White Malice (1)

I have just finished reading a book called White Malice: The CIA and the Neo Colonisation of Africa by Susan Williams, who is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. Her research of recently released documents about the activities of the CIA has produced a very disturbing book.

This shows my age, but I remember many of the nations of Africa gaining their independence in the 1960s and 70s. In many of these countries, the original democratic government that gained independence from the colonial powers was quickly overthrown and replaced by a military dictatorship.

At the time, we were led to believe that African democracy was fragile, because Africans were not sufficiently developed to handle it. That did not ring true at the time, but now I understand why. Susan Williams shows that much of this fragility was the work of the CIA, which worked to protect US businesses, while the US government was claiming to support the move towards democracy. Two of the worst cases are Ghana and the Republic of Congo. Patrice Lumamba and Nkrumah were two of the best leaders that Africa has produced, but they were undermined and squeezed from power by people funded and organised by the CIA.

Susan Williams explains,

The reputations of both Nkrumah and Lumumba were deliberately traduced by the officials of Western governments, both locally in their own territories and globally. Nkrumah was portrayed as paranoid—a portrayal that persists. But he would have been a fool not to take precautions against the evident threats on his life and the lives of his family. He was also accused of unrealistic and excessive ambition for Ghana, based, for example, on his plans to rapidly increase educational and health facilities. But the accusers lived in countries that always had these services, which were acutely needed in Ghana following colonial rule.

The accusers were content to keep African nations out of the modern world Patrice Lumumba was presented as fiery, emotional and volatile—the kind of person who might have become one of Africa’s stereotyped “Big Men”. But, if anything, Lumumba’s tragic flaw was being too trusting; far from being a ruthless, cunning operator, he found it difficult and distressing to accept that people might behave without decency. This flaw led him to trust Mobutu, even against the warnings of his advisors. Lumumba’s personal integrity shone like a light in the darkness of the prevailing corruption. Rajeshwah Dayal regarded Lumumba’s bravery as exceptional: a man who could stand up to his gaolers at Thysville and refuse to compromise to save his life was possessed of no ordinary degree of courage.

The vilification of Nkrumah and Lumumba, as well as other leaders, has contributed powerfully to the distorted and negative views of Africa that prevail today (White Malice p. 514).

Covert action of any sort was nothing more than a semantic disguise for murder; coercion, blackmail, bribery, the spreading of lies, whatever is deemed useful to bending other countries to our will (White Malice p. 475)

I will describe some of the worst incidents in my next few posts.