Africa

Africa (Continent)
The "dark continent", almost completely overrun by European colonialists, now full of nominally independent governments. Its exploitation continues in a range of more modern, complex, forms, such as land grabbing.

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia.

With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population.

Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita which has been ascribed to many factors, most importantly to colonialism and neocolonialism.

Africa has a large quantity of natural resources and food resources, including diamonds, sugar, salt, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, natural gas, cocoa beans, and tropical fruit.

Colonisation

Full article: Berlin Conference

Almost all of Africa was colonised by European powers, especially Britain and France. Modern Ethiopia is an exception. "European powers worked hard to keep knowledge of its crimes in Africa away from public scrutiny."

Decolonisation

Nominal independence was granted to the former colonies throughout the 20th century.

Land grabbing

Full article: Land grabbing

Africa has undergone a boom in land grabbing as foreign investors sought assets likely to be unaffected by, or even to benefit from the global economic events after 2008.

Terrorism

ISIS, according to UN. counter-terrorism officials posed a rising threat amid political instability in West Africa, including in coups and Russian military and US PMC influence.

China

China's flagship economic cooperation program is bouncing back after a lull during the global pandemic, with Africa a primary focus since the 2020s.

The Opioid Crisis Sweeping Africa

Militarisation

The US military has a "quiet but ever-expanding presence on the continent", which has been termed a "shadow war".

“Of the 53 armed forces in Africa, 41 (or 77 percent) received US military training.”
 (April 1999) 

Africa was the location of several high-profile coups in the 2020s, with even the first elected presidents to be removed. Western CCM pointed for most, including the ones in Mali and Niger, to Russia, as attempts to gain minerals and fossil fuels for Russia while also causing mass migrant waves to Europe to cause right-wing governments to win in EU countries, causing even war criminal Tony Blair to return to British politics and publish a warning in a column that Russia is trying to "destabilise" Europe by causing "extremism and migration to come to Europe". Blair opted for a new war against Russia in Africa.

In Ethiopia, Amharan Special Forces withdraw from the Tigray Region, and soon thereafter also withdraw from nearly all of Ethiopia. US and France-backed President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger is toppled in a coup d'état after members of his presidential guard and the armed forces seize control of the country and install General Abdourahamane Tchiani as leader of a military junta, the 6th coup in West Africa starting in 2020. In September 2023 the Russian SVR gave out a press release in which it stated that the US is considering the assassination of the coup leaders.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
William Mountbatten-Windsor	“We are going to have to work much harder and think much deeper, if we are to ensure that human beings and the other species of animal with which we share this planet can continue to co-exist...Africa's rapidly growing human population is predicted to more than double by 2050, a staggering increase of three and a half million people per month...There is no question that this increase puts wildlife and habitat under enormous pressure. Urbanisation, infrastructure development, cultivation—all good things in themselves, but they will have a terrible impact unless we begin to plan and to take measures now.”	William Mountbatten-Windsor	2017

 

Nation states

Nation state	Description
Algeria	A nation on the Mediterranean Sea. The largest country in Africa, formerly colonised by France.
Angola	South West African state
Benin	French speaking country in West Africa.
Botswana	Country in Southern Africa. Formerly part of the British Empire, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.
Burkina Faso	African country; formely part of the French Empire.
Burundi	Very small African nation, formerly part of the Belgian Empire. Their president died under mysterious circumstances during COVID.
Cameroon	West African state
Cape Verde	African island nation. Independence from Portugal in 1975.
Central African Republic	Unstable, poor African country. They speak Sango and French in the CAR.
Chad	Arabic and French speaking desert nation in North Africa. Formerly part of the French Empire, Chad has seen instability in recent years.
Comoros	Obscure island nation off the east coast of Africa. A nation formed at a crossroads of different civilisations, The Comoros is noted for its diverse culture.
Côte d'Ivoire	The Ivory Coast.
Democratic Republic of the Congo	A large country in central Africa, the majority of the former 'Belgian Congo'.
Djibouti	small country in East Africa.
Egypt	Strategically important due particularly to the Suez canal.
Equatorial Guinea	Very small country in Central Africa, between Gabon and Cameroon. Rich in oil.
Eswatini	Small African Kingdom; surrounded by South Africa.
Ethiopia	The most populous landlocked country in the world.
Gabon	French speaking country on the west coast of Africa.
Gambia	The smallest country in mainland Africa.
Ghana	Formerly known as the "Gold Coast", Ghana has one of the most stable governments in Africa. A member of the African Union and the Commonwealth of Nations
Guinea	French speaking country in West Africa.
Guinea-Bissau	Portuguese ex-colony "narco-state" in West Africa.
Kenya	Former UK colony in East Africa
Lesotho	Small landlocked nation in Africa.
Liberia	The only state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule and Africa's oldest republic.
Libya	Libya has larger proven oil reserves than any other African nation, ranking 9th in the world. It was provided with a lot of bomb making equipment in the late 1970s in the Arms for Libya clandestine weapons deal. NATO airstrikes killed 60,000 Libyan civilians in 2011.
Madagascar	A large island off southern Africa
Malawi	Former UK colony in East Africa
Mali	Former French colony in West Africa
Mauritania	African country that banned slavery in 2007.
Mauritius	Island nation in the Indian Ocean. Now a tax haven.
Mozambique	South East African state, former Portuguese colony, now in the British Commonwealth.
Namibia	A diamond rich territory, formerly occupied by South Africa
Niger	West African country, CIA has its own drone base separately from the army here. It still couldn't stop several coup attempts in the 2020s.
Nigeria	Africa's most populous nation state, with large reserves of oil and gas.
Republic of the Congo	French-speaking country in Africa.
Senegal	Country in Africa, former French colony.
Sierra Leone	A global cocaine trafficking hub in West Africa
Somalia	War torn country in Eastern Africa, was still attacking passing ships with "pirates" in the 2000s.
South Africa	A former British and Dutch colony
South Sudan	Country partitioned out of Sudan in extensive covert operation
Sudan	On the list of seven countries which Wesley Clark stated the US military had plans to invade. An apparent coup in 2021.
São Tomé and Príncipe	A Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea.
Tanzania	Former UK colony in East Africa. The president, John Magufuli, who in 2020 resisted WHO pressure to institute a COVID lockdown, died in 2021.
Togo	Small country in West Africa.
Tunisia
Uganda	Former UK colony in East Africa
Zambia
Zimbabwe	African country known for historically high inflation, constitutional protections for anyone but women, and CIA money laundering.

 

Event

Event
Dag Hammarskjöld/Assassination

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Integrity Initiative Weekly Report 9th to 15th July 2018	report	15 July 2018	Euan Grant
Document:Libya – Unbearable Lightness of Being, Africa 1	webpage	29 August 2011	Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Document:Statement from the Pan African Improvement Organisation	statement	27 August 2011	Akili Secka
Document:The Destabilization of Africa	article	1 January 2014	Carla Stea	Global power block machinations over the mineral wealth of Africa
Document:The real invasion of Africa is not news	article	31 January 2013	John Pilger	The real character of renewed US and Western involvement in Africa
Document:US intelligence services return to the practice of eliminating inconvenient African leaders	press release	7 September 2023	SVR	A press release by the Russian SVR Press Bureau in the aftermath of the 2023 coup in Niger
Document:Who pulls Boko Haram’s strings?	interview	16 July 2013	Keith Harmon-Snow	Keith Harmon-Snow interviewed by Voice of Russia about Boko Haram and the beneficiaries of their activities

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.