Hannes Wessels,
With a growing sense of despair I read of moves afoot to remove a statue of David Livingstone which currently stands on Cathedral Square in Glasgow. This is because he has been accused of benefitting from slavery, having worked in a cotton mill in Edinburgh at the age of ten. What is particularly distressing is this campaign is being driven by academics and one is left wondering what has become of British educational institutions. Is there nobody learned enough to point out to these fools that this man actually devoted most of his life to ending, not promoting slavery and died in pursuit of this goal? Anyone who can read will find out with ease that he was appalled by what he saw in Africa and the trade in innocent Africans that he tried to counter was not run by the British, but by African warlord chiefs and Arabs who seem to escape mention in the anti-slavery furore currently.
In his quest to stop the trade he endured enormous hardship and faced constant danger the likes of which his modern-day critics cannot even imagine. How distressed Livingstone would be by the existence of widespread slavery today on the African continent he tried so hard to free of this vile practice. Sadly, there are apparently no Livingstones out there who care enough to tackle the issue.
Britain’s imperial past has recently been in the headlines following the Royal tour of the Caribbean by Prince William and his wife Kate. They were repeatedly attacked and faced angry demands from politicians and the general populace for reparations to make amends for their crimes of the past. William and his courtiers did what the British do so well these days and grovelled. Nobody had the gumption to point out to the baying mob that Britain, with the Royal Navy in the vanguard, launched one of the great naval campaigns of the 19th century to stop the human trafficking coming out of Africa, at the cost of scores of thousands of British lives. And they could add the fact that a major impediment to stopping the trade was curbing the alacrity with which greedy black warlords were marching their captives to the coastal markets. They could also point out the British Empire also brought peace and great prosperity to much of the world; the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore, to name a few examples.
Unfortunately, there was no mention of this and so the demand for compensation remains on the political table with the handwringers pondering the quantum. Whatever happens, this transaction will involve people who never enslaved anyone, having to pay people who were never slaves, but there will be more questions requiring answers.
Will the money be sourced only from white people in the UK or across the board in which case millions of Britons of south-Asian and African descent must contribute. Will anyone check to see if any blacks living in Britain have ancestors who were involved in facilitating the trade by supplying the ships with human cargo. Will Britain be compensated for the capture of whites from Britain’s shores by the Barbary pirates of Africa? This white slave trade is estimated at over one million people. Will Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, whose parents come from west Africa be considered a victim, or were his ancestors involved in loading the ships? Will Education Secretary Nadhim Zarhawi, who is Arab be asked to help pay the bill or is he excused because he is not a European? One wonders if this will this result in poor whites having to pay rich, mixed-race ‘blacks’ like F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and footballer Mason Greenwood? Will Lewis Hamilton, only qualify for 50% of the final figure or the full amount – and will he have to fund the other ‘white’ 50%? And will there be any credit given for the billions the British have poured into Africa and the Caribbean in aid in the post-colonial era?
I suspect none of these issues will be raised because the UK ruling class is gutless when it comes to standing up to their critics and defending their history for fear of being called a racist.
Reading a new book by Norman Scott, former lover of Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, it is plain the rot set into the British political establishment a long time ago and it has been downhill ever since.
Scott, now 82, then a vulnerable, mentally ill young man, writes of his rape by Thorpe at Thorpe’s mother’s house in November 1961. He then goes on to describe how later, his assailant tried to have him murdered when he appeared to pose a threat to his political career.
The reason for my interest in this sordid saga is Thorpe went on to try and improve his political appeal by leading the charge to use military force to destroy Rhodesia after the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in 1965. When planners baulked at committing troops on the ground, Thorpe demanded the RAF step into the breach and launch an air campaign. He was cheered on in the House of Commons when calling for this course of action and earned the sobriquet ‘Bomber’ Thorpe as a result.
So it turns out, when he was not planning to kill his spurned former lover, he was working on killing his fellow Englishmen, most of whom had found themselves in a faraway land, at the behest of successive British administrations, but who were now threatened with death and destruction because Her Majesty’s government had suddenly changed its view on the morality of colonial exercise it had initiated.
Thorpe’s approach was a harbinger of more of the same that was to come as the post war political space in Britain was filled with left-wing leaders spreading a message of guilt because they insisted the country’s imperial past was not an act of greatness but in fact a monstrous crime for which the electorate must immediately atone. The message hit home, the voters sank to their knees, and it looks like they are still there.
Discover more from Africa Unauthorised
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Readers might find this five minute clip by an American black woman, Candace Owens interesting and informative.
A short History of slavery by Candace Owens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO_wmixXBdE
I have a poetry book by Cullen Gouldsbury – first published in 1914
The first two verses of 28 verses are these:
TO ENGLAND, FROM THE OUTPOSTS
We have borne the heat and the burden
For many a weary year,
Asking nor wreath nor guerdon,
Nor even words of cheer;
Knowing our work lies here,
We have toiled without regret-
Have you forgotten us, Mother? or are
we your children yet?
Some of us hold your borders
In sullen, sun-baked lands,
Where savage, swift marauders
Breed in the burning sands;
Your Honour lies in our hands
To guard or trail in the dust-
Have your forgotten, Mother, the men
that you placed in trust?
The academic world is in the hands of semi-literate communists who hate civilization. If you are not one of them you will be driven from academia as a heretic.
Great article Hannes.
Dublin in Ireland was founded by the Vikings and was a mega slave market in the 800-900s. The enslaved Irish were shipped to Iceland in droves (mainly women) and today the Gaelic Irish contribute 25% of Iceland’s DNA.
I wonder if Ireland is going to sue Norway for compensation????¿
Hi Hannes, I have just read your excellent Africa Unauthorised piece “A Nation on it’s Kneees” which has got me thinking about financial compensation, actually rather a lot of it for me!! You,being well read, and with a legal back-ground and someone in the know, might be in a position to advise me? My parents arrived in, as it was then, Southern Rhodesia in the early 1950’s from Scotland where my eldest brother Hamish and I were born. This was a move taken only on the advice of British army doctors who had advised my father that he needed a warmer climate to live in after suffering serious injuries from an action during world war 2, an action for which he was decorated, Be that as it may, my first point and question is as follows, the move from Scotland to a British colony was at the recommendation of the British medical authorities. Do the remaining members of the family qualify for any form of compensation for being sent to, what would eventually be, a so called rebel state and as a consequence being ostracised by our place of birth? My second question, given that the woke world are on their knees apologising to every Tom, Dick & Harry or perhaps that should read every Leroy, George & Floyd & handing out large chunks of loot, I’d like to know if one of the Scandinavian countries would or should pay the family some sort of compensation? I’ll need to go back a few centuries here to get to my next point, in the Middle Ages, 8th to the 11th century, the Norsemen or Viking’s raided the British isles, raping and pillaging along the way. They, as we know, are a fair skinned race and if exposed to clear skys and sunshine, burn readily turning a bright shade of painful sunstroke red which can cause various serious skin ailments, my two brothers fall into this fair category, surely that’s the fault of the uninvited conquers and they, the Danes, Norwegians and so on must surely pay the consequences? I, on the other hand, tend to tan fairly brown so perhaps I should investigate this further as there may be a case of me suing the Italians disguised as Romans when they too arrived uninvited on British shores? Or do you have to be a black criminal to seek justice in the first place? Oh dear what a world we live in now. Treat this as an agony Aunt Reader looking for an answer!! It does make one pissed off & angry at their gross stupidity of these clowns!! Thank fuck we can still laugh at it as well though!! Cheers & regards, Stew, apologies it is a tad long!!!
As usual Mr Wessels you fail to tell your readers where you got this information from. The whole article is a load of rubbish and none of it is true. Let me appraise you of the facts. On its website Glasgow City Council states that it commissioned a report to determine the historic connections and modern legacies derived from the Atlantic slave trade. The Council state and I quote ‘The core of this study is focused on individuals, who were residents of Glasgow and elsewhere, involved with Atlantic slavery c.1603 and 1838. Some of these individuals shaped today’s city, while others are memorialised in civic space. This report is an audit of Glasgow’s historic connections to the slave trade and its legacy. No recommendations have been made on next steps. Rather, this is a matter for the people of Glasgow to determine and we’ll be holding wide-ranging discussions and consultations’ The report is freely available on the Council website. Clearly you have not read it because if you had you would not have written this load of tosh.The report was written by Stephen Mullen. It runs to 119 pages and is fully referenced. The report does not mention the removal of statues of Livingstone or anyone else. and no recommendations to do so are proposed. There is more chance of you meeting Elvis Prestley at the fish counter in your local supermarket than there is of Livingstone’s statue being removed.
You mention various people in your piece Lewis Hamilton etc. Nadhim Zahhawi is not an Arab as you wrongly state. He is a Kurd and Farsi is his first language not Arabic but like many Kurds I’m sure he can speak both. Before applying fingers to keyboard always check your facts it saves you making a fool of yourself. This article is, as The Donald would say,FAKE NEWS folks. Do the decent thing and apologise to your adoring fans for totally misleading them.
I thank you for this Sir and do apologise for not reading the whole report. I’m also pleased to hear the statue is likely to remain. The point I was trying to make however, is there are few people in the UK prepared to stand up for what the British have done right and the slavery debate is unfairly focused on Britain and America. For this I blame the influence of liberal politicians like Jeremy Thorpe. As for Mr. Zahawi he hails from a region that has involved itself in the slave trade for centuries and I ask why the people of the middle-east are spared criticism and constant demands for reparations.
Good article, Hannes as usual – what a sick country it is now! Thank goodness I left it when I did or I might never have known better.
[…] April 6, 2022 Bulldog 0 Comments A Nation On Its Knees. […]
This is very disturbing news, great article Hannes. As a historian and a considered expert on the life of David Livingstone, I am going to start as petition to stop this madness. David Livingstone was solely instrumental, with the help of Henry Morton Stanley, in getting the slave market on Zanzibar closed forever in 1873..
Please don’t say “Can it get any worse?” 🙂 Great post, Hannes.
As usual Hannes you have laid it out as it was and the world at large are beyond PC, hence the grovelling. I have no sympathy for Perfidious Albion – let them grovel.
Thank you as always Hannes, for pointing out the mad women’s of today’s educators and younger population, that get their ‘facts’ from clickbait headlines and not factual history.
Interesting! Thanks Hannes.
In 1696, Glasgow Town Council invested around £4million in today’s money in the Company of Scotland. The company’s ships later trafficked slaves from Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Talks are now afoot to remove the city of Glasgow