President Bush's Africa trip about more than AIDS

By: Jessica Johnson

Posted: 2/26/08

Just when you thought the 21st century implied civil and social advancement, the scramble for Africa continues.

Last week the president stopped in Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia, pledging not to focus on the continent's conflicts. From Kigali, Rwanda - the site of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 were slaughtered - he said, "There is evil in the world, and evil must be confronted," alluding to the current situation in Darfur, Sudan.

But as far as the international activist community is concerned, Bush's remarks fall on deaf ears.

Last semester, NBC representatives trotted the halls of S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, eager to grant the opportunity of a lifetime to several potential Beijing Olympic Games interns. The 2008 games have already been termed the "Genocide Olympics."

The sports minister of Slovenia, which holds the EU presidency told CNN, "Sports is too important. It is too important to use as a political instrument."

Sadly, the good minister is correct. Because it was, indeed, sport that kept people's eyes wide shut to Rwanda in 1994.

Yes, "Save Darfur" campaigns exist across the country and even here on campus. Yet there is no comparable media attention given to an exponentially greater humanitarian crisis in the Congo. Since 1998 - the time former President Bill Clinton barely tapped Rwandan soil to pay his condolences - an estimated five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bruce Dixon, writing for Alternet.org, suggests our lack of knowledge about this genocide may have something to do with Daddy (George H.W. Bush) belonging to Barrick Gold, "one of the largest and most active mining concerns in war-torn Congo."

Dixon suggests we couldn't possibly afford to call ourselves out on the carpet, so reasons for us boycotting China's complicity in Darfur are missing. Such a web implies a new millennium scramble for Africa - only made complete with President Bush's last stop: Liberia.

Liberia is the only country in Africa that's expressed an interest in hosting AFRICOM, or Africa Command, which is a coalition created by Bush to bring peace and stability to Africa, according to the AFRICOM Web site.

Bush's trip was only intended to mark success in the battle against AIDS. He made no reference to AFRICOM as the purpose of his trip.

"The governments of these countries are very, very clear about the way in which this trip is tied to the militarization of Africa and the spread of AFRICOM," Horace Campbell, professor of African-American studies and political science, said.

Last week, Campbell told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now that the new AFRICOM, with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, would permit under the U.S. military "whatever work is being done in Africa by the United States Agency for International Development, the United States Treasury, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Department of Commerce, all agencies, Peace Corps and university work." In other words, this will be the next step for the militarization of the continent of Africa.

Jessica Johnson is a junior television, radio and film major. Her columns appear every other Tuesday. She can be reached at jtjohn03@syr.edu.