In September 1960, Lumumba was dismissed by Kasavubu, and in turn Lumumba dismissed Kasavubu. The constitution did not allow for either of these moves. After a few days of confusion, Lumumba was definitively overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by the very person he had just appointed head of the army, colonel Mobutu. Lumumba’s […]
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Fifty years later, it is astonishing to read some of the colonial and early post-colonial writings about the Belgian Congo which is described as ‘our Congo’ or its inhabitants as Nos Noirs, our blacks.
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Tags:Africa·colonialism·racism
The other important protagonist in the early history of the Congo Français was Prosper Augouard. Born in 1852, ordained in the congregation of the Holy Spirit, he arrived in Gabon in 1877. Missionaries of the time had to be highly motivated for their life expectancy in Africa was just three years. Augouard was more robust […]
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Tags:Africa·Christianity·Colonisation·religion
Brazza signed a treaty with a chief on the north side of the river, and planted the French flag. The chief could not read French and did not realise that he had conceded a large piece of land to France rather than merely getting some kind of protection and trading rights. Meanwhile, on the south […]
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Tags:Africa·colonialism·History
Cuba stands out as the country with not only the lowest HIV prevalence in the Americas but also the highest diversity: about half of Cuban isolates are either non-B subtypes or recombinants. This reflects the acquisition of multiple subtypes of HIV-1 (or recombinants) by some of the internationalistas, the soldiers that Castro sent to fight […]
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Tags:Africa·communism·Cuba·HIV·science
Halfway home, Lucy, to his surprise, speaks. ‘It was so personal,’ she says. ‘It was done with such personal hatred. That was what stunned me more than anything. The rest was … expected. But why did they hate me so? I had never set eyes on them.’ He waits for more, but there is no […]
‘Why? I hear you ask. Very well … This is why … Because storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit—in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever. That’s why.’
That was when I smiled at myself and my puny, empty revolts, the rebellion of a mouse in a cage.
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Tags:Africa·Dictatorship·power·Quotes
After a long career of subduing savages in distant lands they discovered the most dangerous savage of all just across the English Channel and took (Churchill) on and brought him to heel. But the effort proved too great and the cost too high, and although they acquitted themselves with honour they made sure that they […]
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Tags:Africa·colonialism·Dictatorship·WW2
Chris was smiling a mirthless smile. An angry man is always a stupid man. Make a thorough fool of him, my dear girl, he thought.
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Tags:Africa·Anger·Humiliation·Quotes