How Cecil Rhodes Killed Million Of Southern Africans For Diamonds And Lands

During the brutal scramble for Africa and Africa’s resources, at least two million Africans were killed in the scramble for ivory tusks for piano keys and billiard balls. At the time, the center of the ivory trade was Connecticut.

80% of the Nama and Herero peoples of Namibia were murdered in cold blood by the Germans. They were killed and forced to the desert where they were left to die in the desert without food, water or shelter.

Germany till date has never recognized this genocide or paid reparations even as they have paid billions in reparations to Israel for the Holocaust.

But Germany’s crime in Africa is not what we want to talk about here.

During this same time of Germany’s massacre in Namibia, the British colonizer Cecil Rhodes came to southern Africa. He believed so much in British imperialism and promoted it. He is credited for saying “to prevent civil war you must become an imperialist.”

Cecil Rhodes was a British man responsible for untold, unending devastation and violence in the region of South Africa.

His goal was to install British imperialism from Cape Town to Cairo and built the Cape-Cairo railway.

Cecil Rhodes was a perpetrator of genocide, who was responsible for the displacement of millions of African people for the benefit of white settlers. He was instrumental in the enslavement of millions of African people on their own land.

He is part of the legacy of white people who came from Europe and became wealthy from the theft of the gold and diamonds in Southern Africa.

Rhodes founded the popular DeBeers diamond cartel. He left Britain for South Africa when he was only but 18 years old. He took over the diamond mines at Kimberley South Africa and others in the area. By his early 20s, he was already millionaire but he did not retire.

He made fortunes off the sweat of the indigenous nations and tribes of Southern Africa. At that young age, he believed in subjugating Africa for the benefit of England.

Maybe he was born with this kind of hate, or just like other Europeans, he had the hunger to see Africa blood flow.

He was the architect of apartheid in South Africa. Rhodes explicitly believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was a master race. This ideology drove him to not only steal approximately one million miles of South African land but also to facilitate the murder of hundreds of thousands of black South Africans. Many accounts actually number his victims in their millions.

He established the paramilitary private army, the British South-Africa Company’s Police (BSACP). That army was responsible for the systematic murder of ten to hundreds of thousands of the native people of present-day South Africa.

His hateful amendment of the Masters and Servants Act (1890)reintroduced conditions of torture for native and indigenous laborers. His monstrous racist “land grabs” set up a system in which the unlawful and illegitimate acquisition of land through armed force was routine for white people.

Cecil Rhodes despised democracy. In 1887 he told the House of Assembly in Cape Town: “The native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa.”

Now what kind of sadism and self-deceit could that be? You murder a people, take their lands, and then refer to them as barbarians. The conscience of the European colonizer will surprise you, when you view their atrocities throughout history, and how they kept reminding themselves that they were doing right.

His Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892 effectively eliminated the voting rights of African. On many occasions, he reminded his colleagues of the “extreme caution” they must use when it comes to “granting the franchise to colored people.”

Rhodes also went to Zimbabwe. He attacked and killed the Matabele and Shona, although they launched a fierce resistance which was led by their leader Lobengula.

Cecil Rhodes paid a mercenary army from England and supplied them with Maxim machine guns. With just 5 of these machine guns the English slaughtered more than 5,000 African people in one afternoon alone. After that, they celebrated with dinner and champagne.

Cecil Rhodes, gay lover, said he, “thoroughly enjoyed the outing.”He saw the slaughter of over 5,000 Africans as sport and adventure.

How noble!!! These were the same people who brought the gospel of peace and love to Africa, through missionaries.

The Chokwe, Shona, and Zulu people were among the indigenous tribes who led powerful struggles against the European invasions.

Cecil Rhodes was known to help set up the apartheid system in South Africa and the pass laws which were based on the Jim Crow laws of the United States. The pass laws, were mainly colonial taxation of African people to force them to work to be used as near slave labor in the diamond mines.

The Africans who worked in his diamond mines were forced to stay away from family and wife, in compounds with only cold tea and bread. These are much the same conditions you find today in the various mines in Africa. When Cecil Rhodes died the DeBeers diamond cartel was taken over by the Oppenheimer family.

The atrocities that took place in Sierra Leone and other West African nations were what DeBeers itself has done to African people for a hundred years. The greed and gluttony of European governments and corporations for Africa’s resources have lasted from the days before colonization, till today.

His vision was part of the British empire’s vision, on which they boasted that “the sun never set” because their empire went around the world. The then British empire included 77 countries including India and 15 nations in Africa. 458 million people were oppressed under this empire.

It is accounted that one-quarter of the world’s population at that time was under British colonialism. At that time England had one of the highest standards of living, which they achieved through near starvation of the people in Africa, India, and the other colonies.

People like Cecil Rhodes should not be celebrated by the Europeans the way he is celebrated today, except the present generation are directly endorsing his atrocities in Africa.

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Hotep

What Is Racism?

What is racism, really? Today, the word is thrown around all the time by people of color and whites alike. Use of the term “racism” has become so popular that it’s spun off related terms such as “reverse racism,” “horizontal racism” and “internalized racism.”

Defining Racism

Let’s start by examining the most basic definition of racism—the dictionary meaning. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, racism has two meanings.

Firstly, racism is, “The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” Secondly, racism is, “Discrimination or prejudice based on race.”

Examples of the first definition abound. When slavery was practiced in the United States, blacks were not only considered inferior to whites but regarded as property instead of human beings. During the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, it was agreed that slaves were to be considered three-fifths people for purposes of taxation and representation. Generally during slavery, blacks were deemed intellectually inferior to whites. This notion persists in modern-day America.

In 1994, a book called The Bell Curve posited that genetics were to blame for why African Americans traditionally score lower on intelligence tests than whites. The book was attacked by everyone from New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who argued that social factors were responsible for the differential, to Stephen Jay Gould, who argued that the authors made conclusions unsupported by scientific research.

In 2007, Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson ignited similar controversy when he suggested that blacks were less intelligent than whites.

Can Minorities Be Racist?

It’s also worth noting that in response to living in a racially stratified society, people of color sometimes complain about whites. Typically, such complaints serve as coping mechanisms to withstand racism rather than as anti-white bias. Even when minorities are actually prejudiced against whites, they lack the institutional power to adversely affect whites’ lives.

Internalized Racism and Horizontal Racism

Internalized racism is when a minority believes that whites are superior. A highly publicized example of this is a 1954 study involving black girls and dolls. When given the choice between a black doll and a white doll, the black girls disproportionately chose the latter. In 2005, a teen filmmaker conducted a similar study and found that 64 percent of the girls preferred the white dolls. The girls attributed physical traits associated with whites, such as straighter hair, with being more desirable than traits associated with blacks.

As for horizontal racism – this occurs when members of minority groups adopt racist attitudes towards other minority groups. An example of this would be if a Japanese American prejudged a Mexican American based on the racist stereotypes of Latinos found in mainstream culture.

Reverse Racism

“Reverse racism” refers to anti-white discrimination. It’s often used in conjunction with practices designed to help minorities, such as affirmative action. The Supreme Court continues to receive cases that require it to determine when affirmative action programs have created anti-white bias.

Social programs have not only generated cries of “reverse racism” but people of color in positions of power have also. The validity of such claims is clearly debatable. They indicate, though, that as minorities become more prominent in society, more whites will argue that minorities are biased. Because people of color will surely gain more power over time, get used to hearing about “reverse racism.”

By Nadra Kareem Nittle

Hotep

Statistically speaking, black people in Germany don’t exist

Thanks to the refugee crisis, race and immigration have played prominently in Germany’s upcoming election.

Immigration is the top issue for Germans voting in the federal race on Sept. 24. Germany’s interior minister has a 10-point proposal for defining national identity, including that “we don’t do burqa.” The far right’s campaign posters boast headlines like: “Burqas? We like bikinis,”; “New Germans? We can make them ourselves,”; and “Islam doesn’t fit with our cuisine.” The ads feature scantily clad women, a pregnant white woman, and piglets, respectively.

#Germanydecides An @AfD poster that’s often ripped up as implicitly racist: « New Germans? We’ll Make Our Own. Germany Trust Yourself! »

But mysteriously absent from this debate is the voice of racial minorities. “Black people in Germany are mostly invisible,” says Daniel Gyamerah of Diversity in Leadership, a German advocacy group for people of color that advocates for equality of data.

Germany doesn’t see race—or at least it pretends not to. Racial categories that are commonplace in the US and UK—such as white, black, and Asian—don’t exist in Germany. The government doesn’t see any need to measure the number of ethnic minorities in certain schools, universities, and jobs, because it doesn’t want to divide its citizens. The prevailing argument, which holds in much of Western Europe, is “if you don’t want to create racism, you have to avoid using categories,” says Simon Patrick, a senior researcher at the National Institute for Demographic Studies. Everyone is German, the thinking goes, and should be treated the same across the board.

To some, these are lofty principles aimed at boosting equality. But many feel they harm racial progress. While the racist sentiments of the far right often spark heated debate, there is little discussion of the deep-seated discrimination plaguing established communities of color on matters like education, policing, and employment. The election’s focus on immigration has overshadowed these issues, leaving black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities in the dark.

In a country that prides itself on the use of data and evidence, the lack of information speaks volumes. The result, says Gyamerah, is that if “you’re not counted, then you don’t count.”

One size fits all

Germany doesn’t collect racial statistics (i.e., black, white, Asian). So while the US knows its black population makes up roughly 13% of its population, and the UK’s black population amounts to roughly 3%, Germany is clueless. A UN team that recently examined racism in Germany estimated there to be many as one million people with “African roots” in Germany, more than 1% of the population. But such estimates are unreliable, partly because it’s unclear how many black people would identify as having “African roots.”

What Germany does document is the country of origin of recent immigrants. According to official statistics, one in five German residents are now first or second-generation immigrants, meaning either they were born in another country or have one parent born in another country. (For a rough sense of comparison, 11% of France’s population has at least one immigrant parent.) Among German voters, one in ten have a migrant background. The country’s largest immigrant block (amounting to just over half of its immigrant voters) is made up of ethnic Germans from largely former Soviet countries (largely known as Spätaussiedler) and Turkish Germans.

Beyond that, the demographic data is extremely hazy. All ethnic minority Germans who aren’t first or second-generation immigrants are just labeled “German.”

Large immigrant groups like Turkish Germans have gained some clout, partly by winning seats in parliament. But without granular data, the tendency is still to view migrant voters as one political force. “There is not that one type of migrant voter. Why should somebody who came to Germany from Ukraine 20 years ago have the same political preferences as somebody who moved here from southern Turkey? Or somebody who came here from Italy in the 1950s?” Dennis Spies, a researcher on migrant voter behavior in Germany, told Deutsche Welle.

By contrast, ethnic minorities in the UK and US are now a formidable political force. In 1965, there were just six black Americans in the House of Representatives. By 2015, that figure jumped to 44. This year, the UK elected its most diverse parliament to date (jumping from three ethnic minority MPs in 1987 to 52).

Black Americans played a crucial role in electing Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. In the 2016 presidential election, low voter turnout among blacks was considered a major reason for why Hillary Clinton lost. In the UK, ethnic minorities helped the Labour Party gain enough ground to deny prime minister Theresa May a governing majority in parliament.

Politicians in these countries outwardly court ethnic minorities. In a nod to black culture, Clinton famously told a radio host she keeps “hot sauce” in her bag, while UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn courted grime artists to mobilize black and ethnic minority voters.

This just doesn’t exist in Germany. “Policy makers don’t even know that black people as a group exist,” says Gyamerah. They are genuinely “surprised when we talk about black people,” he says.

The lack of attention results in racism, and makes solving problems caused by racism harder to fix. “If you want to implement anti-discrimination policies, you need to identify those who are facing discrimination,” says Patrick.

In German schools, for instance, advocates of ethnic minorities say teachers block minority pupils from advancing. Students of color are overrepresented in the worst schools in Germany (and underrepresented in the schools designed to send children to universities) and discriminated against in the labor market. “You have no real proof, although you have a lot of anecdotal evidence,” says Sarah Chander, an advocacy officer for the European Network Against Racism.

Racial profiling is also a problem with police. In 2016, when Germany was rocked by allegations of mass sexual assault by Arab men on New Year’s Eve, police claimed an acronym they used to describe screened suspects, ‘Nafris’ (an abbreviation of “Nordafrikanische Intensivtaeter” or “North African Repeat Offenders”), was not racist. A recent UN report found racist stereotypes prevent authorities from properly investigating and prosecuting racist violence and hate crimes.

By contrast, in the UK, accessible data shows black Brits are four times as likely as their white counterparts to be stopped and searched by the police. Armed with this fact, black and ethnic minority communities and racial justice organization have successfully pressured the government to change tack and reform the police force. They pointed to studies that showed stop and search does little to reduce crime and that racial discrimination was a leading cause (pdf) of black and Asian Brits being stopped and searched more.

A long, hard road

Ethnic minorities have existed in Germany since long before the refugee crisis, even if they don’t feature prominently in history as its told. The country’s sizable minority population is the result of 17th century black servants coming to Germany, the country’s colonial presence in Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, and Tanzania, foreign black soldiers stationed in Germany during World War II, and later migration waves from Turkey and other southern countries.

The few black and ethnic minority politicians who do exist face a lot of abuse. One of Germany’s first black MPs, Senegalese-born Karamba Diaby, is fighting a torrent of online criticism (including being called “a black monkey”, a “traitor”, and “nigger”) in his bid for reelection. Last month, the National Democratic Party (NPD), a far right party, shared an image of Diaby campaign poster with the caption: “German representative of the people, according to the SPD. Who betrayed us? The Social Democrats.” Diaby quickly replied with a post of his own, boldly stating, “I am not your negro.”

AFD leader Alexander Garland cut down (paywall) a German public servant of Turkish origin for denying that there was a “specific German culture” and said he wanted to “dispose of her in Anatolia.” German chancellor Angela Merkel joined a chorus of critics accusing Gauland of racism.

Some suggest the paucity of data is intentional. These are policies that allow dominant groups to “keep the position and domination in the country,” says Patrick. Whatever the reason, it’s clear the problem will persist long after this election season.

By Aamna Mohdin

Hotep

5 Cultural Phenomena Created By Black People That Other People Get Credit For

Martial Arts

Although the term “martial art” was originally used to describe the combat systems of Europe as early as the 1550s, it became heavily associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia, and now ultimately encompasses all known codified fighting systems.

However, Korean karate master Masutatsu Oyama wrote about the origins of codified fighting systems in his book, Advanced Karate, published by Japan Publications in 1969. Oyama asserted, “The oldest records we have concerns unarmed combat on hieroglyphics from the Egyptian pyramids.”

Oyama was inaccurate in saying the evidence was found on pyramids, but it was found on other Egyptian tombs dating as far back as 4000 B.C., where military training fights similar to boxing and wrestling were depicted.

In his book The Saga of The Fist, author John Grombach states that Herodotus, the father of Greek history, claims that long before Rameses II, ruled both Egypt and Ethiopia, perhaps as far back as 8000 B.C., boxing and wrestling were introduced to Egypt from Ethiopia.

Olympics, Organized Sports

The ancient Greeks are given credit for conducting the first Olympic Games, traced back to 776 B.C. Nevertheless, the Olympic Games were not the first athletic events to be organized in the Mediterranean area.

Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians had a long tradition of organizing athletic activities as shown by reliefs depicting athletic scenes carved on the tombs of their kings and nobles. In 1932 wrestling and stick fighting scenes from the funerary temple of Rameses III in Medinet Habu (a site at Luxor, Egypt) were published by the Epigraphic Survey, The Oriental Institute at University of Chicago.

Monuments to the pharaohs found at Beni Hasan (a site at Minya, Egypt) dated around 2000 B.C., indicate that a number of sports were well-developed and regulated in ancient Egypt, including wrestling, weightlifting, long jumping, javelin-throwing, swimming, rowing, shooting and fishing, as well as various kinds of ball games.

Yoga

The history of yoga has been tied to ancient India along with Buddhist, Hindu and Jainist practices. But ancient India isn’t the only civilization that incorporated yoga into its society. Ancient Egyptians had a similar practice, according to research by religious scholar Dr. Muata Ashby.

Ashby began researching the history of Sema Tawi, more popularly known as Egyptian yoga, in 1944. He noticed similar characteristics to the practices found in India and believes the philosophy may have been practiced in Egypt for about 10,000 years.

The teaching of yoga that was espoused in Egypt was derived from the meditations and insights by the early sage priests and priestesses.

Yoga is a term of Sanskrit origin, one of the languages of present-day India. When translated into English it means to yoke or to bind.

The Kemetic Sema Tawi means union of the higher and lower natures of human beings. Notice the similarity between the words yoke and union.

Monotheism

Judaism has historically been considered the first monotheistic religion. However even the revered “founding father of psychoanalysis” Sigmund Freud, a Jew himself, argued in his last book, Moses and Monotheism, that Moses was an Egyptian nobleman who adhered to the monotheism of the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Akhenaten began his monotheistic revolution during the 18th dynasty of Egypt in 14th century B.C., with his wife, Nefertiti. Akhenaten and Nefertiti promoted a monotheistic belief in an Egyptian god known as Aton, and forbade all other forms of worship.

Monotheism in Africa was not unique to ancient Egypt and the concept may have existed earlier in other regions of the continent. Although widely regarded as polytheistic by Western observers, most indigenous African societies believe in a single creator god.

Followers of traditional African religions do acknowledge various secondary deities, as well as their ancestors, but these divinities serve as intermediaries between humans and the primary god, similar to angels in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Chess

Chess is one of the oldest games in the world, and even though Western literature scholars admit that the origin of the game is uncertain, it is assumed that chess originated in India or China and then it spread to the Middle Eastern region.

However, its well known among Egyptologists that the most popular game in the ancient kingdom was Senat, in which counters, or markers, were moved around a game board. The winner of the game is the player who removed all of his pieces before his opponent did.

A wall painting on the tomb of the Egyptian queen Nefertari, wife of Rameses II (1304-1237 B.C.), shows her playing Senat.

The African games known as Mancala or Wari are among the oldest board games on record, dating back at least to 5000 B.C.

In these games, beans, seeds and other small objects were moved around a playing board with hollowed-out cups. A player tried to capture as many objects as possible. Both Senat, Mancala and four other types of games were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamen, who reigned from 1348-1339 B.C.

Another board game called Nine Men’s Morris, Mill, Morelles, or Morels, which became popular in medieval Europe, has been found carved in the roofing slabs of an Egyptian temple, dating between 1400 and 1300 B.C.

The object of the game, of which there are many versions, is for each player to capture his opponent’s pieces and prevent his opponent from moving pieces. Note how closely this resembles chess as we know it today.

By A Moore

Hotep

Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How to Get to Talks?

After twenty months of clashes, the government and the separatists are both refusing to give ground. Both sides must explore compromise solutions aimed at a level of regional autonomy somewhere between the secession the separatists yearn for and the fake decentralisation proposed by Yaoundé.

What’s new? The conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is deadlocked. There is no dialogue between Yaoundé and the separatists, who are both refusing to give ground: the government is counting on a military victory and refuses to discuss the form of the state; the separatists demand independence.

Why does it matter? In the last 20 months, the conflict has left 1,850 dead, 530,000 internally displaced and tens of thousands of refugees. The intransigence of the belligerents threatens to generate further violence and prolong the conflict, which neither can win in the short term.

What should be done? Cameroonian and international actors should encourage the two sides to make concessions by threatening to sanction those who stand in the way of dialogue and rewarding the less intransigent. Ending the conflict will eventually require changes in the legal framework for decentralisation to grant greater autonomy to communes and regions.

Executive Summary

Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis is deadlocked. Twenty months of clashes have killed 1,850, displaced 530,000 and led tens of thousands to seek refuge abroad, but the government and the separatists are sticking to their irreconcilable positions. The separatists continue to dream that independence is just around the corner. In Yaoundé, the government still wrongly believes it can win a quick military victory. Meanwhile, moderates and federalists, who enjoy majority support, are unable to organise. To break the deadlock, Cameroonian and international actors should put pressure on the government and the separatists. Both sides must explore compromise solutions aimed at a level of regional autonomy somewhere between the secession desired by the separatists and the fake decentralisation proposed by Yaoundé.

The socio-political crisis that began in October 2016 in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions mutated into armed conflict at the end of 2017. Seven armed militias are currently in positions of strength in most rural areas. The security forces reacted slowly, but since mid-2018 have inflicted casualties on the separatists. They have not been able, however, to regain full control over rural areas nor prevent repeated separatist attacks in the towns.

There is currently no dialogue between Yaoundé and the separatists. The latter are calling for talks to hammer out the practical details of independence in the presence of an international mediator. The government refuses to discuss the form of the state or reform of institutions. It proposes instead a decentralisation model that grants neither adequate funding nor sufficient powers to local authorities (communes and regions) and intends to organise the country’s first regional elections later this year. Far from resolving the conflict, this half-baked proposal risks provoking further violence.

Local initiatives to promote dialogue are emerging. In July 2018, Anglophone religious leaders (Catholic, Protestant and Muslim) announced a plan to hold an Anglophone General Conference as a first step toward an inclusive national dialogue. A majority of Anglophones are in favour of this initiative. Initially reluctant, some separatists now seem to be more open to the idea on condition that it prepares the way for a referendum on self-determination that would give the choice between federalism and independence. Faced with opposition from the government, the conference organisers have already had to postpone it twice: from August to November 2018 and then to March 2019. It still has not taken place.

Although some separatists will refuse to give ground, others might accept a dialogue with the Cameroonian authorities, in the presence of an international mediator, to discuss federalism or genuine decentralisation that would grant autonomy and adequate funding to the regions and that would guarantee respect for the specific features of the Anglophone judicial and education systems. Similarly, although the Cameroonian government seems to rule out federalism, it might consent to regionalism or genuine decentralisation, which would involve changes to the legislative framework.

To clear the path to talks, the belligerents must each make concessions in order to establish a minimum degree of trust and reverse the spiral of violence. The government should support an Anglophone General Conference in order for Anglophones to appoint representatives to a national dialogue while at the same time providing non-separatist Anglophones with the opportunity to express their point of view. Cameroon’s president should adopt a conciliatory stance and recognise the existence of the Anglophone problem and the legitimacy of the Anglophones’ demands; order investigations into abuses by the security forces; make provision for reparations to victims and the reconstruction of affected areas; and release the hundreds of Anglophone activists currently in detention, including important members of the separatist movement. The separatists should renounce their strategy of Monday “ghost towns” (general strikes) and their school boycott and expel combatants guilty of abuses against civilians.

A combination of internal and international pressures could lead both the government and the separatists to make such concessions. International actors could reward the parties who agree to moderate their positions and sanction those who remain intransigent. The Europeans and Americans, in particular, should consider targeted sanctions against government leaders and senior army officers who continue to obstruct dialogue (travel bans, asset freeze) and separatists who encourage or organise violence (judicial proceedings). The International Criminal Court prosecutor should open preliminary examinations into abuses committed by both sides, to underline that the pursuit of violence will have judicial consequences. International actors are divided, however, on what position to adopt and what measures to take and should first reach a common position, at least among Western countries.

Internally, Cameroonian Francophones and Anglophones who advocate compromise should mobilise to put pressure on the separatists and the government. In particular, federalists should work together to strengthen their position in the talks. They should continue to dialogue with the separatists and encourage them to moderate their positions, and increase the pressure on the authorities to open up to the less intransigent separatists. Finally, they should conduct an international campaign to promote peaceful solutions.

Once trust has been established, preliminary talks between government, federalist and separatist representatives will be necessary. These should take place outside the country. During this process, international actors, especially the U.S., Switzerland, the Vatican, the UN, the EU (especially France, Germany and the UK) and the African Union (AU) should continue to encourage the government to dialogue and offer funding and support for the talks.

In the event of a dialogue taking place, they could also help to fund compensation payments to victims of abuses, the reconstruction of Anglophone regions, the return of refugees and internally displaced persons and the disarmament and demobilisation of former combatants. Given the level of acrimony between the parties, the presence of an international mediator will be necessary during the preparatory discussions and then during the national dialogue. Several countries and international institutions and organisations have offered to mediate since the start of the conflict. The UN, the AU, the Catholic Church and Switzerland seem best placed to play this role, because the parties to the conflict perceive them as relatively neutral.

Substantive talks between the three parties should take place in Cameroon, which would require the government to guarantee safe passage for separatist representatives. During these talks, the government should indicate its readiness to amend the Constitution in order to grant greater autonomy to the regions and develop the legal framework for decentralisation. This could include direct elections for the regional councils and these councils’ presidents; the establishment of regional structures with substantial financial and administrative power; and an increase in the powers and resources allocated to communes. The government could also reform institutions and governance in order to take account of the specific features of the educational and judicial systems in the Anglophone regions.

More broadly, the conflict highlights the shortcomings of Cameroon’s centralised governance model and raises two crucial issues that the government must address: the need to improve the way the state handles minority rights, colonial heritages and cultural specificities; and the need for a fairer and more equitable redistribution of the country’s wealth. A lasting solution to the conflict requires dialogue and consensus, which are indispensable to undertake the institutional and governance reforms that Cameroon needs.

Nairobi/Brussels, 2 May 2019

Erst kaum Ermittlungen – dann Leichenteile von Kenianerin im Wald

Eine Kenianerin verschwindet aus einem Asylheim, ihre Leiche wird erst Monate später im Wald gefunden. Brandenburgs Polizei wirft man Versagen vor.Alexander Fröhlich

Die Leiche der vermissten Rita Ojungé wurde im Wald gefunden.

Das Heim liegt mitten im Wald, an einer Ausfallstraße der Gemeinde Hohenleipisch mit ihren rund 2000 Einwohnern. Auch Rita Ojungé lebte dort mit ihren Kindern, ein zwei- und ein vierjähriger Junge. Sie war aus Kenia geflüchtet und landete abseits im südbrandenburgischen Nirgendwo im Landkreis Elbe-Elster. Jetzt ist Rita Ojungé tot. Mehr als zwei Monate nach ihrem Verschwinden wurden Teile ihrer Leiche in einem Wald gefunden. Der Verein Opferperspektive wirft der Brandenburger Polizei jetzt Versagen vor.

Rita Ojungé lebte seit einigen Jahren in Deutschland, im Heim Hohenleipisch, ihr Aufenthalt war geduldet. Gemeinsam mit einem Kameruner, den sie in Deutschland kennenlernte, hatte sie die beiden Kinder. Er lebt in Berlin, hat eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis, sie führten, so heißt es, eine Fernbeziehung. Doch in den Mittagsstunden des 7. April verschwand Rita Ojungé spurlos. Seither gilt sie als vermisst. Erst zweieinhalb Wochen später, am 25. April, gibt die Polizeidirektion Süd eine Suchmeldung heraus: Die „junge fürsorgliche Mutter“ habe ihre beiden Kinder im Wohnheim zurückgelassen. Ihr Aufenthaltsort sei „trotz umfassender Ermittlungen“ unbekannt.

Schwere Fehler auf Seiten der Polizei

Ende April erfährt der Verein Opferperspektive von dem Fall. Ein Bewohner berichtet, dass die 32-Jährige – völlig untypisch für sie – weder ihre Bankkarte noch warme Kleidung mitgenommen habe. Wie an jedem Sonntag fährt auch an diesem 7. April kein Bus. Und Rita Ojungé habe noch nie ihre Kinder allein gelassen, sagen jene, die sie kennen.

Der vierjährige Sohn berichtet den Helfern später, er habe gesehen, wie ein Heimnachbar, ein Nigerianer, seine Mutter schon bedroht und am Tag des Verschwindens geschlagen und weggeschleppt habe. Dort, wo sie in ihrem Zimmer nach einem Schlag gestürzt sein soll, fehle an einem Fernsehtisch ein Brett. Auch das Handy der Mutter soll der Nachbar gehabt haben. Den Kindern sei gesagt worden, dass ihre Mutter in Berlin sei.

Am 30. April informiert die Opferperspektive die örtlich zuständige Polizei in Elbe-Elster, dass der Sohn gesehen haben will, wie seine Mutter geschlagen wurde. Ein nicht dafür geschulter Beamter hat laut Opferperspektive dann das Kind vernommen und soll gesagt haben: „Ich habe selber ein Kind und kann mich kindgerecht ausdrücken.“ Auch einige Tage danach bekam die Opferperspektive die Auskunft, es gebe keine Anhaltspunkte für ein Verbrechen, es laufe alles weiter als Vermisstenfall. Wegen der beiden Kinder werden auch das Jugendamt und die Ausländerbehörde eingeschaltet. Eine Gefahr für die beiden Kinder sehen sie nicht. Am 10. Mai stellt der Verein dann Strafanzeige wegen Verdachts auf ein Tötungsdelikt – und zwar im Namen des Partners und Vaters.

Erst Monate später beginnt die Suchaktion

Erst mehr als zwei Monate nach dem Verschwinden der Frau startet die Polizei eine große Suchaktion. Am 11. Juni rückt eine Hundertschaft der Polizei an und sucht über mehrere Tage eine Fläche von etwa 32 Hektar rund um das Flüchtlingsheim ab, dicht bewachsener Wald und unwegsames Gelände, auch Bunkeranlagen befinden sich dort. Weil in den Wäldern alte Munition herumliegt, muss auch der Kampfmittelbergungsdienst helfen. Am 20. Juni teilt die Polizei mit: „Es wurden skelettierte menschliche Überreste gefunden.“ Fünf Tage später heißt es dann: Die Knochenreste der nicht vollständigen Leichen stammen von Rita Ojungé, das habe die DNA-Analyse ergeben.

Die Opferperspektive wirft den Behörden vor, nur zögerlich vorgegangen zu sein und Fehler gemacht haben. Der Sohn des Opfers sei nicht von Experten befragt worden, das Heim und das Umfeld nicht systematisch durchsucht worden. Der Nachbar ist inzwischen nach Protesten anderer Bewohner in ein anderes Heim verlegt worden sein, wie ein Sprecher des Landratsamtes Elbe-Elster bestätigt. Es habe wegen des Nigerianers Unruhe gegeben unter den anderen Bewohnern gegeben.

Polizei widerspricht der Kritik

Die in Cottbus ansässige Polizeidirektion Süd will sich nicht zu den Vorwürfen der Opferperspektive äußern und verweist auf die Staatsanwaltschaft. Die teilt auf Anfrage mit, es gebe Indizien, die auf nicht nur einen Tatverdächtigen hinweisen könnten, und widersprüchliche Hinweise. Die Polizei habe sich an die formalen Vorgaben gehalten, sei allen Hinweisen nachgegangen, es gebe nichts auszusetzen. Die Leiterin des Heims sei befragt worden, ebenso der Nigerianer, auch der vierjährige Sohn, doch dessen Darstellung sei nicht so eindeutig gewesen wie behauptet. Die Durchsuchung des Zimmers von Rita Ojungé etwa auf Blutspuren sei nicht ergiebig gewesen.

Von tagesspiegel.de