On Aug. 20, messages to the President
of the United States were delivered from a rally on the lawn of the
Ellipse, just a few hundred yards south of the White House. The
messages, though diverse and multifaceted, could be summarized by:
“U.S./NATO/France, Hands Off Africa!”
When Barack Obama became the first-ever
African American President of the United States, many in the African
diaspora had high hopes for significant changes to U.S. foreign
policy towards the continent. But now, well into the third year of
his presidency, Obama has left that community not only disappointed,
but virulently angry.
“How can an African man become
President of the United States and bring war to Africa?” said
Alexandre Yemeck, regarding the criminal U.S./NATO war on Libya.
Yemeck is a member of the Ivorian National Council, the organization
that called for the rally.
Yemeck went on to explain that what has
been perpetrated in African countries such as Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory
Coast), Congo, Sierra Leone and Libya, among many others, is nothing
new. “The actions taken by the United States and European countries
have been planned and put in place over the course of years and
years.”
The vast majority of those in
attendance were from Cote d’Ivoire, furious with the Obama
administration and the French government of Nicholas Sarkozy for
their blatant violations of Ivorian national sovereignty.
French violation of Ivorian
sovereignty protested
In April, French forces forcibly
removed from office the democratically elected president of Cote
d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo. In his place was installed, Alassane
Ouattara, a puppet who behaves in complete compliance with the
interests of U.S. and French imperialism. Since then, Ouattara has
terrorized the country while keeping Gbagbo imprisoned.
“France is the first enemy of
Africa,” said a representative of the organization Deliver Africa.
“Europeans came to Africa to steal, to kill and to destroy. The
time is now for our freedom!”
Hundreds of people were in attendance
carrying diverse national flags of African countries and placards
with slogans including “Stop Imperialism in Africa!” “No War
for Oil!” “Money for Jobs and Schools Not for War Against Libya!”
“France/UN Out of Cote d’Ivoire!” “Ouattara: Stop the
Repression in Ivory Coast!”
Most people in attendance came from the
East coast and Mid-Atlantic regions, however, some came from as far
away as Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Indiana. The diverse
international representation included people from all over Africa,
though predominantly Ivorians and Cameroonians.
In response to the many rousing
speeches, the crowd repeatedly broke out in spontaneous chants,
including “Free Africa!” “Free Laurent Gbagbo!” and “Obama
is a one-term president!”
Organizations represented at the event
included the Ivorian National Council, The African Diaspora for
Democracy and Development, Deliver Africa, The Ivorian Popular Front,
The International Conferences of Black Women, the ANSWER Coalition
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the Party for Socialism and
Liberation.
Obama ‘stabbed us in the back’
Myaka Ladoke of the African Diaspora
for Democracy and Development said “President Obama, I’m ashamed
of voting for you. We put you in the White House and you stabbed us
in the back.”
Ladoke went on to memorialize the true
African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Steve
Biko, Seku Ture, Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral and Agostinho Neto.
When he mentioned Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, the crowd replied
with energetic cheers of support. Ladoke said that unlike
U.S./European puppets, these legitimate leaders of Africa contributed
much to the liberation of the continent, in some cases, even their
very lives.
The General Secretary of the African
Diaspora posed a question and answer to the crowd. Question: “What
contributed to the expansion of Europe?” Answer: “Africa! Africa
is rich. Africa has all kinds of natural resources, and that is why
it’s exploited by multinational corporations. We need to give the
right to African people to choose their own leaders.”
ANSWER organizer and Howard University
student, Eugene Puryear, ridiculed the U.S./European version of
democracy, in which democratically elected African leaders such as
Cote d’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo are forcibly removed from power
and replaced with compliant puppets such as Alassane Ouattara.
Puryear passionately closed his speech
with overwhelmingly popular slogans of the day, “U.S./NATO Out of
Libya! France Out of Cote d’Ivoire! Black Power! People’s Power!
Hands Off Africa!”
