Jason Rip's Blog

Posted by Jason Rip

Writing back-to-back articles on the Middle Passage and the situation in the Sudan has not only caused me to yearn for a lighter topic but has caused me to ponder some of the key differences between the traditional and contemporary forms of slavery. Rather than auctioning off household servants and plantation workers, Sudanese slavery seems to specialize in the acquisition of permanently available sex objects.

Many of the female slaves redeemed by Christian Solidarity International have returned to their home villages impregnated by their captors; the frequency of gang rapes often completely obscures the identity of the father. CSI tries to make sure that the redeemed slaves are photographed and fingerprinted, sort of a receipt, if you will, in case they are abducted again.

Whether this organization is doing more harm than good in the Sudan is also a matter for intense ethical scrutiny. Money earned from the sale of slaves is used to buy guns in order to conduct more raids and capture more slaves. So, in a very real sense, CSI is helping to speed along a vicious circle. Similar organizations such as the US-based Christian Freedom International have, upon further soul-searching, decided to disband the practice of buying slaves.

What do they say the Road to Hell is paved with again?

Posted by Jason Rip

This is my 20th African History article, and I've finally gotten around to writing about the slave trade or, as it's now often called, "The Black Holocaust." This is definitely a controversial and emotionally charged term but the writers and scholars who have been instrumental in circulating it are interested in the original use of the word: "a mass sacrifice by fire." It's argued that any time a group is singled out for dehumanization and extermination because of issues of race, that term can apply.

The history of the slave trade is still an open wound that must be probed carefully. As in all genocidal matters, just when you think you have arrived at the absolute limits of depravity, you learn that something happened that was even worse. For instance: In 1738, the crew of the Dutch slave ship "Leuden," facing a storm at sea, locked the hatches, hopped in the life boats, and left the 700 captive Africans below deck to drown. They couldn't even accord them the miniscule chance that they could brave the waves and survive. In 1846, 2000 slaves were murdered in Lagos so that their Italian captors could avoid litigation now that the slave trade had been declared illegal.

Why would a person suppress everthing caring and decent about themselves in order to work as a slaver? The answer, of course, is money. In its halicon years, the slave trade was extremely lucrative. In the year 1760, for instance, a male slave could be sold for 50 pounds, which, at that time, equalled out to about a year's salary. The institution attracted the worst kind of people, those who delighted in the opportunity to inflict physical and psychic injury on others.

I intend to follow up this week's article with an examination of slavery in Africa today, particularly as it applies to the Sudan. They say that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As a unified world people, we can't even do something as basic as eliminating the presence of slavery from our planet. I want to scream, but instead I'll just sigh.

Posted by Jason Rip

Only three years after the murder of Dian Fosey, a film version of her autobiography "Gorillas In The Mist" was released. It starred Sigourney Weaver as Dian and made the most extensive use of actors in monkey costumes since the bone tossing scene in Stanley Kubrick's "2001."

Althought it wasn't an authenticity nightmare like, say, "Pearl Harbor" or "The Patriot," there were a couple of noteworthy errors and omissions in the film. For instance, Fossey's dog Cindy is shown barking on the night Fossey is murdered in her bed by persons unknown. This dog had died three years before. The gorilla that Dian first made physical contact with was not star simian Digit, but another gorilla named Peanuts. Dian is also shown running from a gorilla in the movie - something she would have definitely known not to do. A gorilla is fitter, faster, and many times more agile than you so good luck in the foot-race!

There's some talk that the eccentricities of Dian Fossey have been white-washed in the film, including her serial affairs with married men ( the rumour mill even includes her mentor Louis Leakey in these liasons! ) Paradoxically, she is also sometimes presented in a worser light than reality can justify, as when she is shown threatening to hang a poacher that her anti-poaching patrols have caught, an incident that never occurred.

Of course, all this is exceedingly nit-picky, and "Gorillas In The Mist" is indeed a fine piece of cinema! Sigourney Weaver not only received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Dian, she was so inspired by Ms. Fossey's work that she now serves as honourary chairperson of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

The population of mountain gorillas in Virunga is now around 380. They've made a slight comeback but lots of work remains if they are to survive and thrive as a species.

Posted by Jason Rip

South Africa's semi-orderly transition from white minority rule to full democracy could not have been accomplished without The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This board of inquiry was chaired by Bishop Desmond Tutu and was sub-divided into three committees: one to investigate human rights violations from 1960 - 1994, one to rehabilitate the dignity of apartheid's victims, and one to hear requests for amnesty from those who participated in the violence.

This third Amnesty Committee granted 849 pardons while refusing them to 5392 applicants, including the alleged murderers of Stephen Biko. High profile South Africans such as PW Botha and Winnie Mandela were both given the stamp of disapproval by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was also recommended that "rigorous attention" be paid to the prosecution of police officers, who were often accused of torture, abduction and general gross misconduct during the apartheid era.

The Truth Commission allowed for several decades of hurt to be screamed out in a public forum. If you'll pardon the unsavouriness of the metaphor, the infection of apartheid was given a public lancing.

It should be noted that the African National Congress

( Mandela's party ) was also dealt with sternly. It was remarked that the ANC, in its laudable quest for freedom, killed more civilians that it did government forces.

Forgiveness is indeed "Divine," a praiseworthy super-human quality that's often hard to swallow at the application stage. The Truth Commission insisted that perpetrators come clean with what they did before amnesty could be considered. The soul of South Africa had to be unburdened before it could be cleansed.

Posted by Jason Rip

While trying to cram the entire Boer War into a few parapraphs, I came across the engrossing exploits of Harry "Breaker" Morant, a rough and tumble character who's revered in Australia and is the subject of a 1980 Bruce Beresford film. He was given the name "Breaker" because of his skill at taming horses. He was also a well-known and widely published poet, part of the "Back-Block Bards" movement in Australia. I found it moving that he spent the last night before his execution writing sardonic scraps of verse in his cell.

Why did they execute Breaker Morant? As part of a troop of irregulars in the Boer War, Morant might have had something to do with the murder of 11 Boer prisoners ( if he had shot them before they surrendered, it wouldn't have been a problem! ) and 1 German missionary. Because the Boers were stealing and wearing British uniforms, Lord Kitchener had issued orders suggesting that all those caught "wearing khaki" should be shot on the spot. When this order was actually acted upon, there was mass humanitarian outcry, the powers-that-be wanted to distance themselves from their own directive, and a convenient scapegoat was needed.

After being arrested, Morant was asked if he wanted the counsel of a clergyman. "No! I'm a Pagan!" he shouted out. He refused a blindfold when he faced the firing squad: "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!" That was The Breaker. The transcripts of his court martial disappeared and haven't been seen since. Why is it that every time you write about anything historical, you sooner or later come up against a cover-up, a white-washing, or an out and out fudging of facts? Oh well...

Posted by Jason Rip

Africans must get really sick of having their every achievement cross-referenced to a Western World equivalent: Beatrice Kimpa Vita is "The Joan of Arc of Africa," The Great Mosque of Djenne is "The Taj Mahal of Africa" - on and on it goes.

Researching Beatrice Kimpa Vita did bring out some striking parallels between her life and Joan's: they both claimed to have had a direct line of communication with Heaven, they both led armies of followers, and, of course, they both offended the wrong people and found themselves on the hot end of an auto-de-fe. Still, in a more egalitarian world, perhaps Joan of Arc would be known as "The Beatrice Kimpa Vita of Europe." I would also like to congratulate Portugal on their success at the World Cup but not on their colonial legacy.

In my article on The Great Mosque of Djenne, I question the commonly held notion that Africa ( aside from Egypt and Great Zimbabwe )is lacking in monumental architecture. Just because a building is made out of mud doesn't mean it's not an impressive feat of engineering. I love the design of this building - to me, it looks like the birdhouse of God.

A telling African adage I came across this week proclaims the importance of Africans helping to set the record state by recording their own history: "To break the hunter's lies, the lion must tell, himself, his story, with his own words."

Posted by Jason Rip

Once thing that is true of human beings from all times and all cultures: we are always looking up. Those burning balls of gas we see above us not only hold our interest, they seem to portend something - they seem to affect us in some direct way that those of us who aren't armchair astrologers have difficulty expressing. It's speculated that the Dogon people of Mali may have had contact with extra-terrestrial beings who shared their knowledge of the cosmos with them. I admit this isn't altogether likely, but it definitely expresses a longing for contact, for communuion, for something out there besides ourselves.

And why would we want to escape beyond ourselves? Well, just look what we're capable of doing to each other. Evil was let out to play in a big way in the Rwandan Tragedy. A country that was once looked upon as a small paradise on Earth was wracked with civil war and genocide and, as is shamefully far too common in Africa, the world turned a blind eye to it. I just finished reading Romeo Dallaire's book "Shake Hands With The Devil" which is a first-person account of the atrocities. He was there as United Nations Force Commander and was completely ham-strung by the orders coming in from New York. His troops were begrudgingly allowed to defend themselves against direct attacks, but they were not allowed to intervene on humanitarian grounds. 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in a matter of months, and they had to stand by watching.

No wonder we look longingly at the stars...

Posted by Jason Rip

It's been pointed out to me that I've been focusing a little too much on modern African history at the expense of the distant past. Fine - point taken! Join me as we hop into the rusty old time machine and visit the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Wouldn't you know it? - Europeans are screwing around with Africa there too! They aren't yet around in the 11th century but they'll be sure to mess it up later when they will totally misinterpret the history of the place and claim that white people built it!

I love the Rastas, mon! I've even done what I can to learn Jamaican as a second language. I own and play reggae albums not only by Bob Marley, Burning Spear, and Peter Tosh, but also by Willie Nelson and Sinead O'Connor ( they have reggae albums, look it up! ) So it was indeed a pleasure to talk about "Jah" himself: Emperor Haile Selassie, the Lion of Judah, although someone will have to explain to me how God can lose to Mussolini...

Posted by Jason Rip

"May our children be like Che." That's what Fidel Castro said when the remains of everyone's favourite doomed revolutionary were returned to Cuba. I will admit to being something of a devotee ( I even have a plush Che doll ) and I can't help running up to young folks on the street to make sure they know who the guy on their T-shirts is. I'm fond of "saints with rifles" ( I'm also a huge Malcolm X fan ) - somehow their willingness to support their views with armed resistence strikes me as more human than the dreamy practicioners of passivity and the travellers of the moral high ground. Paradoxically, Che was willing to execute deserters and prisoners while claming that a revolutionary can only be motivated by the highest form of love: the love for all humanity. In his own words: "I am the complete opposite of a Christ. I fight with whatever arms I have at hand for what I believe in and I try to destroy my opponent rather than letting myself be nailed to a cross."

I'm not Catholic - in fact, I'm normally quite hostile to organized religion in general - but, I couldn't help but perk up and take interest in the papal elections of last year. They went with the German guy, but my hopes were riding on Cardinal Francis Arinze. I was surprised to learn that, if he ever gets to wear the mitre and the Ring of the Fisherman, Arinze will not be the first African Pope - he will be the fourth! How do you get to be Pope anyway? Well, in a nutshell, you must garner two-thirds of the vote in the College of Cardinals. An interesting fact I discovered was that many different sizes of papal garments ( all manufactured by the same Italian family of clothiers ) stand at the ready depending on who ascends to the Papacy. When the bells of St. Peter's ring and all those people bow their heads to you, you don't want to be feeling a little tight in the trousers.

Posted by Jason Rip

Two weeks in a row I've written some semi-shrill pieces about heart-breaking African injustices that have stuck in my cerebral craw. Last week, I was going on and on about "blood diamonds" and their many but often nameless victims. This week's injustice centres on a name: martyred author / TV producer / businessman / environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He took on a corrupt regime and some pretty heartless multi-national corporations whom I've named by name. His courage got him killed. There is so much pain and exploitation in Africa, but it gives one hope to see that there is always someone who rises to meet it, to confront it, and, at least some of the time, to vanquish it. Worried that I might have been a little hard of the Nigerian ruling elite, I decided to offer them some accolades on their small-scale space program. I guess I've always admired reckless ambititon but, ultimately, their arguments in defence of their program made sense to me. Why should every last penny be devoted to debt reduction and food security? Nigeria is making a quantum leap forward - it's a little brazen perhaps, but why the hell not? Not that it's made me forget what happened to Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Posted by Jason Rip

How can you not like an animal that laughs at itself? While I extend some affection to loons and kookaburas, the hyena is a personal favourite. Plus, their front legs are a lot longer than their back legs which makes them look pretty funny. I don't think Disney conveyed a very favourable image of the hyena in "The Lion King," so I'm going to make an effort to buttress his image as the Clown Prince of the African savannah. The hyena figures heavily in African lore and, aside from a belief that he led St. Anthony safely through the desert, he's presented almost always in a negative light. Playing Jerry to his Tom is the quick-witted hare. Saturday morning cartoons taught me at an early age the great comedic joy of two animals dead set on annihilating each other. There were a lot of stories I had to leave out of the article, including one where a lion, babysitting for the hare, accidentally speared the hare's child with the spine of the hare's grandmother - no kidding!

As a point of advocacy, I thought I'd write about blood diamonds, just in case anyone's out shopping for that perfect engagement ring. Lots of badness in those rocks. When you think about it, these ridiculously valuable stones are less than worthless to the people who are forced to mine them for little or no pay.

Posted by Jason Rip

I'm continuing with my soon-to-be habitual pattern: one serious historical topic per week flanked by one bit of whimsey. I thought it was important to introduce the griots early in my tenure as African History writer since they are, indeed, the human repositories of history in much of Africa. Thousands of years of events can be contained in the mind and memory of a single griot. The current undervaluing of griots in Senegal and Mali reminds me a lot of how people in the West treat poets: if they're dead, they're good. Prester John is a hoax that got out of hand - it got me thinking a lot about belief systems, party lines, and how much of what we're told we simply swallow hook, line, and sinker. It would be interesting to discuss modern Prester Johns: that unattainable glory that's supposed to lurk just beyond the horizon.

Posted by Jason Rip

I'm relatively new to this blogging deal. It's my understanding that I am to use this space to promote upcoming articles and my topic in general. Let me advance the opinion that one of the challenges of writing about African History is to try not to make it all bleak. No doubt that continent has been through a lot! With that in mind, I plan on writing two articles a week: one on a serious area of concern and one on a lighter note. I think it's often overlooked that there is, and there has always been, great joy, wisdom, and cultural achievement in Africa. Warlords, famine, and the colonial aftermath cast large shadows over people who are just trying to survive and prosper like anyone else. Having just finished reading "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild, the fate of the Congolese under Belgian rule is very much on my mind. Many of you have probably heard of these outrages in the unlikely format of a novel: Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." For levity this week, I've opted to talk about crypto-zoology and the possibility that prehistoric creatures, such as the famous Mokele-mbembe ( which, for all purposes, appears to be a small brontosaurus ), continue to live in the massive and almost entirely unexplored swamps of the Congo.