Can SADC trust Zambia’s guest?
Hosia Mviringi
“As we celebrate #KKDay (Kenneth Kaunda Day), we honour the man who led Zambia to independence, was a true patriot, insured the whole SADC region attained political independence, preached love, peace & unity and focussed on helping the poor & vulnerable. Long live the legacy of KK.”
This is an official Twitter communication by the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr Hakainde Hichilema, on April 28, 2022, a day dedicated to commemorating the life and sacrifices of Zambia’s founding father, the late Kenneth Kaunda.
The late Kenneth Kaunda represented a rare breed of leaders of the free world who sacrificed their entire lives to the liberation and upliftment of African people.
KK, as he is fondly referred to in Zambia and the region, remains one of the most eminent figures ever to grace the region, who refused to be bought by pieces of silver to deliver Southern Africa to the imperial forces.
Instead he offered Zambia as a training ground and rear guard for African liberation forces.
Kenneth Kaunda Day commemorations came hard and hot on the heels of one depressing announcement by the United States Embassy in Lusaka, only two days before, on April 26, 2022,of a landmark opening of the so-called US Africa Command (AFRICOM) office of security cooperation in Lusaka.
“We are pleased to announce that @USAfricaCommand will open an Office of Security Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Zambia. Visiting AFRICOM Brigadier General Peter Bailey made the announcement during a meeting with His Excellency President @HHichilema,” said the U.S Embassy in Zambia in Tweet on April 26, 2022.
That announcement marked official presence of U.S Army boots on Southern African soil.
The coincidence and structural conflict between the two events get a bit too strong to be ignored.
It is thus instructive that we take a moment to juxtapose the two events that took place within the same week, just two days apart, in this revolutionary City of Lusaka, where gallant sons and daughters were equipped with skills of war before crossing back into Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Angola and to as far afield as Russia and China, only for the sake of liberating Southern Africa.
It is also important to look at the two Zambian personalities involved in the events, the late Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Mr Hakainde Hichilema.
The home truth is that, whether it was by design or by coincidence, Kenneth Kaunda Day should have never been commemorated under the shadow of the AFRICOM announcement. AFRICOM represents the very same forces that Dr. Kenneth Kaunda dedicated his life to fighting. He devoted his life to freeing his people from international dominating forces. It thus becomes disheartening that a special day to remember and celebrate his life is blighted by an official handover of the nation that he founded to the erstwhile oppressors.
Indeed his body must be turning in his grave!
There is no doubt that Zambia will never be the same again. The nation has been officially returned into a new kind of bondage. For as long as the American Military bases or offices (call it whatever) subsists on Zambian soil, America will decide and determine the next leaders of the sister Republic. In a similar fashion, such influence will extend to neighbouring countries, with those that resist facing a real threat of escalating hostilities.
Dr Kenneth Kaunda laid the foundation to the establishment of a free democracy in Zambia. He is a man who dedicated his life to the liberation of Southern Africa and the rest of the continent.
And indeed, KK, together with fellow liberation icons such as Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Samora Machel of Mozambique and many others managed to defeat imperialism and secured Africa’s independence from colonialism.
Yet Mr Hakainde Hichilema, only nine months into his Presidency, has done a lot, in fact everything to negate the gains of the liberation struggle and indeed to undo everything that the region sacrificed for.
He seems to throw everything around with reckless abandon. He is a man who has, in the few months of his Presidency, abandoned regional solidarity, cooperation and coordination to become a renegade seafarer of note who is more inclined to import all and everything from across the seas, including a new ideology. Institutional memory thrown into the dustbin!
And boom! In the twinkle of an eye, Bally, as Hichilema is nicknamed, has wittingly handed over the region’s rear base to the erstwhile colonial enemy.
History has shown that wherever the U.S Army sets boots to the ground, a trail of violent insurgency ensues, ostensibly to justify their intervention, which in most cases precedes permanent occupation of those territories.
Yet at times the insurgent scourge will be a reflection of the multitude of enemies that America has made along the way in its unending global wars.
A case in point being the Kenyan Westgate terrorist attacks of 201,which were claimed by a Somali terrorist organisation Al Shabaab seeking to inflict revenge attacks on Kenya over its intervention in the Somali conflict. Therefore in essence, SADC can expect a new challenge in form of heightened insurgency in the region.
Why the timing should be of grave concern to SADC.
Let’s go beyond the tweet and explore the link to the Embassy blog where an expanded story is available.
“Since 2014, the U.S government has “invested” over 136 million Zambian Kwacha (US$8 million) in assistance for seven iterations of pre-deployment battalions deployed to the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA),” said the US Embassy in Zambia in a statement issued on its official blog.
Granted, the U.S has collaborated with Zambia for this long, eight years to be precise, but then, if this was not a Coup d’etat or an official surrender of the country by Mr Hichilema to U.S Brigadier General, Peter Bailey, what then could be so special to warrant an official announcement, eight years later?
If at all this cooperation has been ongoing for this long, what exactly could have excited Brigadier General Peter Bailey to the extent of seeking a selfie with a new, broadly inexperienced yet excitable Zambian President?
What SADC should learn and watch out for.
SADC is at the cusp of a catastrophe. A new dimension to regional security presents itself in the form of a menacing and aggressive imperial force whose respect for human life is doubtful if not non-existent. The U.S regime thrives on chaos, violence, crises and death.
The region needs to watch the political economy of the UPND to understand where this is coming from.
Mr Hakainde Hichilema overstayed in opposition politics, having run for a record six times. Chances are high that owes the Americans huge favours for getting him into State House.
And how does he repay them? A military base from where the rest of Africa will be conquered and delivered as fodder to the emperor!
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Does this sound familiar in Zimbabwe? Some people got to be wary of career politicians who end up frustrated and desperate for power such that they will do and pledge anything in exchange for a hold onto the levers of power. Hakainde? Maybe Nelson. The similarities are too glaring!
Resource curse
Mozambique is the latest country to have discovered the largest known deposit of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) in the world, a type of gas purer and more efficient than Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The U.S missed out on the exploration deal in favour of a French Company Total Gas. But before any meaningful proceeds could be realised from the resource find, a menacing terrorist activity took the region by surprise as it swept through the Cabo Delgado region, killing innocent civilians in cold blood while displacing more than five hundred thousand others. It also forced temporary closure of the Gas Fields of the coastal Province of Cabo Delgado. On 26 April 2021, French energy company Total announced suspension of operations at its US$20 billion gas fields as a result of the attacks by Islamic insurgents.
Of course the US intervened in Mozambique by proxy and they may never take off their feet from that country until their presence becomes normal and official.
Now Zimbabwe is on the verge of a historic discovery of oil and gas in Muzarabani. This naturally puts the country on the U.S stabilisation radar, on it’s own a field of expertise for the aggressive regime in Washington DC.
Zambia has agreed, or at worst been hoodwinked into granting AFRICOM the long coveted ground for military operations in their territory.
Granted, Zambia is a sovereign State which is free to relate to whosoever it wants in whatever sphere. But it is imperative that in their legitimate exercise of sovereignty, they don’t threaten the security of neighbours and regional cohesion.
Zimbabwe and the U.S operate on different ideological pedestals and as such the presence of U.S military bases across the river in Livingstone, Kafue or Mazabuka is a good reason for Zimbabwe to cringe. Therefore the panic and outrage is reasonable.
Ukraine in Zambia
This writer could not resist the urge to look at the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a basis to draw a comparison. The reasons for the current Russo-Ukraine conflict can be traced to exactly similar actions as currently infolding in Zambia.
Similarly, one can not resist juxtaposing the current Zambian actions to the one that precipitated the ongoing Russo-Ukraineconflict and the historical Cuban Crisis of the 1960s.
It is indeed such irresponsible actions that put regional security, peace and cohesion in jeopardy.
Chatihomuchareva!
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