Christians seek West's atonement for colonialism

[MikeyJones]

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Christians seek West's atonement for colonialism
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
50 minutes ago



HARARE (Reuters) - Hands aloft and tears streaming down her cheeks, Alicia Chipoyi prayed in a high-pitched voice for spiritual healing for the wounds caused by years of slavery and colonization of Africa by Europeans.

Chipoyi was one of hundreds of people attending a European-African-American church prayer meeting on atonement and reconciliation for the West's past role in the exploitation of what has become the world's poorest continent.

In prayer sessions punctuated by wailing and weeping, song and dance, delegates said the West had to repent before God as the first step to reconciliation with Africa, which blames many of its problems on the legacies of enslavement and imperialism.

"We are not looking to man for help, we are looking to God for our dignity to be restored but first of all the West must confess, repent and atone for their past," Langton Gatsi, the organizer of the meeting, told Reuters on the sidelines of the prayer session.

"Once that happens we can talk of reparations and co-operation and how we can start on an equal footing."

African leaders including Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have in the past called for reparations from the West for its part in the slave trade.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/ts_nm/africa_atonement_dc


This follows up on my anti-British colonialism thread the other day.

First, I'm going to say this though: fuck Robert Mugabe. He has nothing of value to say and has no moral ground to stand on or to tell anybody anything. He's oppressed and harrassed the poor in his country for the past several years. He has nothing but contempt in my book. Not the least saying the man's a fucking murderer.

Irregardless, the article points out the much needed reconciliation between Africa and their former European masters.

Reparations are still a very good idea but only when tin-pot dictators like Mugabe are overthrown and Africa is filled with stable democracies and civil societies. But it must not be underestimated that so much of Europe's wealth, especially that of Great Britain and to a lesser extent France, is wealth that belonged to their former African colonial slaves. And by stealing it from them they put their potential economic development back decades.

The Anglos and the French primarily but also others including the Dutch, the Germans, the Italians, etc. must answer for their colonial past. The first world lifestyle so enjoyed in Great Britain is largely due to huge deposits of gold and silver in that nation's vaults backing up its inflated currency.

The British need to start paying reparations soon to such stable countries as South Africa and Egypt -- 2 countries who they greatly exploited for their own selfish gain.

[RethugAssKicker]

1. Couldn't agree with you more..

In England, they have long tourist lines to see the Crown jewels...

All jewels STOLEN from India !... The rape of Africa has still not been apologized for by any European country, what less reparations.

And in this neocon country America, the best Africa will get is another dose of some new fatal disease disguised as a vaccine !

[MikeyJones]

2. Tell me about it......

As the evil African dictator on the movie Sahara said to Matthew McConaughey:

"Don't worry, it's Africa. Nobody gives a shit about Africa."

I wonder what would happen if the "royal jewels" were demanded back by India. We'd probably have quite the political situation wouldn't we?

[kenny blankenship]

3. Don't hold your breath! When we colonized you, we said we were doing it

for your own good. Spreading Christianity and bringing souls to God and so forth. And if you notice, we are once again invading alien cultures and their lands (your lands), and we are once again claiming that our violence is for your own good. From such people as ourselves reparations would be impossible to collect. You don't need reparations, you need guns to defend yourselves.

[RethugAssKicker]

4. I agree....

but you are being sarcastic aren't you?.. Not so sure.