Ian Smith & Co. made the argument that Africans can't rule themselves in a civilized manner.
Mugabe & Co. worked diligently to prove him right.
It's Robert Frickin' Mugabe who YOU put in power instead of backing Ian Smith and freedom and civilization. You made the choice and it is a shame that you people are isolated from the consequences.
You can't be serious-a white racist government that wanted every black person in serfdom like in South Africa was "freedom and civilization"?
When I see comments like this, it reminds me why I shudder sometimes when I hear the words. If a modern repeat of slavery (which is exactly what Rhodesia and South Africa were before the black people stood up and demanded their rights) is civilization, I'll take savagery, any day of the week.
Ah, yes. The, "I'd rather be killed and eaten by a black man than not have the franchise while ruled by white men," argument. Very effective in some circles. There are some folks who concur with whole heart (braised over open coals).
"I Got Yer Savagery Right Here!"
Top aide testifies Taylor ordered soldiers to eat victims
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Grim tales of cannibalism highlighting the brutality of West Africa's civil wars emerged in testimony Thursday at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah, who described himself as Taylor's chief of operations and head of the death squad before Taylor became president, said African peacekeepers and even United Nations personnel were killed and eaten on the battlefield by Taylor's militiamen.
Prosecutors described Marzah as a key witness with inside knowledge of the former Liberian president's operations in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of responsibility for the widespread murder, rape and amputations committed by soldiers loyal to him.
Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is accused of orchestrating violence in Sierra Leone's civil war, which ended in 2002, and trading in illegally mined diamonds to finance the conflict.
The trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, part of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, began last June but adjourned after one day when Taylor fired his lawyer. It reconvened in January, but many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doors for fear of retribution.
Marzah appeared in open court after lengthy negotiations involving protection for him and his family.
Prodded under cross-examination by defense lawyer Courtenay Griffith, Marzah gave a sometimes-graphic description of cannibalism that altered between the ritual taking of vengeance and the practical need for food.
He repeatedly said nothing was done without Taylor's instructions, and that anyone who violated Taylor's orders would be executed.
"Did Charles Taylor order you to eat people?" Griffith asked.
"Yes, to set an example for the people to be afraid," Marzah replied.
He appeared unfazed by Griffith's blunt queries, and responded in matter-of-fact tones to such questions as "How do you prepare a human being for the pot?"
Marzah then described the splitting, cleaning, decapitating and cooking of the corpse with salt and pepper. "We throw your head away," he said.
He said the victims were usually from the ethnic Krahn, the tribe of former Liberian President Samuel Doe whom Taylor set out to topple in 1989. But they also included peacekeepers from the Nigerian-led ECOMOG, the African peacekeeping force sent to the area in 1990, and some U.N. people, he said.
"How many ECOMOG soldiers did you eat?" the attorney asked.
"We ate a few but not many. But many were executed, about 68," the witness said, and several U.N. personnel also were captured. The time and location of the incident were unclear.
"Which ones taste best?" Griffith asked.
"There was no alternative but to do it your own way," Marzah replied.
Enemies, he was told, "are no longer human beings."
Taylor, then head of the National Patriotic Liberian Front, said in interviews at the time that he considered ECOMOG to be just another warring faction in the multisided civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Later, ECOMOG helped stabilize the region, allowing elections in Liberia in 1997 that Taylor won.
More here:
http://www.sc-sl.org/Transcripts/Taylor/14March2008.pdfhttp://charlestaylortrial.org/I started sitting with Mr Taylor during the death of
Theodore when we took his liver and we used it at a ceremony and
he shared with us. We all ate it. And the same things happened
in the case of Sam Dokie. The death of Sam Dokie, his liver was
taken away by us and then we carried it and it was cooked by this
lady. I will call the woman's name. Annie Yenni. Annie Yenni.
Annie Yenni. Annie Yenni cooked it and Charles Taylor shared it
with us.
...
And even at the time he escaped from Ghana when we arrested
Cooperville along with Moses Blah, we arrested those two people,
and he was there in Ben's veranda. Ben and I were sitting down
and he said we should "control those people's hearts until I get
there". Then we took out those two guys' livers and then, after
we had kept it in Ben's freezer for a long time, when Charles
Taylor arrived we cooked it and all of us shared it together.
Long Pork: The
other other white meat.
That is savage and backwards, plain and simple. There is simply no reasonable way to label that system "free" or "civilized."
I must agree, cannibalism is just plain...Oh, you mean Mugabe's and Taylor's predecessors! Silly me.
Civilization is a continuum. On one end is abject savagery and on the other the liberal nation state with universal suffrage. Mugabe, Taylor, and similar leaders tug toward the savage end*. Smith** was no Ben Franklin, but he is
head & shoulders above the Mugabes of the world. Yeah, not an exacting standard.
* They can't even claim mob rule status, as they do not honor popular election results.
** Interesting note: Smith was first elected as a policritter as a member of the Liberal Party. You really can't make this *expletive deleted*it up.
