Geostrategic Media Political Commentary, Analysis, Security, Defense
The Pentagon has activated a new psychological operations unit targeting Africa, tasked with “expanding the military’s ability to influence foreign audiences” across the continent. The heavily hyped launch occurs against a backdrop of dramatically and irreversibly waning Western influence and power in every sphere across the continent. As Africans steadily rid themselves of unwelcome foreign occupiers and oppressors, the US is forced to rely on strategies of manipulation to stem the tide, which have already failed spectacularly. They will surely misfire yet again.
Based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina – home to AFRICOM – the psyops faction is known as “Drongo Company”. Its nickname is inspired by a bird native to Africa, known for precisely imitating other species’ warning calls and using other deception tactics to drive other animals away from food. The Pentagon reportedly “selected the name to reflect the unit’s focus on influencing perceptions and behavior.” Fittingly, a May 2014 Science paper found the drongo can mimic other species’ sounds and manipulate adversaries with unparalleled, almost human sophistication.
Task & Purpose notes Drongo Company’s creation “comes amid a shift in US military strategy in Africa,” which is quite an understatement. Washington is on the run across the continent, with combat units and occupation forces being withdrawn from multiple countries over recent years. In September 2024, over 1,000 soldiers departed Niger, while a $100 million drone base was abandoned. An anti-ISIS mission in Nigeria controversially launched this March was abruptly terminated in July, due to a cataclysmic inability to achieve its objectives.
Drongo Company is an attempt by the Empire to reassert narrative dominance over Africa, as its military capabilities across the continent and beyond constantly shrink in size and potency. An official US Army report openly states, “The art of psyops relies on persuasion rather than physical force.” This entails the exploitation of “mental factors…to evoke specific emotions, attitudes and behaviors.” The ultimate goal “is to persuade enemy, neutral and friendly nations and forces to take favorable actions toward the US and its allies.”
An AFRICOM factsheet on psyops claims local campaigns are targeted at militant groups, such as al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and ISIS. Parenthetical mention is also made to “malign state actors” being targets, in the context of advancing “US interests”. As a Military.com report acknowledges, this is a reference to “competition with foreign governments.” Specifically, “Russia and China have expanded their political, economic and security activities across Africa” in recent years, which the Empire has been singularly unable to counter via military force.
Drongo Company is thus being deployed for “an information contest that extends beyond conventional battlefields.” The Pentagon is extremely sensitive, however, to “skeptical audiences” seeing through their psyops. Military.com further notes that while AFRICOM claims its psychological operations adhere strictly to US law and Pentagon policies prohibiting targeting US citizens, these prohibitions only apply to intended audiences. There are no mechanisms in place preventing Stateside spectators from being deluged – theoretically illegally – with Drongo Company’s sophisticated, clandestine military psychological warfare offensives, especially online.
Quite some informational assault is planned. Drongo Company will wage its psyops campaigns via “both established and emerging communication technologies…[including] print media, radio broadcasts, text messaging, direct engagement, television programming, social media platforms, and online resources.” These information sources will be blitzed with “persuasive messages intended to change how selected audiences think or act.” The need to “ensure targeted audiences consider…messages credible” is of paramount importance. After all, “adversaries or skeptical audiences” will reflexively dismiss obvious “American propaganda”:
“Drongo Company’s effectiveness will depend on more than its ability to produce messages. Its soldiers will need regional and cultural knowledge, language skills, accurate intelligence and credible African partners capable of reaching communities that may distrust communications associated with the US military.”
‘Role players’
Strikingly, Drongo Company is formally part of the US Army’s notorious 7th Psychological Operations Battalion. The Pentagon’s premier psychological warfare unit, since May 2022 7th POB has released a series of disturbing, abstract recruitment videos. In the first, dramatic, rapid cut scenes are interspersed with eerie, monochrome cartoon clips, backed by an aggressive soundtrack. All along, text on the screen proclaims:
