A decade after the Lord Babington blog

The falsely crafted quotation from an address attributed to Lord Macaulay. It never happened.

That Lord Macauley quote

The longevity of my blog would as a matter of interest suggest a celebratory review of something I have written before, and none more signifies that than a blog I wrote exactly 10 years ago.

As usual, it was written as a simple opinion piece about erroneous quotations of antiquity attributed to someone which on closer scrutiny revealed that the quote was first fabricated and definitely not spoken by the person or at the location it was said to have been relayed.

Blog - Opinion: Lord Macauley did not address the British Parliament in 1835 (18-05-2013)

That did not stop people wanting something manifestly wrong in content, person, or place to be true and they gathered on my blog to both defend the indefensible and assert sentimentality over objectivity. At one time, it felt like a backstreet brawl in some Indian city where many were about to come to some serious harm. Heck! I was even threatened, on my own blog, just because I had an opinion.

Battles and ratings

I never took the blog down, because that would be wrong, but I did at certain times close the blog to comments when nationalistic elements decided my blog was a place to vent their historical grievances and those that did not align with my polite commentary guidelines, I removed for the simple reason that if you want to engage in conversation or debate, you do that with respect and courtesy.

However, in that decade besides the over 36,400 views of the blog and 42 comments that put it at the all-time high ranking of interactions with my blog, it is interesting to see how the relationship between the British Empire of the 19^th Century where India was the crown jewel has changed within the first quarter of the 21^st Century.

Fortunes and history

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is of Indian heritage in Rishi Sunak and India surpassed the UK to become the fifth largest economy in the world, having been the 11^th just a decade ago.

If one can manage a dig at the Tories who have been in government since May 2010, they have superintended a managed decline of the UK economy how they even are thought the party of business escapes me. [World Economic Forum: India surpasses UK economy]

Maybe, and just maybe, the Indian nationalists that camped on my blog a decade ago can take some consolation from this change in fortunes, but one can think they would be insatiable in their quest to prove a point. Meanwhile, my blog can sometimes be a battlefield, I just inadvertently provided ammunition too.

Opinion: Lord Macauley did not address the British Parliament in 1835

Comments are open again

I have decided not to allow the irritation of one person to spoil the open forum for interaction on my blog. I have removed all trace of his views and blacklisted him.

We are strangers here and the least that we can expect of each other regardless of our views, is respect, courtesy and dignified expression. You fall short; you fall out.

Closing Comments Update - 1^st November 2013: In view of certain recent developments in the comments section of this blog, I have decided to close this blog to any new comments.

A more comprehensive note appears below the text of the blog.

Update – 26^th July 2013: Having had so much traffic to this blog, it has become necessary to add more information and references about the quote, the context, the person and the somewhat ulterior motives that seem to govern the release of what I might refer to as "Internet Apocrypha".

I will advise anyone who is thinking of commenting on this opinion piece to first exhaustively go through the links provided within and below the article and appreciate the import of each submission, and then, if there is any desire to debunk any of the claims, please provide reference, attribution and accessible sources to support your views.

Thanks.

Akin Akintayo – 26^th July 2013

Shared on Facebook

A few hours ago, I came upon a picture taken of a supposed speech made to the British Parliament on Facebook and the healthy sceptic that I am had to review the content to determine if this was true or not.

A quick search, though inconclusive proved my doubts and though I left a comment on the feature, soon afterwards the posting was removed in its entirety along with all the opinions expressed about it.

My control

That is probably what I fear the most about participating in the many forums on the Internet outside my control, the sudden disappearance of an opinion, a view or a comment so succinctly made at a moment in time representing my contemporaneous thinking which I may never be able to reproduce if it is lost.

This informs the reason why I mainly stick to writing on my blog where my views cannot be tampered with by editors or syndicators – my cubicle serves its purpose well.

The speech

“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in the country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.” [Wikipedia]

Intent unexpressed

Now, with regards to the picture above and the words transcribed there is probable cause to believe that there was intent by the British Empire as it spread its tentacles in the 19^th Century; I had my doubts that they were expressed as such, especially in Parliament.

Sensational and inflammatory as it definitely is, it can be used to whip up nationalist fervour and jingoism for the ways in which colonialism and imperialism raped the colonies but if we are historically incorrect in attempting to harness a sentiment for polemics and so political gain, eventually the truth of such manipulation will be revealed, but long after the mob has been excited to wreak havoc on our peace.

Quite improbable

Now, this speech was said to have been made by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay on the 2^nd of February 1835 to the British Parliament. This would have been difficult, if he left for India in 1834 and returned in 1838 serving on the Supreme Council of India.

The fastest ships of that time managed 5 to 6 knots and this was before the time of the Clippers, Suez Canal did not open until 1869, so with a basic calculation of London to Bombay via Cape Town, a distance of 10,721 nautical miles with no days spent at port, an average one-way trip to India will take just over 74 days. [Using Sea Distances – Voyage Calculator]

This was not a journey to be taken lightly if you were based in India in the 19^th Century; it is quite unlikely that T. B. Macaulay made a speech to the British Parliament in 1935.

Minutes

Then one might ask how this got attributed to him. He did take minutes on the 2^nd of February 1835 on the issue of Indian Education but those minutes do not contain the said words, it is suggested that the words might well have been an embellished paraphrase of a number of opinions that the man might have expressed in different documents and letters.

Apparently, the East India Company had been given the monopoly to trade with India and was instructed by the British Parliament to spend 100,000 Rupees on promoting the education of Indian natives. [Source - Doc]

“The Company officials were divided on the kind of education to be promoted – will it be the indigenous system of education, or a new education system patterned along the British system of education.” The context of T. B. Macaulay’s minutes a subject of the English Education Act of 1835 were implemented in India in 1854 was advocating the promotion of European style education over the indigenous system.

The reprehensible thinking of those times

There are other words that are apparently attributed to Lord Macaulay and this follows the thinking of colonialists of that time; on page 325 in Essays, Critical and Miscellaneous, by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay, we find the paragraph below as also corroborated in Callaloo Nation, by Aisha Khan.

“There never, perhaps, existed a people so thoroughly fitted by nature and by habit for a foreign yoke.”

This reads no different in context and understanding that Lord Lugard proffered of Africans in his book, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa in 1922, where he said, “In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person; lacking in self control, discipline, and foresight ...” I covered this in my Apes Obey Series.

Debunk the fallacies, always

I expect the picture to go viral as it gets shared and commented on by readers on Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media forums, it might even catch the eye of some newspapers on its way to becoming a meme, many not bothering to verify the information and ascertain its provenance, veracity and correctness with historical fact.

As to the exact words spoken or written by Baron Macaulay, many of which might be in dispute, one can only end on the damning excoriation of taking things at face value exemplified in these words authored by someone who did not sign their contributions to this debate. “Available in the archives to genuine researchers. Not for followers of the ‘If it cannot be Googled it did not happen’ doctrine.” I hear you.

Other notes added 26^th July 2013

In response to a comment that was posted recently, this piece was attributed to Lord Macaulay in 1835, well, in 1835, he was Mr Thomas Macaulay, he did not become Lord Macaulay until August 1857, which would suggest this was an attribution as a reported event rather than diary event, else, the postscript would say Mr Thomas Macaulay who became Lord Macaulay.

There is no reference in the Hansard of any speech, address, opinion, bill or comment by Mr Thomas Macaulay in the years from 1834 to 1838 inclusive.

Mr Thomas Macaulay apparently took up an appointment on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838 for which he was paid £50,000 to help pay off debts his father had accrued. [Spartacus Educational Biography]

There is another view that the real documented quote made by Mr Thomas Macaulay, though again unproven is below - the research continues:

“I accept catholic beyond the across and across of India and I accept not apparent one getting who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such abundance I accept apparent in this country, such top moral values, humans of such caliber, that I do not anticipate we would anytime beat this country, unless we breach the actual courage of this nation, which is her airy and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I adduce that we alter her old and age-old apprenticeship system, her culture, for if the Indians anticipate that all that is adopted and English is acceptable and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their built-in self-culture and they will become what we ambition them, a absolutely bedeviled nation.” [WikiQuote]

Pertinent References

(These must be reviewed before posting a comment challenging the opinions stated here.)

Talk:Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay – The WikiQuote analysis of this purported speech.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay – The Wikipedia entry.

Biography of Thomas Babington Macaulay – From Spartacus Educational, here, it noted that he was ennobled in August 1857, that is when he became Lord Macaulay.

Minute by the Hon'ble T. B. Macaulay, dated the 2nd February 1835. – From Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part I (1781-1839). Edited by H. Sharp.  Calcutta: Superintendent, Government Printing, 1920. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 107-117.

Macaulay's “Minute Upon Indian Education” In the English Education Act 1835. – Wikipedia.

Mr Thomas Macaulay – Hansard References

A dubious quotation, a controversial reputation: the merits of Lord Macaulay – An exhaustive study of Lord Macaulay by Koenraad Elst – This must be read.

Macaulay's Minute revisited - Ramachandra Guha – The Hindu

Lord MacAulay’s Speech to British Parliament 1835 – Robert Lindsay on whipping up nationalist sentiment with contrived and false quotes.

Finally to put this all in context - The Curse of the Internet: Fake Historical Quotes

Dear Reader,

After almost 6 months of having written this blog with over 6,000 reads and all together 39 comments, I have decided to close this blog to new comments.

I appreciate everyone who has found time to read what I have written and have left comments either in support of or against the views expressed here.

Many, times, I have reiterated that the purpose of this blog is to dispute the letter of quote attributed to Lord Macaulay; at no time, I have suggested that colonialists have not practiced the spirit of the forgery attributed to the man.

My basic premise has been, if we are to be beacons of truth and justice, our activism and agitation must be based on the truth and the facts, never on fabricated quotes to suit our sentiments and subjective views. See - The Curse of the Internet: Fake Historical Quotes

Recently, the comments have digressed from the purpose and context of this blog; they have become unhelpful and do nothing to further the debate. I did not write this blog to entertain idle retired trolls.

I have suffered his views for long enough that I have decided to close this blog to new comments.

Everyone has a forum in the greater, bigger world of the Internet to publish their concurrence or disagreement and link back to this blog, if they so wish.

Thank you for reading and visiting my blog, I am honoured if providence has led you here whether you have gain anything or not from reading my blog.

With the kindest regards,

Akin Akintayo - 1^st November 2013

Thought Picnic: Do Africans so hate heaven on earth?

So, E.T. on returning to earth asked me a question. "Why do Africans have high moral standards and Westerners have high living standards?"

I was stumped for answers, but in true African logic redolent of my co-religious, co-traditional values and co-cultural norms with the great people of Africa whose decency far exceeds that of Westerners that there is no vice, corruption or deprivation in their societies, I foolishly averred :-

"Maybe Africans prefer hell on earth and Europeans prefer heaven on earth."

E.T. was puzzled, he felt that moral standards did not seem to be helping Africans at all, in fact, he thought Western high standards were borne of a greater cause to humanity that is it is almost considered immoral for a Westerner to live in the kind of low living standards that Africans have decided to embrace in thumbing their noses at the West with regards to aid when it comes to same-sex marriage.

Much as I was quite ready to agree with E.T. it became evident to me that Africans will rather eat their religious books, live with their culture, sleep in their norms and gather to lynch the people that are different than work to improve their living standards.

Maybe Africans are ready to lead a new global moral crusade, it does not seem the rest of the world will be following that great exodus back to the Dark Continent.

E.T. really got me thinking but I knew he will never get Africans thinking about what is really right for them today; and that is a great shame.

Africa: China in the minds of impressionable African kids

We are going to ABC school

My less than salutary views of China’s apparent invasion of Africa are continually reinforced with the bits of news that seem to show that China’s activities in Africa are not entirely for the long-term good of Africans.

I was irked this time by a tweet that came into my Twitter stream minutes ago.

It started with this tweet

@eolander If you don't think #China is moving to a soft-power strategy in #Africa: read this - they plan to build 1000 schools: http://bit.ly/g6x3Es [1]

To which I responded

@eolander Building primary schools is commendable http://bit.ly/g6x3Es but that is hardly the vehicle for knowledge transfer, is it?

I got this response

@eolander @forakin Africa's development needs extend beyond pure knowledge transfer. Building schools seems to be a wonderful price of entry to the African market.

There are so many strands of discourse with this development, the idea that the Chinese would build 10 ICT driven model primary schools in Kenya is quite commendable and must be applauded, and this intent would be scaled out to 1,000 such schools across Africa giving the lucky pupils a basic educational grounding in life.

One basic context

This however throws up a host of issues, one of which was exemplified in Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls [2] (OWLAG) in South Africa, the benevolent lady shelled out $40 million of her own money to build that school and it drew a number of plaudits and condemnations.

In my view, I felt building one $40 million school where she had complete control of quality, management and oversight was something she could well do and it might serve as a model for schools that the government and other philanthropists might build in the future.

The other view was that she should have contributed the $40 million for 40 $1 million schools and that would have spread the opportunity but depreciated the quality because spread so thin we would have had to rely on the failing governments who are not making adequate provision for schooling in the first place to provide infrastructure, staff, support, inspection, monitoring and all.

It would have had all the makings of a logistical nightmare and prone to failure if standards could not be synchronised across the whole franchise compared to focus on a single school.

Extrapolating this view, for governments to welcome this idea at this level of the education ladder shows obvious and probably unforgivable failings of African governments to address the need for good primary school education.

Another Sino-African job imbalance

The standard of those schools might well be such that the staffing would not be by Africans but the opening for another influx of the Chinese of another profession – this time, teachers rather than engineers and entrepreneurs. To the million add another 50,000 Chinese ready to mould the minds of our dearly impressionable children.

In the meanwhile, we all think our children are getting a good education which they are, but whose minds would they have when they have finished?

Africans in the Chinese mould

The next stage to this is the building of model secondary schools that would take in the graduates of the primary schools, those who fail to make the grade would be a ready under-skilled workforce for the many Chinese industries that are growing around the continent.

Having been imbibed with the “Chinese Work Ethic”, they would be sophisticated sweatshop fodder for scandal-prone FoxConn-like [3] organisations, herded, kettled, run like the typical country folk of China that man the manufacturing lines of Chinese industry, living in atrocious bomb shelter conditions [4].

{Foxconn has seriously improved its human resources management in China but would Chinese companies have that kind of scrutiny in Africa? Where they do would we trade-off the opportunities they bring for the welfare of our people?}

Indeed, we need our African children at work, the good primary school graduates are 6 years away, then the secondary school intakes have another 6 years of reinforcement to make up the probably shift-leader and foreman class of the industry.

The risk of higher education

One would suppose universities would be the next stage but that is the dangerous part, that is where real knowledge and technology is transferred, that is where the spirit of independence is cultured, that is where ideas, solutions and entrepreneurs will emerge from and that would be the stiff competition to the Chinese Industry Complex [5] that is laying foundations as solid as pyramid bases all around Africa.

Again, on the surface it is all for the good, but the long term considerations of this seemingly “good intentions” use of soft power cannot of essence be for the noblest and altruistic reasons.

Africa already has many universities, they need funding, they need endowment, they need good management, I would rather we had Chinese money flow into those institutions, the Chinese brain-boxes join the faculties, Chinese professors of renown bring their wealth of knowledge just as they are bringing their money to give Africa the kick start it really needs.

Graduates of these universities would have more affinity for their localities; they will contribute to their communities, encourage development in their countries and be the kind of role models worthy of emulation that would really lift both our educational standards and the people in general out of poverty.

A fisherman without a boat or a lake

We are constantly told of the Chinese proverb – Give a man a fish, you feed him a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him his whole life.

That would be too simplistic a recipe for success, they have fed the man a day, even taught him how to fish, but there are no lakes to fish in and where there is water he has a rod but no boat – that is the context of this incipient soft power offensive that looks so commendable if it were not cynically sinister on closer scrutiny.

Sources

[1] Kenya Broadcasting Corporation - KBC News - China to build primary schools in Kenya

[2] Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Scandal-hit Foxconn sets sights inland - People's Daily Online – Other related articles on the page point to serious human resources issues.

[4] Underground world hints at China's coming crisis - Telegraph

Addendum giving context to this blog.

[5] China's economic invasion of Africa | World news | The Guardian

Analysis of this news story requires another blog but a few interesting excerpts for starters.

"If you want to start something – and be the boss – Africa is the place to do it."

"Chinese work very hard, very quickly," he says. "But here we are training local people to do the work, and if someone does not understand, he works slowly. You have to watch." Read in the context of the engineer in charge who speaks halting English.

Other Sino-African blogs I have written

Nigeria: NaijaLeaks and why China is bad for Africa

South Africa: Why again China is bad for Africa

Comments: Why China is bad for Africa

Africa: How to make China good for Africa

Africa: How to make China good for Africa

Preamble

This is my third blog on why China is bad for Africa, it could be counted as the fourth but my last posting showcased comments that were posted with regards to the second blog I wrote.

Now, I would hate for any of these views to be misconstrued as a hatred of China and their activities in Africa, far from inciting Sino-phobia my intention is highlight areas in which Africa should improve their negotiating stances with China leading to lasting progress derived from the ready and attractive solutions the Chinese bring to Africa without caveats or requirements.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe wrote a blog for the Harvard Business Review starts with the headline Before Your Next African Investment [1] to which I contributed the following re-tweet.

RT @HarvardBiz Before Your Next African Investment http://s.hbr.org/gxykbE The Chinese have come for the mines and nothing for our minds.

Take it all in context

This blog must be read in the context of all the blogs listed below that I have written on this topic, or else it would be difficult to appreciate the issues raised in this blog.

Nigeria: NaijaLeaks and why China is bad for Africa

South Africa: Why again China is bad for Africa

Comments: Why China is bad for Africa

They speak English there

This time it is Sierra Leone where an English speaking country has taken on a Chinese makeover with its hotel sporting television remote controllers with Chinese labels.

In my last blog, referenced the issue that the Chinese create isolated enclaves for themselves meaning they fail to integrate with the host countries they have emigrated to.

The fact that television remote controllers are in Chinese begins to illustrate the glaring divide that is between the Sierra Leoneans or even Africans and the Chinese, very few of the locals would have any knowledge of Mandarin or Cantonese and it creates a barrier in communication and the generation of relationships which I highlighted in my first blog where Chinese managers who spoke no English could not be engaged when it came to industrial disputes.

Working Chinese and worked Africans

With a million Chinese in Africa, they are in no way helping create an African elite through the transfer of knowledge or skills, what the writer saw was young Chinese men getting ready for work, one can only wonder how many local people were getting ready to work in these Chinese operations who were of similar or higher cadre than their guests.

History seems to be repeating itself in Africa; though this is anecdotal, the Europeans of old that came to Africa cannot be said to have been the cream of the crop of their societies, though they did eventually make big names for themselves and probably a lot of money, gaining status and recognition back at home whilst sometimes doing commendable things for the Africans.

In the same vein, these Chinese young ones cannot have been sent out to Africa if they were the brains, the innovators, the thinkers and the geniuses, obviously, this assumption can be challenged but it is a valid premise to have.

These people who were hardly relevant at home come to Africa to become chiefs with “Indians” at their beck and call to be shot at like vermin as was the case in Zambia – one risks the accusation of wiping up a form of xenophobia but the facts are becoming evident on the ground.

Communication is key to knowledge transfer

The underlying problem is this, at best, the communication between many Chinese and Africans would be Pidgin English, poor French, or passable Portuguese depending on if you are in Anglophone, Francophone or Lusophone Africa; in the extreme it would be barking monosyllables with frantic gesticulations; hardly the means for technology or knowledge transfer – Africans will then be left none the wiser as the young ones build their profile to return to their home societies hopefully with the respect and authority they once did not have, having earned their stripes and medals from faraway Africa.

This is the crux of the problem, the Chinese are buying up access to resources, building infrastructure peopled and managed by themselves with Africans doing the graft work in miserable working conditions without adequate safety, human resource relations or developed management structures – there might be the token African face somewhere to offer the pretence of partnership but we should see through that.

When Africa runs out of the opportunities the Chinese are so ready to exploit, one does wonder what Africans would be left with as the Chinese leave to seek other lands to rape, albeit with consent and compensation.

Kill two birds with a Chinese funding

Indeed, we need infrastructure development and it is the failure of our African governments that has led to needing the Chinese to build our roads, our power installations, our railways, our stadiums, our critical infrastructure for economic progress and other aspects of real estate that seem cater to foreigners rather than the locals.

However, where our governments have failed us most is in healthcare and education, the headlines of disease and famine can become something of Africa’s past with good hospitals and good schools; this is where our governments should begin to direct their negotiating prowess with more finesse.

Take the money if you must but add conditions that would make for a lasting legacy for Africa and Africans, link the number of Chinese being brought in with numbers of Africans who need to have jobs, link infrastructure projects with community development for primary healthcare and good primary and secondary education along with scholarships to good Chinese universities.

Get tough with the immigrants

More so, use a percentage of the deals to endow impoverished local universities making them centres of excellence on African soil and finally require that no more than a certain percentage of Chinese immigrants are allowed to stay in African for more than a stipulated period without learning the official language of the country.

Short-term the visa requirement that at renewal a test of language proficiency is passed before their stay is extended.

It is not enough to receive Chinese funds, Africa should make good use of the influx of Chinese investment with radical changes to the lot of Africans in general – and then we can begin to see reasons beyond why China is bad for Africa to a longer term benefit for Africa.

Source

[1] Before Your Next African Investment - Ndubuisi Ekekwe - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Enough animosity between black and white Africans

The whites of Africa

I could imagine the unspoken unease created by the blog I wrote [1] a few weeks ago highlighting the reality of white Africans and the fact that whilst colour remains a predominant quality of differentiation it is not the only prerequisite to being African.

Obviously, to go on and aver that white Africans could be more African than certain of the darker pigmentation with an African heritage was a truth that many might not accept but the truth and the facts are beyond dispute.

The death of Eugene Terreblanche [2] of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) in South Africa brings to the fore the concerns about whites and their true place in Africa.

A voice regardless

There is no doubt that Mr. Terreblanche represented a throwback to the unpalatable realities of colonialism and apartheid; but naturally every incumbent sense of privilege and power always fights to retain influence, the morality of that undertaking is subject to debate and reason usually by the unaffected than by the impacted.

Time and history however made the cause and purpose of the AWB irrelevant as an instrument of insurgency but never as a political pressure group for the rights of the people it portended to uphold – in South Africa of today they need to and deserve to have a voice.

It is unfortunate as we read that the murder of Mr. Terreblanche was as a result of what we might call a business dispute; workers had not been paid wages for a period of time for whatever reasons and they decided to settle the dispute by hacking him to death.

Just not on

It is no way to settle disputes and for those who feel they have been dispossessed, disadvantaged, displaced, denied or misrepresented, there should be structures in place for them to seek justice and fairness without resorting to atrocious crimes – that is brought about politically by the work of visionary and principled leadership.

That act is as heinous as it is barbaric and is comparable to other violent deaths of white inhabitants of Africa and dare I say, Dian Fossey [3], one might be tempted to view these “chop to death” acts as really beyond the pale, of an other world and most probably perpetrated by Africans.

The real issue boils down to the kind of war-mongering rhetoric that people in leadership are supposed to be wiser to curtail and condemn in entirety.

Unfortunately, the language of the Neanderthal flows like poetry from leaders all around, in Sudan, it was President Omar al-Bashir [4] threatening to “cut off their fingers and crush them under our shoes” just three weeks ago. You can find no civility in that as a response to the call for free, fair and just elections for a transitional democracy.

We are beyond liberation talk

South Africa is a new pluralistic democracy, it does have a liberation history but that is history, there are elements of history that might need righting for these times but that is to learn the lessons of the past for a better today and future.

Indeed the history of absurd treaties with chiefs that crept to dispossession in time, wars fought with superior weapons, enslavement, segregation, collusion with kith and kin to defraud and emasculate others as well as land grabs still have their scars but we cannot today repeat the same mistakes with the hope that two wrongs will make things right without us all suffering all the more for it. (Zimbabwe)

The rallying cry of South Africans must be brotherhood for all races in a common cause of their country just as it should be for all nations in Africa regardless of their diversity.

To resort to the congregational call of the face-painted leopard-skin wearing caricature that thumps to the song and dance of the weapon for the annihilation of another man as a voice of unity just draws a big dividing gulf between the diversities of Africa and it is hardly traditional nor cultural.

Separate from the atrocious

Those who offer platitudes in sentiment justifying the baying for blood and thereby inciting the blood-thirsty ignoramus to commit crimes must be held legally accountable as both are accessories to crime and instigators to unwarranted violence, the protagonists must never be allowed to escape their responsibility by absolving themselves from acts of others they have encouraged.

We cannot continue to embrace the plunder of life and property with mediaeval propensity when we could better seize the age of enlightenment that came with the renaissance.

All murders must exact the full weight of the law without prejudice, also all leaders must exercise themselves with restraint; that is no great price to pay for the inclusiveness of South Africans all and Africans in all their nations – no more songs of bringing machine guns [5] or killing the Boer [6] – in these times, it is expedient to depart from the barbaric sophisms that once allowed Africans to be labelled as savages.

History! My foot! It is deplorable and inexcusable, let us seize the day and look to the future fostering consensus, harmony and friendship whilst outlawing everything that excites primitive passions for shedding blood.

Sources

[1] White and African and belonging too [akin.blog-city.com]

[2] BBC News - Terreblanche killing reopens South Africa race wounds

[3] Dian Fossey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] BBC News - Sudan's Omar al-Bashir 'will expel poll observers'

[5] Umshini wami - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[6] The Daily Maverick: Kill the Boer: a brief history

Grand Inga Project: Another White Elephant for Black Africa

For bigger for badder

When I read of the instigation of the largest dam project in the world being planned for Africa in a hydro-electric configuration last week, I skipped the news as one of those grand schemes of delusion.

The excitement of being able to produce twice the energy of the Three Gorges Dam does nothing for me, but I would note a number of issues with this matter.

There are doubts that this project offers much to poor Africans who probably have no need for electricity in their survival quests much as we all know that despite the business and energy benefits giving people the glint in the eye; it would be the dispossession of lands of people who have been there for generations, the destruction of precious African habitat – human and ecological apart from other unforeseen consequences, probably the damage of the Three Gorges Damn too..

For Africa from London

I find it interesting that for a project that would affect so many African countries, as it also involves 7 African countries with the intention of distributing electricity from DR Congo to Egypt in the North, Nigeria in the West and South Africa down South is coordinated by the World Energy Council in London.

This represents the Genesis of why this project probably serves no particular purpose to Africans in general, it is a project that would cost $80 billion and a good deal of that would not go to Africans but we would be saddled with the debts.

The token natives

The architects and designers would be knowledgeable about dam projects and come from abroad, the heavy machinery manufactured in countries outside Africa would be brought in to build the grand construction and all shipped out once the deed in done.

Project Managers would probably be affiliated to the World Energy Council with contractual agreements that break the bank.

A token native would head the project and the politicians would assume all the political kudos, Africans would be dotted around the project but the strategy tasks would go the “experts” whilst all the spade work would be done by longsuffering Africans glad that they have a job at all.

Maintaining the incredible

After commissioning, if things go wrong, at great expense a consultant on better that UN-diplomatic status terms would have to be shipped in to sort things out – technology transfer? Dream on.

This Inga Dam project was first mooted about a generation ago but could not be realised because of political turmoil in that area.

Before you accuse me of blind cynicism, Nigeria probably has one of the largest petroleum infrastructure in Africa, but it is not producing anywhere near its capacity, in fact more of the infrastructure is being shut down.

As a commercial concern, the project is very viable, in terms of technology, it is probably well up with any you can find anywhere else in the world, in terms of qualified personnel, they are not lacking in that expertise.

Politics drives conduciveness

The problem is our political system has been unable to address and resolve socio-economic issues that affect the people in the proximity of that entire infrastructure.

Anytime there is a problem in that area, the consequences are global in their effect, world markets get jittery and oil prices begin to escalate.

Logically, one would think the force of global markets and the economic responsibility on our political system would compel them to find ways to resolve the issues in the Niger Delta but it would appear they have not cottoned onto that crucial responsibility issue to be able to gain the impetus for engagement and resolution.

Conversely, one might say the government is unable, incapable or complete bereft of ideas to begin to find solutions to the Niger Delta crises.

Cynically, I would contend that certain power brokers are fuelling the conflicts to mark territory and exercise undue influence without consideration for the consequences to either the locals or the world at large – I would take this line of thought as the main reason for the Niger Delta crises.

But the point I am trying to make is where a government cannot provide the necessary political atmosphere that addresses the socio-economic issues that allow people to have the confidence to establish businesses or run projects, we end up with white elephants everywhere.

The little things yet undone

The area that is to accommodate this dam is not far off from communities that could use electricity from those currently operating dams – Inga I & Inga II – but they have no electricity and power lines were built to supply electricity to the Katanga mining province 2,000 kilometres away, most definitely for the mines rather than the people.

There is no people-driven element about this grand scheme, it is a résumé boosting project that would be completed by 2022 and would probably collapse in 3 years with the big names involved having moved on to another grand white elephant.

A different energy plan

If we were really to consider a real energy plan for Africa, we probably do not need another hydro-electric dam and we probably cannot manage a nuclear power station but with sun, wind, oil and gas, a lot can be done to use what we have to meet real energy needs.

I have a thumbs-down regarding this project and I hope that good sense prevails over the excitement around this project to abort it before the kickbacks start enriching malevolent actors pretending to be interested in the energy needs of Africa – I am really not impressed at all, we do not need that dam.

Sustaining bad reports from Africa

The international shame of it all

One must now begin to wonder if there is anymore pride to be had in being African.

Somehow we have been bestowed with ignominious leadership and representatives who heap opprobrium, ridicule and embarrassment on Africans; it is now unashamed bravado to proclaim African-ness in public and keep a straight face.

Last month we endured with derision the shameful debacle of the Nigerian (S)elections so comprehensively rigged there was almost no just recourse apart from new elections by unbiased organisations, but this did not happen.

A bit earlier, the grandfather of African despotism had his hoodlums beat up his political opponents as his country set records for hyperinflation.

Other African governments have tacitly allowed for Zimbabwe to become a basket-case, it is an utter disgrace.

Death on horseback

The only comfort in Darfur is death visiting people as horse-backed black Nazis called the Janjaweed. The incredible fact being they are equipped for their death mission by the Sudanese government and this has been going on for at least three years.

I am no fan of John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, but his decision to stop the Australian cricket team from touring Zimbabwe is laudable, nothing should be done to let the brigands in that government savour any ounce of credibility; unfortunately the British government could not muster the guts to take that kind of decision 2 years ago.

It appears we still have to learn of ways to ensure Africans do not get a raw deal from our leaders from the West. Where is our humanity, civility or even civilisation?

Sustainable disgrace

To crown it all, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development had a vacant chairmanship position available to be filled by an African and the Africans put forward the Zimbabwean Environment Minister of all qualified Africans we can find for such a role. It is laughable and risible if it were not a complete letdown of Africa and Africans.

Sustained destruction of a once great, resourceful and self-sufficient nation is what this man brings to the job following his service to Mugabe's megalomania.

Someone must be acting out irony or playing a bad joke. It leaves me unwilling to continue to identify as African and one is just not impressed.

We cannot continue to sustain this kind of report from Africa, it is primitive, ignorant, savage and backward, it must stop.