JO - Empire and enigmas

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Empire and enigmas

HEART TO HEART

With Betty Ann Blaine

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Dear Reader,

The story of Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, has a recurrent theme. It is a story of old wounds and present realities - a story of empire and enigmas. It is as much a story of the evils of the British Empire as it is a story of a modern-day despot. Zimbabwe's current crisis cannot be fully understood without an examination of the past. Like all of colonised Africa, many of the country's problems have their roots in slavery and colonialism, and the attendant socio-economic and political dynamics of ethnicity and inequality.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The carving up of Africa, commonly referred to as the "partition" or the "scramble", was much more than the sharing up of the continent among European powers for profit and for power. The indiscriminate butchering of the land cut into and across age-old cultural and linguistic boundaries in a manner that left with it deep and long-lasting consequences on almost every country in Africa, including Zimbabwe.

On November 15, 1884, an international conference was convened in Berlin. Present was every nation of Europe, save Switzerland and the United States of America, 14 in all."

Personally, I object to America being classified as a European nation, either today or in 1884.