The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams - Politics (8) - Nairaland
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| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:12pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]These internal conflicts were of great historical importance because of the far-reaching consequences . The most important overall outcome was radical changes in the traditional constitution . To begin with, religion was drawn upon as an indirect means of social control by enhancing the divine role of the king . The traditional role of the king as the Chief Elder and, therefore, the Chief Representative of the people before God was very easily changed now to the conception of the king as the "Lieutenant of God on Earth ." As God's Lieutenant on Earth, the king could assume powers not recognized by the constitution and go unchallenged . But above and beyond this, the internal turmoil was regarded as such a threat to the nation's existence by the loyal chiefs and the people that even more powers than the king had dared to assume were bestowed upon him to enable him to crush rebellions by direct action and restore internal peace . Here, then, is how a democracy may become an absolute monarchy, not by a coup de tat, but by the consent of the people themselves . They seemed to be thinking only about the "others" (strangers causing trouble) when they allowed the Council to give the king the power over life and death . Another fatal blow to the African democractic system was allowing the king to raise and maintain his own national army. The national army, as we know, had always been made up of contingents under the supreme command of the Council operating through the respective paramount chiefs and provincial kings . This single change can be said to have completed the triumph of the King of Kuba as an absolute monarch . He had already acquired extraordinary powers quite naturally as the kingdom expanded over new territory . New administrative offices had to be made . Some of these were so important that the king encountered no open opposition when he also appointed them as members of the hitherto exclusive State Council . This marked the end of the traditional council as it had functioned under the African constitution . The core council of the eighteen elector states was now outnumbered by the appointees of the king . It appears that Shyaam made no display and very little use of his new powers vis-a-vis the elector chiefs . His chief interest continued to be in the field of internal improvement, building a capital city, and upgrading the social amenities that reflect a highly advanced society . These included new forms of court etiquette and procedures, resplendent regalia, etc . One of Shyaam's strategems for securing the loyalty and support of important chiefs and other notables was the appointment of their sons[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:14pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]to many important posts . This move was significant because it bypassed the nephews in favor of the sons, thus satisfying the natural but never spoken desire of most fathers in a matrilineal society . THE KING-GENERAL Shyaam left a record of achievements that none of his successors could match . He was a legend even in his own lifetime . The people had never known or heard about such a leader, and had never experienced in their own lives the direct benefits of such leadership . It had to be magic and, therefore, Shyaam had been the "Great Magician ." Since magic in Africa was simply another religious means of invoking the aid of a deity, to call their chief intercessor with God a magician meant that he was actually securing benefits for the people, and that he was indeed the "Lieutenant of God on Earth ." In short, "magic" was another form of prayer, song or dance in the appeals to supernatural powers for help . Mboong a Leeng, Shyaam's successor, was not a "great magician ." He was a warrior-king, a great general . He did not have to carry on the economic revolution . It carried on itself from the momentum Shyaam had given it . Mboong a Leeng devoted himself to further wars of conquest and the expansion of the royal power which these wars made easy . The age-grade military system started by Shyaam was expanded from a militia to a strong standing army ("strong" for the period) . Prisoners of war, now slaves, formed the king's personal army . They were stationed in separate villages of their own . Now the king was powerful enough to attempt to make the modest changes in the matrilineal system under Shyaam more thoroughgoing and permament in the royal family itself. The royal nephews were all placed under permanent house arrest and sons of kings became heirs to the throne . Meanwhile they were appointed to important governing posts in different parts of the kingdom . And while it has been suggested that this radical breach of constitutional law was intended to reduce the factional power struggles in the royal family, what it did was to sharpen such struggles along more clearly defined lines . Mboong had divided not only the royal, but all the chiefs and people into the defenders of the traditional constitution on the one hand, and the "progressive" reformers on the other . This meant more unrest and more rebellions .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:15pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The King-general dealt with these with an iron hand, was successful, and proceeded with another important assault on the constitution . He outlawed migrations from the country . This had been one of the Black man's greatest freedoms, the right of every dissatisfied individual or group to withdraw from the community, migrate elsewhere, and either join some other group or set up a new chiefdom . The universal use of this freedom, let it be remembered at every point, is one of the reasons for so many different little societies and language groups throughout the continent, while at the same time indicating a common origin and background. This relatively small and generally unknown kingdom in the Congo region was a microcosm of Black Africa in other respects and, as in other African states, it presents the concrete evidence and specific validation of much of the history of the black people. There was still another development of the highest importance for ethnologists, but one which they generally bypass or treat very lightly . This had to do with still another way new tribes, new chiefdoms and new language groups were formed, ultimately leaving not a trace of what the respective members of such groups had been in former times . A new tribe and chiefdom of this kind was formed by "strays" and stragglers, individuals and very small groups that had become detached from their main society during the migrations . Speaking different languages and dialects, they were unaffiliated persons who were lost in the corporate society of Kuba . Even to become second class citizens as newcomers, strangers had to be members of a single group large enough to have the traditional tribal sociopolitical structure headed by a chief . Because of these conditions and circumstances many stray individuals and small groups from different tribes united and began the formation of a new tribe, a new language from the merger of many, and a new tradition or oral. history . Here too is how and why oral tradition may become confused and misleading during the first two or three generations . For the first chief and his family, chosen as founders of the new chiefdom, may attempt to overplay their role in the founding and progress of the new society . The central point that is stressed here again, however, is that the historical process in Africa of segmentation, remerging, segmentation and remerging ad infinitum defies all attempts by Western anthropologists to divide and classify the race by opposing ethnic societies . It cannot be done either by linguistics or by conclusions arrived at on the basis of widely different physical features and/or characteristcs .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:17pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]All these observations can be drawn from the most eventful fifty years in the history of Kuba, 1630-1680 . Notwithstanding the unprecedented changes in the constitution, ironically enough, the periods of Kuba's glory and greatest achievements were under the leadership of her three great autocratic kings-Shyaam the Great, Mboong a Leeng and Mbo Mboosh, 1650-1680 . With the death of Mbo Mboosh an era of relative peace, stability and progress came to an end . But that era left us with a perplexing question . Considering the history of the nation before Shyaam and after Mboosh, that question is whether democracy actually served the welfare of the people as well as autocracy . It is an awful question, but here is a specific case where the question rises under its own power . In view of the record, no one has to raise it. It therefore has to be faced . It may be that the tradition-bound councils which we glorify so much because they represented the people and served as a check on chiefs and kings, may also have served tb check progress under the leadership of dedicated chiefs and kings of farseeing vision . This in turn introduced the question of the role of leadership in the affairs of men, and particularly in the history of every people that had great leaders who lit the blaze which banished the darkness from their marching paths . Since leadership is indispensable in any group situation, large or small, the ultimate solution in a democracy may be centered around-the question not of how much power a leader has, but rather in whose interest and for whose welfare that power is to be used . This presupposes an alert people who know when and where to draw the line between their welfare and the actions of a powerful leader . When Mboong went to the extreme by appointing and deposing chiefs at his pleasure, the people could have checked him . Therefore, the great kings who did so much to build a strong nation also planted the seeds for its destruction from within long before the Europeans completed its destruction from without. From 1680 until the coming of the Europeans in the 1800's intermittent internal strife darkened the whole period . The struggles centered around the various constitutional violations and changes . These were the main issues whether the rebellions were led by whole tribes or were civil strife led by royal sons on the one hand and royal nephews on the other . Through it all, however, foreign and domestic trade somehow continued to flourish . In fact, the Kuban markets were so widespread outside of the country that these enterprising Blacks attracted the[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:18pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]attention of the now world-conquering Europeans . They now had business to "explore" up and down the Kasai and Sankuru rivers, checking on the operations of the Bakuba . Once again the most crucial points in the history of the Blacks were being epitomized by a single small nation. It was to escape the Europeans that, centuries before, the people who formed the Kuban state had continued their migrations from the Atlantic seaboard and journeyed far into the interior . They had come on and along the same rivers the advance scouts of the enemy were now exploring . The Blacks, as usual, were too busy fighting among themselves to mark the heralds of their doom or see the significance of their coming . Up to this time they had been wise enough to adhere to the rule followed by most African states by rigidly barring all non-Africans from crossing their borders . The record of over four thousand years showed that in each and every case where the rule of exclusion was relaxed and Asians or Europeans were admitted under whatever pretext, the ultimate fate of the Blacks was sealed . First a lone Portuguese came, "seeking trade ." Who would be silly enough to fear a lone white man? And were not the Kubans the great traders, always looking for new markets? Nor were the few Germans who came later any occasion for concern other than new opportunities for trade . The exploring expeditions up and down the rivers did not cause alarm . Trading relations with the Europeans were indeed established and were becoming more and more profitable . The Europeans were not yet permitted to settle within the county . But no matter . They were, as we have said, long-range schemers . The pattern of worldwide imperialism had been determined long ago, and the techniques of penetration and dominance were fixed and universally applied . So, instead of invading the country by force, something they were never prepared to do initially anyway, they ringed the country with trading posts along its borders . To these outposts missionaries assembled to form missions (for God and the empire) and were later followed by armed detachments, ostensibly to protect the trading routes and new markets from imaginary raiders . To make matters worse, the European crisis began to develop near the end of the longest and most strife-ridden reign in Kuban history . King Mbop a Mabunc ma Mbul was in the fifth decade of his rule, tired and worn out both by age and endless fighting . Far from seeing the gathering Europeans as a threat, he and his immediate successors seem[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:19pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]to have regarded them as a godsend that would solve two critical problems: The Portuguese offer to buy all of the captured rebels and other troublemakers and the replenishing of a drained treasury by the sale of these war prisoners. The first would tend to end civil strife and restore domestic peace, and the second was a new source of great wealth. To be relieved of the cost and trouble of maintaining prisonerof- war camps was still another incentive for selling them . For such reasons the unforgivable sale of Blacks into slavery by Blacks began . The fact that African chiefs and kings had a quite different conception of slavery than that of the Caucasians does not excuse them ; for in the course of time they had to know that in the West the captured Blacks became slaves in fact, and not, as in Africa, persons who became members of the community, were integrated into families, became members of any of the crafts, had rights to farm land, held offices and, in fact, had all the rights and privileges enjoyed by their original captors . So, I am saying that while at first the African slave sellers may not have known the fate to which they were consigning their brothers, in time they did learn . And for this reason these Blacks will stand condemned forever before the bar of history, King ma Mbul along with the others . The sale of malcontents into slavery did not end the civil strife because, for one thing, all the rebels were neither captured nor defeated . Besides, the permanent center of conflict was in the royal lineage itself . The general upheaval after 1885, the year the European conquest of all Africa began, made it easy for the whites to enter and spread all over the country . The traders and missionaries were the first to take over the country by first allying themselves with opposing chiefdoms and opposing royal factions, urging on each to keep up the fight against the others . Indeed, the missionaries in Kuba were missionaries of damnation, not salvation . They wore the deceptive garb of religion but their activities were not only almost wholly political but were concerned with furthering the disintegration and collapse of this little black nation . They obviously did not come to help, spiritually or otherwise . They came to hinder, at least until the country was completely under white rule . Their next step, therefore, was to actually set up chiefdoms themselves, install puppet chiefs, and rule the country through the chiefdoms over which they and the traders had control! When the 20th century dawned, a dying Kuba was gasping for breath, making its last desperate attempts to free itself from the choking[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:24pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]hands it thought had come to bestow Christian blessings . But it was too late. The temporary restoration of the king was too late . The Congo Free State's gesture of assistance was too late . Death arrived according to a schedule-and that was determined by the whites . In 1916, the European-controlled Kot a Pe, the last to hold the fictitious title of "King" to disguise white rule, passed from the scene ; and the kingdom of Kuba, having long since died, now had its death certified by the equally small state of Belgium that now ruled a Black African region ten times its size . Kuba was the African experience in so many important respects that it was taken as a case-study typical of that experience. We have therefore seen how many of the migrations ended after the people had been uprooted from one place after another. Those who went to the farthest regions found what they believed to be a place of refuge, and began to build again as a separate, isolated society, slowly developing new forms of speech and variations from the original culture . Others found refuge in swamps, caves and forests or deserts where the natural environment alone was an effective barrier to progress and an unspoken command to retrogress to barbarism . Still others, such as the Bushoongs, united with other tribes to form a new nation . Out of this new nation there emerged not only a new people composed of many diverse groups but also a new language similary made up of different languages and dialects . It was also significant that the new state was formed under the guidelines of the traditional African constitution : Kings were to be elected and the power center was in the Council of State . There appeared to be a studied program of nation-building by glorifying the unique cultural offerings of each society and making its contributions as part of the whole nation's heritage . Significant, too, was the fact that religion, like other basic institutions, was essentially the same as it was in the "Heartland of the Race ." The Sky God-was still the Sun God, and the sun was simply the obvious way to symbolize the reality of the One God concept, the Creator of the Universe .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:25pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The role of great leaders as benefactors in human affairs was repeated and made clear again in the life and work of Shyaam the Great and in that of at least two of his successors . Shyaam's economic revolution that promoted remarkable progress and prosperity made his new title of "Lieutenant of God on Earth" readily acceptable ; for were not those leaders who looked after the welfare of the people the instruments of the divine will? As we have seen, a political phenomenon develops from this circumstance in which the people's confidence in the leader is so great that he may be allowed to exercise powers unlimited to further advance the public welfare . It is the genesis of absolutism . Therefore, the study of this state was also a study of how an African democracy evolved into an autocracy without any external influence whatsoever . Kuba revealed something else . We also saw that there was a black imperialism in Africa, all African, and without outside influence . Indeed, we saw the microcosm of all the conquests of Blacks by Blacks, the oppression and enslavement of Blacks by Blacks, all of which left us the heritage of suspicion, distrust and hatred that accounts for "tribalism," disunity, fear and unrest today . In spite of it all, the Kuban state was relatively secure as a black power entity until they allowed the whites to come in . At that point the history of the Blacks in Egypt and everywhere else was being repeated, and in exactly the same way . The Blacks -had learned nothing from their previous experiences with whites . The Blacks were therefore doomed to repeat the same big mistakes over and over, meanwhile losing both their civilization and their freedom . As the last days of the kingdom show, the separatist chiefdoms struggling for power actually sought alliances with the whites to overcome this or that black faction . They did this in Egypt and lost ; there they continued to form alliances with the whites against Blacks even after black rule had been pushed southward below the First Cataract . The whites were only too anxious to oblige in thus helping the Blacks to speed up the work in which they were so busily engaged : social disorganization and the internecine strife that led to white control of their lives . One may wonder if Kot a Pe, the last of the figurehead "Kings" under Belgium role, ever reflected on how and why the Blacks so often seal their own doom.[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:27pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]White Devils from the West BEFORE THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY MOST AFRICANS ON THE continent had never seen a real white face . Since in many societies all devils and other evil spirits were white, the ritual to ward these off was always led by chanting dancers whose faces and bodies were hideously painted with white chalk . That there were in fact white humans-living "white devils"-was unbelievable (probably few reports are better known than those of first contact where the boldest of the unbelievers would venture to rub the skin of whites to see if the "paint" would come off). Over a thousand years had passed since Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks had taken over Egypt, and Arabs now also ruled the Eastern Sudan . Arab-Hebrew rule was steadfast in isolated Abyssinia, while the Arabs along the East Coast, operating from their Zanzibar stronghold, had not themselves ventured far into the interior . Their Afro-Arab agents generally spearheaded slave-hunting operations. Ghana and Mali had disappeared, and now Songhay was making its last stand against Arab, Coloured, and Berber armies from across the desert . Even there where black armies clashed with invading white armies, the masses never saw white people . This refers not only to the countless thousands who fled upon the approach of enemy troops, but also to those who remained scattered over the country in their villages[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:30pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]Now things were changing rapidly and the people were becoming sharply aware that they were being hemmed in from all directions . To begin with, the Arabs were spreading out and penetrating formerly forbidden borders of black states . They could therefore enter black territory from which Whites were barred . These Black Arabs (many were unmixed) confused African leaders everywhere, increased the tensions and tribal wars among them, and helped mightily in destroying the independence of African states . Having discussed this in connection with the fall of the Mossi States and elsewhere, my return to the same subject again is to keep a focus on the race's self-imposed chains as well as on those imposed by the whites . A further reason is that Blacks themselves do not like to discuss these internal handicaps at all, not even among themselves . We prefer to pretend that certain things do not exist . This fact in itself is a weakness that strengthens the white power position over the Blacks . The Portuguese were the first white European people to arrive in West and Central Africa . They were not long in adopting the Arab strategy in dividing the Blacks against themselves-a strategy since adopted by all white people . THE KONGO-ANGOLA STORY The Portuguese arrived at the mouth of the great Congo river in West Africa in 1488. Their aim was to make their tiny European state into a vast African-Indian empire . They had two men of vision to inspire the all-out efforts to realize the dream : Joao I and his son, Henry . Africa had been secure from invasions from this quarter because the Western world had believed that the earth was flat . Now the myth had been exploded when in 1434 Gil Eanes dared to sail beyond the area where the Atlantic Ocean was supposed to end and ships plunge into the void : He sailed around Cape Bojador . Thenceforth the Blacks of West Africa had to confront the "white devils" from Europe and the Americas . The Portuguese, as ignorant of the African people as they had been about the shape of the earth, were not prepared to find highly advanced states there . The Kingdom of the Kongo was their first great surprise, because its political structure and expertly organized administrative machinery equaled that of Portugal or any other European state known to them . That system requires no discussion here because it followed[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:32pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]the same constitutional pattern as that of the other African states already described . The Kongo's economic system of agriculture and handicraft industries, organized into guilds, was the same ; apprenticeship training for all skilled occupations was the same ; and the general pattern of social organization was also the same as other African societies. The Kongo Kingdom was prosperous, carrying on external trade by both land and rivers with states farther north, east and west . The states to the south, later to become Angola, were in an uneasy commotion due to the increasing presence of foreigners on the coast, on nearby islands, and now sailing up the rivers toward the interior . Migrations from the Angola states increased, even though the Portuguese were then bypassing the region in favor of the more highly advanced Kingdom of Kongo. Was it the flight of so many potential slaves from the coastal areas that caused the Portuguese to move up the river closer to population centers? It was more likely a strategic move . By establishing a stronghold in the Kongo kingdom the Angola region would then be caught between Portuguese armed forces on the Angolan northern border and those on the seacoast and off-shore islands . In short, Portugal waass getting in a position to take over this whole region of black states . Many historians and apologists for Portuguese imperialism in Africa use the Kongo kingdom as the classic example of the Portuguese policy of racial equality . For did they not themselves declare this to be their policy? And did not the King of Portugal himself address the King of Kongo as "brother?" What happened was that the Portuguese captains had met . Kongo leaders, not just the King, who were in fact not only their equal, but men so anxious to advance their nation further that they were willing for anything new and better than the white world had to offer . They took the Westerners at their word . They had painted their monarch as the greatest king in a world that had advanced to a pinnacle of civilization under the guidance of a universal religion that was headed by a Supreme Pontiff who was appointed by the Son of God himself. Moreover, this same Successor to the First Head of the Church, the Apostle Peter, would not only welcome the King of Kongo and his people in the great Christian fold, but would send missionaries and teachers to help make his kingdom the greatest in Africa . Portuguese records indicate that far more than religion and Western education was offered-material benefits, such as great wealth from trade, were persuasive.[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:34pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The Kingdom of Kongo, therefore, is a case-study of the processes of Westernizing the very first group of Blacks on the African continent .' This, however, was only one of the means to a much greater end . Nothing could have been farther from Portugal's real objective than bringing Christianity and a higher civilization to Africa . "Christian civilization" served as the charm words in the white man's magic with the incantations which hypnotized both his victims and himself : They believed they were being introduced to a better life, while the latter convinced himself that even the enslaved people were better off under the white standard for civilization-besides which there was no other . He was, therefore, serving God himself in Africa ; for did not the churches throughout the Western world so proclaim? And were not the Christian missionaries the most effective servants of empire? The court at Lisbon had planned well . . For such a mini-state as Portugal an ambition for an empire bigger than the continent of Europe, and then daring enough to operate the plan-this must compel a degree of admiration for the kind of Caucasian genius and uninhibited aggressiveness that enabled very small groups of men to go forth and dominate almost all the people on this planet . Portugal's presence in West and Central Africa aimed at nothing less than building an empire across Africa from west to east (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean) a vast swath across the continent that would also serve directly as the imperial highway connection with the projected Indian empire . The African-Indian empire was Portugal's grand design. The Kongo interlude was merely a needed stepping-stone and base of operations . But they were smart enough to realize that the foundation for a permanent empire in the land of another people, built with their own sweat and blood, would be more successful if the minds of the people could be captured first . One did not go in with guns blazing . Only fools did this, except in cases where the "natives" were too damn smart and saw through every scheme, no matter how shining the Cross or how white the extended hand . In such cases it was their own fault, yet for their own salvation, that Christian cannons had to blast away . First of all, however, the really big thing was to change the Blacks into the white ---------------------------------------------------------- Notes 1. The ancient Ethiopian Church (in Makuria and Alwa) had no conscious Westernization program beyond the changes in names, and these, like those of Jews, were Bible names .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:36pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]man's image-a process, previously mentioned, which caused Blacks to reject and become ashamed of both their culture and themselves, the only people on earth to do so . This is why it is important to have a close-up look at the process of Westernization in the Kingdom of Kongo where it began . The missionaries began their work on kings and notables . There was nothing new in this approach. Indeed, the Kongolese were so anxious for the new education and its vehicle, Christianity, that the priests found their tasks easy . First of all, to become a Christian one had to be baptized and given a "Christian" name . Christian names were Western names, and they all took the form used in the conquering country . The first Kongolese King to become a Christian was Nzinga Kuwu in 1492, taking the Portuguese name of Joao I . Hundreds of other Blacks immediately followed his example-princes, chiefs, ministers and some of the masses . The most notable Kongolese kings who became "Black Portuguese" were Affonsos, Alvares, Dom Pedros, Diogos, etc . Overbearing Jesuit Fathers were installed as councilors to the king, one functioning as a prime minister . This move at once destroyed the troublesome traditional council that controlled chiefs and kings-with such councils no European power could operate . The age of absolutism with the rise of the nation-state in Europe was directly reflected in the Kongo kingdom . With this Portuguese wedge between the king and the people, the Kongo rulers now found themselves free to make important decisions without reference to black councilors .' They therefore tended to become absolute monarchs insofar as their own people were concerned, but generally puppets in the hands of Europeans . The exceptions were Affonso I and Diogo 1 . The idea of divine kingship was promoted through the anointment and crowning of kings by Portuguese bishops . Kings now ruled as "sons of the Church," chosen by divine decree to serve it . This meant serving the Portuguese by meeting their demands-always made as friendly suggestions from brothers who were "equal in Christ ." Even the traditional ---------------------------------------------------- Notes 2. Since the Kongolese rulers were migrants into the territory and extended their kingdom over indigenous people, the king's appointment of key officials was one of the same routes to autocracy I have discussed in connection with the rise of new African states following migrations[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:38pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]political system was made to appear as a Portuguese creation . It was already highly and efficiently organized before any Europeans came -organized with each village and town under a chief (called mani), each district under a mani, and each of the six major provinces that made up the kingdom was under the administration of a governor, also bearing the title of mani . Now, in addition to the widespread use of Portuguese names, important Portuguese titles appeared, such as dukes and infantes (a new class of princes) hitherto never used in Africa because the Western conception of royalty was absent . Here, then, is another case where the "external influence" school can have a field day, since nothing is better known (and nowhere denied) than the fact that the Africans who adopted European or Asian institutions, such as Islam and Christianity, for example, were not only "influenced" by them, but often transformed into "Black Arabs," "Black Portuguese," "Black Frenchmen," "Black Englishmen" and so on. In fact, it was this very transforming external influence that played a decisive role in first destroying the best in African civilization while at the same time giving worldwide publicity to all remaining elements of barbarism that could be found . The new masters of the continent were in the position of all-power and could, therefore, make their viewpoints the viewpoints of the world . The system of reducing Blacks to nonpersons was so thoroughgoing that not only did the various people of the world regard them as such, but-tragedy of tragedies-the Blacks themselves came to feel inferior and to hate themselves and all of their kind . Magic? Here, indeed, a magical thing had happened since these whites who called themselves Portuguese had arrived . As the 15th century moved on toward the 19th, the Europeans became less and less "white devils" and more and more white masters, backed up by awesome firepower . "White" was no longer the face of evil in the Black world . 'It had changed places with "black ." Now "black" was the badge of evil, all that was bad-even bad luck . To make a white man look evil you had to dress him in black ; life's final tragedy, death, called for mourning in black ; happy events, such as baptisms and. weddings, required the wearing of white . God Himself, being white, had cursed the Blacks and made them the "servants of man"-man being white man, for was not he made in the "image of God?" To worship God, in effect, was to worship the white man . A volume could be written on the scores of these little psychological gimmicks that are now so deeply embedded in cultural thought that they are taken as a[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:40pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]simple matter of course and require no comment . Yet they are the subtle weapons which have been more devastating in Conquering the Blacks and reducing them to an inferior status than armed might . Caucasian victory- was complete and seemingly permanent when the Blacks throughout the world joined the whites in glorifying all things white and condemning all things black, or even tinged with black, including themselves. Here we are at the very heart of the "race problem," this selfabnegation, self-effacement, the loss of self-identity by cutting their roots with the past and thereby losing the very links with their history from which a people draw strength and inspiration to move forward to even higher ground and, in fact, the reason for being . In short, in the incongruous attempts to replace his own values with those of the white man, the black man lost his own personality and, therefore, his manhood-almost absolutely . Nearly five hundred years have passed since the first Europeans landed on the coasts of West Africa and their phase of transforming Blacks from men to half-men began . Yet even with this long background there are countless millions of frustrated Blacks, frustrated by the perpetual annoyance of the blurred vision and the blank wall as they struggle to see life through the blue eyes of Caucasians . The status of African people throughout the world remains too precarious to deal with their history by merely chronicling important events . The situation demands that greater efforts be made to determine the meaning of those events, their effect on the people, the overall change in the direction of history, and what new directions -the race must take . The major and immediate Portuguese aim in Africa was not the conquest of Blacks; rather, their first aim was to destroy Arab power in Africa and the Islamic control of just about all of the overland trade routes to the East . For this cause Columbus had sailed, and other European nations took to the high seas . The Portuguese sought to use religion as the usual spearhead . That Christian states were in Africa from the earliest times had not been completely forgotten .' One that had escaped Muslim destruction was located in what had been a southeastern border state of the ancient Ethiopian empire, identified by the -------------------------------------------- Notes 3. There was no reason why the ancient African Church should have been "forgotten" at all . The Vatican records and those at Constantinople were available .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:41pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]Portuguese as a kingdom ruled by a "King Prester John ." The idea was to unite the Christian forces of Europe with those of Africa in an all-out war against the Arabs . But what was not generally known was that the kingdom of Axum, expanding to become the Empire of Abyssinia, was ruled alternatively by Christian Arabs and Coloured Christian Hebrews . All Arabs were not Muslims; all Hebrews were not Jews in religion . It appears that African Hebrew and Christian Arab communities were in Southern Arabia and Yemen, just across from the East African country they later conquered . The Portuguese, however, did not reach the African Christian kingdom at the time they sought it for the promotion of their campaign against Islam . They had therefore begun the work of creating a Black Christian kingdom in their own image . This was Kongo . By 1512 no one needed to guess or speculate about the Portuguese plans . Their king, Manuel, made them clear in documentary form : The Regimento . This is one of the interesting and significant documents in the history of black people because it was the first detailed blue print for the conquest of the black man's mind (acculturation via Christianity), his body (slavery), and his country . This historic document, however, was couched in all the endearing words and phraseology of equality and brotherly love -from which fact historians have declared the Portuguese African policy to be one of equality replete with humanitarianism . But the Kongolese King, Affonso (his Portuguese name notwithstanding), saw through the elaborate plan to reorganize his country and began to throw up roadblocks, albeit too late . Manuel levied on the King a heavy tribute in slaves, ivory and copper to pay the cost of his Christian civilization program in the country, his various expeditions there, and for the "huge expenses" in connection with the education of a few Kongolese children in Portugal, including the King's son . Manuel's next most important move was to make certain that his Code de Kongo was carried out . He, therefore, sent Simao de Silva both as his ambassador, and, in effect, governor-general or viceroy of Kongo . While Simao de Silva's real functions were clearly outlined, these were covered by the usual title of courtesy : Advisor to the King or the King's Counselor . In this capacity he was the coadministrator of the nation, a supreme judge, and had control over army and finance . He was to have a comprehensive geographical survey of the country to determine the extent of its natural wealth for direct exploitation . Things quickly got out of hand . The Portuguese settler population, based[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 9:51pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]mainly on the coast and off-shore lands, desired the quicker riches that would flow from the increasing d land for black slaves . The settlers, therefore, pursued a more aggresive course of action, ignoring the Lisbon court's attempt to cover up the real operations with the friendly language of diplomacy . Up to the sixteenth century the °people we are calling slaves were not slaves in the modern sense, but labourers either captured as prisoners of war or persons imprisoned for various offenses. During the first stages of the slave trade many African chiefs and kings actually thought they were supplying workers needed aload, and at a great profit to themselves . They had not had experiece with the white man's slave system or its equation with "race ." Not at first, we have said . But as the decades passed, and the Kongo state is a good example, many Africans became enmeshed in the horrors of the trade, knew what they were doing and, in the pursuit of guns and riches, became as brutal as the whites in dealing with their own kind . Guns. Black leaders saw these new weapons of death as the source of the white man's power and the immediate threat to their own existence ; the earth-shaking cannons that were being brought into Africa seemed to herald the death of a whole race or its total enslavement . The Africans became insistent in their demands for guns as articles of trade . There was then, as now, a silent embargo on arms to Black Africa, a sort of white "Gentlemen's Agreement. The demand for guns by the chiefs was pitted against the demand for slaves by the Europeans and Arabs (the Arab slavers had no trouble procuring firearms) . The chiefs could seriously hamper the trade if their demands for guns were not met . Besides, many slave traders were nick to see that the supply of slaves would double and triple if firearms were given to certain strategically located kingdoms and chiefdoms ; from these would then seek to become big, wealthy powers, expanding their territories over weaker black states, and capturing millions of prisoners to be enslaved in the process . The more aggressive traders were willing to arm such African states as one of the risks capitalists must takin the pursuit of wealth . The more imperialist-minded saw an outcorr even more important : That this would be a built-in motivation for perpetual warfare among the Blacks themselves, creating an everlasting hatred between groups, destroying every basis for unity and, above all,firearms would keep them so busily hatitig and fighting each other that iey would forget their real enemies, the "white devils" from the sea .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:00pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]The Portuguese Christianization of the Kongo created something more than chaos . It was a revolting mess, no matter from what angle it is viewed . To begin with, priests were not only among the leading slave traders, but they also owned slave ships to carry the "black cargoes" to distant lands . Priests also had their harems of black girls, some having as many as twenty each. They were called "house servants" by these "holy fathers." the great majority of the whites were the scum of the land from whit] they came . Even the half-educated priests were generally of the very incest character, morally and otherwise . The slave situation became more and more desperate and out of hand as every white man down to to lowly worker became a trader . The builders sent over to erect fortifications and other permanent installations for the Portuguese (stone an, brick masons, carpenters, engineers, painters, metal and other craftmen) were all slave traders . Sailors and unskilled Portuguese laborers had their own quotas of slaves, especially slave girls . For let this truth emerge from the many facts which are buried, and let it stand out clearly : One of the main attractions that drew thousands of white men was their unlimited sexual freedom with all the black girls and women who were enslaved and helpless in the power of their masters . These "wholesale raids" on black womanhood continued to swell the mulatto population the majority of which, as in the case of Egypt and the Sudan, became the faithful servants and loyal representatives of- the conquering races to which their fathers belonged . The Kongolese king, Affonso, found himself in the middle of fires from several directions, and hamstrung by the Portuguese advisor who had acquired veto power even over the King's actions . Yet Affonso was far from being a weakling . He tried, too late, to gain control of the slave trade, a control now most urgent because every Black that competing raiders could get their hands on was enslaved, including some members of the royal household and numerous titleholders throughout the country.On the other hand, the king of Portugal declared a royal monopoly over the trade . This not only frustrated Affonso's efforts, but clashed head-on with the interests of the powerful and independent slave merchants, the real controlling settlers on the seacoasts and islands . These were the representatives of the great chartered companies that controlled the commerce of the world . Since they operated under royal charters and the Court was a principal shareholder in all such enterpries, they could not openly defy the king ; but the distance from Lisbon enabled them to bypass de Silva and any other representative of the king and carry on as they wished . The mission fathers, the "War[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:07pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]Dogs of the Lord" (Jesuits), wore most helpful as spearheads into the interior chiefdoms to form slave hunting alliances in exchange for discarded guns. For those who require the specific details and examples of just how advancing black states were destroyed throughout the African continent and want the facts repeated over and over again, here then is still another example in both Angola and the Kingdom of Kongo . The strategy for destruction seldom varied, giving added weight to my concept of a Grand Caucasian Consensus on matters concerning nonwhite peoples . The aspect now under discussion was the practice of having white groups spread out over the country into the various provinces, heavily ladened with gifts of goodwill, and getting themselves attached to the courts of local chiefs as friendly advisors who were going to guarantee the security of the chiefs and their people, and even extend their power over other peoples, all of which would make great riches for the chiefs . A few old Juns replacing spears seemed to be sufficient evidence that these whites were indeed saviours as well as friends . (The French name for them was agents provocateurs . The American name would have been C .I.A or A.I .D .) No matter how strong and effective the administrative machinery of the central government at San Salvador had been, it was being undermined and destroyed by the well planned European activities in the provinces-the identical activities that had been carried on in the Egyptian provinces three thousands before, in Kuba, and would be repeated all over Africa . The aim was to provoke war between the Black, pitting the gun-armed groups against those who only had shields and spears, and thus skyrocketing the number of captives for slavery from a few thousands into millions . Not only were whole villages destroyed, but entire provinces were depopulated and their formerly proud and free citizens were marched off in chains, collared and joined together by heavy poles-as though the chains that bruised and bound hands and ankles were not enough . Many royal lineages were among the captives, including chiefs, which is exactly how it should have been if any of the people were to be enslaved. According to African tradition leader and people were one and the same, sharing a common lot . This sense of oneness, however, applied only to the members of one's tribe, and not to Africans outside of it, another tragic fact of black iistory . This is why the chiefs and kings would secure prisoners of war by attacking other states . Only a savage chieftain would sell his own people into slavery . The Europeans learned[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:46pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]this very quickly and found that it fitted in well with the general plan to keep the blacks divided, forever suspicious of each other, and to have these mutual hatreds and suspicions historically derived not from anything the Europeans had done but from the Blacks' own record of tribal" warfare . As the slave raids spread throughout Angola and Kongo, the Blacks continue to flee overland and up the rivers toward the central and southern areas of the great savanna regions and the lakes . Some, as we have seen in the case of Kuba, found security long . enough to rebuild remarkable states again, others found security only in the hidden recesses of decay and decline . Meanwhile, the fierce Jaga warriors were still on rampage, fighting with or against any group, including the white slave traders . But since the Jaga generally waged war only against their own kind, Africans, the Portuguese were less hesitant in supplying them with guns . The wars to capture slaves had become so widespread among and within the various states, and the slave trails to the coasts were so heavy with barefooted traffic that it is difficult to see why any alliance with the Jaga were needed, unless it was thought to be necessary to make up for the unbelievable death toll among the captives . For every two million Blacks enslaved over a million died . The record indicate rather clearly that many millions preferred death to slavery. I just said the record indicates," but you will never find a single Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English or American document that explicitly says arsuch things . The archives in Lisbon are rich to overflowing with African documents going back 500 years . By wading through a great mass of much written records the historian often gets a picture that was not intended for painting and messages from the same documents which were not sent-which is merely another way of saying again that written documents often reveal far more than their authors intended . You will therefore search in vain for an account written as the following : " . . .It is not true that all women, and even children, were likewise marched in chains ; this would have been unnecessary anyway because we hadearned that these black women are so loyal to their men that they would follow them even into hell . Capture their men and you did not have to capture them . Yet many of these same women would seek death directly by attacking us and our armed guards . These, of course were beaten and chained the same as male slaves . . . Another problen was the large number of suicides during the two-hundred mile trek to [/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:47pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]the slave pens on the coast . The greatest number died from poison which hundreds of women would conceal on their bodies for the purpose, passing it to friends and kinsmen in the darkness of night before giving it to their children and finally taking it themselves . All this slowed us down during the night when we should have moved faster because it was cooler . Yet the dead and the dying had to have their chains chopped off from the living . Many babies were deliberately smothered to death by their dying mothers . . . We do not believe that the other deaths were caused by the long march as some allege . For while it is true that we ourselves are carried in hammocks, the bearers changed every ten or fifteen miles . The biggest and strongest boys are selected to carry us . They are usually between twenty and thirty years old. They also collapse sometimes, but only five have died during this year . It must be remembered that these Blacks are quite used to walking very long distances with heavy burdens . . . There are many problems in this business. The captains, taking it easy on the coast, are always complaining about our slow movement and the many weeks it takes on the march. They never take into account how much we are slowed down by tramping and stumbling over the skeletons and rottening dead bodies of slaves that went along these trails before us, sometimes years before us. The stench of those who died recently is unbearable, yet we bear it . We also lose much time trying to find routes free of the dead and dying . Then there are scores and scores of perfectly healthy Blacks who drop dead without any apparent cause . Some say they die out of sheer spite-another way of defeating us . . . We work in fear, for our guns are often useless in the increasing number of ambush attacks along these death-ridden trails . And while the Kongolese kings now harass us in their attempts to check the spread of the trade, the real danger is in the Angola region, the region of the Black Terror in the form of a deathdefying black queen, Ann Nzinga. Who ever heard of a woman general, leading her armies in person? The truth is that she is the greatest military strategist that ever confronted the armed forces of Portugal . Her tactics keep our commanders sweating in confusion and dismay . Her aim is nothing less than the total destruction of the slave trade . To this end, and what alarms us most, she has developed a system of infiltrating our black troops with her own men, causing whole companies to rebel, desert, and join her armies in what she calls a'War of Liberation .' Portuguese, casualties are always heavier than reported, for she stages surprise attacks with lightning speed, always aiming first to capture guns and [/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:48pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]cannons . And while we now surround ourselves with armed guards on these long marches, we never know how many of our black soldiers are the Queen's own men! . . . " This would have been a true account up to 1663 when the forty years of unremitting warfare that Queen Nzinga waged against the Portuguese to free Angola ended with her passing . Africa had lost her greatest daughter, the slaves their greatest emancipator . Where is this explicitly written? Nowhere . It has been pointed out that Affonso was himself a statesman, and far from being a mere puppet in the hands of the Portuguese . Even though the process got under way with his conversion to Christianity and the replacement of his own African name with a Portuguese one, he was awakened by the Code, and began to resist and reject those provisions which were designed to make Africans Black Portuguese in the name of Christ, while destroying their sovereignty at the same time . The fact that the enemy prevailed in the end does not detract from his stature as a great African . The pressures had increased as Portuguese riches from the slave trade, far from satisfying their greed, led them into excited searches for gold, silver, copper and lead they believed to be in abundance in the region, but concealed by the Blacks . Pressures from the African population increased with the widespread slave hunts and raids . Historians have highlighted the role of African chiefs and kings in the slave trade ; little is said about the general African opposition to the trade or about the kings and chiefs who led the fight against' it . Yet, by the very nature of the situation, these had to be . as well known as the Blacks who enriched themselves from the traffic . Queen Nzinga was not the only African abolitionist . It just happened that in her case she was not only involved in treaty negotiations of record, but operated over so many Angolan areas that she could not easily be excluded from history . The Kongolese opposing their kings were fighting both slavery and the Christian Church that promoted it . Even the broader education they all so passionately desired turned out to be a farce, another Western bait . The "schools," rigidly restricted in number and attendance, were little more than Catholic catechistic classes, under semi-literate priests who were themselves not only slave[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:49pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]dealers, but the personification of all that is meant by corruption and immorality . All of Affonso's efforts to get at least one good school established in Kongo were blocked . For one thing, widespread education of the Blacks was not really intended ; that would have meant sending welltrained teachers instead of the unwanted dregs of Portuguese society . But even if Portugal had had the best intentions, she herself did not have many educated men in the sixteenth century and her own illiterate masses were just as ignorant as those in the rest of Europe . The situation had become worse on all fronts when Diogo became king of Kongo in 1545, supported by the Lisbon court factions that could still make or break kings and influence their policies . On the other hand, the powerful trader population had their principal strongholds at strategic Luanda and Sao Thome, from which points they continued to expand slave operations in, below, around and beyond Kongo, all in defiance of Kongolese kings and the king of Portugal himself. They were greatly aided by the king (ngola) of Ndongo, the strongest state in the Angola region .4 But Ndongo was nominally under the Kongo as a tributary state . In 1556 war between the major conflicting groups, hitherto undercovered, broke out, open and full scale : Royal Portuguese forces allied with those of Kongo against Portuguese trader force allied with Ndongo-Portuguese against Portuguese and Africans against Africans . So it appears on paper in the records . The simple truth is that it was a war of Africans against Africans, with the Portuguese forces safely in the rear . That black troops were to be used in all dangerous situations and white lives safeguarded wherever possible was no silent "Gentleman's Agreement" or an aspect of the Grand Caucasian Consensus ; it was, rather, an explicit royal decree from Lisbon . But it was so very unneces- . sary, this royal order to put Blacks in the front lines of battle . This would have been done anyway as a matter of course . The Kongolese were defeated and Ndongo and the slave traders now controlled the whole trade . And although the war waged against them was instigated by Lisbon and directed by Manuel's own representatives in Kongo, the victorious traders used Ndongo for negotiations leading to a new alliance with Lisbon and the foundation for taking over all of Angola as ---------------------------------------------------- Notes 4. The name "Angola," later taken from the title for the king, was not yet applied to the region that is now the Portuguese colony of Angola . [/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:52pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
[b]a colony of Portugal . Even the Portuguese counselors to Diogo could now deny any responsibility for the disaster with a straight face . Yet when Diogo died five years later (1561), they were still actively on the job to choose his successor, thus promoting further turmoil in an already disintegrating nation . The murder of one king after another became almost routine. Attacks from enemy neighbors, quick to take advantage of the royal weaklings and internal chaos, marked the declining years of Kongo as a great power . Jaga warriors almost gave it a death blow in 1568, but not quite . Things moved rapidly . In 1575, Angola became a colony of Portugal by a royal decree only, and Mother Kongo, fighting for her own life, could only weep at the permanent loss of her greatest offspring . But does not the very mention of 1575 as the year Angola became a Portuguese possession-does this not seem to be sort of closing the book on the most important events prior to and after 1575, making it appear that the Kongo's near-collapse led to an almost immediate and easy takeover of Angola as a colony? This is the way historians generally read . Well, it was not that way at all . The disintegration of the Kongolese state seemed to be complete, but it was not . There was still another revival under another line of great kings . And although the conquest of Angola was ordered by Lisbon in 1571 and began in 1575, the Portuguese, to their great surprise, had to fight their longest and bloodiest war, almost foot by foot, before Angola was finally taken nearly a half century later . They had not counted on being confronted with a black queen who would turn out to be one of the bravest generals that ever commanded an army . They had not counted on the new Queen of Ndongo, Ann Nzinga . [/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 10:57pm On Mar 08, 2012 |
To be continued, QUEEN NZINGA: THE UNCONQUERABLE |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:26am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]QUEEN NZINGA: THE UNCONQUERABLE Greatness was born out of the savage oppression of the Africans and out of that oppression it grew like a giant . Just why the Portuguese drew so much blood with the lash from already chained and helpless slaves is beyond all human understanding since, if for no other reason, the victims were "articles of commerce" and the source of the very riches slavers sought. Besides, over half of the captured Blacks died before reaching their destination . Self-interest, then, should have stayed the murderous hands of the slavers . Nothing did, and that fact was one of the reasons that Queen Nzinga said that the real savages in Africa were the whites . They created the conditions that brought her to the fore .' The Portuguese were so aggressive in their program of dividing the Blacks and keeping them fighting among themselves that they overshot the mark, simply went too far . The system of spreading out over the country into the provinces and allying themselves with the various chiefs has been mentioned more than once . But after 1608 the commander- in-chief of the Portuguese army tightened the noose . This was Bento Cardoso . Under his plan Angola was to be further depopulated by a massive onslaught for slaves through a closely coordinated system in which every chief in the land would be "owned" by a Portuguese and directly responsible to him for a stated quota of slaves . This would bypass the Angolan king (of Ndongo) to whom the provincial chiefs paid their taxes in slaves . This would also mean increased warfare between the chiefdoms in order to meet the increased quotas demanded by raiding into each other's territories . Chiefs failing to secure the required number of slaves were themselves enslaved . Over a hundred chiefs and other notables were sold into slavery in a single year and another hundred murdered by the Portuguese .6 We may safely assume that the actual number of chiefs enslaved or murdered was greater than that state above, since the Portuguese, like other nations, generally cut casualty figures for the record . The situation to be considered here however, is the widespread confusion and terror among a hunted and leaderless people . To make matters even worse, if that was possible, the half-savage Jaga, who would join anybody for their favorite game of looting and raping, became allies of Cardoso . The Angolan king, who had been cooperating with the slave traders, now saw himself being ruined on all fronts, losing his people and his profits . He therefore began to resist the Portuguese . The people, even though they knew that their king himself was a slaver, in sheer desperation flocked to support ----------------------------------------------------- Notes 5. For quite a different version see Portuguese sources, such as the works of the Capauchin monk, Joao Antonia Cavazzi, Descricao e Historia dos tres Reinos, do Congo, Matamba e Angola ; and the soldier, Antonia de Olivera Cadornega, Historia Geral dos Guerras Angolamos . Reprinted 1965 and 1942 respectively, Lisbon . 6 . Some accounts give 80 as the number massacred .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:28am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]the war of resistance .' It paid off. Both the Portuguese and their Jaga allies were checked, and the war dragged on year after year . After Kabasa, the capital city, fell to the Portuguese, their losses had become so heavy that the new governor who had been sent from Lisbon with firm orders to complete the conquest of Angola "once and for all," nevertheless was forced to sue for peace without victory . The Portuguese had suffered a disastrous defeat by the Blacks, but the official version, and excuse, was that there was "general illness" in their ranks . Yet the Portuguese insisted on holding Kabasa . The Africans therefore rejected peace proposals as a trick and the war was resumed in a land of famine where food crops and the slave trade itself had come to a standstill . In this desperate state of affairs, the fighting somehow continued, with both sides obviously weakened and in disarray . It was during this period, in 1619, that a new Portuguese commander managed to murder over a hundred chiefs . At this point the Pope intervened, insisting that the wholesale slaughter be ended and peace be pursued . In 1622, a new governor was sent from Lisbon to make peace . Portugal had been appointing "governors of Angola" for over forty years without having control over it . The peace conference was held at Luanda . The black delegation was headed by the country's ablest and most uncompromising diplomat, Ann Nzinga, not yet queen, but sister of the king-the woman power behind a weak king, and the one responsible for inspiring the people to continue the war of resistance when every hope was gone, unless she herself had become their last hope . But even before the peace conference began, and at the risk of wrecking it, the governor's Caucasian arrogance could not be restrained . He had decided on a studied insult at the outset by providing chairs in the conference room only for himself and his councilors, with the idea of forcing the black princess to stand humbly before his noble presence . He remained seated, of course, staring haughtily as she entered the room . She took in the situation at a glance with a contemptuous smile, while her attendants moved with a swiftness that seemed to suggest that they had anticipated this stupid behavior by the Portuguese . They quickly rolled out the beautifully designed royal carpet they had brought before Nzinga, after which one of them went ----------------------------------------------------------- Notes 7 . The People were actually rallying behind the King's sister Nzinga, who had opposed him for engaging in the slave trade .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:30am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]down on all fours and expertly formed himself into a "royal throne" upon which the princess sat easily without being a strain on her devoted follower . Yet she rose at regular intervals, knowing that other attendants were vying for the honor of thus giving to these whites still another defeat . I gather from the different ways this incident is reported that the Western mind is unable to grasp its real meaning . Some historians saw it as a cruel and inhuman use of slaves, ignoring the fact that Nzinga's chief claim to fame was that she was the greatest abolitionist of slavery, that she herself had no slaves and, indeed, had not the slightest need for any. One reason might be that she was so much loved and even blindly followed by her people that it was believed that all would die, to the last man and woman, following her leadership . Such were the men, not slaves, who gladly formed a human couch before the astonished Portuguese for their leader . She faced the Portuguese governor and spoke as a ruler of the land, and not as a subject of the king of Portugal . She did not recognize the man in the big chair as governor because she did not recognize the existence of a Portuguese "colony of Angola ." She only saw before her what her people had seen approaching their shores over a hundred years before- pompous white devils bent on the destruction of the nonwhite world . The Ndongo terms for peace were presented as uncompromising demands, and it was clear from the beginning that the Portuguese would have fared better with a man . For before any kind of treaty was signed Portugal had to agree (1) to evacuate Kabasa and all nearby fortifications ; (2) the Portuguese were to wage war against the Jaga (a harsh provision since the Jaga had been Portugal's allies in trying to crush Ndongo) ; (3) all chiefs who had become vassals of the Portuguese king were to be freed and enabled to return to former tributary status at home and, finally, the important concession Nzinga made was to return the Portuguese prisoners-of-war she held . The treaty of 1622 was supposed to end all fighting in the whole West-Central region . But the governor, as though to make up for his defeat in the peace negotiations with Nzinga, marched off, almost immediately, to invade Kongo again . The treaty then became dead insofar as its execution was concerned . But Nzinga's brother died the next year and she became Queen of Ndongo. The distressed Portuguese, in order to discredit her, put out the story that she had poisoned him . And while there was not a scintilla of evidence or any basis at all for the concoction, historians have shown their unbiased objectivity by faithfully carrying on the charge for over[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:31am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]three hundred years . Yet, if lying is a legitimate aspect of warfare, the Portuguese may have felt justified in trying to destroy such an implacable foe in any way they could .8 Their greatest trouble was yet to come . Nzinga became queen in 1623, and went into action at once . Her first major move was to send an ultimatum to the Portuguese authorities demanding the immediate execution of the terms of the treaty, otherwise war would be declared . While the Portuguese were preparing to meet the Queen's armies, the Dutch fleet appeared as a new threat . The Dutch, themselves great slavers, certainly did not come as liberators of the hard pressed Blacks . Their aim was to break the Portuguese monopoly and secure their share of the slave trade and the mineral wealth of West and Central Africa . To further these ends, they used the Blacks as other white peoples did and still do . No time was lost in forming an alliance with Pedro 11, King of Kongo, in his war with the Portuguese . The Dutch had already captured seven Portuguese slave ships at sea, sunk other vessels in the harbors at Luanda and Mpinda, and generally raising hell . All this gave Queen . Nzinga more time to prepare for the inevitable . She even reversed her demands for a Portuguese war against the Jaga and formed a military alliance with them herself. Knowing how very unreliable the Jaga were, she sought to make the alliance binding by promising to marry the Jaga chief, Kasanji, and adopting certain desirable Jaga customs . Nzinga's greatest act, however, probably the one that makes her one of the greatest women in history, was in 1624 when she declared all territory in Angola over which she had control as free country, all slaves reaching it from whatever quarter were forever free . She went further . Since it was clear to her that white power in Africa rested squarely on the use of black troops against black people, she undertood the first and only carefully organized effort to undermine and destroy the effective . employment and use of black soldiers by Whites-the first and only Black leader in history who was ever known to undertake such a task . She had carefully selected groups of her own soldiers to infiltrate the Portuguese black armies, first separating and spreading out individually into Portuguese held territory and allowing themselves to be "induced" ---------------------------------------------- Notes 8, I am not unaware that Nzinga hated her brother not only because he was a slave trader, but also because he had murdered her young son, being the king's nephew, was heir to the throne . .[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:32am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]by Portuguese recruiting agents to join their forces . The quiet and effective work of Nzinga's agents among the black troops of Portugal was one of the most glorious, yet unsung, pages in African history . For whole companies rebelled and deserted to the colors of the black queen, taking with them the much needed guns and ammunition which she had been unable to secure except by swiftly moving surprise attacks on enemy units . The Queen's armies were further strengthened by the runaway slaves who streamed into the only certain haven for the free on the whole continent of Africa . To the Portuguese, Queen Nzinga had passed the last word in unheard-of audacity when she was able to influence scores of vassal chiefs to rebel against them and join the cause of their own race . This was too much . This woman had to be destroyed . It had come to that. The Portuguese sent their ultimatum to the Queen from their Luanda stronghold, Portugal's Lisbon in Africa . It demanded the immediate return of all chiefs, soldiers and slaves to Portuguese territory ; that is, all who had fled therefrom . Refusal would mean war, the ultimatum concluded . The fact was that a state of war already existed since the Queen's own ultimatum of the previous year . The Portuguese were afraid to move against her then and they were even more afraid. to move against her stronger forces now, although they continued to give the Dutch threat as the reason for delaying the required all-out attack . Meanwhile, the usual strategy of first instigating factional strife among the Blacks was by no means forgotten . It was just that there was so much unity and patriotism in this dominant Angola state, so much fanatical devotion to this "terrible Black Queen," that internal subversion was almost impossible . They tried to overcome all this by formally declaring that Nzinga was not legally Queen of Ndongo, the throne vacant, and one of their own vassal chiefs, Aidi Kiluanji, was declared king. The Portuguese marshalled all of their forces on land and sea, their special river fleets in particular, to crush Nzinga before the Dutch struck again . But the Queen herself opened the offensive, striking first at the Portuguese puppet king and his forces . The Portuguese captured her principal island stronghold in the Cuanza river in July, 1626, thus dividing her forces and, by a swift encircling movement designed to capture the Queen, cut off her main supporting regiments and forced her not only to retreat but to withdraw from her country . Joy reigned at Luanda and Sao Thome. With Nzinga's flight from Angola it appeared that the black menace was over and victory complete . Aidi Kiluanji was crowned King Philip I of Ndongo . [/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:39am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]The solidarity of the Blacks remained unbroken, however, and their loyalty to Nzinga remained steadfast . She was "just away a little while," and would soon return . Any child in the most distant bush could tell you that their Queen was "just away on business ." So who was this Philip? His name said he was a Portuguese, so he couldn't be King of Ndongo. All Angolan kings and queens were so African that they couldn't be tricked out of their own African names . The Queen herself had dropped "Ann" from her name when she discovered that baptizing a Black into Christianity meant surrendering his soul and body not to any Christ, but to the white man . And oral tradition further has it that the people not only rejected "Philip I," but made fun of the very idea that he considered himself to be king . Their blind faith in their Queen and the certainty of her return, according to the same oral record, was not really so blind . Those who understood the coded drum messages spread the news that all guerrilla attacks which occurred throughout the land were attacks which were personally directed by the Queen and that, in fact, she was raising a new army of liberation . Her loyal chiefs and people in Ndongo were to stand by, ready . The written record, no matter how slanted, supports the oral . For in November, 1627, she crossed the borders back into her country at the head of a strong army, made stronger and stronger as her loyal chiefs and wildly cheering people, including her fanatically devoted freed men, flocked to her standard as she swept forward to recapture the Cuanza stronghold held by Philip I and put him to flight . The Portuguese continued to be amazed at this display of black unity-an'd under a woman's leadership at that . Black unity was now seen clearly as Black Power, and that meant an unconquerable people . The Portuguese were resolved to break that unity and the power that developed from it . The revolt against them had become general as Nzinga's victorious forces advanced. The Portuguese retreated to their own strongholds on the coast, giving the Dutch threat as an excuse and not the threat of being annihilated by the Queen's forces . But as there was in fact no imminent Dutch threat, the Portuguese regrouped and strengthened their forces for an all-out war to destroy Nzinga and this time, not to cease fighting until this was done . They began by giving orders and offering a big reward for her capture, dead or alive . Their slave troops, still the backbone of the Portuguese armed forces, were given the special inducements of land and freedom for her capture . Realizing that such an all-out attempt to capture her meant that[/b] |
| Re: The Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams by Tochi3(m): 11:40am On Mar 09, 2012 |
[b]countless thousands of her people would die in her defense, she outwitted the Portuguese again by slipping out of the country, instructing her lieutenants to spread the word everywhere that she had fled the country and, mistakenly entering the territory of an enemy, had been killed. To give point to the story, there was general weeping and mourning throughout Ndongo, real weeping and mourning, because the masses believed the story to be true . So did the Portuguese. The only reason for the war having been removed by Providence, the Bishop could celebrate a special mass in celebration of this special blessing, and the Colony of Angola could at last be organized after over fifty years of obstruction . All things now seemed to be happy and going well according to the original grand design . Then in 1629 the Portuguese stood aghast when Queen Nzinga "burst upon them from the grave," sweeping all opposition before her . She brought in her fierce Jaga allies, apparently willing to do even this to defeat the whites . The Portuguese were completely defeated . She had not only retaken her own country, but had, meanwhile, become Queen of Matamba also, having replaced the weak Queen there . Nzinga was now an empress of two countries . She now redoubled her campaign against slavery and the slave trade by making both Ndongo and Matamba havens for all who could escape from the slaver by rebelling or otherwise .' Chiefs engaged in the traffic in nearby states now stood in fear of her wrath. The Portuguese saw "the handwriting on the wall ." In order not to lose every foothold in the area, Lisbon suddenly remembered that it had never carried out the treaty signed with Nzinga in 1622, and declared that Portugal's wars against her had been unjust! High level embassies were sent to the Queen in 1639 in efforts to effect a settlement . Nzinga received them, listened to their protestations of eternal friendship, and went ahead with determination in reorganizing both of the kingdoms and undermining colonial rule in areas held by the enemy . That every white man in Africa was an enemy of the Blacks was a matter about which there was no room for debate in her mind . --------------------------------------------------- Notes 9 . Queen Nzinga's anti-slavery crusade did not mean that she herself did not hold her own captives in bondage, including the Portuguese . The Portuguese had changed the nature of slavery into a racial pattern, and Nzinga was particularly ruthless with capture black chiefs who were allies of the whites . She did not hesitate to sell such chiefs and their followers into slavery .[/b] |
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