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“We applaud your focus on the horrors of the conflict in the Congo by addressing sexual and gender based violence; however, such violence against women is a direct result of the resource war. The United States can play a key role in bringing an end to the conflict,” Friends of the Congo wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

We don’t have to look all the way back to slavery, colonialism or the overthrow of democrats like Lumumba. Even today, U.S. corporations act with impunity in many countries of the continent because the governments are too impotent to stop them. Bono, in writing about Obama’s message to Africa, said: “Corruption stalks Africa’s reformers. ‘If you fight corruption, it fights you back,’ a former Nigerian anti-corruption official said.” Well, this is very true, but we cannot ignore the fact that behind the corruption, it is too often an American policy or corporation pulling the strings.

“Have you forgotten the holocaust? Have you forgotten the gulags in Russia? Communism, nazism, fascism did not come from Africa. … A Western country was the first to use weapons of mass destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those countries have been able to rise. Africa, there is hope,” Bishop Tutu assured.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) was assassinated 44 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1965, because of his attempt to internationalize the African American struggle for self-determination.

by Mumia Abu-Jamal: The count has been called and Barack Hussein Obama Jr. has become the 44th president of the United States of America. But, in truth, history will record him as No. 1: the first African-American president.

“We are looking forward to a great day to celebrate,” said Malik Obama, the candidate’s step-brother, dismissing any suggestion that his relative might not become the first Black U.S. president. “We are not considering that possibility. I am not,” he said.

Ms. Zeituni Onyango is a 56-year-old woman from Kenya who is seeking political asylum in the U.S. She is also the aunt of Sen. Barack Obama. “Auntie Zeituni,” as Obama has referred to her in one of his books, was ordered to leave the U.S. four years ago and she is living in the U.S. illegally.