Institute of Development and Education for Africa (IDEA)

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The United States African Command: Meanings for Africa!

IDEA editorial

1/13/2010

What is Africom and what is its mission? Africom stands for United States African Command. Besides the militarization of the Continent, Africom’s mission is not clear at this juncture, nor can we state its agenda with precision other than relying on the various press releases made by its spokesmen. Africom was established on October 2007 and since it has not sat foot on African soil yet (this may change soon), its headquarters is in Stuttgart, Germany and according to General William E. Ward, commander of Africom; the latter is “one of the Defense Department’s six regional headquarters. Africom is the result of an internal reorganization of the U. S. military command structure, creating one administrative headquarter that is responsible to the Secretary of Defense for US military relations with 53 African countries.”

On top of the above apparent mission of Africom, however, its spokesmen claim, “political and economic growth can take place to work with African nations and African organizations to build regional security and crisis response capacity in support of U. S. government efforts in Africa.” Moreover, a branch of Africom, African Standby Force, will be in charge of political stability, economic growth, and secured environment.”

So far the spokesmen of Africcom have been reassuring African nations that the U. S. African command ‘will in no way infringe on the sovereignty of any African nation.’ On the contrary, Africom’s mission is ‘to build capacity and capabilities among African partners so that they are able to tackle Africa’s security challenges.’ In fact, they say, ‘the U. S. Africa command’s role is to be a supporting one.’

If African countries endorse Africom’s mission and objectives, the respective leaders individually or collectively through the African Union (AU) must have wittingly accepted technical dependence on the United States. It is safely assumed that the U. S. is not going to act like an imperialist occupying force in the old colonial strategic sense, but it will definitely have a major clout on African countries domestic and foreign policies. African states that welcome the physical presence of Africom on Africa must have anticipated that a part of their sovereignty will be compromised.

With the exception of small U. S. military presence in Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Africom has not established military stations (chapter commands) in different parts of the continent, but the year 2010 seem to usher and expedite the coming of Africom on African soil. According to Lieutenant James Stockman, Africom Public Affairs chief, Africa Endeavor 2010 initial planning conference took place in Kampala, Uganda on January 12, 2010. In this conference 130 communication and information security personnel of 29 countries have participated, and just one day before this conference, i.e. on January 11, 2010, the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) pulled into Port Gentil, Gabon. However, African Endeavor (AE) exercises took place in Pretoria, South Africa in 2006, long before Africom was officially declared. Other AE exercises also took place in Abuja, Nigeria in 2008 and Liberville, Gabon in 2009, and it is scheduled to take place in Accra, Ghana in August 2 – 12, 2010.

So far it is only Morocco and Liberia that seem to have officially endorsed Africom. Morocco is not a member of AU (it pulled out from the OAU after the latter recognized Western Sahara as sovereign country) and its position on Africom would not have an impact on AU collective decision. Liberia, though a member of AU, is not an influential country like, for instance, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, or South Africa. Interestingly, however, the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has been restructured in such a way to emulate the U. S. army model for ‘professional relationship between officers and non commissioned officers (NCOs).’

When the AE took place in Kampala, its guest of honor, Lt. General Ivan Koreta of Uganda Peoples Defense Force made a welcoming speech to the conferees and in effect endorsed Africom. He probably did not consider the fact that Africom’s physical presence in the Continent could stir controversy among various political and civic organizations in Africa and even create cleavage among AU member states.

Africom could very well be a military-cum-development command, but the very dependence of African nations on the United States for capacity and capabilities could undermine their independence and sovereignty. After all, as Louis Henkin et al aptly put it, “A State would not be independent in the legal sense if it was placed in a condition of dependence on another Power, if it ceased itself to exercise within its own territory the summa potestas or sovereignty, i.e. if it lost the right to exercise its own judgment in coming to the decisions which the government of its territory entails.”

Military and information technology is indeed indispensable, but given the stark reality of Africa and the struggle of individual nations to catch up in the 21^st century, military prowess and aggrandizement of defense forces should not be the priority of the Continent. Africa’s priority should be economic development. Africa, of course, should rely on itself for economic overhaul and other development agendas such as education, health, and infrastructure. What Africa needs are economists, engineers, agronomists, doctors, educators, and scientists, and not military consultants. The AU, in fact, has the potential in producing a pan-African defense command, but this should not be its priority either.