Christopher Olgiati | Nairobi-KE (Location: European Union) | 8/30/2008 7:50:00 PM While Peter's piece was solid and very well-written, and I wouldn't contest its historical truth, why don't I recognise myself in his story? I'm white, I spend half my life in Africa and nothing in my experience connects with what he writes. I wasn't around in colonial times. What I hear in Africa today is whites and blacks expressing the same contempt for corrupt politicians, for the things - here, now, today - that are wrong, the things that make for poverty or ruin the infrastructure. Some wrongs have their roots in colonial times but by no means all. History is history, the facts are indisputable. I don't expect the wrongs the Brits did in Africa to be forgotten or forgiven, anymore than Germans should expect the Holocaust to be forgotten or forgiven. This argument is not about what happened in the past. It's about how far the past defines, explains or excuses the present. We are living in the 21st century and the post-colonial period has been longer than the colonial period. I see no connection whatsoever between colonial slavers and what a group of Europeans choose to do in Chad today. It seems highly unlikely that the French fireman Peter says supported this group did so because they wanted to see small children snatched and traded. And it's positively Mugabe-esque to infer that the 2004 coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea was unique to Africa or was history repeated – as if Mark Thatcher (as a representative of the British ruling class) and his pals meddled in Africa because their forefathers did. Mark Thatcher is not King Leopold, much as he might like to be. He's a maverick who is profoundly unrepresentative of mainstream Britain or its leaders. Anyway he was a very small player. The key players were significant figures who were not all white Brits. This was a struggle for oil. It could have happened anywhere in the world where there is a vital resource that individuals or countries covet. I'd like to ask Peter: does he hear an echo in Malabo? An echo of Iraq, perhaps? Men kill for money, for gold and oil. They are greedy and sometimes evil. Leopold's rape of the Congo and Conrad's reflection of it were later transposed to Asia in the movie Apocalypse Now. This time, the river wound not through the Congo but through Vietnam, the heart of darkness was in Cambodia and in a man's soul, and white and black men were at war with an Asian foe. It's a universal story. To me, Peter's is a rather old-fashioned Afrocentric way of thinking that ignores the rest of history. The plunderers, past and present, are by no means always Europeans and their victims are not always Africans. The tragedy is that the greed and suffering in Africa's history are not unique to Africa. Where there is money, where there are resources, there is plunder.

idrissa sangare | philadelphia-usa (Location: United States) | 10/16/2009 3:31:00 AM i think that this man is very on point with the things he hasspoken of here.i have also read that it is the opinion of some that there is no connection between the colonial period and today,such are the views of the blind and those who will not stand to face truth and its at times very bitter face.it is forgotten that you cannot separate the past from the present nor the future.everythign Christopher spoke of was abosolutly true,not off by a single iota.the fact that most people are ignorant of history adt profound ties to the present are a major part in the african peoples being stuck in the stupor we are in.and for one to say that western powers are not involved well its of no use to tyand wake such a person from their dream,we have more important things to concern ourselves with such as the teaching of truth to our children,if we save the children,we have a better chance to save africa our mother.and the africans once led away by slave ship or by some other methode,they must be reach out to and invited to come back home and be baptized in the knowledge of who they are.and as a whole,when we are whole as a people again,we can make moves to save ourselves and our moter,africa.