It is Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 all over again as Kagame dares defy the US empire

Written by Otiato Guguyu

If you have not yet watched the ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ please do so, because we are about to witness once more, the violence of empire when the South attempts to stand up for itself.

The documentary on the assassination of Patrice Lumumba by America when he joined other leaders from newly independent African states like Ghana to form the United States of Africa shows the lengths the US went to avoid losing the uranium mines it had used to bomb Japan and become a superpower.

The Forminière, the ‘Congo Club’ of American and Belgium profiteers chose instead to sabotage Lumumba using United Nations forces, breaking up Congo and unleashing South African mercenaries for decades long of the worst imaginable human rights abuses ever recorded in our history.

The message was crystal clear, to defy America was to choose death, and the inheritors of British empire ramped up the violence to implant this fear in the psyche of a continent.

Waves and waves of this violence have raged on the people above the mines, mostly Rwandese speakers who in 1990 degenerated into genocide amongst themselves based on colonially entrenched ethnic imaginings.

Funneling instability

The position of the west became clearer when Rwanda scuttled the génocidaires into neighboring DRC where they regrouped as FDLR. The west has continued to give them support and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) army incorporated them in its ranks against its own population of Rwandese speakers.

East Africa has replete cases of violent regime change fermented within refugee camps across borders, as was seen when Ugandans mobilized in Tanzania to overthrow Amin, while the Rwandese resistance had been organizing across Uganda.

President Paul Kagame who was part of this resistance understands the cross-border threat FDLR posed and is also wary of the decades of instability by virtue of history and his genes.

Emerging science suggests that the effects of trauma—from war and genocide to abuse and environmental factors — could be genetically passed down from one generation to another making it harder for the West to control narratives for communities they have devastated.

American rhetoric is finding it harder to permeate a new generation of Africans who see the reality of the centuries of colonial abuse for what it is and their explosion of sheer numbers.

Checkmate

President Kagame has made a strategic decision to take down this threat with the help of the locals of Eastern DRC who had formed a self-liberating movement the March 23 Movement (M23), to defend themselves against their own government and the Rwandese génocidaires.

His military strategy quickly paid off as the M23 backed by local support easily ran over towns and ranks of demotivated DRC soldiers and hired European Mercenaries as well as army units from South Africa and Burundi with confusing mandates.

The success on the battlefield was also replicated in diplomatic circles as President Kagame orchestrated a regional consensus to foster African solutions for African problems.

Under the joint meeting of East and South African states in Tanzania East Africa negotiated a cease-fire to end the conflict that saw President Kagame emerge as the victor. Under the East Africa Community (EAC) and South Africa Development Cooperation (SADC) deal, Kinshasa government promised to commit to dismantling the FDLR, in exchange for the withdrawal of President Paul Kagames support for M23. Rwanda has agreed to respect the territorial integrity of DRC.

DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi who attended the summit meeting via video link was asked to come to the table and iron out a settlement with M23 under the Nairobi process which he had abandoned.

The Kinshasa government which has inflamed the Congolese against Rwandese speakers within their own borders has also been told to stop the incitement that could rattle fragile communities straddling the borders of East and Central African countries.

Empire strikes back

But empire has quickly reorganized and trying to paint the M23 revolution as a violent assault with scores of human rights abuses.

The video link attendance to peace negotiations for his own country was just an indication that the DRC President was not interested in the deal or that he was unable to take a position before consulting his Western backers.

President Tshisekedi flew to Munich in Germany where he sought the support of Western allies that have mining interests in his country who have rewarded his efforts by a flurry of statements condemning Rwanda and withdrawal of Aid.

The DRC President then pledged to give American President Donald Trump unspecified access to his country’s minerals in exchange for text at the American led G7 meeting condemning Rwanda.

The eye of the storm

The entry of America into Central Africa to protect mineral interests is reminiscent of Patrice Lumumba’s Congo in the 1960.

This time round, with President Kagame at the helm and secrets of the CIA coups in Congo and Ghana laid bare for all to see.

It puts Kenya, which is the official center for resolving the DRC conflict at a delicate position, where we have to choose between our neighbors and the western empire.

Fresh out of losing the African Union chairmanship for being seen as colonialists lackeys, Nairobi has this one chance to prove to the future of Africa that it will not do the bidding of European masters.