TOPLINE A special forces unit of the Guinea Armed Forces ousted the country’s long-serving President Alpha Conde on Sunday in an apparent coup, causing global aluminum prices to soar over fears that the unrest in the West African nation could impact the supply of a raw material, bauxite, which is needed to make the metal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The military unit which claims to have seized power announced that they have dissolved Guinea’s government, its constitution and closed its land and air borders.



The new military rulers have imposed a nationwide curfew “until further notice” and have said they plan to convene a meeting of Conde&#8217;s cabinet later on Monday.



Unrest in the world’s third-largest producer of bauxite has pushed aluminum prices to the highest level in over a decade.



Prices of the metal in the London Metal Exchange climbed by 1.8% on Monday to $2775.50 per ton—the highest it has been since May 2011.



In China, the aluminum futures jumped up nearly 3.5% to around $3,400 (CNY 21,970)—the highest it has been since 2006—before leveling off at around 2.3%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



Following the announcement of the coup, the U.S. State Department&nbsp;<a href="https://www.state.gov/on-the-military-seizure-of-power-in-guinea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">issued a statement</a>&nbsp;in which it said: “The United States condemns today’s events in Conakry… We urge all parties to forego violence and any efforts not supported by the Constitution and stand by the rule of law.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



64 million metric tonnes. That’s the amount of bauxite that Guinea&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/profiling-the-top-five-bauxite-producing-countries-in-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">produced</a>&nbsp;in 2019 putting it third in the world behind Australia and China in terms of annual production. The country also holds the largest reserve of the aluminum ore in the world at 40 billion tons.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Despite worldwide condemnation, the coup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/6/guinea-coup-military-arrest-president-dissolve-government" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;sparked celebrations in some quarters of the nation’s capital Conakry. Last year, the ousted president Conde secured a third term in an election that was marred by violent protests, claims of fraud, and controversy over changes to the country’s constitution to remove a two-term presidential limit. His return to power had sparked demonstrations in parts of the country which led to several deaths and hundreds of arrests. One Western diplomat&nbsp;<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/army-seizes-power-in-guinea-holds-president/articleshow/85966324.cms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;AFP that Sunday’s coup may have been sparked by the Conde government’s decision to dismiss a senior commander in the special forces—sparking a rebellion from some of the members of its group.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/heavy-gunfire-heard-guinea-capital-conakry-reuters-witness-2021-09-05/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elite Guinea army unit says it has toppled president</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)



<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/6/guinea-coup-military-arrest-president-dissolve-government" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Guinea coup: Military arrests president, dissolves government</a> (Al Jazeera)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

GUINEA-ARMY-POLITICS-UNREST

Guinea Special Forces Oust President In Coup, Unrest Causes Aluminum Prices To Soar

November 2017 will go down in the history of Zimbabwe as the beginning of the end of Robert Mugabe’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/14/tanks-seen-heading-towards-zimbabwe-capital-harare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">37 year tyranny</a>. A tumultuous week finally culminated in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42071488" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his resignation</a> on November 21st. One cannot understate the widespread jubilation at the demise of Mugabe and his desire to create a dynasty for himself <a href="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/660122/Zimbabwe-news-Robert-Mugabe-Grace-Zanu-PF-Twitter-latest-situation-coup-Emmerson-Mnangagwa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through his wife Grace</a>.
But the optimism is misplaced because it doesn’t deal directly with the dearth of democracy in Zimbabwe.
First, contrary to popular sentiment that the coup was meant to usher in a new era of political <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42035981" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberalisation and democracy</a>, the takeover is actually meant to deal with a succession crisis in Zanu-PF. The military made this clear when it said that it was dealing with <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/zimbabwe-military-statement-seizing-power-171115061457199.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminals around Mugabe</a>. And the party’s secretary for legal affairs Patrick Chinamasa indicated that removing Mugabe from the party’s Central Committee was an <a href="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/politics/dont-need-opposition-zanupf-business-chinamasa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">internal party matter</a>.
Secondly, I would argue that the military resorted to a “smart coup” only after its preferred candidate to succeed Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was fired from the party and government.
The way in which the military has gone about executing its plan upends any conventional understanding of what constitutes a coup d&#8217;etat. It’s a “smart coup” in the sense that the military combined the frustrations of a restive population, internal party structures and international sympathy to remove a sitting president. It thereby gained legitimacy for an otherwise partisan and unconstitutional political act – toppling an elected government.
This begs the question: Is the military now intervening for the collective good or for its own interests?
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/11/17/mnangagwa-military-may-mean-bad-news-zimbabwe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Mnangagwa and the military may mean more bad news for Zimbabwe</a>
<h2>Why the military intervened</h2>
It is baffling to imagine how the military has suddenly become the champion of democracy and regime change in Zimbabwe.
It’s clear that what motivated the military commanders was a fear of losing their jobs and influence after their preferred successor was purged. They launched a preemptive strike against Mugabe to safeguard their own selfish interests as a military class and the future of their careers.
Given the symbiotic relationship between the Zimbabwean military and the ruling Zanu-PF party, it was inevitable that the top commanders would be embroiled in the party’s succession crisis. After all, the military has been the key lever behind the power of both Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF since 1980.
In the past they have acted as part of the Zanu-PF machinery, openly <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/06/09/bullets-each-you/state-sponsored-violence-zimbabwes-march-29-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">campaigning for Mugabe</a> alongside other security agencies.
And they have played a key role in neutralising political opponents. Back in the 1980s the military was responsible for the massacre of thousands of civilians and Zapu supporters in <a href="https://archive.org/stream/BreakingTheSilenceBuildingTruePeace/MatabelelandReport_djvu.txt." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matabeleland</a>. More than two decades later in 2008 they were responsible for the torture, death and disappearance of 200 opposition activists and the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/2170138/Zimbabwe-Death-toll-rises-in-Robert-Mugabes-reign-of-terror-before-election.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maiming of hundreds more</a>.
In addition, <a href="http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/DRC%20S%202001%20357.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the UN</a> has implicated Mnangagwa and the generals in the illegal plundering of resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They have also been fingered in the disappearance of diamond revenues from Zimbabwe’s Marange <a>diamond fields</a>.
On top of this the military and Zanu-PF share a special relationship that has its roots in the liberation struggle. The Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was the political wing of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla) during the liberation war. They therefore have vested interests in the survival of the party.
After independence, the relationship remained intact as the military became the <a href="http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-86814.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guarantors of the revolution</a>. Some of the same surviving commanders of Zanla are still senior high ranking officials. The commanders are also bona fide members of the ruling party and guarantors of Zanu-PF power.
The same securocrats are also members of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association. This quasi paramilitary group is an auxiliary association of the ruling party and has fiercely opposed Mugabe’s attempt to create a dynasty.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/11/21/lessons-south-africas-jacob-zuma-robert-mugabes-misfortunes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Lessons for South Africa&#8217;s Jacob Zuma in Robert Mugabe&#8217;s misfortunes</a>
<h2>Military must step aside</h2>
Zimbabwe goes to the polls next July to choose a new president and parliament. The elections – if conducted in a credible way – will provide the next government with the legitimacy it needs to take the country out of its political and economic crises.
Now that Mugabe has resigned the hope is that the military will allow a genuinely democratic transition to take place. All political players, including opposition parties, would need to be incorporated into a broad-based transitional authority pending credible elections.
But for the elections to be credible, the transitional authority would need urgently to reform the electoral system. This would ensure Zimbabweans can freely and fairly choose their leaders. Without this, peace and prosperity will continue to elude Zimbabwe.
In the long run, the military would do well to get out of politics instead of continuing to view itself as “stockholders” in the country’s political affairs because of its liberation struggle credentials. &#8211; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/enock-c-mudzamiri-192098" target="_blank" rel="author noopener">Enock C. Mudzamiri</a>, DLitt et DPhil Student in Politics, University of South Africa
Originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>
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Zimbabwe beware: the military is looking after its own interests, not democracy

On <a href="http://time.com/4986918/us-military-niger-soldier-deaths-investigaton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October 4</a> an American Special Forces team was ambushed by a contingent of Islamic State affiliated fighters in Niger. Four American soldiers were killed and two wounded. The team of 12 soldiers was returning from a meeting with community leaders when it ran into a group of up to 50 terrorists.
The incident caused a furore in the US, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-africa-security/u-s-deaths-in-niger-highlight-africa-military-mission-creep-idUSKBN1CB2J1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sparking recollection</a> of 1993’s “<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-38808175/black-hawk-down-the-somali-battle-that-changed-us-policy-in-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Hawk Down</a>” incident in Somalia that saw 18 American soldiers killed. Questions were raised about how it was that four US soldiers died, why one of the bodies was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/20/politics/us-niger-ambush-sgt-la-david-johnson/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retrieved only 48 hours after the ambush</a>, and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-troops-niger/story?id=50559788" target="_blank" rel="noopener">why US troops were in Niger in the first place</a>. US President Donald Trump’s failure to address the matter with the necessary <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/john-mccain-niger-attack-response/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transparency</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/us/politics/trump-widow-johnson-call.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sensitivity</a> fueled the agitation.
The Niger incident reaffirmed the need to ask important questions about <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/29/death-us-soldiers-in-niger-restarts-debate-about-military-involvement-post-vietnam.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US military presence</a> in foreign territories and in this case, in Africa. African institutions that advocate for <a href="http://www.un.org/humansecurity/human-security-unit/human-security-approach" target="_blank" rel="noopener">human security</a> must continuously question the motives behind US military presence on the continent as well as its impact.
The US has an extensive military presence on the continent. In 2016 it was <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-maygers/nick-turse-tomorrows-battlefield_b_7480360.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that its military had been involved with more than 90% of the 54 countries in Africa.
Two important and related questions arise following the Niger incident. Is the US military’s presence in Africa <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/americas-proxy-wars-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">good or bad</a> for Africa’s security? And is America pursuing the right strategy to combat terrorism on the continent? These are pertinent questions given that Africa is “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/25/africa-becomes-new-battleground-isis-and-al-qaeda-they-lose-ground-mideast/796148001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the new battleground</a>” in the fight against terrorism.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/10/30/west-africa-less-attractive-investors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Why Is West Africa Less Attractive To Investors?</a>
<h2>The history</h2>
The US military’s presence in Africa is best understood in the wider context of America’s national security strategy. In establishing a military presence with global reach, the Americans are informed by what they call “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forward strategy</a>”. This is a national security policy shaped during the Cold War.
“Forward strategy” was based on the idea that establishing and maintaining a significant US military presence in close proximity to the former Soviet Union would discourage communist expansion. This encouraged the emergence of America’s global military footprint either through a physical presence or in the form of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/02/east-west-cold-war-legacy-africa-160214113015863.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proxy forces</a> belonging to sympathetic or opportunistic governments.
Forward strategy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gained renewed impetus</a> following the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/the_september_11th_terrorist_attacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">9/11 attacks</a> on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. This renewal was marked when the president George W. Bush declared a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">war on terror</a>.
Africa had already featured in the story of the fight against terror, when in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_3131000/3131709.stm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1998</a> US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/world_al_qaeda/html/2.stm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Al-Qaeda</a>. In 2007, and following Bush’s declaration, the “United States Africa Command” (<a href="http://www.heritage.org/defense/report/us-africa-command-challenges-and-opportunities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AFRICOM</a>) was established as the <a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Military-Departments/Unified-Combatant-Commands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ninth unified combatant command</a>. AFRICOM was founded with the <a href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operational objective</a> to neutralise <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24587491" target="_blank" rel="noopener">violent extremist organisations</a> and beef up regional security on the continent.
The US troop contingent in Niger is part of this effort. AFRICOM is also engaged in an array of <a href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporting activities</a> deemed necessary for ensuring regional security. These include <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/us-arms-sales-kenya" target="_blank" rel="noopener">foreign military sales</a>, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/reforming-us-international-military-education-and-training-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">military education and training</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22173596" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provision of healthcare</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjPLskdV7h0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veterinary services</a>.
The US military’s strategic objective is underpinned by two ideals: the <a href="http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/clauswtz/clwt000d.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“economy of force”</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/north-korea-preventive-war/523833/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“preventative war”</a>. “Economy of force” refers to the idea that it’s more cost effective to train and equip African forces in the fight against terror than to commit extensive numbers of US troops. “Preventative war” centres on the argument that large wars can be avoided by fighting on smaller scales wherever necessary.
America’s forward strategy persisted under both the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bush and Obama administrations</a>. By all indications it is a strategy that’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">likely to continue</a> under Trump.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/10/04/trumps-africa-policy-still-incoherent-key-signals-emerging/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Trump&#8217;s Africa policy is still incoherent</a>
<h2>Citizens will pay a price</h2>
The danger is that, in some instances, citizens can bear the brunt of a US military presence that involves training and equipping of African forces. This is particularly true in countries where interventions, inadvertently perhaps, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/old-wounds-deep-scars-us-intervention-africa-20131010101130448232.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strengthen repressive state apparatus</a>. On the other hand <a href="http://www.global-geneva.com/keeping-it-family-how-africas-corrupt-leaders-stay-in-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Africa’s gatekeepers</a> &#8211; self-interested, ruling elites &#8211; have the means to ensure their own security. They control the state, and its access to foreign partnerships and aid, whether military or otherwise.
A <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/18/is-the-us-military-propping-up-ugandas-elected-autocrat-museveni-elections/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">case in point</a> is Uganda’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12421747" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yoweri Museveni</a> – a <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/06/03/uganda_on_the_brink_key_us_ally_for_african_security__109416.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">key African ally</a> in the war on terror.
And of the 16 African countries that <a href="https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2017/02/15/updated-rough-guide-foreign-military-bases-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host US military presence</a>, 10 are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/fiw-2017-table-country-scores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">categorised</a> by the US-based Freedom House as “not free”, four as “partly free” and only two as “free”.
Various reports this year indicate that armed forces in a number of countries that host a US military presence have abused civilians. <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/hrw-accuses-mali-burkina-troops-of-sweeping-rights-abuses-20170908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Burkina Faso</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/27/tortured-abused-deported-cameroon-accused-of-driving-out-100000-nigerian-refugees-human-rights-watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cameroon</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/chad-blasts-un-report-on-troop-abuses-in-car-20170602" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chad</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/09/us-stand-ethiopians-government-stifles-protests-jails-journalists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Candidates-should-address-abuses-/440808-4037576-55swdez/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/05/15/ugandan-troops-committed-sexual-abuse-in-central-african-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Uganda</a> are a few examples.
These sorts of situations have the potential to fuel fundamentalist backlash.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2017/06/21/qatars-conflict-neighbours-can-set-horn-africa-alight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Qatar&#8217;s conflict with its neighbours can set the Horn of Africa alight</a>
<h2>Is America’s strategy working?</h2>
What is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efficacy of the US’s military presence</a> in Africa?
<a href="https://issafrica.org/about-us/press-releases/lessons-from-africa-on-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research</a> by the Institute for Security Studies suggests that <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-01-18-collateral-death-more-civilians-killed-in-nigerias-war-on-terror/#.WgSSz2iCw2w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heavy-handed anti-terrorism strategies</a> breed insecurity by making fundamentalist organisations appear attractive to ordinary citizens. The exercise of what ordinary citizens perceive to be <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/illegit_force.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">illegitimate force</a>, on the part of state security institutions, increases the likelihood of those same citizens joining fundamentalist organisations.
But it seems these findings are being ignored. The danger is that if <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">current patterns</a> encouraged by the US military persist, countries are likely to experience an increase in extremism. This in turn is likely to perpetuate the heavy-handedness of already illiberal regimes and the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/old-wounds-deep-scars-us-intervention-africa-20131010101130448232.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vicious cycle</a> of interventionism in Africa.
In the <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/terrorism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">words</a> of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, &#8220;Our responses to terrorism, as well as our efforts to thwart it and prevent it, should uphold the human rights that terrorists aim to destroy.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-bailie-369223" target="_blank" rel="author noopener">Craig Bailie</a>, Lecturer in Political Science (Mil), Stellenbosch University
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Niger: a reminder of why the US military’s presence Africa needs constant scrutiny

A string of fresh piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia spells uncertainty for commodity dealers and consumers in East Africa.
The shock hijacking of a commercial oil tanker, the MT Aris 13, in March ended a five-year lull in piracy on the key Indian Ocean route around the Gulf of Aden. In early April, it is suspected Somali pirates seized an Indian dhow, Al–Kausar, on its way to the port of Bosaso in northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, while another bulk carrier, OS 35, was hijacked a few days later. It has sparked fears of a return of the menace the caused global concern at its peak between 2011 and 2013.
In 2016, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded two incidents of failed attacks off Somalia. Pirates attempted to attack a container vessel in the Gulf of Aden in May, and fired on a product tanker in the Somali basin 300 nautical miles from shore in October. The attempts showed that the threat of piracy had not disappeared.
The latest back-to-back attacks have prompted an EU naval force operating on the sea route to urge “for vigilance to all ships transiting the piracy high risk area”.
Commodity dealers and consumers in East Africa should pray that these are isolated incidents rather than a precursor to the return of piracy on this key sea route that links eastern Africa to the Arabian Gulf, Europe and beyond.
At its peak a few years ago, securing captured vessels, cargo and crew off the coast of Somalia cost the global shipping industry billions of dollars in ransom pay-outs. The menace also led to increased operational costs due to higher insurance premiums and the use of longer alternative routes around the coast of South Africa. The shipping lines also had to incur the extra expense of hiring security personnel to escort vessels through the troubled route around the Gulf of Aden, as well as other pre-emptive measures, such as installing watchtowers and razor wire.
Shipping lines did not absorb the heat alone. The pain of inflation trickled down the supply chain, causing the prices of basic industrial and household items to rally sharply.
With East Africa’s huge dependence on import commodities, such as farming and industrial machinery, vehicles, clinker, steel and petroleum, the return of piracy on Somali waters means consumers will be squeezed even more. The booming infrastructure and housing projects in East Africa would also suffer a jolt of higher implementation budgets, reflecting the cost variations attributable to the piracy.
Exporters from East Africa will then face the challenge of keeping their commodities competitive in markets abroad due to the higher cost of shipment.
Ship owners have no doubt been blinded by the lengthy lull in attacks and even began taking on very risky routes to save of costs and time. Some shipping lines have returned to the extremely vulnerable route between Somalia and Socotra Island, in the Arabian Sea, that is commonly known as the Socotra Gap. In fact, the MT Aris 13 was seized by pirates as it attempted to sail through the Socotra Gap at low speed.
It would be in the interest of global forces to reinvigorate patrols on this key route to prevent a fresh escalation of piracy. This has been done before with wonderful results.
Military incursions in the Somali region have helped stem piracy attacks on key shipping routes around the Gulf of Aden since 2012, bringing hope for efficient freight services and the lower cost of goods entering and leaving the East African market.
More effort must also be made on land to weed out militant groups that may be using piracy to bankroll their activities. Almost two decades of lawlessness in Somalia, without a substantive government, provided a breeding ground for extortionist groups that resort to illegal means to stay afloat. With Somalia’s economy still in ruin, the urge for militant groups to take up activities such as piracy to make ends meet remains high.
Troops, backed by the United Nations and African Union, battling the Al-Shabaab militants should be supported to end the despair caused by these crooks.
Until they are stopped, East Africans will feel the pain.

Fishing Trawlers Released From Pirate Control

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

IIt’s a sunny Thursday, and I am at the Mobile Military Health Formation of the SA Military Health Service in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, to meet Limpopo-born Molatelo Nkoana, a 31-year-old woman who has dodged more bullets than most.
Nkoana’s running a little late, but then she arrives, sallying into the boardroom. She is on duty and in uniform, and proceeds to tell me about her life and the career she almost embarked on.
After completing her secondary education, Nkoana says she first went on to study and train as a nurse. But that wasn’t to last long; she gave it up midway – to join the military, a decision she would never regret.
“Basically, it was about the money, I was young and wasn’t getting enough money, so I went on the market,” says Nkoana.
The enthusiastic 22-year-old applied, and was recruited three months later, reporting to the Thaba Tshwane military base in Pretoria for basic training. She also trained in Kimberly, Bloemfontein and the Western Cape.
Nkoana had thought only the physically fit could join the military, but soon discovered it offered multiple careers one could explore. With her nursing background and experience, Nkoana chose to be a paramedic.
In March 2013, Nkoana was one of the 200 soldiers of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) selected to go to the Central African Republic (CAR) as part of South Africa’s peace-keeping mission there.
They would go on to fight a series of battles outside Bangui in the CAR. And Nkoana was the only woman on the frontline.
Michel Djotodia, leader of the rebel alliance, Seleka, had declared himself the new president of CAR and forced the then serving president, François Bozizé, out of the country.
It wasn’t going to be an easy task for the SANDF.
Nkoana takes me back to noon on that fateful Friday on March 22, 2013 when she first spotted the rebels; she remembers it all like it was yesterday.
She literally transports me to CAR with her vivid detailing of the series of events that unfolded. As she relates this story of death and danger, I hear the bullets, the gunshots and the rebels roar; I see the ravages of war in CAR.
Nkoana was amongst the first to see the rebels attack.
“We saw a civilian running away from those people, the rebels. I was at the gate of the base’s duty room. I ran to the sick-bay as a medic and told the people that the rebels are coming, the rebels are coming.”
When she reported it, nobody believed her. But she persisted, proceeding to gather her bulletproof vest, helmet, and weapon.
Her fellow soldiers only believed her when the Officer Commander (OC) ordered them to prepare and check what was happening outside the base. He tasked a team from the special force.
Around 5PM, this team was ambushed by the rebels, but they fought back tenaciously, and the rebels fled.
Three men of the special force team returned injured, one shot in the chest, the other had sustained a fracture in his femur and the third was wounded.
For the first time, the base knew it was rough outside.
“As medic personnel, we took them to civilian hospitals outside to get other doctors to help us,” recalls Nkoana.
Around 10PM the following day, the rebels came back again firing bombs. The SANDF could hear the entire din from their base. The Sergeant Major asked Nkoana to go with them to replenish food for the soldiers who had been on night vigil.
She grabbed her medical bag, helmet, bulletproof vest, weapon and left with the men, not hesitating for a minute.
It was around 12PM, when she along with the others drove 15-20 kilometers to the location of the stranded soldiers; it was quiet when they got there, but as soon as the rebels saw the SANDF vehicles, they started shooting again.
“We went out of the car and took cover, and then we started shooting back. While fighting, I managed to get one of the guys that was injured and suggested I take him back to the base because he could not run, fight or do anything,” she says.
The OC opted otherwise and Nkoana and the injured men had to wait even as the bullets rained over their heads.
At 5PM, as they were heading back to camp, the squad was ambushed again. This was when a number of lives were lost, says Nkoana, for the first time sounding emotional.
They did what they did before: stop the vehicle, step out and take cover.
As Nkoana was taking cover, one of the soldiers had been shot in both legs and was screaming out for her. She bandaged him but the chaos was far from over; yet another soldier was calling for one of the two medics that were there. He had almost missed a bullet but it had grazed his neck.
By then, Nkoana and the other medic could see dead bodies all around them. The injured soldiers shouted to them to leave because they were going to die.
“We told them we can’t leave. We are still alive and we can at least take cover with you. Let’s move to a safer place; the guy that was shot in the legs said he couldn’t walk and we should leave him there.”
The team refused and carried him to safety.
Around midnight, the OC called from the base asking for Nkoana. Many of the soldiers were already back at the base, but the young woman had stayed on with the other fighters.
“When they called, I switched off my phone because it was loud and we could hear the voices of the rebels from where we were hiding.
“I switched the phone back on and sent a message telling them ‘we are here, we are hiding, we’ve got two patients and we cannot get out of this cover’.”
Nkoana had full faith she was going to return home to her son in Senwabarwana, her hometown in South Africa’s Limpopo province. It kept her alive.
She thought she would be running on foot back to the camp because there was nothing that could rescue them.
Many soldiers died, but many of the rebels also died, so there was not going to be any mercy towards the SANDF.
Nkoana then received a text advising her and her patients to remain in hiding and stay calm. Around 4AM, she received a call asking if they were still undercover; they were then instructed to somehow make their way to the airport.
“The commander of the rebels was requesting the SANDF to go back to their country,” she says.
But Nkoana and the injured soldiers had to travel another 15 kilometers to the airport; she was still unsure of their safety. Their hideout was next to a tar-road and the rebels were driving up and down firing bullets into the sky.
A peace agreement had been signed, so the soldiers could go back to camp; get their belongings and head home to safety.
“[But] we were not sure the people in the streets knew of the peace agreement because if they see us they will shoot us; the agreements were done at the base and not in the streets,” says Nkoana.
They refused to come out of hiding.
They heard the Casspir (armed ambulance) that was sent to fetch them and the bodies of the dead soldiers, but they were still unsure if it was safe to surface. The vehicle went up and down, back and forth, looking for them.
“Around 7AM, the next day, we decided to go. They sent me a message to just surrender; I then told the guys ‘the Major says we should surrender’. I was the Corporal by then and the guys asked if we should shoot. I told them ‘no, because if you shoot one bullet, they will kill all of us’.”
Nkoana took command of the situation, complying with her superiors at the base.
The drama didn’t end there though.
Just as they got on to the road, the rebels came after them and took their weapons, bulletproof vests, ammunition and they were instructed to lie down. They then had to stand up and walk in a single file not knowing where they were being taken.
On the way, they climbed on to a bakkie (pickup truck) driven by other rebels which took them to their base. The soldiers at the base had started packing, and they had to pack up too. They were all then taken to the airport to head back home to South Africa. Finally, it was all over.
Nkoana was a 27-year-old woman who defied death at the hands of the rebels. She was honored with a bravery medal, invited to the opening of Parliament in South Africa in 2014 and was given the Sword Of Peace.
Like Nkoana, another South African woman was also honored for her bravery fleeing the rebels in CAR, with an equivalent of R3 million ($323,000 at the time) supporting the mission, in her bag.
Susette Gates, a mother of two sons, currently living in Pretoria, was deployed as the financial officer of the South African mission in CAR in charge of payroll. Before being employed by the SANDF, she had been a hairdresser, she says, laughing, when she speaks to us.
Like most people looking for jobs, she had applied for an open post at the Wonderboom military base and been accepted; she continues to work here.
I meet her at this base – she’s not in uniform – and in her own office adorned with family portraits, certificates and medals.
She was the only other woman besides Nkoana selected for the CAR mission. Those fearful moments in CAR are forever etched in her memory.
When the rebels were attacking the SANDF, Gates was watching a horror movie on her laptop at the base. Little did she know the horrors unfolding around her.
Ironically, she was informed about the chaos in CAR on the phone by her sister in South Africa. Only then did she realize there was no electricity and people had left their homes at the camp.
She called out to everyone but was the only one left. She was later relocated to another place where she spent the night.
“The next morning, I went back to get my belongings. The next thing the rebels were in the base and they took everything, they even took the cars,” she says.
“If they could grab food, clothes whatever. I had my money with me; they opened my bag and asked what it was. I told them it was clothes and asked if I could keep it, but the bag of money was under the clothes.”
Gates was released and managed to get away with the R3 million; the money she had hidden under her clothes and that belonged to the SANDF.
The trip to the airport was grim because all she saw was a dry and dirty town, gunshots going off in the background. On the flight back home, she knew there were dead bodies of colleagues on the plane. Gates almost kissed the ground when she landed in South Africa, she says.
Both these women returned as heroes and were honored by South Africa’s Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula in 2014. Of the 185 soldiers who survived the war, the two women stood out amongst the men. Today, there are other women fighting the rebels in the CAR like they did, risking their lives and saving the lives of the men around them.

Molatelo-036

Heroes Among Men

It is not often that a jovial call from an old friend in the African night brings back chilling memories of brutality that could have shamed the devil. It came from Washington; from fellow journalist Ray Choto – a man who was prepared to die, at the hands of his own people in his own land, to protect his sources. The kind of journalist everyone should want to be.
The unexpected call sent my mind racing back to January 1999 and nine days of sun and torrential rain that dripped with dark deeds.
Choto and Mark Chavunduka wrote a story for their newspaper, the Sunday Standard in Harare, claiming that there had been a coup attempt. Senior military sources told them that 23 soldiers, including seven officers, were under lock and key.
The government was enraged but, instead of refuting it, or writing a lawyer’s letter to the Standard, sent soldiers to clap Choto and Chavunduka in handcuffs and leg irons. They were kept for what Choto called “nine days of hell”.  Soldiers stripped them, blindfolded them, beat them with planks, kicked them in the kidneys and shoved their heads in drums of water.
For days we pumped out the story, day and night from Harare and pestered the authorities. What makes me sick to my stomach is that everyone in power knew where the two were, but no one had to guts to leak it. It sticks in my craw even more that if the journalists had been from the United States or Europe the story would have been at the top of world news and the battered young men would have been out before the sun went down.
Instead it was more than a week before we set eyes on Choto and Chavunduka; even then they were still in custody in the Magistrates’ Court. They were charged with an old colonial law, the Law and Order Maintenance Act, and released on bail. I can still see Chavunduka smiling as he saw me striding into the court on that sunlit day.
“Chris, what’s happening?”
“I thought you were going to tell us,” I laughed. A few minutes later the two shared another relieved smile as I waved them off in their car on their way to the Sunday Standard.
What did happen on those violent nights was no laughing matter. Back in his newsroom, Choto told, gesturing with his painful and swollen hands, how his torturers pushed live electric wires into his testicles. He was in so much pain he snapped the chain of his handcuffs.
The torturers were worried, at the end of their work, as the blood poured down the faces of the two young journalists; they feared Aids, Choto said. It had been raining heavily outside, so the torturers kicked their two young countrymen, naked, down a grassy bank to wipe off the blood.
To cap it all, the Supreme Court threw out the case against the two on constitutional grounds. A letter to the editor would have saved everyone pain, shame, money and trouble. The journalists believed their ordeal was a warning to the independent press.
Choto flew to London for psychological and physical repair. He took a fellowship at Stanford University, California, before joining the Voice of America in Washington. In 2002, he went home to visit his family where a military source told him to get out fast; his family agreed. He hasn’t set foot in Zimbabwe for more than 15 years and missed his mother’s funeral in May 2010; a thorn in his heart, he says.
Chavunduka died young in 2002; friends agree his ordeal hastened his demise.
When I spoke to Choto on that night call, we chuckled through our reminiscing. We talked of  hardship and lost friends, in the robust way journalists do, that’s how we live with the pain.
For me, I will always think of the smiling Choto and Chavunduka, bathed in that summer light, as they drove from court with broken bodies and many nightmares to come. How many journalists pay this high price for principle? I wonder why Africa breaks its youngest and brightest on the wheel.

Torture That Could Have Shamed The Devil

It was the best of times. It was a time when anything seemed possible; a time when hope blew through the tall blue gum trees like the gentle autumn breeze that wafted us along the road. We were on our way to a military base – a place where you don’t usually look for silver linings. Maybe we were just younger and the world looked better.
It was April 1994 and behind the barbed wire and automatic weapons of this army base in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, there was a story that could have gladdened the heart of anyone sick of war. At this camp one of the symbolic last rites were going to be said over one of the nastier running wars of sub-Saharan Africa – or was that nastier running sores? At last, the days of surveillance, killings, and torture were over.
By the end of this day, former foes would swap stories of war over a cold beer in a new, unified, South African army; a few days later, on April 27, these soldiers would help make history. They were at polling stations as millions of South Africans lined up across the country to vote in the first delicate democratic elections that would bury nearly 350 years of minority rule.
Hope was in abundance in those crazy days in Harare. It had been the home for many political exiles from South Africa for decades. Furthermore, it seemed to be the last stop-off point for returning exiles in their sneakers and baseball caps.
“I’m going home to run my country,” they would say, in the bars of Harare, in accents more Los Angeles than Langlaagte. Most were well educated and well versed; but I always noticed a little uncertainty in their faces when they spoke of a country many had never seen.
It all seemed so fresh then. The chance of a new start for one of the most tormented countries in Africa; a bountiful country about to throw off the shackles of sanctions and reap the rewards of an avalanche of post-apartheid investment – the rainbow nation in waiting.
This gathering at the army base in Harare paved the way for the historic elections. Soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) – the military wing of the African National Congress and APLA, the army of the Pan Africanist Congress – were preparing for election duty. It was likely to be difficult and dangerous task – as the soldiers drilled in Harare, bombs were going off in Johannesburg. Armed groups of all creeds and colors threatened to hurl South Africa into a civil war. The elections threatened to be a bloodbath.
Many thought it was too late to train troops for an election days away. That is what I asked the then head of MK, Siphiwe Nyanda, who was to become head of the new South African army and later a cabinet minister.
“We will be ready,” he smiled.
In the ranks on that day were a number of white South African troops who were going to have to fall in, in the new army, with black guerrilla fighters they once had been paid to kill.
“As long as they can reject their racism, we can work together,” said one of the battle-hardened guerrillas of his new white comrades.
Then there was the training. Military instructors spent hours instructing the former guerrillas how to thwart the very incursions and bombings that they had been carrying out for decades. Everyone was enthusiastic with one eye on a brighter future as poachers enthusiastically turned gamekeepers.
As the last beers were drained in the golden sunset and the troops climbed onto the back of trucks there was a feeling of camaraderie; almost an end-of-term levity about it. Former foes were to become the midwives of a new democracy.
Days later, we watched the pictures of millions casting their votes for the first time. The soldiers, trained in Harare, were vigilant; it is one of the small miracles of Africa that there was no violence as votes were cast.
On May 10, we watched again as helicopters carrying the new South African flag flew low over the Union Buildings in Pretoria to the cheers of thousands.
“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world,” Nelson Mandela said to the world.
As we all watched with broad smiles, Norman Mahaja, our sound recordist on the Harare military base story, brought us crashing down to earth.
“I want to go down south and earn the rand now,” he said.
“Why?”
“Before it becomes like the Zimbabwe dollar.”

Guerrillas Turned Gamekeepers On A Day Of Hope

Yola and Jimeta are the twin metros that form the state capital of northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa State. They are tense places of high temperatures, military checkpoints and curfew.
It was late at night on June 4 when shoppers were milling around a small market opposite the Jimeta Modern Market. It was just after 7:30PM, and the walled, open-air market was closing for the day.  Suddenly, a fight broke out. When customers and traders drew nearer to take a look, two bombs went off killing 37 people. The fight was staged by a suicide bomber.
“There were body parts lying all over the stalls, and parts of the street,” says Shareef Al Hasan, a reporter with TV Gotel who arrived minutes after the blast.
For many of the survivors, the unthinkable had happened; Boko Haram had struck at the heart of the Adamawa State capital.
The area has been relatively peaceful for more than a year, and seen thousands of refugees from Mubi, Madagali, Michika swell homes and camps. Some families sheltered up to 100 relatives, friends and strangers in their homes. They were fed by the people of Yola and Jimeta. The total number of displaced in Yola alone is estimated at 15,000.
In 2011 and 2012, attacks by Boko Haram in the town were common with gunmen shooting civilians from the back of motorcycles. The state government has since banned the okada, a two-wheeled transport popular in Nigeria.
Scores of people came to gawk at the scene, others fled. By 8PM, news of the bomb blast spread and panic gripped the city.
By the next morning, the area was cordoned off. I arrived at around 8:30AM to see for myself the destruction of the night before. The bodies were gone and the survivors taken to hospitals where they filled the wards. The dismembered head of the suicide bomber lay on the asphalt in a cardboard box.
The traditional leader, Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha, was among the first on the scene. He looked distressed, telling people to keep praying for peace and to be security conscious. The next to arrive was the commissioner of police in Adamawa State, Gabriel Adaji, with a call for information.
“Even if your suspicions are later proved baseless, we will thoroughly investigate every complaint,” he says.
The newly-elected governor, Jibrilla Bindo, announced a security cluster meeting with state security chiefs.
The incident comes at a time when pressure is mounting on President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfill a campaign promise of ridding Nigeria of insurgency. He announced the relocation of Nigeria’s military command center to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
The move to bring troops closerwas applauded by Nigerians. For the residents of Yola and Jimeta, it cannot come soon enough.

The Bloody Market  Of Fear

On May 7, 1945, just before midnight, Private First Class Domenic Mozzetta of the United States Army’s 97th Division shot at a German sniper near Klenovice, Czechoslovakia. He couldn’t know it at the time, but he had just fired the last official bullet in World War II’s European theater of operations.
The Japanese would finally surrender in August of that year, bringing the entire war – which cost more than 80 million lives if the aftershocks of disease and famine are taken into account – to an end.
The silencing of the guns sounded the death knell for Europe’s African empire and fuelled the wave of decolonialization that swept across the continent from the mid-1950s through the 1960s.
When war broke out in Europe in 1939, the French army recruited around 300,000 North African and 197,000 West African men, with more being pulled into the conflict as it spread around the globe. On top of this, nearly 400,000 African soldiers from Britain’s colonies were called up to fight.
British units from the Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast (now Ghana) comprised the 81st and 82nd West African Divisions and the famous King’s African Rifles (KAR) was made up of men from Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland (now Malawi), Somaliland (now Somalia) and Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
<div id="attachment_3594" style="width: 215px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3594" class="size-medium wp-image-3594" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/GettyImages-138601664-205x300.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="300" />UNITED KINGDOM &#8211; JANUARY 01: BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH N.K.1528 (Ministry of Information) (See companion picture K.1528) Corporal of a Kenya Battalion of the King&#8217;s African Rifles. A corporal of the 5th Battalion of the King&#8217;s African Rifles wearing drill order &#8211; khaki shorts, blue jersey with yellow chevrons and a felt hat introduced into the Colonial Forces about 1938, similar to those worn by Gurkha regiments. Formerly the Askaris (soldiers) of the KAR wore red tarbushes on drill or ceremonial parades, marching order and fighting order, the hat was a small round khaki affair like a pill-box, with a neck protection cover. (Photo by Planet News Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)</div>
More than 90,000 West Africans played a crucial role in driving the Japanese out of Burma, helping stave off an invasion of British India, and the KAR fought the Italians in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), the Vichy French in Madagascar and the Japanese in Burma. French West African soldiers, fighting with the Free French forces, invaded Sicily and Italy.
White South Africans and Rhodesians (now Zimbabwe) fought alongside their Allied peers but, with the exception of the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) which fought with distinction in Burma, their non-white counterparts tended to be relegated to auxiliary roles and did not face combat.
When the war ended, an immediate programme of ‘whitening’ the war effort began. The fact that Europe had been forced to use African fighting forces was a source of great discomfort for many Europeans who were, to put it mildly, discomfited by the idea of black men killing white.
As John Morrow, a University of Georgia historian, points out in his paper Black Africans in World War II: The Soldiers’ Stories, “African soldiers proved to be highly capable troops in… difficult conditions” and despite high levels of illiteracy were able to fight independently of their white commanders, striking fear into the hearts of their enemies.
Yet after the war, “a politically expedient policy of ‘whitening’” began. French leader Charles de Gaulle replaced black soldiers with French conscripts and partisans – but only after stripping them of their uniforms and weapons and grouping them with African POWs being liberated from German camps.
This was actively supported by British and American leaders. Brave African soldiers who fought alongside the British, especially in Burma, were denied the ultimate military honor of the Victoria Cross.
These soldiers, many of whom had fought with great courage and distinction on foreign battlefields, returned home after 1945 to the reality that once the war was won, their colonial rulers wanted to revert to their old ways, breeding resentment and distrust.
In 2009, a BBC documentary team tracked down some of Africa’s forgotten wartime heroes to hear their stories and, even though the war had been over for 64 years by then, the fact that their contributions had not been adequately acknowledged still rankled. It also found that, having fought alongside white soldiers, any sense that whites were in some way superior was challenged by their battlefield experiences.
“Initially, I saw the white man as someone better than me. But after the war, I considered him an equal,” former infantryman Dauda Kafanchan told the BBC.
Morrow says that “British and French attempts to omit, diminish, or discredit the achievements of African soldiers stemmed from their intent to ignore or limit African demands for equality and independence, in the same fashion that white Americans’ refusal to acknowledge the combat service of African-American soldiers was intended to keep the latter ‘in their place’ and forestall the granting of equal rights to black citizens under the law.”
But this wouldn’t be allowed to stand. As historian Tom Hartley wrote in Sheffield University’s ‘New Histories’ magazine, “the old colonial powers Britain and France had won the war but lost the battle – their statuses as the biggest names on the world stage was now over.”
Having fought to preserve freedom across Europe, it became very difficult for proponents of colonialism to continue to support the oppression of Africans.
“These moral issues, along with the financial cost of propping up an empire with Europe so devastated, led to a movement away from colonialism.”
This movement was supported by the Atlantic Charter, signed by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, which spelled out their justification for going to war with Germany and its allies, became a rallying point for African nationalists and gave them a powerful political tool.
Clause 3 of the Charter states that “[the British and American governments and people] respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.”
In The Saylor Foundation’s World War II and the Road to Independence, this “was intended to apply only to the European countries which were overrun by German Nazi forces [but] Africans appropriated it and used it for their own purposes,” leading to the “vast politicization of the African masses.”
Rather than arguing for better treatment, less discrimination and greater opportunities, African nationalists were now demanding a complete end to colonial rule.
In 1945, when the fifth Pan-African Congress took place in London, Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta, the future leaders of independent Ghana and Kenya, stood up and demanded an end to British colonialism.
In an essay entitled ‘To what extent was World War Two the catalyst or cause of British Decolonisation’, hosted on his Active History website, teacher and academic Russell Tarr argues that the war did so much damage to the British economy that that the Empire was forced to break up.
At the time, as The Saylor Foundation and others note, European powers had no intention of granting independence to their colonies – they thought it was too soon for self-governance. Africans, in their view, needed more training and education before they could be trusted to rule themselves.
In fact, Herbert Morrison, the post-war Labour Party Deputy Prime Minister, said that giving the colonies independence would be “like giving a child of ten a latch-key, a bank account and a shotgun.” The fact that the British wanted the process to be slow had more to do with the economic benefits of an almost endless supply of cheap raw materials than any inherent concern for the wellbeing of their African subjects, but the gradual change was never going to be acceptable to battle-weary and hardened veterans.
While the history of colonial and post-colonial Africa has generally been well recorded, it is only in recent years that the role that Africans played in World War II, and the subsequent impact that this would have on the continent in the wake of the conflict, is getting the attention that it deserves.
These forgotten soldiers are at last being properly remembered – not only for the significant part they played in defeating the scourge of fascism but also for their role in winning independence for their native lands.

How A White Man’s War Gave Africans Back Their Continent

Alex Reith had just celebrated his 22nd birthday when he landed his glider in Normandy in northern France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It may have been a dangerous day for his first taste of World War 2, but it was far from his worst. That was to come a few months later in Operation Market Garden – the parachute drop that turned into a slaughter and inspired the Hollywood film  A Bridge Too Far.
It was a glum and grey afternoon when Alex Reith flew his glider – with five troops, a jeep and a field gun on board – across the English Channel, towards Normandy’s Sword Beach swarming with invading troops.
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Although the 22-year-old British-born staff sergeant was aware of the scale of the operation, little did he know that D-Day would go down as the largest amphibious military assault in history. Some 195,701 servicemen took part in the operation, as well as 23,400 parachute units and many thousands of other troops carried by 7,000 ships and vessels and 11,590 aircraft and thousands of gliders.
Reith remembers his journey from England to France as if it were yesterday. The view from high above the English Channel is etched into his memory. Excitement saturates his voice as he recalls the 150-kilometer flight.
“As we were making our way across in our matchbox, we could see the thousands of vessels, boats, battleships and God knows what else below us which were headed for Normandy. We didn’t just catch a glimpse of the armada. No, we had a panoramic view of it! It was an absolutely one time fantastic sight!” Reith recalls, explaining that glider planes were called matchboxes because they were made of plywood, often manufactured in furniture factories.
Eventually, Reith’s glider touched down near Ranville, a small town east of Sword beach.
“It must have been sometime between 4PM and 5PM. It was over 70 years ago, you know, so I am not too sure about the exact time,” he says with a chuckle.
“The landing was fairly unremarkable. Normandy is flat. The only difficulties were the trees and the anti-glider poles the Germans had installed. There were plenty of those around. We were fortunate enough to land in an open field, together with some 20 other gliders.”
Before unloading the field gun and jeep, Reith did some surveillance to see if the coast was clear.
“There was quite a bit of gunfire and smoke, and there were bombs going off everywhere,” he recalls.
“After that, we settled down and had our army rations – which were quite dreadful. Then we went to sleep, taking turns on guard duty.”
Shortly after landing, Reith and a number of glider pilots made their way back to the beach, while the rest stayed behind.
“The duty of a glider was to land safely and accurately in enemy territory, often under very difficult circumstances, and then to take part in any required action on the ground, offensive or defensive. You have to understand that we were not pilots belonging to the Royal Air Force (RAF). We were soldiers, just soldiers – like any other soldier,” Reith explains. “The fact that we were able to fly gliders didn’t make a difference. It wasn’t a very glamorous job.”
The journey back to the beach was tough.
“It was quiet, yet there were all sorts of reminders of a massive battle. It had been truly a dreadful two days,” he says.
“There were dead Germans all over the place, as well as abandoned field guns and deserted vehicles. Interestingly enough, we did not see one single injured or dead Allied soldier. They had already been cleared.”
Reith recalls how he and his colleagues heard machinegun fire as they passed a small village. They decided to investigate.
“We found a lone German in a church, firing at targets outside. He was causing quite a bit of damage and chaos,” says Reith.
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“We gave him a few warnings, and asked him to surrender so we could take him to our base as a prisoner of war. He replied by shooting some more. We decided that something had to be done. A shell wiped him out. In a way, I have always admired this man. Despite everything, he decided to go his own way after the German defeat. He was quite a brave man, I thought. And then he was gone.”
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Market Garden Horror
Once on the beach, Reith and his crew were sent back home, after which their training started for the next offensive: the infamous Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.
“That was a horrific operation from a glider pilot point of view. Well, it was a horrific operation from so many different points of view,” Reith says.
“We lost some 500 glider pilots during that mission, and thousands of other troops too.”
Operation Market Garden took place between September 17 and September 25, 1944, in and around the eastern Dutch cities of Arnhem, Eindhoven, and Nijmegen. The assault involved tens of thousands of British and American troops behind enemy lines as an ‘airborne carpet’, including 20,000 paratroopers and 13,500 gliders. Thousands of tons of equipment and vehicles were also dropped.
The troops’ objective was to capture eight strategic bridges on and near the Dutch-German border, while Allied tanks would advance on the ground. The aim: the liberation of a large part of the Netherlands, after which the Allied forces would cross the Rhine and bring Germany swiftly to its knees. It didn’t work. Two SS Panzer divisions near Arnhem turned the largest airborne military operation in history into a fiasco that claimed more than 16,000 lives.
“It was an absolute disaster, and a hopeless battle. The Panzer division, along with a battalion of cadets, prevented any Allied advance from Arnhem. British and American soldiers, paratroopers, the infantry, and airborne troops were decimated, as they had the river behind them and the Germans in front of them,” Reith recalls with emotion in his voice.
“I was lucky. I had landed in Nijmegen and not in Arnhem. Nijmegen was difficult, but not as difficult and horrendous as the situation was at the other side of the river.”
After Operation Market Garden, Reith was sent back to England to prepare for the next operation, in April 1945 in Italy’s Po Valley. But the assault was cancelled at the very last minute, after an Allied recce had shown the valley was riddled with Germans.
“Not wanting another Arnhem, the mission was aborted,” Reith says, who was in Sicily at the time.
“That was the end of it. Soon afterwards, the war in Europe came to an end. We celebrated, we drank too much, and then we were taken back to England by a troopship. That was that. It was a bit of an anti-climax, really.”
Reith was discharged from the army a year later, a war veteran at the tender age of 24. He remembers how lost he was during those first few post-war years.
“I [joined] the army when I was 17, after leaving school. This meant that I didn’t have any relevant experience,” he says. “Not many people will say this, but when I came out of the army, I was lost. In the army we were fed, clothed, sheltered; we were given a bit of spending money. There I was, 24 years old and thrown into the labor market with no experience or skills. Most jobs had already been snapped up so it was very difficult. It took me quite a while to find my way around.”
Reith eventually ended up in sales, which he took to.
“By the time I came to South Africa in 1970, I was a successful sales manager,” he says.
So why South Africa and retirement near the beach at Margate in KwaZulu-Natal?
“I had a stepbrother here and my daughters had moved to South Africa with their husbands. When the first grandchild came, my wife insisted we move too.”
When he was invited to the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, he didn’t hesitate.
“I was treated like royalty and thanks to the South African Air Force Association (SAAFA), I had a sponsored trip – with a first-class ticket donated by British Airways,” he says.
While there were quite a few veterans at the ceremony, only seven glider pilots were there.
“Most of us were over 90, except for one young chap who was 89,” Reith says with a smile. “I didn’t know any of them. It was a bit disappointing in a way. The two gliders I am in touch with – one who lives in Australia and one in Wales – were not well enough to travel.”
“Apart from them and 2,000 to 3,000 troops, all in their best dress, there was an enormous crowd – mainly French people who wanted to extend their gratitude for the liberation,” he says.
“It was quite something, and at times totally emotional. My eyes were brimmed with tears more than once.”
“The most emotional moment was when I was among the gravestones, thousands and thousands of them, looking for a white cross with the name of a comrade fallen during D-Day,” he says before falling silent for a few seconds.
“It was a reminder of how lucky I had been. I survived D-Day, I survived Market Garden, and I lived long enough to attend the commemoration of D-Day’s 70th anniversary. I am a very lucky guy.”

The Tears Of A Hero Who Flew Through Hell – Twice

Never judge a colonel by his cover. You wouldn’t blink when you see Mike Dent walking his dog in the shafts of early summer light in the green and sleepy village of Hartlebury, Worcestershire, deep in the English countryside. The village that last saw warriors on the march in 1646 when Oliver Cromwell’s roundheads laid siege to Hartlebury Castle, a few hundred meters from Dent’s back lawn, which  surrendered without a shot being fired by the 160 defenders. More than 368 years later, only heavy trucks driving down country lanes cause a stir and threaten the peace.
Dent fits the scene like a glove. He looks more like a retired country gentleman than a former military advisor to the president of Sierra Leone who travels the trouble spots of Africa.
Sixty-six-year-old Dent was a career soldier in the British Army. He joined the colors in 1979 and rose to the rank of colonel and a seat on the general staff commanding the army. It was this powerful job that took him to the violent chaos of Sierra Leone as the British government attempted to unravel the country’s tight knot of civil war.
“The streets were full of people, no water, nor fuel. The hospitals couldn’t cope. I have never seen so much poverty, anywhere. Then there was the horror of the amputations. It was an eye opener,” says Dent in his sitting room as birds twitter in the green hedgerows overlooking the castle.
In 2000, Dent went to Freetown as the military advisor to the then president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the avuncular former United Nations (UN) civil servant and district commissioner who was the first Muslim to be head of state. President Kabbah was elected in 1996; deposed by a coup in 1997 and restored by ECOMOG troops from West Africa in 1998.
When the British arrived in Freetown, two years later, one of Dent’s unenviable tasks was the rebuilding the shambolic remnants of the army of Sierra Leone.
“We were told there were 16,000 soldiers on the payroll. We went round and verified only 12,200 people. The rest were ghost soldiers that the army was paying money for that other people were collecting. It was total chaos; the army didn’t know where their soldiers were nor who they were. We had to take pictures as proof of who they were. The whole place was riven by a civil war for 10 years, there was no payment system, no pension system nothing. It was the only failed state I had ever seen, everything had collapsed,” he says.
Dent and his brother officers also had to advise the UN on the tricky process of what it calls DDR – disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. Muddy waters, clouded further by the fact that two senior officers on the project, an Indian three-star general and a Nigerian two-star general, detested each other and didn’t talk.
This complicated matters amid the uneasy patchwork of armed groups. There was: the Sierra Leone Army (SLA); the Civil Defence Forces – a bundle of seven secret societies and tribes – the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), led by the charismatic orator Johnny Paul Koroma, the man who staged the coup in 1997; deserters from the SLA and the Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh.
Dent set up a bush camp in Freetown where 5,500 male and female fighters underwent selection and military training.
“It worked quite well, the majority wanted a job and did what they were asked. It was very sad that the people fighting in the war were only doing so for someone who had fed them or gave them money. People from the same family were fighting on different sides.”
In the midst of this difficult time in 2000, civil war reared its ugly head over Freetown.
“This guy threw the door open, came rushing in and said: ‘you have got to get the gunship up, there are thousands marching on Freetown’. The UN told me this. The UN troops had panicked, 14,000 packed up and moved towards Freetown. They were people equipped with armored cars and helicopters and weapons systems, the lot. They just put their hands up. One of the battalions allowed groups of rebels to bypass them, they took a whole battalion hostage, near Makeni, north of Freetown, that is when the British came in.”
“We tried to calm everything down. They flew the parachute regiment in and the joint task force deployed gradually over the next three weeks. There was a firefight at Lungi Airport. The parachute regiment stabilized the situation with foot patrols. We flew aircraft over Freetown to show we were there and that really was the beginning of the end for the rebel forces. They realized there was no way. It was done very cleverly with the media campaign. General Richards (the head of the general staff) explained we weren’t going to pull out.”
A decade later, Dent believes it was a sledgehammer to crack a nut – the kernel, a ragtag group of around 120 RUF and AFRC fighters.
President Kabbah, who died in March at the age of 82, declared an end to the civil war in 2002 and won a landslide election victory in the same year. In 2003, Dent left Sierra Leone with around 13,000 trained troops and the British Army. That year, the Queen awarded him with a CBE for his work in Freetown. He went into private business with his company, Security &amp; Risk Consultancy Services, and spent time in Tanzania looking after offshore drilling operations and the port of Mtwara.
“From a business perspective, East Africa is the place,” says Dent.
This year, Dent has been working as a risk and security consultant to the developers of the project at Jabi Lake in Abuja, Nigeria. He was in Abuja as the city recovered from a bomb that rocked a bus station on the cusp of the World Economic Forum in the Nigerian capital.
“I was there the week after the bombing. I was impressed by Abuja in that it had good security with lots of police and military. But any attack will be focused on a weak area that is difficult to secure.
“I think potentially the worst case scenario is a split. There is this religious issue and I think federalization has exacerbated it. The rich states in the south are where all the oil is. The perception in the north is why aren’t we getting our share?&#8230; I don’t think Boko Haram is going to go away. It is not just one group, this is disparate groups operating across Nigeria and if they get into the south there is real potential for a response. If the civilians in the areas start attacking Muslims you almost have a religious war. The people in the south who are Muslims are in the minority and are going to come off worst.”
Dent believes it’s easier doing business in Ghana, than in Nigeria. Further south, he sees more openings.
In his quiet English village, Dent is far from weak after a lifetime of soldiering and risk in Africa and relishes his next walk on the wild side.

Hostages, Rebels And  Ghost Soldiers

Delville Wood has become synonymous for South African courage in the First World War and has been described by soldier and military historian, Basil Liddell-Hart, as the bloodiest battle hell of 1916.
It was part of the Somme offensive and South Africa’s first major engagement on the Western Front. Soldiers from four battalions suffered casualties of catastrophic proportions.
They’d been ordered to hold Bois d’Elville, which lay to the north-east of the town of Longueval, because the Allies needed it to gain a tactical advantage over the Germans.
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For five days from July 14, 1916, 3,153 soldiers and officers attached to the First South African Infantry Brigade entered Delville Wood.
Showing incredible grit and determination they held on, as ordered, despite being assaulted on all sides by three crack German divisions.
The exact casualty figure is uncertain because soldiers were constantly being replenished, but by the time the South Africans were relieved on July 19, only 142 souls emerged from Delville Wood. It’s estimated that 457 men were killed in action, 120 died of their wounds and 186 were listed as missing, presumed dead.
Nancy Aucock’s father, Charles Sephton, was part of the Transvaal Scottish Regiment, and many of its men fought at Delville Wood.
A 70-something resident of the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, Nancy is fascinated by the history of the battle, perhaps because her father spoke so little about it.
“He would tell a few light-hearted stories, but that was it.”
One of the stories Charles would tell was the origin of his daughter’s name.
Nancy was the Transvaal Scottish’s mascot, a real live Springbok that accompanied troops to Europe, sometimes dressed in a tartan coat. She belonged to a Free State farmer who had volunteered her for war service.
Nancy was taught to respond to regimental calls and proudly led battalions on parade. She was the darling of the troops and after her death from pneumonia in Belgium, in 1918, Nancy was accorded full funeral honors and buried in an Allied war cemetery.
Her skin and head were preserved and after the war she was stuffed and mounted. Today, Nancy is on display at the Military Museum in Johannesburg.
Sephton didn’t keep a diary himself, but his best friend and fellow soldier Tom Leppan did. It was published in the ‘Barkly East Reporter’ in 1977 and gives some indication of the stark reality of Delville Wood.
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“Terrible shelling all day. Helped the stretcher-bearers all day. Awful work carrying through this wood… dead and wounded everywhere. This wood is an abattoir and the Longueval village too. Our men beat off several German attacks during the day and one in the night. Les Webster killed by a shell while asleep… killed outright. The very best of men, quiet and plucky… Sephton and self twice half covered by earth thrown up by shells… this has been the most awful day of my life,” reads an entry on July 16.
“Rain all night, no sleep. Helped carry Teddy Smith, then collapsed from fatigue, nervous breakdown. Dudley Pringle sent away with shellshock yesterday, a total wreck… All the South African regiments losing terribly today… Praying for relieving regiments… Solly Barker wounded through the hand and sent to the rear,” Leppan wrote the next day.
The horror continued on July 18.
“The most violent bombardments with whizz bang all day and four hours with heavy guns. Our trench blown to blazes… Tilby killed in my dugout. I was twice hit by shell pieces… only bruised. We were completely surrounded by night and got into trench with 3rd Regiment to help defend frontline. Beat off attack.”
Sephton and Leppan were captured the following day.
“Surrendered at daylight. Managed to carry all our wounded along with us. All wounded left at German dressing station to be attended to&#8230; we are being decently treated. All our possessions taken away… about 230 South Africans… 45 South African Scots. About 500 prisoners here all told.”
They spent the remainder of the war interned in a German prison camp.
“Left for Germany in trucks with seats… crossed the Rhine and saw many burned villages in Belgium.”
In November, 1918, Sephton and Leppan returned to England and got the last troop ship to Cape Town. After being demobilized, Charles caught a train home to Barkly East, in the north-eastern Cape, where his parents farmed.
After several days, his journey ended at a remote railway siding called New England Station, where he borrowed a horse and rode home. He’d been gone five years and witnessed unspeakable horrors.
In his farming notes from that day, his father, Alfred, had jotted down details of his livestock and noted the weather. And then, almost as an afterthought: “Charles returned home from Europe today”.
In 2016, Aucock, her sisters, her children and grandchildren plan to visit Deville Wood on what will be the centenary of this epic battle. Today, it is a burial site and the eternal resting place for the more than 5,000 men killed there, two thirds of them unknown.
Once a thick tangle of oak and birch trees; Delville Wood was a desolate wasteland after the battle. Shells had slammed into trees at a rate of 400 per minute, reducing them to shredded stumps. Mud and rainwater covered the bodies of South African and German forces alike.
Delville Wood was bought by the South African Government in 1920, at the instigation of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, pioneer, politician and author of Jock of the Bushveld. Percy’s other noteworthy suggestion was the minute’s silence that is still commemorated on November 11 each year.
Acorns were germinated on a farm in Franschhoek, around 75 kilometers from Cape Town, and sent to France to replant Delville Wood. Ninety odd years on, two double rows of mature oaks lead solemnly to the Herbert Baker Memorial Arch, which carries the inscription: “Their ideal is our legacy; their sacrifice our inspiration”.
It’s a small corner of France that is forever South Africa.

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