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Barack Obama

Isdore Guvamombe Reflections—

Well, the curtain is coming down on the Barack Obama administration to pave way for Donald Trump, whose unexpected entrance into American statecraft has sent shivers and smiles.But for now, this instalment will not go into what the people expect of Trump and what they do not expect, for back in the village, in the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, elders say you only remove the legs of a grasshopper when you have caught it, then bag it.

Trump has promised not to interfere in other nations’ affairs but once again it is a lie. Wait and see.

When Obama entered the American statecraft with an emphatic phrase, “Yes We Can” the greater part of Africa, forever an expectant and myopic lot — stupid even — expected a lot from him and indeed, today Africa can laugh at itself and say, “after all, we expected honey from a fly!”

The Obama administration, backed by a vindictive and unforgiving but experienced Hillary Clinton, did not do anything but propagate American foreign policy, that of strangulating small economies; oppressing and dehumanising blacks and Muslims all over the world, the American backyard included; that of suffocating Governments that refuse to tow the American line; that of sponsoring wars outside American soil and indeed that of positioning America as the big brother to everyone.

To that end, the Obama administration pitched itself head high to show that American interests were more important and above international law, above the sovereignty of other countries and higher than the human rights of non-American citizens. Dangerous as it might appear and as it indeed is, the Obama administration went for it hook, line and sinker.

Africans were very disappointed and so were smaller nations.

Africans thought Obama was African but he proved he was purely American in deeds and in thought. Hillary Clinton had a leash on Obama’s neck and in the end Obama was a ceremonial leader. It was all Clinton and the white capital she represented that ran America.

I am sure no one will miss the Obama administration. The full import of it is that Obama fitted well into the American mantra; that which sees Africa as a big cake with an inexhaustible plethora of minerals and hence the relentless drive to keep as much control as possible on African governments. That goes as far as deployment of military personnel disguised as peacekeepers, all in order to have total control of the African governments and indeed total control of the huge untapped mineral resources.

African and other smaller nations that are, however, rich in minerals are categorised and placed under strategic think tanks that mould policies and programmes to penetrate those countries either through regime change or manipulative projects.

In regime change, the US create and sponsor opposition parties to take over power or in worst scenarios direct military intervention either using United Nations structures or NATO. At the end, they get to these resources. Libya, Mali, DRC and Cote DIvoire are good examples.

In Zimbabwe’s case, the opposition is lost without being hand-held by America and its allies. The opposition completely stops thinking.

America spends a lot of money and time on opposition parties the world over to effect regime change. The White House itself has found a new smokescreen behind which to hide, in the name of fighting terrorism. It is fact not fiction that terrorism is there and threatening many people the world over, but it is overplayed and abused by America.

But to make American hegemony over Africa and smaller nations of the world realistic, the US has come up with a strong and technically equipped and superior military outfit called AFRICOM, specifically mandated to deal with Africa and create an American-liberated economic zone.

AFRICOM uses protection of trampled citizens as a smokescreen behind which it hides its occupation of Africa.