Join us at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) for a screening on the United States’ involvement in the downfall of Africa. From August 4 -6, last week the White House hosted leaders from across the African continent in the nation’s capital for a three-day “U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit,” the first such event of its kind. The Summit, the largest event any U.S. President has held with African heads of state and government dawn the theme “Investing in the Next Generation.”

In contrast to the aims and composition of this Summit, the All-African Peoples’ Conference (AAPC) held in Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s was a conference of political parties and other groups, formed on the heels of the first Conference of Independent African States on April 15, 1958, in the city of Accra, Ghana, the first Pan-African Conference held on African soil.

The (AAPC) met three times: December 1958, January 1960, and March 1961; and had a permanent secretariat with headquarters in Accra. It was attended by delegates from independence movements in areas still under European colonial rule, as well as by delegates from the independent African countries, including representatives of the governing parties of some of those countries. In the Conference’s own words, it was open to “all national political parties and national trade union congresses or equivalent bodies or organizations that subscribe to the aims and objects of the conference.” Its primary objectives were independence for the colonies, strengthening of the independent states, and resistance to neocolonialism towards the eventual uniting of the continent of Africa.

To bring clarity and critical context to what we see today with the aforementioned history we will screen and discuss Apocalypse Africa: Made In America, by journalist Del Walters, that explores secret recordings, classified films and other archival evidence that suggests the United States’ involvement in the downfall of Africa, including genocidal wars in Darfur, Uganda and Rwanda. Through top-secret data, hidden documents and other sources obtained from government archives, the film reveals links between the destruction of Africa and those who influence American foreign policy to this day with things like AFRICOM.