The New Plan for Africa is Just Like the Old Imperial One

 Author: Phil Butler

Column: Politics

Region: Africa

When US National Security Advisor John Bolton unveiled the new United States plan for Africa last December, few in Congress knew the closely guarded secrets of the plan that was already in progress for almost a year. The journalists, African dignitaries, US government officials, and political groupies in attendance at the Heritage Foundation event built around the announcement were “enlightened” on Donald Trump’s plans for recolonization of Africa.

The Africa policy Bolton revealed the essence of Donald Trump’s mission to assist in the final solution for underdeveloped nations worldwide. Trump’s “American First” campaign promise was the wakeup call to Africa and other continents, a call to pay attention to renewed American aggression. The National Security Advisor, making a speech on policy the Secretary of State should probably have made, warned all in attendance at the event:

“The United States will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent, without focus or prioritization… From now on, the United States will not tolerate this longstanding pattern of aid without effect, assistance without accountability, and relief without reform.”

Bolton went on to proclaim China and Russia as American adversaries on the continent, condemning them for “rapidly expanding their financial and political influence across Africa.” Trump’s right-hand man on dirty dealings around the globe called China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) “predatory practice,” as a stunned audience looked on. The core of his statements are stunningly honest and clear:

“We want something more to show for Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

And that “something” is not in the best interests of the people of Africa, as anyone who’s studied Anglo-European meddling in African affairs can attest. Trump’s Africa plan is more or less the same as all previous US presidents, even though he and Bolton pretend this imperialism is something new. Bolton slung daggers at China for holding debt in Africa, when it is the Paris Club led by Americans that has most African nations over a debt barrel. The United States, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, and France are robbing African nations like the Sherriff of Nottingham, and there’s no Robin Hood in sight. In Bolton’s statements issued by the White House, we find:

“China uses bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive to Beijing’s wishes and demands. Its investment ventures are riddled with corruption and do not meet the same environmental or ethical standards as U.S. developmental programs.”

Ethical standards, indeed. Let’s look at the case of the American hedge fund Och-Ziff being forced to pay $412 million in an African bribery case where corrupt payments were made to officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Chad, Niger, Guinea, and Zimbabwe. Take note please of the fact Libya was back in the game as of 2015/2016. Och-Ziff is run by billionaire Daniel Och, who is in turn associated with some real investment Nazis, it was also associated with Zimbabwe’s gangster president, Robert Mugabe. Then there’s the case of Muammar Qaddafi, the late, unlamented leader of Libya, from whose sovereign-wealth fund Och accepted a $300 million investment. But let’s not stray off the path into investigating hedge fund criminals.

It’s not the bribery and corruption that is killing Africa’s legacy; it’s the real debt and the robbing of natural resources that is. Take for instance the case of Zimbabwe being saddled with a $16,9 billion debt mostly by the Anglo-European banking assemblage and the Paris Club. $2.7 billion owed Paris Club is actually in arrears, which means the auctioning (negotiation) of Zimbabwe assets is about to get underway. For those unfamiliar with the “official” role of this Paris Club, a quote from this story on Zimbabwe should suffice for our purposes here:

“The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries. As debtor countries undertake reforms to stabilize and restore their macroeconomic and financial situation, Paris Club creditors provide an appropriate debt treatment.”

Pay close attention to the Paris Club “debt treatment” where it concerns compensating German and Dutch colonists whose lands were seized under land reform. The Paris Club is twisting the arm of President Emmerson Mnangagwa to either give back the vast tracks of land the whites once owned, or to pay massive damages. In one case, the Swiss/German family Bernhard von Pezold won their property in Manicaland plus their full legal costs and interest, or the Zimbabwean government has to pay the family $195 million in damages. In the case of Bernhard von Pezold, this farming concern tried to hold on to 78,275 hectares (193421.74 acres) of farmland even after Zimbabwe land reform had already repatriated most such tracts. 

In the news, the family is made out to be poor farmers fighting to hold on to their beloved dirt farms. But the reality is revealed if we as “Who buys almost 200,000 acres of land in the first place?” First of all, the name of Bernhard von Pezold is from an aristocratic family of Czech/German origins. The son, Heinrich von Pezold, is the spitting image of the man who is probably his grandfather, commander of the 14th Panzer Division encircled and captured at the battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Oberst i.G. Bernd Leonid von Pezold. Bernd was held by the Soviets until 1956 and later had 4 children with his wife Elisabeth von Schack back in Bavaria. Again, let’s not get off the track on a Nazi hunt here. The fact the sons and daughter of Bernhard von Pezold have massive holdings is only relevant to show that old power structures fuel the new imperialism. To see their “mission”, please look into Border Timbers Ltd. and Rift Valley Corporation.

As I said, the Anglo-Europeans are recolonizing Africa with the help of Trump. Under the guise of assistance and forward economic thinking, the old colonial powers are reasserting themselves to finish off what’s left of Africa’s resources. Look at this report when German Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the new “Compact with Africa” initiative. At its core, the new program is about more private investment, which means still more debt for Africans. While western leaders point the finger at China and Russia for doing dastardly lending deeds, the same elites in the west are planning what they accuse other nations of. Africa is the prize, and the only question for outside nations is – who will win it? Over a billion people are set to lose what’s left of their birthright, under the watchful eyes of no one.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

https://journal-neo.org/2019/01/29/the-new-plan-for-africa-is-just-like-the-old-imperial-one/