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Western Perceptions of Postcolonial Violence in Africa

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Abstract

The Western misperceptions of the postcolonial African states and their violent political turmoils following independence are among the more remarkable chapters in the long, yet-to-be-written history of well-meaning and wishful projections on the part of intellectuals fueled by guilt, ignorance and wishful thinking.

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Notes

  1. Elie Kedourie, “The Middle East and the Powers,” in The Chatham House Version (Brandeis, UP, 1984), p. 3.

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  4. Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost (Boston, 1998). See this for a general history of the Congo Free State under the rule of Leopold, cataloguing the cruelties and population decline under his rule;

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  5. William Rogers Louis and Jean Stengers, E. D. Morel’s History of the Congo Reform Movement (Oxford, 1964). E. D. Morel was a pioneering journalist who exposed the situation in the Congo contemporaneously; Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. This famous literary treatment of conditions in the Congo is based on what Conrad saw for himself.

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  6. See Albert Londres, Terre d’Alene (Paris, 1929) for the cruelty of French colonialism in Africa;See

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  7. Andre Gide, Voyage au Congo (Paris, 1927) likewise.

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  8. See Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning (New York: Henry Holt, 2005) for an unnuanced interpretation of the uprising.

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  9. For example, Alan Coren, The Further Bulletins of President Idi Amin (London, 1975).

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  31. Max Liniger-Goumaz, Small Is Not Always Beautiful (London, 1989). The latter has written many works on the disaster of Equatorial Guinea.

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  36. Aime Cesaire, Lyric and Dramatic Poetry, 1946–1982 (Charlottesville, VA, 1990).

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Authors

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Paul Hollander

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© 2008 Paul Hollander

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Daniels, A. (2008). Western Perceptions of Postcolonial Violence in Africa. In: Hollander, P. (eds) Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616240_11

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