Tuesday,
September 02, 2008
Italy sets Example in Healing Colonial
Wounds with Libya Pact
The
ANNOTICO Report
According to the
terms of a "friendship and cooperation" deal sealed Saturday
between the European country and the oil-rich North African nation of
Other European
nations with colonial pasts, including
BUT
September
2, 2008
The
compensation package would involve construction projects, student grants and
pensions for Libyan soldiers who served with the Italians during World War II.
Indeed, this had all along been the material and emotional spirit from African
leaders and academics during the fall of the last century in recognition of the
mistakes that colonialism did to
The Libyan success in getting monetary compensation for the exploitation of her
resources by a colonial master has definitely raised the issue of whether other
African countries should also not initiate a process of demanding adequate
compensation from Britain, France, Portugal and distantly also from Germany and
Arab slave traders for decades of colonial subjugation spanning the period 1914
to 1960.
The only co-ordinated attempt by African nations to
demand compensation from European colonial masters and slave traders was
initiated in 1990 by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (often referred to as M. K. O. Abiola)
who initiated discussions on reparation for
Even so, several development writers, including renowned Jamaican Walter
Rodney, have elegantly demonstrated ``How Europe Underdeveloped Africa``,
though most of them went short of demanding reparations from former colonial
masters.
Although no two cases are necessarily similar, and even so in the absence of
the facts and circumstances that led to the payment of compensation, it
wont be totally speculative if other African countries ask for
compensation or are paid compensation by their former colonisers.
Neither would it be proper to suggest that
It is true that the West has given grants, forgiven loans and paid directly
over USD500 billion to
However, Africa is still sustaining poverty and underdevelopment due to a
systematic process with roots deep into traditional colonialism which ensured
that even after political freedom, Africa`s wealth
would still systematically be siphoned to Europe through international trade
and aid.
Indeed, the Italian reparation package comes with some differences as USD200m
would be spent on infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a
coastal highway stretching across the country from
Once reparations are adequately paid, that would open a new path to sustainable
cooperation between
http://ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/09/02/121736.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/09/libya-making-it.html
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