Africans attacking, killing other black Africans is stomach turning

Demonstrations over Xenophobia  PHOTO: COURTESY

In the 1500s a prince known as Vlad III, emperor of Wallachi, acquired a nickname; Vlad the Impaler. Before that, he was known as Vlad the Dracula.

In the days of military campaign where villages and nations would be subdued by mightier empires, wars, death and destruction was a disturbing normality. In those days the life of a human being was equivalent to that of animals unless you were a member of the nobility.

In one of Vlad’s infamous campaign, one village remained stubborn, resisting his take over campaign and by extension, halting the stretching of his empire.  More problematic for the Wallachian dictator, he was facing a real threat from his arch enemies who were just about to conduct a raid on him.  They were both stronger than him and pursued higher ideals, progressives of their time.

You see, Vlad had this backward view, in the backward days, that people who didn’t look like him were to be extinguished from the face of the earth.

Running out of patience, Vlad raided the sole surviving town of Amlas, he ordered his troops to massacre all its weak (women and children) leaving the men, where he personally directed his signature execution on them.

“Vlad the Impaler” ordered living victims to be mounted on long oiled poles which were driven through the rectum emerging through the mouth.  Historical accounts suggest that there were thousands of these poles- still-living victims agonizing hours or days before they finally died, creating something in the fashion “forest of the impaled.”

When the troops of the opposing campaign who were just about to invade Vlad arrived at the “forest of the impaled”, they one by one either killed themselves or refused to advance just by watching the sheer cruelty of Vlad the Impaler.

The xenophobic attacks in South Africa this week are usurious to any credence of a united continent, repugnant and contemptible.

The videos emerging online of black Africans attacking and killing other black Africans for reasons best known to them are stomach turning. While it is important to make it categorically clear that these events are isolated in some parts of South Africa, it does not make them any acceptable; and like Vlads terrible crimes in the middle Ages of people who didn’t look like him and who outnumbered his community, it goes down history as sheer cruelty, unreasonable and inhumane.

No matter the political challenges, neither economic realities nor social pressure can warrant such.  What is truly unbelievable is the loud silence of the African Union. Surely, a committee statement from the headquarters cannot equal the seriousness of the matter at hand! If this was a matter concerning one of the autocrats, the 50 plus heads of state would have flown to Addis to make their voice heard but since this is a matter affecting Africans, normal human beings, not the angels who rule us, they don’t seem to have anything useful to say.

Finally, borrowing from a commentator, South Africans might imagine they have a country blessed with a lot of resources and all they need is to sit back and watch their minerals work miracles and improve their lives, this might be true but breaking news; the new resources that the world is in need of today is ideas, educated youth, hardworking and driven people and not miners.  Besides, migrants tend to move from their countries of origin seeking greener pastures in much more developed societies. Those down south being executed pass as experts, working in a seriously underdeveloped society that is in need of immediate education on civility.

And as one fellow put it on twitter “Only in south Africa where an illiterate villager thinks a qualified medical doctor from another African country stole his job” -Tau Kwashi

To those who believe Africa belongs to you, or it belongs to me we have never been so wrong. Africa belongs to US, yes all of us. It’s yours as much as it is mine.