{"id":36746,"date":"2024-03-15T08:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T15:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36746"},"modified":"2024-03-15T08:46:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T15:46:55","slug":"nothing-praiseworthy-is-a-result-of-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/nothing-praiseworthy-is-a-result-of-colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing praiseworthy is a result of Colonialism!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, Biggar starts the introduction to his book and shares how he got notified that his “Ethics and Empire project had become the target of an online denunciation by a group of students, followed by a reassurance from the university that it had risen to defend my right to run such a thing.”[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at the few chapters I read, the author seems to work hard to defend the empire on the excellent work done in colonial times. The work done by this author, as mentioned here, was also defended by Oxford University. I wonder how this institution, which is much respected for having contributed so much to the development of education and civilization, would defend such work instead of challenging it. The author continues in his book by saying that those who criticize the empire for Colonialism are wrong in his view and that those criticisms do not stand pretty. “Such description does not fare well in the light of History.”[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

What is there to praise Colonialism for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

History is full of atrocities that only those who were present can testify to. The havoc as a result of Colonialism, racism, apartheid, holocaust, genocide, and other evils of society, I will agree that it is not only the colonialists should take the blame and add those who collaborated to empower such evil empires flourish, evertheless, there is nothing to defend about what was done by Colonialism.<\/p>\n

In 1857, in the wake of the Indian mutiny, a British officer, Lt George Cracklow, described in a letter home what happened to captured rebels. ‘The prisoners were marched up to the guns\u2026 and lashed to the muzzles,’ he wrote, the guns exploded\u2026 I could hardly see the smoke for about 2 seconds when down came something with a thud about 5 yards from. This was the head and neck of one of the men\u2026On each side of the gun, about 10 yards, lay the arms, torn out at the shoulders.’[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

This is not a good kill. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Malik continues to wonder as I do how such brutality could be defended Bigger as essential. I am reminded of the work covered last week LiVecche, in his good kill. I definitely agree with LiVecche that in the defense of multitudes, a need to kill is justifiable.<\/p>\n

As a son of Africa before my adoption by my American parent, I hold the West, especially North America, so highly. While I was teaching yesterday, I told my audience that if there is the best place next to my heavenly place, I believe that America is the best, and there is no doubt that the Judeo Christian Values have given Americans and those in North America the values that make them this amazing. At the same time, those in the West should agree to take responsibility for the atrocities of their forefathers, apologize, and do whatever it takes to bring about reconciliation with the victims of their acts.<\/p>\n

Greed, exploitation and violence in the Congo <\/strong><\/p>\n

King Leopold wasn’t the first European colonialist to exploit the resources, and people, of another country.\u00a0But with the Congo, Leopold took the greed, exploitation, and violence of the era to a far more extreme and ghastly level than ever before. Over nearly thirty years of rule, he used slave labor to amass a personal fortune of over $1 billion in today’s dollars. Leopold forced African laborers to harvest vast quantities of ivory and rubber on land he expropriated from them. In the process, an estimated ten million Africans died. To put it bluntly, Leopold turned African bodies into money.\u00a0What’s worse, Leopold wasn’t the last to interfere in Congolese affairs for personal gain. In fact, his violent regime set the stage for countless subsequent horrors in the Congo, from the CIA’s assassination of democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961 to the appalling conditions in Congolese mines that to this day keep diamonds on fingers, uranium in nuclear weapons, and coltan in iPhones.[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The above is the story of the Congo but the entire world have similar cases for such or worse brutality. Some, like Biggar might say since there was Christianity introduction as a result it was not a bad thing.<\/p>\n

To protect the deception that the Congo Free State was a charitable enterprise, Leopold had to allow Christian missionaries access to the Congo. For the most part, these missionaries had less of a stomach for violence than the hard men who enlisted in the state’s officer corps. Some, like William Sheppard, made reports and took photographs of the horrors they witnessed. In the face of the outrageous atrocities being committed, opposition slowly grew among missionaries and then humanitarians.[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you asked, I would say shame, shame, shame! That’s all that colonialists should say, that they are ashamed of what they did. God has brought good out of men’s evil doing in all things. Undoubtedly, some missionaries greatly impacted God’s global glory; however, \u00a0Colonialism wasn’t necessary to propagate the Gospel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A moral reckoning<\/em>. (HarperCollinsPublishers, 2024) Introduction, Kindle.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Biggar, Colonialism<\/em> Chap. 1.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Kenan Malik, \u201cThe guardian: Colonialism by Nigel Biggar review \u2013 a flawed defense of empire<\/em>\u201d 20 February, 2023.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Adam Hochschild, King Leopold\u2019s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa<\/em>, 1. Mariner Books ed (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Hochschild, King Leopold\u2019s Ghost<\/em>, 1999<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, Biggar starts the introduction to his book and shares how he got notified that his “Ethics and Empire project had become the target of an online denunciation by a group of students, followed by a reassurance from the university that it had risen to defend my right to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1300,3111],"class_list":["post-36746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colonialism","tag-nigel-biggar","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36747,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746\/revisions\/36747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}