Between 1966 and 1976 Africa experienced 109 coup attempts of where 51 were successful and 58 were unsuccessful
The term neocolonialism is not very fashionable in this age of globalization even if it remains very valid. Attributed to the first postcolonial president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, neocolonialism as a theoretical concept took shape largely in Africa. In a way, neocolonialism is in Africa what Dependency Theory is in Latin America (Sklar 1986:17).
Nkrumah’s book Neo-Colonialism – The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965) is considered the first ample theorisation of neocolonialism. Here Nkrumah argues that neocolonialism is the most dangerous form of imperialism since it exerts power without responsibility (ibid: xi).
He thinks the traditional colonialism was exerted by one imperial power over a particular territory through visible institutions, which at least had to explain and “justify at home the actions it was taking abroad” (ibid). In contrast, neocolonialism is often exerted by “a consortium of financial interests which are not specifically identifiable with any particular state” (ibid: x). However, neocolonialism in his view cannot be limited to economic dependency but is operational in the economic, political, religious, ideological and cultural spheres (ibid: 239). Nkrumah identifies the United States is the main perpetrator of Neocolonialism, and argues that “the official decolonisation in Africa marks the transit from European dominated colonialism to US dominated neocolonialism (ibid).
However, before theorized by Nkrumah, neocolonial discourse dominated the All-African Peoples Conferences (AAPC), held in 1958 [Accra], in 1960 [Tunis], and 1961 [Cairo]. Attended by more than 300 political and trade union leaders from 28 African countries, including observers from Canada, China, Denmark, India, the UK, the USA and the USSR, the fight for the liberation of Africa from imperialism and colonialism constituted the main theme. The second conference while declaring its full support for the Greater Somali movement and the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Algeria, appealed for a corps of all-African volunteers to support and fight with the FLN in Algeria (Wallerstein 1967).
It was at the third AAPC, neocolonialism was conceptualized as the “survival of the colonial system in spite of formal recognition of political independence in emerging countries which become the victims of an indirect and subtle form of domination”. Neocolonialism is exerted by “imposing unequal economic, military and technical conventions; by creating puppet governments following false elections”. When these mechanisms “appear insufficient to hamper the combativity and determination of popular liberation movements” other approaches may be applied such as military interventions guided by the United Nations, balkanisation or systematic division of the political forces (AAPC 1961). The “main perpetrators of neocolonialism” were identified as the United States, Britain, France, Federal Germany, Israel, Belgium, Holland and South Africa.
The APPC also led to the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963[renamed the African Union in 2002]. The OAU was a further attempt at pan-African resistance against imperialism. Though it is no longer even a shadow of its militant past.
Neocolonialism vs. socialism:
The fight against neocolonialism and the struggle for pan-Africanism and socialism are concomitant. This struggle in its entirety is delineated by Nkrumahism (Williams 1984: 122).
Nkrumah’s (1963) dreamt of a united socialist Africa. Nkrumah (1970) argues that the “total liberation and the unification of Africa under an All-African socialist government must be the primary objective” as a step towards an “international socialist revolution, and the onward progress towards world communism”. He wants an Africa ordered on the principle, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs (Nkrumah 1970: 88).
Similar to Frantz Fanon’s vision of a socialist Africa to counter colonialism, Nkrumah (1965) argues that socialism is the only way to resist neocolonialism. For him, socialism must begin with an integrated economic planning, a unified military and defence strategy, and a unified foreign policy (ibid: 131, 218-221).
Nkrumah’s analysis is drawn directly from his own first-hand experience as the first president of Ghana removed from power by the MI5 and CIA in 1966 (Nkrumah 1966; Stockwell 1992). His analysis of neocolonialism continued from his exile in Guinea, and through radio broadcasting he continued to have significant influence on West African politics until his death in 1972 (Milne 1990).
Africa as neocolonial laboratory:
While neocolonial discourse focuses on both internal and external actors in the ‘capitalist world-economy’, mainstream Western narratives have ‘internalised’ African problems as rooted in ‘poor governance’ (Arrighi 2002: 6).
The World Bank’s Berg report from 1981 and subsequently the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development became the dominant mainstream, maintaining that the root causes of African crises are ‘internal’ and the solution is a ‘state-minimalist’ approach to development in the form of a ‘new’ political economy (NPE) based on the neoliberal ideology (Ibid: 6-10).
The way in which African crises are ‘internalised’, is reflected, for instance, in Calderisi’s (2007) book The Trouble With Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working. Calderisi, a former spokesperson of the World Bank on Africa, notes that many African political and intellectual leaders point at the slave trade, the economic system, colonialism and neocolonialism as a cause for underdevelopment and conflict in Africa. However, Calderisi argues that such issues belong to the past and “Africa is now responsible for most of its own problems and… outsiders can help only if they are more direct and demanding in their relations with the continent” (ibid: 7). For Calderisi, policies in Africa are controlled by Africans “not by such abstractions as neocolonialism” (ibid:26). He further argues that “Africa’s problem is that it has never known good government” (ibid: 57) and refers to socialist pan-African leaders, such as Touré and Nkrumah as corrupt dictators (ibid: 33, 57, 90) whereas Nkrumah is a prime example of a leader who failed and was overthrown by his own army (ibid: 61).
In 1998 Collier and Hoeffler, published their research “On Economic Causes on Civil Wars”, which marks the beginning of the debate known as ‘greed versus grievance’ (Collier and Hoeffler 1998; Collier 2000) and it lent an empirical aura to mainstream Western discourse on Africa’s ‘poor governance’.
Collier points out African ‘civil’ wars from 1965 to 2004 and argues that ‘local’ greed seems to be more of a root cause of armed conflicts than grievance. He defines greed as economic opportunities by ‘local’ minority actors who benefit from civil wars, who therefore have little interest in peace (Collier 2000: 110). Host of other scholars have blamed Africa for its contemporary problems.
In these discourses Western covert operations, in spite of their significant impact on Africa, find no space. For instance, in the 1960s a number of socialist pan-African leaders were assassinated through covert action initiated by Western intelligence agencies, such as Cameroon’s Felix Moumie in 1960 and Congo’s Patrice Lumumba in 1961 (CIA 1999), or removed from power such as Nkrumah in Ghana 1966, and Modibo Keita of Mali in 1968 (Stockwell 1992). Between 1966 and 1976 Africa experienced 109 coup attempts of where 51 were successful and 58 were unsuccessful (Frank 1981: 293).
At the end of the 1970s, the US National Security Council (NSC) considered the leftist pan-African movements as a serious threat to US national security. Brezinski (1978) states in a report to the NSC, ordered by President Jimmy Carter, that appropriate steps must be taken “inside and outside [the US] in order to inhibit any pressure by radical African leaders and organisations on the US Black community for the latter to exert influence on the policy of the Administration toward Africa”. The report further recommends a number of policy options such as: Special clandestine operations should be launched by the CIA to generate mistrust and hostility in American and world opinion against joint activity of the two forces [Black African and the US Black movements] (NSC 1978).
The US overseas covert operations from 1945 to 1975 are numbered at 900 major operations and 3000 minor operations (Shultz 1984: 267). Many of these operations were carried out in Africa (Stockwell 1991). Neglecting the notion of neocolonialism and covert operations and instead ‘internalising’ the root causes of conflicts in Africa is plain hypocrisy. As Wallerstein (2005: 131) notes, imperialism has “always had its moral defence” and today “neocolonialism is rampant” in Africa and racism is “pervasive throughout the existing world system” (ibid: 255).
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Riaz ul Hassan has been actively involved in Social Media studies since 2006. He has held diverse editorial positions in different literary magazines including Ravi and Patras. Currently studying in Sweden and plans to pursue his PhD in the field of Social Media. Riaz graduated from Government College Lahore and has worked at the same institute for about one year as lecturer. He has keen interest and involvement in arts, theater and Social Media studies. |
