allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Dark Skin, Dark Contempt (Page 1 of 1)

There have been classic biases and atrocities committed against the dark-skinned race by the white race.

But lately, the perpetrators of the racist atrocities have executed a sudden somersault with apologies bubbling on their lips. It is something of relief and unexpected pleasure.On Wednesday, February 13, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said this to the world in his apology to the Aborigines "...today we honour the indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations...We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry..."

This apology drew measured praise, with Aboriginal community groups broadly welcoming it and many of them calling out for compensation.Down in the sizzling desert of Namibia, thousands of kilometres away from Australia, the Germans had also offered apology to the 1904 German massacre of 65,000 ethnic Herero.

Hear what Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Minister of Economic Co-operation and Development, at a ceremony at Hamakari marking the centenary genocide orchestrated by imperial Germany, said.

"We Germans accept our historical and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time. And so, in the words of the Lord's Prayer that we share, I ask you to forgive us our trespasses. The atrocities committed at that time would have been termed genocide. Everything I have said was an apology from the German government," Wieczorek-Zeul concluded. This purported apology too, drew a mixed reaction from the crowd.

Aboriginal Abuse

Before 1788, Aboriginal Australians enjoyed a nomadic lifestyle where men, women and children lived in harmony with each other and the environment. But British convict invaders dramatically changed this harmonious lifestyle through a law that still exists today called "terra nullius"(no man's land).

But before the invasion and the eventual pogrom on the Aboriginals, scientists from Britain and Germany had encouraged their killing for scientific research. The scientists paid for skeletons and thousands of graves were robbed with the British and Australians running one of the biggest grave robbing networks.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 Aboriginals graves were desecrated and their bodies dismembered to support science. Afterwards, when the convicts (thieves, beggars, pickpockets, muggers and highway robbers) from Britain were dumped on the Australian coast, they reduced an estimated one million Aboriginal Australians in 1788 to about 300,000 today.

They killed the Aboriginals with guns, poisoned water holes and food, and many died from diseases introduced by the convicts. They used the women as domestics and sexual partners. They raped and killed as a sport. And they buried "live Aboriginal babies up to their necks in sand and kicked their heads off after tying with a rope the severed neck of the husband around the raped spouse."

The remainder of the Aborigines were dumped on reserves and missions where white management had total control over their lifestyle. Australia's State and federal authorities separated many thousands of young indigenous children from their families until the early 1970s, often in brutal circumstances.

Lotha von Trotha

In Namibia, German General, Lotha von Trotha, had instigated his war against the Herero. When he arrived in 1904, he ordered the poisoning of water holes and commanded German guards to shoot any Herero men, woman or child who attempted to escape. Many Herero died of thirst as a result of these actions.

Von Trotha had declared "I wipe out rebellious tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Only following this cleansing can something new emerge". He also warned that. "All the Herero must leave the land. If they refuse, then I will force them to do it with the big guns. Any Herero found within German borders, with or without a gun, will be shot.

No prisoners will be taken. This is my decision for the Herero people". Fired on by Von Trotha's declared hatred, German troops systematically raped and abused Herero women and girls. Not satisfied with his genocidal agenda for the Herero, von Trotha also instigated a simultaneous assault on the Nama people.

His audaciously declaration sent to the Nama on April 22 1905 read; 'The Nama who chooses not to surrender and lets himself be seen in the German area will be shot, until all are exterminated. Those who, at the start of the rebellion, committed murder against whites or have commanded that whites be murdered have, by law, forfeited their lives.

As for the few not defeated, it will fare with them as it fared with the Herero, who in their blindness also believed that they could make successful war against the powerful German Emperor and the great German people. I ask you, where are the Herero today?"The dark complexion seems every so often to solicit only outrageous humour, sarcasm and contempt.

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