Last night it was suggested to me that when the British empire was exploiting and murdering the people of (amongst other countries/continents) Africa, we saved them from themselves as they would repeatedly war with each other. We brought stability to these “savages”.
Obviously my cynical and suspicous mind immediately suggested, perhaps, that not all was as it seemed (especially as “what seemed” had no doubt been extracted from British “history” books).
20 minutes of research later and it was suggested to me that, actually, British colonial authorities manipulated these civil wars, “in order to keep subject populations from uniting against the occupying power”.
In the case of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya (whipped up by us Brits), 18,000–30,000 Africans were killed (as apposed to only 22 Europeans).
I wonder if things will be any different in the future, when they look back on the Iraq war. Will future generations of families sit around their neon edged hover kitchens discussing how happy the Iraqis were when we liberated them, and how the war was over in 30 days? Will the tens of thousands of civilian deaths be remembered?*
* This is of course sarcasm. Say it with me sar-caz-um.. Write it one hundred thousand times on the blackboard in Iraqi blood.
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