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Is Africa drifting into a state of more and more military takeovers?

Torturing totally unrelated civilians for 9/11 is literally the exact same thing Al Qaeda would do bud.
No one mentioned torturing "totally unrelated civilians."

I was referring to those horrible people being detained at that base in Cuba. They should be shown no mercy for what they did to those 3,000 plus people. Sadly, some Presidents released some of them, and now they are top dogs in Afghanistan.
 
And there are hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions still ecstatics that the European colonial oppressors got kicked out on their asses.
Thank you for your opinion.

I am pretty sure that hundreds of millions are also disappointed by how their own people are governing: corruption, unemployment, brutality, hunger, etc. That is why so many dream of emigrating to -- Europe and America and Australia and Canada.

But, yes, it is true that human beings often do NOT do what is in their best interest. So many did enthusiastically demand independence. They got it. And they have suffered ever since.
 
Although I disagree with much of your opinion, it is true -- according to what I have read -- that the Belgians did seem to favor one group over another in Rwanda.
It is well known facts that the Belgians deepened the Hutu / Tutsi divide through "divide and conquer" when Rwanda and Burundi was under Belgian rule.
 
Thank you for your opinion.

I am pretty sure that hundreds of millions are also disappointed by how their own people are governing: corruption, unemployment, brutality, hunger, etc. That is why so many dream of emigrating to -- Europe and America and Australia and Canada.

But, yes, it is true that human beings often do NOT do what is in their best interest. So many did enthusiastically demand independence. They got it. And they have suffered ever since.

Nope, that’s a flat out fact. But I get that someone clueless enough to try and claim that colonialism was “loving and benevolent” can’t figure that out.

Say, was Leopold II slaughtering tens of million of people more “loving” or “benevolent”? 🙄
 
No one mentioned torturing "totally unrelated civilians."

I was referring to those horrible people being detained at that base in Cuba. They should be shown no mercy for what they did to those 3,000 plus people. Sadly, some Presidents released some of them, and now they are top dogs in Afghanistan.

That’s literally what the British did at the camps in Kenya. They tortured non-combatants as part of desperate flailing in hopes of at some point hunting down the rebels.
 
Nope, that’s a flat out fact. But I get that someone clueless enough to try and claim that colonialism was “loving and benevolent” can’t figure that out.

Say, was Leopold II slaughtering tens of million of people more “loving” or “benevolent”? 🙄
What His Majesty did was the exception to the rule.
 
No one mentioned torturing "totally unrelated civilians."

I was referring to those horrible people being detained at that base in Cuba. They should be shown no mercy for what they did to those 3,000 plus people.
What nonsense is this? Almost none of the detainees at Guantanamo had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.

Plus, in case you missed it, torture is unconstitutional (as it is cruel and unusual punishment), and it doesn't work anyway.
 
What His Majesty did was the exception to the rule.

No....it very much wasn’t. A very similar genocide occurred in Namibia, with mass killings at one time or another everywhere from Algeria to South Africa.
 
Although I disagree with much of your opinion, it is true -- according to what I have read -- that the Belgians did seem to favor one group over another in Rwanda.
It's strikingly similar to the story of Cain and Able, no?
The whole bring-civilization-to-primitives apology for colonialism mirrors the story of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve in the Garden were in a state of innocence, primitive. They were hunter-gatherers, everything they needed was provided. They lost their innocence when they learned the difference between good and evil, that knowledge lost them Eden. Out of necessity they became agriculturists and all the woes and ills that have plagued mankind ever since were born. Agriculture makes two things possible, we can live crowded together in cities and we can create a surplus and all our problems come from two questions- who will rule the city and who will control the surplus.
My point is civilization is no gift, It's a curse. And It's the height of hubris for Europeans to take on God's role and try to remake primitive people in their image.
Not to mention the degree of cynical hypocrisy needed to pretend there was something benevolent about the process of expoitation that ruins people's lifes. We brought our own answer to those two questions.
 
Africa supported far fewer human beings before the Europeans arrived than after. That's a simple fact.

If you believed this, you wouldn't be alive.
That simple fact is half of my point. And yes, I believe that, yet I still live!
I go further into it in post #34.
 
Just curious- off the top of your head, do you know three examples of colonialism benefiting the people being colonized? Two even, or one?
Also, civilization is no gift to primitive people. It's a curse.

Well the people in the Belgian Congo after having their hands chopped off no longer had to worry about cutting their fingernails.

South African blacks did not have to worry about those pesky and stressful freedoms

Algerians had the benefit of being tortured and beaten by the French. That builds character and makes a person stronger
 
It is hard to believe that Belgium was once a proud colonial power. The country lost everything after destroyed by the war and it is just getting by with a competitive advantage in chocolate manufacturing, thus becoming synonymous with chocolate itself.
 
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European colonialism was a lot of things, but “loving tutelage” was absolutely not one of them.

I received a good part of my education at St Andrews school in Malawi....set up during the colonial era.

And "loving tutelage" was all our black, white and Indian students received.

You really need to have that chip on your shoulder attended to....it's leading you to sound like a racist.
 
European Imperialism was certainly not any form of "loving tutelage".

Read my post above.

Not only did I receive "loving tutelage" from schools set up in the colonial era but Dr Banda, the first President of Malawi did too, as did Mugabe.

There were many good people who were effectively part of "European Imperialism" that greatly improved the lives of many Africans.

Your generalisation is wrong, as most generalisations usually are.
 
Many Europeans loved the people in the colonies.

They wanted to teach them how to run a modern, organized society.

In Kenya, for example, they set up a miniature parliament. Their European friends tried to teach them the concept of fair play and honest elections.

In the view of many people, the dear people in Africa needed a little more tutelage before striking out on their own.

As one who spent years living in Africa, you are absolutely correct.

Ignore the BLM types here whose only agenda is to criticise white people.

Colonialism, like most things, cannot be summed up in single sentences. It was a mixture of good, bad and indifferent, like most things.
 
Also, civilization is no gift to primitive people. It's a curse.

I was in Africa shortly before Covid struck to attend a University graduation ceremony of someone dear to me.....and whose university education was financed solely by myself.

I saw nobody cursing civilisation. Only young people, almost every single one taking pics with a cellphone, looking forward to a bright future.

Nobody being eaten by cannibals, nobody being taken as a slave, no bloodthirsty African chiefs in sight.

People to whom civilisation has brought not only a longer life span, but also a happier one.
 
I received a good part of my education at St Andrews school in Malawi....set up during the colonial era.

And "loving tutelage" was all our black, white and Indian students received.

You really need to have that chip on your shoulder attended to....it's leading you to sound like a racist.

Was it “loving tutelage” when dozens of Egyptian policemen were gunned down by British soldiers for daring to try and exercise their rights on their own soil?

Was it “loving tutelage” when British soldiers threw Kenyans into torture camps?

Was it “loving tutelage” when British policemen gunned down soldiers who’d fought for the Allies in Accra for demanding the benefits they were owed?

No matter how many times you tearfully sob “racism”, colonialism was a disaster for the locals.
 
Was it “loving tutelage” when dozens of Egyptian policemen were gunned down by British soldiers for daring to try and exercise their rights on their own soil?

Was it “loving tutelage” when British soldiers threw Kenyans into torture camps?

Was it “loving tutelage” when British policemen gunned down soldiers who’d fought for the Allies in Accra for demanding the benefits they were owed?

No matter how many times you tearfully sob “racism”, colonialism was a disaster for the locals.

Er, maybe you missed what I said :

"Colonialism, like most things, cannot be summed up in single sentences. It was a mixture of good, bad and indifferent, like most things."

Your one eyed white = bad, black = good posts say more about yourself than they do the Brits.
 
Er, maybe you missed what I said :

"Colonialism, like most things, cannot be summed up in single sentences. It was a mixture of good, bad and indifferent, like most things."

Your one eyed white = bad, black = good posts say more about yourself than they do the Brits.

Err, your constant frantic attempts to excuse colonialism are as pathetic as ever.

It was a complete disaster for the locals, and the fact that you actually try to defend foreigners invading a country, enslaving the locals and routinely abusing them is truly pathetic.
 
Read my post above.

Not only did I receive "loving tutelage" from schools set up in the colonial era but Dr Banda, the first President of Malawi did too, as did Mugabe.

There were many good people who were effectively part of "European Imperialism" that greatly improved the lives of many Africans.

Your generalisation is wrong, as most generalisations usually are.
European colonialism was shameless grab for resources, with the natives usually forced to work to extract such resources under such hard conditions, they'd never get any European to work lke that. Imperialism was a move to feed the industries of Europe with the raw materials of Africa and Asia. The "loving tutelage" was propaganda, there was no love involved, just cold profit, and the ability to treat their labor as unpaid slaves.

Sure each colony has it's own story, depending on what it had to offer. But claiming Leopold's Congo was somehow an exception is just a lie. Leopold's Congo was the norm.
 
As one who spent years living in Africa, you are absolutely correct.
Thank you so much for your comment,

Oh, I do ignore their comments, for I understand that it is painful for many people to accept brutal reality, which clashes with their idealistic views.
 
Thank you so much for your comment,

Oh, I do ignore their comments, for I understand that it is painful for many people to accept brutal reality, which clashes with their idealistic views.

The hilarious thing, of course, is that the brutal reality is what YOU are ignoring.
 
I was in Africa shortly before Covid struck to attend a University graduation ceremony of someone dear to me.....and whose university education was financed solely by myself.

I saw nobody cursing civilisation. Only young people, almost every single one taking pics with a cellphone, looking forward to a bright future.

Nobody being eaten by cannibals, nobody being taken as a slave, no bloodthirsty African chiefs in sight.

People to whom civilisation has brought not only a longer life span, but also a happier one.
All true, but It's been a long time since those people could be described as primitive. I'm talking about pre-agriculture hunters and gatherers. Paleolithic. Think of a community of primitive tribesmen in the Amazon, for example, who have never been exposed to civilization. Would it be doing them a favour to bring them to civilization, or bring civilization to them?
Agriculture makes two things possible- we can live crowded together in cities and we can create a surplus. All of our problems come from two questions-who who will rule the city and who will control the surplus.
 
Leopold's Congo was the norm.

It certainly wasn't the norm at all.

In fact, the reason you use this example is because it was so extreme.
European colonialism was shameless grab for resources

To a few power hungry royals or businessmen, it may well have been.

To the vast majority of Europeans, colonialism was all about working hard and enjoying a better life than the harsh conditions they experienced during the industrial revolution.

with the natives usually forced to work to extract such resources under such hard conditions

That's a generalisation....and like most generalisations, it has little merit.

In places like America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the locals provided little labour to assist the colonists.

In Africa, it was mostly the same with Europeans bringing in large numbers of Indians to do much of the really hard work as Africans did not have much of a work ethic.

I am not very familiar with the history of South America.
 
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