Somalia and the abusive relationship between Africans and Europeans
This article is dedicated to the late African historian, Dr John Henrik Clarke who once said that African people had reached a crossroads. Today, they have reached another.
Somalia and the abusive relationship between Africans and Europeans
By Hort
12/04/09
It’s true what they say. “If you watch television you will not know what is going on in the world.” The situation in Somalia is a case in point. According to the Western mainstream media, warlords in the Horn of Africa have turned into a Mafia, and are using piracy as a means of acquiring wealth. However, when local people take up arms and start attacking big ships, we ought to know that the problem is much more complex than that. Malcolm X used to say that “when white people sneeze black people catch a cold,” and he is right because Africa’s problems always have their roots in Europe. So, if you want to know what is going on in Somalia, or any part of Africa for that matter, you first have to go to Europe. That is what this article intends to do. But that is not enough. To get a more complete picture, you also have to take a deeper look at the 500 year old relationship between Africa and Europe and that is also the purpose of this article.
Two events have occurred in Europe recently which have had an impact in Africa. The first was the end of the Cold war. With communism no longer a threat, wars in Africa have decreased and some have even come to an end. However, reduced conflict in Africa has reactivated the European phobia of an overpopulated Africa which constant wars had stemmed. Dr Cress Wesling in her book The Keys To The Colours has analysed this innate fear in white people of being genetically annihilated by black people, because of our dominant and their recessive genes.( please refer to her book for more info) It has also rekindled the fear of Asians, (the yellow peril), because of China’s re-emergence on the international stage which is perceived as a threat to western hegemony Secondly, Europeans have become more health conscious because of exploding cancer rates and recurrent food scares. As a result, their eating habits and behaviour have changed and they are demanding less and less mass produced, pesticide ridden products and more natural foods. These changes have forced European governments to adopt measures to firstly, control the growth of African populations, secondly, maintain their mass produced manufacturing industry although their people are eating less chemically prepared foods, because it represents billions of dollars and employment, and finally, exclude China as much as possible from the African market. However, these measures while good for Europe, have spelt disaster for Africa..
The European plan is quite simple. Since Europeans want more natural foods, then African eating habits will simply have to be modified to accommodate these changes. Africans will have to eat the pesticide ridden foods that Europeans no longer want. So, European countries give subsidies to their farmers to encourage them to produce much more food than their people need and then simply dump their surplus in Africa. This in turn destroys the local economy, as Africans abandon their natural products to buy imported, pesticide ridden foods which are available at a much cheaper price. As a consequence of this policy, today, Africa, the richest continent in the world, which can actually produce food all year round to feed the entire planet, finds itself in the absurd position of producing absolutely nothing. It is not because Africans are not as entrepreneurial as other groups as many people naively believe, it is because of this policy, which has existed believe it or not, since the days of slavery, where Europe produces everything and its surplus is simply exported to Africa. Frozen foods have brought new problems to Africa. Recently, I saw a program where Europeans inundated the Ghanaian and Togolese markets with frozen chicken produced in Europe. As most Africans do not have refrigerators, since they traditionally eat fresh foods, many die from food poisoning due to a lack of proper storage of frozen products.
Furthermore, Africa has no choice in the matter. It must import Europe’s manufactured products in order to get help from the IMF and the World Bank, which of course are both controlled by Europe. Any African government that refuses to import Europe’s vegetables, frozen meat, clothes, milk, etc, gets no financial help. It’s as simple as abc. By destroying the local economy in Africa, Europe achieves three goals. Firstly, it can keep its manufacturing industry going, although its people eat less manufactured foods today than they did in the past. Secondly, it can exclude the Asians from dominating the African market by keeping Africa indebted to the West and thirdly, it can completely control the population of Africa, because it can control both its birth and death rates by simply decreasing or increasing the amount of food in its local market. So, although African people have been emancipated, and Africa decolonized and even become independent, the harsh fact is that Europe still controls the total destiny of African people. The irony is that they are still the ones making the decisions about what African people eat, wear or do and more frighteningly, they are still the ones deciding whether Africa can increase or decrease its population. As they say, the hand that feeds you, controls you. Nothing has changed since the days of slavery, except for the removal of the chains. The slave system remains intact to this day. (I have already written an in depth article about this which you can read here http://horte.over-blog.fr/article-14923529.html ). The recent food riots in Africa, in Haiti and in other parts of the world has shown how much power is still concentrated in the hands of European people who, by simply increasing or decreasing the amount of food in the world market have absolute power over the right to live or die, of millions of human beings on the planet. As they say in the book they invented, “they are God”.
This brings us to Somalia because what is happening there is directly linked to these policies. As I said earlier, Europe modifies African habits wherever necessary in order to satisfy its own needs. As a result, they have wiped out the local fishing industry in Somalia. Industrial fishing has depleted the fish in European waters, so the European Union has been forced to introduce quotas in its fishing industry in order to regenerate its stock. A measure which is causing tremendous anger among local fishermen in Europe, I should add. As a result, European fishermen have had to go further afield to fish. Also, Europeans are eating more fish today than in the past for health purposes. Since there are no true sovereign states in Africa and the continent has no military power to protect itself, again because of decisions made by Europe, European fishermen simply do what they want in African waters. African fishermen cannot compete with European fishermen who usually fish 24/7, have trawlers with bigger nets thus catch more fish and literally leave no fish for the local people. Illegal fishing is also a major problem. I watched a program about a year ago which showed that the Senegalese who traditionally eat a lot of fish, are now suffering from a chronic lack of protein, because they no longer eat enough fish in their diet. Most of their fish now comes to Europe to satisfy the exotic tastes of Europeans.
This state of affairs has obviously created conflict between European and African fishermen. Complaints from African fishermen have fallen on deaf ears. Some fishermen simply decide to migrate to Europe. That is the reason for the unending stream of overloaded fishing boats that are often splashed across our television screens when one sinks off the coast of Italy or Spain. Television of course never explains that most of the young men dying in those boats are local fishermen that Europeans have put out of work. Viewers are simply given the impression that corrupt dictators in Africa are really the cause. Why waste time explaining the root of the problem. After all, they are only Africans. Others, like the Somalis fight back, and as there has been no central government in Somalia for years now, also as a result of Europe’s policies in Africa, the situation has now degenerated to the point where they have resorted to kidnapping western ships, in a vain attempt to defend their territory and demanding ransom in return for lost revenue.
All along the African coast, European fishermen have destroyed the livelihood of millions of Africans and Somalia is no exception. But it is not just in the fishing and agricultural industries that European policies have destroyed African lives. It is in every area of economic activity. For example, another bone of contention between Somalia and Europe is the disposal of toxic waste. The Somalis accuse Europeans of dumping their toxic waste in their waters. Europe produces toxic waste but it is Africa that suffers the consequences, since the continent has become the dumping ground for Europe’s chemical waste. For example, several people died in the Ivory Coast last year when illegal chemical substances from Europe were dumped in a suburban neighbourhood outside Abidjan. Once again, a problem which is really a European problem and should be solved in Europe, is transferred to Africa with devastating consequences for African people.
People of African descent therefore need to see the problem in Somalia in its global context and not just as something isolated, involving a few warlords. In fact, the problem in Somalia is not about warlords or about piracy. It is really about the need to change the relationship between blacks and whites. It is urgent therefore that African people around the world remove their colour tinted glasses and take a good look at their relationship with the West. We are not their ex slaves, nor their trading partners, nor their friends. African people have been trapped in an abusive relationship with Europeans for almost 500 years now, and their criminal policies towards African people are all manifestations of that abuse. Whether it is by controlling Africa’s food supply to keep its people in a permanent state of malnutrition for population control purposes, or by destroying their local economies to maintain their poverty and underdevelopment, or using dangerous drugs or carrying out medical experiments on our children, stealing intellectual property, pillaging Africa’s mineral resources, exterminating true African leaders and imposing their own, keeping Africa permanently indebted, creating ghettos and forcing Africans to live in them, shooting down our youth indiscriminately, or creaming off Africa’s brightest and best through the brain drain, wherever you choose to look, western abuse of African people is mind-boggling.
Being on the receiving end of such massive abuse, one would have thought that African people would have put an end to it aeons ago. Yet, they have not done so, because once again it is Europeans, not Africans, who have defined our relationship with them and they have defined it as one based on friendship and equality and have invented useless slogans like “liberty, fraternity, and equality” to convince us that it is true. However, their behaviour is typical of abusers who after using extreme violence on their victims, can become quite charming in order to give their victims the false impression that the abuser has changed and is basically just a ‘nice guy.’ How can African people not feel that Sony Bono, the G8/20, Bill Gates, all the Western humanitarian organisations working in Africa, and even Madonna are genuine friends, since they all swear that their only desire is to help Africa and her people. Europeans have been so convincing that most black people have been under the misguided notion, even esteemed leaders like Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, that blacks and whites can live together in peace and harmony. However, ask any battered wife and she will tell you that you can live with an abuser, (African people are the best proof of that), but you will certainly not live in peace and harmony with him, unless he stops abusing you. These humanitarian actions are only a temporary respite from their violence. Their criminal policies towards African people all around the planet show that the West continues to think of African people as less than human. Every one of their policies has been designed to completely control or hurt African people, which is the main goal of every abuser. This is the reason for their obsession with controlling Africa’s food supply, as well as its demographics and keeping African countries permanently indebted to them. You do not exploit, starve, kill, or steal from your friends and you would certainly never enslave them, but that is what Europeans have done to African people. So, if white people, who profess to be the friends of black people, truly want to live in peace and harmony with them, then they are going to have to stop abusing people of African descent, because that is exactly what they have been doing for almost 500 years.
Our inability to correctly define our relationship with Europeans as abusive, has resulted in a total lack of effective strategies which would have allowed our people to bring this abuse to an end a long time ago. This myopia, is also the main reason it is so difficult to convince people of African descent that they need to liberate themselves. Our people are confused because they do not understand why they need to fight for liberation, if they are already free and equal to whites. It is a nonsensical idea to them and they are right. However, if they had been told that Africans and Europeans were in an abusive relationship, they would have immediately understood the need for liberation, because everybody knows it is in the victim’s best interest to get out of an abusive relationship as soon as possible..
African people have allowed Europeans to define their relationship because like all victims of abuse, they prefer to indulge in fantasy and delusion rather than face harsh reality. This is the major reason our people cling to religion so obsessively. It is so much easier to fantasize about the mythical heaven where everything is perfect, rather than admit that they are abused and mistreated on a daily basis. As the abuse and violence intensify, so does the search for relief, and that is the reason for the upsurge in Christianity in the motherland today. Somalia is an urgent call to African people to come out of their state of delusion and finally admit what they have denied for far too long. i.e. the relationship between Africans and Europeans is one of sheer violence and unadulterated abuse. The time has come to stop allowing Europeans to define our relationship (friends and equal partners) and to define it ourselves (abused victims versus abusers), because it is our failure to do so, which has allowed them to continue abusing our people and has led to the present crisis in the motherland. Only when African people are honest enough to admit that they are in an abusive relationship with people of European descent, and describe it as such, will they work to end it.
Somalia is also a warning that African people have reached a very dangerous stage in their history and strong action is necessary. Ordinary African people are reaching a breaking point and soon it will not just be Somali pirates that the West will have to face, but pirates throughout the whole African continent. Therefore, something must be done to stop this cycle of violence. Somalia illustrates perfectly how the cycle of abuse actually works between Europeans and Africans.
1) The abuser uses violence against the victim. (Europe’s destruction of the local fishing industry/dumping toxic waste)
2) The victim reacts against the violent behaviour of the abuser (Somalis kidnap Westerners and demand a ransom).
3) The abuser then becomes even more violent and aggressive to show that he is in complete control of the situation. (West uses overwhelming firepower against Somalis/ threat to invade their country.
4) Situation ends in tragedy for the victim (murder of Somalis)
This is how our abusive relationship with white people has worked for almost 500 years. If the economic situation in the West continues to worsen, their policies in Africa will become even harsher and this cycle of violence will become more frequent, because Africans will be pushed to the brink more and more and will eventually be forced to revolt, like in Somalia. Europe’s long term goal is to retake the African continent and revolt will make it much easier for them to do so, but this time, with the consent of African people. How much opposition did African people show when the West spoke about the need to take over Somalia? If Europeans do retake Africa, it will not be a replay of yesteryear because conditions have changed. 500 years ago, there was a huge amount of land and jobs available in the new world, but not enough labour. As a result, African labour was highly valued. In fact, that was the reason Europeans decided to attack Africa in the first place and drag its people off against their will into slavery. Today, there is an abundance of labour, but very little land and very few jobs available. I do not believe I have to explain how Europeans deal with people or things that they consider unwanted or obsolete. That is why it is so urgent to stop this cycle of abuse, especially since African people, again because of their myopia, are in no position to fight Europe militarily.
Recently, the West has been bombarding the world with the idea of change. So, there is no time like the present for Africans to start changing this abusive relationship, because for the first time since Europeans carried out their unprovoked attack on Africa almost 500 years ago, a western country, and not just any western country, but the most powerful western country, has an African man as its president. Eric Holder has asked both black and white Americans to "stop being cowards and start to dialogue". Some white Americans have attacked him because abusers hate to have their crimes exposed. This is the reason white Americans have already started talking about a 'post racial America.' In that way, they can avoid dealing with the question of reparations and slavery. Their absence at the Durban Racism Conference is also another way they avoid the issue. Abusers prefer their victims to feel guilty, because then they have nothing to fear, since they know that the victim will remain silent and not expose their crimes. In the past it was very difficult for detectives to arrest rapists and paedophiles because their victims often remained silent because of shame and guilt, thus allowing the criminals to go unpunished. Europeans have done the same thing to African people. To make sure that Africans feel guilty about the crime that Europeans committed, they taught Africans in the diaspora that Africans in the motherland were responsible for their enslavement and as they say 'a lie told often enough soon becomes the truth.' This lie has been passed down from generation to generation right up until today. As a result, each time you raise the issue of slavery, you can be certain that a person of African descent will chime in with these words. “African people were selling each other in Africa”. For those African people who keep repeating that statement I would like them to consider the following:
1) Modern slavery did not take place in Africa, but in the new world (Canada, USA, Latin America, the Caribbean), so Africa has absolutely nothing to do with our enslavement in the diaspora .
2) African people did not build ships in Europe, travel to Africa to kidnap Africans, then take them across the Atlantic ocean to the new world. Europeans did. So, Africa is not guilty.
3) Africans did not keep us in chains and treat us in the most inhumane manner for over 300 years in the new world. Europeans did. So again, Africans are not guilty.
4) Slavery did not exist in the new world. Europeans introduced it. Again, Africans are innocent.
5) Let us admit just for the sake of argument, that slavery was in fact a tradition in Africa. We were told that America was founded by Europeans fleeing persecution in Europe who wanted to live in a fair and just society. If that were the case, after buying us as slaves in Africa, what stopped Europeans from setting us free in America, and founding this fair society that they said they wanted, since slavery did not exist in the new world? The conditions were ideal for that. Yet, they chose to enslave and they did so, because it wasn’t Africa where slavery was a tradition, it was Europe. As they had been used to enslaving their fellowmen in Europe for centuries, they had no qualms about continuing the same European practice in the new world.
So, on all counts, our African ancestors cannot be held responsible for our enslavement in the new world. It was a 100% European affair from the day we arrived until the day they abolished slavery. So why do Africans in the diaspora always blame Africans in the motherland for slavery? That has been part of Europe’s strategy to keep us silent. By putting the blame on African people for the crime that they committed against us they knew that guilt and shame would reduce us to silence and this in turn would reduce their responsibillity and it has worked. However, it is time for us to stop feeling guilty for their crime. We must not remain silent any longer but rather expose it. It is time to take the dirty laundry out of the closet and put it on the table for all to see. It is time to talk about slavery, their racism, their intolerance, their narcissism, their insecurity, their inferiority complex, their injustice, their exploitation of others, their inhumane behaviour towards other human beings. We must even talk about their fictitious bible story, but most of all we must talk about their cruelty and their violence. Their criminal behaviour can no longer be tolerated in the 21st century. It is time to put a stop to it. Let us not forget that they wrote a false history of Africa and they also imposed silence on us. They only began to change their version when our scholars started to write the true history of our people and challenge them about it, although there are still some diehards, like the French president, who continue to delude themselves that “African people have still not entered history.”
Africans must make people like Mr. Sarkozy understand that it is in fact people of European descent who have not yet entered history and their violent behaviour is proof of that. That is why we must make them understand that their behaviour is no longer acceptable in a civilized world. They must be made to understand that their obsession to control and intentionally hurt other human beings is abnormal and they need help to overcome their pathology. In fact, if can we heal European people of their pathology, we can heal African people of theirs, since our aberrant behaviour is a direct consequence of theirs. So by helping them, we in fact, help ourselves. For example, because white people hate the colour of their skin, they have made African people hate theirs, but if we can help them to love the colour of their own skin, then African people will begin to love theirs, because then, they will no longer make African people feel that black skin is inferior. If we can stop their violence, we will stop ours, because our violence stems from theirs. In fact, if we stop their violence, we will stop the violence all around this planet. That is why it is so important that we begin to define our relationship with them, rather than the other way round, otherwise, they will never believe they have a problem. Europeans have never ever questioned their behaviour and it is time for us to make them do so. So, Eric Holder’s suggestion is a step in the right direction because the only way to stop the violence in an abusive relationship, or to avoid a tragic ending, is to get both partners to undergo therapy to deal with their underlying problems. So, both black and white Americans should have a lot to say.
Now that we know that the relationship between Africans and Europeans is based on violence and abuse, rather than on friendship and equality, each person of African descent must be held responsible for the abuse that the West is metering out to our people on a massive scale all around the planet, because it is their duty to bring it to an end. The time has come for the African Union, African governments and African people, to put their differences aside, and work together to prevent Europe from continuing to implement policies which are harmful to African people. Europe has the right to make decisions which are in the best interests of its people, however, when those decisions have a negative impact on our people, then Africans have no right to implement them, whether these policies are made by the European Union, the IMF, the World Bank, or the WTO, because it is nothing more than self abuse, another common symptom among victims of abuse. African Americans especially, must put immense pressure on president Obama, to make sure that he brings this abusive relationship which African people have endured for almost 500 years to an end, before he leaves office. That is the only way that his administration will be considered to have been a success, and it is also the only way to avoid future scenarios like the one being played out in Somalia today.
This article can be published on blogs and websites around the world without the permission of the author and should be translated into African languages and read aloud in places where our people cannot read and write.
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Books to read
The keys to the colours by Dr. Cress Wesling
Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington
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