(King Leopold II of the Belgians)
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY of London officials have quietly removed two plaques in the university honouring Belgian genocidist king Leopold II. Leopold II, first cousin of Queen Victoria of England, had visited Queen Mary in June 1887 to lay the foundation stone of the college’s library.
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY of London officials have quietly removed two plaques in the university honouring Belgian genocidist king Leopold II. Leopold II, first cousin of Queen Victoria of England, had visited Queen Mary in June 1887 to lay the foundation stone of the college’s library.
“Magnificent African cake”
Students and others in the university have for long protested against this school’s enduring relationship with Leopold. Leopold was responsible for the expansive genocide of constituent nations in the Congo basin of central Africa in the 1860s-1909, murdering 13 million Africans as he sought control of the region’s ivory and rubber resources in this burgeoning “Berlin sate” mission – as he unabashedly and remorselessly stated at the time: “to secure a slice of this magnificent African cake”.
Students and others in the university have for long protested against this school’s enduring relationship with Leopold. Leopold was responsible for the expansive genocide of constituent nations in the Congo basin of central Africa in the 1860s-1909, murdering 13 million Africans as he sought control of the region’s ivory and rubber resources in this burgeoning “Berlin sate” mission – as he unabashedly and remorselessly stated at the time: “to secure a slice of this magnificent African cake”.
To also cherry pick their own slice
in the “magnificent African cake” of the mission, Germany waged a genocidist
campaign against the Herero, Nama and Berg Damara peoples of southwest Africa
slaughtering 85%, 51% and 30% respectively of these peoples between 1904 and
1911.
Britain, for its part, sought further
slices into the “magnificent African cake” spread that it had enjoyed all along
for 100 years when it, under the premiership of Harold Wilson, and its client state Nigeria launched a genocide against
the Igbo of southwestcentral Africa, murdering 3.1 million of the people (25%
of this nation's population) during 29 May 1966-12 January 1970. Few now doubt that Europe’s “Berlin
state” in Africa is demonstrably one of the most viciously constructed
murder-machines in history.
States of life
States of life
For African peoples, the “Berlin
states” constitute an existential emergency. African peoples have no other
choice but abandon these certain death-states and construct their own states of
life.
(The New York Contemporary Five plays “Sound barrier” [personnel: Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; John Tchicai, alto saxophone; Don Moore, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, Jazzus Montmarte, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 November 1963])
Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe
