Africans can be foolish!!! My reason? Read on........
For Centuries, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of Rwanda shared the same culture, language and religion.
In 1916, Belgium (the same Belgiums who claimed to have come to help cure polio) took control of Rwanda from Germany and installed a rigid colonial system of racial classification and exploitation.
By elevating the Tutsi over the Hutu, they created deep resentment among the Hutu majority.
In 1959, the Belgians handed control of Rwanda to the Hutu majority. With independence came decades of institutionalized anti-Tutsi segregation massacre.
Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus were forced into exile.
In 1988, some fo these refugees formed a rebel movement called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to reclaim their homeland.
In 1990, from their base in Uganda, the RPF launched an offensive against the Hutu regime that was stopped with French and Belgian military support.
A deadly cycle of war and massacre continued until 1993, when the United Nations negotiated a power-sharing agreement between the two sides.
To protect their, hard-line hutu extremists resisted the implementation of the agreements and planned one of the most terrifying genocides in history.
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By day 100 of the genocide, close to 1million people had been killed.
As at 2005 82 individuals have been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwhanda. To date, 20 (ONLY EFFING 20) have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms.
Of those who watched the genocide unfold, and did nothing to stop it, no one has been charged.
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To be honest, I do not remember reading or hearing much coverage about the genocide in Rwanda while it was happening. The first time i came fully aware of the extent was when i watched Hotel Rwanda- and i felt somewhat ashamed of my lack of knowledge.
I just finished watching a movie titled Sometimes in April which got me fired about the whole situation again. And yes I did come to a conclusion that we Africans can be foolish. Infact Africans are foolish.
It is beyond my understanding how in the world Belgium can come, take power, create such havoc, leave the country; and my fellow Africans then take it upon themselves to wipe out a whole ethnic/tribe. I don't get it!!! What happened to this rage and barbaric behaviour when our white masters were treating us like 3rd class citizen on our own soil? How cld a minority have the wisdom and ability to take over and make us their "subordinates" on our own land? What happened to all our fetish acts we now engage in when our white masters were taking over? Let's not even talk about South Africa's history. So yes, I am angry at my fellow Africans for letting our 'masters' make us look like a fool.
It also got me thinking, why weren't the Westerners quick to intervene while the crisis was going on but were quick to respond to the refugee crisis. Could it possibly be that unlike Iraq, they had nothing to benefit from Rwanda? The US chose to be loyal to an international policy that hindered them from intervening a genocide that allowed almost 1million people to be killed. Their moral justification? "It was Rwandans killing Rwandans".
14 comments:
I dont know if calling Africans "foolish" is the right path, but i get your drift.
onyibo waka come africa. onyibo come take over from us. onyibo come imprison and enslave us. they begin dey charge us "roger" for our own land and sturvs.
I think that we need to deal with our own problems. When I look at the way history turned out, I'm faced with a lot of disturbing questions about my ancestors.
I have had to conclude that most of our ancestors were stupid as fuck.
Hopefully we won't make the same mistakes they made. The annoying thing is, all these European countries are not even a tenth of the size of most African countries yet somehow we foolishly allowed them to take control of us and wreak havoc.
Granted they had guns and we didn't but guns do not win a war or even guarantee success.
I think the West created a lot of our problems but WE did a lot to make them much worse.
honestly, I didn't get it when I saw hotel Rwanda, it's only just made sense now. It's ridiculous to think that we put ouselves through this ridicule and become laughing stock.
Seriously..it's just VERY sad!
i knew abt d Rwandan problem while it was happening cos my dad is an ardent listener of BBC world service. He used to talk abt it too. But d movie brought it home so much 4 me. It was horrible!!!!
as 4 d rest of Africa being stupid, wot can i say? everyone wants to chop enough, as d oyibo dem no chop dem own clean mouth. D Nigerian civil war was nearly as bad too. D hausas really wanted to wipe out d Igbos living n their land. But somehow, these two tribes have managed to bury their hackets (2 a diplomatic extent. once n a while, dat old bad blood surfaces, but not 2 d extent it did during d war). I suspect one of d reasons Igbos r very particular abt marrying fellow Igbos is cos they feel dat deep down, dis 'One Nigeria' thing is just a facade. Wen d chips r down, everyone remembers which tribe they r from. Sad isn't it.
I think with Africa tribalism is a problem. And the Belgians exploited another aspect of that tribalism that already existed.
Lets not even forget that apart from tribalism Africans have regionalism in their lives. Southern Africans against western africans, eastern africans and Northern africans.
And then within these regions there is dispute between countries Ghana V nigeria, South africa v zambia/zimbabwe etc
Yes we can be very gullible indeed. The stupid witch craft that could have been used to chase these bigots is instaed used on our own people.
Why didn't the international community charge the Belgian nationals in charge at that time or fine the country itself for causing such enmity within a nation?
My view is the international community do not give a toss about AFRICA unless they have something to benefit form the nation in question.
Second spot m reading where Kooks says the same thing...Africans are generally like that, just like how some won't marry outside their tribes or nationality...i know quite a lot of folks like that..so the Belgiums worked on that!
The xenophobia attacks in South Africa didnt even need no Belgiums to be involved...such a shame..
Its as if you were there at Shona's place the other day when me and a group of friends were having a conversation about colonisation. I made the exact same point about the amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorate which gave birth to Nigeria. I must say that in as much as I agree with you and Jide Salu (You shud go over and read his article on Nigerian stupidity), I am grateful that we've not had violence of this scale in Nigeria.
But you can see this everywhere, SA for instance. God help us help ourselves.
each and everytime me and my sisters get into these types of discussions, we all end up angry and frustrated because, if us, young people can see the errors, then why can't those in power in our countries(Nigeria, Rwanda etc) see it and fix it.
this Rwanda (Somalia & the other waring countries) issue is somthing i cannot understand, & at this point, i have chosen to just mind my business & concern myself only with the Niger Delta issue that is directly affecting my well being & that of my family...
It's bad, really saddening. I've watched Hotel Rwanda & it was so sickening...terrible things happen in Africa but then, it is where we come from so we can only keep praying for God's intervention...
God bless Africa
It's so sad...
All men are so foolish - whatever else African aren't special in that! But the grace of God is the same towards all in Christ!
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