Comments on: Congo-Brazzaville: Should a Colonizer Be Honored Like a Founding Father?

By: 全球之聲 » Blog Archive » 剛果布拉薩：殖民者應該被視為建國者嗎？

全球之聲 » Blog Archive » 剛果布拉薩：殖民者應該被視為建國者嗎？ — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:21:46 +0000

[...] 原文：Congo-Brazzaville: Should a Colonizer Be Honored Like a Founding Father?作者：Jennifer Brea翻譯：Portnoy (總覺得這篇文章跟這件事有異曲同工之妙…)校對：TRUST 對我來說，這起De Brazza的事件就像是有人告訴你：「我們被打到慘不忍睹，但是De Brazza替我們敷了些凡士林，而其他人則坐視我們的傷口血流乾。那麼，咱們謝謝De Brazza」(Fr) – 一位Mwinda.org的讀者 [...]

By: 全球之声-全球博客内容中文翻译版 » Blog Archive » 刚果布拉萨：殖民者应该被视为建国者吗？

全球之声-全球博客内容中文翻译版 » Blog Archive » 刚果布拉萨：殖民者应该被视为建国者吗？ — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:42:36 +0000

[...] 原文：Congo-Brazzaville: Should a Colonizer Be Honored Like a Founding Father? 作者：Jennifer Brea 翻译：Portnoy(总觉得这篇文章跟这件事有异曲同工之妙…) 校对：对我来说，这起De Brazza的事件就像是有人告诉你：“我们被打到惨不忍睹，但是De Brazza替我们敷了些凡士林，而其他人则坐视我们的伤口血流干。那么，咱们谢谢De Brazza”(Fr) – 一位Mwinda.org的读者 [...]

By: Amb. T. Falade

Amb. T. Falade — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:43:03 +0000

Kudos to the grateful ones in Congo who are committed to the collective heritage of Africa. Ingrates are never subjects in Africa. In fact The native African diction lacks the word “ingrate”. Once again, a double “gbosa” (kudos) to them for such act of gratitude.
It’s a noble thing to honor those who covered our back during our cold and grey winter days but it is more noble to lay our hands on the construction tools when winter is over.
Such honor is good but could be disturbing to a resting hero who was exhumed after his hard work of ensuring that Congo and that part of Africa live worthy of the freedom they deserve only to see a yet struggling Congo and Africa as a whole. It’s indeed dishonoring to bring a hero’s bones in contact with the same stinking breeze he spent his life purifying.
Africans, it’s high time we began honoring those who sacrificed their convenience to buy us convenience. It’s time to stop struggling to carve out neozion while the antique ones are left unoccupied. The greatest honor we can offer our heroes is to make Africa what they had dreamed it to be.

By: Black River Eagle

Black River Eagle — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:44:07 +0000

Ditto on what Joshua Goldstein writes in the comment above, this is a brilliant roundup post on the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. I first read an article about this guy over at BBC News online in September 2006. In the BBC From Our Own Correspondents article and podcast “Final Return to Congo” by David Willey (09/23/06) he writes:

“The British, the French and the Belgians all grabbed what they could, but curiously it was an Italian – Pietro Savorgnan Di Brazza – who has emerged as the only European explorer and colonialist to be honoured at the beginning of the 21st Century for what he gave to Africa rather than for what he grabbed.”

Another excerpt from this BBC News article states:

“During this last visit to Africa he drew up a report to the government for which he worked – that of France, for by that time he had become a French citizen – denouncing the crimes committed by the colonial merchant companies which exploited Africa’s wealth for the benefit of their shareholders.

The report has never been published and to this day remains locked away in the archives of the French Foreign Ministry.

Its frankness about forced labour and cruel punishments of African workers in the rubber plantations was apparently the reason why it was never made public.

The report was discovered many years after Di Brazza’s death locked inside a portable desk commissioned by the explorer for his African travels.

The desk, which folded up and became a trunk during the sea voyage, was specially designed for the explorer by Louis Vuitton, the well-known French luggage manufacturer.”

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Apparently the BBC News editiors should create a Have Your Say feature around this article and at least reference this blog post with all of the scathing criticisms and commentaries from French-speaking African blog authors and their readers on this important historical figure.

One big question that I have is: Why does the French Foreign Ministry continue to keep Pietro Di Brazzo’s final reports under lock and key? Is there something in there that the world should not ever learn about, even more than a hundred years after his death?

By: Joshua Goldstein

Joshua Goldstein — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:54:42 +0000

This is a fascinating post. I’ve been dealing with the paradox in Uganda that the country desperately needs to be united but the various regions indeed have nothing to unite them. How do you connect a place that hasn’t been connected since inception?

Do you establish a mythical past? Do you point to some anti-colonial event? None of these has been chosen in many of the neo-patrimonial regimes that still lack unity

Joshua
Global Voices- Uganda Roundup