The African Report

PROJECT B.A.I.T.

THE AFRICAN REPORT

AIR DATE 7/12/2008

David Rambeau:  This is a Project B.A.I.T. news analysis, The African Report, with Lawrence X.  Lawrence, give us the African update this week.

Lawrence X:  David, it is always an honor, privilege and a pleasure to be involved in Project B.A.I.T. in terms of an African-centered world view.  Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe is symbolism, a decoded message, for where we are at in Africa.  When you do deeper research on Zimbabwe, we find the meaning of Zimbabwe is house of stone. There were great ruins in Zimbabwe that were built around 1200 AD and they existed until 1500 AD. We are talking about 200 square miles of city structures; millions upon millions of stones that were put together with such precision that they did not need mortar.  One of the things we find about the Europeans, the Portuguese and others, when they colonized Zimbabwe, the first thing they had to say was that these structures were built by someone who could not be African.  It fit in with the colonial mindset that we were beast of burdens and downtrodden.  So the house of stone that was built is the meaning of Zimbabwe.  We see ruins still today. From the African Union Summit that we spoke of last week to the G8 is taking place now, Zimbabwe is still the line of demarcation on the continent of Africa.  We find it so interesting that those who line up with Zimbabwe, the Gabon, the Equatorial Guinea, the Angola, we find that they are basically anti-democratic countries.  Let’s examine Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish territory; all the Europeans wet their beak in the great rush into Africa after 1880s.  Equatorial Guinea with the cursed blessing of oil, they recently had legislative elections in May in Equatorial Guinea and this is the kind of thing that makes you go hmmm; in districts the ruling party won 100% of all the votes.  Nobody voted against them.   The oil revenue, the information about oil in the country is a state secret and Transparency International list Equatorial Guinea as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  So we see Gabon and other countries that are anti-democratic, who have these big men who have been in office for 20 or 30 years, lining up with Mugabe.  We see Angola who really has not had any kind of election since 1992, no democracy, Angola lining up with Robert Mugabe. One thing we find is that these countries lining up with Mugabe is that they do

-2-

not face sanctions by the United States or the European Unit.  Guess why?  They are major oil producers. Equatorial Guinea is the third largest oil exporter on the continent.  So we find if a country has oil or some strategic location like the Horn of Africa, like Ethiopia, you get a pass on your democracy and you do not face sanctions.

David Rambeau:   We have discussed the pro Mugabe people.  Now give us a rundown on the anti-Mugabe people and their reasons and potential actions.

Lawrence X:  Let’s look at Tanzania.  Tanzania has offered troops in terms of military intervention and the president of Tanzania is also the head of the African Union so that is very interesting in terms of military intervention, some Africans who are going to put some action behind their words.  Also when we look at Tanzania, we look at when Julius Nyerer was in leadership in 1978 and 1979, actually invaded Uganda and overthrew Idi Amin, who was a dictator and responsible for the loss of life.  One historical note about that is that Tanzania had to cover the cost of that military intervention by themselves, received no support from then the Organization of Anti-Unity and there are those who say one of the reasons why Tanzania suffered for almost 20 years in terms of trying to get their political economy back in order was that they had to carry the weight of moving Idi Amin.  Second, Botswana Land, to the north of Zimbabwe, moved a brigade of its military to its border with Zimbabwe in terms of trying to stop the bum rush in terms of people actually leaving Zimbabwe.  Robert Mugabe got his nose out of order on that.  He threatened Botswana Land, told them look we don’t like to fight but we will fight.  We note that a lot of Zimbabwe’s talk about what their military can do is kind of like what Mao used to talk about, the paper tiger.  Their air force is non-existent, don’t have a lot of spare parts.    Believe it or not in Zimbabwe in their military they have to furlough soldiers, they have to let soldiers go home because they cannot even feed their military.  The Zimbabwe military is pretty good at beating up nonviolent opposition in terms of MDC and others.  They do a pretty good job when nobody else has bullets.  It is kind of like that thing they talk about when the deer hunters go out there, it would be a little different story if the deer could shoot back.  So the Zimbabwe military has a pretty good record when they are fighting people who are defenseless, so we see that situation.  Just a cultural note in terms of closing, in Zimbabwe they say do you have your Harare luggage;

-3-

this means you have to have $50 billion dollars worth of Zimbabwe notes in order to buy lunch.  So you almost have to have a suitcase of money to actually get lunch, because the inflation rate at present is maybe 4 billion percent.  If anything brings down the Zimbabwe government, it will implode from just inflation or its inability to actually just conduct day to day economic business.

David Rambeau:  This has been a project B.A.I.T. news analysis, The African Report, with Lawrence X.

============================================================================================ 

David Rambeau:  This is a Project BA.I.T. News Analysis, the African Report with Lawrence X.  Lawrence…

1.  Ethnic and Human rights
2. Land ownership.
3. Environment – partially on the cultivation of African palm oil as it relates to the bio-fuels.

 David Rambeau:  Now that you have covered the Pan-Africanist concept, would you please take us across the Atlantic and give us an update in terms of what is happening on the African continent?

Lawrence X:  We have to go to Zimbabwe.  At the time that we are taping(Monday April 7^th), some eight days after the March 29, 2008 election in Zimbabwe, we have not had the results of the elections.  The Zimbabwe Election Commission has not released the results. First, just a little bit of our story.  It is true, there is no question that our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe have proven that the electoral political, participatory process, democracy, is not an anathema to our people.  It is not something that is too complex for the African mind.  Democracy is democracy around the world.  Nonviolent peaceful exchange of power works, and it worked in Zimbabwe.  But the Zimbabwe Election Commission that was appointed by the Mugabe government, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front) is sewing the seeds of confusion.  And to our brothers and sisters in the Detroit area and really around the world, we say anti-democratic efforts anywhere are anti-democratic efforts that affect our people everywhere, and we would also like to say that the brothers and sisters that are over there to be election observers, the ones from the South African Development Community, the Pan African Parliament, based on information we have received from zimbabwesituation.com, have done an inadequate job.  Brothers and sisters have stated clearly that to be an election observer is not a solidarity mission.  You are not on a solidarity mission for any party or any group.  You are there to do a job, and the job is to observe the election.  The Pan African community, the African-centered community represented by the African Union, the Pan African Parliament and the Southern African Development Community, the regional organization that people count on to do a job, are not doing their job because they have not asked the Zimbabwe Election Commission for the presidential results; they have not put enough pressure on the Zimbabwe Election Commission.  Just a fact or two – one thing that the Mbeki government of South Africa did do, and let’s give the brother credit, one thing that they did do is put in a situation where each polling place and each constituent command position posted the returns.  So when the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) stated that they won the election with 50.3% of the presidential vote, which when any presidential candidate receives over 50% plus 1 vote there would not be a runoff.  So they analyzed the polling results.  The Zimbabwe Election Commission has released the parliamentary results from the House of Representatives.  In their parliament, there are 210 seats.  The MDC won a majority of those, 99 for themselves, 10 for the breakaway component of the MDC who backed Simba Makoni for president (former ZANU-PF official) and ZANU-PF won 97.   So we know that they, the MDC, won that portion.  In the Senate election,  ZANU-PF won 30, and the opposition combined won 30.  So they have at least these two results, but they will not release the presidential election results.  At the time that we are taping and the situation is so fluid that we have to say at the time we are taping what the situation is.  The Movement for Democratic Change went to the Zimbabwe Supreme Court to get them to force the government through the Zimbabwe Election Commission to release the results, and when they first went the police ran them away. So we can safely say that the time we are taping they, the MDC, have their petition with the Supreme Court but they have not made a decision yet.  Again, we have to give praise to everyone, ZANU-PF at this point, and the Movement for Democratic Change because our brothers and sisters have proven that they can have a peaceful election and wholesale violence did not mar the election. (Ed. Note 1. After we taped this interview the MDC released a press statement and said that ZANU-PF has begun a political violence campaign). But we in Project BAIT note that the violence is not on the scale of Kenya, yet.    In conclusion to this part of the analysis, technically, if there is to be a runoff, it should be within 21 days after March 29, and at present the belief is that the Mugabe government is going to put in an emergency decree, hold off the election for 90 days, and the Movement for Democratic Change says it will not be a runoff, but it will be run-over, because ZANU-PF will release the militia, the War Veterans, and they will unleash a campaign of domestic terrorism against our brothers and sisters.

David Rambeau:  What has been the response of other nations in Africa, particularly Southern Africa, to what is happening in Zimbabwe, and what it means not only politically, but also economically?

Lawrence X: In closing, that is what the problem is, the moral outrage, that they have not done enough.  You know Robert Mugabe is compared to Nelson Mandela.  Quickly…Mugabe did 12 years in the joint, Mandela did 27.  The difference is Mandela did one term as president of South Africa and got out in 1999. Mugabe feels he has got to die in office.  To answer your question, we are still waiting for our African brothers and sisters to see their roles as not going on solidarity missions to Zimbabwe but to actually do the analysis to decide and pressure the situation so we can have peaceful, fair, free elections in Zimbabwe if it has to be a runoff. (Ed. Note 2 The President of Zambia and chair of SADC, the Southern African Development Community has called a 1-day summit for Saturday April 12^th to deal with the Zimbabwe election.)

Attend the A.L.D. meeting Thursday April 17^thInner City Sub Center…. Time 7 pm Paul Taylor, Chair                          phone (313) 922-8818…e-mail acnnx@comcast.net

AFRICAN REPORT –  02/11/2008 

David Rambeau:  This Project B.A.I.T. African Report with Lawrence X.  This week Lawrence will be looking at three particular topics, Confusion in Africa, The Hidden Hand and cursed/blessing of oil

Lawrence X:  David it is always an honor, privilege and a pleasure to be involved in  Project B.A.I.T. with the African Report. We start with just a little bit of background on Chad. It commonly called the Dead Heart of Africa because of the increase of the desertification program.  If we go into the strategic importance of Chad, it is a gateway in the trans-Sahara route.  Now from an African-centered point of view. We have to do a little pronunciation thing here; the trans-Sahara slave route.  I mean it is horrific what took to place with our brothers and sisters.  We are speaking of 9 million Africans who were victims of slave traffic across the Chad area, so we say the Trans Sa-Horror slave trade route.    Chad is a landlocked, in state of extreme poverty and as we mentioned, desertification. In terms of confusion, you know….. we got that from your teachings,                                                      the definition of confusion is the need for more information.

 Let’s look at some indicators when we speak of confusion in Chad.  Two hundred distinct ethnic groups in Chad.  Let’s go language, 120 languages or dialects which are regional variations on language.  When we look at Chad in the colonial period, you can always find the DNA of who raped the land by the language.  The official languages in Chad are French and Arabic.  Let’s go to religion in Chad, 51% Muslim, 35% Christian and the rest indigenous beliefs.  A quick concept, if you will on that; the Africans had the land, the Muslims came with the Koran, the Christians came with the Bible.  Soon the script was flipped and we see the Muslims/Christians with the land and the Africans with the bible and the Koran.  This is just an example of what we see in terms of confusion.  The colonial period did not help the development of a national identify and Chad today has these ethnics and language religious distinctions.

David Rambeau:    How does hidden hand play into the situation at the border between Sudan and Chad.

Lawrence X:  Our second point is hidden hand.  We see it. When we look at Chad, it is instructive just to get an idea of Chad.    To the east you have Sudan, to the southeast you have the Central African Republic, moving southwest you have Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, and to the north Libya.  In terms of understand hidden hand, “independence 1960”, when you look at an area like Chad that is dominated by desert you do not see clearly border demarcation, so you have more ethnic groups who have crossed these artificial borders, which were set up by Berlin Conference in the 1880s.  So you see people constantly crossing the borders.  Libya, after the oil boom, the Arab countries began to look around in term of expansion.  The first hidden hand was Libya in the 1980s.  They overthrew the Christian president, Christian administration in Chad, the second Christian administration and then they came with a Libyan backed coup in 1980.  The United States and French said, “Oh no we are not going for this.”  The Libyan backed administration suffered a coup backed by the United States and France.  We move to 1990 and this where we began to get into the Sudan.  They came with a hidden hand militia, revolutionary front, it was called the Patriotic Salvation Movement, backed by the Sudanese government and they were brought into power but there was one thing different, the Sudanese saw the history of hidden hand, they made a secret agreement, confidential agreement to others that said, “Look, President of Chad, you cannot back rebels against us.”  One thing about Chad, (President Deby) he is of an ethnic group that only represents at best 3% of the population of Chad.  He came in from a mass based weakened position..  He maintained power through military domination and if you will, using a hip-hop ebonics phrase, he could make it rain on people in the desert, sprinkle a few state benefits from the aid money. So everything was going good.  He got elected in 1996 in a multiparty election, the opposition said it was fraud.   He got re-elected in 2001.  The EU and other observers said it was a good fair election by African standards.  Here is the problem in 2003 the brothers and sisters in Darfur, which is the border with Chad, they discovered that the people in the southern Sudan were winning and getting ready to get some independence. One of the things we will talk about in a minute is the cursed blessing of oil.  There is oil is south Sudan, like there is oil in south Chad.  So when they started the war under the banner of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army or a “Islamic” organization, the Justice and Equality Movement and JEM did the Black Book , which laid out the inequalities in Sudan, , the leaders, the hard core military people were of the same ethnic group as the President of Chad (Zaghawa).  This became a problem because the Sudanese said “Hey you violating the secret agreement.”  So then in 2005 the President of Chad said that the Sudanese were backing rebels against him because of his ethnic group were deeply involved in Darfur and it became a problem and this is where the present conflict comes in, hidden hand between the Sudanese in terms of Chad and the fact that the Chadian government is accused of backing the rebels in Darfur.  But his ethnic group, whenever he has a problem in terms of the attack upon the capital which is located by Lake Chad, which is wetlands, swamp if you want, the largest in Chad, second largest in Africa.  Every time the rebels bum rush the capital, Darfurian tribal members of the President group always rush to defend him and that is where we are in this present conflict and that is where the history of hidden hand muddles the situation in Chad today.

David Rambeau:   You have given this analysis but can you go a little deeper into the role of oil in terms of Chad, Libya and the Sudan, because as such the African native population cannot handle refineries, distribution, geology, research and all of that.  What role would the oil company play in term of this hidden hand and generally the role of oil in terms of confusion.

Lawrence X:  Okay, in the later 1990s when oil was discovered, we are talking a billion barrels. Whenever you get oil there is money.  With the present cost of a barrel of oil, you talking 80-90 dollars; that is a nice little bit of change for any of Chad’s ethnic groups.  We just might as well call it for what it is, it is just one ethnic group attempting a hostile takeover from another..  The oil in Chad, because it is landlocked, the decision was made to run it through Cameroon.  It runs into the gulf of Guinea and we know the United States has a big interest in the Gulf of Guinea, because it goes from Gabon all the way up to Liberia.  Well, here is  were the President of Chad made a good move or some people say a bad move, when he awarded the contract, he did not let it go to historic colonial power in the area, the French oil company did not get it and they were seriously grumbling.  He gave it to Exxon and in a deal with a Malaysian company.  But here is where the white supremacy system comes in.  The World Bank which only provided 3% of the funding, but it was a critical lynch pin funding for the other white supremacy interest, either French or American to get involved in, they made a deal, they enforced a deal, it was called a Revenue Management Program who said that the Chad government must put somewhere near 86% of the revenue, the net profit must go into water, sanitation, education, health care.  He could not take it and make it rain like he wanted to or use it to purchase arms.  Well, my man Deby, he bucked the system.  (1)  The French did not like it because they did not get to play with the oil, so the rebels saw this revenue and they said it was the basis for a hostile takeover.  The oil is in the south and so it is in play.  The arms dealers always will lend money because they know whoever takes over the oil is a good deal. It is kind of like Halliburton placing a good collateral bet on what is going on in Iraq.

David Rambeau:  This has been another African Report with Lawrence X.  If you want more information about Project B.A.I.T. check our website projectbait.blakgold.net and for our new website dbtcaf.com, Detroit Black Theater.com.

AFRICAN REPORT – AIR DATE - 12/08/2007 

David Rambeau:  This is a Project B.A.I.T. News Analysis, the African Report, with Lawrence X.  Lawrence, give us an update on Africa.

Lawrence X:  Well, David it is always an honor, privilege and a pleasure to be involved in Project  B.A.I.T. African Report to help our brothers and sisters with our own world view. 

We  start today with the EU/African Summit that is taking place December 8^th and the

 charge that we have, particularly to the British prime minister, Gordon Brown is that he is going to boycott the summit, the first that they have had between Africa and the European Union in seven years, because Robert Mugabe will be there and he is speaking to the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Again the British are masters of confusion and his attempt to derail the summit just shows how far they will go not to deal with the reality.  What we mean by that is in 1979 there were negotiations called the Lancaster House negotiations between the British and the revolutionary movements in Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia to deal with land reform and the British and the United States, then President Jimmy Carter, had some secret agreements that they were going to pay for the land reform, because the African brothers and sisters had the land, settlers came and took it.  They put in a deed system and a tax system where they said they had legal rights to the land and, of course, it was the difference between the revolutionary struggle and the colonists.  In order to get the ZANUPF and other forces to make agreement, the British said they would pay for it.  Well they reneged on it under the charge that the Zimbabwe government was corrupt and basically their land reform was nepotism.  And that set into motion a long process of contention between the British and the Zimbabwe government and the British government does not want to sit at the table and the belief is that Gordon Brown, because he is fresh to the game, he took Tony Blair’s place, he does not have a real  position and he is just using confusion and we want to lay that out.  We also want to say that there are going to be protests by Zimbabweans from diaspora.  They will be there in Lisbon, Portugal protesting the human rights abuses and the problems of Zimbabwe.  And on the last note, the Movement for Democratic change (both factions), ZANUPF are involved in some serious negotiations to try to get a clear path for elections in March of 2008 and the last point, is one of those here, there and everywhere points that we like to make, on November 30^th, ZANUPF (Zimbabwe African National Unit Patriotic Front)

had their own version of the Million Man March.  You know, it just shows the depth that folks look at our struggles, the struggle of Africans born in slave America and what we do. So they had their own Million Man March and, of course, the media said there were less than a million there.  For brothers and sisters who want information, because we would like direct people to do their own research and hope they reach conclusion similar to ours, they can go to zimbabwesituation.com and read the post.  They post new reports from various organizations in and out of Zimbabwe every day and you can go and read them for yourself.   For me, a Million Man brother, who went to the Million Man March, it is very interesting to see the depth that the Million Man spirit carried all the way even into Zimbabwe today.

David Rambeau:  In this conference between Africa and the EU what are the central issues on the table that we ought to know about.

Lawrence X:  I would say trade, the trade question is a major issue.  Recently they had the commonwealth meeting in Kamapala, Uganda and one of the things that was signed between the EU and the EAC (East African Community), that is Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi was what is called an EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) and this Economic Partnership Agreement basically said that the brothers and sisters in these countries in the East African Community have to drop their tariffs and they have to open their markets up to the European Union as well as the European Union will open their markets up to the East African Community businesses.  Probably the best way to look at it real quickly is what happens when markets are opened up in other spots in Africa.  The example we can use is Ghana.  When the Europeans came they fished, they had these major ships, they basically “fished” the whole area out so that the Ghanaian brothers and sisters had a loss of supply.  The second quick example we can give is in the area of frozen chicken parts, particularly chicken wings.  When the Ghanaian market was opened up to European Union frozen chicken  parts, particularly chicken wings, it just totally wiped out the local market because brothers and sisters, people everywhere fundamentally are price conscious and when they are looking for a deal, they go for the deal.  We say in the community, the hook up.  So there is the whole question of price.  The thing is that the African brothers and sisters look at and the other

organizations that support trade as a means of development and not just aid, for example like Oxfam.  They say that the European markets as well as the American markets are so heavily subsidized that it is the subsidy that distorts the free market, the law of supply and demand and pricing in there and that distorts and favors the European Union as well as American business people as they deal in Africa.  So the East African Community faces this situation.  And then there are other questions that we see in the situation in terms of China, which are the safety issues, that the African brothers have to meet these safety stands, just in terms of sanitation and refrigeration as they deal with these European markets so it has a major disadvantage.  So for the next 15 to 20 years the projection that it is going to be 1 for the European Union and 0 for the African brothers and sisters as they try to get up to speed to deal with these questions.

David Rambeau:  Now on a regular basis, you talk about the policy of mineral extraction and the absence of manufacturing and development within the African countries after these minerals are extracted.  How will this be dealt with, if at all, at the African, European Union summit?

Lawrence X:  Well questions will be raised but we seriously doubt at this point they will have resolution.  Because they have had something called the World Trade Organization had these Doha agreements where they were suppose to have these questions dealt with. They have been dealing with these since Cancun which may have been over ten years ago.  These questions will not be readily dealt with.  Another point that we would like to make in the few minutes we have left, we see a phenomenon that is happening across the continent that will deal with these trade questions.  Several countries, Ghana, Zimbabwe and particularly South Africa are having national conferences to change leadership.  The one in South Africa is really important to us because there will not be only an individual situation, with is the presidential election, because the president now, Mbecki, will be running for the ANC presidency versus the ex-deputy president, Jacob Zuma, so there will be serious questions there that will be dealt with that will look at not only trade but some observable phenomenon in the country.  For example, they will have constitutional amendments.  One of the constitutional amendments that will be dealt with at this conference in South Africa, that will take place December 16^th through the 20^th, is

what we consider and we are using this ourselves, the brothers and sisters are not using it at the conference, we call it African Affirmative Action.  One of these constitutional amendments will be that all elected positions in the ANC will be 50% women and that is something that we will be able to observe that will come out of there, whether this constitutional amendment will be passed.  Another one that deals with something very interesting is they have an ANC veterans committee and they are wanting veterans of the struggle come in and they have a certain number of affirmative action positions for what is considered ANC veterans.  It is interesting to note what they consider an ANC veteran you have to be (1) 60 years old and (2) have 40 years of continuous support of the ANC and the movement.  So we will be looking at these situations to see how our brothers and sisters deal with democracy.  The ANC part of what they are saying, in terms of organization renewal, they are saying not only are we a national liberation movement but we also are a ruling power, that we a ruling party.  So these questions will come up and what they consider themselves now, and it is instructive for us in terms of our struggle, here, there and everywhere is that the ANC is calling itself, they are now dealing with a struggle for national democratic resolution.  They are now moving to use the government structure to continue their revolutionary struggle to do things that are important for the people.  They are using the national democratic revolution and that is something that we need to look at.  In closing if we could have any kind of  zawhadi for ourselves in terms of this Kwanzaa season, wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing if we had a Detroit national conference for all the brothers and sisters who are in the struggle, progressive forces came together and we had at it in terms of programs and policies as opposed to personalities, that if doing this Kwanzaa season which is probably the ultimate point where we have an African-Centered consciousness among our people that we could have a Detroit conference that we could deal with policies and programs and not just personalities.

David Rambeau:  This has been another African Report with Lawrence X.  If you want more information about Project B.A.I.T. check our website projectbait.blakgold.net and for our new website dbtcaf.com, Detroit Black Theater.com.