Latest news with #decolonization
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Idi Amin made himself out to be the ‘liberator' of an oppressed majority – a demagogic trick that endures today
Fifty years ago, Ugandan President Idi Amin wrote to the governments of the British Commonwealth with a bold suggestion: Allow him to take over as head of the organization, replacing Queen Elizabeth II. After all, Amin reasoned, a collapsing economy had made the U.K. unable to maintain its leadership. Moreover the 'British empire does not now exist following the complete decolonization of Britain's former overseas territories.' It wasn't Amin's only attempt to reshape the international order. Around the same time, he called for the United Nations headquarters to be moved to Uganda's capital, Kampala, touting its location at 'the heart of the world between the continents of America, Asia, Australia and the North and South Poles.' Amin's diplomacy aimed to place Kampala at the center of a postcolonial world. In my new book, 'A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda,' I show that Amin's government made Uganda – a remote, landlocked nation – look like a frontline state in the global war against racism, apartheid and imperialism. Doing so was, for the Amin regime, a way of claiming a morally essential role: liberator of Africa's hitherto oppressed people. It helped inflate his image both at home and abroad, allowing him to maintain his rule for eight calamitous years, from 1971 to 1979. The phony liberator? Amin was the creator of a myth that was both manifestly untrue and extraordinarily compelling: that his violent, dysfunctional regime was actually engaged in freeing people from foreign oppressors. The question of Scottish independence was one of his enduring concerns. The 'people of Scotland are tired of being exploited by the English,' wrote Amin in a 1974 telegram to United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. 'Scotland was once an independent country, happy, well governed and administered with peace and prosperity,' but under the British government, 'England has thrived on the energies and brains of the Scottish people.' Even his cruelest policies were framed as if they were liberatory. In August 1972, Amin announced the summary expulsion of Uganda's Asian community. Some 50,000 people, many of whom had lived in Uganda for generations, were given a bare three months to tie up their affairs and leave the country. Amin named this the 'Economic War.' In the speech that announced the expulsions, Amin argued that 'the Ugandan Africans have been enslaved economically since the time of the colonialists.' The Economic War was meant to 'emancipate the Uganda Africans of this republic.' 'This is the day of salvation for the Ugandan Africans,' he said. By the end of 1972, some 5,655 farms, ranches and estates had been vacated by the departed Asian community, and Black African proprietors were queuing up to take over Asian-run businesses. A year later, when Amin attended the Organization of African Unity summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, his 'achievements' were reported in a booklet published by the Uganda government. During his speech, Amin was 'interrupted by thunderous applauses of acclamation and cheers, almost word for word, by Heads of State and Government and by everybody else who had a chance to hear it,' according to the the report. It was, wrote the government propagandist, 'very clear that Uganda had emerged as the forefront of a True African State. It was clear that African nationalism had been born again. It was clear that the speech had brought new life to the freedom struggle in Africa.' Life at the front Amin's policies were disastrous for all Ugandans, African and Asian alike. Yet his war of economic liberation was, for a time, a source of inspiration for activists around the world. Among the many people gripped by enthusiasm for Amin's regime was Roy Innis, the Black American leader of the civil rights organization Congress of Racial Equality. In March 1973, Innis visited Uganda at Amin's invitation. Innis and his colleagues had been pressing African governments to grant dual citizenship to Black Americans, just as Jewish Americans could earn citizenship from the state of Israel. Over the course of their 18 days in Uganda, the visiting Americans were shuttled around the country in Amin's helicopter. Everywhere, Innis spoke with enthusiasm about Amin's accomplishments. In a poem published in the pro-government Voice of Uganda around the time of his visit, Innis wrote: 'Before, the life of your people was a complete bore, And they were poor, oppressed, exploited and economically sore. And you then came and opened new, dynamic economic pages. And showered progress on your people in realistic stages. In such expert moves that baffled even the great sages, your electric personality pronounced the imperialists' doom. Your pragmatism has given Ugandans their economic boom.' In May 1973, Innis was back in Uganda, promising to recruit a contingent of 500 African American professors and technicians to serve in Uganda. Amin offered them free passage to Uganda, free housing and free hospital care for themselves and their families. The American weekly magazine Jet predicted that Uganda was soon to become an 'African Israel,' a model nation upheld by the energies and knowledge of Black Americans. As some have observed, Innis was surely naive. But his enthusiasm was shared by a great many people, not least a great many Ugandans. Inspired by Amin's promises, their energy and commitment kept institutions functioning in a time of great disruption. They built roads and stadiums, constructed national monuments and underwrote the running costs of government ministries. Patriotism and demagoguery Their ambitions were soon foreclosed by a rising tide of political dysfunction. Amin's regime came to a violent end in 1979, when he was ousted by the invading army of Tanzania and fled Uganda. But his brand of demagoguery lives on. Today a new generation of demagogues claim to be fighting to liberate aggrieved majorities from outsiders' control. In the 1970s, Amin enlisted Black Ugandans to battle against racial minorities who were said to dominate the economy and public life. Today an ascendant right wing encourages aggrieved white Americans to regard themselves as a majority dispossessed of their inheritance by greedy immigrants. Amin encouraged Ugandans to regard themselves as frontline soldiers, engaged in a globally consequential war against foreigners. In today's America, some people similarly feel themselves deputized to take matters of state into their own hands. In January 2021, for instance, a right-wing group called 'Stop the Steal' organized a rally in Washington. Vowing to 'take our country back,' they stormed the Capitol building. The racialized demagoguery that Idi Amin promoted inspired the imagination of a great many people. It also fed violent campaigns to repossess a stolen inheritance, to reclaim properties that ought, in the view of the aggrieved majority, to belong to native sons and daughters. His regime is for us today a warning about the compelling power of demagoguery to shape people's sense of purpose. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Derek R. Peterson, University of Michigan Read more: Idi Amin and Donald Trump - strong men with unlikely parallels Idi Amin's 'economic war' victimised Uganda's Africans and Asians alike Zohran Mamdani's last name reflects centuries of intercontinental trade, migration and cultural exchange Derek R. Peterson receives funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ann Coulter Draws Outrage Over Vile Post About Killing Native Americans
Ann Coulter is facing backlash for a violent remark about Native Americans. On Sunday, the far-right pundit reposted a video of University of Minnesota professor and Navajo Nation member Melanie Yazzie discussing decolonization and climate change at a 2023 conference. 'We didn't kill enough Indians,' Coulter wrote in the since-deleted post. The comment sparked swift condemnation from Indigenous leaders and others. Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, called the post 'beyond abhorrent' and 'dangerous hate speech' in a Facebook statement. 'Coulter's statement, on its face, is a despicable rhetorical shot trained on the First Peoples of this continent, designed to dehumanize and diminish us and our ancestors and puts us at risk of further injury,' he wrote. 'We've faced enough of that since this country's founding,' Hoskin continued. 'This kind of rhetoric has fueled the destruction of tribes, their life ways, languages and cultures, the violation of treaty rights, and the perpetuation of violence and oppression.' Hoskin added how Coulter's words did 'not take place in a vacuum' but come amid a rise in attacks on marginalized people, 'used to score political points, to advance policy agendas, and sometimes to scare people to advance all of that and more.' 'The country frequently seems on the verge of political violence,' he wrote. 'Coulter's post implicitly encourages it.' Though he acknowledged the temptation to ignore such rhetoric, Hoskin warned against letting hate speech go unchecked. 'We can get used to the frequent attacks and watch silently as this group and that group is dehumanized and diminished,' he said. 'Hatred in the public will become white noise, accepted as 'just the way it is.' Alternatively, we can speak out against it.' 'What Ann Coulter said is heartless, vicious and should be repudiated by people of good faith regardless of political philosophy or party,' Hoskin continued. 'Some things are simply wrong and we cannot validate it through our silence.' Asking others to join him in speaking up, he said he remained 'optimistic that people of good will across parties, faiths, philosophies, regions, races, political status can work to unify the country' and reject Coulter's comments. Vice President of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes Tasha Mousseau also called out Coulter for invoking a deeply dated colonial mindset. 'In Indian country, either in the Western sense with education or taking our traditions back and learning our languages, we say that we are our ancestors' wildest dreams,' she told Oklahoma's KOSU public radio. 'I would argue that she's her ancestors' wildest dreams. She is what colonizers would like to continue on in this country.' These Powerful Photographs Highlight An Important And Often Overlooked Environmental Issue Missing Native American Woman Was Murdered On Air Force Base, Authorities Say Trump Administration Hires Strategist Who Posted Racist Tweet
National Post
05-07-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Geoff Russ: Race socialism is coming to the West. It will start in New York
Article content The Africa Report, an award-winning quarterly focusing on the continent's current affairs, reported in June that the Mamdanis were awash with 'diasporic intellectualism, where ideas about justice, decolonization and identity were household conversations.' Article content How exactly did decolonization play out in Africa following the collapse of European rule? There was great enthusiasm for wealth redistribution and the scapegoating of ethnic minorities, led by charismatic figures like Uganda's Idi Amin and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Article content Following the British departure in 1962, Idi Amin demonized and purged the country's mostly South Asian merchant class in the 1970s, Mamdani's father among them. Their businesses were expropriated, and their assets confiscated. Article content In the 1980s in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe seized the lands of the remaining white farmers in an attempt to loot and redistribute the wealth associated with it. Article content Concurrent to that, Mugabe began a violent repression of the country's sizable Ndebele minority, whom he accused of subversion and sabotage. It resulted in the deaths of up to 30,000 Zimbabwean citizens. Article content The Ndebele remember it as a time when their people were singled out and slaughtered. Mahmood Mamdani described this period as one of 'massive social change,' in which 'very little turmoil' took place. For those who champion decolonization, the violent cleansing of certain ethnic groups is immaterial if it furthers the cause. Article content According to Africa Report, his son Zohran would be 'the first to carry the intellectual legacy of postcolonial Africa into the political heart of the West.' Article content Right now, the West's cultural zeitgeist is perfectly aligned for the arrival of this sort of decolonial race socialism in New York City. Article content It is impossible to ignore the newly emerged, constructed narrative of the 'colonizers' and the 'colonized.' Resentment and the assignment of ancestral guilt are at the core of it, and it has spread throughout the English-speaking world. Article content Statues of explorers, monarchs and historical business and political leaders are common targets for radicals who despise the countries they helped to found. They have been toppled, smashed or vandalized in Victoria, Hamilton, and Melbourne, usually without legal repercussions. Article content Article content This fabricated Indigenous-colonizer conflict is not only permissible, but given space in respectable society across Australia, Canada and even Britain. The hustlers are given prime- time television slots or academic tenure to vent, and usually receive polite nods from the presenters in return. Article content In America, Zohran Mamdani's rise to political stardom is where this wave of racial politics meets the socialist revival spearheaded by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have wholeheartedly endorsed him. Article content The politics of the English-speaking world have always been connected, and the United States is its most powerful engine for driving new narratives. Mamdani's team are artful practitioners of social media, and his presence is felt well beyond the U.S. Article content Already, Canadian NDP politicians like Marit Stiles and MP Leah Gazan are falling over each other trying to heap praise upon him. Article content Gazan, a leading voice for radical decolonial, anti-Western politics in Ottawa, posted on X: 'Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York is an inspiring example for how progressives can stand up to establishment liberals or authoritarians like Trump.' Article content
CTV News
21-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
New mural from Indigenous artist unveiled at University of Waterloo
A new mural by an Indigenous artist has been unveiled at the University of Waterloo. Here's why. An Indigenous artist hopes a new mural will inspire curiosity and a sense of belonging. The artwork by Tsista Kennedy was unveiled at the University of Waterloo on Friday. Kennedy is known for his digital Anishinaabe Onyota'a:ka woodland-style art, which is now proudly on display at the Dana Porter Library. 'On the other side [of the mural] you have an Indigenous family, you have a cradleboard with a little baby in there,' he explained. 'If you take a look at the lefthand side of the mural there's all these different lines going through the animals and the people and then going back to that family. All of that embodies us as Indigenous people and our connection to the land and how our culture is deeply rooted into that.' School officials said the artwork is part of the library's decolonization efforts. 'I think that Indigenous representation really matters,' Kennedy said. 'Whether that's non-Indigenous people coming through here and just wondering what its all about or Indigenous people who find it really meaningful to be represented in spaces like this. I think it's great to have it up.' This is not the first time Kennedy's artwork has been showcased in Waterloo Region. He also designed 'Every Child Matters' artwork that appeared on a Grand River Transit bus in 2023. Saturday is Indigenous Peoples Day.
Zawya
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Agreement between Mauritius and the United Kingdom (UK) fails to guarantee rights of Chagossians say United Nations (UN) experts
The recently signed agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius fails to guarantee and protect the rights of the Chagossian people, including their right to return to Diego Garcia, effective remedy and reparations and their cultural rights, UN experts* said today. On 22 May 2025, the United Kingdom and Mauritius signed a bilateral agreement to return sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, to Mauritius to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius following years of negotiations and international pressure, including from the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly. 'By maintaining a foreign military presence of the United Kingdom and the United States on Diego Garcia and preventing the Chagossian people from returning to Diego Garcia, the agreement appears to be at variance with the Chagossians' right to return, which also hinders their ability to exercise their cultural rights in accessing their ancestral lands from which they were expelled,' the experts said. They raised serious questions about whether the foreseen £40 million Trust Fund, which remains subject to yet-to-be adopted regulations, would comply with the right of the Chagossian people to effective remedy and adequate, effective, and prompt reparation, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. Most notably, the current agreement contains no provisions providing for the full panoply of the right to adequate and effective reparations as it does not provide restitution, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition, the experts noted. The agreement also lacks provisions to facilitate the Chagossian people's access to cultural sites on Diego Garcia and protect and conserve their unique cultural heritage. 'In light of these significant concerns, we call for the ratification of the agreement to be suspended and for a new agreement to be negotiated that fully guarantees the rights of the Chagossian people to return to all islands of the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia. This includes their right to adequate and effective remedy and reparations, including restitution, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition, as well as their cultural rights,' the experts said. The experts had previously raised concerns about continuous forced displacement of the Chagossian people and lack of their effective participation in decision-making processes concerning negotiations over the Chagos Archipelago, in letters to the governments of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on 21 February 2023 as well as through a press release on 10 October 2024. 'We are gravely concerned about the lack of meaningful participation of Chagossians in processes that have led to the agreement,' the experts said. They urged the Governments of the United Kingdom and Mauritius to apply a human rights-based approach in addressing historical injustices against the Chagossian people. The experts are in touch with the United Kingdom and Mauritius regarding these issues. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
