Practical Politics
Based on a recent vote in the UN Security Council, the African nation of Kenya has been tapped to provide at least 1,000 Kenyan policemen to the troubled island of Haiti to quell the massive public violence gripping that country since the assassination of Haiti's last elected head of government.
The U.S., the country which has usually handled such affairs since its 1915 first invasion of Haiti and regular interventionist involvement in Hait's internal affairs since then, brought forth the U.N. Security Council resolution and got it passed.
Since that U.N. resolution, however, there has been fierce political opposition inside Kenya, including lawsuits and public protests, against the Kenyan government getting involved in the Haitian situation. After the Kenyan people initially voted down the U.N. request to send Kenyan police to Haiti, the deal is back on and the arrival of Kenyan troops is now scheduled for late May--early June, 2024. Already, as of last week, U.S. contractors have arrived in Haiti to begin erecting barracks and living facilities for the anticipated arrival of the Kenyan troops. Huge on the agenda of the recent White House meeting between William Ruto, the Kenyan president, and Joe Biden—the first such heads of state meeting between U.S. and Kenyan presidents since the Obama administration--was how to best accomplish the U.N.'s mandate for Kenya's intervention in Haiti.
Kenyan troops are now expected to begin arriving into Haiti during the first weeks of June 2024.
It may eventually all work itself out, but in the beginning at least, it is anticipated by many policy analysts--white and Black--that this will be a disaster. Black Africans physically fighting and killing Black Haitians---and being killed themselves--is virtually guaranteed. This is similar to a fictional situation of the U.S. bringing in Black troops from Brazil, Columbia, Puerto Rico or elsewhere into an earlier gang-infested Compton-Watts geographical area during the heyday of vicious gang violence in California. Such an invasion scenario was contemplated by various U.S. government officials during the Regan administration, but fortunately was narrowly averted. Remember the discussions around the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North and the attempts to short-circuit Congresswoman Rep. Maxine Waters' criticism of guns being shipped into Compton and Watts?
It would have been a real mess, just as this new situation looks like it'll certainly be. Black bodies everywhere. The only real victors--at least in the beginning---then and now, will be gun and ammunition manufacturers and merchants. And it will be a bizarre situation of armed Africans trying to impose a gun-pocked peace onto other Africans--Caribbean Africans--to soothe the nerves of white folks. The major winners in this will once again be gun and ammunition manufacturers. In fact, guns by Taurus, Glock, Beretta, and Smith & Wesson, as well as AK-47s, AR-15s, an M4 carbine rifle, and a military grade .50 caliber sniper rifle have already been identified within Haiti.
Further, a 2023-24 UN report , citing Haiti's own National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, estimated that there could already be as many as 500,000 legal and illegal weapons in the country as of March 25.
Haiti has been a continuing "problem" for various American governments since the early 20th century mainly because of the U.S. government's commitment to the Monroe Doctrine version of life in the Western Hemisphere. According to that view, all non-white countries in this part of the world were to heed to whatever wishes the American government had, be it one-sided trade relations, imposed governments, etc. The U.S.'s constant meddling in the affairs of South American, Central American and Caribbean countries is a product of that Monroe Doctrine. Our continuing adherence to the Cuban blockade mentality of the Hyde amendment is another example of this sustained bad policy.
African people from the continent should not be used to shoot and dominate other African people living in other parts of the world--specifically that should not happen in service to white -dominated governments. As noble a cause as Kenyan president William Ruto wants this latest intervention to be, the strongest probability is that Kenya's latest adventure in Haiti will be a major disaster before, and if, it ever turns positive.
African people really have more important things to do than to keep helping to clean up the messes created by white folks. This is not what real Pan Africanism looks like.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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