The Berlin Conference and the Carve-up of Africa: Part 4

Ruth Nhere

The Advent of Neo-Colonialism

The intensified activities of the imperialist powers could not, however, prevent an upswing in the national liberation struggle and the birth of Africa’s first independent states. But adapting to the new conditions the monopolies were able at this stage to safeguard their basic interests, this time finding a new form of imperialist domination – neo-colonialism.

Western ideologists have constructed a myriad of theories to define the new relationship between Europe and Africa in the post-independence period, hoping to show that with the demise of most of its colonial forms, imperialism had ceased to exist. But the actual experience of the young states under the yoke of neo-colonialism has shown that in this form, too, imperialism retains the export of capital as its most essential economic basis. And it is this basis that continues to account for the economic and financial dependence of African states on foreign industrial, raw material and banking monopolies. The export of capital also remains primarily responsible for ensuring the flow of super-profits to the imperialist powers.

The objective results of neo-colonialism – the maintenance of backwardness and dependence; the plundering of natural and mineral resources; the intensification of exploitation of the working people by the imperialist and local bourgeoisie – have reinforced the growing awareness throughout our continent that capitalism can offer no solution to our problems. Lenin pointed clearly to this inevitable process when he told the Third Congress of the Communist International that:

“… in the impending decisive battles in the world revolution, the movement of the majority of the population of the globe, initially directed towards national liberation, will turn against capitalism and imperialism”.

This strengthened tendency within national liberation revolutions since the 1960s was reflected by those countries of Africa which had chosen the path of socialist orientation. But the advances won in the zone of national liberation throughout the world had goaded the imperialists into launching one of the most dangerous counter-offensives that humanity has thus far seen.

In the contemporary period we face an imperialism whose inter-relations have qualitatively changed since the years of ‘Great Power’ rivalry of the Berlin Conference. As the Soviet scholar K.N. Brutents has shown, although inter-imperialist contradictions still exist, the whole of post-war experience has shown that: “Whenever truly important interests in the contest between socialism and capitalism are affected in the zone of national liberation, whenever the positions of imperialism as a whole are at issue, the imperialists are guided by the considerations of their global anti-socialist, anti-revolutionary strategy, and bend every effort to act in a common front”.

Offensive Against Africa

Utilising subtle neo-colonialist policies, imperialism attempts to continue its expansionist policies. On a world scale, the United States staged armed interventions or threatened military force on 215 occasions between 1946 and 1975. In Africa, the imperialists are following the same course. Reagan’s policy of ‘constructive engagement’ with the apartheid regime had created the conditions for intense military, economic and political pressure being brought to bear throughout the whole region of Southern Africa. Those countries which had chosen the way of socialist orientation had become the prime targets of imperialism’s counter-offensive.

Imperialist policy was not confined to the Reagan brand. It is instructive to remember that the monopolies of the so-called ‘Contact Group of 5’ (The Contact Group, also known as the Western Five, a diplomatic group of five Western countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Federal Republic of Germany), which had involved itself in the question of Namibian independence, accounted for 70% of investments in that country’s mining industry.

The Social Democrats, too, had not been inactive. A ‘Socialist African International’ held its founding congress in Tunis in 1980, and the ideology and strategy of Social Democracy were clearly reflected in that organisation’s Charter which emphatically “rejected the concept of class struggle”, which, it maintained, was “at variance with both the traditional structures of African society and its history”.

The current imperialist offensive aims to undercut the commitment of African countries and the OAU (Organisation of African Unity – now African Union) to the policy of non-alignment and to break all forms of cooperation with the socialist countries. The most dangerous development of this policy was the involvement of some African countries, notably the Sudan, Egypt and Kenya, in US military policy, the establishment of military bases on their territory and the deployment of US arms there.

The aggressive nature of imperialism’s foreign policy springs from the very nature of its economic and social relations and the interests of its ruling classes. As Lenin wrote:

“Imperialism is the epoch of finance capital and monopolies, which introduce everywhere the striving for domination, not for freedom”. – V.I. Lenin

Despite the violence and force that imperialism displays in its counter-offensive (e.g. Granada), the change in the world balance of forces in favour of national and social emancipation is irrevocable. In Africa, communists and revolutionary democrats are reaching higher levels of organisational and ideological unity in their common anti-imperialist struggle. The African revolutionaries are on the one hand the recipients of the all-round support of the socialist countries, but have in turn helped to consolidate the positions and influence of the world revolutionary process as a whole.

The consequences of 100 (now 140) years of imperialism for Africa remain painfully apparent in a continent where the extreme impoverishment of the rural and urban masses testifies to the ravages of imperialist plunder. In this 140th year of the Berlin Conference, however, we are also able to record the developing and central struggle waged by the African peoples for national and social emancipation and for a just and equitable world economic order. The past 140 years have witnessed the growth and consolidation of the mighty alliance of world anti-imperialist forces, particularly in the BRICS arrangement. We can face the future with confidence.

As the late National Chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Yusuf Dadoo, emphasised: “Success in the battles against imperialism are being scored today because of the growing might … the united action by the international working class and communist movement, and the new and major anti-imperialist drive by the liberated countries. Extensive interaction and joint efforts by all these forces are the guarantee that the major achievement in the revolutionary liberation struggle will be firmly consolidated in the new decades.” (To be continued … Inferences)

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!