BRAVO! BURKINA FASO, MALI, NIGER for holding out against imperialist backed African states
Source: Make Afrika Great
25 Feb 2024
ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has lifted sanctions on Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The three countries announced their plan to withdraw from ECOWAS in January 2024.
by PD Lawton 4 February 2024
“South African automotive companies source leather car seats from a factory in Lesotho employing close to a thousand workers and wiring harnesses from Botswana at two plants employing several thousand workers. They source copper wire from Zambia, rubber from Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana and Cameroon, and steering wheel components from Tunisia.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated the launch of South Africa’s first shipment under the preferential trading agreement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on 31 January 2024 at the Port of Durban, Kwa Zulu Natal. The shipment to Ghana includes refrigerators [1] home appliances and mining equipment.
This is an historic event for the entire continent as it marks the practical realization of the AfCFTA Agreement which was inaugurated on the 1 January 2021.
AfCFTA is expected to increase the size of Africa’s economy to $29 trillion by 2050.
The concept of AfCFTA is to increase trade within the 55 African states, to manufacture and grow what is needed on the continent, to export processed goods, agricultural and industrial, using African resources and made by African labour. This is very obviously the catalyst needed to drive industrialization of all African economies and create the productive employment needed to put the continent in its rightful place on the world stage. The full implementation of the AfCFTA will lead to increased investment and productive capacity. It will lead to greater economic integration and greater unity.
Primary to the AfCFTA Agreement is the harmonization of trading standards which regulates product quality. AfCFTA simplifies and reduces export/import duties which enhances ease of trade. AfCFTA ensures a lower tariff regime. Over time many of the tariffs will be removed for goods and services. The aim is to make Made in Africa products available to the African market at very competitive prices relative to imports from Asia.
At the Durban launch President Ramaphosa gave an excellent speech in which he said that the days of Africa being the raw materials market for the global North were over. It is time for the world to meet Made in Africa.
“Today, we are witness to a historic moment in Africa’s economic destiny. Today, we mark the start of preferential trade by South Africa under the African Continental Free Trade Area. In a short while, we will be witnessing the sending off of the first shipment of products from South Africa to other AfCFTA countries.
This shipment demonstrates that the African Continental Free Trade Area is a reality. We are in the port city of eThekwini taking forward the dream of an ever larger and ever stronger Africa. African countries trade with the rest of the world but we have limited trade among ourselves.
The reason for this is clear: we are principally exporters of raw materials, selling rocks and black liquid to the world, instead of harnessing our oil and the minerals to industrialise our continent. We need to change this.
Over the last few years, our trade ministers have been finalising rules of origin of what constitutes an African product. They have done well to finalise 92 percent of the products that nations trade with each other. I am happy to see so many of Africa’s trade ministers here today, able to celebrate the work to which they have contributed. We need them to be even bolder in further rules of origin.
The products that we trade among ourselves must truly be ‘Made in Africa’.The modalities for trade in goods has moved faster than for services. We therefore need to put more effort into building African champions in finance, retail and telecommunications, and in expanding tourism between African countries.
That is the only way in which our economies will grow faster and sustainably. The African Continental Free Trade Area creates the world’s largest free trade area by number of countries, and has the potential to bring transformative change and tremendous opportunities to African economies and businesses.
The implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area will accelerate the development of regional and local value chains, offering investors access to a population of 1.7 billion people with a fast-growing continental GDP. Industrial development is core to Africa’s integration. It builds Africa’s productive capacities, adds greater value to our products and diversifies trade beyond the traditional commodities. We have already seen the potential of greater cross-border collaboration.
Let me give the example of a value-chain that is developing in the auto industry.
South African automotive companies source leather car seats from a factory in Lesotho employing close to a thousand workers and wiring harnesses from Botswana at two plants employing several thousand workers. They source copper wire from Zambia, rubber from Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana and Cameroon, and steering wheel components from Tunisia.
These are installed in cars that are then exported from South Africa to other parts of the world. These inputs alone accounted for more than $200 million worth of products traded among African countries and the scope to do more is available to us.
But it requires bold rules of origin. For every one percent of extra African content, there is an opportunity for a factory or mine based on the continent to supply the products.
And as the world moves to green industrialisation, Africa is well positioned to use our critical minerals to leverage industrialisation on the continent.
The opportunities are vast: in food and beverages, in cars and trucks, in clothing and textiles. We have the capacity to produce more of our own pharmaceutical products and medical equipment.
Investment can flow to the production of chemicals, machinery and equipment, household goods and many, many more. On the side of our proceedings here at the quayside, we have assembled a few products that illustrate what will be exported today and in the weeks ahead.
Beyond the industrialisation of which I have spoken, this continental market can help us promote agricultural development and food security.
Through our work, we can ensure that young people and women-owned firms are active in export markets.
The Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade will help ensure that the African Continental Free Trade Area contributes to inclusive growth and development. We have a unique opportunity to lift millions of people out of poverty by empowering women and young people to change the continent’s business environment.
The levels of intra-African trade have been growing in recent years, but remain small by global standards. Intra-Africa exports are reported to stand at around 16 percent of Africa’s total exports, compared to 55 percent in Asia, 49 percent in North America and 63 percent in the European Union.
For South Africa, as with many other African countries, the start of preferential trade will create great opportunities for growth and development. Not only will it benefit our country’s producers, but it will also see a huge increase in traffic through our ports, our airports and our land-based border posts.
The products made in Gauteng, Limpopo, North West, Free State, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape will flow through these ports to markets beyond our borders. That is why, as the South African government, we are focused on implementing our Freight Logistics Roadmap to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the country’s rail lines and ports. We are working closely with industry to fix Transnet’s rail and port operations in the immediate term and to ensure greater investment in this infrastructure into the future. As I conclude, allow me to thank the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat and his team for facilitating and guiding the AfCFTA negotiations.
I thank the AfCFTA Council of Ministers and Minister Ebrahim Patel and his team, for their hard work negotiating the AfCFTA Agreement and its Protocols. This has made it possible for us to witness the start of preferential trading.
Last but not least, I wish to express my appreciation to the exporters who have embraced this opportunity and have worked with us to be part of the first shipment of products under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
From this quayside, and from ports, airports and border posts across the continent, a new era of growth and prosperity is being born. A great future awaits our continent and its people.
I thank you.”
Source of quoted speech:
footnote [1] please review a previous africanagenda article `Chilling News for Obama: Africans are making fridges`
re posted from AFROLEGENDS
the slave who is not capable of assuming his rebellion does not deserve that we feel sorry for himself. This slave will respond only to his misfortune if he is deluding himself about the suspect condescension of a master who claims to free him. Only struggle liberates
The authorities of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have announced simultaneously on 28 January 2024, their decision “in complete sovereignty on the immediate withdrawal” from the regional economic bloc that is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger stated, ECOWAS “under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to its member states and its population.” The three countries have accused the regional bloc of failing to support their fight against “terrorism and insecurity,” while imposing “illegal, illegitimate, inhumane, and irresponsible sanctions.” All three countries were founding members of ECOWAS over 50 years ago.
In reality, this comes as no surprise as it is the normal evolution of the state of things. After the coup in their respective countries, the ECOWAS has suffocated these countries by suspending all three countries and imposing heavy sanctions on Mali and Niger that have only served to exacerbate the populations’ sentiments that it is a puppet organization serving foreign interests. Niger even tried to amend the situations by inviting ECOWAS representatives to the country last week, but only the member from Togo showed up. Why should anybody remain a member of an organization that punishes the populations? Are they trying to pressurize the three landlocked countries? It is sad that we, Africans, have organizations that only work to serve the interests of others. It should not even be allowed for coastal countries to use sea access to landlocked ones as a pressure point! That is totally inhumane!
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Bandung 1955, Nehru of India, Nkrumah of Ghana, Nasser of UAR/Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Tito of Yugoslavia
by PD Lawton. 23 January 2024
The United Nations is finished. It has shamed itself. The world can no longer continue with the lie that this organization has peace at its heart. It is rigged in favour of the NATO-aligned nations.
Could the Non-Aligned Movement be a more effective body to represent global voices from both North and South?
The origin of NAM ( Non-Aligned Movement) is in the post WW11 liberation movements that created the new republics of the the 1960s, the revolutions against imperialism. Isn`t that what we need now,a resurgence of Africa`s revolt against sanctions, IMF diktat and neo-colonial debt control?
Could this be the body to represent the new multipolar order? If so, then we must strengthen the weaknesses that allowed Africa`s 1960s revolution to fail. Africa must unite!
The Bandung Conference of 1955 was hosted in Indonesia by President Sukarno. It was attended by almost all newly de-colonized states of Asia and Africa. It was the first Africa-Asia economic and cultural cooperation movement and represented 54% of the world`s population.
It is reflected today in vision and philosophy by the Chinese Belt and Road and by the BRICS Plus alliance seeking a multi-polar world and the end of Western hegemony.
The Non-Aligned Movement was a result of the Bandung Conference and was formally established in 1961 in Yugoslavia. Among the key founders of the new multipolar, non-partisan group were Gamal Nasser and Kwame Nkrumah alongside President Tito of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India.
The movement stands in unity for , as Fidel Castro would describe it in 1979 as :”the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics.”
Transcript of this speech is below the video
Source: Talking Africa
After he was overthrown by Ghanaian military traitors backed by foreign powers, Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah delivered an impassioned speech from exile in Guinea to the people of Ghana.
Transcript of speech
“Fellow countrymen, my heart is heavy as I witness the damage which this clique of neo-colonialist conspirators are doing to our country at the bidding of their oversees neo-colonialist masters. They are dismantling the work of 15 years. They are telling you that Ghana is bankrupt. They are telling you that our country is in debt to the extent of some £ 240 million. What fools they are! How ignorant for them to think that you believe these stupid lies.
Open your eyes and look around you. See for yourself. See the splendid new Tema Harbour. See the mighty Volta Dam. See the fine roads which we have built under the leadership of the Convention People`s Party and its government. See the schools, the colleges and the universities. See the clinics, hospitals, health centers and the facilities which we have created. See the factories which are already springing up. These are no debts. These are not debts! They are investments in our future as an independent nation. These are the physical guarantees of the bright new future which I have promised you and which I have been working for.
Together, we can put our Ghana firmly and squarely on its own feet. Together, we can create the things we need for ourselves instead of going cup in hand for charity handouts from foreign powers whose only wish is to exploit us and make us vassals to their interests. I know these are hard and trying days for you. I have never tried to conceal from you that real independence, that is to say economic independence, does not come without hard struggle and sacrifice. Unlike the cheats and deceivers the liars and traitors who are now trying to lord it over you I have never promised you any easy road.. I have respected your good sense, your capacity for work, your pride in yourselves and your sense of national dignity. Why do you think these traitors, these agents and lackeys of colonialism and of international intrigue to destroy the independence of Ghana chose this moment to perform their dastardly act? I will tell you.
Less than one month before they struck to destroy all our hard work, we had inaugurated the first electricity from the Volta Dam. Only 3 days before this treachery we had signed a new agreement to irrigate the mighty Accra Plains. At last we were on the threshold of a great new victory. We had in 1957 won our political independence after years of struggle. Now in 1966 we were at the threshold of winning our economic independence. The same people who tried to sabotage our winning of political independence 9 years ago have now struck to sabotage our economic independence and are systematically dismantling our Socialist gains and achievement.
Before the traitors and the rebellious national `liberation` council tried to usurp power during my absence from Ghana, Ghana was a haven to which the oppressed from all parts of Africa could come to carry on that struggle. It was a haven for Freedom Fighters for independence and against colonialism. The name of Ghana was revered all over the African continent as a staunch friend of the oppressed. African brothers from South Africa, from Rhodesia, from Mozambique and Angola, from the so-called Portuguese Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands and other oppressed colonial areas were given hospitality amongst us. Do you think that this was something for which we needed to be ashamed? Not at all. On the contrary it was something of which we should be justly proud. Haven’t we proclaimed that independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa? Now hundreds of these brave freedom fighters who came to our country trusting us to look after them and help them in their struggle against colonial oppression and believing as we do that Africa and the struggle for freedom is indivisible. These brave men and women have been sent back, bag and baggage, by this traitorous clique to the countries from which they had fled to seek refuge, inspiration and protection in Ghana.
Countrymen, a new phase of the African Revolution has been reached. This revolution must overcome and triumph over imperialism, racialism and neo-colonialism. It must finally usher in the total emancipation and the political unification of our continent. Africa must be free. Africa must be united.
re posted from CONSTRUCTION REVIEW ONLINE
Professor Dampare also shed light on the pivotal role played by the jointly established School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, a collaborative effort between the Commission and the University of Ghana, in nurturing human resources for the nuclear sector.
The government of Ghana is actively seeking funding for the development of a nuclear power plant, a pivotal component of its strategy to augment the nation’s electricity generation capacity and provide a more dependable and efficient energy supply to its citizens.
While the precise costs and project locations remain undisclosed, Ghana is in discussions about collaborating with the United States to finalize a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and launch this significant endeavor.
This noteworthy revelation came from Professor Samuel Boakye Dampare, the Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, during a Ministerial Conference on the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC) held in Accra. The conference convened energy ministers from across Africa, high-level officials, nuclear energy experts, and key stakeholders to deliberate on regional and global cooperation and the policies essential for advancing nuclear energy initiatives.
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Government Of Ghana Seeks Funding For Development Of Nuclear Power Plant.
Nkrumah made this speech in 1966
Source: CPPGhanaOnline
7 October 2012
by PD Lawton, 2 October 2023
President Nana Akufo-Addo recently attended the second United States Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC which was headed by Secretary of State Antony `Dead-Eye` Blinken who commended Akufo-Addo`s administration for its state leadership and leadership in West Africa by which he means Ghana`s role in ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States ( CEDEAO in French and Portuguese). He commended Ghana`s strong partnership with the USA including on the UN Security Council and its strong partnership for democracy and security in West Africa. Akufo-Addo made the following address leading one to question what on Earth made this once great leopard change his spots:
“Today Russian mercenaries are on our northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner Forces there. I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them in payment for their services. Prime Minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow and to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana. Apart from great powers once again making Africa their theatre of operations, we were particularly positioned, as you know about, over the Ukraine war where we have been very very vocal and upfront about condemning the invasion by Russia and therefore to now have this group on our borders is a matter of some considerable disquiet and concern for us.
We would really like to have the privileged opportunity to talk about these implications and what we believe ought to be the case. This was also the discussion in the Congress which took place yesterday which I found very fruitful. And the themes of that discussion should be the themes we continue to address to what extent we can have you as a partner in confronting these threats and it is very important that ECOWAS remains a democratic space. The reasons we took actions over the coup d’états in Burkina Faso, in Mali and in Guinea. ECOWAS has been very insistent in refusing to deal with these governments because it’s the undemocratic nature of their accession to power. The commitment to democratic institutions is a high priority for our states. We in Ghana have been through all kinds of arrangements along the path, one party state, all kinds of experiments have taken place and our people are now very clear in their minds , they want to go down the avenue of democratic engagement and that is why the last 30 years of the 4th republic has been the most stable in our countries history. We want to do everything to preserve that. But there are enemies of democracy that are working hard in West Africa today.
Therefore it’s important that we bring that matter to your notice and see to what extent we can engage you as a reliable partner in the pushback of all those forces. And there are other areas too of course for economic growth and development and for making prosperity for our people which is to some extent part and parcel of the same fight. If the young people have things to do they are not going to be recruits for terrorist forces, but specifically what we can do about the terrorist threat in West Africa is now the major security concern of all our states, especially the coastal states that up to now , until the last 6 months have been relatively free of the threat. But now on all our common borders Benin, Togo,Ghana, Cote D`Ivoire are these forces that are operating there. We have to find a way to be able to respond and respond effectively to protect our population…”
end of quote
This is how the Western neoliberal model infiltrates institutions in targeted foreign countries in order to gain control over government policy. They use non-government organizations (ngo`s) to lobby government and influence public opinion.
Source: Schiller Institute
Panel II Why it is in the strategic Interest of European Nations to cooperate with the Global South
MODERATOR: Elke Fimmen
Jacques Cheminade, President Solidarite & Progres: “The Rise of the Global South against Geopolitical Blocs”;
Julio Miguel de Vido, former Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services (2003-2015) during the governments of both Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, Argentina : “Planning for Integration, Cooperation and Growth with the BRICS: Missteps and Risks”;
Dr. Doğu Perinçek, Chairman of the Vatan Party, Türkiye : « The decisive Importance of the Alliance between Türkiye, Russia, Iran and China at the edge of Entering the Eurasian Era »
Patricia Lalonde, former MEP, associate researcher at Institut Prospective et Sécurité en Europe (IPSE); “Syria, Reasons for Hope”;
Herve Machenaud, former Executive Director of the EDF Group (for engineering and generation) and former Director of the Asia-Pacific branch, France: “The History of France-China Relations, the Example of Nuclear Power”;
Dora Muanda, Teacher, biologist, scientific director of the Kinshasa Science and Technology Week, Democratic Republic of Congo, RDC: “Humanity and Africa need science”;
Dr Andrews Nkansah, Undersecretary General of the African Diaspora Congress (USA), Ghana: “Strategic Partnership for the Rapid Development of Africa”;
Alain Gachet, water specialist, president of Radar Technologies International (RTI), inventor of the Watex (Water Exploration) process for locating aquifer resources by satellite – Introduction by Jacques Cheminade: “Water for Peace and Development”;
re posted from AFRO LEGENDS
Down with colonialism and imperialism!
Down with racism and tribalism!
And long live the Congolese nation, long live independent Africa! -Lumumba in 1958
Every June 30, we commemorate the “independence” of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by posting a speech or letter by its first prime minister Patrice Emery Lumumba. The word independence is placed in quotes because we know that independence cha-cha never really occurred and that many African countries including the DRC are still suffering from the sequels of neo-colonialism.
Patrice Lumumba gave the speech below on December 11, 1958 in Accra, Ghana, at a conference sponsored by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president who also succumbed to imperialism. In his speech, all the evils that plague Congolese and African societies are cited: Western domination, external domination, balkanization of the Congolese territory (and Africa), and all the ‘ism‘ that undermine the unity of Africa. His speech is still very current today. The speech can be found in its entirety on Blackpast.org.
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