Anytime Iām remotely critical of white people in Africa, someone always makes this point. I usually ignore it, but I wonāt today. This is the first thing that this person had to tackle and comment on. Out of all what I typed, this is was what they needed to address first. Ok then.
Iām an African. From the Niger Delta to be exact. It has been destroyed and exploited by white people, so my lived experiences tell me I should be especially wary of them. Places I visited regularly to see extended family have been destroyed and polluted. My people canāt fish and they canāt grow crops. It was their livelihood for generations. All that is left is ruin. Some of the white people responsible were born, bred or resided there because Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, Willbros Group, Exxon Mobile (btw Bill Gates is the largest shareholder in this company. Donāt believe his philanthropic BS. Exploitation is always at the root.) and other multinationals have been sending white people there to rob and exploit us for a very long time. Many of these white people live there and raise their families there. They are there eating good food, dancing to African music and fucking (literally and figuratively) African people, while their parents plunder the minerals in the country. These are the sons and daughters of a colonizing and brutal force who are only there because of unmerciful might and massive greed. There is no other reason. None. They didnāt emigrate to Africa at the behest or with approval from the locals. The driving force has always been greed. They came, they saw, they conquered. They seized lands that werenāt theirs. I wonāt ignore that, or the history of white people in Africa.
The history of white people in Africa has a repeating theme, and it always ends with them propping themselves up at the expense of indigenous Africans. Usually in some kind of imbalanced relationship where they get to exploit the indigenous and claim the mineral wealth and assorted treasures for themselves. Thatās when they arenāt sexually exploiting the locals, imposing their religious beliefs via missionary work, blindly working with unscrupulous NGOs who do more harm than good, claiming the rights to land that isnāt theirs, participating in slum tourism and exploitative photojournalism, or supplying the instruments of warfare to militias and warlords that will exacerbate unrest and civil wars, which makes it easier for them to further exploit the land and the people. We need to think about who facilitates the flow of weaponry used in African conflicts in the first place.
White people donāt go to be humble residents or to respect their host African nations. Not in the past, and not in the present. They donāt go to Africa to take a back seat to indigenous Africans, they go to commandeer and control. Often with bought and paid African leaders they use covertly, so that they can work behind the scenes and shift blame when the shit hits the fan. They impose their ideologies on unsuspecting people. They donāt look at the indigenous Africans as their equals. There is always paternalism, and Africans are always their subjects. They always go to Africa to take something. Even the white person who goes to Africa on a self-discovery trip to find themselves also takes. The people and the lands become a tool and a backdrop for whatever self-discovery crisis they are going through, and they will usurp the culture and land for their own benefit. Itās always about them and how they can benefit. Even when they appear benevolent, itās always about them. The Africans are their backdrop. They cannot help it. This is how white supremacy works. It is systemic. It doesnāt matter if they have good intentions. Power dynamics will overrule intentions.
The children of white African nationals donāt get a pass because they had no choice in their place of birth, or because they donāt realize that they are part of an occupying force. Being citizens of an African nation by virtue of birth changes nothing. You need to think hard on how those Europeans ended up in Africa in the first place. Wherever there is a sizable population of white people in Africa, ask yourself how they came to be and how white lineage started on those lands. Once you come to terms with those findings, realize that those findings donāt get wiped out because those white people gave birth to kids on the continent, or because they have been there for several generations.
What kind of point is āsomeone didnāt have a choice in where they were bornā anyway? Does anyone have a choice in where they are born? Thatās quite an irrelevant statement to make, and Iām not sure why people continue to make it as if it matters. Even when black people are being exploited by white people on their own lands, someone has to chime in to defend white people. Itās very unbecoming, and it lets me know what your priorities are.
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
titsay
gummygunk
