VILLAINS OF AFRICA

The narrative will always glorify the hunter until the Lion itself learns how to write.” In this case the Lion being Africa, or maybe it should read; the narrative will always glorify the west until Africa itself learns how to write, or in other words, the story of our African history, our African leaders will always glorify the west until Africa learns how to write or rather tell her own story. Very few are the times one would come across an African based documentary that has been produced and shot by an African or group of Africans. It is more often than not that the west comes to Africa and tells our stories for us. We rarely if not at all tell our own stories. That is why when we allow the west to tell our own stories for us, they decide to choose what information to add and what information to leave out in a bid to glorify and beautify themselves in the eyes of the rest of the world.

A good example is the 1986 South African television series titled Shaka Zulu. This was a movie directed by a western man named William C. Faure and not written by an African but by another western man named Joshua Sinclair. This was a story based on the African King of the Zulu, Shaka who reigned from 1816 to 1828. It was also based on the writings of the British traders with whom he interacted not the writings of any Africans. We have documentaries and stories told about our countries founding fathers, told by the west and their western television companies. The same west that colonized us and mistreated us. The same west that beat us, tortured us and killed us in thousands. Who do you expect the story they tell to glorify? They have made documentaries about some of our leaders that stood in their way and stepped on their interests in our countries, in these documentaries they have vilified them and called them foul names such as brutal dictators, sadistic dictators, terrorists and many other horrific names. This is the image that they are imbedding in the minds and hearts of Africans and the younger generation of Africans.

Some of our leaders are believed to have been assassinated with the aid of the west. Assassinated because they were deemed as a threat to the west. They were killed because they stood up for what was right and decided to put an end to the ill treatment of the African, theft, exploitation and plundering of Africa’s natural resources that only benefited the west and not the African, the owner and custodian of these resources.

The word assassinate means; To murder someone, especially an important person, by a sudden or obscure attack, especially for ideological or political reasons. We have had a number of visionary African leaders assassinated due to political reasons, in most cases with more than 90% western involvement. It is no secret that the west or rather the developed countries survive on the exploitation of the African continent. Former French president Jacques Chirac stated in an interview recently that, “we have to be honest and acknowledge that a big part of the money in our banks comes precisely from the exploitation of the African content.” In 2008 he stated that without Africa France will slide down in the rank of a third world power.

The west survives on the dependency of Africa on the west and so, when a visionary leader emerges from within Africa and decides to put an end to the dependency of Africa on the west, their interests are threatened and they begin to plot to get rid of such a leader. When they do get rid of such a leader they begin to tell stories and make documentaries about how bad and evil this dictator of a leader was and how it was his own people that killed him, but they always leave out the part where it is they themselves that funded the riddance of such a leader in order to safe guard their interests in Africa.

In this article, briefly I give a background on certain African leaders that have been assassinated, how they started, how they rose to power, their goals, vision and not only how but why they eventually were assassinated. I endeavor to bring to light a different perspective or rather a different point of view on certain African leaders that have been known and labeled as bad in the eyes of Africa and the rest of the world. A villain is a vile, wicked person, one capable or guilty of great crimes. A bad person, in movies usually the main antagonist of the hero. I decided to pick out 5 very well-known villains of the African continent as the title of this article suggests. Based on the brief information presented in this write up, at the end of this article it will be up to you to decide whether they are villains or Heroes and who really is the villain between the West and Africa.

In a documentary about Thomas Sankara, on a program called FACES OF AFRICA compiled by China Global Television Network, a Chinese company, we learn that when Thomas Sankara became president, Burkina Faso was poverty stricken. Just 10% of the population was literate and infant mortality was high but Sankara had a fresh outlook. He said, “this country is not poor, on the contrary, we have resources.” He built roads, railways, schools and hospitals, so everyone could have enough. Sankara took an anti-imperialist stance making it clear he was not going to be told what to do by rich western nations or accept aid from them. In an interview

Sankara’s former Minister for security Ernest Ouedraogo said, “Sankara, changed the mind set of his people. He made them evolve. He made them understand that no one else was going to come and build their country, and he also made them understand that they were not less than others.” While at military school Sankara met young activist Blaise Compaore, the boys became great friends, they shared the same political ideologies. On the 4th of August 1983, Thomas Sankara seized power in a military coup along with his political ally and best friend Blaise Compaore. 4 years on, rumors were rife that there was more to Compaore than it seemed. Sankara’s government suspected that Compaore might want to get rid of him. The former security minister warned Sankara that his position was not safe but he denied the accusation made. Blaise Compaore is widely believed to have assassinated Sankara. Sankara’s political allies alleged that his anti-imperialist stance put him in a negative light on the global stage and therefore former colonial master France backed his assassination so that Compaore more loyal to its political and economic ambitions could step in. He took the helm as president straight afterwards and was in power for 27years. Sankara had been president for just 4years before he was assassinated.

Apart from Thomas Sankara another African hero believed to have been assassinated with the aid of the west is Patrice Lumumba. On the 17th of January 1961 Patrice Lumumba the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo was assassinated, this heinous crime is widely believed to have been the fruit of two interrelated conspiracies led by the US and Belgian governments. Lumumba was a man who had a passion for his country, a man devoted to his people who saw the departure of the Belgians from the Congo as a perfect opportunity for the people of the Congo to show the rest of the world that they could build a strong country. In an interview he stated that, “the objectives that we want is the liberation of Congo from the colonial regime, we need total emancipation of the country because this Congolese independence does not mean kicking the Belgian out! All we want to do is build a sovereign country were both Congolese and Belgians will be able to work hand in hand in the service of the Congolese nation.” He saw the injustices facing his people and decided to take a stand.

“The Republic of Congo has been proclaimed and our country is now in the hands of its own children. Together my brothers and sisters we are going to begin a new struggle a sublime struggle which will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness. Together we are going to establish social justice and make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor. We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he walks in freedom and we are going to make up the Congo the center of the suns radiance for all of Africa.” These were the words of Patrice Lumumba on the day that his country gained its independence from Belgium which was its colonial master for more than 70 years.
Belgium ruled over the Congo with brutality while plundering its rich natural resources. They stole Ivory, rubber, diamonds, copper, gold, timber, palm oil etc…the list is endless. Lumumba was the first democratically elected leader of Congo. He rose as a leader of the Congo’s independence movement and in 1960 he was elected as the first prime minister of the country. Lumumba’s goal of Congo being in total control of its resources, his Pan-Africanism and his vision of a united Congo gained him many enemies. Lumumba said in his speech on their Independence Day that Africa needs to be economically independent. This meant Africa needed to be in total control of her resources without foreign interference. This did not sit well with Belgium and the US because now their interests in Congo were being threatened by Lumumba. Both Belgium and the United States of America actively sought to have Lumumba overthrown and killed.

The CIA ordered his assassination with white house approval but could not complete the Job but instead the US and Belgium covertly funded cash and aid to rival politicians to cease power, arrest and kill Lumumba. According to an independent American TV, radio and internet news program, John Stockwell a former CIA Agent confessed that, “the CIA had developed a program to assassinate Lumumba under Devlin’s encouragement and management. The program they developed, the operation didn’t work. They didn’t follow through on it, it was to give poison to Lumumba and they couldn’t find a setting in which to get the poison to him successfully in a way that it wouldn’t appear to be a CIA operation, I mean you couldn’t invite him to a cocktail party and give him a drink and have him die a short time later obviously and so they gave up on it. They got cold feet and instead they handled it by the chief of station talking to Mobuto about the threat that Lumumba posed and Mobutu going out and killing Lumumba, having his men kill Lumumba…” in the interview he agrees to the CIA paying Mobuto money, he said, “at one point in 1968, I remember the chief of station told of a story when he went to make payment to Mobuto of $25,000…” What was surprising and disastrous was the Enthusiastic US backing for the regime of Mobuto after the assassination of Lumumba.

Next on the list of western motivated, engineered and funded African leader assassinations by the west is a leader from Libya known as Muamar Gaddafi. In another western compiled documentary on a program titled the evolution of evil produced by “WORLD MEDIA RIGHTS LIMITED” a UK based, independent producer of television series, that I came across, they describe Muamar Gaddafi as an army officer who was determined to end the misery of his fellow countrymen by freeing them from western imperialist influences. They describe him as a young idealistic man who wanted to change Libya. They describe him as progressive, he set up policies that called for the countries oil wealth to be used to help the poor. He built roads, he built schools, he increased literacy and he increased the life span of people. Gaddafi built housing complexes, apartment complexes he told his people that “these are your homes and this is your property.” The quality of life in Libya for a time was higher than that of states like brazil and soviet Russia. He emphasized freedom, socialism and unity.

By freedom he meant independence within Libya from foreign powers and foreign domination, by unity he meant forming not just verbal agreements with Arab nations but practical Arab unity like Nasa had been proclaiming and by socialism he meant taking the wealth of Libya and distributing it more equally amongst the people of Libya. With his success in driving out western influence in Egypt, far reaching reforms and modernization policies Nasa was widely considered the leader of the Arab world who Gaddafi looked up to. Gaddafi like Nasa was determined to rid his country of western influence which meant he was enemy number one of the west. This position he took against the west threatened the wests interests in Libya. Like we have read from the previous stories we see that when you stand in the way of the interests of the west in your country you become a target of assassination. By October 2011 the 69year old Libyan dictator as they call him was desperately fleeing from city to city, as the western backed or rather western funded rebels took over and hunted him down and eventually killed him.

To the best of my knowledge, I believe Robert Gabriel Mugabe was not assassinated but rather died of natural causes and I stand to be corrected but this was a man that was hated and called names such as dictator by the west for his political stance. This is a man who before he died, the west had managed to stain his name to people outside his country and others within and put so many sanctions on his country. In another documentary about Robert Mugabe, on a program called FACES OF AFRICA compiled by China Global Television Network, a Chinese company we learn that Mugabe in 1960’s taught in Ghana. Later he decided to visit home and introduce his Ghanaian fiancée to his family. He was shocked to how things had changed in southern Rhodesia. A new colonial government had brought in thousands of white settlers. They displaced black families who were now coming to Harare in search of a means to survive. Mugabe was outraged. In one of his speeches he made in the 1960’s as an independent activist he said, “we are non-racialist in our approach, that is we regard an individual as an individual and that everybody must be accorded his full political rights whether he be white or black, educated or uneducated, rich or poor and this is exactly why we are at the moment struggling to earn for our people one man one vote.”

In 1963 because Mugabe declared to fight for Zimbabwe’s independence he was imprisoned by the colonial government for a little over 10years. His young son died while he was in prison but he was not allowed to go and burry his son. In 1980 on the 17th of April Zimbabwe gained her independence and Mugabe was elected as Zimbabwe’s first prime minister. There was an uneasy relationship between the whites and Mugabe for decades to come but the country was able to feed itself. The economy grew at about 11 ½ % over the next decade. He invested in areas close to his heart as both education and health care spending tripled. As his first administration enjoyed success he was internationally recognized as a statesman, an educator and a visionary. Honorary degrees were heaped on him by many prestigious institutions including; St. Augustine’s University in Tanzania, Lomotosov State University in Mosco Russia, Michigan State University in the U.S and Edinburgh University in the U.K.
His priority of educating Zimbabweans was becoming evident and literacy was at an all-time high. Mugabe himself had managed to earn a seventh degree while running the country. This one a masters in science again from London University by correspondence. Mugabe’s education led him take economic initiatives to try and spur the economy. He introduced a 5-year plan in 1989 that allowed farmers to set their own prices. This immediately paid off as the country saw growth in the agriculture, mining and manufacturing sectors. He was widely praised for his countries progress he was even given a Knighthood by the Queen of England. After the success of his first five-year plan Mugabe felt he was ready to take the first step toward addressing one of colonialisms great injustices which was Land Distribution. Zimbabwe had approximately 6,000 white farmers owning and growing on 47% of the land. White farmers at the time held 15million hectares of farm land. He would transfer 3million into black hands. He called it the land reform program. His reason was simple, in a speech he made at an African union summit he said, “since the majority of our people depend on the land for sustenance and livelihood we need to ensure that they have access to the land and that Africa’s vast agricultural potential is fully harnessed. The land reform program that my government embarked upon since the year 2000 was precisely meant to achieve this.” After this step he took of deciding to put the interests of his people first and not the whites, he was vilified as a racist by the west and many others. Mugabe’s relationship with the west had deteriorated with the campaign against white owned farms. What followed was economic sanctions from the west on Zimbabwe, the EU in 2002, the US in 2003 and even Australia had laid penalties on Zimbabwe. The British called for a regime change and wanted Mugabe to step down, a call that should have come from his people and not from the west. He now became unpopular because he decided to put his people first. Sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe so that life could be made difficult for Zimbabweans in order for Mugabe to bend to the needs and interests of the west. Honorary degrees he had been given were revoked by the university of Massachusetts, Michigan state in the US and the famed University of Edinburgh. By 2008 his British knighthood was also taken away.
In an interview when asked how he would want to be remembered he said, “There was once a man called Robert Mugabe who in the interest of his own people fought the struggle to liberate them and had ideas, ownership of the resources for his own people and the fact that the people should be united to remain revolutionary, guard against colonial and imperial powers, that seek to undermine authority of governments and what he desired right up to the end that his own people should be masters of their own destiny and that is all. I don’t desire to be known as anything greater than that.”

Idi Amin Dada is another villain, or rather the villain of all villains in Africa as we are meant to believe, another African leader who is infamously known around the world for some of the negative decisions he made during his time as the president of Uganda. According to a documentary compiled by a young African man named Jonathan Benaiah a nature photographer and travel blogger, we learn that Idi Amin came to power through a coup. Chief amongst his reasons for toppling Milton Obote was tribalism.
There are a number of significant events that took place during Amin’s Tenure between 1971 and 1979. Quite significant was the 1972 economic war which involved the famous August 1972, ninety-day ultimatum. This saw the exile of over 80,000 British Asians. They were mainly Indians whose parents had been brought in by the British in the early years of colonial rule in Uganda. He gave them 90 days to leave Uganda. He did this with the aim of creating opportunities for the Ugandan people because most of the businesses had been taken over by the Indians and the Asians. The gap between the Ugandans and these Asians was immense. They lived a very privileged life. This was a move that was welcomed by many especially those who were his close allies and supporters. Some Ugandans when interviewed on the streets of Uganda welcomed the decision. This included one of the former presidents of Uganda, Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, who said in an interview when responding to a question of whether he would want the Asians to come back, he said, “…no, I would not because, and this I am saying in good faith and this is the belief of the majority of Ugandans, Ugandans would rather suffer for two or three years more and restore themselves to prosperity than having Asian retailers, coming back to manage their shops…”
This move certainly awoke the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country. When you go through vintage tapes you seem to see a fine line between fury and a man who loved his country. When you study him really close and you read books of history you’ll know that even in his many flaws there wasn’t a lack for wisdom in the way he acted. Idi Amin is recorded to have been a very devoted officer who executed all his tasks exceptionally. Idi Amin is also remembered for having participated in the quelling of the cattle rustling in Karamoja between the Karamojong community of north eastern Uganda and the Turkana nomads of western Kenya. In 1975 Idi Amin was the chairman of the OAU, the organization of African Unity which today is the African Union.
In his eight years as president of Uganda, Idi Amin loved, developed Uganda and was a patriotic leader. A lot of infrastructure is said to have been built during his time. He is said to have brought in the first colored TV and during his time Air Uganda was introduced as the official flag bearer of Uganda. It was one of the biggest airlines on the African continent and Entebbe International Airport was one of the busiest airports and considered the best landing spot on the African continent.
On a lighter note though; Idi Amin once wanted to change the name of Uganda to Idi because he thought he could do anything with Uganda. Everybody was afraid to challenge that decision except for one man called Maliamungu who was close to him. He said, “your excellency sir, do you know Cyprus?” Idi Amin with a surprised look asked, “what has Cyprus got to do with my decision to change our name to Idi?” Maliamungu said, “the people of Cyprus are called Cypriots, so if you change Uganda to Idi, we will be called Idiots! Including your good self-sir, so please let’s maintain our name.” Idi Amin said, “aahhh… Maliamungu, you are very intelligent. In fact, more intelligent than everyone in Uganda except me.”

The point I am trying to drive across is not that these African leaders that have been labeled as dictators and terrorists by the west, or that they were African angels or saints and that everything that they did was right, but I believe that had it not been for the western influence and the less known western funding of rebel groups and rival political parties within these African countries, most of the bad decisions made in retaliation to the west would have been averted. Yes, some of the decisions made were premature but that doesn’t make them villains. In the documentary on Gaddafi the narrator says, “By October 2011 the 69year old Libyan dictator is desperately fleeing from city to city, as the western backed or rather western funded rebels took over…” acknowledging the involvement of the west in the assassination of Muamar Gaddafi but not only that, when you begin to hear such sentiments or rather such statements made by British Politician David Owen who once said: “…he should have been assassinated, he was one of the worst of all African regimes,” referring to Idi Amin, you can’t help but wonder how many African presidents the west has had a hand in assassinating.
Now, one would wonder why the west is so interested in Africa to the point that they are willing to go to such an inhuman extent of assassinating visionary African leaders that stood in their way and threatened their interests in Africa. This is because the rest of the world depends on Africa for their economies to survive and thrive. Borrowing some of the words of former president of France, Jacques Chirac, I believe that “without Africa the rest of the world would crumble to the rank of 3rd world countries or even worse. Imagine with me if you may, from as early as the late 1700’s the west has been exploiting, plundering and stealing Africa’s resources in order to sustain their economies till today. This just makes you wonder how blessed Africa is if the west can be exploiting Africa for centuries.
It is western supremacy that made these African leaders make certain bad decisions. If we go back in history when African countries started fighting for independence from white rule, it is the very same west that labeled Africans as terrorists and an uncivilized primitive people. This is because we allow the west to tell our stories. The documentary I referred to on Gaddafi was produced by a UK based TV company. When will Africa tell her own story? And so Inasmuch as we condemn them for the wrong or bad decisions we think they made during their time, we shouldn’t forget to commend them and applaud them for the right, good and progressive developmental decisions they made that have brought us this far as a people. I believe, even though a person can be bad or make bad decisions that doesn’t erase the good they have done no matter how little.

They were not saints, they were not angels but they were human beings like you and me that are prone to error. You and me make wrong decisions that sometimes affect other people negatively but that doesn’t make you a villain, that only makes you human. As a leader you are expected to do what you feel is right for your people. You are tasked with making decisions on behalf of your people. We need to understand that almost every decision made by a leader comes under criticism. Almost every decision made by a leader will please a certain group of people and will hurt the other group of people and vice versa. At the end of the day a leader cannot please everyone. I believe if you or me were put in their shoes during their time, taking into account everything your people had gone through and put in a position to make decisions on behalf of your countrymen and women, most of us would have probably made far worse decisions than these villains made. We need to begin to tell our own stories and correct the narrative of Africa and its fallen but not forgotten African Heroes.

Looking at the definition given earlier, of the word villain, I would say, if this was a movie the West has been the main antagonist of Africa. Let us celebrate our own!

By Israel Wikalo

Pan-African Thought Leader