By Takura Zhangazha*
This write up will be brief.
Africa and African’s knowledge of the subcontinent of Southern America is generally limited. As an African myself, I had to learn that there are historical linkages between us and that sub-continent which we were taught as being “Latin American”.
Mainly in order to distinguish it from what was considered a more
developed, liberal and progressive North America. With the latter being inclusive
of the global hegemon, the United States of America (USA).
We would sometimes get slightly confused about the USA. We would naively assume that every time
someone mentioned in class the term America, we were talking about the
USA.
It is via taking on mid-level school history lessons that we
began to learn of the broader significance of liberation struggles in Africa and South America as they
occurred after the second world war that ostensibly ended in 1945
So we got to know that there was for example an island called Cuba. We also got to know that there was another island called Haiti, the one that led the first successful slave rebellion against the French in the late 19th century and inspired millions of others across not only the Caribbean but also in South America, continental Africa, the USA itself.
All to pursue
human equality and freedom from racial/setter colonialism as a universal global
goal.
And there are many other lessons to be learnt. We have had the Brazilian, Bolivia, Colombia,
Chile (remember Salvador Allende) examples of a new working people driven progressive
politics. All of which countered American
CIA sponsored narratives of how allegedly undemocratic those countries were as defined by a USA neo-imperialist
foreign policy. As led by the infamous Henry Kissinger and his successors.
And then in the immediate contemporary, we have Venezuela.
We know for a fact that multiple USA administrations, from
Clinton through to Obama, Biden and now Trump have had an imperialistic eye on
Venezuela. Not only for its massive oil reserves but also for financial
interests in its mineral resources such as gold.
We also know that the USA deliberately undermined the late
Comandante Hugo Chavez’s government and that of his successor president Maduro. This through, as is the case in the
global south, via allegations of disputed elections and opposition leaders that
in most cases do not hide their open admiration for American style neoliberal celebrity
politics and economics.
But now the elephant in our African solidarity anti-colonial
room is the renewed intention by Donald Trump to invade Venezuela
physically. He had previously tried the
same via what was called Operation Gedeion where the USA sponsored a group of former
Venezuelan soldiers to try and take over Caracas via an ocean landing in
2020.
That failed.
What has since happened is that in 2025, Trump is accusing Venezuela
of being a drug trafficking hub and enabler to the USA. A point that has been disputed not only by mainstream
global media but also expectedly by the Venezuelan government itself. There is no direct evidence linking the
Maduro government to any forms of international drug smuggling.
And yet now they are faced with the USA’s largest warship
and aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford in the vicinity of their international
waters. And with an imminent threat of a physical invasion by the USA.
Maduro and the Venezuelan military have, and understandably
so, tried to shore up their nationalism and regional solidarity to counter the
intentions of the USA.
As Africa, given our experiences of these type of ‘neo-liberal’ invasions in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)- remember who killed Lumumba? Or in Libya and Sudan.
Before we even mention the intentions of the Trump administration in one of our largest populated countries, Nigeria, over convoluted claims about the alleged mass killing of Christians.
Or in South
Africa where Trump humiliated President Ramaphosa by accusing him of a genocide
against Dutch origin Afrikaners as well as the recent announcements he has made
about the recent G20 summit.
As an African and Zimbabwean, I have no option but to stand with the people
of Venezuela. Mainly because I have been taught about the historical nastiness
of imperialism, racism and neo-colonialism.
But also more significantly because I do not have an inferiority
complex that assumes that what the USA or the global north says is ‘democracy’
is what should be considered a given.
I understand the complexities
of global capital and how it intends to run the world for profit at the expense
of human life. This regrettably includes
its pillaging via war and globally financialized capital of sovereign states in contravention of the
United Nations (UN) Charter that holds all human beings to be universally equal.
No matter their race, religion, language or place of origin.
It is my prayer that at some point as Africans, at least
through the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, we
see through the veneer of an expected differentiation between ourselves and
cdes in South America. And condemn any invasion of Venezuela before it occurs.
For the record and for historical posterity.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
