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<p style="margin: 10px
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<p style="margin: 10px
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<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
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100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of the <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=96a6eeb369&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
early June 2021, the United
States military led a major
military exercise on the
African continent: the
African Lion 21. Major
General Andrew Rohling of
the US Army’s Southern
European Task Force <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a6c469919d&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
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#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>
it was the ‘largest US
military exercise ever
conducted on this
continent’. The African Lion
military exercise, which was
first held with the Kingdom
of Morocco in 2002, is – in
the words of US Africa
Command – an <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=07797cd903&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">annual</a>
‘joint, all-domain,
multi-national exercise … to
counter malign activity in
North Africa and Southern
Europe, and increase
interoperability between US,
African, and international
partners to defend the
theatre from adversary
military aggression’.
African Lion 21, which
included the armed forces of
21 countries including
Brazil, Canada, Egypt,
Italy, Libya, the
Netherlands, and the United
Kingdom, took place in
Morocco and in the occupied
territory of Western Sahara
as well as in Senegal and
Tunisia. The overall
military exercise – with
over 7,000 soldiers – was
conducted under the
leadership of the US Africa
Command with the assistance
of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO).</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
exercise was conducted under
the command of Major General
Rohling and General Belkhir
El Farouk, the Royal
Moroccan Armed Forces
Southern Zone commander. It
is important to note that
General El Farouk’s
jurisdiction covers the
Moroccan occupation of
Western Sahara. On 10
December 2020, US President
Donald Trump <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=31016c0915&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">offered</a>
Morocco recognition of its
illegal occupation of
Western Sahara in exchange
for Morocco normalising its
relations with Israel.
Trump’s statement on Western
Sahara goes against a range
of UN General Assembly
resolutions, including 1514
(XV) from 1960, which <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d8db252a58&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">affirms</a>
that all people from former
colonies have the right to
self-determination, and
34/37 from 1979, which
explicitly <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=c4a1cb8bfa&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">calls</a>
for an end to Morocco’s
occupation of the territory.
When Major General Rohling
was asked about African Lion
21’s presence in Western
Sahara, he <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=6c8d8ab9cc&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">demurred</a>,
saying that the choices of
the location were made
before Trump’s December 2020
declaration.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_44993"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44993"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-44993
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/02_Ouagadougou-Burkina-Faso.jpg"
alt="Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/02_Ouagadougou-Burkina-Faso.jpg
950w,
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300w,
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768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
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bicubic;"
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width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-44993"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">This
month, Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research, along with the
Socialist Movement of
Ghana’s Research Group,
released <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f1b190e6fd&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">dossier</a>
no. 42 (July 2021), <i>Defending
Our Sovereignty: US
Military Bases in Africa
and the Future of African
Unity</i>. The dossier
catalogues the growth of the
Western military presence on
the African continent, with
special focus on the United
States and France. The US,
by itself, has 29 known
military facilities in 15
countries, while France has
bases in 10 countries. There
is no doubt that the United
States and France have by
far the largest military
footprint on the African
continent, and that no
country in the world has a
greater global military <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=af14035d5b&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">footprint</a>
than the United States.
According to the US National
Defense Business Operations
Plan (2018-2022), the US
military <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=bfeca706ad&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">manages</a> a
‘global portfolio that
consists of more than
568,000 assets (buildings
and structures), located at
nearly 4,800 sites
worldwide’.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
the case of the US military,
the sheer scale of the
military’s presence and
activities indicates a
qualitatively different
character. This character
includes the capacity of the
US to defend its interests
on the continent, operating
as the gendarme not for the
world community, but for the
beneficiaries of capitalism.
Furthermore, it attempts to
prevent any serious
competition to its control
of resources and markets
through a ‘new cold war’,
through which the US exerts
pressure to contain China on
the continent as part of its
broader geopolitical
aggression.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Both
the US and France are
members of NATO, whose own
mandate has moved from the
defence of Europe to
aggression overseas. Two
main objectives stand at the
heart of NATO’s activity in
Africa: to prevent migration
into Europe and to obstruct
Russian activities in
northern Africa. In its
recent strategic document, <i>NATO
2030</i>, the alliance <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=69dd9e4470&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">notes</a>,
‘NATO’s “South” refers to a
broad geographic area
including North Africa and
large parts of the Middle
East, extending to
sub-Saharan Africa and
Afghanistan’. This is not a
new vision, since NATO has
previously <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a919ba4544&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">operated</a>
in Sudan (2005-2007), in the
Gulf of Aden and off the
Horn of Africa (2008-2016),
and in Libya (2011). NATO
took the lead in the
destruction of Libya, which
continues to be wracked by a
political-military crisis
and social collapse. NATO’s
new missions include
operations in the
Mediterranean Sea such as
Operation Active Endeavour
(2001-2016) and Sea Guardian
(ongoing); operations to
support the African Union
such as training the African
Standby Force; and
counterterrorism efforts in
northern Africa.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
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class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45004"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-45004
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/03_Agadez-Niger.jpg"
alt="Agadez, Niger"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/03_Agadez-Niger.jpg
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768w" sizes="(max-width:
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style="max-width:
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auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
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moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-45004"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
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exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Agadez,
Niger</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
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150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Reading
the documents by US Africa
Command, the French
military, and NATO, one
could misleadingly believe
that the Western military
operates in Africa to
prevent the growth of
terrorism (largely the
al-Qaeda variants). NATO’s <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=86193e6a4b&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">operation</a>
in Libya in 2011 crushed the
state, emboldening the
extreme Islamist currents in
the region to act with
impunity. Some of these
groups – such as al-Qaeda in
the Maghreb – end up being <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=7510064683&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">smugglers</a>
of cigarettes, cocaine,
humans, and weapons. It was
the destroyed Libyan state
which opened the door to
both the rise of insurgency
and criminal activity across
the Sahara Desert and the
increase in migration
towards Europe.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">It
was in this context that, in
2014, France suborned five
African countries (Burkina
Faso, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania, and Niger) to <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=ec44676a74&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">form</a>
the G5 Sahel initiative. The
Sahel is the belt that runs
across Africa below the
Sahara Desert. At the same
time, the US has built a
network of bases, including
an enormous drone base in
Agadez (Niger), and uses its
drones to provide aerial
support for US forces,
France’s military, and the
militaries of the G5 states.
Europe has moved its
southern border from the
northern edge of the
Mediterranean Sea to the
southern rim of the Sahara
Desert.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">From
interventions in Somalia in
1992 to present-day
activities, the track
records of US and French
military interventions in
African countries are clear:
US and French troops
exacerbate conflicts and use
the internal weakness of
African states to assert US
and European aims. A recent
<a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=1c055c85b9&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">study</a>
by the Stockholm
International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI) shows that
there are 23 active armed
conflicts on the African
continent (Angola, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the
Central African Republic,
Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Guinea, Kenya, Libya,
Madagascar, Mali,
Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria,
Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan,
Uganda, and Western Sahara).
With a 41% net increase in
fatalities from 2019-2020,
SIPRI writes, sub-Saharan
Africa ‘was the region with
the most conflict-related
fatalities in 2020’. It is
well-worth recalling that US
and French arms
manufacturers, whose
combined arms exports <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d88bfd498e&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">accounted</a>
for over 43% of the global
total between 2015 and 2019,
provide the lion’s share of
weapons for these conflicts.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
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class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45014"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-45014
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/04_Camp-Simba-Kenya.jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/04_Camp-Simba-Kenya.jpg
950w,
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300w,
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768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
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100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
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auto;outline:
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width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-45014"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Camp
Simba, Kenya</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
principal causes of conflict
on the continent, SIPRI
summarises, are: ‘state
weakness, corruption,
ineffective delivery of
basic services, competition
over natural resources,
inequality, and a sense of
marginalisation’. The main
reason that US Africa
Command and NATO provide for
their intervention in Africa
– terrorism and geopolitical
conflict – are not on the
list.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">To
address these issues, it is
important for African states
to assert their sovereignty
and chart out a credible
project for the well-being
of the people in these
regions. That is why the
African Union’s Peace and
Security Council passed a <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=dd506abe9c&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">resolution</a>
in 2016 expressing concern
at the expanding foreign
military bases on the
continent. It is the
weakness of the member
states and their
organisational disunity that
have prevented that
resolution from being
enacted further and it is
what enables the West to
extend its neo-colonial
pressures to intensify the
causes of conflict. The
austerity programmes of the
International Monetary Fund
produce the ‘ineffective
delivery of basic services’,
and Western multinational
firms produce ‘corruption’
and ‘competition over
natural resources’. The main
authors of the problems on
the continent are neither
China nor Russia, whose
presence is used as a
justification for expanding
the Western military
presence.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div class="embed-responsive
embed-responsive-16by9">
<div
class="iframe-container">
<table
id="youtube_gq593AA_4Ls_500"
style="display:inline;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<div
style="font-size:16px;">
<div style=""><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq593AA_4Ls" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true"><img
class="mcnImage" alt="Watch the Video" title="Watch the Video"
src="https://mcusercontent.com/6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6/video-thumbs/409efabd7025255bfe0724bec91bab91_mcvid_youtube_gq593AA_4Ls_500.jpg"
style="height:
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</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
Tricontinental: Institute
for Social Research dossier
is enriched by satellite
photos gathered by data
artist <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=7a2c51e084&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Josh
Begley</a>. For the
dossier, the art team at
Tricontinental: Institute
for Social Research
physically projected images
and coordinates of these
hidden-away sites onto a map
of Africa, visually
reconstructing the apparatus
of militarisation today.
Meanwhile, the pins and
threads connecting these
places remind us of the ‘war
rooms’ of colonial
domination. Together, the
set of images is a visual
testament to the continued
‘fragmentation and
subordination of the
continent’s peoples and
governments’, as this
dossier writes.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_45025"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45025"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-45025
img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210714_Kofi-Awoonor_Instagram.jpg"
alt="Kofi Awoonor,
1935-2013"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210714_Kofi-Awoonor_Instagram.jpg
950w,
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768w" sizes="(max-width:
700px) 100vw, 700px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
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bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="700" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-45025"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Kofi
Awoonor, 1935-2013</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
2013, when extremists from
al-Shabaab attacked the
Westgate Shopping Mall in
Nairobi (Kenya), they <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f7b88d59ac&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">shot</a>
and killed Kofi Awoonor, a
Ghanaian poet, ambassador to
Cuba, Brazil, and the UN,
and chair of a UN committee
against apartheid. Awoonor
would often talk of the
‘distresses’ of his country
– the same country that
President Kwame Nkrumah led
out of colonialism and into
a new possible future.
Military coups and IMF
austerity deadened the hopes
of generations of Ghanaians
in their struggle for
liberation, but Awoonor held
fast. One of my favourite
poems by Awoonor is ‘The
Cathedral’, which carries
forward that sense of the
‘distresses’ that are
visited upon our world and
that continue to be fought
against today:</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">On
this dirty patch<br>
a tree once stood<br>
shedding incense on the
infant corn:<br>
its boughs stretched across
a heaven<br>
brightened by the last fires
of a tribe.<br>
They sent surveyors and
builders<br>
who cut the tree?<br>
planting in its place<br>
A huge senseless cathedral
of doom.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
post <a rel="nofollow"
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=e84a11b0dd&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">A
Senseless Cathedral of
Doom: The Twenty-Eighth
Newsletter (2021)</a>
appeared first on <a
rel="nofollow"
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=7b46867bdd&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
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#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">[:en]THE
TRICONTINENTAL[:es]TRICONTINENTAL[:]</a>.</p>
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