{"id":22386,"date":"2026-03-04T09:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=22386"},"modified":"2026-03-04T09:48:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:48:30","slug":"how-the-united-states-propelled-tyranny-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/how-the-united-states-propelled-tyranny-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How the United States Propelled Tyranny in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

How the United States Propelled Tyranny in Africa<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong>
\nby James Bovard<\/h1>\n

U.S. foreign aid is a Tyrant Entitlement Program<\/strong>.\u00a0 Phony piety has long been one of America\u2019s top political exports. President Barack Obama, in a 2015 speech to the African Union, the organization of the African heads of state, derided nations that institute \u201cdemocracy in name, but not in substance.\u201d<\/strong> But Obama\u2019s finger wagging could not expunge how the U.S. government had long propped up Africa\u2019s most oppressive government<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, Africa saw a surge of democracies in areas that for centuries had known little except kings, tyrants, or colonial conquerors. While democracy is often touted as the best way to strengthen civic bonds, representative government has too often been a horror show in Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bad luck for albinos<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Prior to a 2008 election in Cote d\u2019Ivorie, a spokesman for the Ivorian police warned that \u201cthe organs of children will be particularly in demand\u201d for human sacrifices. A<\/strong> news analysis explained that child abduction \u201cmay worsen in the run up to presidential elections later this year as political hopefuls use traditional myths of human sacrifice to improve their electoral chances.\u201d Uganda saw a surge in \u201cgood luck\u201d child mutilation and murder prior to its 2016 election. A Suffolk University Law Review article explained that \u201cwhere more than six million [Ugandans] believe in witchcraft, it is not uncommon for political leaders to turn to the practice [including child sacrifice] to win political office.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief of Uganda\u2019s Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force observed: \u201cWe even suspect that senior politicians, senior civil servants who have that belief, who believe in witchcraft and go to that level of sacrifice to maintain their jobs or get work.\u201d In 2015, a United Nations human-rights expert denounced attacks on albinos in six nations due to \u201can apparent increase in demand for body parts of persons with albinism … in the run up to elections.\u201d Tanzania\u2019s Deputy Home Affairs Minister Pereira Silima announced in 2015: \u201cI want to assure my fellow politicians that there won\u2019t be any parliamentary seat that will be won as a result of using albino body parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

While elections sometimes spur child sacrifice, voting has repeatedly spurred far worse carnage in Africa in \u201cwinner trample all\u201d elections.<\/strong> American Enterprise Institute African expert Mauro de Lorenzo observed: \u201cLook carefully at what happened in Rwanda, Zaire, and Burundi, 1990 to 1994. In each case, the rapid imposition, from outside, of the structures and mechanisms of multiparty democracy leads directly to the unprecedented cataclysm that subsequently engulfed each place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Political clashes in Rwanda paved the way to a genocide that killed 800,000 people. A 1993 election in Burundi helped spur the slaughter of 25,000 people. Council on Foreign Relations analyst Joshua Kurlantzick observed that \u201cAfrica is now paralyzed by the rise of a new, but not necessarily better, form of government \u2014 failed democracy…. In these countries, elections have become referenda on tribal or religious identity, solidifying antagonisms between groups…. Too often, it is entrenching old hatreds, and leaving in power leaders who can claim they were elected while tearing apart civil society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenya was practically torn asunder after former President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner in a close 2007 election marked by pervasive fraud. Police gunned down hundreds of protesters, and more than 30 women and children were burned to death after a church was ignited by rioters. More than 1,300 people were killed in violence between that nation\u2019s 43 tribes, and another half million fled for their lives. As another presidential election neared in mid-2017, Kenya\u2019s National Security Council warned of the emergence of \u201cpolitical goons and militias\u201d who would cause trouble before and after the voting.<\/p>\n

Many African politicians have converted one-time victories at the polls into \u201cpresident for life\u201d stat<\/strong>us. The Washington Post noted in 2015: \u201cWithin the past few months, the presidents of Burundi, Congo and the Congo Republic have either scrapped their constitutional term limits or indicated their plans to stay in office through what critics call irregularities…. In countries such as Sudan, Uganda, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso, leaders have remained in power for decades, often by jailing their opponents or rigging elections.\u201d Political power is enticing in many nations because rulers exempt themselves from any laws. \u201cMany public officials in Africa seek re-election because holding office gives them access to the state\u2019s coffers, as well as immunity from prosecution,\u201d according to a 2009 Council on Foreign Relations report.<\/p>\n

Darling Rwanda dictator<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul Kagamea, who has ruled Rwanda since 1994, epitomizes the perversion of African democracy. Rwandans voted in 2015 on whether to change the constitution to permit him to continue reigning until 2034. Prior to that referendum, Rwandan lawmakers toured the nation to consult with millions of their countrymen. They filed a formal report declaring that only ten people in the nation of 11 million opposed permitting Kagamea to serve additional terms in office. One commentator on a Kenyan news website asked whether \u201cthose ten people are still alive.\u201d Ninety-eight percent of voters endorsed extending his power \u2014 perhaps in part because voters had to mark their ballots with thumbprints. Kalisa Mbanda, head of the national electoral commission, hailed the vote: \u201cWe have seen the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kagamea won in part because his regime openly murders his opponents and totally intimidates the populace. Rwanda illustrates how \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d can beget tyranny. A 2009 bill \u2014 called \u201cthe divisionist law\u201d \u2014 criminalizes \u201cthe use of any speech, written statement, or action that divides people, that is likely to spark conflicts among people, or that causes an uprising which might degenerate into strife among people based on discrimination.\u201d Rwandans can also be prosecuted at \u201claughing at one\u2019s misfortune\u201d and \u201cboasting.\u201d Johnnie Carson, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, commented in 2015: \u201cIt has been largely an authoritarian government at the top, with Kagamea going after his political enemies and adversaries with a very iron fist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kagamea was the \u201cdarling dictator of the day,\u201d according to the New York Times \u2014 even though his armies have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Rwanda and in neighboring countries, according to a United Nations report that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice sought to suppress in 2010. \u201cForeign governments, notably the United States, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, are lining up at Kagamea\u2019s door with praise, and money, desperate for a foreign aid success story after 50 barren years in Africa,\u201d noted author Anjan Sundaram, who spent five years reporting from Rwanda and neighboring countries. Actually, foreign assistance worsens Rwandans\u2019 oppression. As the Guardian noted, \u201cDonors invest in a parliamentary radio station, equip the electoral body with technology, train a media council and then entrust such projects to the government, ensuring they are used to tighten its grip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Rwandan radio debacle is typical of how foreign aid empowers oppressors. The U.S. State Department ignores a federal law requiring it to conduct background checks on police trainees to ensure that it does not teach new tricks to individuals with atrocities on their resume. A Rand Corporation report concluded that police-training programs \u201ccan have a negative effect on democratic development by strengthening a state\u2019s capacity for repression.\u201d Professor Martha Huggins, in a study on political policing, concluded that \u201cthe more foreign police aid given [by the U.S. government], the more brutal and less democratic the police institutions and their governments become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethiopia: Vote or die<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2005, Ethiopia held parliamentary elections that were touted as a landmark in the democratization of that nation. However, when early results showed that the opposition won most of the seats, the government engaged in massive fraud to alter the results. When citizens protested, the military gunned down hundreds of people in the streets and arrested 30,000 people, including opposition leaders and troublesome journalists. Ethiopia\u2019s Information Minister, Bereket Simon, warned: \u201cAnyone who incites violence, other than those elected, will have to face the law.\u201d Government officials apparently had a divinely granted monopoly right to incite violence.<\/strong> A judge, part of a panel that investigated the carnage, concluded that the killings were a \u201cmassacre\u201d \u2014 and then fled for his life after voicing that opinion. U.S. aid sharply increased afterwards.<\/p>\n

In 2010 parliamentary elections, the ruling party won 99.6 percent of all seats. A White House press statement listed the ways that Ethiopia\u2019s ruling party swindled voters and concluded with a hollow promise: \u201cWe will work diligently with Ethiopia to ensure that strengthened democratic institutions and open political dialogue become a reality for the Ethiopian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking diligently\u201d to advance democracy did not include complaining about how U.S. aid helped subjugate the Ethiopian people. The regime has a simple recipe for democracy: Those who vote wrong do not eat. Government officials pick and choose who receives food donated by foreigners. A BBC investigation \u201cfound villages where whole communities are starving, having allegedly been denied basic food, seed and fertilizer for failing to support Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.\u201d The U.S. government was aware that its aid was being abused but muzzled itself to avoid offending the Ethiopian regime. A confidential 2009 message from the U.S. embassy to Washington noted, \u201cEfforts to monitor food distribution are aimed at making sure vulnerable people are fed and cannot be expanded to include investigation of political pressures applied to those people without jeopardizing that primary mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of its abuses, the Ethiopian government continued receiving more U.S. aid than any other sub-Saharan African government. Shortly before another round of voting in 2015, Wendy Sherman, one of the top officials in the U.S. State Department, proclaimed in Addis Ababa that \u201cEthiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair and credible.\u201d Her comment outraged human-rights organizations and American editorial writers. At that point, Ethiopia was one of the most repressive nations in the world as far as expelling or imprisoning journalists, bloggers, and activists. The government won 100 percent of the parliamentary seats this time \u2014 in large part because it effectively outlawed other parties, supplemented by occasional killings of opposition leaders. After the voting finished, the State Department announced that it \u201ccommends the people of Ethiopia for their civic participation\u201d but lamented that U.S. diplomats were prohibited from observing the electoral process. The press release also noted that \u201cthe imprisonment and intimidation of journalists … are inconsistent with democratic processes and norms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of those blemishes, Obama announced that Ethiopia\u2019s \u201celections put forward a democratically elected government\u201d when he visited Addis Ababa two months later. A \u201csenior administration official\u201d offered a weaselly defense of Obama to Politico: \u201cSaying the government was democratically elected, the official said, was not the same as saying that the government was elected by a process that was fully free, fair and democratic…. Had the president been asked was this a perfectly free, fair and democratic election, the answer would have been, \u2018Absolutely not.\u2019\u201d But Obama included no qualifications when he blessed the Ethiopian regime \u2014 which endlessly repeated his \u201cdemocratically elected\u201d seal of approval.<\/p>\n

Foreign aid liberates rulers from giving a damn about their own people.<\/strong> Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid, wrote: \u201cA constant stream of free money is a perfect way to keep an inefficient or simply bad government in power.\u201d The government can use the cash to buy influence, bribe opponents, or otherwise quell discontent. This is especially unfortunate since many nations are ruled by kleptocracies \u2014 governments of thieves.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, politicians like Obama are still hailed for having good intentions toward Africa \u2014regardless of the wreckage they spawned. Foreign aid is virtue signaling with other people\u2019s money. Africa shows that foreign aid has been used as a political weapon of mass destruction, and foreign aid will continue to be toxic as long as politicians are politicians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Bovard is a policy advisor to The Future of Freedom Foundation and is the author of the ebook Freedom Frauds: Hard Lessons in American Liberty, published by FFF, his new book, Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty, and nine other books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the United States Propelled Tyranny in Africa by James Bovard U.S. foreign aid is a Tyrant Entitlement Program.\u00a0 Phony piety has long been one of America\u2019s top political exports. President Barack Obama, in a 2015 speech to the African Union, the organization of the African heads of state, derided nations that institute \u201cdemocracy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4768,4770,4769,83,924,82,4773,38,4771,4772,279],"class_list":["post-22386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-burundi","tag-congo","tag-corruption","tag-ethiopia","tag-foreign-aid","tag-kenya","tag-obama","tag-paul-kagamea","tag-rwanda","tag-tyranny-2"],"yoast_head":"\nHow the United States Propelled Tyranny in Africa - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U.S. foreign aid is a Tyrant Entitlement Program. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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