Thumbing through British Vogue, I come across an advertisement for a credit card. It shows a tall blonde woman of Anglo descent in a gregarious pose with a Kenyan Masai Warrior. "This Card is Designed to Help Eliminate Aids in Africa," reads the caption. Ironic. These two figures are juxtaposed for artistic effect, but I interpret their unlikely pairing differently. I see an English woman whose ancestors have profited enormously from pillaging her mate's lands, and the bank she is representing has spent millions in advertising to let the world know that a miserly portion of its income will go to put a Band-Aid on a problem greatly contributed to by its country's misdeeds. I ask myself if AIDS would be such a catastrophic problem for Africa if Britain, along with its European neighbors, had not interfered with the growth of Africa's budding civilizations. If I could erase any one event in history, it would actually be a series of events commonly known as "The Scramble for Afr! ica."

From the 1880's to the start of World War I, Britain, along with Germany, France, Belgian, and to a lesser degree, Italy, invaded and overtook vast areas in Africa, those rich in natural resources. The representatives of these countries subjugated the African natives and forced them to work for the interests of distant, alien countries that offered no services or even compensation for grueling labor. In order to justify their actions, the Europeans developed racist propaganda claiming that the African was intellectually inferior to the white man and "made" for labor. In Rwanda, the Belgians taught the natives a system of racial hierarchy by declaring the Tutsis to be racially superior to the Hutus through an elaborate system of nose and brain capacity measurements. This fueled the tension between these two manufactured "tribes" and contributed to the recent genocide in Rwanda.

The colonists' ways were emulated and the colonist taught the African that things such as copper, rubber, tea, were more important than human life or humane treatment. The Belgians cut off the hands of those who would not work to create wealth for theman act unimaginable, and illegal back in the "enlightened" world. This way of thinking precipitated gross human rights injustices that, today, are inflicted by Africans on Africans. Modern Africa is home to some of the most brutal leaders in the world.

I have lived in Africa on and off for several years and have been witness to atrocities. As horrible as Africa can be, it can be that good as well. The people are remarkably resilient and creative. It would be amazing to see how African culture would have developed without the distraction of internal turmoil influenced by the interference of outsiders.

"The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die from civilization."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Learn more about this author, Angel Phillips.
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