FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

FUUO will be MIA for a bit but here are some book recommendations

FUUO will be MIA for a bit...I've been swamped at work and now I am off for about 5 days for my ten year reunion at USNA.  


In the meantime, I can recommend Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk.  I finished it last week and it was a great read, especially in light of Egypt's recent revolution.  Completely apart from Africa I also just finished Hunger Games (in a day and half)!  It was awesome!  Oh and the week before that I read Whiteman by Tony Dsouza which I will be writing a review for.   


This week I start the next in the Cairo trilogy series: Palace of Desire.  


See you next week!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

"Famine and Photography Examined" or "The Children Cried Thunder Through My Feet"

This is an important article and is striking in its honesty and self-examination.  Particularly cogent is when he writes the following:


"Because it’s a cycle. African governments know that drought is coming and they don’t prepare. Foreign charities working there talk about long-term plans to help people become self-sufficient but they’ve been failing to achieve them for 20 years. It’s as much about politics and war and poor economic policies as it is about no rain. I’m no expert but I know that much."


I couldn't agree with him more.  The only points where I diverge (maybe) from the author is in his supposition at the end of the article that in taking pictures of people starving, he is stealing their dignity.  I think this depends entirely on one's motivation and on the permission of the person being photographed.  But obviously, there is a lot of room for debate and discussion on this subject.  

Me and the Man With an IPAD by Barry Malone.
I never know how to behave when I go to write about hungry people.

I usually bring just a notebook and a pen because it seems somehow more subtle than a recorder. I drain bottled water or hide it before I get out of the car or the plane. In Ethiopia a few years ago I was telling a funny story to some other journalists as our car pulled up near a church where we had been told people were arriving looking for food.
We got out and began walking towards the place, me still telling the tale, shouting my mouth off, struggling to get to the punch line through my laughter and everybody else’s.
Then there was this sound, a low rumbling thing that came to meet us.
I could feel it roll across the ground and up through my boots. I stopped talking, my laughter died, I grabbed the arm of the person beside me: “What is that?” And I realized. It was the sound of children crying. There were enough children crying that — I’ll say it again — I could feel it in my boots. I was shamed by my laughter.
Inside the churchyard there were tents and inside the tents children were dying.
Rows and rows of women sat on the ground cradling delicate babies. An aid worker told us we had ten minutes and so we went to work. Camera shutters clicking, pens scratching: “What’s her name? How far did she walk? How many of her kids are dead?”
Some journalists leaned down over the mothers to talk to them, some stuck cameras inches from their faces. I stood further away when taking the photos, I sat down in the dirt to interview people. I thought I was better, but I wasn’t. I was just more conceited.
I remember looking up and seeing a girl who worked at a U.N. aid agency crying. I motioned to her to get out — her tears as self-indulgent as my sitting in the dirt. And then we leave. Thank you, we say. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for holding up your dying baby for my camera. And thank you for your dignity. Thank you for giving it to me. Thank you for letting me have it.
Because that’s the thing. An Ethiopian girl told me last week that she cried as she watched foreign journalists interviewing a Somali woman in a Kenyan refugee camp. “All she had left was her dignity,” she said. “And then they took that, too.”
She was right. And I knew that I had done that. Many, many times.
I used to tell myself that it was okay because what I did was important. A U.N. official once excitedly phoned me at 7am to tell me the U.S. had donated millions of dollars to his agency because someone from the government had read a story of mine in the Washington Post.
Another aid worker approached me in a bar in Addis Ababa. “Hey! That story you wrote about that woman? That woman who had a kid die every year for the last four years and now only has one left? Awesome, man! Awesome!”
Her name was Ayantu. I don’t know if her son, Hirbu, is still alive.
Last weekend I was there again. The U.N. loaded me and some other journalists onto one of their planes in Nairobi and we flew to a tiny village near Somalia to meet people suffering from hunger, to ask them our questions, to find the sorriest tales possible.



We jumped into an imperious row of white jeeps when we landed and swept into the village. Doors flew open, everybody walked very fast, everybody was very important.
I saw six people all firing their cameras at one bemused woman. I saw aid workers fawning over the head of the World Food Programme. I saw soldiers fanning out to protect us. And then I saw the man with the iPad. I stood and stared for some time, enjoying the deliciousness of what was one of the strangest things I had ever seen in my life.
I raised the camera.
This is what I’ll write, I thought. Not about another Ayantu. Not again.
Because it’s a cycle. African governments know that drought is coming and they don’t prepare. Foreign charities working there talk about long-term plans to help people become self-sufficient but they’ve been failing to achieve them for 20 years. It’s as much about politics and war and poor economic policies as it is about no rain. I’m no expert but I know that much.
I also know it’s wrong that every few years we’re faced with an “emergency” that could have been prevented, that aid groups must frantically try to raise money to respond, that journalists need to find emaciated babies at death’s door and film and photograph and write about them before the world gives a damn.
Part of me felt bad for publishing the photo of the man with the iPad. Because he was a good person doing his job. And because we are the same.
He comes with an iPad, I come with a notebook.
Both of us steal dignity and neither of us belong.



LINKS:
http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2011/07/29/me-and-the-man-with-the-ipad/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/26/us-africa-famine-idUSTRE76P1A220110726

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Rest in Peace: LTC Shannon Beebe dies in plane crash

I am sad to report that LTC Shannon Beebe died in a plane crash last weekend.  I had only met LTC Beebe a handful of times but he was someone that I admired deeply.  As a young officer just starting out as an Africa FAO,  LTC Beebe was always kind, sincere and humble in our interactions.  His book The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace was one of the first books I read as an Africa FAO and has profoundly shaped my perspective on the realm of possibilities for a FAO working in Africa.   He was someone that carried with him a light and a brightness everywhere he went.  He will be missed.

LINKS:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/he-thrilled-at-the-most-challenging-flying-but-died-in-routine-test-flight/2011/08/12/gIQA8gmxBJ_story.html

http://mountvernon.patch.com/articles/remembering-mount-vernon-lawyer-elizabeth-pignatello-39#photo-7362985

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/08/shannon-beebe-dies-in-fauquier-county-plane-crash-64982.html

http://www.google.com/search?q=ltc+shannon+beebe+died

http://features.rr.com/article/07CtdYL2H5bDd

http://www.hotsr.com/news/localnews/2011/08/12/lh-graduate-security-expert-dies-in-virg-50.php

http://cseees.unc.edu/News/Beebe

Monday, August 8, 2011

It's Official: AFRICOM moving to Hoodbridge--I mean Woodbridge!

It's Official: AFRICOM moving to Hoodbridge--I mean Woodbridge!

Since this article has broken on the esteemed Potomac Local you can pretty much take this as gospel.  I L-O-V-E the article's title by the way:  "U.S.-Africa Ops Being Lured to Woodbridge."  The word 'lure' makes it sound like AFRICOM is being beckoned to beatific Woodbridge with the candy of high speed rails into what is surely a trap of some sort!

I imagine that Woodbridge District Supervisor Candidate Chris Royse will face some mocking stiff competition from actual Congressmen in other counties/states for the prize of future AFRICOM headquarters. 

NOTE to readers: 
-It remains the official AFRICOM position that they aren't leaving Stuttgart while GEN Ham is in charge. 
-It remains the official FUUO position that AFRICOM headquarters should move to Coronado, CA (FUUO will also take San Diego proper). 

LINKS:
http://potomaclocal.com/2011/08/05/u-s-africa-ops-being-lured-to-woodbridge/

Friday, August 5, 2011

Elephants Harvested for Ivory VA Article- Sad, so save for Monday when you will already be bummed


 Wow, this is so sad.  Thanks to Deb Brautigam's excellent China in Africa: The Real Story Blog for the heads up on this article.  Most of us are already a little bummed headed back to work on Mondays so save reading the full article for then.

Agony and Ivory

Highly emotional and completely guileless, elephants mourn their dead—and across Africa, they are grieving daily as demand from China’s “suddenly wealthy” has driven the price of ivory to $700 a pound or more. With tens of thousands of elephants being slaughtered each year for their tusks, raising the specter of an “extinction vortex,” Alex Shoumatoff travels from Kenya to Seattle to Guangzhou, China, to expose those who are guilty in the massacre—and recognize those who are determined to stop it.



Abu Muqawama's Ph.D for Dummies Post- Feel Smarter Going into the Weekend

6 NOV 2012 UPDATE: 
I've added the link to a post by Chris Blattman (a professor at Columbia, @cblatts on twitter) in which he answers frequently asked questions about PhD applications.

Abu Muqawama's Ph.D for Dummies Post.

If you're like me and have no clue what it means to have a Ph. D or how to get one, you should read the below post (and the comments) from Abu Muqawama's blog.  You'll feel smarter just by reading it.  

(Unfortunately, he doesn't cover at how they go about getting those Doctor prescription pads--the sole reason I would like to get a PhD is to officially be a titled "Doctor"--I envision an office crowded with dusty books and papers and a fat square prescription pad on my desk from which I scribble prescriptions for knowledge)



LINKS:
http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2011/08/phds-dummies.html
http://chrisblattman.com/about/contact/gradschool/
https://twitter.com/cblatts

Poet of the Week from Mozambique: Noémia de Sousa

My apologies for the long drought without a FUUO poet of the week. 

Noémia de Sousa (aka Vera Micaia) was born in 1927 in Maputo, Mozambique.  She lived in Lisbon working as a translator from 1951 to 1964 and then she left for Paris where she worked for the local consulate of Morocco.  She went back to Lisbon in 1975 and became member of the ANOP.  In the early years of the liberation struggle she was very active.  She later left and lived in exile.  Noemia's background was Portuguese and Bantu and in much of her poetry she explores the idea of Africa and her heritage. 

Her poem below is phenomenal.  It’s angry and inspired and that final stanza—where she proffers her body as a medium for Africa’s struggle for freedom--wow, powerful.  And she ends her poem without a period, perhaps because her last word is ‘hope’ and what is more hopeful than an undefined end? 

If You Want to Know Me
By Noémia de Sousa

If you want to know who I am,
Examine with careful eyes
That piece of black wood
Which an unknown Maconde brother
With inspired hands
Carved and worked
In distant lands to the North.

Ah, she is who I am:
Empty eye sockets despairing of possessing life
A mouth slashed with wounds of anguish
Raised as though to implore and threaten
Body tattooed with visible and invisible scars
By the hard whips of slavery
Tortured and magnificent,
Proud and mystical,
Africa from head to toe,
-ah, she is who I am!

If you want to understand me
Come and bend over my African soul,
In the groans of the Negroes on the docks
In the frenzied dances of the Chopes
In the rebelliousness of the Shaganas
In the strange melancholy evaporating
From a native song, into the night …

And ask me nothing more
If you really wish to know me…
For I am no more than a shell of flesh
In which the revolt of Africa congealed
Its cry swollen with hope

Some of my favorite poetry books:

State Department Monthly-ish Africa Issue


Some good reading in here if you want to catch up on the last month in Africa. 


Africa: Issue 25 - July 26, 2011

*          Crisis in the Horn of Africa
*       Meeting of Fourth Libya Contact Group in Turkey
*          South Sudan – A Beginning

Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa
US Response to Crisis in the Horn of Africa

 Date: 07/25/2011 Location: Mogadishu, Somalia Description: Mothers from southern Somalia hold their malnourished children at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid, and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia. http://www.state.gov/img/11/44931/somalia_east_african_famine_250_1.jpg
 Across the eastern Horn of Africa, more than 11 million people are now in need of emergency assistance to survive. Secretary Clinton expressed her concern for the humanitarian emergency after the announcement by the United Nations stating a famine is underway in parts of Somalia. In a statement she said, “The United States -- in close coordination with the international community -- is working to assist more than 11 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, KeSouth Sudan – A B eginning Open Government Partnership Smart T raveler iTunes App Keeps Citizens Updated nya, and Somalia, who are in dire need of assistance. To anticipate growing needs, the United States government has worked with our partners over the last year to pre-position food in the region, increase funding for early warning systems, and strengthen nonfood assistance in the feeding, health, water and sanitation sectors. In addition to emergency assistance, this administration’s Feed the Future program is working to break the cycle of hunger once and for all by addressing the root causes of hunger and food insecurity through innovative agricultural advances.”

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson addressed the crisis situation during a special press briefing and explained, “We have seen the recent reports that Al-Shabaab claims that it will finally allow international humanitarian aid into areas under its control. We are consulting with international organizations that have worked in these areas to verify if there has been any real change in Al-Shabaab’s policies that would allow us and others to operate freely and without taxation imposed for humanitarian deliveries. Al-Shabaab’s current policies are wreaking havoc and are not helping Somalis living in the south central part of that country. ”  Information on the Crisis in the Horn of Africa» http://www.state.gov/p/af/rt/hornofafrica/index.htm
How You Can Help»
 


Thursday, August 4, 2011

Africa: Declaration of Delegates from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi from the 2011 East African Workshop on Cyberspace Security

Africa: Declaration of Delegates from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi from the 2011 East African Workshop on Cyberspace Security http://www.state.gov/s/cyberissues/releasesandremarks/169429.htm
Declaration of Delegates from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi from the 2011 East African Workshop on Cyberspace Security
July 27, 2011

We, the delegates of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, meeting July 25-27, 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya, have enjoyed a full exchange of information on the challenges of cyber and mobile security in the 21st century. It is clear that the Internet, mobile networks, and related information and communications technologies (ICT) have become indispensible tools for governments, businesses, civil society, and individuals across the globe. These technologies have spurred tremendous economic development, increased the free flow of information, and promoted gains in efficiency, productivity and creativity across East Africa.

This dramatic growth requires an increased focus by all users on a wide range of threats such as cybercrime, damage to critical infrastructures, and disruption of communications. Such threats can only be fully addressed by developing a strong culture of cybersecurity, creating robust response capabilities, and enacting appropriate and effective national policies. Protecting our economies and citizens against cyber threats requires strong national and transnational collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society, so that security, economic development and freedom go hand in hand.

Therefore, we, the delegates of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, consistent with Articles 98 and 99 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) whereby Partner States undertake to cooperate in the establishment and operation of communications infrastructure and the development and deployment of ICT applications and services, and building on the work of the EAC Task Force on Cyberlaws, commit to taking the following steps necessary to develop strong and effective cybersecurity frameworks, including:

*          Developing and promoting a robust culture of cybersecurity that recognizes and effectively responds to the global threats and challenges associated with the Internet and interconnected mobile networks and related technologies, including exchanging cybersecurity best practices and maintaining an open dialogue on the full range of challenges and threats
*          Recognizing that mobile networks and related technologies play a central role in East Africa’s economic development, and should, therefore, be a priority area for cybersecurity efforts,
*          Building on the work of the EAC Cyberlaws Reform Programme and in particular the EAC Framework for Cyberlaws, adopted in May 2010, in which Partner States committed to enact comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, including cybercrime legislation consistent with the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (2001)
*          Strengthening capacity to investigate and prosecute cybercrimes and to assist foreign law enforcement agencies in urgent criminal investigations involving electronic evidence by, inter alia, joining and participating in the 24/7 Cybercrime Network
*          Creating national Computer Emergency Readiness Teams (CERTs) and exchanging best practices on their effective utilization and collaboration

We thank the Governments of the United States and Kenya for their support for this workshop and look forward to our continued partnership



Wednesday, August 3, 2011

4 Francophone African Presidents speak at USIP

African Presidents at USIP Link Democracy, Security

The elected presidents of four West African nations, appearing at USIP, called for consolidating democratic advances in their countries after what for most has been a debilitating period of conflict, dictatorship and political struggle. | Read about the USIP event with the presidents of Benin, Niger, Cote D'Ivoire and Guinea http://click.newsletters.usip.org/?qs=994cde0d6eadcbbd7851f53682e4a058f03abb0dfd7410c974c45c8c6b817192

Congressional Testimony by Yamamoto on Global Security in Africa

A good read that sums up well DOS'  take on AFRICOM.


Africa: AFRICOM: Promoting Partnership for Global Security in Africa http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/2011/169150.htm
Testimony by Don Yamamoto
Washington, DC
July 26, 2011

Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Payne, honorable Members of the Committee:

Thank you for inviting me to testify before you today on USG cooperation in Africa since AFRICOM was created. As you know, we are currently witnessing some of the greatest changes on the African continent since the era of independence. These changes present both challenges and opportunities, and since its inception in October 2008, AFRICOM has been a critical partner for the Department of State in addressing conflict and transnational issues across Africa, in addition to the prominent role it has played in traditional military operations, such as the conflict in Libya.

Today I am here to tell you why AFRICOM matters and how we are working together to pursue our common foreign policy objectives. Without effective cooperation within the U.S. Government, we will not be able to address the issues of terrorism, piracy, and conflict in places like Sudan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Before the creation of AFRICOM, the Department of State had to coordinate with three different geographic combatant commands, each of which had varying priorities and security cooperation objectives. The Department of Defense was able to unify these efforts by placing all of the previous areas of responsibility for Africa under one command solely focused on Africa 365 days a year. We have seen how this new focus in places like Liberia can have success in building sustainable, indigenous African security capacity that respects civilian authority and human rights, and contributes meaningfully to economic and social development. Given the important role militaries play in the region, AFRICOM’s work is critical to the success of our Administration's broader efforts to build a more peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Africa.

AFRICOM's previous and first commander, General Kip Ward, used to say that standing up a new combatant command was like trying to build an airplane in flight, and we appreciate that the State Department has been allowed to be part of this process of growth from the beginning. Since its inception, AFRICOM has strived to be a collaborative combatant command with a core function of not just overseeing U.S. forces on the continent, but also preventing and resolving armed conflict through building partner nation capacity. For the past three years, the U.S. Department of State has coordinated and collaborated with AFRICOM as it worked to achieve the Administration’s highest priority goals related to democracy, good governance, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and transnational challenges. President Obama's speech in Accra in July 2009 laid out a clear framework for our Africa policy, and we believe that AFRICOM has played an important supporting role in implementing this framework. It is doing this by supporting efforts to build professional, capable militaries that respect human rights and civilian control, which in turn supports efforts to resolve armed conflicts, address transnational challenges, and safeguard democratic institutions.

AFRICOM has two co-equal deputy commanders – a civilian deputy and a military deputy.  I wonder if they are truly equal?  The Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities (DCMA) is a senior U.S. diplomat, and provides direct policy input and advice to the Commander of AFRICOM. The State Department further augments the AFRICOM headquarters staff with a foreign policy advisor and five additional Foreign Service officers, including a senior development advisor provided by USAID who reports directly to General Ham. Most of the other Foreign Service officers in the command have regional responsibilities. Additionally, each of AFRICOM’s component commands also has a Foreign Service officer serving as a foreign policy advisor.

The State Department currently has four other employees seconded to AFRICOM and is in the process of adding five additional officers. Similarly, AFRICOM has significantly expanded the number of DoD personnel who are integrated into embassies across the continent over the past three years. These personnel are valuable members of our country teams, as they provide direct and sustained support for both DOS and DoD-funded activities. AFRICOM has strived to not just do more, but do better in its activities on the continent and these expanded offices of security cooperation have enabled our embassies to increase the quality of our engagement on the continent. Effective collaboration is possible because the Department of State and AFRICOM are imbedded in each other's  organizations. This structure has allowed us to work together effectively on a number of programs over the past three years, and I would like to outline these collaborative efforts for you today. I also want to discuss briefly AFRICOM’s relationship with our partner nations.

The Department of State collaborates with AFRICOM on a long list of issues such as military professionalization; building counterterrorism capacity; disaster management; peacekeeping capacity building; humanitarian operations coordinated with USAID; demining and ammunition handling training; nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction; destruction of excess small arms and light weapons and unstable ammunition; reduction of excess and poorly secured man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS); Defense Sector Reform in Liberia, DRC, and South Sudan; counterpiracy activities off the Somali coast; maritime safety and security capacity building; and civil-military cooperation. AFRICOM elements at our embassies implement Department of State-funded Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs, which further U.S. interests in Africa by helping to professionalize African militaries, while also assisting our African partners to be more equipped and trained to work toward common security goals.

In the realm of counterterrorism, AFRICOM plays a critical and central role in both the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) and the Partnership for Regional East Africa Counterterrorism (PREACT), our primary programs to support the long-term counterterrorism (CT) capacity building of member countries in northwest and East Africa. Both programs are led by State, but are managed in close coordination with DoD and AFRICOM, as well as USAID. DoD launched Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans-Sahara (OEF-TS) in 2007 to support TSCTP programming. OEF-TS adds both funding and essential staff to TSCTP, including military trainers and advisors.

State also collaborates with AFRICOM on a range of transnational issues. We continue to work together to develop U.S. maritime engagement in Africa from one of individual, isolated efforts to a more comprehensive and sustainable approach. Early and close coordination on AFRICOM programs such as the Africa Partnership Station, which State provides funding to support the training of African maritime forces, and Africa Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership, which provides operational support, both contribute to a whole-of-government approach. Nonproliferation and counternarcotics are two other key areas of cooperation.

Recently, DoD began to design and implement cooperative threat reduction programs in East Africa, focused on improving security around sites housing potential biological threats. The AFRICOM Counternarcotics Office has been active in West Africa supporting maritime and airport interdiction efforts and funding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s and Drug Enforcement Administration’s training activities throughout the region.

If there is a downside to this level of engagement, it is that the large numbers of AFRICOM temporary assignment personnel deploying to the continent often present significant logistical challenges for U.S. Missions, which sometimes find it difficult to maintain full visibility and provide support given their own very limited staffing levels. This large and growing AFRICOM presence and programming in Africa at times risks overwhelming the “soft power” of USAID and State programs and personnel. Additionally, the constant turnover of temporary military personnel working on three and six month rotations can cause significant confusion with both the country team and the host nation if not carefully and managed.

Nonetheless, we will continue to work together and coordinate closely in order to mitigate and manage these challenges. However, the downside of additional DoD personnel on the continent is far outweighed by the positive gains AFRICOM made in the past three years. I can report to you today that cooperation between AFRICOM and our African partners is at an all-time high despite a continuing lingering wariness towards AFRICOM on the part of some African nations. This cooperation begins at the highest levels, where AFRICOM assists the African Union Peace and Security Commission. It continues down through the African Standby Force regional brigades, and ends with extensive partnering at the bilateral level. The capacity that AFRICOM builds at the regional level improves the relationship not just between the United States and the AU, but between the African nations themselves, increasing overall cooperation exponentially. An example of this is AFRICOM’s Exercise African Endeavor, which assists African nations and their regional organizations in communicating with one another over a variety of spectrums, making greater regional cooperation possible. AFRICOM exercises, like Natural Fire in East Africa, bring together biannually forces from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, and the United States to conduct interoperability training in a humanitarian response scenario. These specific examples demonstrate how AFRICOM is increasing cooperation and building trust bilaterally through its interactions with African regional organizations.

Engaging with regional organizations is just one way that AFRICOM is improving cooperation on the continent. Since its inception, AFRICOM has worked in concert with other U.S. Government agencies and international partners to provide effective security engagement through military-to-military programs and activities designed to promote a stable and secure African environment. The Department of State applauds these efforts, and believes that, despite the difficult challenges it has faced, AFRICOM is on a positive trajectory of better cooperation with both other U.S. Government agencies and our partner nations.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. I will be happy to answer any questions.

State Dept publishes official history of US in Southern Africa (1969-76)!


Who even knew the State Department published these types of things--I sure didn't, until today!  I will definitely file this one away to refer to for a paper in the future.  It's 2.4mb and 790 pages (thank God for the "find" function). 

Africa: Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs Release of Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume XXVIII
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 26, 2011

The Department of State released today Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXVIII, Southern Africa. Additional volumes covering Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, 1969–1972, are available on the Department of State website. Documentation on U.S. policy towards North Africa, 1973–1976, is scheduled for future publication on the Department of State website.

The volume contains four chapters (entitled Regional Issues, Portuguese Africa, Angola, and Independence Negotiations), each documenting a segment of U.S. policy toward Southern Africa during the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The documentation reveals that both presidents pursued policies designed to maintain stability in the region and to avoid domestic and international criticism of U.S. ties to the white minority regimes in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.

The chapter on Regional Issues covers South Africa, which both administrations viewed as a bulwark against Communist expansion in the region. The documents illustrate the tensions between the Nixon administration and the Congressional Black Caucus and between the administration and the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs in dealing with South Africa’s apartheid regime. They also show a preference by Nixon and Henry Kissinger to avoid direct involvement in the growing unrest.

The chapter on Portuguese Africa reflects the evolution of U.S. involvement in Angola and Mozambique. Anxious to avoid alienating a key NATO partner, the Nixon administration sought to persuade the Portuguese Government to address the grievances of the black nationalist movements, while quietly granting limited assistance to the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE) and National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) leader Holden Roberto. U.S. involvement increased dramatically in January 1975, when Portugal granted independence to its African colonies. Concerns about Soviet expansion and Cuban involvement led the United States to provide covert support to anti-Communist forces in Angola.

The chapter on Angola chronicles the continuation of U.S. support to anti-Communist forces after the Portuguese departed in November 1975. Despite substantial assistance and support from South Africa, Zaire, Zambia, and others, the U.S. was unable to turn the tide in Angola. Congressional passage of the Tunney Amendment in December 1975 cut off aid to Angola and effectively ended U.S. support.

The chapter on independence negotiations chronicles Kissinger’s effort to broker a negotiated settlement to the conflicts in Namibia and Southern Rhodesia.

This volume was compiled and edited by Myra Burton. The volume and this press release are available on the Office of the Historian website at http://www.history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v28
Copies of the volume will be available for purchase from the U.S. Government Printing Office online at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/