In recent years, the United States has increasingly been sidelined in areas of deep economic transformation in Africa because US engagement with Africa has been primarily through militarism and military relations. The current visit of US President Barack Obama to Africa should be viewed against this background.
While the heads of state busied themselves with neoliberal discourses about ‘poverty reduction and governance' at the May 25th African Union Summit, the intellectuals, activists, artists and writers focused on acceleration of the full unification of the peoples of Africa and the need for concrete steps towards a government that can defend Africans at home and abroad
The kind of tragic exploitation of workers in Bangladesh is present all over Africa, where people are denied basic labour rights as part of state efforts to attract and retain foreign investment. Militant and sustained efforts are needed to resist this trend.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019