October 26: Journal Entry #8

In my last few journal entries, along with my assignment I found an answer to my previous essential question, is the CIA operating in Africa? During my inquiries into this question I found many sources that pointed to different events that the CIA either instigated, or were the direct cause of, but now I need to know why they committed these actions. My next essential question is, why is the CIA operating in Africa? Some sub-questions I have for this new essential question are, was there a specific event that made it so the CIA found it necessary to operate in Africa? I want to look into this sub question because it is more of a refining of my essential question, which I have quite a liking for. My second sub-question is, did European decolonization play a part in the CIA's presence in Africa? I want to inquire into this sub-question because from my previous knowledge on Africa I know that it had been used for western interests many times in the past, and I think that oftentimes history repeats itself, so perhaps the CIA's presence in Africa was just another case of history repeating itself. My final sub-question is, did the CIA operate in Africa for western geopolitical interests? I want to inquire into this sub-question because the more I look at major issues facing the world in the 21st century I notice how a lot of them are the result of geopolitical maneuvering between countries, and I want to see if this geopolitical maneuvering was the root of the CIA's presence in Africa.