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The White House and the Black Continent

 

The White House and the Black Continent was designed for a wide circle of readers. The authors, who include a number of leading scholars from the Institute of African Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences and important persons from Soviet government and public organisations, are all specialists in African affairs.

The period covered is largely restricted to the early eighties, but brief excursions into history are made so that the present can be better understood.

The authors analyse a wide range of problems in the context of the opposition of the just slogan of the African peoples, "Africa for the Africans", to the US imperial thesis of Africa as a zone where the United States has vital interests. On the basis of numerous documentary material, authoritative sources, official declarations and, most important, concrete facts and figures, the authors show the role and position of Africa in the global strategy of US imperialism and expose the plans and actions of the Pentagon on the African continent in its bid to create a firm stronghold there. They show convincingly that the "Soviet threat" myth is only a clumsy attempt to disguise the neocolonialist designs of the White House on the independent countries of Africa and the national liberation movements. This policy is revealed through an analysis of US plans to subvert the progressive transformations that have occurred on the African continent and of the type of obstacles that the US puts in the path of the developing countries to prevent them from achieving economic independence and establishing a New International Economic Order, i.e., the restructuring of their economic relations with the industrially developed capitalist states on a just and equal basis.

An important place in this book is given to exposing the aggressive nature of the Washington-Pretoria alliance, which is increasingly threatening the liberated countries of the continent, and encouraging and facilitating the use of terror by the racist authorities in South Africa. It also contains an analysis of the forms and methods by which the White House uses the Israeli Zionists to further US policy in Africa.

The facts adduced here show convincingly that the "ideological guarantee" of the White House is designed to conceal imperial ambitions, and facilitate and justify US political, economic, and military expansion on the African continent.

In the United States it has become fashionable to talk of what are described as "serious differences" among political and intellectual circles on matters of African policy and to divide the two contending sides into "globalists" and "regionalists" with the latter claiming to be the devoted friends of the African peoples. This book shows how, as distinct from the "globalists", the "regionalists" do at times try to take account of the realities of our epoch and even come to terms with them. This position is far from being determined by sympathies for the Africans. It is primarily the result of fear that the United States will lose important positions on the continent if "globalists'" policies are implemented. The dispute is not about a change of strategy towards the African countries, but about the choice of optimal means and methods for the US monopolies to have a free hand in disposing of the African countries' natural resources and for the Pentagon to use Africa to further its own military goals.

The aim of this book is to show how and in what way the present policy of the United States runs counter to the interests of the African peoples and the cause of peace and stability in Africa. It is therefore logical that the concluding chapter considers the main forms and methods used by the independent countries of Africa in their struggle against the imperial ambitions and the aggressive neocolonialism of the United States.

The idea for the present book arose through observation of the increasing attempts on the part of the United States to destabilise the international situation on the African continent after the Reagan administration came to power. Current US policy in Africa points to the growing importance of this area for the political, economic, and strategic plans of the US government. As was noted at a plenary session of the ministers of foreign affairs of the non-aligned states, which was held at UN headquarters from 4 to 9 October 1982, the general worsening of the international situation is the result of the policies conducted by the forces of imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid, racism, and Zionism-all led by the United States. The subsequent Communique adduced concrete examples of the way in which Washington aids and abets the aggressive and racist regimes, and spoke of the direct responsibility that rested on the Reagan administration for aggravating the situation in Southern Africa, for encouraging the South African government's aggression against neighbouring countries, and for delaying a solution to the Namibian problem.(1)

The countries of Africa are undergoing a complex process of political, economic, social and cultural renaissance. The sym-pathies of the Soviet scholars, as of all the Soviet people, are on the side of the Africans. The Soviet Union, like the Africans themselves, wants to see Africa as a peaceful, independent and flourishing continent, since Africa is a zone of vital interest to no one but the African people.

Naturally, in adopting this position the Soviet researchers expose the activities of those who do everything to prevent an African renaissance. The White House and the Black Continent which reveals the true aims, methods and means used by the United States in Africa today is regarded by its authors as a modest contribution to the cause of solidarity between the USSR and the peoples of Africa and its support for their liberation struggle.

Anatoly A. Gromyko, Director of the Institute of African Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

(1) The Final Communique of the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Heads of Delegations of Non-Aligned Countries, NOALlCont, 6/PL, 4 Doc. 1 / Rev. 2.

 

 

• Chapter I AFRICA IN THE GLOBAL STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES
  1. The Main Objectives and the Methods Employed
  2. Economic Interests
  3. Strategic Significance
  4. Ideological Guarantees
  
• Chapter II THE POLICY OF UNDERMINING PROGRESSIVE TRANSFORMATIONS
  1. Gambling on Force Under the Pretext of a "Soviet Threat"
  2. Against the Laws of Historical Development
  3. Subversion
  4. Reaganomics: the African Version
  
• Chapter III THE OBSTACLES TO ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
  1. Economic Difficulties and Their Causes
  2. The Transnationals Make Things Worse
  3. Washington Against a New International Economic Order

• Chapter IV PENTAGON EXPANSION
  1. US Strongholds in East Africa
  2. Penetrating the North African Countries
  3. The Foothold in Southern Africa

• Chapter V THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN WASHINGTON AND PRETORIA
  1. The Roots of the Unholy Alliance
  2. The White House Strengthens Apartheid
  3. The Unholy Alliance's Plans for Namibia
  4. The Conspiracy Against Angola
  5. The Joint Policy of Aggression

• Chapter VI AMERICAN "AID"
  1. A Short Survey of History
  2. "Aid" Under Reagan
  3. Food and Politics
  4. The Cost of "Aid"
  
• Chapter VII ISRAEL: AN ACCOMPLICE OF US IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
  1. Israel's "Quiet" Expansion
  2. The African Aspect of "Strategic Cooperation"
  3. The US and Israel in the North-East of the Continent '
  4. From Suez to Southern Africa
  
• Chapter VIII THE SUPPORTERS AND "OPPONENTS" OF REAGAN'S AFRICAN POLICY
  1. Different Methods, but One Aim
  2. Discussions on the Problems of the South
  3. The Debates on North and East Africa
  4. Who Should Be President in Zaire?
  
• Chapter IX INDEPENDENT AFRICA AGAINST THE IMPERIAL AMBITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
  1. Do Not Allow a Build-up of Tension
  2. For the Demilitarisation of the Indian Ocean
  3. The Southern African Watershed
  4. The Fight with the Organisers of "International Terrorism"
  5. Against a Split in African Unity

• CONCLUSION

 

 

Translated from the Russian
Designed by Oleg Grebenyuk
Белый дом и черный континент
На английском языке
Group of Authors: An. A. Gromyko (Editor's Note);
Ye. A. Tarabrin (Ch. I, III, Conclusion); V. P. Kasatkin (Ch. II
IX); V. Ya. Lebedev (Ch. IV); A. Yu. Urnov (Ch V)-
V. S. Baskin (Ch. VI); A. V. Prudnikov (Ch. VII)-
M. L. Vishnevsky (Ch. VIII)
Издательство "Прогресс", 1984.
English translation. Progress Publishers 1984
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

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