Ahmed Ben Bella Quotes
Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia.
Ben Bella, Ahmed. "Ahmed Ben Bella: 'My Life is a Continuous Struggle'." Interview by Silvia Cattori. Voltaire Network, 12 May 2006.
When the British first colonized South Africa, the area they used was akmost uninhabited or very sparcely so. However, some Black tribes (including the Zulus) were moving from the north and themselves were colonizing or annexing the areas to their kingdom. The British were most interested in Trading so did not have large land asperations. The Dutch white Boer Africanners, in contrast, wanted to farm the lands and use the range for their cattle. They wanted the land. The English policy was that there would be friendly relations with the Black tribes surrounding their Cape Colony and no one should take their land. However the Boers started attacking the Black areas and seizing their farms and villages. At first, the English assumed that the Blacks would easily be able to ward off the invasion as the Afrikanners had no professional troops like the British. However, the neighboring tribes were not very warlike or good fighters. They were being overrun by the Zulus coming from the North and the Boers from the South. The British Government had a real problem in that they would have to have British soldiers fight the white Afrikanners if they wanted to stop the illegal white invasions. This was the root of the Boer War where the British would be fully at war with the Africanners.
Even at this early time, it was clear that whites had brought numerous diseases that decimated the Indians. Alcohol and disease killed many more native Americans than all the wars—intertribal and with the whites—ever did. Neolin warned but did not have more than regional influence.
In Russia at the time, serfs were little better off than slaves. Not only did they have to obey their landlords in all things, but any who advocated disobedience on their part were beaten and sent to Siberia. Exile to the Siberian Gulags was not an invention of the Communists of the 20th century although they used that punishment in unprecedented numbers. It was used by the Czars and the Empress.
This was in the first article of their Constitution upon gaining their independence. With a long tradition of Dutch colonialism and a particularly brutal Japanese colonization during WWII, the Indonesians were most preoccupied with this issue.
First Published American Indian Author
Referring to the Arawak natives he found when he landed in the "new world—San Salvador:"
Commenting on the Mexican War:
The customary technique of the European Powers was to “sign treaties” with the kings of various African territories and provide them with “presents” (bribes). Often the European arms and the active assistance of European soldiers maintained the autocratic power of these leaders. In this case, the British had moved so fast that the “presents” were in a caravan that had not yet arrived.
Ahmed Ben Bella was an Algerian politician, socialist soldier and revolutionary who served as the first President of Algeria from 1963 to 1965.
