More Ways Than One CIA Interfered in African Politics

The Central Intelligence Agency in the U.S. has a long record of connection in African affairs.  The arrest of Nelson Mandela in 1962 came after a tip from a CIA agent which is not a big surprise. Most event s arrived during the Cold War, when Soviet Union and the US fought for influence all over the continent.

John Irvin, a British film director interviewed former CIA agent Donald Rickard who gave the information shortly after his death.  The agent worked as a diplomat in South Africa after his retirement in the 1970's. The circumstance that lead to the arrest is still not yet understood, the Big News Network reports.

According to the late Rickard, Mandela was arrested while travelling between Durban and Johannesburg. However, no explanation was disclosed how he got that information.

He said, "I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming... that's where I was involved and that's where Mandela was caught."

Based on the Okay Africa news, the freedom fighter was halted and seized at a roadblock according on the details given by the American spy agency. This was the start of the almost thirty years of Mandela's imprisonment who could be elected as South Africa's first black president in the country's first free elections in 1994.

After more than 50 years later, Rickard who was the American vice consul in Durban that time, protected his role in renouncing the apartheid leader as an important part of Cold War strategy , calling Mandela "the world's most dangerous communist outside The Soviet Union."

Reports said that Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela criticized the CIA tip off as "betrayal of our nation" and asked President Obama to apologize and make a "full disclosure" of the incidence that resulte in grandfather's arrest in 1962.

In 1961, Patrice Lumumba was assassinated after he became the first prime minister of the newly-independent Congo in 1960 but lasted only after a few months before he was defeated. Being concerned about communism, US President Dwight Eisenhower was anxious that Congo will follow Cuba's same path as reported by BBC News.

Another incident was the overthrowing of President Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 a military coup while overseas. He had suspicions of the US's role in his defeat was backed up by the former CIA intelligence officer John Stockwell's theory in a book published in 1978.

CIA secluded operations are hard to prove. However, delving into the agency's work including exposure by CIA employees has puked several cases where the agency tried to control events.

Tags

CIA, Nelson Mandela, Africa, Donald Rickard

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