LONDON—As oil and gas discoveries place Tanzania within the crosshairs of parasitic imperialist companies, neocolonial president Jakaya Kikwete prepares to hand over Tanzania’s resources at the people’s expense.
Imperialists, desperate to find a way out of the ever-deepening imperialist crisis, seek their salvation in deepening the imperialist looting of Africa.
The parasitic capitalist countries are practically drooling as they describe the looting opportunities in Tanzania.
A February 10 article on gov.uk states:
“Tanzania is a growing market with on-going exciting discoveries, including 19 exploration blocks and U.S. $10-20 billion investment projected for exploration and production in the coming decade.”
“Over the past two years, exploration activities in Tanzania’s deep offshore waters have led to the discovery of 45 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. More discoveries are likely to come as drilling campaigns continue to unfold. It is estimated that the recoverable reserves will more than double to 100 tcf by the year 2015.”
“UK companies are the leading players in the oil and gas sector in Tanzania. Out of 12 offshore deep water blocks, four are British operated or owned, with a 50 percent UK stake in two others.”
Disguising themselves as “investors,” these imperialist companies use their African petty bourgeois accomplices to help them loot all the natural resources they can get their hands on.
Intensification of imperialist looting of Africa has been branded under different names: neo-liberalism, restructuration and adjustment programs, cooperation, aid, development, the U.S. Growth Opportunity Act, NEPAD, new millennium goals, etc.
This is one of the key reasons Obama visited Jakaya Kikwete last year, in his Africa Tour.
China also has a looting program. Despite its benevolent appearance, it does not address the end of the parasitic relationship imposed on Africa.
It simply proposes a new version of parasitic capitalism that still requires the neocolonial leadership and structures to remain in place.
The background of Tanzania
Tanzania is a territory in East Africa that is the size of Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas combined.
In 1964, Tanzania was created with the merger of former German and British colonies, Tanganyika and the People’s Republic of Zanzibar—an island twice the size of California, off the eastern coast of Tanzania.
There were only three main paved roads in the entire territory. These were the conditions that the white colonial regime left for the neocolonial regime of Julius Nyerere when they handed over the colonial administration to him in 1961.
The turnover of colonial administration was an attempt to avoid the type of armed insurrections that happened in neighboring Kenya, led by Dedan Kimathi and the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau).
Since the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in 1966, the government of Tanzania—under the leadership of Julius Nyerere— achieved a respected status in the African world.
This status came from actions like offering asylum to Africans freedom fighters, who fled U.S. government persecution, like Robert Williams and others as well as hosting ANC, PAC, SWAPO, FRELIMO and other anti-colonial liberation organizations.
This respected status was cemented with its hosting of the Sixth Pan African Conference in 1974, where USA CIA neocolonialist stooges like Mobutu had the same status as those who opposed imperialism.
In fact, the Caribbean-based African, neocolonialist leaders, in collaboration with their counterpart in Africa, were able to prevent Caribbean-based, anti-neocolonial organizations from attending the conference.
Tanzania is also the place where China’s relationship with Africa symbolically took root, with the building of the 1800km rail in the 1970s that linked Tanzania to Zambia, thus helping to unlock the dependence of Zambia to South African seaports.
However, the economy of Tanzania, even after so-called independence, continues to be dominated by imperialism for the benefit of the former colonial masters and now also those neocolonialist politicians who surrender Africa’s resources to them.
The “African socialism” in Tanzania, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere, did not change the fundamental relationship of oppressor nations and oppressed nations which existed between Europe and Africa.
In fact, instead of working to overturn that relationship, Nyerere led the attack on Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of one, united African government, and a united Africa is a precondition for our independence.
We need a unified liberation movement against imperialism and against the African petty bourgeoisie class of traitors.
The white ruling class media consistently puts forward the idea that the hardships experienced by Africans in Tanzania, and particularly Zanzibar, are religious matters. However, this is completely false.
Rather, the Africans in Zanzibar and in mainland Tanzania suffer from colonialist imperialism just like all other working and poor Africans on the continent and throughout the world.
The severe food scarcity and insecurity and the high rate of youth unemployment are economic matters.
They are a direct consequence of an absence of an independent unified African economy that would serve our own interests and be capable of feeding the whole African population.
Any struggle between African muslims and christians is misplaced. If we are to actually change our conditions, we need a struggle against all the oppressor nations who have their hands in Africa.
Revolutionary resistance and struggle must be the unifying factor. African Internationalism offers that unique possibility to get all of us from Somali, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, etc to unite against imperialism and neocolonial rule.
Jakaya Kikwete, a staunch supporter of parasitic capitalism
White-power-in-black-face presidents are primary players among those who are responsible for the continuous existence of the imperialist domination of our land and the exploitation and oppression of our people.
Instead of fighting for total independence, they instead have chosen the path of servitude. They are deadly to the existence of a liberated Africa.
Neocolonial leaders like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda—currently the two top running dogs of U.S. imperialism on the continent—are quite well known throughout capitalist world.
Lesser known is Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the president of Tanzania since 2005.
Kikwete does not hide his admiration for imperialism, nor does he miss an opportunity to grovel for scraps.
Talking about the so-called African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) and the fight against malaria in Africa in the Guardian, a UK-based liberal imperialist newspaper, Kikwete said, “So much of our progress is due to the support of global donors, led by the UK and U.S., which support malaria control efforts directly.”
He concluded by stating that the future of Africa depended on the relationship with “institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB, and Malaria. We know that only continued partnership and funding will allow us to sustain the gains we’ve made.”
Jakaya Kikwete is known for being boastfully pro-Monsanto and its genetically-modified biotechnology. Monsanto has a $50 billion deal to produce seed for Africa, which is nothing short of a war budget on Africa’s biodiversity and farmers.
Monsanto is well-known for its genocidal assault on Vietnamese people with “Agent Orange” during the unsuccessful U.S. invasion of Vietnam. They also have a history of dumping highly toxic waste materials in a creek located in the black community of West Anniston, Alabama, in the U.S.
“Monsanto develops pesticides and genetically modified seeds, patents the seeds, prohibits farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then sends undercover agents out to investigate and sue farmers who don’t comply,” according to a May 23 article written by Tanzania-based journalist Nizar Visram.
We know why Kikwete is a friend of Mosanto. It is because he intends to open up Tanzania’s agriculture to Mosanto and other parasitic imperialist companies. In fact, according to Kikwete himself, speaking at a World Economic Forum in Switzerland, after realizing that most of Tanzania’s existing agricultural interventions were solely government-led, he said, “[I felt] we should find ways of involving the private sector in the development of agriculture in Tanzania. We came up with a new vision we called Kilimo Kwanza, which means ‘agriculture first.’”
There is only one way for Tanzania, East Africa and the whole African nation to come to the conclusion of the crisis of imperialism in a way favorable to us—by ending the domination of the African nation by imperialism. For this to happen, the African workers and peasants must get organized and lead this new period of resistance.
Down with gradual step towards African unity! We want the immediate unification of the African nation in our lifetime!
