Declassified JFK Files Expose Secret CIA Bases In Africa

Recently declassified US government files related to the assassination of US President John F Kennedy (1917-63) on 22 November 1963 show that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established covert bases in Africa starting in the 1960s. One document lists the African cities of Harare (formerly Salisbury), Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Pretoria, Rabat, and dozens of other cities worldwide.

US President Donald Trump’s 23 January executive order forced agencies to release the documents to create the JFK assassination archive. It comprises around 6 million pages and includes photographs, videos, audio recordings, and artefacts.

Noteworthy for Africa are the CIA’s dubious operations during the 1960s and ‘70s. British researcher Susan Williams highlighted these activities in her 2021 book, ‘White Malice: The CIA and the Recolonization of Africa.’ In it, she explained how the agency aimed to integrate newly independent African nations into the imperialist and capitalist sphere while thwarting any alignment with socialist ideologies, including that of the Soviet Union.

The CIA’s primary focus was on the vast central African state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), previously known as the Belgian Congo, due to its strategic significance. Just a year after gaining independence in 1960, DRC’s visionary Pan-Africanist prime minister, Patrice Lumumba (1925-61), was assassinated in a CIA-orchestrated plot. At the time, CIA Director Allen Dulles (1893-1969) referred to Lumumba as ‘a Castro or worse.’

CIA schemes also ousted influential African leaders, such as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72). The overarching impact of these operations was a covert recolonisation of Africa, characterised by removing capable people-oriented leaders and replacing them with compliant figures like Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), who permitted foreign powers to exploit the Congo’s resources.

Fast forward several decades, and the CIA continues to engage in covert operations that, on the surface, appear to focus on countertrrorism. However, the reality is that these efforts, in conjunction with the Pentagon’s US Africa Command (AFRICOM), serve to maintain a persistent US military presence in Africa under the pretext of combatting ongoing insecurity created by Western machinations. Such is the case in Africa’s Sahel region, which has been overrun by arms and trrorists since the 2011 NATO invasion of Libya.