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Secret societies: Africa’s way forward

Powerful secret societies in the West and elsewhere rule their countries and the world behind the scenes. They meet annually or thereabouts in secret locations. They discuss and take decisions on major policies affecting their countries and the world. Their memberships cut across politics, business, media, military, diplomacy, academia, etc. And they get things done as planned. Being part of the same world, doesn’t Africa also need its own secret societies (multiples of them, minus their sinister side) to defend its interests globally and speed up its development? In this wide-ranging piece, our editor, Baffour Ankomah, argues that it is about time Africa joined in the fest.

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Princess Diana’s famous butler, Paul Burrell, the “hub” around which her postdivorce life revolved, who worked for the British Royal Household for 21 long years, is the man who revealed in 2002 that the Queen called him one day after Diana’s death and told him: “Be careful, Paul; nobody has ever been as close to a member of my family as you were to Diana. There are powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge.”

That was heavy stuff. If the Queen has no knowledge of “the powers” at work in a country of which she is head of state, imagine the effort these “powers” [read secret societies or puppet masters] have made to hide their existence and (sometimes dangerous) activities from public view. The Queen’s warning was the closest yet that any such Establishment figure had come to admitting that life was not just as we see it. That Western countries and others elsewhere are run by unseen powers (or in British parlance “unseen governments”) who pull the strings from behind the scenes. If anybody had talked about such “powers at work” in the terms used by the Queen, they would have said it was a “conspiracy theory” or he/she was a “conspiracy theorist”. (For writing this piece, I will be accused of being one). It is the classic way of dismissing such startling revelations and diverting attention away from the “conspiracy facts” that have ruled our world since Europe became the centre of the world. And judging from the progress their countries have made, there surely must be something good in these secret societies. They have done tremendously well for their countries and the West as a collective, just as the Afrikaner Broderbund secret society did for apartheid in South Africa, nurturing and sustaining that horrendous racial system and the governments that underpinned it. The question now is: Can Africa join in the fest? And why not? If the secret societies have worked for them, they should surely work for us too! Isn’t it time Africa had its own multiple and powerful secret societies working behind the scenes to support our countries, defend our interests globally, and accelerate our progress? From the way things work in the corridors of power in Africa, where there are always queues of people (both local and foreign) wanting to see the presidents and ministers, there is not enough time left for our presidents and ministers to do any serious thinking about our countries and their future. They are exhausted, mentally and physically, at the end of every working day, making them unable to devote any serious quality time to thinking, visioning, analysing, planning, implementing, and reviewing. This is why Western countries put so much premium on think-tanks and advisers to do the thinking, visioning, analysing, planning and reviewing for their governments, presidents and ministers. Which makes Africa even more in dire need of the services of think

tanks and multiple secret societies (and I dare add, minus their sinister side, because some of them do evil things) to work behind the scenes for the betterment of our countries, as they do in the West. If we have no clues as to how to organise them, let’s take some guidance from the history and activities of a few – just a few because there are lots of them – of the West’s most powerful secret societies (defunct and still existing). You may pardon me here for choosing mainly the American-based ones for study – it is because America is the dominant force in the world today, and, as the British authors Thom Burnett and Alex Games put it so nicely, “controlling America is the first step in controlling the world”.

Skull and Bones First on the list is the Skull and Bones, based in a crypt-like building (known as “The Tomb”) on the campus of Yale University in Newhaven, Connecticut, USA. Being one of the oldest secret societies still in existence (it was founded in 1832), the Skull and Bones has many of America’s leaders – in politics, business, academia, military, media, etc – among its members. For example, in their authoritative book published in 2005,“Who Really Runs The World?”, Thom Burnett and Alex Games, who have done indepth investigations into various “conspiracy theories” and “conspiracy facts”, reveal that “the Bush family represent the strongest influence the Skull & Bones have yet wielded upon American politics”. Three generations of Bushes have been members – and two Bushes have subsequently become presidents. In 2004, when George W. Bush was asked during the presidential campaign to comment on his Skull and Bones experiences, he said they were “so secret we can’t talk about it”. When the question was turned over to his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, another Bonesman, he simply said: “Not much because it’s a secret.”

The Bohemian Grove Based at a summer camp, 75 miles north of San Francisco in California, the Bohemian Grove provides a home for bonding for its members who carry out bizarre rituals that nobody would ever associate with presidents, high profile ministers, business leaders and other such members of the elite. These bad practices are not recommended for Africa. “The Bohemian Grove,” according to Thom Burnett and Alex Games, “began as the Bohemian Club in San Francisco in 1872, founded by a group of journalists as an excuse for late night drinking. With the likes of Mark Twain, Brett Harte and Jack London, these bohemian boozing sessions soon attracted the most un-bohemian members imaginable – rich businessmen who would gladly pay for the hacks’ champagne. Eventually, journalists would be banned entirely, and the Club acquired 2,700 acres of redwoods to turn into a businessmen’s retreat. As an organised gathering of powerful men who want to get drunk and let off steam in crazy, fraternity-style antics, the Bohemian Grove is without equal.” Today, it is a source of secret control over American domestic and foreign policy – a place where presidents and the high and mighty congregate – not just to fraternise and bond together, but to think and plan. As Burnett and Games put it: “Apart from men in red hoods and

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