Friday, November 05, 2010

Why Do We Never Talk about This?

People from Africa often talk about the corruption in their countries, the corrupt governments. But they rarely mention the fact that it was European intervention that allowed corrupt governments to rise and flourish.

People from the Diaspora talk about slavery and the effects of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. But we are often unaware of what happened in Africa.

How many people know that the first German death camp was built in Namibia in 1905?

Or that the British in Kenya slaughtered thousands of people, stole their land, and relegated the remaining Kenyans to menial jobs? Or that Teddy Roosevelt said that the same people who did well in the old West would do well in Kenya?

How many people know that people in Nigeria were enslaved and forced to work for the British armed forces during the Second World War?

To read more, see Naij: A Film History of Nigeria

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