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2010-03-29 Africa Subsaharan

Africa's Forever Wars - Why the continent's conflict never end.

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Posted by Besoeker 2010-03-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 the decline of the classic African liberation movement

No such thing ever existed. The so called liberation movements were mere guises for ethnic civil wars, with a handful of marxist inspired ideologues, generally of impressive ineptitude, such as Mandela and his mates, who in their 'liberation war' only managed to kill a couple of innocent black workers.

Posted by phil_b 2010-03-29 00:12|| 2010-03-29 00:12|| Front Page Top

#2 But what is spreading across Africa like a viral pandemic is actually just opportunistic, heavily armed banditry.

Bingo. Most "liberation" movements are nothing more than banditry and thuggery masquerading as history's vanguard. IRA, FARC, Arafat's PLO, Hamas: these are basically shakedown outfits that spend more time and energy terrorizing, and stealing from, the people they purport to lead than they do attacking and defeating their supposed enemies. Where they excel is in kneecapping, extorting, executing, and stealing from their own people.

Scratch a "national liberation" organization, and you'll see an armed gang. The only difference between the mafia and these gangs is in their tailors. Brioni for the former, fatigues for the latter, but the m.o.'s identical.

Posted by lex 2010-03-29 00:19|| 2010-03-29 00:19|| Front Page Top

#3 Notice how Mr. New York Times thinks that this is something new in the world? He honestly has no idea that this is Africa's natural state.

Posted by gromky 2010-03-29 01:28|| 2010-03-29 01:28|| Front Page Top

#4 He honestly has no idea that this is Africa's natural state.

Staff at the NYT should pick up the National Geographic occasionally.

Posted by Bulldog 2010-03-29 02:56|| 2010-03-29 02:56|| Front Page Top

#5 TOPIX > WEAK RULES PUTS CONTINENT AT RISK OF BIOTERRORISM.

* SAME > SOMALIA: UN - KENYA HAS LINKS TO BOTH SIDES [Islamist Militants vz. TFG Forces-Camps].

Posted by JosephMendiola 2010-03-29 03:22|| 2010-03-29 03:22|| Front Page Top

#6 He honestly has no idea that this is Africa's natural state.

It was more or less the World's natural state until comparatively recently.

Posted by Gaz 2010-03-29 04:33|| 2010-03-29 04:33|| Front Page Top

#7 Ma GUMbo Booga booga BANG!

106*F in the shade and AIDS, and why worry about a disease which can kill you in ten years when there are so many things which can kill you today.

And colorful names like Nbeke, Mbuto, and Qaddafy.

Not to mention the Nigerian who is dating your daughter at the Univ. Of Virginia.

Posted by BlackBart 2010-03-29 05:29|| 2010-03-29 05:29|| Front Page Top

#8 It's true that wars of liberation are usually led my hard men willing to do nasty things, but unless your name is Ghandhi non-violent resistance usually gets you and your people laughed at, arrested or exterminated depending upon who the powers-that-be are.

Sometimes the state is made up of men as nasty and venal as non-state groups, and sometimes it is legimate to fight.

Posted by Gaz 2010-03-29 05:35|| 2010-03-29 05:35|| Front Page Top

#9 What is happening in Africa now is precisely what one would expect when combining pre-civilization cultures with postmodernism and cultural Marxism. Take tribal violence and infuse it with a celebration of envy and outcome egalitarianism and mix well.

Africans blew it, and the West blew it, too. We should have sent in entrepreneurs, not leftist academics and Peace Corps volunteers.

Posted by no mo uro 2010-03-29 06:32|| 2010-03-29 06:32|| Front Page Top

#10 "Mistah Kurtz, he dead."

Posted by Glenmore 2010-03-29 07:57|| 2010-03-29 07:57|| Front Page Top

#11 Staff at the NYT should pick up the National Geographic occasionally.

Problem is that the National Geographic has fallen in quality and increased in leftist politics in the past couple of decades. Think Foreign Policy, only with pretty pictures and the rare map.

Posted by Pappy 2010-03-29 08:25|| 2010-03-29 08:25|| Front Page Top

#12 Africans blew it, and the West blew it, too. We should have sent in entrepreneurs, not leftist academics and Peace Corps volunteers.
Posted by: no mo uro

There were 'entrepreneurs." Unfortunately however, they were labeled racists exploiters, aparthied fanatics by the West and sent packing in favour of tribalism and majority rule.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-03-29 08:27|| 2010-03-29 08:27|| Front Page Top

#13 You are correct, Besoeker. There were entrepreneurs.

But they weren't sent, they went on their own. And yes, they were wrongly maligned.

What I was trying to say is that the people who actually were sent by the governments of the West were the postmodernists and goofy leftists.

Posted by no mo uro 2010-03-29 08:31|| 2010-03-29 08:31|| Front Page Top

#14 Like King Leo II?

Posted by Gaz 2010-03-29 09:00|| 2010-03-29 09:00|| Front Page Top

#15 Ever hear of the Trail of Tears or visit an Indian reservation Gaz? The path of human progress hasn't always been laudable.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-03-29 09:07|| 2010-03-29 09:07|| Front Page Top

#16 Let us not speak too high nor wax too nostalgically for entrepreneurs: in their day their goal was to do one thing, make money for themselves, and if they had to enslave the local population to make that happen, then so be it.

Sugar cane plantations.

Tobacco plantations.

Pineapple plantations.

I could go on.

The man you call an 'entrepreneur' could also be called an 'exploiter'; both definitions were correct.

Ask the long suffering people of the Congo about Leopold the 'entrepreneur'.

We in the West did Africa no favors.

Posted by Steve White 2010-03-29 09:34|| 2010-03-29 09:34|| Front Page Top

#17 Shall we all then return to the oldest form of communism, that of tribal butchery and sex slavery whilst lifting the heads of your enemies high on poles, eating his internal organs and washing them down with gourds of human blood?

I'll throw my lot in with western entrepreneur if you don't mind, warts and all.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-03-29 09:47|| 2010-03-29 09:47|| Front Page Top

#18 Rhodes University in Grahmstown wasn't started by a philanthropic Matabele tribesman. The De Beers Group did not crawl ashore from the banks of the Orange River. Much of the world's gold would still be in the ground had it not been for pioneering entrepreneurs. Lastly, I give you one of your own the late Dr. Chritiaan Neethling Barnard. Yes an outspoken anti-apartheid advocate. But where might we be without his entrepreneural spirit?

Posted by Besoeker 2010-03-29 10:11|| 2010-03-29 10:11|| Front Page Top

#19 Shall we all then return to the oldest form of communism, that of tribal butchery and sex slavery whilst lifting the heads of your enemies high on poles, eating his internal organs and washing them down with gourds of human blood?

Much of Africa has urbanized, actually: especially on the coasts. There will be no return to village life for many Africans, whether that would be idyllic or nasty, brutish, and short.

Personally, as member of a community of 162, I think a voluntary, thoughtful, and organized return to village life would be good for a lot of Africans. Its good for a lot of us, actually, regardless of race or culture. But that is one mans semi-informed opinion.

Posted by Secret Master 2010-03-29 12:09|| 2010-03-29 12:09|| Front Page Top

#20 Problem is that the National Geographic has fallen in quality and increased in leftist politics in the past couple of decades.

That's very true, but I've borne with it for a decade or so and this month's issue (March) has a very refreshing piece about African society in Southern Ethiopia. In it, the author states both that the tribes here are amongst the least affected and thus least altered by Western/modern influence, and then goes on to describe in considerable detail how these tribes carry our routine acts of barbarity and endless cycles of vengeance. Educational, adult and totally not boring (unlike most of its articles of late).

Re the maps - yes there still aren't enough of them.

Posted by Bulldog 2010-03-29 14:17|| 2010-03-29 14:17|| Front Page Top

#21 "We in the West did Africa no favors."
Really? I would counter that colonialism, and the stability that it provided, especialy the British version, gave, on balance, a far better life for the average African than they have now. And the idea that most African culture is as egalitarian, productive and decently humane when compared to the Judeo-Christian West, is well, poppycock.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2010-03-29 17:56|| 2010-03-29 17:56|| Front Page Top

#22 Africa's Forever Wars - Why the continent's conflict never end.

One could say the same of Europe had it not been for the Americans and Russians sitting on them after '45. A couple generations later and 'peace' seems to be assumed as the normal state of affairs.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-03-29 18:30|| 2010-03-29 18:30|| Front Page Top

#23 Colonialism in Africa went astray : too many countries carving up too many little pseudo-states. If there had been only one or two major power colonial powers and they had divided up their territories per tribal affiliations, Africa probably would not be the mess it is today. Of course, Europe dropping the colonies willy-nilly in the late 50s, 60s, and 70s was a major screw-up as well. Too many decent local nationalists were thrown to the wolves and their Soviet/ChiCom backers.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2010-03-29 19:56|| 2010-03-29 19:56|| Front Page Top

#24 Plus, by having the modern African states' borders bear no relationship to tribal makeup, the modern African situation is that of tribal warfare with modern weapondry - AKs and RPGs used instead of pangas and assegais. So give it about 40 more years of unrelieved slaughter, and the Africans may have ironed out their tribal disputes.

Posted by Shieldwolf 2010-03-29 19:59|| 2010-03-29 19:59|| Front Page Top

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