Martin,
Enlightened and progressive political systems and peoples are making amends for past alleged wrongdoings committed in their quest to create nations out of backwaters and forge tribesmen into patriots. When are you human rights lawyers going to build a strong case against contemporaneous African dictators, their apparatchik and progeny for human rights abuses, torture, unjust enrichment, and abject mismanagement of economies resulting in generalized economic hardship in black Africa?
I posit that as long as we shy way from engaging international forums against incumbent dictators and rampaging elites, we have no moral standing to ask our colonial benefactors of yesteryear to account for the same wrongdoings that black Africans are now reconciled to under their post-independence black leaders. Mugabe has tortured more Zimbabweans than Britain ever did.
But then, many unenlightened members on these forums would argue that home grown torture by fellow blacks is more humane and acceptable than yesteryear's torture by white colonialists.
You all have a jealous and covetous eye on the deep pockets well-managed and solvent white states. Your own God-forsaken countries would flog you up if you dared to bring such claims before their courts. Let's thank God for progressive white societies that have enshrined the concept of individual human rights, a concept that is alien to traditional Africa where tribe, community and extended family considerations trump individual human rights.
Mukefor
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com; ambasbay@googlegroups.com; camnetwork@yahoogroups.com
From: tumasangm@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:28:21 +0000
Subject: [cameroon_politics] Southern Cameroons: Mau Mau Victory: Old Empires Shiver, but Whether There is Enough in Southern Cameroons (e.g. torture, detentions, unorthodox interrogations etc.) for Successful Legal Claims Against Britain is Another Matter Altogether.
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Enlightened and progressive political systems and peoples are making amends for past alleged wrongdoings committed in their quest to create nations out of backwaters and forge tribesmen into patriots. When are you human rights lawyers going to build a strong case against contemporaneous African dictators, their apparatchik and progeny for human rights abuses, torture, unjust enrichment, and abject mismanagement of economies resulting in generalized economic hardship in black Africa?
I posit that as long as we shy way from engaging international forums against incumbent dictators and rampaging elites, we have no moral standing to ask our colonial benefactors of yesteryear to account for the same wrongdoings that black Africans are now reconciled to under their post-independence black leaders. Mugabe has tortured more Zimbabweans than Britain ever did.
But then, many unenlightened members on these forums would argue that home grown torture by fellow blacks is more humane and acceptable than yesteryear's torture by white colonialists.
You all have a jealous and covetous eye on the deep pockets well-managed and solvent white states. Your own God-forsaken countries would flog you up if you dared to bring such claims before their courts. Let's thank God for progressive white societies that have enshrined the concept of individual human rights, a concept that is alien to traditional Africa where tribe, community and extended family considerations trump individual human rights.
Mukefor
To: cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com; ambasbay@googlegroups.com; camnetwork@yahoogroups.com
From: tumasangm@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:28:21 +0000
Subject: [cameroon_politics] Southern Cameroons: Mau Mau Victory: Old Empires Shiver, but Whether There is Enough in Southern Cameroons (e.g. torture, detentions, unorthodox interrogations etc.) for Successful Legal Claims Against Britain is Another Matter Altogether.
Mau Mau Victory: Old Empires Shiver
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IN what many thought would end up as another exercise in futility, a group of self-determination freedom fighter may have blazed the trail in making the British and other colonialists and/or their representatives admit to crimes committed against humanity.
Call them Mau Mau, a nickname Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) or Uma Uma, which means 'get out get out' in Kikuyu, the outcome of their stunning legal battle against the United Kingdom, for the systemic violence committed during the group's struggle for self-determination, is unprecedented.
Indeed, apart from Germany, which was made to pay for Holocaust crimes committed against the Jews, the world has hardly witnessed any foreign power found guilty of misdeeds against the locals.
On Thursday, June 6, 2013, nearly 200 elderly Kikuyu people traveled from their rural homesteads and sat before the British high commissioner in Nairobi. Over half a century had passed since many were last in front of a British official. It was a different era then in Kenya. The Mau Mau war was raging, and Britain was implementing coercive policies that left indelible scars on the bodies and minds of countless men and women suspected of subversive activities.
In the 1950s they experienced events in colonial detention camps that few imagined possible. On this historic day they gathered to witness another unimaginable thing: the much-delayed colonial gesture at reconciliation. The High Commissioner read extracts from William Hague's earlier statement in parliament. Hague acknowledged for the first time that the elderly Kikuyu and other Kenyans had been subjected to torture and other horrific abuses during the Mau Mau insurgency. On behalf of the British government he expressed "sincere regret" that these abuses had taken place, announced payments of £2,600 to each of 5,200 vetted claimants, and urged that the process of healing for both nations begin.
The faces of the elderly camp survivors betrayed the day's historical significance. Tears rolled down faces lined from years of internalised pain and bitterness. Many sat motionless as the High Commissioner read the statement. Others let out audible gasps, and cries of joy. Some burst into songs.
Yet, the Mau Mau victory is not only theirs as Britain's acknowledgement of colonial era torture may have opened as many intended doors. Kenya was not alone. British colonial repression was systematised and honed in many parts of Africa and several other parts of the world including Palestine, Malaya, Cyprus, Aden, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, British coercive counter-insurgency tactics evolved, as did brutal interrogation techniques. The Mau Mau detention camps were but one site in a broader policy of end-of-empire incarceration, torture and cover-up.
In the wake of its announcement, Britain now faces potential claims from across its former empire. From a historical perspective, the government has every reason to be concerned about its legacy. There is unequivocal evidence of colonial brutalities in many former colonies. Whether there is enough for successful legal claims is another matter altogether.
Britain is, however, not alone. Alleged atrocities of Portugal, the first and the last colonial power to leave Africa, are legendary. The Portuguese misdeeds are rivaled only by those of France, particularly in Algeria and Conakry (Guinea), Belgium in Congo and Germany in Namibia. Dutch and Italian atrocities are not exempted
Call them Mau Mau, a nickname Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) or Uma Uma, which means 'get out get out' in Kikuyu, the outcome of their stunning legal battle against the United Kingdom, for the systemic violence committed during the group's struggle for self-determination, is unprecedented.
Indeed, apart from Germany, which was made to pay for Holocaust crimes committed against the Jews, the world has hardly witnessed any foreign power found guilty of misdeeds against the locals.
On Thursday, June 6, 2013, nearly 200 elderly Kikuyu people traveled from their rural homesteads and sat before the British high commissioner in Nairobi. Over half a century had passed since many were last in front of a British official. It was a different era then in Kenya. The Mau Mau war was raging, and Britain was implementing coercive policies that left indelible scars on the bodies and minds of countless men and women suspected of subversive activities.
In the 1950s they experienced events in colonial detention camps that few imagined possible. On this historic day they gathered to witness another unimaginable thing: the much-delayed colonial gesture at reconciliation. The High Commissioner read extracts from William Hague's earlier statement in parliament. Hague acknowledged for the first time that the elderly Kikuyu and other Kenyans had been subjected to torture and other horrific abuses during the Mau Mau insurgency. On behalf of the British government he expressed "sincere regret" that these abuses had taken place, announced payments of £2,600 to each of 5,200 vetted claimants, and urged that the process of healing for both nations begin.
The faces of the elderly camp survivors betrayed the day's historical significance. Tears rolled down faces lined from years of internalised pain and bitterness. Many sat motionless as the High Commissioner read the statement. Others let out audible gasps, and cries of joy. Some burst into songs.
Yet, the Mau Mau victory is not only theirs as Britain's acknowledgement of colonial era torture may have opened as many intended doors. Kenya was not alone. British colonial repression was systematised and honed in many parts of Africa and several other parts of the world including Palestine, Malaya, Cyprus, Aden, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, British coercive counter-insurgency tactics evolved, as did brutal interrogation techniques. The Mau Mau detention camps were but one site in a broader policy of end-of-empire incarceration, torture and cover-up.
In the wake of its announcement, Britain now faces potential claims from across its former empire. From a historical perspective, the government has every reason to be concerned about its legacy. There is unequivocal evidence of colonial brutalities in many former colonies. Whether there is enough for successful legal claims is another matter altogether.
Britain is, however, not alone. Alleged atrocities of Portugal, the first and the last colonial power to leave Africa, are legendary. The Portuguese misdeeds are rivaled only by those of France, particularly in Algeria and Conakry (Guinea), Belgium in Congo and Germany in Namibia. Dutch and Italian atrocities are not exempted
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