Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The book by Yves Engler, Canada in Africa — 300 Years of Aid and Exploitation describing Canadian foreign policy in Africa will be analyzed in this presentation as well as the Canadian involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, “scramble for Africa”, missionary movement and European colonialism. The book also reveals Ottawa’s opposition to anticolonial struggles, support for apartheid South Africa, Idi Amin’s coup in Uganda and this country’s role in ousting independence leaders Patrice Lumumba of Congo and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Based on an exhaustive look at the public record as well as on-the-ground research, Canada in Africa shows how the federal government pressed African countries to follow neoliberal economic prescriptions, which have benefited numerous Canadian corporations, including mining companies that have bought up much of the continent’s mineral resources, but are often bitterly resisted by local communities. The book also sheds light on Canada’s role in the violence that has engulfed So