Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

Sir, we hesitate to jump into the fray, in between our good friends and brilliant historians Bill McAteer and Julien Durup, to debate whether Livingstone was a hero or a villain. But the discussion, although having gone past the confines of Seychelles history, enters into the heart of one of the paradigms historians use to portray the past. And this is what we would like to discuss.

History is so often depicted in terms of the achievements of great men (and unfortunately too few women). Since the 1960’s, new breeds of historians have regarded this particular paradigm with great suspicion. Heroes of what The Times had termed the “Scramble for Africa”, like Livingstone, Stanley, Cecil Rhodes and General Gordon, have been taken apart, new evidence unearthed and using new moral standards, reassembled as racists, imperialists, robber-barons, philanderers and homosexuals.

Certainly, if we are to judge him with hindsight, Livingstone was what we would consider today a rampant racist. He said of Africans” We come upon them as members of a superior race and servants of a Government that desires to elevate the most degraded portions of the human family. We are adherents of a benign holy religion and may, by consistent conduct and wise patient efforts become the harbingers of peace to a hitherto distracted and downtrodden race.”

These sentiments were not unique to Livingstone, but were endemic in the Britain (and Europe) of that time. Many believed that black people were inferior. This was because :

1.It was convenient to do so since Britain was expanding its global dominion and mercantilism largely through military means and needed to portray the conquerors as heroes and the conquered as lesser beings.

2. The prevalent attitude about race, based on bogus science, had firmly reinforced in an already class ridden British society the mistaken belief in the existence of superior races, with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom.

3. Religious zealots saw non-Christians as heathens and savages and were preparing another kind of crusader, the missionary, to replace native beliefs.

4. The black societies that Livingstone came into contact with were no longer the citizens of great Swahili City States who as far back as the 12th Century had minted their own coins and ran bustling import-export trade with India and China and as far away as Java (all of which the Europeans had no knowledge). They were rather the pathetic survivors of years of slave raids.

The slave trade is of particular importance because Livingstone traveled across the routes established by the slavers and all he saw (unknowing to him) were destroyed nations. For centuries Africans had been captured to be used as slaves. But a locust-like scourge associated with plantations began in the 18th Century. The Arabs needed slaves to work in Zanzibar clove plantations and at one time as many as 45,000 Africans were sold there annually. From around the mid 1700’s, the King of Kilwa sent Africans to work as slaves for the French plantation owners in Mauritius and Bourbon (La Reunion). In Mozambique, the Portuguese were exporting up to 25,000 slaves every year to Brazil.

Livingstone saw squalor, misery and high insecurity wherever he went but he did not quite understand the causes and believed this had always been the status quo.

Livingstone was therefore a man of his time. To see him any more or less would be to engage in endless and ultimately futile debates. As historians, what we can do is to ensure that lessons from the past are conveyed to new generations so that destructive beliefs and practices are not adopted again.

We would like to close with an interesting anecdote about Livingstone’s death. When he died in 1872, far from any colonial outpost, his two devoted African workers, Susi and Chuma, took it upon themselves to carry his body to the coast for eventual burial in England. The journey was long and arduous and it was months before the two reached Bagamoyo. The British Consul there took possession of the body and summarily dismissed Susi and Chuma without any thanks, reward, or permission to accompany the body to Zanzibar.

Kantilal Jivan Shah and Nirmal Jivan Shah

THANK YOU

Sir, the Ladies International Group For Charity Seychelles, wish to extend their sincere gratitude to the following for their generous donations to the Christmas stall. Ably organized by Dina and Alice at the Alliance Français, on Saturday 9th December 2006.

Anniks Gift Shop - Victoria House Arcade

Dockland Supermarket

FVM Boutique - Victoria House Arcade

Francourt General Store Shipping House

JCJ Boutique – Michel Building

Kiddstuff – Victoria House Arcade

Lindro Global – Plaisance

The Springs Gift Shop – Docklands

To all the ladies who gave their time and efforts making gifts and saleable items and those who participated on the day. Many Thanks

All proceeds will be donated to a charity of our choice

Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you all.

Ladies International Group For Charity Seychelles

“Weekend Getaway”

Sir, we have learnt that SACL (SACOS) entire management staff and family went on a “weekend getaway” to La Digue last weekend.

As shareholders, we are concerned and displeased as to how our money is being spent. The Management may have done that in the past but the CEO must realize that now the money of the company is no longer his to spend as he pleases at the expense of all the shareholders.

The departure of the ‘happy team’ was for everybody to see. We wonder what else happens behind closed doors!!!

Frustrated shareholders

The state of reconciliation

Sir, just before the last Presidential Election, the two leading Bishops in Seychelles organised a service at St Paul’s Cathedral in Victoria to stress the fact that the sadly divided Nation needed to seek reconciliation and to stop the internal hatred and hostilities.

At this service, the two Bishops got President Michel to give an accolade to Mr Ramkalawan which he did. Unfortunately, SBC made it a point not to cover this event - so that it was witnessed by only a few people.

I would like to know as to why SBC left out this important event? Was it a decision of its Managing Director? If so, why? Or was the Managing Director of SBC directed by State House to ignore this event?

Yours faithfully

T. Gonthier

THE MICHEL BROADCASTING CORP

Sir, after listening to the news on Radio and Television last week, I believe all listeners would agree with me that the Corporation should be forthwith named THE MICHEL BROADCASTING CORP. Every hour the story is about President Michel doing this - President Michel doing that. There is not much about anybody else.

Yours faithfully

V. Meme