“Africa will not get much help from foreign powers unless they are equally powerful; that way, they can negotiate with the self-declared superpower from the point of strength.”

Booker Omole is the National Vice Chairperson of the Communist Party of Kenya and Sourav Chakraborty is one of the Executive Editors of, ‘The International’

Recently the CPK took a strong stand against the US- Africa Summit that took place on December 13-15, 2022. In the following exclusive interview Comrade, Booker promptly explained 'Why the US-Africa Summit is nothing but a farce dream.’ The US has a long history of exploiting African Nations and their people and in this light big promises from the nation becomes more skeptical.

Sourav Chakraborty: Biden administration has pledged billions for food security, climate change, trade partnerships, and other issues. Will the US stand its promises after the 2014 summit didn't come to a pass?

Booker Omole: The Biden administration will offer nothing new to the African continent.This US – African Leaders summit is a calculated move by Washington to try and curtail China's influence in Africa.The now infamous AGOA program failed; itturned out to open up modern-day slavery camps in Africa.ThoseEconomic Processing Zones are operated by the US multinationals are dungeons of death; that is where capitalist anarchy reigns and the so-called industrialist sacrifice the interest of the workers at thelabor of profits.They lobby the corrupt government for immoral incentives like tax holidays, suspension of labour laws, subsidized water and electricity. The United States has no foreign policy apart from the interests of the big capital. It is unfortunate how the African comprador class is in this unholy alliance with the US government propped by multinationals to destroy the livelihood of the majority.

SC: The US has a long history of exploiting Africa for its gains. Do you feel through this summit US is trying to bribe African leaders to ally with the US againstChina?

BO: The US has perfected carrot and stick policy towards Africa through World Bank and IMF; together with the kleptocracies in Africa, the US has done worse things to the people of the continent.Now with the elections of the US puppets in Zambia and Kenya, the offensive against the vulnerable poor strata of the populationis going to be heightened.The corrupt African political elites and their criminal partners in the metropole will make so much wealth on the bark of the poor working class.We expect the Biden administration to take the anti-Chinese propaganda to the next level; they have one policy to inspire hate among the African people.The US non-government organizations are already doing what they know best, to depoliticize the African population and to take the majority out of reality through this silly, failed policy of free enterprise.The evangelicals from the degenerating US empire are investing in big churches and calling for unsustainable peace without justice.The lie factories in the name of corporate media call it BBC, CNN, FOX News, et al., are churning lies and distributing them en masse to the unsuspecting African masses.Such is the bankruptcy of the US foreign policy.

SC: Zambia and DR Congo surrendered the supply chain and production of copper and cobalt to American control. How will this affect Africa's economy?

BO: This has always been the plan to intervene in the African political processes and ensure that the US stooges are widespread. Where the US running dogs have lost elections, they try to bribe the elected leaders and expose them to the US pop culture of consumerism and wastefulness.Zambia and DRC are now under the firm teethof US imperialism.The leaders attended that meeting of sellouts, the US-African Leaders Summit, in DC to auction their economies to the US empire.The African economies, according to the US, ought to be the supplier of cheap raw materials to the US multinationals; the empire needed to suck the blood of the African people through labour exploitation and turn the continent into a dumping site for second-hand goods and cheap substandard products.That is why we need to organize a concerted resistance from below; the dictatorship in the US is too lethal and powerful.The Washington war consensus has no shame; remember, they murdered Patrice Lumumba, the revolutionary Congolese leader, and now they are back to rob that country openly.

SC: Resources are of utmost importance to Africa and all the capitalist companies pave their way in the country for its exploitation. Will this further empower big West giants to exploit the resources?

BO: As so long as Africa remains firmly connected to the economies of the metropolis, the exploitation can only worsen.Africa needs Pan-Africanism, a continental unity based on scientific socialism; we need internal-looking policies. Africa will not get much help from foreign powers unless they are equally powerful; that way, they can negotiate with the self-declared superpower from the point of strength. The internal conditions are the primary; only until that is achieved that we can look externally without losing sight of the interior.

SC: President Ruto seems to be looking forward to the collaboration. What is your opinion on it?

BO: Mr. Ruto, other than being a western puppet, is an extreme evangelical fundamentalist.Poor Ruto is always spending state resources to pray for the poor people.How can you lead prayers to alleviate poverty and, at the same time, be a product of state corruption? The president is a polished version of our former president, dictator Moi; he led his lethal and feared KANU youth wing, the infamous YK92, known for vanquishing political opponents. He is from the comprador class, an enemy of the Kenyan working class disguised as a friend of the poor through his hustler rhetoric anddouble-speak.He is also a good storyteller; now, his daughter Charlene has taken up his strength of lying to the Kenyan youth about how she made money by hawking food in the streets when his father was selling chicken.Ruto and his cultists have perfected lies; he also is well-oiled; no wonder some pseudo-revolutionaries have joined him in his project to rule with lies and more lies.

SC: What is CPK's stand on this western summit? Why you are against it and What do you feel is necessary to combat US imperialism?

BO: CPK doesn'ttrusts the US empire; the Western Summit was a forum to auction our fatherland to multinationals.It opened fresh wounds of the 1990s failed policy of the US towards Kenya.It was a painful reminder of the deaths and the mass retrenchments that happened in our country when the US, through Worldbank, put conditionalities that would later result in killer austerity measures against the poor many. The western summit brought vivid memories of anti-communism laws in Kenya, the murder of communists and the illegal seditious laws forced upon Kenya's people by several US administrations. The US always have something up its sleeves; look at the raft of anti-terrorist laws that they supported in our country; those laws are now used to hold activists incommunicado and to criminalize people's actions.The rally call for CPK is let's unite all that we can unite; if we can't be united for socialism, then we can be united against imperialism and the rogue state. We also need to interconnect our struggles at a global level.Imperialism is in its last days; look at the US empire, always thirsty for more innocent blood; they want to rule with fear and iron feast.The empire will surely fall.

SC: What is the major difference that Africa saw in terms of President Xi Jinping's policies and the US policies?

BO: Comrade Xi is a true friend of the South; he inspires many of us at the party.China offers greater possibilities for a new world.With China, we have seen a reduction of extreme poverty in Angola and accelerated infrastructure in Kenya and many African countries. The red tape and bureaucracies of the US are a thing of the past; we admire the Chinese official policy of non-interference. China and Africa have a lot in common; we see China as the new frontier.We can criticize China but not in the cynical and racist way the west would like us to.

It would not be new to point out thatthe US with its more than 200 years of history is soaked with blood and tear and it remained an epicenterof forced labor and slavery. It is a country that led coups and numerous air strikes on nations to stop them from advancing. The people of Africa are well aware of the animosity the US plunged over them for centuries. Can such a nation be trusted now?