Scramble for Africa | Hacker News Reader

Scramble for Africa

en.wikipedia.org

26 pointszerr14 comments

"Native Congo Free State laborers who failed to meet rubber collection quotas were often punished by having their hands cut off."

This is really heartbreaking. The most heartbreaking photo I have ever seen was a father looking at the chopped up hands of his 4 year old son. The Belgium army had his son's hand cut off as punishment for failing to fulfill the daily work quota.

Yes I noticed that too. It made me think that (a) it was somehow ok to do this to (especially to children), and (b) what other non-photographed atrocities were committed and never spoken of.

It was very common until late 1980's in Australia to shoot and kill aboriginal children who would wander into your property. The Australian government paid ₤5 to kill an adult and ₤2 to kill a child during the Black War. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/ajzbia/til_t...

The killings were legal till the 60's and then overlooked till the 80's. Last year a guy was acquitted by the court even after murdering 4 aboriginal children due to double jeopardy laws. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/13/bowra...

> The killings were legal till the 60's

That's an astonishing statement. Could you elaborate? The Aboriginal population has been treated heinously since European settlement but that's a, literally, incredible claim.

Have close friends who are married to Australians. It was common knowledge that out in the bush, it was quite frequent to shoot Aboriginals who would wander into your land. Australia had similar gun laws as US and it only changed after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

Also Aboriginals do not have the concept of land ownership and hence wouldn't understand the concept of trespassing, especially the kids.

Here is a list of known massacres: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenou...

I spent some time in Queensland and the lawyers told me point blank that courts would hardly rule in favor of "Non Europeans" even for criminal/personal injury cases and that's why a huge percentage of civil/injury liabilities are settled out of court.

I see. So you have no basis for the claim.

I genuinely don’t see why you’d make something like that up when the truth is awful enough. But I’m sure you have your reasons.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Australian_referendum_(...

They were counted in the population as "humans" only 5 years after this referendum. Besides the law was such that you could kill Intruders on your land and this invariably meant murdering the aboriginals

Back then African people were basically considered evolved apes but definitely not humans, at least not the same concept used for Europeans. They were even kept in zoos in Europe[1]. The USA also extensively used eugenics[2] to try to purify the race, which was a huge inspiration for the Nazis and their "final solution". Social Darwinism[3] at its best.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_zoo

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism

Occasionally I'll explore the depravity of 4chan.org/b out of curiosity, and the rekt threads often include what appear to be relatively recent videos of similarly cruel and violent punishments. This sort of stuff goes on to this very day.

‘Msiri was the most militarily powerful ruler in the area, and traded large quantities of copper, ivory and slaves – and rumors of gold reached European ears. The scramble for Katanga was a prime example of the period. Rhodes and the BSAC sent two expeditions to Msiri in 1890 led by Alfred Sharpe, who was rebuffed, and Joseph Thomson, who failed to reach Katanga. Leopold sent four CFS expeditions. First, the Le Marinel Expedition could only extract a vaguely worded letter. The Delcommune Expedition was rebuffed. The well-armed Stairs Expedition was given orders to take Katanga with or without Msiri's consent. Msiri refused, was shot, and the expedition cut off his head and stuck it on a pole as a "barbaric lesson" to the people. The Bia Expedition finished the job of establishing an administration of sorts and a "police presence" in Katanga.’

TLDR:

Can I please have your land? Can I please have your land? Ok, fine I’ll just shoot you, chop off your head and stick it on a pole. Then I’ll have your land.

There was something seriously seriously wrong with those people.

Let's apply modern interpersonal morality to this and see what happens.

"modern interpersonal morality" like what's happening in Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, China?

Isn't everyone here presumed to be living in the US, or at least the Anglosphere? North Koreans can't be worrying about the latest JavaScript hotness.

(I don't live in a rich, English speaking country, but I can pretend so)

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