European Torture of Africans: An Application of Theory
By Emmanuel Konde
The revelations by 83-years-old Gen. Paul Aussaresses [of French atrocities in Algeria] cannot be shocking to any Frenchman, let alone the political leadership. Almost everywhere the Europeans conquered and subjugated and colonized non-Europeans, torture of the worst kind was employed to crush the last vestiges of resistance. Thus, the use of torture is not exclusively a French "thing"; it is of European culture. African forebears, some dead and some living, were subjected to European methods of torture. If today Europeans should pretend a higher sense of morality and respect for "human rights," it is only because they have achieved complete supremacy and the tools of torture seem no longer relevant to their cause.
For four centuries Europeans dehumanized and reduced Africans to the status of commodity--selling and buying them like so many cigarettes. When the advent of the Industrial Revolution made slave labor anachronistic, anti-slavery movements erupted to the fore all over Europe and North America. Characteristically, the Europeans presented themselves as saviors of the debased and degenerate Africans.
In the postcolonial period we see the same historical pattern at work. The very Europeans who pillaged and plundered and raped our people and resources, have again risen to present themselves as our saviors. The tragedy is not that the slave trade and colonization actually happened; the tragedy is that the African has learned nothing!
European hypocrisy abounds in everything they do. Some of the leading European philosophers were involved in theorizing methods of torture, which the military used as mechanics use car-repair manuals. When I first read Aime Cesaire's DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM I wept for not only the many who were tortured but also for their European torturers. The sentiments expressed by the old French general are truthful. It remains for the French political leadership to accept responsibility for the recommended actions of its military.
Which, and where, are the European Human Rights organizations doing independent work on the gory past of Europeans? Yet, no sooner remorseful pangs begin tormenting an old general than the so-called human rights organizations rise to the cause.
A very fertile field of criticism has been opened for the hot-headed Africans who constantly criticize their home governments. Need I say their criticisms are misdirected? The instruments of torture, like the slave ships before them, are manufactured in Europe. The manuals of torture are also written in Europe,
with the assistance of psychiatrists, philosophers, and military men. Much of the evil that abounds in contemporary Africa is imported from Europe.
The French and all other Europeans (the Dutch, British, Spaniards, Portuguese) must be held accountable for their diabolical work against non-Europeans. We must not permit them to belatedly inventsome strange statutes of limitation for these veritable crimes against humanity.
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