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Belgium regrets the assassination of Patrice Lummumba
First create caricature; then demonise; and kill! As it happened with Patrice Lummumba! (Artist: Michael Cummings; Published: Sunday Express, 21 Aug 1960)
Belgium expressed regret for its role in the 1961 murder of the former Belgian Congo’s first prime minister after independence, there has been no talk here of a British apology for imperial wrongs. (via Displaying An Empire For Posterity – NYTimes.com).
Patrice Lummumba - before his execution. (Picture by Horst Faas - AP). Patrice Lummumba led the movement for Congo’s independence from Belgium (June 1960). In his independence day speech, Lummumba reminded "Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques!" (We are no longer your monkeys!). Within 10 weeks, the new Congolese Communist Govt. was deposed by a CIA backed-coup and Lummumba arrested. Lumumba escaped from his house arrest, but was rearrested from a plane in Elizabethville, publicly beaten and humiliated, put on the truck and taken away. This was Lumumba’s last photo. A few weeks later, he was executed, and his body dissolved in acid.
Familiar pattern! First create stereotypes, then caricature these stereotypes. Preferably demonize these people. After this, killing these ‘demons’ is not a problem. Nobody remembers Patrice Lummumba anymore, anyway! No tears for you, Patrice!
Killing you wuz public service! Right, Leopold!!
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Failed Westernisations
Guernica / America’s Century of Regime Change
More by Kinzer on Regime Changes.
Failed Westernisations
For ambitious nations wanting to modernise, the easy way out seemed to be ‘copycat’ westernisation. Amongst the first ‘copycat’ states were China and Turkey. China, led by Sun Yat Sen, was the first major power, which tried going down the western path. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria sounded the death knell of the Chinese Republic and Monarchy.
Ataturk’s Turkey
Turkey – led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the next ‘copycat’ attempt at westernisation. After WW2, the victorious allied powers dismantled the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was reduced to a rump state.
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