Infusion of American-Style Democracy Rejected in Africa

2023.5.2.
http://www.mfa.gov.kp/view/article/16907
Guinean internet news, i.e. Mosaiqueguinee,Visionguinee,Mediaguinee, etc widely reported that the U.S. Embassy in Guinea has recently come under severe criticism from Guinean side as soon as they posted an article about the "democratic situation of Guinea" on the U.S. Embassy website.

The article, titled “Towards Democracy”, reportedly slandered the state of democracy in Guinea in a crafty manner, commenting that the activities of National Transition Council of Guinea should be arranged in such a way as to restore democracy for Guinean people and that the challenge has now started. The article said that Guinea should hold a general election in the transition period of not exceeding 24 months.

In this regard, Guinean Foreign Minister strongly denounced the insolence of the U.S. posing as an admonishing teacher. The political and press circles of Guinea also stood up in public protest that the independent country of Guinea will show zero tolerance for the base interventionist acts and practices of the U.S., infringing upon the sovereignty of the country.

Consequently, the U.S. Embassy had to delete the article in question right away and staged a tragicomedy of having its spokesperson make lame excuses at a press interview.

Only a year ago, the U.S. threatened the African countries saying that it would “punish” them if they do not take sides with “democracy” with regards to the Ukrainian crisis. But the current situation shows how miserable the U.S. has now become in its position.

The U.S. is resorting to every conceivable trick to transplant American-style democracy into African continent.

This was proved on several occasions: During the U.S.-Africa summit held at the end of December last year, Biden committed himself to providing a colossal amount of money for the democratic development of the region, saying that success of Africa means the successes for the U.S. and the world; high-ranking figures of the U.S. including the Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of State and the Vice-President visited Africa one after another from the beginning of the year and posed as if they would make a great contribution to the improvement of the state of democracy in the region.

However, it is well-known to every country in the region that American-style democracy is, in essence, reactionary and exploitative one, allowing only a handful of the rich and the powerful to suppress and exploit the absolute majority of the powerless and the poor, and to oppress and dominate other countries and nations.

The “poisonous mushroom of democracy” has become a subject of serious concern and denunciation even within the U.S. due to its corrupt plutocracy, the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, extreme social division and aggravated confrontation. It will be a great mistake if the U.S. thought it could propagate such a mushroom on the continent of Africa.

Recently, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso stated that the prolonged instability in the country is attributable to the acts of the U.S. to infuse American-style “democracy” into Burkina Faso and that its people will choose their own way of democratic development. With regard to the “summit for democracy” convened by the U.S. in late March this year, media of DR Congo commented that the countries and regions, historically instilled with American-style democracy, have been plunged into massacre, fratricide and socio-economic chaos without exception, and that the “democracy” advocated by the U.S. only serves for the U.S. hegemony of the world and the interests of its capitalists.

It is only too natural that the inculcation of American-style “democracy” by violating and suppressing the independence of other countries and nations has become the target of denunciation and rejection from African countries.

However hard the U.S. may talk about its high regard and respect for Africa, it would never find soil on the African continent where it can transplant the “poisonous mushroom of American-style democracy” which has sprouted from the pile of corpses of native Americans and multiplied consuming as “nutrient” the sweat and blood of African black slaves.

Righteous efforts of African countries for independence and genuine democracy will inevitably bear good fruition.



Ri Song Il

Member of Korea-Africa Association