Thursday, December 1, 2011
ROSA PARKS DECEMBER 1, 1955
Fifty six years ago on Thursday, December 1, 1955 the actions of a 42 year old African American woman catapulted her into the pages of history books as it was one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks was a seasoned activist when she was arrested on that fateful Thursday night. She and her husband, Raymond Parks were actively involved in seeking justice for the wrongfully accused “Scottsboro Boys.” The infamous “Scottsboro Boys” case began in 1931 when on March 25, 1931 a group of 9 African American young men were accused of raping two white women. Despite strong evidence of their innocence, an all-white jury convicted the young men and sentenced eight of them to death. The accusation of rape came after a fight broke out between a group of young men white and a group of African American young men who were riding on a Southern Railroad freight train. The train was stopped by an angry posse in Paint Rock, Alabama and the African Americans were arrested for assault. Rape charges were added when two white women who were also on the train accused the African American youth of rape. It was speculated that the white women accused the African American youth of rape because they feared they would be arrested for vagrancy or for being hobos in the company of the African American youths. One of the women had been arrested for adultery and fornication just two months before in January 1931. Whatever their reasons for the accusations they both stuck to their stories until April 7, 1933 http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/scottsboro/rubybate.htm when under cross examination a different story was told. All the Scottsboro boys eventually gained their freedom but the process took almost 20 years. Meanwhile Parks became a member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and was one of the driving forces in seeking to repeal the laws of segregation. Although the African American population of Montgomery, Alabama was the lifeblood of the Montgomery public transportation system they were disrespected by the drivers, forced to sit at the back of the bus and to relinquish their seats when the white section of the bus was filled.
When Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 she had years of activism to call upon, plus the support of her community who knew her as someone who could go the extra mile when the going got tough. After all she had been instrumental in ensuring that incidents of white men raping African American women were not swept under the white supremacist carpet of the segregated government. In the 2011 published book At the dark end of the street: black women, rape, and resistance -- a new history of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power her almost single-handed determination to seek justice when in 1944 Recy Taylor was brutally raped by 7 seven white men (armed with knives and shotguns) is well documented. Risking her physical safety Parks vigorously investigated and pursued the case to its conclusion and even though none of the 7 white rapists were ever convicted of the crime it received widespread attention. Parks recruited other activists and created the “Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor” which brought international attention to the crime committed against Taylor. Earlier this year, on March 30, the Alabama state legislature in apologizing for their refusal to prosecute the rapists of Recy Taylor passed a resolution which read in part: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we acknowledge the lack of prosecution for crimes committed against Recy Taylor by the government of the State of Alabama, that we declare such failure to act was, and is, morally abhorrent and repugnant, and that we do hereby express profound regret for the role played by the government of the State of Alabama in failing to prosecute the crimes. Taylor now 91 years old received the news in her Florida home where she, her husband and baby daughter had been forced to flee after a fire bombing of their home and death threats from the good white citizens of Alabama following the widespread publicizing of the rape.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the back of the bus to a white man who could not find a seat in the white section of the bus she may have thought about the “Scottsboro Boys,” Recy Taylor or the many other people for whom she had advocated. One person she did think about as she sat on the bus waiting to be arrested was Emmett Till. Parks is quoted as saying: I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. Emmett Till was the 14 year old African American youth who had been brutally tortured and murdered by two white men who accused him of whistling at a 21 year old white woman. Till who was born in Chicago, the only child of Mamie Till Mobley had been spending the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi when in the early hours of August 28, 1955 two white men arrived at his elderly relative’s home, woke him up and took him away. He was never seen alive again. Three days after his abduction the body of the 14 year old was found. The two white men had brutally beaten the child, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him through the head, tied a 75 pound cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire before disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River. The authorities tried to quietly bury his body in Mississippi but his mother fought them to have his body returned to Chicago where the world could see the brutal face of the white supremacist culture that allowed the vicious murder of her child. The two men who murdered Till were found not guilty by a jury of their peers. Their confession was published in Look magazine in January 1956. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html
Remembering the kidnapping, torture and murder of 14 year old Till earlier that year Parks decided on December 1, 1955 that she would not move and the rest is history. Parks was a human rights activist and crusader for social justice whose life story is more than her actions on December 1, 1955. Her action on that Thursday night snowballed and eventually caused the desegregation of the Montgomery public transportation system. Sometimes all it takes to change the system is for one person to take action.
When Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 she had years of activism to call upon, plus the support of her community who knew her as someone who could go the extra mile when the going got tough. After all she had been instrumental in ensuring that incidents of white men raping African American women were not swept under the white supremacist carpet of the segregated government. In the 2011 published book At the dark end of the street: black women, rape, and resistance -- a new history of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power her almost single-handed determination to seek justice when in 1944 Recy Taylor was brutally raped by 7 seven white men (armed with knives and shotguns) is well documented. Risking her physical safety Parks vigorously investigated and pursued the case to its conclusion and even though none of the 7 white rapists were ever convicted of the crime it received widespread attention. Parks recruited other activists and created the “Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor” which brought international attention to the crime committed against Taylor. Earlier this year, on March 30, the Alabama state legislature in apologizing for their refusal to prosecute the rapists of Recy Taylor passed a resolution which read in part: BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA, BOTH HOUSES THEREOF CONCURRING, That we acknowledge the lack of prosecution for crimes committed against Recy Taylor by the government of the State of Alabama, that we declare such failure to act was, and is, morally abhorrent and repugnant, and that we do hereby express profound regret for the role played by the government of the State of Alabama in failing to prosecute the crimes. Taylor now 91 years old received the news in her Florida home where she, her husband and baby daughter had been forced to flee after a fire bombing of their home and death threats from the good white citizens of Alabama following the widespread publicizing of the rape.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the back of the bus to a white man who could not find a seat in the white section of the bus she may have thought about the “Scottsboro Boys,” Recy Taylor or the many other people for whom she had advocated. One person she did think about as she sat on the bus waiting to be arrested was Emmett Till. Parks is quoted as saying: I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. Emmett Till was the 14 year old African American youth who had been brutally tortured and murdered by two white men who accused him of whistling at a 21 year old white woman. Till who was born in Chicago, the only child of Mamie Till Mobley had been spending the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi when in the early hours of August 28, 1955 two white men arrived at his elderly relative’s home, woke him up and took him away. He was never seen alive again. Three days after his abduction the body of the 14 year old was found. The two white men had brutally beaten the child, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him through the head, tied a 75 pound cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire before disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River. The authorities tried to quietly bury his body in Mississippi but his mother fought them to have his body returned to Chicago where the world could see the brutal face of the white supremacist culture that allowed the vicious murder of her child. The two men who murdered Till were found not guilty by a jury of their peers. Their confession was published in Look magazine in January 1956. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html
Remembering the kidnapping, torture and murder of 14 year old Till earlier that year Parks decided on December 1, 1955 that she would not move and the rest is history. Parks was a human rights activist and crusader for social justice whose life story is more than her actions on December 1, 1955. Her action on that Thursday night snowballed and eventually caused the desegregation of the Montgomery public transportation system. Sometimes all it takes to change the system is for one person to take action.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Tenants of a Scarborough, Ontario apartment building were traumatized at the sight of an 8 month old baby girl hurtling through the air, apparently thrown from a 4th floor balcony at around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5. She landed on the concrete pavement and was soon followed by her two year old sister who landed on grass and then by their mother also allegedly flung off the 4th floor balcony by a 27 year male. Some reports indicate the family had recently moved from a 12th floor apartment. Photographs of the apartment with a shattered window pane and a curtain caught on the jagged edges of the shattered window pane appeared in several Toronto newspapers. The shattered window pane has caused some speculation that the 8 month old was thrown through the window and not off the balcony like her sister and mother. The seriously injured mother and two babies were hospitalized. The man who allegedly threw them off the balcony, although he reportedly leaped off the same balcony, was uninjured. Newspaper reports indicate that when he was confronted by police he attempted to grab one of their guns. He was arrested and appeared in court charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of attempting to disarm a police officer and two charges of resisting arrest.
Growing up in Guyana many decades ago we were told: “A boy who hits a girl is a coward.” Many men understand that hitting people who cannot physically defend themselves against you (e.g. women and children) is wrong, some do not. What drives a man to physically abuse the woman who has borne his children and physically abuse those children? What goes through a man’s mind as he takes a helpless child and tosses her off a balcony or through a window? Did he see her little body hit the concrete pavement before he tossed the two year old and then their mother off the balcony? Do abusive men learn their behaviour from observing their fathers, other male relatives, men in the neighbourhood where they grew up? Do men who abuse their partners and their children deserve/need condemnation or help? Will these children recover from their physical injuries and if they do will they carry emotional scars? Domestic violence, abuse of women and children cuts across class, ethnicity, race, religion etc., However since artists’ sketches from the accused man’s court appearance has identified him as African Canadian the racists are online with comments including: ”This family lives in a rental apartment in Scarborough…isn’t that where most of our immigrants move to when they arrive?” and “Have you also taken a look at the drawn picture…looks like an immigrant to me.” What does an immigrant look like? Obviously these white supremacists do not know the history of this country (Canada.) There has been an African Presence in this Great White North since the 1600s. Many African Canadians can trace their family's history to the French occupation/settlement. Others can trace their family's history to the United Empire Loyalists entrance into what was called British North America after the British were forced to leave the USA in 1783 (following their defeat during the American War of Independence.)Some members of the United Empire Loyalists were formerly enslaved Africans who had been freed because they supported the British during that war. Many of the white United Empire Loyalists brought enslaved Africans with them and those Africans remained in bondage until August 1, 1834 when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire (four years later in the Caribbean Islands colonized by the British.) Still others (African Canadians) are the descendants of those enslaved Africans who fled slavery in the USA to Canada especially after the second Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 by the American government; after Britain had abolished slavery in 1834 and Africans living in Canada were no longer enslaved. So it is possible that this African Canadian family caught up in a public instance of domestic violence could very well be from a community that traces its ancestry back many generations in this country.
While this family is suffering and need help to cope with the trauma of domestic abuse which led to life threatening injuries, the white supremacists are out with knives drawn ready to inflict more pain. The many instances of white men inflicting horrific abuses on their families are forgotten. The lives of poor people especially poor and racialised people are always open to the scrutiny of white people who make judgments based on their white supremacist mindset. The recent case of the family court judge in Texas who mercilessly beat his 16 year old daughter unaware that she was videotaping the beating is just one example that domestic violence cuts across race, class, age etc.,. The judge viciously beat his daughter causing the video to contain a warning about graphic content. He cannot be charged because his daughter only recently released the video online and the statute of limitations has run out. Explaining why she remained in the home after her husband brutally beat their child the mother who in the video seems to condone the beating said: “I lived in an environment of dysfunction and it steadily got worse. I did leave him... but he shamed me into going back. I was completely brainwashed and controlled. I did every single thing that he did. When I leave the room he is telling me what to say, what to do.”
Many women remain in abusive relationships out of fear that the abuser is all powerful and they would never be able to escape or fear that they may not be able to survive on their own. Some African Canadian women live with their abusers for years fearing the involvement of government agencies like police, the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and even Immigration depending on their status in the country. Women without status may face the choice of living with an abusive, dangerous man or involving authority figures with the power to separate them from their children either by seizing the children or deporting the mother.
Some of the abusers are so charming that the woman does not realise what is happening until she is deeply involved; living with the man, married, or has children with him. In many cases people outside the home are shocked when the abuse is made public because the charming face presented to the public is very different from the face seen by the woman and her children in the home. Women need to be aware of the warning clues that may identify an abuser before becoming irrevocably entangled and bringing children into a relationship. People who work with and support abused women agree that the controlling, jealous man is a potential batterer even as he professes love. The first slap or punch should never be ignored in spite of seemingly heartfelt apologies and promises that it will never happen again. Some of these predators are extremely cunning and can hide their “cloven hoof” (Guyanese expression for deceit) until it is too late. These two-faced creatures are adept at hiding their violent side until their victim is well secured; only then does their prey see the predator's true face. When the violence happens in the privacy of the home it is different from when it spills over into the streets, the workplace or the schools the children attend. In many cases it is not until the abuse spills over into the public realm that the victim is believed. The young woman in Texas who was brutally beaten by her father commented after the video was made public: “People are believing us now, instead of calling us liars like they have in the past."
Sometimes woman remain in abusive relationships because they think their “love” will rehabilitate the abuser. It is not the woman’s responsibility to rehabilitate her abuser who believes he is doing nothing wrong. In the case of the Texas judge; after the video was made public he shamelessly rationalized: "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is." These abusers should be held responsible for their behaviour. An abuser could be a family court judge or someone who thinks that siring children with various women is proof of his “manhood” even though he is not financially capable of supporting them but contributes fear and stress when the children witness or are subjected to physical and verbal violence. Regardless of race, ethnicity, economics etc., abusers are bullying cowards and no one should be subjected to a violent partner. There are many signs that a relationship is abusive: the most obvious is if you live in fear that you may say or do the “wrong thing” which will trigger a violent episode where you and/or your children might need medical attention. If this is you, seek help!
Growing up in Guyana many decades ago we were told: “A boy who hits a girl is a coward.” Many men understand that hitting people who cannot physically defend themselves against you (e.g. women and children) is wrong, some do not. What drives a man to physically abuse the woman who has borne his children and physically abuse those children? What goes through a man’s mind as he takes a helpless child and tosses her off a balcony or through a window? Did he see her little body hit the concrete pavement before he tossed the two year old and then their mother off the balcony? Do abusive men learn their behaviour from observing their fathers, other male relatives, men in the neighbourhood where they grew up? Do men who abuse their partners and their children deserve/need condemnation or help? Will these children recover from their physical injuries and if they do will they carry emotional scars? Domestic violence, abuse of women and children cuts across class, ethnicity, race, religion etc., However since artists’ sketches from the accused man’s court appearance has identified him as African Canadian the racists are online with comments including: ”This family lives in a rental apartment in Scarborough…isn’t that where most of our immigrants move to when they arrive?” and “Have you also taken a look at the drawn picture…looks like an immigrant to me.” What does an immigrant look like? Obviously these white supremacists do not know the history of this country (Canada.) There has been an African Presence in this Great White North since the 1600s. Many African Canadians can trace their family's history to the French occupation/settlement. Others can trace their family's history to the United Empire Loyalists entrance into what was called British North America after the British were forced to leave the USA in 1783 (following their defeat during the American War of Independence.)Some members of the United Empire Loyalists were formerly enslaved Africans who had been freed because they supported the British during that war. Many of the white United Empire Loyalists brought enslaved Africans with them and those Africans remained in bondage until August 1, 1834 when slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire (four years later in the Caribbean Islands colonized by the British.) Still others (African Canadians) are the descendants of those enslaved Africans who fled slavery in the USA to Canada especially after the second Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 by the American government; after Britain had abolished slavery in 1834 and Africans living in Canada were no longer enslaved. So it is possible that this African Canadian family caught up in a public instance of domestic violence could very well be from a community that traces its ancestry back many generations in this country.
While this family is suffering and need help to cope with the trauma of domestic abuse which led to life threatening injuries, the white supremacists are out with knives drawn ready to inflict more pain. The many instances of white men inflicting horrific abuses on their families are forgotten. The lives of poor people especially poor and racialised people are always open to the scrutiny of white people who make judgments based on their white supremacist mindset. The recent case of the family court judge in Texas who mercilessly beat his 16 year old daughter unaware that she was videotaping the beating is just one example that domestic violence cuts across race, class, age etc.,. The judge viciously beat his daughter causing the video to contain a warning about graphic content. He cannot be charged because his daughter only recently released the video online and the statute of limitations has run out. Explaining why she remained in the home after her husband brutally beat their child the mother who in the video seems to condone the beating said: “I lived in an environment of dysfunction and it steadily got worse. I did leave him... but he shamed me into going back. I was completely brainwashed and controlled. I did every single thing that he did. When I leave the room he is telling me what to say, what to do.”
Many women remain in abusive relationships out of fear that the abuser is all powerful and they would never be able to escape or fear that they may not be able to survive on their own. Some African Canadian women live with their abusers for years fearing the involvement of government agencies like police, the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and even Immigration depending on their status in the country. Women without status may face the choice of living with an abusive, dangerous man or involving authority figures with the power to separate them from their children either by seizing the children or deporting the mother.
Some of the abusers are so charming that the woman does not realise what is happening until she is deeply involved; living with the man, married, or has children with him. In many cases people outside the home are shocked when the abuse is made public because the charming face presented to the public is very different from the face seen by the woman and her children in the home. Women need to be aware of the warning clues that may identify an abuser before becoming irrevocably entangled and bringing children into a relationship. People who work with and support abused women agree that the controlling, jealous man is a potential batterer even as he professes love. The first slap or punch should never be ignored in spite of seemingly heartfelt apologies and promises that it will never happen again. Some of these predators are extremely cunning and can hide their “cloven hoof” (Guyanese expression for deceit) until it is too late. These two-faced creatures are adept at hiding their violent side until their victim is well secured; only then does their prey see the predator's true face. When the violence happens in the privacy of the home it is different from when it spills over into the streets, the workplace or the schools the children attend. In many cases it is not until the abuse spills over into the public realm that the victim is believed. The young woman in Texas who was brutally beaten by her father commented after the video was made public: “People are believing us now, instead of calling us liars like they have in the past."
Sometimes woman remain in abusive relationships because they think their “love” will rehabilitate the abuser. It is not the woman’s responsibility to rehabilitate her abuser who believes he is doing nothing wrong. In the case of the Texas judge; after the video was made public he shamelessly rationalized: "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is." These abusers should be held responsible for their behaviour. An abuser could be a family court judge or someone who thinks that siring children with various women is proof of his “manhood” even though he is not financially capable of supporting them but contributes fear and stress when the children witness or are subjected to physical and verbal violence. Regardless of race, ethnicity, economics etc., abusers are bullying cowards and no one should be subjected to a violent partner. There are many signs that a relationship is abusive: the most obvious is if you live in fear that you may say or do the “wrong thing” which will trigger a violent episode where you and/or your children might need medical attention. If this is you, seek help!
NAKUMBUKA I REMEMBER
On Friday, November 11 while a crowd gathered at Queens Park to celebrate/commemorate Remembrance Day, a handful of African Canadians gathered a few yards away to commemorate Nakumbuka (I Remember). Nakumbuka is the Kiswahili word used to remember our ancestors who perished during the Maafa (a Kiswahili word used to encompass the trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans.) The commemoration of Nakumbuka was the brainchild of Jomo Nkombe, a Tanzanian who lived in Toronto and pioneered the idea as a public ritual in 1990. Nkombe asked Charles ‘Mende’ Roach an activist lawyer/jurist to take the idea of Nakumbuka to the 1992 World Pan African Movement Conference which was held in Nigeria. At that conference it was resolved that the delegates would promote Nakumbuka to remember the millions of Africans who perished during the Maafa. In 1992 Nakumbuka was promoted in Nigeria by Naiwu Osahon of the World Pan African Movement. Baye Kes-Ba-Me-Ra and Adande Ima-Shema-Ra of the Pan African Associations of America established the Nakumbuka observance which was celebrated for the first time at San Diego State University, California on November 11, 1994. Roach has also led the Nakumbuka observance in Toronto since the 1990’s and in 2003 he went to Kingston, Jamaica and with Jamaican writer/educator Basil “Koosoonogo” Lopez, established the first Nakumbuka Ceremony at Mico College.
Nakumbuka is not about the glorification of war but we can definitely recognize those of our ancestors who perished fighting for their freedom and our freedom. Very different from the wars fought by Europeans as they battled each other in covetousness and greed to possess the lands of racialized people. Our ancestors in many cases had to wage what has now become known as guerilla warfare because they were invariably out numbered and outgunned by the white people who strove to keep them enslaved. The Maroons of Jamaica led by Nanny and others are an excellent example as are the Quilombolas of Brazil led by Zumbi and others, the various Africans who fought for their freedom against the Spanish throughout Central and South America, the Djukas of Suriname and Kofi, Akkara, Akkabre and Atta leaders of the 1763 Berbice Revolution in Guyana who fought the Dutch. Nakumbuka is a day to remember even those ancestors whose names we do not know who resisted in various ways as El Hajj Malik El Shabazz said “by any means necessary” and they did resist! Some ran away, others worked as slowly as they could, destroyed buildings, crops, livestock, tools etc., to cause the white slaveholders as much grief as they could.
On November 11 while there is much pomp and splendour in remembering and praising those who died during the great European tribal conflicts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 it is very instructional to observe the faces displayed in the newspapers and other media. The contribution of racialised people to these wars is not recognized. African Canadians have fought in every war in which this country has been involved even before it was known as Canada. In 1783 when Britain was forced to recognize American independence, there were Africans among the United Empire Loyalists who had supported Britain during the revolution and fled to Canada. Although the contribution of the Coloured Corps to defending Canada during the war of 1812 http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_MNO/Plaque_Niagara28.html is recognized with a plaque the entire story cannot be told in one small plaque and that history is usually ignored. There were more than 30 Africans defending this country during the War of 1812. When Canadians left these shores to do battle in other countries African Canadian men were always involved even when they had to fight the white power structure to be included. The myth that the war fought from 1939 to 1945 was a war for freedom is often touted on Remembrance Day. The fact that African Canadians who returned to Canada after fighting in that war were subjected to the same white supremacist oppression to which they had been subjected before certainly explodes that myth. Other well hidden secrets of that war are exposed in Trading With the Enemy: An Exposé of The Nazi-American Money-Plot 1933-1949 by Charles Higham. The cover blurb of the book states: “Here is the extraordinary true story of the American businessmen and government officials who dealt with the Nazis for profit or through conviction throughout the Second World War: Ford. Standard Oil, Chase Bank and members of the State Department were among those who shared in the spoils. Meticulously documented and dispassionately told, this is an alarming story. At its centre is 'The Fraternity', an influential international group associated with the Rockefeller or Morgan banks and linked by the ideology of Business as Usual. While Americans were dying in the war, McKittrick sat down with his German, Japanese, Italian, British and American executive staff to discuss the gold bars that had been sent to the Bank earlier that year by the Nazi government for use by its leaders after the war. Long and shocking is the list of diplomats and businessmen alike who had their own ways of profiting from the war.”
On November 11 during the Nakumbuka ceremony we commemorate the sacrifices our ancestors made. We must never forget, dismiss, minimize or simplify the five hundred years of horror and devastation of the Maafa. It is a day to remember the countless Africans who were kidnapped and taken away from their families and friends on the continent, never given the chance to say goodbye and never saw their loved ones again. Take time to read and talk with friends and family, children of all ages about the Maafa and how to ensure it never happens again. Those who do not know their history are at risk of having it repeated. We have not found a way to bring psychological, emotional and spiritual closure to the trauma we have experienced in the last five hundred years. The Maafa has been the least discussed human tragedy in the past five hundred years even among African people, yet this period of time has stunted the growth of a continent, its people and its children of the Diaspora. The inability of its victims to freely and openly express their grief and speak about the trauma has made this tragedy even more horrific. There has hardly been any discussion of the negative effects of the Maafa on the social, economic and cultural evolution of the African continent and the people that were lost due to the genocidal nature of an emerging European capitalism seeking free labour to build its empires. The European aggression against African people was extremely violent and brutal as centuries of the trade in human beings destroyed and erased the existence of villages, communities, empires, peoples, traditions, rituals, ceremonies, histories and languages. As a result of this barbarity it has been estimated that 60 to 100 million African lives were lost in the Middle Passage, on plantations in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, North America and households in European countries. African people were worked to death for the sole purpose of increasing the wealth and domination of white skin people at the expense of Africa and her people. Untold numbers of Africans also perished under various types of white domination, oppression and terrorism including colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, segregation and cultural assimilation. This has resulted in many Africans being lost and disconnected, denying their Africanness, hating themselves and those who look like them as they can only see themselves reflected through the eyes of people who despise them. Just as some people have said Lest We Forget and others have vowed Never Again we say Nakumbuka I Remember!
Nakumbuka is not about the glorification of war but we can definitely recognize those of our ancestors who perished fighting for their freedom and our freedom. Very different from the wars fought by Europeans as they battled each other in covetousness and greed to possess the lands of racialized people. Our ancestors in many cases had to wage what has now become known as guerilla warfare because they were invariably out numbered and outgunned by the white people who strove to keep them enslaved. The Maroons of Jamaica led by Nanny and others are an excellent example as are the Quilombolas of Brazil led by Zumbi and others, the various Africans who fought for their freedom against the Spanish throughout Central and South America, the Djukas of Suriname and Kofi, Akkara, Akkabre and Atta leaders of the 1763 Berbice Revolution in Guyana who fought the Dutch. Nakumbuka is a day to remember even those ancestors whose names we do not know who resisted in various ways as El Hajj Malik El Shabazz said “by any means necessary” and they did resist! Some ran away, others worked as slowly as they could, destroyed buildings, crops, livestock, tools etc., to cause the white slaveholders as much grief as they could.
On November 11 while there is much pomp and splendour in remembering and praising those who died during the great European tribal conflicts of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 it is very instructional to observe the faces displayed in the newspapers and other media. The contribution of racialised people to these wars is not recognized. African Canadians have fought in every war in which this country has been involved even before it was known as Canada. In 1783 when Britain was forced to recognize American independence, there were Africans among the United Empire Loyalists who had supported Britain during the revolution and fled to Canada. Although the contribution of the Coloured Corps to defending Canada during the war of 1812 http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_MNO/Plaque_Niagara28.html is recognized with a plaque the entire story cannot be told in one small plaque and that history is usually ignored. There were more than 30 Africans defending this country during the War of 1812. When Canadians left these shores to do battle in other countries African Canadian men were always involved even when they had to fight the white power structure to be included. The myth that the war fought from 1939 to 1945 was a war for freedom is often touted on Remembrance Day. The fact that African Canadians who returned to Canada after fighting in that war were subjected to the same white supremacist oppression to which they had been subjected before certainly explodes that myth. Other well hidden secrets of that war are exposed in Trading With the Enemy: An Exposé of The Nazi-American Money-Plot 1933-1949 by Charles Higham. The cover blurb of the book states: “Here is the extraordinary true story of the American businessmen and government officials who dealt with the Nazis for profit or through conviction throughout the Second World War: Ford. Standard Oil, Chase Bank and members of the State Department were among those who shared in the spoils. Meticulously documented and dispassionately told, this is an alarming story. At its centre is 'The Fraternity', an influential international group associated with the Rockefeller or Morgan banks and linked by the ideology of Business as Usual. While Americans were dying in the war, McKittrick sat down with his German, Japanese, Italian, British and American executive staff to discuss the gold bars that had been sent to the Bank earlier that year by the Nazi government for use by its leaders after the war. Long and shocking is the list of diplomats and businessmen alike who had their own ways of profiting from the war.”
On November 11 during the Nakumbuka ceremony we commemorate the sacrifices our ancestors made. We must never forget, dismiss, minimize or simplify the five hundred years of horror and devastation of the Maafa. It is a day to remember the countless Africans who were kidnapped and taken away from their families and friends on the continent, never given the chance to say goodbye and never saw their loved ones again. Take time to read and talk with friends and family, children of all ages about the Maafa and how to ensure it never happens again. Those who do not know their history are at risk of having it repeated. We have not found a way to bring psychological, emotional and spiritual closure to the trauma we have experienced in the last five hundred years. The Maafa has been the least discussed human tragedy in the past five hundred years even among African people, yet this period of time has stunted the growth of a continent, its people and its children of the Diaspora. The inability of its victims to freely and openly express their grief and speak about the trauma has made this tragedy even more horrific. There has hardly been any discussion of the negative effects of the Maafa on the social, economic and cultural evolution of the African continent and the people that were lost due to the genocidal nature of an emerging European capitalism seeking free labour to build its empires. The European aggression against African people was extremely violent and brutal as centuries of the trade in human beings destroyed and erased the existence of villages, communities, empires, peoples, traditions, rituals, ceremonies, histories and languages. As a result of this barbarity it has been estimated that 60 to 100 million African lives were lost in the Middle Passage, on plantations in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, North America and households in European countries. African people were worked to death for the sole purpose of increasing the wealth and domination of white skin people at the expense of Africa and her people. Untold numbers of Africans also perished under various types of white domination, oppression and terrorism including colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, segregation and cultural assimilation. This has resulted in many Africans being lost and disconnected, denying their Africanness, hating themselves and those who look like them as they can only see themselves reflected through the eyes of people who despise them. Just as some people have said Lest We Forget and others have vowed Never Again we say Nakumbuka I Remember!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
NOVEMBER 16-1972 TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT
On November 16, 1972 after 40 years of torture for a group of African Americans in Alabama, the US government brought a halt to the infamous syphilis experiment. This inhumane experiment using African American men, women and children as guinea pigs began in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. The men involved thought they were receiving free health care from the US government instead they were treated as if they were laboratory animals. Some 600 African American farm workers and tenant farmers from Macon County, Alabama and their families were used in the Public Health Service syphilis study. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical care (actually kept under medical surveillance,) free meals on the days they met with the medical staff members of the study and burial insurance of up to 50 dollars each. However the wives and partners of these men also contracted the disease and many of their children were born with congenital syphilis. Children born with congenital syphilis suffer brain damage, blindness, deafness and several deformities. The families were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. In the 1940s the medical personnel involved in this horrific violation of human rights were well aware that penicillin was an effective cure for syphilis. By 1947 penicillin had become standard treatment for syphilis and was available to the medical staff involved with the study but penicillin was never offered to any of the men being “studied.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including anemia and fatigue. Even when the victims died of the disease, the families were not made aware of the cause. If these families had been white they would not have been victimised by such an experiment because the law in Alabama at the time required that physicians provide proper care for patients with communicable diseases. In 1927 the Alabama Legislature enacted a venereal disease law which stated in part: “The county health officer shall require persons infected with venereal disease to report for treatment to a reputable physician and continue treatment until such disease, in the judgement of the attending physician is no longer communicable” Not only did the architects of this study (Surgeon General Hugh Cumming and assistant surgeons general Taliaferro Clark and Raymond Aloysius Vonderlehr) withhold treatment from the unfortunate victims of the study they also prevented them from getting treatment elsewhere. In 1942 Vonderlehr was informed that some of the men were being called for medical examination prior to drafting into the Armed Forces and would receive treatment to cure them of syphilis. He ensured that they were excluded from the draft and that they did not receive treatment. In explaining why Macon County was chosen as the site for the experiment Taliaferro Clark wrote that the “rather low intelligence of the Negro population and the depressed economic conditions” made Macon County “a natural laboratory; a ready-made situation.”
On July 23rd 1973, eight months after the study ended, a $1.8 billion class action suit was filed by civil rights lawyer Fred Gray who demanded $3 million in damages for each survivor and the heirs of those deceased. In December 1974 an out of court settlement was reached. The government agreed to pay $10 million, where each survivor received $37,500 in damages and the heirs of the deceased received $15,000. In 1974 two years after the government was forced to end the study Congress passed the National Research Act and created a commission to study and write regulations governing studies involving human participants.
It took another 23 years for the victims to receive acknowledgement from the government that a wrong had been done. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized at the White House during a ceremony which 5 of the remaining 8 survivors attended. Clinton’s apology included acknowledgement that the study was racist: "What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry ... To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist." In his 1993 published book Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment James H. Jones wrote: “As a symbol of racism and medical malfeasance, the Tuskegee Study may never move the nation to action, but it can change the way Americans view illness. Hidden within the anger and anguish of those who decry the experiment is a plea for government authorities and medical officials to hear the fears of people whose faith has been damaged, to deal with their concerns directly, and to acknowledge the link between public health and community trust. Government Authorities and medical officials must strive to cleanse medicine of social infection by eliminating any type of racial or moral stereotypes of people or their illnesses. They must seek to build a health system that will make adequate health care available to all Americans. Anything less will leave some groups at risk, as it did the subjects of the Tuskegee Study”
Unfortunately, the Alabama experiment using African Americans as guinea pigs is just one of such cases. The story of Henrietta Lacks an African American woman whose cells have been used since 1951 is a case in point. Lacks was 31 years old when she was diagnosed with cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Without her knowledge or permission medical staff took tissue from her body and used the tissue in various experiments. Although over the years the cells and tissue from this woman’s body have been used in countless experiments and medical research leading to groundbreaking medical advances (including polio vaccine and genetic mapping) and has led to fame/recognition for some and wealth for others, her descendants have lived in poverty and could barely afford medical coverage. In 2010 the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published by Rebecca Skloot who is described by one reviewer as: “a young white, idealistic journalist with no connection to the Lackses apart from a fascination in the story instilled by a middle-school biology teacher, sought to right the wrongs of the past by telling the full story.”
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jan/02/review-story-of-henrietta-lacks/
In her 2006 published book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present African American professor Harriet A. Washington has documented many of the horrendous experiments done by white medical personnel (including government agencies) who have used African Americans as guinea pigs. The Tuskegee experiment which is the most publicized did not bring an end to the practice. Washington documents in her book that Columbia University between 1992 and 1997 conducted research using African American boys from 6 to 10 years old to establish a link between genetics and violence. The 126 boys from New York City were given the drug fenfluramine (reported to cause heart valve disease) http://www.rense.com/health/drugchildren.htm. An article published in the New York Times dated April 15, 1998 quotes Vera Sharav, the director of the New York patient advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Care in Psychiatry and Research: ''What value does the President's apology for Tuskegee have when there are no safeguards to prevent such abuses now? These racist and morally offensive studies put minority children at risk of harm in order to prove they are generally predisposed to be violent in the future.”
The experience of African Americans used as guinea pigs in medical experiments and the subsequent exposure has served to change laws but people who live in poverty, especially racialised people need to be vigilant.
On July 23rd 1973, eight months after the study ended, a $1.8 billion class action suit was filed by civil rights lawyer Fred Gray who demanded $3 million in damages for each survivor and the heirs of those deceased. In December 1974 an out of court settlement was reached. The government agreed to pay $10 million, where each survivor received $37,500 in damages and the heirs of the deceased received $15,000. In 1974 two years after the government was forced to end the study Congress passed the National Research Act and created a commission to study and write regulations governing studies involving human participants.
It took another 23 years for the victims to receive acknowledgement from the government that a wrong had been done. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized at the White House during a ceremony which 5 of the remaining 8 survivors attended. Clinton’s apology included acknowledgement that the study was racist: "What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry ... To our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist." In his 1993 published book Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment James H. Jones wrote: “As a symbol of racism and medical malfeasance, the Tuskegee Study may never move the nation to action, but it can change the way Americans view illness. Hidden within the anger and anguish of those who decry the experiment is a plea for government authorities and medical officials to hear the fears of people whose faith has been damaged, to deal with their concerns directly, and to acknowledge the link between public health and community trust. Government Authorities and medical officials must strive to cleanse medicine of social infection by eliminating any type of racial or moral stereotypes of people or their illnesses. They must seek to build a health system that will make adequate health care available to all Americans. Anything less will leave some groups at risk, as it did the subjects of the Tuskegee Study”
Unfortunately, the Alabama experiment using African Americans as guinea pigs is just one of such cases. The story of Henrietta Lacks an African American woman whose cells have been used since 1951 is a case in point. Lacks was 31 years old when she was diagnosed with cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Without her knowledge or permission medical staff took tissue from her body and used the tissue in various experiments. Although over the years the cells and tissue from this woman’s body have been used in countless experiments and medical research leading to groundbreaking medical advances (including polio vaccine and genetic mapping) and has led to fame/recognition for some and wealth for others, her descendants have lived in poverty and could barely afford medical coverage. In 2010 the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was published by Rebecca Skloot who is described by one reviewer as: “a young white, idealistic journalist with no connection to the Lackses apart from a fascination in the story instilled by a middle-school biology teacher, sought to right the wrongs of the past by telling the full story.”
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/jan/02/review-story-of-henrietta-lacks/
In her 2006 published book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present African American professor Harriet A. Washington has documented many of the horrendous experiments done by white medical personnel (including government agencies) who have used African Americans as guinea pigs. The Tuskegee experiment which is the most publicized did not bring an end to the practice. Washington documents in her book that Columbia University between 1992 and 1997 conducted research using African American boys from 6 to 10 years old to establish a link between genetics and violence. The 126 boys from New York City were given the drug fenfluramine (reported to cause heart valve disease) http://www.rense.com/health/drugchildren.htm. An article published in the New York Times dated April 15, 1998 quotes Vera Sharav, the director of the New York patient advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Care in Psychiatry and Research: ''What value does the President's apology for Tuskegee have when there are no safeguards to prevent such abuses now? These racist and morally offensive studies put minority children at risk of harm in order to prove they are generally predisposed to be violent in the future.”
The experience of African Americans used as guinea pigs in medical experiments and the subsequent exposure has served to change laws but people who live in poverty, especially racialised people need to be vigilant.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
MZILIKAZI KHUMALO OF THE NDEBELE NATION NOVEMBER 4, 1868
King Mzilikazi Khumalo, founder of the Matabele Kingdom (Ndebele) was laid to rest in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on November 4, 1868. Bulawayo was the capital of the Ndebele Kingdom. Mzilikazi established the Ndebele nation in the southwestern part of the Zimbabwean plateau in 1839-1840. Around 1821 Mzilikazi, who had been a leader of his people in Zululand, had a disagreement with the Zulu king, Shaka, when, according to Glen Lyndon Dodds in his 1998 book, The Zulus and Matabele: Warrior Nations, Mzilikazi declared to a group of King Shaka's messengers: "Messengers take these words to Shaka; say that Mzilikazi has no king. In peace he will meet Shaka as a brother, and in war he will find in him an enemy whom he cannot and will not despise. Depart! And tell your king it rests with him whether it be peace or war." Naturally, after sending those fighting words to the great Zulu king, Mzilikazi and his people left the area now known as South Africa and, crossing the uKhahlamba mountains (later named Drakensberg by Europeans), Mzilikazi and his people settled in the interior. Shaka and his warriors pursued and there were battles between the Matebele and the Zulu. However, Mzilikazi and his initial group had gathered strength and numbers as they travelled. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, author of the 2009 book, Ndebele nation: reflections on hegemony, memory and historiography, writes: "The Ndebele were a formidable nation in the nineteenth century, with unique institutions of governance, distinct political ideologies, and a worldview that was shaped by their specific historical experiences. The Ndebele nation was a multinational one comprised of Nguni, Sotho, Tswana, Kalanga, Shona, Venda and Tonga ethnic groups. The national language was IsiNdebele. Its founding father was Mzilikazi Khumalo, a charismatic leader and a competent nation-builder." This new Ndebele nation was able to withstand the Zulu attacks, however, they were pushed out of the area when they were attacked by the Dutch Boers on their "Great Trek" to occupy areas in southern Africa. The attacks by the Europeans on one hand and the Zulu on the other, helped to push Mzilikazi and his people across the Limpopo River to settle in Zimbabwe.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni continues: "The migration and eventual settlement of the Ndebele in Zimbabwe is also part of the historical drama that became intertwined with another dramatic event of the migration of the Boers from Cape Colony into the interior in what is generally referred to as the Great Trek, which began in 1835. It was military clashes with the Boers that forced Mzilikazi and his followers to migrate across the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe." Even in Zimbabwe, the Ndebele were not safe from the covetous Europeans bent on occupying African land. Where, in the first Ndebele settlement the European interlopers had been the Dutch, the Ndebele were confronted with British greed in Zimbabwe.
On November 4, 1893, exactly 25 years after November 4, 1868 when Mzilikazi was laid to rest, the British settlers gained possession of Bulawayo. This was set in motion when on November 14, 1889 the British monarch, Victoria, approved a "Royal Charter" creating the British South Africa Company (BSAC.) This "Royal Charter", in the eyes of the British, gave the BSAC and Cecil Rhodes (in whose name the charter was granted) carte blanche and legitimacy to exploit Africans and their land. Rhodes and his partners claimed a monopoly of all the metals and minerals in the Ndebele Kingdom and the right for their mining companies to exploit the land. The Ndebele either had to accept this state of affairs or fight to protect themselves from the European hordes that descended on them. This led to what has become known as the first Matabele War.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni sums this up in these words: "In the end, the British imperialists, together with their local agents like Cecil John Rhodes, Charles Rudd, John Smith Moffat, Charles Helm and many others, reached a consensus to use open violence on the Ndebele state so as to destroy it and replace it with a colonial state amenable to Western interests and the Christian religion. The invasion, conquest and colonization of the Ndebele became a tale of unprovoked violence and looting of Ndebele material wealth, particularly cattle, in the period 1893 to 1897. The Ndebele warriors did not go quietly, but they were no match for the brutal, ruthless British armed with weapons that outmatched theirs. The Maxim machine gun was used for the first time by the British in this unequal war with the Matabele people. The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884 and has the dubious distinction of being recognized as "the weapon most associated with (British) imperial conquest." With this weapon giving them a distinct advantage over the Ndebele warriors, it is not surprising that the British, on November 4, 1893, were able to capture Bulawayo. Although the British evicted the Ndebele from their land which was then occupied by White people, the Ndebele were not defeated.
In 1896 the Matabele rose up against the British who coveted everything owned by the nation. The history of any African nation/people, when told from the point of view of White people, in many cases contains rumours and innuendo, so when reading it is important to be cognizant of the bias of the writer. Some writers label the second Matabele War "The Matabele Rebellion." According to author Dodds, Cecil Rhodes thought the Ndebele were happy with their lot (being evicted from their land which was given to White settlers). How delusional was Rhodes? Maybe he was just blinded by his perceived superiority! Dodds also writes: "In June 1895, all Matabele cattle and their offspring were officially declared to belong to the company. Then, in November, the Land Commission's chairman, Judge Joseph Vincent, declared that according to the Native Department, the number of cattle still in African possession was 74,500, far short of the number estimated as belonging to the Matabele prior to the war (according to one reckoning as much as 280,000.) Ndlovu-Gatsheni writes of the British during that period: "They arrogantly alienated Ndebele land, appropriated Ndebele property such as cattle, abused the Ndebele as tenants and labourers, were ruthless, brutal and unfeeling, rude and insensitive, and enthusiastically resorted to violence whenever the Ndebele raised their heads. It is not surprising that the Matabele rose up in 1896; their land and their cattle had been stolen, they were forced to work for and pay taxes to the thieves, how much more insult piled on top of injury could they take? However, as Ndlovu-Gatsheni added: "Even the occupation of Bulawayo by the Whites did not mean the total defeat of the Ndebele."
The history of the Ndebele and Matabeleland is part of the history of the African struggle against European domination. African writers have documented the brutality of European colonization of Africans from the African point of view. In expressing that point of view Ndlovu-Gatsheni argues: "The Ndebele state became a direct victim of imperial violence and destruction in the period 1893-1896 as the advocates of Victorian aggrandizement beat the colonial drums to a crescendo, arguing that the independent Ndebele state was a barrier to the advances of 'Civilization, Commerce and Christianity'. The violent conduct of the colonial conquest itself made it abundantly clear how hypocritical these ideas were, as the ruthless destruction of human life left a legacy of bloodshed rather than peaceful western civilization." We still see that mindset exhibited in the 21st century with the greed of the western powers for oil in lands held by racialized people.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni continues: "The migration and eventual settlement of the Ndebele in Zimbabwe is also part of the historical drama that became intertwined with another dramatic event of the migration of the Boers from Cape Colony into the interior in what is generally referred to as the Great Trek, which began in 1835. It was military clashes with the Boers that forced Mzilikazi and his followers to migrate across the Limpopo River into Zimbabwe." Even in Zimbabwe, the Ndebele were not safe from the covetous Europeans bent on occupying African land. Where, in the first Ndebele settlement the European interlopers had been the Dutch, the Ndebele were confronted with British greed in Zimbabwe.
On November 4, 1893, exactly 25 years after November 4, 1868 when Mzilikazi was laid to rest, the British settlers gained possession of Bulawayo. This was set in motion when on November 14, 1889 the British monarch, Victoria, approved a "Royal Charter" creating the British South Africa Company (BSAC.) This "Royal Charter", in the eyes of the British, gave the BSAC and Cecil Rhodes (in whose name the charter was granted) carte blanche and legitimacy to exploit Africans and their land. Rhodes and his partners claimed a monopoly of all the metals and minerals in the Ndebele Kingdom and the right for their mining companies to exploit the land. The Ndebele either had to accept this state of affairs or fight to protect themselves from the European hordes that descended on them. This led to what has become known as the first Matabele War.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni sums this up in these words: "In the end, the British imperialists, together with their local agents like Cecil John Rhodes, Charles Rudd, John Smith Moffat, Charles Helm and many others, reached a consensus to use open violence on the Ndebele state so as to destroy it and replace it with a colonial state amenable to Western interests and the Christian religion. The invasion, conquest and colonization of the Ndebele became a tale of unprovoked violence and looting of Ndebele material wealth, particularly cattle, in the period 1893 to 1897. The Ndebele warriors did not go quietly, but they were no match for the brutal, ruthless British armed with weapons that outmatched theirs. The Maxim machine gun was used for the first time by the British in this unequal war with the Matabele people. The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884 and has the dubious distinction of being recognized as "the weapon most associated with (British) imperial conquest." With this weapon giving them a distinct advantage over the Ndebele warriors, it is not surprising that the British, on November 4, 1893, were able to capture Bulawayo. Although the British evicted the Ndebele from their land which was then occupied by White people, the Ndebele were not defeated.
In 1896 the Matabele rose up against the British who coveted everything owned by the nation. The history of any African nation/people, when told from the point of view of White people, in many cases contains rumours and innuendo, so when reading it is important to be cognizant of the bias of the writer. Some writers label the second Matabele War "The Matabele Rebellion." According to author Dodds, Cecil Rhodes thought the Ndebele were happy with their lot (being evicted from their land which was given to White settlers). How delusional was Rhodes? Maybe he was just blinded by his perceived superiority! Dodds also writes: "In June 1895, all Matabele cattle and their offspring were officially declared to belong to the company. Then, in November, the Land Commission's chairman, Judge Joseph Vincent, declared that according to the Native Department, the number of cattle still in African possession was 74,500, far short of the number estimated as belonging to the Matabele prior to the war (according to one reckoning as much as 280,000.) Ndlovu-Gatsheni writes of the British during that period: "They arrogantly alienated Ndebele land, appropriated Ndebele property such as cattle, abused the Ndebele as tenants and labourers, were ruthless, brutal and unfeeling, rude and insensitive, and enthusiastically resorted to violence whenever the Ndebele raised their heads. It is not surprising that the Matabele rose up in 1896; their land and their cattle had been stolen, they were forced to work for and pay taxes to the thieves, how much more insult piled on top of injury could they take? However, as Ndlovu-Gatsheni added: "Even the occupation of Bulawayo by the Whites did not mean the total defeat of the Ndebele."
The history of the Ndebele and Matabeleland is part of the history of the African struggle against European domination. African writers have documented the brutality of European colonization of Africans from the African point of view. In expressing that point of view Ndlovu-Gatsheni argues: "The Ndebele state became a direct victim of imperial violence and destruction in the period 1893-1896 as the advocates of Victorian aggrandizement beat the colonial drums to a crescendo, arguing that the independent Ndebele state was a barrier to the advances of 'Civilization, Commerce and Christianity'. The violent conduct of the colonial conquest itself made it abundantly clear how hypocritical these ideas were, as the ruthless destruction of human life left a legacy of bloodshed rather than peaceful western civilization." We still see that mindset exhibited in the 21st century with the greed of the western powers for oil in lands held by racialized people.
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