An article popped up in the news again about Colonialism entitled:- So Brits are proud of colonialism? Clearly they need some lessons about the reality of the British Empire
The comments reveal a lot about the whitewashing of African History and the Colonial era, and demonstrates just how bad the education of their masses is when it comes to these topics.
Here I will highlight some of the misconceptions and glaring attempts of whitewashing the issue as if it has no importance in history:-
Britain abolished slavery- No they did not, they abolished the slave trade not the owning of slaves, it was not until the Human Rights Act 1998 when it was incorporated into British Law Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the holding of persons as slaves.
All the acts can be found here
The Act of the Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807 had the aims of abolishing the slave trade in the British colonies and making it illegal to carry enslaved people in British ships, although many ships tried to evade the ban.
With the addition of further acts to improve the so called working/life conditions and human rights of the commodities, (commonly known as slaves), never was slavery made illegal anywhere in any act until the 1998 Human rights act.
In addition, those that where campaigning for the end of slavery, as good as their intentions where, very few of them believed in racial equality, more can be read about that here
In addition, those that where campaigning for the end of slavery, as good as their intentions where, very few of them believed in racial equality, more can be read about that here
This is one that irks me the most - Before the arrival of colonialism, Political, economic and social structures existed in African society well before the 19th century. Frederic Caillaurd, during his quest to discover the source of the Nile, marvelled at the structures of Egyptian society. Massive empires existed in Zimbabwe and Zululand (to name two) and were crushed by the land grab of the colonial empires in the 19th century.'
Before the Europeans arrived in Africa, Africa had vibrant economic, social and political structures. These were severely disrupted by Europeans to create wealth for themselves.
Pre-colonial Africa faced greater economic and ecological challenges than many parts of the rest of the world. The three main ecological zones, forest, savannah and highlands all experienced periods of economic growth and increased trade. New divisions of labour were introduced. People planted new crops and adopted or created new technologies. Complex arrangements of rules and customs came into being to regulate social cooperation and enhance production. Pre-colonial Africa was developing. More here Pre-Colonial Politics and Government, yes they had those too, you can read about that here and they where far from savage as your Colonial Masters would have you believe.
Pre- Colonial Medicine - It was an enslaved African that took the small pox inoculation to America, without Africans many of the pharmaceuticals seen today would not exist. see here in fact many traditional medicines are used in Europe still today see here
More about Pre-Colonial Uganda medical excellence can be found here, you can find out lots more by doing some research. I don't even need to mention Egypt as we all should know about the evidence of the lost Technologies.
Err nope, they where worse....there where no good deeds done apart from stripping the lands of resources, depleting these countries of population needed to sustain them by murder and kidnap, destroyed cultures and identities, destroying the rich history, putting billions through many years of degradation and oppression still felt today, it benefited the elite capitalist ideology and those that obeyed and was by far worse and claimed far greater numbers than anything Hitler did.
Here is a well written piece describing the conditions that 60 million people died due to British Colonial Rule, and this is just India and does not include the African genocides.
Here is another article that highlights other victims of the genocide perpetrated by British Colonial Rule. there are more, but you will have to research those for yourself.
As already shown above, if you have taken any notice, Pre Colonial Africa already had western equivalent employment, economic development to suit their civilisations needs, not western needs, they where doing ok. They where working for the good of the civilisation not working to fill their pockets with as much money as possible to the benefit of the few. Colonial Powers bull dozed in and changed all that putting in railroads and changing infrastructure for their own needs. not the needs of Africa. Africa clearly did not need them Pre-colonial.,
Slaves from West Africa taught masters how to grow the crop, which required a good deal of expertise. So as English planters developed the region’s economy around this staple crop, slaves provided not only the labour, but the knowledge behind the crop’s success.
Well if you call racism, prejudice, oppression, poverty, inequality, capitalism etc etc etc in numerous countries, good, then well, one could agree.
I think we can safely say there is a marked difference between the Pre-Colonial Slave Trade you can here explaining the systems of the Pre-colonial slave traders, understanding the differences is key to understanding Colonial slavery, here is another article for you to peruse... The fundamental difference you should be able to see by your research, in addition to economic incentives, racial tensions further solidified the state of slavery, they where not human they where just property more here find out more from this informative paper.
If you have read all the above and taken notice then you will see how seriously white supremacist this statement by this person is.... If you cannot then you need to continue doing research...
It was British Colonial policy that put Africa in an impoverished state, you can see an article about the policies here There is an articulate argument here that the Indian experience of colonialism and the damaging effects of the Colonial reign example ...
It was British Colonial policy that put Africa in an impoverished state, you can see an article about the policies here There is an articulate argument here that the Indian experience of colonialism and the damaging effects of the Colonial reign example ...
My conclusion to this statement is that the British Empire terrorised over a fifth of the worlds population, destroying their rich cultures cultivating lands to suit their aims and greed, oppressing billions of people causing prejudice and hate and degrading generations upon generations of people, destroying civilisations and building infrastructure to wipe away whole cultures and traditions and to serve and support their greedy selfish pillaging of lands they had no rights to.
The only thing I agree with in this statement is, no damn right there has not been anything like it in history, and thank god for that, it is a scar on history that is cleverly used even today to keep people oppressed and white supremacy well and truly alive, the truth of the atrocities need to be told.
What is needed is an acknowledgement of the damage on a huge scale that was done and is still being done today, people want a mind shift, a break away from this deep rooted colonial mindset that still blights people to this very day, the truth needs to be told to our children of how barbaric it really was, and not the squeeky clean 'Britain did it for Africa's sake' tripe that we all hear.
Look at the Germans they take ownership of their past, they teach their kids the truth about Hitler, in a standard German history text book it challenges Germany's young to come to terms with the burden of a collective past far more cruel and destructive than teenagers anywhere else in the world are obliged to contemplate. They are taught why the past must not repeat itself.
When the day comes that I do not see daily excuses and diversions from the truth about Colonialism, when I see the truth spoken about and taught in schools, when I do not see the likes of the kind of words spoken in those comments that prompted me to write this post, when I never see 'get over it ' in the same conversation of Colonialism and Slavery, I will know an inner peace I could only dream of, and those famous words of Martin Luther King 'I have a dream' will really mean something.
I see generations upon generations internalising the pain of the legacy of colonialism and slavery, that pain is real and that pain is there, people need to read scholars and their telling of the Colonial story with facts about the political, social effects, one of which you can see here
Just the fact that the issue of reparations has been on the table shows me there is a shift, the voices that have called for the Cecil Rhodes Statues to be removed, find out more about that here, brilliant projects like Exploring Africa getting the real Africa out there, breaking down the narrative that Africa is backwards and has no history, there is a shift and Africa is rising.
Historians are calling for the 'bad' side of Colonialism to be taught in schools see here, I believe the things they teach in primary schools are the first steps to cement this colonial attitude about Africa, along side the continual bombardment by popular press of poverty, mud huts and African animals, removing people further from the truth of what Africa is.
Colonial Britain used tactics such as idyllic and patronising videos which you can see some of here to brainwash their masses, they hid the truth of what colonialism was, they did not let the public see the atrocities, they just presented the 'we are helping these poor pathetic people' images as they do today with the charity voluntourism which is argued to do more harm than good, once such article is here
The damage of Colonialism is there in every day life and can be seen by all, yet still ignored and denied by so many... Education, education, education is the start that is needed to change this Colonial mindset that is damaging so many.
Education was used to instil Colonial ideology, it is time education was used to undo the damage.
Colonial Britain used tactics such as idyllic and patronising videos which you can see some of here to brainwash their masses, they hid the truth of what colonialism was, they did not let the public see the atrocities, they just presented the 'we are helping these poor pathetic people' images as they do today with the charity voluntourism which is argued to do more harm than good, once such article is here
The damage of Colonialism is there in every day life and can be seen by all, yet still ignored and denied by so many... Education, education, education is the start that is needed to change this Colonial mindset that is damaging so many.
Education was used to instil Colonial ideology, it is time education was used to undo the damage.
Lets see one day that these seriously offensive and ignorant comments created by Colonial ideology such as this below are a thing of the past.
And videos about the 'real Africa' will not have to be made to try to educate people that they are in fact not all 'still backwards'... like this one here. which demonstrates Colonialism worked to Westernise Africa to become Capitalist.
Great reeading this
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