hate to glorify my slave past but I am absolutely conscious of this fact that without my schools and without my language skills imparted by colonialists we would also be a forgotten note of history,
Iqbal.. The fact is that every culture goes through its own period of enslavement, or indentured servitude, somewhere in its past.
Europe sprang from various barbarian tribes who were conquered by the Romans (who gleaned their culture from the Greeks), and then overcame the emperors and created their own nation states. The very term "slavery" is derived from the emmense number of Slavs who were captured and sold off into servitude by their conquerors.
Thus, with regard to Afghanistan, it also must transition through this phase where all the various warlords enter into power-sharing agreements and recognize that, only by acting together, will they overcome the misery that their tribal warfare has created for all of their people.
It will also require such an enlightened leadership amongst these warlords that none of them seek to dominate the others, although they might possess the capability of doing so. For any such domination will be short-lived and fuel resentment amongst the others.
Btw, I watched a very interesting program last night called the "The Slave Kingdoms" where this African-american professor was investigating the involvement of various African kingdoms in the slave trade.
bbc.co.uk
And this professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., kept asking the question, both in his interviews, and in his narratives, "how could these tribes have been involved in such a trade, selling off their brothers to the white man?"..
And while I admired the fact that he was pointing out the VERY IMPORTANT complicitous roll of these rulers, I couldn't help but shouting at the TV....
"Because if they didn't sell them, the would have killed them since they were too dangerous (being enemy warriors) to keep alive".
And that's the reality of slavery. The white man did not introduce slavery to Africa. Indeed, even today it is practiced there. The fact was that conflict existed before the white colonists every stepped foot on African soil. One tribe would conquer the other, kill the men, and enslave the women and children. All the whites did was create a market for something that the black rulers felt was an expendable, and treacherous, commodity, the male warriors of the tribes they conquered.
The same thing goes for other cultures who were conquered and colonized.. Inter-tribal warfare had been going on for hundred, if not, thousands of years already. All the colonial powers did was conquer on a grander scale and subjugate EVERYONE in a particular region.
And they were able to do this by using the principle of divide and conquer between the warring tribes, favoring those that best met their administrative and military needs required to manage their colonies.
And that meant educating and modernizing their regional allies in order to enable and equip them to fill their role within the various empires.
And the same occurred with the United States. Sure we took land from the Indians. But they were warring constantly amongst one another, although generally never to point of extermination of a particular tribe. However, the British and American settlers introduced them to war on a grander scale, and for much greater stakes, and they were subjugated, marginalized, and integrated, or provided their own little piece of non-valuable turf they could call "home".
I ain't saying it's right... I'm just saying that's the way it worked in those historical times. And while we generally no longer follow those rules, some tribal leaders still do and as you state, bear tremendous blame for their short-sightedness and personal greed.
And unless foreign powers intervene to prevent it, Afghanistan will likely fall back into this civil war, and all of their people will suffer.
Hawk |
