Page 11 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 18

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the land, dispossess you and your
families, and ‘compensate’ you at a
value of our choosing.” In short,
you have no physical inheritance in
your land. You serve at the pleasure People murdering each other or committing
of the government.
fraud in order to acquire it… And soon, the
This was not always the case. His-
torically, land in Afrika was a com- devilish European ‘game’ of “Mine!” was
munal asset that was used for the
benefit of the people, and not this firmly entrenched in the continent, and laws
lower version of privately-owned were created to preserve the demonic possession
property. These words, attributed to
a Nigerian chief, help to clarify the of people by the land, and land by some of the
philosophical, social and cultural
mindset of the real Afrikan, “I con- people.
ceive that the land belongs to a vast family
of which many are dead, few are living,
and countless numbers are still unborn.”
mind, as illustrated in the quote, travel to distant lands across the
This communicates the clear under- inserted themselves and their world, and to dispossess ‘non-Chris-
standing that, when one was born, perspectives into the continent, tians’ of their wealth. The bulls led
one found the land here, and, when and imposed their ways upon the to the creation of what is called
one departed, one would leave the people of Afrika, as well as our The Doctrine of Discovery. Ac-
land here, and even become a part lands. Giving no regard to context, cording to Wikipedia, “The discov-
of it. Therefore, while they lived, because, obviously, their intentions ery doctrine, also called doctrine
they held it as a temporary custo- were domination and overthrow, for of discovery, is a concept of public
dian, preserving and protecting the the long haul, and not integration international law expounded by the
past, present and future on behalf and cohesion. Their intention was United States Supreme Court in a
of others. How then could one to do to Afrika what the British series of decisions, most notably
claim ownership of something that did to America and Australia. A Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823. Chief
one had no part in creating, and complete and total takeover of the Justice John Marshall explained and
which, at the end of time, would ‘new lands’ they had ‘discovered’, applied the way that colonial powers
eventually end up reclaiming one’s and a total encroachment of these laid claim to lands belonging to
physical shell? As was discovered by lands for all time to come. And foreign sovereign nations during the
the British colonialists, and as was their intentions have never changed. Age of Discovery. Under it, Euro-
expressed to Hailey’s Land Tenure They still see it as a right for them pean Christian governments could
Advisory Panel circa 1945-1951, to finish what they started. That is lay title to non-European Christian
“Land to the African is not what it why they have not backed off from territory on the basis that the colo-
is to the European: a possession, a interference with the continent of nizers traveled and discovered said
source of wealth, an economic asset Afrika, and that is why they contin- territory, as long as other Christians
or an object of investment . . . land ue to work to undermine anything had not yet laid claim to them. The
to the African is the very source that is Afrikan and good, to prevent doctrine has been primarily used
and basis of the life and existence a true Afrika from really taking root to support decisions invalidating
of his family or tribe, and is some- again. or ignoring aboriginal possession
thing more personal and fundamen- of land in favor of modern gov-
tal to him, and of almost literally A 1454 Papal bull titled Romanus ernments, such as in the 2005 case
mystical significance.” Pontifex sanctified “the seizure of Sherrill v. Oneida Nation.” This
of non-Christian lands in parts of is the brutal adult equivalent of
This is the reality that the greedy Africa” and restated “the legitimacy that childhood game we used to
and selfish colonizer found on the of enslaving non-Christian people.” call “Mine.” In this game, children
ground when they first came to This bull, and several others, gave would be seated, or walking by a
Afrika, and they, being of different justification to the Europeans to road, or shops, and would shout the

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