By MARTHA HONEY
[Editors' Note: This essay is an excerpt from the excellent new book PowerTrip: U.S. Unilateralism and Global Strategy After September 11, part of the Open Media series published by Seven Stories Press. The book is edited by John Feffer and includes essays by writers and scholars from Foreign Policy in Focus, including William Hartung, Mel Goodman and Ahmed Rashid.]
It was a powerfully symbolic gift, coming as it did from one of the world's poorer countries to the world's richest. In June 2002, a Maasai village in Kenya presented its most precious resource, fifteen head of cattle, to the United States as an expression of solidarity for the tragedy of September 11. "To the people of America, we give these cows to help you," read banners at the ceremonial handover of the cattle from Maasai elders to the U.S. ambassador.183 The gift was all the more poignant since the U.S. government still has not compensated the families of the Kenyan victims of terrorism who died in al-Qaeda's1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.
This was the latest of a long string of gestures of sympathy from different parts of Africa. Immediately after September 11, the Organization of African Union (OAU, since renamed African Union) expressed its "full solidarity" and "deepest condolence," and African leaders, even those usually at odds with the United States, offered their support. Libya's Muammar Qaddafi sent condolences for the "horrific" attacks and offered to donate his blood to the U.S. victims. Sudan, which once housed Osama bin Laden, offered cooperation in tracking al-Qaeda terrorists. Ethiopia, Djibouti, Nigeria, and Kenya, among others, shut down or froze suspected terrorist financial networks operating in their countries, while once- leftist Eritrea offered the United States use of its territory and port as a military base to fight terrorism. Nigeria, home of Africa's largest Muslim population, drafted antiterrorist legislation, while South Africa offered its support for U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to fight terrorism. And during an African summit in Dakar in October 2001, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade proposed an African Pact Against Terrorism and created a regional counterterrorism intelligence center, with U.S. assistance.
At the same time, several African governments opportunistically hitched their own counterinsurgency campaigns to Washington's global war on terrorism... <SNIP> -- Michael Pugliese