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Germany moves to atone for 'forgotten genocide' in Namibia
The Guardian ^ | 25 Dec 2016 | Jason Burke

Posted on 12/25/2016 3:08:25 AM PST by Cronos

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The article correctly points out it’s important to see Germany’s history in Africa as continuous with its better-known dark chapters in the 30s and 40s. In Africa, Germany experimented with the criminal methods it later applied during the Third Reich, for example through … the colonisation of eastern and central Europe … There is a trend among the public to view the Nazi period as an aberration of an otherwise enlightened history. But engaging with our colonial history confronts us with a more uncomfortable thesis.”
1 posted on 12/25/2016 3:08:25 AM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos

I am sure it is a very one sided history.

It might be useful to know what the Germans wrote about this episode, say in 1910.

Africa was far from a peaceful place prior to colonization. Arab slave traders massacred and enslaved millions. Tribal warfare was almost unceasing. Cannibalism was rampant. Witch doctors ruled villages with terror.

Compare the European rule with what they displaced, not some impossible Utopian ideal that does not exist, and never existed.

Compare the European conquest and rule with contemporary alternatives. What happened when the Zulus conquered? When the Arabs conquered? Those are real comparisons.


2 posted on 12/25/2016 3:29:20 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain
German Colonializations appear to have failed—worldwide!
3 posted on 12/25/2016 3:31:43 AM PST by Does so ("The Business of America is Business"--President Calvin Coolidge...)
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To: Does so

Yes, that is true. What does it mean? Does it mean Germans were not ruthless enough? Does it mean the British were more humane and efficient?

Does it mean that the expansion of western civilization was a bad idea?

Figuring out what lesson should be learned is the hard part.


4 posted on 12/25/2016 3:47:05 AM PST by marktwain
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To: Cronos

No this was not the first genocide of the twentieth century... just over the Limpopo River the British had engaged in the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Boer people during the second Anglo-Boer War after rounding up Boer civilians into concentration camps where more than half of the total Boer child population later died off within the camps circa 1900 - 1901. The Boer people were / are a people that developed on African soil during the 17th cent, but whose ancestors were originally taken out of Northern Europe by the Dutch East India Company as “company servants” during the 1650s. The British engaged in this war in order to conquer the internationally recognized Boer Republics [ which had quantities of gold & diamonds ] that the Boer people north of the Orange River set up after the British recognized their independence with the Sand River Convention of 1852 & the Orange River Convention of 1854. After the war & the genocide against Boer civilians the Boer Republics were conquered & the Boer people were soon stripped of their long standing national identity when they were purposely shoved into the artificial Afrikaner designation that was run by the Cape Dutch centered at Cape Town & Johannesburg. The Boer people still exist - though as a minority of the macro White Afrikaans speaking population.


5 posted on 12/25/2016 3:47:58 AM PST by Republican1795.
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To: marktwain

The Dutch colonializations didn’t earn any prizes.


6 posted on 12/25/2016 3:48:30 AM PST by Does so ("The Business of America is Business"--President Calvin Coolidge...)
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To: Does so

It is certainly not the first genocide in history.

There are several genocides listed in the bible, by the Jews.

The Mongols under Genghis Khan and his successors killed millions, exterminating many peoples.

The Greeks destroyed Troy. The Romans conquered, enslaved and destroyed many other tribes.

In pre-historical times, there is good evidence that the destruction of a near by tribe was a common form of warfare.


7 posted on 12/25/2016 4:04:10 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

We should not forget the many, many Islamic genocides. The Muslims destroyed many peoples and societies, from the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Europe.

It is hard to think of a group that has been more destructive than the Muslims.


8 posted on 12/25/2016 4:07:35 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

“It is hard to think of a group that has been more destructive than the Muslims.”

The Communists? I mean, we’re talking maybe a hundred million here.


9 posted on 12/25/2016 4:29:42 AM PST by dljordan (WhoVoltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.")
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To: dljordan

Excellent point! How did I miss them?

I was focusing on the far past, and the Communist crimes are mostly since 1900.

We should perhaps include the horrific crimes of the French leftists after their revolution, but they did not call themselves Communists.


10 posted on 12/25/2016 4:34:25 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Let’s not forget the Aztecs or the raping, pillaging and enslaving of Europe by islam.


11 posted on 12/25/2016 4:35:30 AM PST by Eagles6 (My weapons are lubricated by liberal tears.)
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To: Eagles6

Yes. Perhaps we can make the overall point that warfare, rape, pillage, and genocide are the relative “normal” or constant, state of affairs, and that peace and civilization are the abnormal, hard fought for exceptions.

The so called German “genocide” in Namibia occured in response to a revolt in which hundreds of the ruling group were killed. That a severe response resulted is nothing new.

The people who write this nonsense start with the unfounded idiocy that perfection is possible, and compare historical events to an impossible ideal. It is idiocy.


12 posted on 12/25/2016 4:56:17 AM PST by marktwain
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To: Eagles6
Come on guys. Stay on Point. Germans. Baaaad. 😉
13 posted on 12/25/2016 4:57:21 AM PST by MotorCityBuck ( Keep the change, you filthy animal! ,)
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To: Cronos

Murder and torture are German trademarks.


14 posted on 12/25/2016 5:06:44 AM PST by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket.l)
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To: marktwain

We should not forget the many, many Islamic genocides.


And have they ever apologized for anything? No. It’s their religion. It’s what they do.

Europeans do it it’s white guilt. The rest of the world would have done it to the Europeans but didn’t have the wherewithal to do it.


15 posted on 12/25/2016 5:22:25 AM PST by boycott (S)
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To: marktwain

And unless one has lived in sub-Saharan Africa tribalism and its incessant atrocities through history is overlooked. Man is not basically good but sinful from inception and in need of redemption. What a joy to contemplate the Redeemer’s birth today.


16 posted on 12/25/2016 5:25:12 AM PST by Prussian Koenig
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To: Cronos

I have reached the point of clarity where I no longer care about the past. The world is a violent place full of bad past misdeeds. Everyone culture and society has done them. So what. The question is, do the current people of Germany have a right to their culture, beliefs, language and life? If they do, they should defend it, from the hijrah invaders and their own government if necessary. No past deeds matter anymore. I refuse to apologise for my life.


17 posted on 12/25/2016 5:29:17 AM PST by cyberstoic
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To: Prussian Koenig

And unless one has lived in sub-Saharan Africa tribalism and its incessant atrocities through history is overlooked. Man is not basically good but sinful from inception and in need of redemption. What a joy to contemplate the Redeemer’s birth today.


Yes. European Colonialism brought significant peace and prosperity to much of Africa. One only need look at Zimbabwe to contemplate what happened when the rule of Western Civilization and values was removed.


18 posted on 12/25/2016 5:43:55 AM PST by marktwain
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To: Cronos

There were two world wars. Millions of German men were killed. Into that vacuum came Russian, British and American troops. The influx changed for ever the makeup of the militaristic German genetic pool.

Germany no longer has the genes to be warlike. It was literally bred out of the race.


19 posted on 12/25/2016 5:47:21 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Macroagression melts snowflakes)
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To: bert

Merkel’s invaders will go a long way in killing off the German people and nation if it goes unchecked.


20 posted on 12/25/2016 5:57:41 AM PST by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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