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Dr Kwame Nkrumah is elected as the country's first prime minister.
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Ghana becomes the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial
rule. In leading the country to independence, Dr Nkrumah becomes an international
symbol of freedom, spearheading the struggle for independence in much of
sub-Saharan Africa.
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In his book 'I Speak of Freedom', Nkrumah writes of the need to unite Africa -
'Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces
for good in the world'.
He calls for an anti-imperialist, pan-African organization and non-alignment
in the Cold War.
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Nkrumah declares himself himself president for life and bans opposition parties.
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Nkrumah publishes his famous work - "Neo-Colonialism - The Last Stage of Imperialism" -
in which he predicts, quite accurately as events soon prove, that Africa will suffer
persistent meddling by the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, particularly the
CIA and the KGB. The book introduces the term 'neo-colonialism', whereby a
state is theoretically independent, but in reality, has its economic system and political
policies directed from outside.
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The US government reacts by sending Nkrumah a note of protest and cancelling $35 million
in aid to Ghana.
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A CIA-backed military coup overthrows Nkrumah.
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Documents declassified only in 1999 finally provide definitive proof of the US role in
the coup.
In memorandum 253 Robert Komer writes 'FYI, we may have a pro-Western coup in Ghana
soon. Certain key military and police figures have been planning one for some time, and
Ghana's deteriorating economic condition may provide the spark. The plotters are keeping
us briefed, and State thinks we're more on the inside than the British.'.
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Following the coup, conditions in Ghana worsen rapidly.
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IMF involvement in Ghana follows, and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)
are activated in 1983. Seen as a "star pupil" by the World Bank and the IMF, Ghana privatizes
more than 130 state enterprises including the mining sector (its main source of revenue),
removes tariff barriers and exchange regulations and ends subsidies for health and education.
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BBC listeners in Africa vote Kwame Nkrumah their "Man of the Millennium".
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Ghana today provides an example of the end results of IMF's policies.
20% of Ghanaians are unemployed and the cost of food and services has gone beyond the
reach of the poor. GDP per capita was lower in 1998 ($390) than it was in 1975 ($411);
78.4% of Ghanaians live on $1 a day and 40% live below the poverty line; 75% have no access
to health services and 68% none to sanitation. User fees in education have raised the primary
school dropout rate to 40%.
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These conditions prevail despite Ghana being the second largest gold producer in Africa.
SAPs have compelled Ghana to sell the gold mining sector to Western multinational corporations
which now own up to 85% of the large-scale mining industry. More than half of the 200 active
gold concessions belong at least in part to Canadian companies.
The corporations can repatriate up to 95% of their profits into foreign accounts and pay no
income tax or duties. This means that Western companies virtually monopolize Ghana's gold which
contributes little to its economy.
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The Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposed on 36 African countries since 1980 have devastated the continent, decimating national economies and health and education systems. SAPs offer loans on condition that governments drastically reduce public spending (especially on health, education and food subsidies) in favor of repayment of debt owed to Western banks, increase exports of raw materials to the West, encourage foreign investment and privatize state enterprises; the last two steps mean selling whatever national assets a poor country may have to Western multinational corporations. Under SAPs, Sub-Saharan Africa's external debt has actually increased by more than 500% since 1980, to $300 billion today. In 1997, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) stated that in the absence of debt payments, severely indebted African countries could have saved the lives of 21 million people and given 90 million girls and women access to basic education by the year 2000. The All-African Conference of Churches has called the debt "a new form of slavery, as vicious as the slave trade."
After twenty years of SAPs, 313 million Africans lived in absolute poverty in 2001 (out of a total population of 682 million), a 63% increase over the 200 million figure for 1994. Life expectancy has dropped by 15% since 1980 and today is 47 years, the lowest in the world. 40% of Africans suffer from malnutrition and more than half are without safe drinking water. Health care spending in the 42 poorest African countries fell by 50% during the 1980s. As a result, health care systems have collapsed across the continent creating near catastrophic conditions. More than 200 million Africans have no access to health services as hundreds of clinics, hospitals and medical facilities have been closed. This has left diseases to rage unchecked, leading most alarmingly to an AIDS pandemic. More than 17 million Africans have died of HIV/AIDS which has created 12 million orphans.
Between 1986 and 1996, per capita education spending in Africa fell by 0.7% a year on average. Forty per cent of African children are out of school and the adult literacy rate in Sub- Saharan Africa is 60%, well below the developing country average of 73%. More than 140 million young Africans are illiterate. Given the annihilating social impact of SAPs all over Africa, it is not surprising that Emily Sikazwe, director of the Zambian anti-poverty group "Women for Change," asked: "What would they [the World Bank and the IMF] say if we took them to the World Court in The Hague and accused them of genocide?"
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Popular revolts and demands for independence from Belgium force the Belgian government
to negotiate with the rebellious parties.
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Lumumba, already recognized as one of Africa's most vociferous leaders of
anti-colonial liberation movements, is elected prime minister of the Congo Republic
immediately before the country's independence.
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The US is concerned that Lumumba will be the new Castro. Eisenhower tells CIA
chief Allen Dulles to 'eliminate' Lumumba at a National Security Council meeting.
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The Church committee hearings of 1975-1976 would later confirm that
Eisenhower gave the order to assassinate Lumumba, as well as revealing several
CIA plots to assassinate Lumumba.
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The CIA establishes Project Wizard, a CIA covert action program aimed at removing
Lumumba. Not to be outdone, the Belgians also initiate
their own plot to
kill Lumumba later in October, entitled 'Operation Barracuda'.
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Over the next few months, the CIA works with and makes payments to eight top Congolese,
including Kasavubu (who would replace Lumumba) and Mobutu (then army chief of staff).
All eight play roles in Lumumba's downfall.
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Lumumba is ousted and placed in captivity.
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The British foreign minister meets with Kissinger, pressing him to kill Lumumba.
During the meeting, Kissinger expresses his wish that 'Lumumba would fall into a
river full of crocodiles'.
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The CIA provides Mobutu with $250,000 to win parliamentary support for a Mobutu government.
However, when legislators balk at approving any prime minister other than Lumumba, the CIA
prevents the parliament from reopening. The following month the CIA is authorized to provide arms,
ammunition, sabotage materials and training to Mobutu's military in the event it has
to resist pro-Lumumba forces.
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Lumumba and two of his comrades are killed, allegedy while attempting to escape
confinement. It is recently revealed that he was actually executed by a firing
squad commanded by a Belgian.
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Barely three weeks after his death, the US authorises new funds to be given to
the people who arranged Lumumba's murder.
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Mobutu seizes full power and reigns as a despot for 35 years with US support. In
1980 he bans all political parties except his own. He personally controls 70% of the
country's wealth, valued at $5 billion. At his death in 1997, he is personally
responsible for 80% of his country's debts.
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During this period (up till 1991 when the US cuts aid), Mobutu receives over $1.5
billion in economic and military aid from the US while US companies increase
their share of Congo's fabulous mineral wealth.
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Laurent-Denise Kabila forces a dissipated Mobutu from power. He inherits a country in
ruins which soon finds itself in a brutal civil war in which to date an estimated 3 million
people have been killed. The resource rich Congo, once the most
promising of the liberated central African countries, after 35 years of US involvement
in its affairs, is an economically, politically and socially bankrupt nation.
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The US wants a base in the Indian Ocean, however one without a 'population problem' which
might upset the base's operation. Diego Garcia is chosen, however there is a slight problem
- the islands are home to some 1800 people.
To deal with this problem, British politicians, diplomats and civil servants begin a campaign
- in their own words - 'to maintain the pretence there were no permanent inhabitants'
on the islands. One official writes 'There will be no indigenous population except
seagulls'.
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Britain leases the Chagos islands (the largest atoll of which is Diego Garcia) to
the US for 50 years.
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Britain begins a program to drive out the residents of the Chagos islands (who had
been living there for
200
years). Most are sent to Mauritius.
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The Americans arrive on the island, and the remaining natives on Diego Garcia are
called together and told they will have to leave.
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They are not allowed to take anything with them except a suitcase of their clothes.
Without possessions or any professional skills, the islanders receive no help resettling
or recompensation, becoming squatters in a foreign land.
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The evacuation is kept a secret from the world for the next 30 years, with the official
story being that Diego Garcia had no native people.
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Construction begins on a US naval base on Diego Garcia
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Recently declassified documents are discovered, revealing that the colonial
officials thought no one would notice if they deported the islanders.
One document reveals that 'evicting the people and leaving the island to the seagulls'
was done at the request of the US. It reads: 'The United States Government will require
the removal of the entire population of the atoll by July.', a requirement the British
were only too happy to oblige.
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With the islanders fighting in high court in London for the right to return to home,
the US exerts pressure on the British Government to prevent the return home of the islanders.
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A court in London rules that the deportation was illegal. The islanders win the right
to return 'home' to two islands on the archipelago, however not to their original home -
Diego Garcia, as the US refuses to allow this. The court also fails to provide any
compensation to the islanders.
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The US makes a formal request to launch 'offensive actions' from Diego Garcia
as America continues its build-up for the campaign against Saddam Hussein.
Although the US already has a military base on the island, it can be used only
for defensive and training purposes, unless Britain permits attack operations.
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The US base on Diego Garcia is the
largest
outside the continental United States, and has been used by the US to launch B-2 and
B-52 bombers in the recent Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
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A report is released revealing that torture has been used by the CIA on al-Qaeda suspects
being held by the US on secret overseas detention centres including Diego Garcia.
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The islanders have never fully integrated into their adopted communities and say
the expulsion condemned them to a lifetime of poverty.
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They are currently suing both the US and the British governments for compensation
and the right to return to their home.
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