Editorial: Africa and the New Imperial Masters

By | July 5, 2018

UN Photo/ Isaac Billy

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6 (C-Fam) Yesterday, we in the United States celebrated our independence from England. You could say that we were born from the imperialistic designs of the English. Yet, something happened. Over decades, those English colonists, my own family among them, forged a new identity and eventually realized they were no longer a part of the mother country.

In his new book “The Virtue of Nationalism,” Yoram Hazony posits that nations are formed from different families, tribes, and clans who eventually determine that together they are a distinct people, with similar customs, traditions, and religion. For these reasons, and for common defense, a new nation comes organically into existence.

Hazony argues the safest arrangement for peoples is within such nation-states and that perhaps the greatest danger is from those with imperialistic designs, whether from another country, or from multilateral organizations.

Imperialists seek to impose their vision of the good on other countries. They do this with persuasion and, if resisted, by force. It should be understood that those with imperialistic designs have good intentions. They truly believe that their way is the best way and should be adopted, even under threat and violence, by those who may be benighted resisters.

Hazony sees a new imperium today that comes from New York, Brussels, the capitals of Europe, and also from Washington, D.C. I agree with him. It is an imperialistic design that seeks to impose a way to live that is sincerely felt by the imperialists. It is secular in nature and animated by a belief that certain institutions—family and religion specifically—must be subverted so that men and women can finally be free.

These men and women working in the near-permanent bureaucracies of the United Nations, the European Union, and the U.S. government truly believe the family as properly understood is a danger to mankind’s happiness. They truly believe that orthodox religious faith is a danger to those who practice it and especially to those who don’t. They truly believe in the liberating nature of the sexual revolution. And they sincerely believe, like all imperialists, that they get to determine how men and women and children all over the world should live.

The principle target of the new imperium seems to be Africa for it is there we find many governments willing to stand up for their own countries’ culture, tradition, and for their national sovereignty. Not all, by any means, but many.

And there are some countries in Europe who seem to be resisting their EU masters. I think of Poland and Hungary, and for their efforts, their EU masters threaten them and call them names. That is how it works with the new imperium, with any imperium.

The remarkable thing is that the nations in Africa is that they are among the least developed countries in the world. Their people need the funds that are dangled in front of them by wealthy donor nations. And yet, they are nonetheless willing to resist.

I believe Africa is wealthy in its traditions of faith and family. I believe that it can eventually save the West. For that to happen, we believers in rich countries must work within our own governments to spare Africa the undue influence from those would be the new imperial masters.

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