Tsarina Secyugu
Staff Training Coordinator and Administrative Assistant 
Committee for South African Solidarity 
1837 Alcatraz Ave, Berkeley, California 94703 
beaconhani@gmail.com
+1 (510) 251-0998 | +1 (707) 569-4661 (WhatsApp) 

TITLE: Solidarity – The Path to True Peace and Security in Africa 
Abstract:
	The wealth in natural resources, land and labour of the African continent could be harnessed to end poverty in all its forms throughout the continent now. African nations have been robbed of control of that wealth for over 500 years. What started out as crude and outright theft through slavery and European colonialism has transformed into a complex web of predatory loans, privately held debt, international monopoly capital control, proxy military forces, invested militias and exteriorly instigated wars, and finance capital dictating trade and development. This system of pillaging and looting, dividing and creating chaos has vastly enriched the U.S. and Western European nations. Attempts by African leaders and their people to take control of and follow their own sovereign priorities have been systematically impeded, co-opted or destroyed, and those leaders killed.    
	The U.S. media focuses on the outcomes of U.S. and Western European intervention – such as wars and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and in the Sahel – but ignores and obfuscates the causes. U.S. and Western European-based finance capital and the forces promoting their interests have no intention of allowing this status quo to change, and they have shown they will go to any length to keep the African continent divided and subjugated to the benefit of the wealthiest individuals and institutions in the world, primarily in the U.S. and Western Europe. 
	Despite this, the rise of alliances such as BRICS, other international alliances of the Global South and within the continent itself is resulting in many African nations increasing their ability to assert sovereign control over their land, resources and economic development. South Africa passing the Expropriation Act to redress the historic injustices of the forced displacement of millions of its people prior to and during the apartheid regime; Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger uniting under the Alliance of Sahel States as a federation of states on issues of economic development and security; China and Russia proving to be reliable partners in infrastructure, energy and defense with dozens of African nations. These are all positive trends showcasing the intent of African nations to chart a new path and build a new African industrialization tackling climate change and poverty, and achieving sustainable development for all. 
	The main obstacle to that path is U.S. imperialism and the policies and practices fostered by international monopoly capital – the enforcement of U.S.-based financial interests on the continent through financial and military coercion and disruption. 
	Since 1993, Committee for South African Solidarity (COSAS) has been building solidarity between working people of the U.S. with the people of South Africa and the African continent around a program that demands cooperation between our nations, is fighting the misinformation and disinformation in the mainstream press used to confuse the American people about the true nature of their government’s actions in Africa, and is building material solidarity program through a quarterly publication titled South African BEACON, and yearly shipments of critically needed school books and education supplies to the community leaders in impoverished areas of South Africa who are members of COSAS and on the front lines working towards their goals as outlined in the 1955 Freedom Charter

The Presentation: 
	My name is Tsarina and I am first generation Rwandan-American. I have been a full-time volunteer organizer with Committee for South Africa Solidarity for three years. I am speaking to you today as a young person dedicated to building organization in the U.S. that creates material solidarity between the people of the U.S. and the people of Africa toward achieving an end to exploitation, oppression, war and poverty and creating the conditions that allow nations to flourish and achieve sustainable development for all. 
My paper is titled: Solidarity – The Path to True Peace and Security in Africa 
	The wealth in natural resources, land and labour of Africa is so vast it is enough to end her people’s poverty today. But African countries have been robbed of control of that wealth for over 500 years. What started out as crude and outright theft through slavery and European colonialism has transformed into a complex web of predatory loans, privately held debt, international monopoly control, proxy military forces and militias, and finance capital dictating trade and development priorities and policies. According to a report in Al Jazeera in 2017, $203 billion (USD) leaves the African continent every year in the form of illicit financial outflows, dodged taxes and use of tax havens. Meanwhile, only $161 billion comes in from loans, aid, and remittances sent home by immigrants living and working abroad. Between 1980 and 2009, an astronomical $1.2 - $1.4 trillion left the African continent this way. 
	For instance, Niger supplies the 20% of the uranium that feeds France’s nuclear power system which is 70% of their electricity source. France buys the uranium valued at 3.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion USD) for a paltry 459 million euros ($500 million USD). Yet just 18.6% of Niger’s population has access to electricity and only 21% of the country has paved roads. 
	In finance, African countries have been saddled by exploitative policies implemented by institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Loans from the IMF and World Bank mandate countries to privatize their industries. Recipient countries are forced to relax taxes, environmental laws and labor laws. Countries end up in so much debt that they are only able to pay off the interest each year and find the majority of their GDP is spent paying off foreign loans and not on services for the people. According to the United Nations, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on education or health. 
	This status quo of pillaging and looting has vastly enriched the U.S. and Western European nations. There have been many attempts by African leaders and their people to stamp out exteriorly encouraged and supported corruption and take control of the wealth in their countries and the development of their nations’ economies to benefit their people. We only need to look at a few examples to know what has stopped them.
	In 1983, when Thomas Sankara took power in Burkina Faso, he sold off government fleets of Mercedes Benz vehicles, reduced salaries of all public servants including his own, redistributed the land to the peasants and increased the nationwide literacy rate from 13% to 73% in four years. Sankara was killed in a coup in 1987 by Blaise Compaoré, Minister of State, who assumed the presidency and immediately reversed Sankara’s policies with full backing by the French and U.S. governments.
	After the Libyan Revolution in 1963, Col. Muammar Gaddafi used the country’s oil revenues to develop some of the best African social programs and policies in areas of education, health, housing, public works and provided subsidies of food and electricity. By 2010, Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy in Africa; in fact, fewer people lived below the poverty level in Libya than in the Netherlands.
	U.S. and Western media made unsubstantiated claims of an imminent domestic massacre and Gaddafi was tortured and assassinated in a U.S. and NATO backed coup in 2011. Libya was then overrun by warlords, engulfed in a civil war and today, with their economy in ruins, the country harbors open-air slave markets of trafficked migrants attempting to cross through Libya to reach Europe. This led to the trafficking of weapons and extreme violence across the Sahel creating 15 years insurgency and destabilization in the region.    
As a person of Rwandan descent, with family still in Rwanda, I know too well the power of a government of a small African country that is backed by the U.S. that treats any telling of the history of the Rwandan genocide and the ongoing conflict with the Congo that is contrary to their official narrative, as an act of treason.    
What I can say is this: What the U.S. media focuses on are the outcomes of U.S. and Western European intervention – the ongoing wars and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and in the Sahel, but ignores and obfuscates the causes. 
U.S. and Western European-based international monopoly capital has no intention of allowing this status quo to change and will do anything to keep the African continent divided and subjugated to the benefit of the wealthiest individuals and institutions in the world. 
	According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it is estimated that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone holds natural resources valued at approximately US $24 trillion. It holds 70% of the world’s reserves in cobalt and tantalum essential for electronics, electric vehicles and battery production. Since the colonization of the DRC, countries like Rwanda have been used as proxies and intermediaries to get the minerals out of Congo on behalf of U.S. and Europeans corporations. According to the Congolese government’s lawsuit against the U.S. technology giant Apple, the U.S. multinational corporation is illegally sourcing its critical 3T minerals (tungsten, tin and tantalum) from a supply chain that includes “blood minerals” smuggled from the DRC into Rwanda where they are laundered and integrated into the global supply chain for use in the production of Apple devices. While Apple generated $96 billion in revenue in 2023 from devices alone, the DRC’s GDP for its population of 100 million was only $64.72 billion. One out of six in DRC live in extreme poverty, 78% live on less than $2.15 a day, seven million have been internally displaced and over 25 million are facing severe hunger. 42% of children under five are stunted and 97% of 10 year-olds in DRC cannot read or understand simple text. Barely 20% of the country has access to electricity. This unimaginable amount of death and destruction has been caused by the insatiable demand by the western developed countries for cheap resources and labor from the DRC and at the expense of millions of its people, and by using Rwanda as a proxy for maintaining instability, conflict and carrying out theft. 
	Despite this, change is occurring across the continent, resulting in many African nations taking sovereign control over their land, resources, and economic decisions. South Africa passed the Expropriation Act to redress the historic injustices of the forced displacement of millions of its people prior to and during the apartheid regime. South Africa is now able to seize unused land used by speculators to increase their profits at the expense of millions of shack-dwellers and use it for the public benefit. 
	Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have united under the Alliance of Sahel States as a federation collaborating on issues of economic development and security. These states now have some of the fastest growing economies in Africa, with Niger growing at 7% and both Mali and Burkina Faso growing at 5% as of 2024. This demonstrates that it is possible for countries to grow together through win-win cooperation versus at each others expense. China and Russia, BRICS, and many other multinational institutions of the Global South have emerged as and have proven to be reliable partners in infrastructure, energy and defense, with dozens of African nations expanding their energy capacity, infrastructure, and value-added production through these partnerships. These are all positive trends showcasing the intent of African nations to chart a new path in the developing multi-polar world order and the power of solidarity.
	The main obstacle to that path is U.S. imperialism and the policies and practices fostered by international monopoly capital – the enforcement of U.S.-based financial interests on the continent of Africa and the planet through financial and military coercion and force. According to a study published on July 25, 2025 in the Lancet Global Health, between 2010 and 2022, 25% of the world’s countries suffered, at least once, some form of sanction imposed by the U.S. empire, the EU, or their partners. The study estimates that such measures are the cause of 564,000 deaths each year, more than half of those are children under five, as reported by Orinoco Tribune. These measures and policies like it have left not only Africa, but marginalized populations of the U.S. and the world far behind its goals of achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty, hunger, and saving our dying planet. 
	In the U.S., poverty, unemployment, social instability and insecurity are growing. Life expectancy is falling.    
	COSAS since 1993 has been organizing people in the U.S. in solidarity with the people of South Africa and the African continent around a program that educates Americans to the truth about South Africa and that demands solidarity and cooperation between our nations. COSAS publishes a quarterly magazine called South African BEACON to fight the misinformation and disinformation in the mainstream press used to confuse the American people about the true nature of their government’s actions in South Africa and the African continent, which hinders them from taking actions necessary to stop it. COSAS has built a material solidarity program of yearly shipments of critically needed educational supplies to COSAS members in South Africa who are teachers and principals on the front lines of this exploitation, working towards their goals as outlined in the 1955 Freedom Charter which calls for the “Doors of Learning and Culture to be Opened.” COSAS members in South Africa makes requests for the supplies and books they need, and COSAS members in the U.S. organize churches, schools, businesses and individuals to donate the necessary materials to fill their requests. Through the process of organizing the shipments, COSAS brings together people in the U.S. also affected by the destructive policies of the U.S. government on its own people and around a positive program calling for international solidarity and demanding a world that benefits all of us. 
	The future of the African continent is in the hands of the people of Africa who are organizing and fighting, but they also need the solidarity and support of the people in the belly of the beast – to remove the boot from the necks of the people of the world so that we are free to build a world of mutual respect and cooperation, free of poverty and hunger, and sustainable for future generations to come. And that too requires organization of a certain type that cannot be co-opted and that reaches people face to face, provides education and leadership and direct involvement. That is what we have been building and will continue to build. 
	I am very happy to be here with you and exchange our experiences towards our common goals. 
Thank you.