation in the Congo - http://www. npr.org/programs/re/ archives/010502.coltan.html

RELATED ARTICLE: Scramble for Africa.

The original "Scramble for Africa" took place in the 19th century. European nations swept across Africa, taking the land and its resources away from the people who lived them. The colonies they created were sources of raw materials and there was land where Europe's excess population could be settled. The colonies were places government administrators for whom there was no work at home could be sent. There were enormous opportunities for individual adventurism and profit. But, it was bragging rights that was the biggest motivation for Europe's colonizing nations.

Great Britain and France competed with each other for superpower status, so each scrambled to grab territory wherever they could. New nations such as Italy and Germany sought empires to prove their importance. Later, Portugal, Spain, and Holland joined the competition.

RELATED ARTICLE: Outsourcing war.

They used to be called mercenaries, now they are private military contractors (PMCs). They have names such as Executive Outcomes (South Africa) or International Defence and Security (Belgium) and they are being hired by governments to do some dirty work. A company called DynCorp has been hired by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to do a wide array of jobs in South America. A major focus of DynCorp's activities under contract to the U.S. government has been in trying to halt the drug trade in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru.

Other PMCs have shown up in Africa where they have close links to large mining and oil companies. Countries listed as locations of recent PMC activity are: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Ethiopia, and Sudan. PMCs are also believed to have been involved in some of the unpleasant events that have taken place recently in Central Africa.

These mercenary companies provide good cover for those who hire them. Governments are open to scrutiny through freedom-of-information laws, judicial enquiries, and auditors general. Private companies can simply say their activities are protected as trade secrets. In the U.S., Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is trying to stop this practice. In the spring of 2001 she introduced the Andean Region Contractor Accountability Act, legislation that would prohibit the U.S. federal government from funding private armies in the Andean region of South America.

RELATED ARTICLE: Frozen money.

American diplomat Richard Holbrooke organized an "Africa Month" in January 2000 when the United States took its regular turn as President of the United Nation's Security Council.

Mr. Holbrooke said that: "For Africa, perhaps more than anywhere else, the UN matters. Now, for the UN, Africa matters." But, there's not a lot the United Nations can do, because it's short of money. And, one of the major reasons the world body is broke is because the U.S. has stubbornly refused to pay its share of the cost of running it.

As by far the world's richest country, the U.S. is supposed to pick up one,third of the UN's bills. At the time of Mr. Holbrooke's Africa Month, the U.S. owed the UN more than a billion dollars in unpaid dues. Nevertheless, African issues occupy 60% of the Security Council's time.