How Puppet Regimes are Built

Statue of Behanzin in Abomey, Benin
Statue of Behanzin in Abomey, Benin

We have talked so many times about the numerous puppet regimes installed throughout Africa, but we have not talked about how these regimes came to be. It is no secret that these puppet governments, particularly in francophone Africa, are inherited from colonial era, and before that from slavery times. They just morphed over time. The authorities of kings of different African kingdoms and empires were slowly reduced to those of couriers or delivery boys, totally disconnected from their original power rooted in their ancestral traditions. Those who rebelled were simply killed or deposed, or forced to bow down like Behanzin, Prempeh I, Samori Toure, and more. Once we understand this, it is now clear why today we often see African presidents run abroad to France or wherever to take their orders: when they win elections, when new rules need to be established, or their currency devalued, etc.

Pr. Bwemba Bong explains it so well in his book “Quand l’Africain était l’or noir de l’Europe. L’Afrique: Actrice ou Victime de la Traite des Noirs? – Démontage des mensonges et de la falsification de l’histoire de l’hydre des razzias négrières transatlantiques” (When the African was the black gold of Europe. Africa: Actress or Victim of the Slave Trade ? – Dismantling the lies and falsification of the hydra history of the transatlantic Slave Raids),” MedouNeter 2022, p. 170 (translated to English by Dr. Y, Afrolegends.com). In his section titled “The transformation of the administrators of the so-called French-speaking colonial Black Africa into anti-African, ethnic ogres and terrorists”, he explains :

In the political sphere, traditional African institutions were completely destroyed to make way for the establishment of the slave system, for which the disappearance of African kingdoms and empires was a sine qua non prerequisite. When European and African criminals had not simply seized their thrones, African kings and emperors were now placed under the subordination of European slave traders. This violent intrusion, through the dismantling of legitimate powers replaced by subservient structures whose survival is today represented by African “chieftaincies,” but above all by the so-called African state, has created new, artificial, and illegal territorial structures. From now on, the authority of African “rulers” had and has its source only in the wicked European law and no longer in the institutions of their ancestors.

The act of recognition by the slave-owning power now constituting the sole legal basis for the exercise of power, any structure not expressly approved because it was established by the European invading authority—which alone granted and still grants today the title of “king,” “chief,” or “president” (depending on the appropriate tactic)—was and is automatically guilty of the crime of usurpation of title, and was and is irremediably subject to deposition, or even execution, through the system of coups d’état so prevalent today in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Failure of the African Leadership

Africa
Africa

I have never been as disgusted as I am with the current African leadership.  As I stunningly watch Mali descend into chaos, after Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, Sudan, and so on… I wonder what kind of people are heading our countries.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that we are being cheated, abused, and killed by imperialism and those hungry and bankrupt capitalists.  As I pondered on all that, I read this great speech by cde Kwanisai Mafa of Zimbabwe delivered in commemoration of the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa this year on March 21st 2012.  For the integral speeck, check it out on Mathaba.

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“Comrades and friends,

I bring you revolutionary greetings from the landed people of Zimbabwe, north of the great Limpopo River. By landed people, I mean the people who are now sovereign, who now exercise total control and ownership of their land and the vast natural resources endowed to them by God.

Land ownership and control of mineral wealth are at the heart of Africa’s struggle for self determination. Land ownership and control of mineral wealth aptly justify the theme of today’s engagement.

LAND IS AN ECONOMIC POWER ….

Nowhere is Pan Africans being severely tested in Africa than in Zimbabwe.  The current tidal wave of global pessimism and sanction against the people of Zimbabwe has made life excruciatingly challenging for the common folk.   The government of Zimbabwe sought to unlock the value of its people in an exercise dubbed the Third Chimurenga.

Cecil Rhodes with his transafrican train project from Cairo to Cape Town - the most imperialist ever
Cecil Rhodes with his transafrican railroad project from Cairo to Cape Town - Founder of de Beers diamond company, owner of Rhodesia... - the most imperialist ever

Resistance to this exercise has been fierce as both former colonial settlers (who happen to be white) and their sympathizers sought to discredit it as, illegal and not consistent with human rights.  Ironically, where were these human rights watchdogs when our forefathers were butchered and dispossessed of their land. Where are these human rights watchdogs when Israel is daily making the lives of Palestinian a living hell? Where were they when NATO attacked a sovereign nation like Libya violating international law? ….

The United Nations has become a tool of US imperialism for decolonizing nations especially the United Nations Security Council. There is selective application of law. Our leaders are being dragged to Hague to the International Criminal Court of Justice, yet western nations who are killing innocent people in Iraq, Palestine, Libya and elsewhere go with impunity. This is hypocritical. …

Comrades and friends , the levels of mediocrity in African leadership has risen to sanctity. The revolution is now eating its own children. Surely this cannot continue unabated, battle lines must be drawn, be drawn clearly and conspicuously.

Our African leaders are sacrificing our continent and our founding values and aspirations on the altar of narrow, parochial, self serving, personal and selfish interests. Stooges and imperialist lapdogs in form of opposition parties and democracy are being bankrolled by western intelligence organizations to extinguish, purge and obliterate all liberation movements and replace them with their puppets that are prepared to surrender our God given Africa to global imperialism for thirty pieces of silver.

Flag of Zimbabwe
Flag of Zimbabwe

Our African leaders have become our contemporary Judas Iscariot. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who gave sanctuary and military assistance to African liberation movements especially to South Africa was sold out by those whom he supported.

Who is Judas Iscariot? I don’t need your answer now South Africans?

The late legendary Reggae superstar Bob Marley, who I love so much (peace be upon him), in his song Redemption Song, he asked for how long should we stand aside while our prophets are being killed. No leader said a word against the bombardment of Libya by NATO not even the African Union yet the author and founder of the African Union was Gaddafi. The biggest question we should ask ourselves is who is next ?”

To read the full article, check out Sharpeville Commemoration Day, a Call for a United Africa.