On July 26, Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the Niger presidential guard, ousted Mohamed Bazoum, the president of Niger, just two years into his term as the elected neocolonial president of Niger. As soon as word of the change of leadership came out, the internet went wild in support of the “coup” against Mohamed Bazoum. The masses had no doubt; it was a continuity of the overthrowing of France’s puppets that started in the Central African Republic and gained momentum with Mali and Burkina Faso.
The angry reactions from France, the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and the U.S. did not take long to arrive—another indication that it was not business as usual in Niger, and this coup was not their coup. Many bourgeois pundits and leaders were surprised, but most African anti-colonialists were discussing the end of this regime ever since Bazoum accepted to host additional French soldiers from Operation Barkhane which was kicked out of Mali on August 15, 2022.
“It is pure hypocrisy that colonial
powers are surprised by the
events in Niger! It is the crisis of
the colonial mode of production
everywhere! Africans are
demanding Africa for Africans!”
Western armies in Niger reinforce colonial control over Africa
All the bourgeois colonial armies are in Niger to protect and reinforce their control over Africa and African people. They are the armies of occupation in Niger. They have to be kicked out from every inch of African soil. It is pure hypocrisy that colonial powers are surprised by the events in Niger! It is the crisis of the colonial mode of production everywhere! Africans are demanding Africa for Africans! Those at home and those abroad! Garvey’s slogan is back!
The growing resistance from the masses is pushing a sector of the African petty bourgeoisie in the military to turn against the traditional western colonizers—particularly France, which, alongside Germany and the U.S., have been outmaneuvered in Niger. Before the July 26 coup, France and the U.S. held military bases in Niger with more than 1,000 soldiers for each country. The U.S. military operations in Niger included the use of drones deployed across the vast Sahel region. According to GermanDW.com, currently, there are 100 German army members, or Bundeswehr, in Niger to assist in training “local forces.”
France and the U.S. are opposed to democracy in Africa
The propaganda of the colonial news agencies want the world to believe that they went to Niger to help build a democratic Niger! They flood the news with the narrative that the overthrow of Mohammed Bazoum is a setback for democracy in Niger and in the region. Niger is a colony of France and a colony of all the colonizers in the context of the global colonial mode of production. That is why the U.S.—as the hegemon of white global colonialism—is there, and Germany is there as the leading colonial power in Europe.
The U.S. introduced the first coup in Africa in 1960 with the overthrow and assassination of the only democratically elected prime minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. France introduced the first coup in 1963 in the so-called “Francophone” Africa when they assassinated and overthrew the government of the democratically elected Sylvanus Olympio in Togo because the latter was opposed to French CFA currency.
One of three lightbulbs in France is powered by uranium stolen from Niger
The African workers produce wealth in Niger not for ourselves but for the economic development and social well-being of foreign countries. The EU gets 20 percent of its uranium from Niger, 75 percent of France’s electricity is based on the transformation of uranium of which at least 30 percent comes from Niger. In France there are 56 nuclear reactors. There are none in Niger! EDF, the company that distributes electricity in France, employs some 165,000 people in France. Orano, a company that extracts uranium, employs at least 16,000 in France. At the same time, we are repeatedly told that Niger is the poorest country in the world! In rural areas, where the vast majority of the people live, less than one percent of the population has access to electricity. France exports electricity to other EU’s countries. France also controls uranium mines in Gabon.
Niger is also the battleground for the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline that is planned to carry gas to Europe going from Nigeria to Algeria via Niger. The coup in Niger highlights the significance of Africa for access and control of energy resources and strategic minerals.
All over the world, but particularly in France, news readers, political pundits, and all kinds of self-appointed bourgeois experts on Africa are inundating internet websites discussing the question “why is France being overthrown out of Africa?” The white bourgeoisie can’t see the world for what it is because they are all stuck in the colonial mode of production worldview inherited from the European bourgeoisie’s ascension to power in the 17th century. This worldview presents colonizers as benevolent philanthropists, selfless explorers, missionaries, and investors motivated by bourgeois humanism to spread civilization to colonized peoples.
African Internationalism recognizes the necessity to eradicate the colonial mode of production and explains the world as it really is. We know how it came into being, how it developed, and the fact that it is now dying! There is nothing the white leaders can do to stop it.
The coup exposes the rejection of colonialism in Africa
It is no longer rare to hear Africans protesting in Africa saying we had enough of western domination. It is this movement that has made it possible for a sector of the African militaries to seize power in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and now in Niger. Although the African working class is not yet leading this surge of anti-colonialist struggle in Africa, they are the backbone of it. That is why we are calling for the immediate unity of Africa beginning with the unity of the countries that form the axis of this anti-colonial resistance in the Sahel region.
Build One Africa!
One anti-colonial government!
One anti-colonial army command!
