wagner group and africa
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
Cornelius Hamelberg
Kimberley (South Africa)
De Beers ( South Africa
Oppenheimer ( South Africa
Advertising: Rapaport diamond ( shouldn’t I get a commission?
There’s the curious story of diamonds in Sierra Leone
De Beers was in charge for quite a while
A whole chapter could be written about the Lebanese and diamonds in Sierra Leone
I don’t know how far this has gone, but when he was the biggest diamond cutter in the world Lev Leviev was going to set up some diamond-cutting in Sierra Leone , to give some added value to SL’s export of tons of uncut diamonds..
I don’t want to be rude, but now some people seem to be exclusively focused on The Wagner Group ( they wanna weaken Russia)
Since the South already has oil, I’m trying to imagine how the course of Nigeria’s history could have been different if large deposits of diamonds, gold, rutile, bauxite, iron ore , uranium, lithium metal and every other valuable mineral imaginable had been found in Northern Nigeria - just as has been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I guess that not only the Warner Brothers would be fighting there - Anglo American & Uncle Sam too, for sure ( to weaken Russia)
I guess that it’s at that point that mining becomes more profitable than professing - about “How Europe UNderdeveloped Africa” anywhere or flipping hamburgers at McDonalds in Louisiana
Now Ghana, formerly known as “the Gold Coast” wants to pay , not in £sterling , $ US but with Gold. How feasible is that when 99% of Ghana’s gold is already owned bý foreign companies( mostly based in Canada)?
Harrow, Kenneth
it ain’t big genocide, is just bohbohl;
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2022 7:48:41 PM
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: wagner group and africa
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Shalom !
On the menu:
You are not the only righteous one crying. The inescapable truth is that there is disquiet all around and it’s a crying shame that first there was The Yugoslav Wars at the heart of Europe 1991-2001 and now, no end in sight it’s either immediate negotiations for peace or ultimate apocalyptic conflagration / total nuclear annihilation.
In this Russia Superpower - NATO-backed Ukraine imbroglio right at the border of Russia, Ukraine now escalating the war to dangerous levels, dreaming of “reclaiming” Crimea - it seems that encouraged by Biden, he also has the ambition of taking Moscow too, and that’s why the clown has started hitting hard at ammunition depots, air force and military bases deep within Russia, as if without a moment’s notice Russia does not have the capacity or capability of flattening Kyiv in less than two minutes at any given point in time - at which time the survivors could all be crying “done is done”, Curtis Mayfield still singing, “ And the soldiers who are dead and gone, if only we could bring back one”
How can it be, it seems that no one - not even the United Nations or Pope Francis can stop them or initiate a peace dialogue with his counterpart Patriarch Kirill as “ ignorant armies clash by night “ in what we still want to pass off as our most civilised world - in this conflict between the religious domains of Ukraine and Holy Russia…
To have a much better idea about the impotence of the United Nations, just listen to yesterday's Nobel peace prize winners 2022 on BBC Hardtalk from which this question arises: How can the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to anyone actively advocating war?
Perhaps we should consider how Ukraine's Oleksandra Matviichuk answered when that question was posed to her in that BBC Hardtalk interview.
Meanwhile, over there in The Middle East, where people are supposed to live by the Golden Rule the new, most extreme right-wing Netanyahu government is all set to escalate its policy of territorial aggression, suppression and oppression, imposing greater territorial sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza, with not so many squeaks coming from Sleepy Joe Biden & the Western sections of the so called International community
Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Cornelius Hamelberg
Shalom!
Neatly said Ken .
On the evening menu : https://scheerpost.com/
Ukraine, with a Jewish President Zelesnky , Ukraine with a substantial Jewish population and in fact an ancestral homeland of Hasidism , and with Ukraine as the birthplace of Chabad-Lubavitch Movement, Ukraine has a special affinity with world Jewry and with Israel.
So, not surprisingly, apart from all the people who have been making aliyah from the then USSR, from Russia and from Ukraine, Israel has also been very welcoming to, so far, the small number of refugees from UKraine , and the more than a million Russian Jews in Israel also means that Russia -Israel relations, is very very important, considering the bigger picture: Russia - Iran- Syria relations, and the really big one: Russia -China relations.
Back to the topic of “wagner group and africa”, I suppose the good news after Brother Obama’s US - Africa Summit in 2014, several China -Africa Summits and quite a few Russia -Africa Summits , a little late in the day Sleepy Joe Biden is finally waking to smell the coffee, so he has convened the US - Africa Leaders Summit 2022 he & Blinken say, basically, to checkmate China and Russia’s growing influence on the African Continent ( the Africans may be happy with that growing influence but apparently, but the US is not happy about un- American influence on the Black Continent) and whilst they are at it - at the summit, maybe also to “ curb” Wagner activities wherever they find them. How does Uncle Joe intend to influence Africa to be compliant with his best wishes, if not by making Africa some sweet promises, ethically speaking, offering what by another name would be bribes ( $55 Billion, to be “invested or given to Africa over a three year period - expensive influence buying) but let’s call it ( the$55 Billion) inducements, and other inducements such as thanks to him ( Uncle Sam) “Africa” - which is not a country -securing a permanent seat in the UN Security Council ( President Biden had better make hay whilst the sun shines, he had also better nominate a few Supreme Court Judges to do his bidding) even as he’s offering another carrot: “ Africa” to join the G-20
Looking forward to real, peaceful, no threats and coercion partnerships for Africa, with all well-wishers and do-gooders
shalom, indeed, corneliusinstead of a tit for tat, you said i'll say response, i just want to agree that negotiations for peace ought to be prioritized now. i'm not the president of ukraine, and he has his limits; i am not the president of russia, and i suppose he too has pressuresi don't know how free either man is to simply say yes or no, any more than biden or trump could, really.
so, as the outsider to their governing powers, i just hope that the war ends.
i am the descendant of jews all of whom came from some part of that region of the world. if you were to ask me where my grandparents and great grandparents, and great greats came from, the answer begins with: russia, and poland and romania. but the romanian had a turkish grandparent, which simply meant romanian but across the border which happened to be ottoman in the 19th c. and the polish was probably really autria-hungary, which actually ruled part of ukraine, and ukraine was russian and they all, in fact, were probably yiddish speaking from the Pale or close to it.
the names of all those countries and empires and spaces has changed over and over, as has my family name, in fact, as well.
so if i were to approach this war in ukraine, as a descendant if you will, of the people who had once lived there, before the holocaust, before the revolution, before the war, and before the second world war, and before the current war, i would have to say, well, the nation's ownership of its own land is not quite so permanent as all that.
if i came from west cameroon, or the spaces of nigeria once part of the cameroons, or the british cameroon, i'd have to say something like that. if i came from northern mali, or mauretania, which empire in the past would have been the rulers of my lands and people.
so, i belong to the generation of africanists who believed in and fought for national liberation. but in hindsight, as in fanon's own warnings on the topic of nationalism, i can say i believe a lot more in the liberation part than in the nationalism part.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Ken,
Shalom!
On the lighter side: The Doors: Love Street….
Reading through your histories of origins and migrations just makes one more aware of how complicated tracing genealogies can be, not to mention lineages, and dynasties - even through marriage registers, birth and death certificates, the sequence of endless births and ceaseless deaths through the centuries - and the various entries not only in older editions of Encyclopaedia Judaica / national encyclopaedias - who sang in Westminster Choirs etc, but even in modern-day scholarship - there’s the recent case - that I am privy too - along with many other details and it’s funny when two brothers get fused into being a single person - as one and the same person - when two becomes one, I suppose as enigmatic as when three become one, or one becomes three ( Divine Mathematics. Higher Mathematics, just as the possibility of God buckling on mortal flesh or God's ability to do so could be far above ordinary mortal comprehension
Anyway, nowadays there is the human genome project, for all its worth….
The name of the former Soviet Republic that mostly brings a smile to my face is Belarus because the country is also known as “ White Russia”, enough to fire a child's imagination starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Black Man’s equally powerful imagination about the colour of people who live there. First, an image of vast snowscapes, then of course a sea of white faces, a vast crowds of blonde, silver-grey hair blending and disappearing against the snowy backgrounds, their national anthem, probably a pop anthem, as solemn as Procol Harum‘s A Whiter Shade of Pale, all certainly very nice people. Ten years ago my immediate boss was Eugen Krasiuk, a perfect gentleman.
Counter-intelligence imagines an African dictator that called himself “ Hitler” or “ Black Stalin'' or an African country called ”Black Africa” first and foremost should be left to the racial imagination of Negritude Poets and the tender mercies of Black Power rap icons; on the other hand, a country or enclave that was brave enough to call itself “ White Africa” on mainland Africa would merely be inviting trouble - from Black Africa and hopefully, the Black Biafra Brigades unaided by Boko Haram would be leading the charge to rectify things and of course, demand and obtain reparations. As Robert Mugabe famously said, “So, Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe!”
White Nile, Blue Nile, so, what’s in a colour, Gloria? Black Sabbath, Black September, Black Market, Black Friday Origin: Slaves Sale After Thanksgiving
When I mentioned " Ukraine with a substantial Jewish population " I did not mean to neglect or downplay the even larger ethnicities, religious affiliations, such as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other church affiliations, significant Muslim communities in the country ( I have a Muslim friend, I'm constantly in touch with, Saidu Fofana, from Sierra Leone, who studied marine engineering at Kherson sometime back in the 80s of the last century) today all the people in Ukraine are united in their suffering, many are dead, many others without electricity or water in the freezing cold, and all this suffering would come to an immediate end with the cessation of hostilities
Your words: “negotiations for peace ought to be prioritized “ cannot be overemphasised. The latest news is that the vital bridge which Ukraine blew up, the Crimea Bridge is almost completely repaired. Let us hope that no matter what delusions of grandeur the US “ Times’ Man of the Year “ is suffering from, he does not go ahead and blow that bridge up one more time because Russia's retaliation would be unbearable.
The Talmud advises “ Don't rely on miracles!” - to wit, “ One must not stand in a place of danger expecting a miracle to save the faithful” ( Talmud, Kiddushin 39B)
Hopefully, the situation is not as bad as this one:
shalom, indeed, corneliusinstead of a tit for tat, you said i'll say response, i just want to agree that negotiations for peace ought to be prioritized now. i'm not the president of ukraine, and he has his limits; i am not the president of russia, and i suppose he too has pressuresi don't know how free either man is to simply say yes or no, any more than biden or trump could, really.
so, as the outsider to their governing powers, i just hope that the war ends.
i am the descendant of jews all of whom came from some part of that region of the world. if you were to ask me where my grandparents and great grandparents, and great greats came from, the answer begins with: russia, and poland and romania. but the romanian had a turkish grandparent, which simply meant romanian but across the border which happened to be ottoman in the 19th c. and the polish was probably really autria-hungary, which actually ruled part of ukraine, and ukraine was russian and they all, in fact, were probably yiddish speaking from the Pale or close to it.
the names of all those countries and empires and spaces has changed over and over, as has my family name, in fact, as well.
so if i were to approach this war in ukraine, as a descendant if you will, of the people who had once lived there, before the holocaust, before the revolution, before the war, and before the second world war, and before the current war, i would have to say, well, the nation's ownership of its own land is not quite so permanent as all that.
if i came from west cameroon, or the spaces of nigeria once part of the cameroons, or the british cameroon, i'd have to say something like that. if i came from northern mali, or mauretania, which empire in the past would have been the rulers of my lands and people.
so, i belong to the generation of africanists who believed in and fought for national liberation. but in hindsight, as in fanon's own warnings on the topic of nationalism, i can say i believe a lot more in the liberation part than in the nationalism part.ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Dr. Oohay
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