How Puppet Regimes are Built : 3 Consequences

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

Today, we will continue our discussion on “How Puppet Regimes are Built.” We will focus on African regimes, particularly those installed in Francophone Africa, regimes inherited from the colonial era. We all remember how King Behanzin, Prempeh ISamori Toure, and countless others were replaced by docile and easy to manipulate puppets serving France. This is still ongoing, and can explain those ridiculous laws or rules, or even election numbers made by these horrible puppets today: Sassou Nguesso, Paul Biya, Alassane Ouattara, to name just a few. Given that their authorities are not based on the sacred laws of the countries, but are rather backed by foreign powers and their guns, they do not fear to strangle their people for decades. A century later, the modus operandi of the puppets installed yesterday during slavery times and today during ‘independence’ has not changed

“Quand l’Africain était l’or noir de l’Europe” de Bwemba Bong

Below are the consequences of building puppet regimes, as detailed by Pr. Bwemba Bong 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 so well :

… The slave-trading origins of the power held by “African political leaders” have entailed three notable consequences:

    1. It has undermined the sacred foundations of authority in Black Africa, for that authority “ceases to derive its legitimacy from a reference to ancient sacred procedures. It no longer appears to have received its sole consecration from the Ancestors, from divinities, or from the ritual forces associated with every manifestation of authority. This phenomenon is further accentuated by the fact that missionary activity creates a religious diversity that fractures the spiritual unity of which the sovereign or the chiefs serve as symbols. At the same time, it contributes to a secularization of authority,” writes Georges Balandier [in Le contexte sociologique de la vie politique en Afrique noire, dans Revue française de science politique, 1959, p.604-605].
    2. Traditional checks and balances have been destroyed: the Council of Elders, in particular, vanished due to the control exerted by European slave traders. Consequently, punishable abuses—even those that were effectively sanctioned—were no longer, and are no longer, curbed in accordance with the interests of the group. Georges Balandier characterizes this phenomenon as a “rupture of traditional systems for limiting power,” a rupture he describes in these terms: “sovereigns wield a more arbitrary power, albeit one that is more circumscribed, and the consolidation of power matters more than the acquiescence of the governed. The latter, conversely, may attempt to appeal to the foreign administration in order to oppose certain decisions made by traditional authorities. On both sides, the relationship is distorted, and mutual obligations no longer appear clearly defined.”
    3. By the grace of the occupying power, delinquent slave-broker intermediaries [western puppets in Africa] had become, and remain to this day, the replacements for legitimate traditional authorities. This status, bolstered by the perverted prerogatives inherited from their European creators, enabled them then, as it does now, to assume the responsibilities of tax collectors, census takers, administrators, and the like. It also empowered these “chiefs” to requisition populations for forced labor, the construction of bridges and roads, and other such tasks. The overwhelming majority of these “chiefs” were remunerated by the slave system in their capacity as public agents.

Mali Recovers over a Billion $ for its Miners

Map of Mali 

Imagine being able to recover money from multinationals? Imagine putting the well-being of your people so much at the forefront that you are not afraid of uncovering or exposing corruption or injustice, and of taking on major world multinationals! This is what the Malian government has just done, and as a result has uncovered a billion dollar in arrears! Remember how Pascal Lissouba, the former president of the Republic of Congo, admitted that the Congolese government had no idea how much oil Elf (now Total Energies) was pumping out of its soil, and that they were at the mercy of whatever the company wanted to pay them, which was pennies; when he tried to renegotiate contracts or find better partners, he was deposed by Denis Sassou Nguesso, the Western puppet. Remember Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic who admitted that he had no visibility on the amount of diamonds or uranium that French and Swiss companies were extracting from his country. Now, imagine being in your sovereign state, i.e. no Western puppet at your helm, the well-being of your people at the forefront?

AES Logo

Mali (and the other countries of the AES) has been working tirelessly on nationalizing their resources, and renegotiating correctly contracts with multinationals that are extracting their resources. Thus, such an exercise is fruitful in the sense that now, they can audit accounts, and compensate or fight for better compensation for their people better. Today, it was announced that Mali has recovered over a billion dollar in arrears from mining companies! Isn’t this a beautiful Christmas /end of year present? This also makes us pray further for the safety of such governments who place the restoration of their people’s dignity and well-being at the forefront of their efforts. Now, more than ever, they will be the target of the foreign corporations and bandits! Now, more than ever, they need each of us to stand in solidarity with them!

Excerpts below are from Africanews.

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Mali has recovered more than a billion dollars in arrears from mining companies after a sweeping audit, its finance minister, Alousséni Sanou, said on Tuesday.

It’s one of the country’s biggest ever clawbacks from its lucrative mining sector.

The military-led government launched an audit of the sector in early 2023 and uncovered massive shortfalls for the state. That paved the way for a new mining code that raises royalties, boosts the state’s ownership in mining companies and scraps stability clauses.

A recovery commission was set up after an audit flagged financial irregularities and shortfalls for the state estimated at between half a billion and a billion dollars.