On the weekend of November 14th and 15th thirteen hundred students from 35 Catholic Universities and 20 Catholic High Schools throughout the country gathered for the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) TEACH IN 2010 at George-town University in Washington. The two days were filled with inspiring sharing by students and Catholic Activists in plenary sessions and workshops. The ISN has been operating for a number of years, offering this TEACH IN just before the annual School of the Americas protest in Columbus, Georgia. It is an initiative of the Jesuit Universities introducing students to advocacy and opposition to the School of the Americas in Georgia. Due to the increasing number of students who attend this TEACH IN, ISN moved it to Georgetown.
This afforded AFJN the opportunity to offer a workshop on US militarization of Africa through US military Africa com-mand (AFRICOM). As we see it, AFRICOM is a repeat of what the US military did at the SOA, training and equipping South and Central American military personnel who sustained many of the dictators of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Some of these very personnel have been implicated in the killing of US missionaries as well as many Church leaders, catechists, and other civil society leaders in South and Central America. We do not want our tax money being used to train and equip African military personnel who will help prop up African leaders who have dictatorial tendencies all in the name of US war on terror.
Please check out www.africahumansecurity.org for more information on our resistance to AFRICOM (watch the video here). It is our hope that students and campus ministers who attended our workshop will initiate an AFJN Student Chapter at their respective university or high school to widen the awareness of what the US Military and US Government have in mind through AFRICOM and join our advocacy campaign to stop it.
