In this episode, Adesoji Iginla discusses a recent video by Eric Prince, who expresses a desire to recolonize Africa and Latin American countries.
Adesoji provides historical context and highlights the importance of understanding the true history of these continents.
He explores the denial of history by the West and the creation of stereotypes through the single story problem.
Adesoji also examines the motives behind recolonization and the exploitation of Africa, as well as the role of imperialism and US empire.
Finally he discusses foreign interventions in Latin America and Africa, the economic underdevelopment imposed by the West, and the need for collective liberation and confronting lies and misinformation.
Takeaways
- Understanding the true history of Africa and Latin America is crucial to combatting stereotypes and misinformation.
- The West has a history of denying and whitewashing history to justify conquest and exploitation.
- Imperialism and US empire play a significant role in the exploitation of Africa and Latin America.
- Foreign interventions, rigged economic systems, and corruption contribute to the underdevelopment of these continents.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:44 Eric Prince's Video
03:31 Context and History Lesson
06:14 Denial of History
07:27 Recolonization and Proper Governance
09:19 Imperialism and US Empire
11:13 Interventions in Latin America
13:18 Imperialism in Africa
15:21 Creation of Societies in Africa
17:28 Disruption of Black Unity
18:32 Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
19:47 Economic Underdevelopment
22:27 Foreign Interventions in Africa
23:47 Rigged Economic System
25:29 Confronting Lies and Misinformation
26:25 Collective Liberation
28:32 Mythological Stories and Accountability
29:06 Dark History of Europe in Africa
30:25 Returning to the Source
31:04 Closing Remarks
Adesoji Iginla (00:01.89)
Hello and welcome to Adesoji Speaks Knowledge, the podcast where I share my thoughts on the insights.
on various topics as related to Africa.
Again, I am your host, Adesoji Iginla. And today I would like to talk about a recent video making the rounds. And the video is one of Eric Prince, the gun for hire, who apparently wants to recolonize Africa and Latin American countries.
Why is this important? I hope this episode of Adesoji Speaks Knowledge helps inform his ignorance of the history of Latin America and the African continent.
So to set the stage, I think it's important to put things into context. I would like to share a very short clip. In fact, a one minute 57 second clip from Eric Prince's Off the Leash podcast, where he made certain assertions. And suffice to say, let's watch.
Adesoji Iginla (03:31.31)
now interesting interesting and i don't even know where to begin but begin we shall now let me break down uh
No, let's do it this way. Let me break down that 242 words I believe in that clip with a very brief history lesson of both continents. As I feel...
This ought to be a teachable moment.
Adesoji Iginla (04:07.086)
Yes. Okay. Let's begin. In a 1994 interview with the Paris Review, Juno Achebe once said that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. Which is an example of what you've just heard Mr. Prince say there. Essentially,
whitewash history, giving you a palatable take. And but so, question is, why is this proverb important? You might be tempted to ask. Well, it's because we've just seen what the West does very well, which is silence the past.
And these tactics have existed from time immemorial, from books like The Africa That Never Was, all the diaries of the intrepid traveler discovering places on the continent. And again, this is part of a conspiracy of the powerful to deny, erase important aspects of local and international history.
and this is not lost on anyone. I cite the words of Chinamanda Adichie who advised us against the single story problem.
What is the single story? Well, in her words, the single story she says creates stereotypes.
Adesoji Iginla (05:55.726)
that are often not true, they're largely incomplete, and they make the one story the only story.
I hope I paraphrased the words very well.
So.
it's also important to put into context why does the West deny history? well it denies history because it's convenient way to go around using such words as enough is enough we are done being invaded as a rallying cry to scaring its local population with the usual stereotypes here they come again they are rapists
What did he say? There are terrorists in that group.
Adesoji Iginla (06:51.118)
Which is a way.
to not only manufacture hate, you know, using the usual medium. In this case, now everybody has a microphone. But back in the day, it used to be newspapers, radios, and televisions that are used to build up that picture of the scary person in the Western media in order to justify conquest. In this case, he's actually talking about recolonization.
and the exploitation of Africa.
Again, we've heard this story before. Before it used to be, let's go and civilise those savages. Now Mr. Prince gives us a new one. Proper governance, he calls it.
But Africans and Latin Americans do know what these words mean. In the cases of places like Kenya, Africa, civilizing means Namibia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya. And for those who don't know, these are sites of some gruesome genocidal killings. And now we're talking about proper governance. Congo is still
Adesoji Iginla (08:11.064)
an ongoing issue. Libya has basically been bombed into oblivion. We're going to govern this country, he says, which is essentially how mass media is used to not only manufacture concerns, I mean, the interest of elites is front and center.
whenever you hear all this thing come up. Anybody remember the pretext for the March 2011 evasion of Libya? So.
This thing is a recurring trend. The only difference is the words used, but the language, the tone, the nuance is all the same. I mean, I'll give you another one. He says, it is time to put the imperial hat back on.
Mr. Prince, when was the heart ever off? That's the question for the West. Imperialism is what they do. It's the very nature of what they are. It's empire. I mean, if Mr. Prince doesn't know, surely it means the US has been very successful at hiding its empire from the likes of Mr. Prince. I mean, if he doesn't know,
And I think largely his audience as well might not know. But those outside of United States know the extent of what United States global power is. Here is a country with over 750, and I repeat the word, 750 military bases. That is more bases than there are United Nations members.
Adesoji Iginla (10:18.19)
which explains why the US dominates global politics.
But does it very quietly, while maintaining that American belief that they in no shape or form have imperialism as part of their gender?
Adesoji Iginla (10:43.15)
But jokes aside, history has not been kind to those who are bored the brunt of this US imperialism. Latin Americans for now are not traveling treacherous routes to the US border for no reason. I mean, we just need to look back in time. The 50s, the 60s, the 1970s. Surely we didn't miss the banana wars, which literally played out in the US backyard.
Adesoji Iginla (11:13.996)
I suppose now we know the reasons for the removal of history books from the US curriculum.
Adesoji Iginla (11:22.252)
Ah.
a fact that has left a large swathe of the US citizenry without a grasp of history.
Adesoji Iginla (11:33.614)
But Adesoji speaks, knowledge is a place where we try to, you know, reframe the narrative. So here's a quick lesson on Latin America. The United States often cites the Monroe Doctrine.
at cover that they would not allow any adversary in its backyard. Washington went about, in light of that, Washington went about toppling governments considered not serving its interests. And I'll give you a couple of CIA or the School of America's inspired regime changes.
In 1954, the CIA backed the coup of Jacobo Abel in Guatemala. In 1964, it was the turn of Joel Goulet in Brazil. 1972, September 11, 1972, it was the turn of Salvador Allende. In 1984, Maurice Bishop bore the brunt of American imperialism. 1989,
He was strong man Manuel Noriega in Panama. In the 1990s, Jean -Bertrand Aristide would fill the brunt of the American power. And these are just a few. But it's important to note that those interventions have left a rippling effect that now echoes from history and forms the reason why you have migrants at the US border.
Adesoji Iginla (13:18.432)
Mr. Prince goes deep and mentions Africa repeatedly in his submission. So here is the African take following the Berlin Conference of 1884 to 1885, where the imperialists, the United States, Germany, UK, Portugal, Spain, Holland,
all divided Africa without any recourse as to their native laws and customs, visited barbarism on the place. Barbarism as noted by the Herreros and the Namas in Namibia at the hands of Germans. The Mahdis in Sudan, the Mashonas and the Ndebele's in Zimbabwe,
The kuyus.
in Kenya in the hands of the British, the Chaguan Islands, now an air force military base, which essentially means Britain given someone else's territory to the United States, Guinea, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Algeria, suffering in the hands of France.
After that, we had a continent of 54 manufactured countries, one disputed territory, 29 islands, five of which are still being occupied by imperialist powers, was the result of that silly conference in 1884 -85. So when Mr. Prince says, and I quote, you can pretty much
Adesoji Iginla (15:13.134)
say that about all of Africa they're incapable of governing themselves. It's not hard to see why.
Because you've created.
societies.
Adesoji Iginla (15:30.446)
not in consideration of the local population. Those contraptions have continued to create, to brew up problems even till today.
Adesoji Iginla (15:47.534)
I mean, if you discount King Leopold's atrocities in the Congo, or the German atrocities which I have spoken to earlier in Namibia, or that of the British creating the second concentration camps on the continent in Kenya, the US will step into the breach because it couldn't possibly wait for the Europeans to leave Africa to take control.
One might ask the question why. Resources.
Adesoji Iginla (16:23.182)
But how do you do it? With, you know, African Americans and Africans in concert with each other? The US decided, you know, Pan -Africanism had to go. Why? Because it was inspiring African Americans fighting for civil rights.
And then also coming on to the continent and the likes of Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Ture, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Harry Clark, and WB Du Bois to mention a few. In terms of organization, the Black Panther Party actually had offices in Algiers. So it was imperative for the United States that that Black unity...
had to be curtailed home and abroad. So you begin to see why the likes of Mr. Prince will come out from time to time and spout all this nonsense.
So they disrupt this black unity. The United States, you know, came up with a system called the Count Intel Pro in the United States. And the recapture of Africa in the shadows. Why in the shadows? Because for it to be done, the likes of Mr. Prince will never be able to see it. And so would continue to live in that myth that the United States is, you know,
All Bellies and Roses.
Adesoji Iginla (18:02.284)
On the African continent, the US then used the Red Scare, its popular rules of choice, to destroy, you know, fomenting trouble, backing rebel groups, you know, to destroy that Black determination. Because we can't possibly allow those pesky natives.
to tell us where they need to be.
And so when you hear statements like they couldn't govern themselves, you have to say wow, wow, wow, really.
I mean, we've not even mentioned the assassination of the democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
in 1961.
Adesoji Iginla (18:55.66)
in cohorts. That is the CIA in cohorts with the Belgians.
And then subsequently, I mean before then the, you know, splitting the country, there was a country named Katanga, which was a way the Belgians could maintain their control over the Congo. And so if you hear stories emanating from the eastern side of the Congo, Katanga used to be in the east, which is the resource -rich region of Congo. So if you hear the news,
That's the source of the problem.
Of course the UN stepped into the breach but again the imperialist powers could not allow the UN to be used as a tool for determination.
which led to the death or the plane crash of Doug Hammershaw in September 1961. 63 years on, we're known the wise as to what transpired, what led to the plane crash. And Doug Hammershaw's crime was, you know, stating on the floor of the United Nations that he believed 1960s to be the year of Africa. What nonsense.
Adesoji Iginla (20:18.604)
imperialist powers would have said. And when all problems are created, they also come with a solution. The solution was to station a peacekeeping force in Congo. And that peacekeeping force happens to have been, or still is, the longest -serving peacekeeping force in the world. And Congo is still not settled till today.
Yes, congoo is torn or settled.
Adesoji Iginla (20:54.54)
Oof. I mean, I could go on.
I could go on.
The investigation into the plane crash of the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld is still an open one. But I don't think we would get to the bottom of it as long as the United States, the UK and South Africa do not open their archives.
And speaking of archives, now we know why Kwame Nkrumah was ousted on February 24, 1966. Because it was facilitated by the CIA as payback for his 1965 book, Neocolonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism.
Adesoji Iginla (21:44.972)
The book was so upsetting to the US State Department.
that a note of reprimand was sent to Nkrumah and a previously promised economic aid package to him in the sum of $25 million was withdrawn.
Adesoji Iginla (22:08.142)
I mean, I could go on.
Adesoji Iginla (22:13.102)
that's just a couple of series of foreign interventions in Africa that the US has directly or indirectly been aware of from the 1960s and beyond.
Adesoji Iginla (22:27.246)
But some will say that was a long time ago. The United States has many military bases on the continent. Somalia 1993 was the first time they actually showed their hand on the continent. And we all saw how that went. So now it's proxies, war through proxies.
Adesoji Iginla (22:54.286)
and if the hands are forced as in the case of Kenya
who will lay the place to waste.
Adesoji Iginla (23:09.014)
You know, I've enumerated a couple of scenarios here. But the question that often pops up is why does Africa not use its resources to benefit its people? Well, you have to go back into the setting up of the Atlantic Charter or the likes of the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs, which eventually became the WTO.
How the economic system has been rigged in favor of the North.
Adesoji Iginla (23:47.318)
Walter Rodney's book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.
gives you a...
Adesoji Iginla (23:57.55)
very simple walkthrough of why the underdevelopment is not a natural feature of Africans.
but the continued imperial extractions from the continent, a practice that continues up till today.
Adesoji Iginla (24:26.86)
I mean, some would say, but Africa gets back charity. Yes. Bless the heart of the West.
Adesoji Iginla (24:38.222)
That charity is often caught up in unbridled corruption.
Adesoji Iginla (24:44.568)
I would then join people to read The Lords of Poverty to show you how the international aid business operating in Africa administers aid to so -called poverty -stricken, third -world countries.
Sankara once posed the question, show me one success story.
and how he got back in return were crickets.
because he knew the economic backwardness was one that was imposed.
by the imperialists.
Adesoji Iginla (25:22.798)
in order to extract Africa's resources.
Adesoji Iginla (25:29.248)
So I suppose the question would be, or the next logical question is, what do we do?
We do what we've always done in the past, which is to confront lies.
misinformation.
Adesoji Iginla (25:49.39)
and now the resurgent white supremacy.
Adesoji Iginla (25:56.494)
The Africans on the continent and Africans in the diaspora now need to reignite those close ties that used to exist between the likes of Mandela and Krumah, Robeson and Dubois, amongst others, and to get us working for our collective liberation.
Because I think that is...
The only way we can survive.
It is… I don't need to underscore that the struggles of Africans…
Adesoji Iginla (26:34.062)
and those in the diaspora, on both sides of the Atlantic in fact, have more in common than we care to admit.
One thing I have noticed is white supremacy has a way of operating on a global scale. I mean, in the video you could see, in the full video you could see Mr. Prince invoking the names of the Italian prime minister, the president of Argentina, that of Hungary, and the Dutch prime minister gets wildest. There's no consistency. If you look at their policies,
It is exactly what it is written on the tin. White supremacy, 2 .0. So Africans have to do likewise. We need to pull together and be unapologetic about it.
Adesoji Iginla (27:31.118)
And we don't need to reinvent the wheel, because we have the blueprint.
Check out the DUP in its book, Black Africa, The Economic and Cultural Basis.
to devise us with a 14 point plan. Clear? Concise?
Adesoji Iginla (27:59.79)
which aims at the restoration of the historical consciousness.
Adesoji Iginla (28:08.622)
of black and African people, and of course, the complete recovery of political sovereignty in a post -colonial world.
Adesoji Iginla (28:27.15)
Yes, the West will do what the West does.
which is continuing to sell mythological stories in avoidance of accountability and responsibility.
because the only thing it does well.
Adesoji Iginla (28:46.69)
as genocidal killings. P -Legion.
I mean Europe's history in Africa is dark.
really dark.
Adesoji Iginla (29:06.286)
Because you just need to open it up. Shows are what you used to be. The stories of displaced, enslaved and killed.
Adesoji Iginla (29:20.44)
populations across the continent.
Adesoji Iginla (29:27.15)
So we are now back at Chinua Achebe's profile regarding the Lions.
Africans and those in the diaspora are the lions and we must tell our stories one at a time. Correct misinformation wherever we see it but tell our stories we must. The tools are available. Social media now forces a crucial reckoning with a past that still echoes in our collective psyche.
Adesoji Iginla (30:05.422)
But that reckoning compels us to acknowledge the exploitation and the brutality.
Adesoji Iginla (30:18.318)
of the West.
again.
We have the blueprints. Our ancestors have already done the heavy lifting.
Adesoji Iginla (30:35.054)
We simply just need to return to the source.
Adesoji Iginla (30:41.838)
We need to return to the source.
So if you like, please like, share and subscribe and do all the good stuff.
As I come to the closing, I would like to leave you with the words of poet LISTERVELT MIDDLETON
Adesoji Iginla (31:04.846)
who says as you lose your history you lose your power so sharpen your eyes and tune your ear so you will know what you see and understand what you hear I hope we've seen and understood what Mr Prince was trying to tell us and I hope this video has done a bit to correct the anomaly.
So please leave your comments as it helps improve the podcast.
Do, again, once again, like, share, and subscribe to Adesoji Speaks knowledge.
Till next time.
Adesoji Iginla (31:54.638)
I will say Peace.