Julius Nyerere Research Articles

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: Aiding Intra-African trade towards deeper continental integration

The signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) reflected many years of hard work by the continent’s forefathers who include Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Frantz Fanon of Algeria, but to mention a few. The AfCFTA also depicts the novel work of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and later the African Union (AU), towards shaping a vision of continental integration, embedded in the vision of the African Economic Community (AEC), a by-product of the Abuja Treaty. Vision 2030 and the long-term continental vision of Agenda 2063: ‘The Africa We Want’ are also designed to contribute towards deeper and successful continental integration. However, by now the excitement over the AfCFTA signing has subsided. For each member state, the reality of being an AfCFTA party has started to sink in. Some member states have expressed concern and fear over problems such as opening their markets and accepting continental competition, allowing free movement of persons and trade across borders. Others find it too expensive to deal with the internal political fallout from their populace’s scepticism regarding the agreement’s effects on jobs (due to increased competition) and livelihoods. This article examines the AfCFTA to determine its impact and related advantages in respect of continental trade policies. It discusses the advantages of the AfCFTA and its potential challenges.

African Literary Manuscripts and African Archives by Bernth Lindfors

Reviewed by: African Literary Manuscripts and African Archives by Bernth Lindfors Chris Dunton African Literary Manuscripts and African Archives BY BERNTH LINDFORS Africa World Press, 2020. vi + 320 pp. ISBN 9781569026670 cloth. This substantial and wide-ranging collection of Lindfors’s work gathers together twenty-one essays, mostly reprinted, though the final cluster are new. Indications of place and date of first publication are given at the end of some (though not all of the) essays, rather than there being a consolidated record of publishing history. Lindfors begins by stating, “I have had opportunities to carry out research in environments in Africa, Europe and the United States, where abundant resources have enabled me to learn something new about particular African writers and their texts” (1). Much of the present collection gives a good sense of the thrill of the archival chase (at one point Amos Tutuola’s family confide in Lindfors their belief that “‘perhaps you were a policeman before’” [48]), though one wishes there had been at least a short note on the logistical problems incurred in working in archives in Africa, as caveat/encouragement for future researchers. (This reviewer remembers his profound gratitude at discovering a UK-published guide to that most Byzantine of institutions, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, before setting out to work in the place.) The opening essay, “‘Beware the Ides of March’: Amending Julius Nyerere’s Julius Caesar,” begins with an account of how Lindfors was step-by-step drawn into African literary studies, with his appointment in 1957 under the Teachers for Africa program to a school in Kenya. Lindfors’s account of this personal history is full of startling insights and memories and tinged with his trademark laconic humor. This essay, which covers 1957 and the consequent sea-change in Lindfors’s life (and that of his family!), goes on to dive into the nitty-gritty, recounting his first AfrLit project, a translation of Nyerere’s Kiswahili version of Julius Caesar back into English and sending emendations to Nyerere that were incorporated into later editions. Another essay on early issues of the journal African Literature Today demonstrates Lindfors’s ability to engage with criticism of his own work, some of which has been snide, or worse. On two colleagues who crossed swords [End Page 211] with him he states, “we are now the best of friends, having mellowed with age into a state of geriatric bliss” (22). An essay on Tutuola’s first manuscript, The Wild Hunter in the Bush of Ghosts, offers a typical synthesis of archival detective work and litcrit (a bit heavy on plot summary, but we’ve all been there). There are nice asides, such as “Tutuola’s vision of Hell as a vast bureaucracy is one of the most entertaining conceptions in the whole story—something no doubt inspired by the government offices in Lagos with which his job brought him into regular contact” (29). The remaining essays range across the following disciplinary foci: close textual analysis, biography, gold mining, and critical analysis. Among those essays using close textual analysis is a piece on Achebe’s revisions to the manuscript of A Man of the People as insight into the author’s awareness “that the language was extraordinarily important” (82). Among those exploring biography, Lindfors recounts the shenanigans attending the 1960 Rockefeller Foundation grant, which took Soyinka back to Nigeria after years in the UK. Answering his own question, were Rockefeller taken for a ride?, with a fine command of extended metaphor, Lindfors comments: “Rockefeller only set the wheels in motion; Soyinka did all the navigating, following his own impulses and boldly steering a course to unbridled artistic freedom” (123). Another piece on Soyinka is on and around a 1966 BBC radio production of The Lion and the Jewel; there is fascinating material here on the business of theater, on how a production is put together, as well as extensive quotations from a BBC survey of audience reactions. This could provide material for a debate-style play, with characters based on the actual listeners surveyed, such as Housewife and Cartographer’s Draughtsman. Another biographical essay, “Okigbo as Jock,” reveals the poet and the scholar’s shared love of...

A learning network approach to resolve conservation challenges in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a protected area and UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Serengeti‐Ngorongoro Biosphere reserve in northern Tanzania. It is famous for its large volcanic caldera, unique cultural heritage, early hominid fossils and significant wildlife populations. NCA has been managed as a multiple land‐use area since 1959, a designation intended to foster a harmonious coexistence between indigenous residents and wildlife (Goldstein, 2004).

The role of political leaders in mitigating the risk of mass atrocities: an analysis of Khama, Kaunda and Nyerere

Abstract This article examines the impact that three political leaders—Seretse Khama, Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere—had on navigating the long-term risk associated with mass atrocities. While the scholarship on comparative genocide studies has acknowledged the crucial dimension of leadership in the perpetration of such violence, very little is known about the preventive influence of leaders in cases where risk is present. This influence works both ways: the ideas, decisions and policies of political leaders are often the most instrumental factor in effective processes of risk mitigation. Yet to date, there has been no systematic study of the role of leadership in managing and ameliorating risk associated with mass atrocities. Indeed, the more general question of why mass atrocities do not occur is also largely neglected. I argue that these leaders were cognisant of the disruptive potential of tribal, ethnic and religious division; they advocated for inclusive national identities and developed policies that fostered social cohesion; and were effective in creating social and political environments that had an inhibitory effect on structural risk factors associated with atrocity crimes.

Empirical analysis of energy consumption and economic growth in Tanzania: based on Engel and Granger tests

Purpose - This article aims to investigate the effect of energy consumption on economic growth in Tanzania. It is a quantitative investigation that is structured by the time series data from the World Bank (WB) database which started from 1990 to 2019. The article uses variables of Energy consumption (EC) and Economic growth (GDP). The variables are measured in GDP (Constant US$) and EC (MTOE). Methodology – To obtain the significant estimated results, this study uses econometric tools for both theoretical and empirical analysis such Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for identifying stationary and nonstationary time series data, Engel and Granger test for determination of the existence or absence of cointegration relationship, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for determining the speed of adjustment (ECT) and Classical Granger-causality test for a causal relationship between economic growth and consumption. Findings- The core findings from the study are; the cointegration relationship between Energy consumption (EC) and Economic growth (GDP), a bidirectional causal relationship between energy consumption (EC) and Economic growth (GDP) in Tanzania. Therefore, the study accepts the energy feedback hypothesis that revealed to exist both a long-run effect and short-run effect between the energy consumption and economic growth in Tanzania. Conclusion- The estimated results of this study provide the information to Tanzanian policymakers with a new dimensional approach to Tanzanian economic growth through an increase in energy consumption use. Although Tanzanian government has a huge and long term sustainable project of increasing energy power by adding 2115megawatts to Tanzanian national grid using the Stigler gorge or Julius Nyerere Hydroelectric power at Rufiji River but also Tanzania should invest to the short energy projects consumptions that can facilitate and improve the economic development of domestic hoods.

Julius Nyerere’s Understanding of African Socialism, Human Rights and Equality

Julius Nyerere’s Understanding of African Socialism, Human Rights and Equality

A Comparative Exploration of John Dewey’s and Julius Nyerere’s Concepts of Education and African Development

Owing to the nearly tangible result in the quest toward inclusive development in Africa, there has been the clamour that perhaps the Social Sciences, charged with the responsibility of providing solace for the menace are no longer adequate. This is the axiomatic basis upon which this essay builds its argument as it aims to blaze a trail that is usually taken for granted in the discourse on development – pedagogy. Hence, via the methods of comparison and analysis, this essay discloses the nexus between John Dewey’s reconstructionism and Julius Nyerere’s educational model of self-reliance as a basis to structure development from the arena of education. For Dewey, through education, society can develop and reform its purposes and can move in different directions. For Nyerere, education for self-reliance has to foster communal goals of living together and working together for the common good. Both Dewey and Nyerere stated that education should make the individual realize that he is a member of the society and learn to participate in social learning. A critical examination of the ideas of these minds reveals that in the face of the discrepancies or differences motivations between their educational philosophies, the aggregate factor is suggestive of a worthy platform upon which a self-reliant education that will usher in the era of social development may be erected. This study admits the undeniable Western presence and the indigenous approach which makes it to initiate a blend of them. The parenthood can serve as a platform that will nurture minds that will consequently inform national development, also ideology plays a very crucial role. The present educational system of contemporary Africa has waned consequent to the circumvention of proper assessment of knowledge. The educational framework is therefore the onus and recommendation of this intellectual inquiry.

‘Under the Thumb of the Party’: The Limits of Tanzanian Socialism and the Decline of the Student Left

By late 1970, the University of Dar es Salaam had developed an international reputation as a leading centre of Third World socialist thought, with the emergence of a small, but increasingly influential, community of leftist students organising on campus. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, the prominence of this fledgling student left rapidly declined. Rejecting arguments which attribute this demise primarily to the university’s growing material crisis during this period, this article argues that the introduction of a series of institutional reforms implemented by the TANU/CCM government over the course of the 1970s and 1980s on campus effectively institutionalised the ruling party’s control over the university and its students. These institutional reforms ensured that, even as the ruling party’s ideological hegemony began to wane as early as the late 1970s, the party was able to insulate itself from the kind of disruptive student protests that would undermine the stability of many of its African counterparts during the decade of the 1980s. Furthermore, this article demonstrates that the TANU/CCM regime’s management of the university during these decades provides critical insights into some of the prime limitations of Tanzania’s socialist project under Julius Nyerere: namely, that at the university, as elsewhere, the regime’s need for political order and obedience from its citizens far exceeded, and often conflicted with, the ruling party’s avowed desire to cultivate socialism among the Tanzanian masses.

From Modernization to Villagization: The World Bank and Ujamaa

On February 5, 1967, the leadership of the young nation of Tanzania made a bold statement that it was prepared to chart a new course towards development and modernity. The Arusha Declaration, delivered by President Julius Nyerere to the Executive Council of the Tanzanian African Nation Union (TANU), was intended to be a powerful articulation of aims and principles for the nation of Tanzania and its people. The Declaration opened with the simple statement that “the policy of TANU is to build a socialist state,” before laying out the principles behind Tanzanian socialism and TANU party membership.1 To accomplish this core mission of building socialism in Tanzania, Nyerere and the TANU instructed the nation, “Let us pay heed to the peasant,” arguing that equitable development, free of exploitation, could only be achieved if the nation focused on its small farmers in the countryside.2 From this new attention to the peasants, Nyerere would formulate a development plan based around a concept known as ujamaa, a Swahili word that can be translated as “family-hood.” In practical terms, ujamaa would take the form of collective villages in which rural peasants would voluntarily come together to form a communal farm. These new villages would be organized along the lines of a socialism that Nyerere claimed to be deeply rooted in African history and tradition.3

Literacy for self-reliance: A critical exploration of Nyerere’s legacy in Tanzanian education policies

The global movement to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda rests on strengthening international connections and cooperation. However, in recent years nationalism and protectionism have been on the rise in donor countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In this situation, Julius Nyerere’s education for self-reliance (ESR) philosophy, which aimed at achieving sustainable development using Tanzania’s own resources, has again gained traction among scholars and policymakers. Placing Tanzanian education policy development in the context of the international political economy, this article critically analyses key education policy documents produced by Tanzania and its development partners, with a particular focus on literacy. The authors not only examine the extent to which ESR has been included in current literacy policies, but also consider its relevance for literacy education. Their analyses show that, even though ESR is mentioned in literacy policies, the term self-reliance now has different connotations; literacy is understood as comprising students’ abilities in basic reading, writing and arithmetic; and current literacy initiatives are designed to prepare Tanzanians to find jobs in the global capital market rather than empower rural communities for sustainable development.

Julius Nyerere: from a Territorial Nationalist to a Pan African Nationalist

Abstract Africa has largely experienced two types of nationalism namely territorial nationalism and Pan Africanism. Both territorial and Pan African nationalism were anti-imperialists but the former’s mission was limited to attainment of independence from colonialism. Few nationalist leaders who led their countries to independence transcended territorial nationalism; one of them was Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. Nyerere was a Pan African nationalist although he began as a nationalist concerned with the liberation of his country Tanganyika. He spent most of his political life championing for African Unity believing that it was the only instrument to totally liberate Africa. How did his ideas and practices which initially placed him in the ranks of territorial nationalists advance into Pan Africanism? This article examines this question and explores Nyerere’s aspects of Pan Africanism.

In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics by Benjamin Talton

Reviewed by: In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics by Benjamin Talton Charles Henry (bio) Benjamin Talton, In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press 2019), ISBN 9780812251470, 281 pages. Imagine a charismatic, young, minority congressman with progressive views on health care, homelessness, immigration, Black-Latino coalitions, human rights, and humanitarian aid. Imagine also that this politician had been a community organizer and had an especially close connection to East Africa. No, it's not an idealized version of Barack Obama, it is Mickey Leland. The late Houston Representative is the subject of Benjamin Talton's In This Land of Plenty. Leland may have emerged as a presidential candidate if not for his tragic death in a plane crash while on a humanitarian aid mission in Ethiopia in [End Page 971] August 1989. Leland was a larger than life figure in Houston and among his colleagues on the Capitol Hill, yet he is largely forgotten today. Talton's work uncovers some of the reasons why and in the process points to some larger concerns around humanitarian aid, Africa and foreign policy. Leland was part of a group of Texas Southern student activists who formed the Black Community Action Team in 1968. Financed in large part by a local Presbyterian Church, they considered their connections to the movements and peoples in the Caribbean and Africa as self-evident. Deciding to focus his career on public health, Leland pursued pharmacy as a major. However, inspired by McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, he decided to run for the Texas state legislature the same year. Aided greatly by the support of a white philanthropist, Leland won. After a largely frustrating first term, the young legislator toned down his rhetoric and had some legislative success his second term. When Congresswoman Barbara Jordan retired in 1977, Leland sought and won her seat the following year. After arriving in Washington Leland discovered that the health issue already had a number of champions and decided to focus on global hunger. In the early seventies, Leland had traveled to East Africa and had been impressed with leaders like Tanzania's Julius Nyerere. When famine broke out in Ethiopia Leland had found his issue. The Houston Congressman's first official trip to Ethiopia in March 1983 to visit feeding centers affected him deeply. When the delegation Leland was a part of met with President Mengistu, he was convinced the government approached the famine with great concern and accepted Mengistu's contention that his policies and Ethiopia's civil wars had little to do with the problem. As a result, Leland tried to remain outside politics when it came to famine relief. Constant media coverage of Ethiopia's starving children produced a groundswell of popular support for relief aid that the Reagan administration was unable to ignore. And while Leland was able to capitalize on public pressure to provide famine relief, he was unable to separate it from politics. Republicans cited the Mengistu regimes' Communism as a major reason for Ethiopia's famine and pushed for regime change. Leland, fearful that such pressure would lead the regime to refuse aid, would not criticize the government. This strategy backfired when Leland and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus sought to criticize South African apartheid and rejected "constructive engagement." Although Leland argued apartheid was a human rights issue while Ethiopian aid was a humanitarian crisis, many of his colleagues failed to accept the distinction. In fact, the effort to end South African apartheid would represent the zenith of African American influence on United States foreign policy. The passage of the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 over the veto of President Reagan was the culmination of over a decade of electoral and non-electoral activity on White rule in South Africa. The Congressional Black Caucus, led by Charles Diggs and later Ronald Dellums (Leland's mentor), had elevated South Africa to the status of a legitimate legislative issue and Jesse Jackson's two presidential campaigns made anti-apartheid a mainstream political issue. Shortly before he died Leland said: "I am convinced that the fate of African Americans in this country...

Contesting Constitutional Multi-Culturalism in Tanzania: The Trials of Christopher Mtikila

Conflicts over the permissible limits on speech that weaponizes racial, religious, and ethnic identities are a global phenomenon. Tanzania’s constitutional and legal debates over this matter are a microcosm of a global dialogue. Since the early years of independence, Tanzania has imposed constitutional and legal restrictions on speech that speech that espouses ethnic, religious, or racial divisions. These restrictions are the surviving portion of founder-President Julius Nyerere’s multi-faceted effort to construct a multi-cultural political environment. Tanzania’s early leaders were deeply aware that ethnic rivalries had come to cominate the political life of other countries in their region. They were determined that Tanzania should become and remain the non-Sudan, non-Rwanda, and non-Kenya of Eastern Arica. They did so by introducing constitutional and restrictions on ethnic political appears into the country’s constitution and electoral laws. Since independence, each iteration of the Tanzanian Constitution has forbidden the registration of political parties that base their electoral appeal on these forms of speech. Tanzania has also embedded these limitations in its electoral laws, which limit candidacy for electoral office, at both national and local levels, to candidates nominated by registered parties. These limitations have given rise to more than twenty years of constitutional litigation. This article presents a study of the key constitutional cases. The methodology of this article is a close examination of a series of trials in which Tanzania’s constitution and electoral laws have been subjected to litigation. Four trials are of utmost significance: two, before the Tanzanian High Court; one, before the Tanzania Court of Appeal, and one before the African Court of Human and People’s Rights. Despite adverse court rulings, Tanzania’s political leaders appear determined to retain the restrictive portions of their constitution and electoral system; these remain in place to the present time.

'Maisha yetu ya kila siku kama vile movie': Fantasy, desire and urban space in Tanzanian music videos

Abstract An explosion of creative practices in music, film and video production followed the liberalization of the Tanzanian media in the early 1990s. Concerned about cultural imperialism, Tanzania's first president Julius Nyerere had resisted allowing television in mainland Tanzania and consequently the first licence was only granted in 1994. Following the establishment of the first TV station there has been a proliferation of TV station and online platforms circulating the new genre of popular music videos. During the last decade, new media spaces, including continent-wide TV channels such as Channel O and MTV Africa (both based in South Africa), have created new circuits for the circulation of Tanzanian music videos. New media spaces enabled by liberalization have become sites for negotiating gendered, moral and sociopolitical value. They also serve as imaginative sites of desire and fantasy. Music videos set in the cinematic space of Dar es Salaam's new high-rise buildings and 'exclusive' clubs have become something of a trope in Tanzania. These videos display fantasies of enjoyment and consumption. In so doing, they reflect neo-liberal and individual modes of wealth accumulation which challenge accepted social norms about consumption and wealth. Examining these new contemporary cinematic representations of the city as spaces of fantasy and desire, this article will explore the modes of spectatorship audiences bring to these videos. It will examine how audiences, largely excluded from these exclusive city spaces of consumption and excess, read cityscapes in music videos. This article ultimately sets out the multiplicity, ambiguity and indeterminacy of the desires (both creative and destructive) evoked in audiences by contemporary music video.

Phantom Time: Literary History at the Edge of the Nation

Phantom Time: Literary History at the Edge of the Nation

Beyond the African Unification Debate: Why is Pan-African Unity Still a Distant Dream?

The idea of the Unification of Africa is not one that should be easily discarded. It is an idea, however, that has experienced major difficulties for those seeking to implement it. Originating in the African Diaspora, it was taken up by figures such as Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere. In its first decades, the project of African unity was institutionalised in the Organization of African Unity. The OAU passed through many vicissitudes and was always a conceptual and political battleground divided between those who wanted swift and speedy unification of African states, and those who favoured more cautious approaches. In a period where the OAU has given way to the African Union, the authors make an impassioned plea for the continuation of the unification projection into the future, even if in a more sober manner more attuned to the complexities of a diverse continent.

The awkward biography of the young Washington Okumu: CIA asset (?) and the Prayer Breakfast’s man in Africa

ABSTRACTWashington Okumu (1936–2016) is now largely forgotten, but he had had a burst of fame as the mediator that brought the Inkatha Freedom Party back into South Africa’s democratic elections of 1994. This article concerns his professional life until 1988. In addition to reconstructing his life, it comments on the awkward challenges of this biography. Interviews with Okumu yielded confusing and often untruthful testimony. The research process involved extensive corroboration and correction. Okumu’s story was about his great achievements, but his greatest achievement was to position himself on the edges of power. All the same, he had a remarkable life that included relationships with Kenyan political leaders, study at Harvard and Cambridge universities, a likely relationship with the CIA, political imprisonment, and employment by the United Nations. His deepest connection was with the Fellowship (an international Christian network best known for hosting the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC). Most remarkably, it arranged for Okumu to conduct secret shuttle diplomacy between South African Prime Minister BJ Vorster and Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in 1976. His life through early middle-age was well connected and eventful, but his initiatives do not appear to have been politically consequential. Indeed, the most significant event of life before 1988 may have been that he met IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Prayer Breakfast in Washington and that he gained the trust of the South African National Party government and thus was positioned for his ‘great moment’ in 1994.

A Review of African Thinkers on Neocolonialism, Cultural Imperialism and Class Struggle in Africa: Toward the Redemption of the African Consciousness

The objective of the paper is to review the works of several important scholars on cultural imperialism, neocolonialism and class struggle in Africa. In order to understand the forces of neo-colonialism and the class struggle in Africa along with the development of African consciousness and African Centered Thought, there must be a review of some of the most critical scholarship of African thinkers. To accomplish this objective we review the works of several widely read and appreciated scholars including: W.E.B. Du Bois who was a proponent of Pan-Africanism, Kwame Nkrumah and Frantz Fanon who maintained Pan-African and Marxist-socialist views, Julius Nyerere who was a Pan-Africanist and an African socialist, Jacob Carruthers who maintained African centered perspectives, Claude Ake who held both Marxist-socialist and African centered views, and Walter Rodney who held both a Pan-Africanist and Marxist-socialistic views.

Charles Quist-Adade and Wendy Royal, eds., Re-engaging the African Diasporas: Pan-Africanism in the Age of Globalization. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016. Pp. 377. $74.00 (cloth).

Charles Quist-Adade and Wendy Royal, eds., <i>Re-engaging the African Diasporas: Pan-Africanism in the Age of Globalization</i>. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016. Pp. 377. $74.00 (cloth).

'AFRICOM: Neo-colonialism Impacts the Class Struggle of Africans?'

In this paper, the objectives and mission of AFRICOM will be examined in comparison to its actual practices to assess the true nature of its presence in Africa and its impact on the class struggle of Africans. To fully understand the interest of the United States in Africa; US foreign policy, and the establishment of United States’ Africa Command (AFRICOM), one must examine these concepts for understanding. Discussing the history of the United States capabilities, intentions and motivations is necessary for insight for interpreting the past, present, and future of Africa and its’ relationship with the US. This research will help examine if AFRICOM is an instrument of US foreign policy in the form of neo-colonialism or diplomacy and the impact to the class struggle to Africans. Kwame Nkrumah stated that neo-colonialism: “…is a greater danger to independent countries than is colonialism. …In neo-colonialism, however, the people are divided from their leaders and, instead of providing true leadership and guidance which is informed at every point by the ideal of the general welfare, leaders come to neglect the very people who put them in power and incautiously become instruments of suppression on behalf of the neo-colonialism.” Also, this paper will offer insight on if the interests of Africans and African Americans are really served by Africans. Peter Pham’s research concluded that AFRICOM has been viewed by some policymakers and commentators as a US foreign policy used to colonize Africa. Tsenay Serequeberhan concluded that the United States is plays apart in neo-colonialism. He stated: “Today, in the last decade of the twentieth century, the United States is the dominant superpower and the harbinger of a new ‘new world order’ dominated by the West (i.e., NATO). In fact, paraphrasing Lenin and Nkrumah, one could describe this ‘new world order’ as the latest, if not the highest, stage of neocolonialism in which the United States, under the guise of the United Nations, rules the world, and smart bombs enforce ‘international law’.” AFRICOM should be examined and analyzed to see if the mission of AFRICOM is meeting its objectives. Concluded by Peter Pham, AFRICOM was established to “bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote US common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa by strengthening bilateral and multilateral security of cooperation with African states and creating new opportunities to uplift their capabilities.” From Pham’s research, there are concerns from the people of Africa and within the United States that the interest of Africa is not the same under AFRICOM. To know if AFRICOM is an instrument of US foreign policy, one must analyze the US foreign policies of post-colonial United States administration with Africa and the interest in Africa to find patterns, trends, and underlying economic interests. The theoretical framework of which this research will be analyze through is the theories of power elite and dependency. The power elite theory is used as a lens to examine the interactions between Africa and its’ people and individuals of business, government, and military who are powerful and influential to make decisions concerning Africa’s cultural, economic and social well-being. The dependency theory will help explain the how developing nations, such as Africa are economically exploited by advanced nations, such as the United States. The theories will help gain insight into AFRICOM, to understand its’ true intentions and motives with Africa and its’ people. In order to understand the purpose of class struggle, and its’ connection to Africa, the history and intent must be analyzed and examined. The class struggle will be viewed through the lens of Karl Marx, Pierre Bourdieu, Kwame Nkrumah, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jacob Carruthers, Julius Nyerere, Frantz Fanon, Ali Mazrui, Claude Ake, and Chairman Mao Tsetung.