The way America has been “saving Africa” is racist, heavy-handed and condescending. When will African Americans put a stop to practices that carry all the tenor and tone of an “imperialist power” taking locals to the cleaners?
We need a reset from the paradigm put in place over the last 15 years by predominately White Christian and Jewish coalitions. Their practices have resulted in more than 3 million lives lost and a formal division of Africa’s largest country into what is now Sudan and Southern Sudan. Leading up to Southern Sudan’s secession, President Barack Obama offered the North: full diplomatic ties, lifting of economic sanctions, and removal from the list of countries listed as sponsors of terrorism for compliant in the referendum. Helping to farther the world’s 193rd country may come back to haunt President Obama.
After the South’s vote, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti sought out U.S. officials to lift the sanctions. "We have delivered what we promised … and want all sanctions to be lifted," Karti said. But it seems that he is going to find it difficult collecting on the Obama promise. The North’s problem is the image it has allowed the people “saving Sudan” to spawn for them. The Khartoum government has been accused of every evil atrocity against mankind, including slavery practices, ethnic cleansing and genocide; now, the Obama team is saying that Khartoum is the source of bombings of refugees and camps in South Sudan; so, it’s no surprise that Obama and his staffers trot out the same old tripe. “Khartoum’s practices have not yet improved enough to warrant their removal.”
Sanctions are “an act of war”, and Obama has shown he plans to continue that haughty attitude with the Sudanese. The debate is an old one; a result of two civil wars between the North and South for all but 15 years of Sudan’s independence. Ostensibly to “save” starving Africans, coalitions of predominately White humanitarian and religious groups have engineered numerous “interventions” in Sudan. These “interventions” have mostly involved getting lots of land with oil on it. Sadly, many African Americans bought into the flim flam. Before being proven fraudulent, the Sudan Slave Redemption Industry deception garnered millions of donations “to obtain freedom for fellow human beings.” The “slave redemption” trick mobilized a “pariah” public opinion status for Sudan and billions of dollars and legislation to continue the conflicts in its borders. The Congressional Sudan Caucus has had great success passing legislation benefiting rebels in the South.
For Black Americans, there are two conflicting currents in the issue of Southern Sudan. Many African-American Muslims espouse a religious solidarity with the government of Omar Hassan al-Bashir and say, “Western forces are conspiring to undermine Islam.” On the opposite side is mainly Black Christian leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and talk-show host Joe Madison, who’ve advocated the overthrow of the North since the 1990s. So who among us is going to push the Obama administration to lift sanctions? Even Southern Sudan officials want the U.S. to remove the economic sanctions so that the south’s oil exports won’t suffer financially when they move through northern Sudan’s oil pipelines. Obama’s current order maintains several sets of U.S. sanctions imposed since 1997 which restrict trade and investment with Sudan. As would be expected, Sudan’s foreign ministry condemns the extension of the sanctions. Foreign Minister Karti said he’d hoped the peaceful conduct of the secession vote would provide an opening for economic opportunities for his country. "The sanctions imposed by the U.S. administration are political sanctions and are aimed at damaging Sudan’s vital interests by hindering development ambitions," said Karti.
The African American impact on Africa should be better and more positive. The African-American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice has been biased against Khartoum for decades, and is a well-known opponent of President al-Bashir. Rice and Obama head a racist American practice towards Africans that deploy a coercive type of diplomacy, one full of threats, unrealistic demands and promises of incentives that revive images of old colonialists. (William Reed is available for speaking/seminar projects via BaileyGroup.org)
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William Reed Columnist
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