By Annette Walker

Africa will begin to play a larger strategic role in United States global military strategy, if the Bush administration’s plans of establishing a military command structure on that continent are successful. Most African leaders have opposed this U.S. military initiative.
After World War II, the United States established military command structures in most regions of the world. The European Command, the Pacific Command (for Hawaii and Asia) the Southern Command (for the Caribbean and Latin America), and the Northern Command (for the U.S., Canada and Mexico). However, Africa remained the responsibility of its European colonizers.
Decolonization began in the late 1950s and continued for decades, initiated in part by armed struggle between African nationalist forces and their colonizers. Portugal's African empire collapsed along with the European regimes in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Namibia and eventually the apartheid apparatus in South Africa.
Throughout this period, the United States government tended to oppose African nationalist groups, including those led by Nelson Mandela, and sided with the European colonizers.
After the challenges presented by the Iranian Revolution in 1978-1979, the United States set up the Central Command, responsible for military activities in the Middle East, East Africa and the Horn of Africa (Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia and the Sudan).
The U.S. military had a disastrous experience in Somalia in 1993, during the early days of the Clinton administration. That was followed a few years later by that administration's inaction in Rwanda.
"The events of September 11, 2001, caused the United States to take a closer look at Africa and the role it could play," said Horace Campbell, professor of political science and African studies at Syracuse University. "The U.S. Central Command launched the two major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The quagmire that developed in Iraq resulted in the Bush administration's February 2007 announcement of the formation of the first new military command in 20 years, called Africom. By 2012, the United States plans to open two dozen bases in Africa to promote U.S. security interests and "the common goals of development of health, education, democracy, and economic growth," according to the Defense Department.  William E. 'Kip' Ward, an African-American four-star general, was appointed as commander of the new African post.
Campbell contends, however, that U.S. interest in Africa goes beyond military security, humanitarian efforts and peaceful diplomacy.
“The United States wants to control the oil resources in Africa," he said and pointed out the hypocrisy of the U.S. position on Darfur. "While there is a major campaign against genocidal violence in Darfur, the U.S. government cooperates with the Khartoum government on the grounds of 'intelligence sharing to fight terrorism'. It is in the Sudan where the neocons are stoking the fires of war in order to get access to the oil resources there."
Others believe that the United States is attempting to keep ahead of China in controlling Africa's oil resources.
"Bush announced the creation of Africom a week after Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Cameroon to start a high-profile, eight-country African tour, during which he signed more than 50 cooperation agreements and pledged to double China's assistance to Africa by 2009," said Christopher Moraff, a contributing writer to the Chicago-based In These Times magazine and specialist in African affairs.
Moraff also noted that Chinese trade with Africa quadrupled to $55 billion from 2002 to 2006, and there are 800 Chinese firms investing in Africa.
The conservative Heritage Foundation states in a recent report that “The United States must be alert to the potential long-term disruption of American access to important raw materials and energy sources as these resources are 'locked up' by Chinese firms."
Moraff commented, "Since 2002, U.S. oil imports from Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Libya have nearly doubled, and according to data from the Energy Information Administration, Africa has surpassed the Middle East as the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States.”
"The National Intelligence Council projects that African oil imports could account for 25 percent of total U.S. imports by 2015. At the same time, China accounted for 40 percent of total growth in global demand for oil in the last four years. Today, more than a quarter of China's oil imports come from Africa,” he stated
The United States is courting African nations to host military bases for Africom, but most African states have refused. In July 2007, the 14-nation Southern African Development Community rejected the expanded U.S. military presence in Africa. In December, Libya as well as South Africa condemned the initiative, claiming its chief aim was to protect U.S. oil interests. Also late last year, Nigerian President Umaru Yar' Adua and the Council of State rejected the U.S. proposal to host a military base. The General Assembly of Nigeria's Presbyterian Church issued a statement opposing a U.S. base in Nigeria as a potential threat to the country's independence.
Thus far, two African nations have expressed interest in hosting military bases: Liberia and Gabon.
Last year, oil deposits were discovered in Tanzania and Uganda, and deposits in West Africa were found in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the United States is having problems with its traditional sources of oil – Venezuela, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.
Many believe Africa's vast resources and labor have enriched the United States and Europe for centuries, while leaving most Africans impoverished. Campbell of Syracuse University advises Africans as well as citizens of the United States to reflect on the legacy of the Central Command, which was established in 1980.
"After the militarization of the Middle East, there have been five major wars and millions dead. Therefore, we need to sufficiently engage the full meaning of this new military structure called Africom, and ask ourselves whether or not it will bring Africa into an arc of warfare."

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