British barbarity: Morant Bay massacre
published: Tuesday | October 17, 2006
Devon Dick
'Two thousand Negroes killed - eight miles of dead bodies' was the account in the New York Times concerning the actions of the British colonial establishment in the 1865 Jamaican insurrection. This is comparable to dead bodies lining the streets from Stony Hill to Cross Roads. This I read two weeks ago. But not many persons recognise the depth of the massacre.
Yesterday, we recalled the achievements of our revered National Heroes and remembered the events that led to their struggles. It is clear that not enough is known about the National Heroes and the events of the time.
Last week, Dr. Clinton Hutton, a political scientist who specialises in Afro-Caribbean religions at the University of the West Indies, loaned me a video cassette entitled 'Morant Bay Rebellion and Massacre' which features Hutton, Dr. Swithin Wilmot and Professor Stuart Hall as resource persons. This is a copy of a BBC documentary that was aired in England over a decade ago but never in Jamaica. This film rightly focussed on the massacre committed by the British authorities.
The British official inquiry claimed that 439 persons were killed. However, other reports have it much worse and the evidence points to untold brutality and barbarity. There are reports that 3,000 persons were killed. There are writings by British officers boasting about the abuses and killings. One report stated that once it was a 'black face' the person was executed.
Other reports
Another report said if the person of African descent did not run, then he was shot, and if he ran it was a sign that he was guilty so he was hunted down and murdered.
There was also a comment by a 'sensible Scotsman' of that era who said that it was a pattern of the English people to engage in barbarity. He said, "It was so in all the massacres of Ireland and Scotland - it was so in the Indian mutiny, and it is so in Jamaica."
And if we fast-forward to the present, it is a similar thing happening in Iraq with U.S. and British soldiers taking pictures of their brutality. One British soldier has already been convicted of crime against humanity. Things have not changed. By credible estimates 60,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq. But no country dare take a resolution to the UN Security Council about the massacres in Iraq.
Those who claim that we should forget history, those who claim that the study of historical records is a useless exercise are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past and not advance the human race and fail to grasp the trends and connection of the past with the present.
When Governor Eyre was tried for murder in England he was acquitted and the British Parliament voted a pension for Eyre. Britain has never accepted that it was a massacre and historians have done this nation a disservice by referring to it as 'Morant Bay Rebellion' and ignoring the 'massacre'.
The French Parliament adopted a bill which would make it a crime for anyone to claim that the Turks did not commit genocide among the Armenians. But what about the crime of France in Haiti and the crime of Britain at Morant Bay?
The deputy PM of Britain plans to apologize for slavery next year, the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. However, atrocities continued after slavery such as at Morant Bay. When will Britain accept that it was a massacre at Morant Bay?
In addition, Jamaica needs to determine how many persons were killed in the Morant Bay massacre.
Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of "Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building"
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let our historians tell us how many lives has been killed by british colonial policemen and armies??????????
these killers are heroes??????
where are the historians??????
why these killers that killed millions of malaysians( at that time called as what human beings)......has been praised by our idiot leaders????????
give us the facts that how many malaysians has been killed by british colonial policemen and armies....
just as the article above said:
Devon Dick
'Two thousand Negroes killed - eight miles of dead bodies' was the account in the New York Times concerning the actions of the British colonial establishment in the 1865 Jamaican insurrection. This is comparable to dead bodies lining the streets from Stony Hill to Cross Roads. This I read two weeks ago. But not many persons recognise the depth of the massacre.
those worked with british colonials are heroes?????????
my goodness???????????
are they already mad?????????????
where are our historians???????????
don't say they just work only, they are protecting our people...........
rubbish....gabage...........let us hv the figures, how many malaysians have been killed by british colonial policemen and armies...........
give us the figures.................now
if the theory of killing birch the british bloody residence is heroes, this was taught by our primary, secondary even tertiary text books......then this theory applies to anyone who killed the british coloniual officer, including policemen, armies!
if you reject this theory, the the hero that killer british residence--brich is a bloody killer, terrorist!!!!!!!!!!
don't cheat the people anymore, don;t talk rubbish and said this is different..............
don't beautified and glorified these british colonial officers..............
please , no more brainwash and cheating .........
ther won't be 2 theories--
if killing birch is hero, killing british officer/s is hero, then anyone that kill british officer is hero, too.
don't give idiot excuse naymore.............
our historians accept anyone who killed british officer is hero--taught in my kid's primary text books, taught by secondary text books..........
facts are facts!
read more----all accept those worked with british colonial officers are traitors ...in anypart of the world....still the facts:
Kampala, Uganda (CNN) -- At the age of 19, Christopher Kagwa was taken from his home in Uganda, East Africa, to fight in a distant war he knew nothing about.
More than 70 years later, the memories of fighting for the British Colonial Government in World War II are still fresh.
Sgt. Kagwa, formerly of the King's African Rifles, is one of Uganda's few living veterans of the world's bloodiest conflict.
He told CNN: "We were very scared of the white men. We didn't know anything about them, all we used to hear about was King George, and that made us really frightened when they said they'd come for us and take us to where they are.
We were very scared of the white men. We didn't know anything about them.
--Christopher Kagwa
RELATED TOPICS
World War II
Uganda
Veterans' Affairs
East Africa
"In the year 1939 we were told King George was going to come for us in a few days to go fight in Germany against Hitler and Mussolini, so after a few days a truck came calling us.
"When it came we got in and were taken to the barracks. In the barracks we did not even know what a gun looked like let alone how to fire one. We were totally ignorant, but they still took us to the frontline."
In his book, Fighting For Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War, historian David Killingray says more than half a million African troops served with the British forces between 1939 and 1945 -- 289,530 of them with the King's African Rifles from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi.
He describes it as the largest single movement of African men overseas since the slave trade. Their contribution is often forgotten by the wider world.
Sgt Kagwa and his friend Masulum Museker, along with thousands of their countrymen, were taken overseas and spent time in the jungles of Burma.
He said: "The frontline was scary but we had been trained how to run, how to load our guns with magazines, and also when inside a tank how to fire and operate it. So that made us confident and we fought bravely.
"We were better than the British, we were beating the Germans like how you beat a goat in your garden, as well as the Italians.
"The Italians used to have small bombs that looked like cigarette paper, and white men used to go and pick it up, but for us we never picked it up. When we went there to fight we said we're going there to die, so you fight like it's your last day."
Many of those Kagwa fought alongside, including his own brother, did not make it home. They are remembered in the war cemetery in the village of Jinja.
He said: "It pains us a lot when we come here and see the graves and the names. People's bodies were never repatriated, instead they have numbers, because soldiers were each given numbers, so it was the numbers that came.
"So each number had a name of the person as well as their nationality. So if you were from Kenya, your number would be taken back to Kenya, Tanganyika (present day Tanzania) to there, and for Ugandans here."
Kagwa still wears the medals he received for his part in the conflict. He was honored by Queen Elizabeth in 2007 and is regarded as a hero in his home village of Kabwangasi.
His 16-year-old grandson told CNN: "I'm proud of him because he made history, and people are proud of him."
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/15/ugandan.ww2.veteran/
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Unsung black heroes star in children's book
February 16, 2010|By THERESA WALKER
Ask school children about heroes from the colonial period in America and they can quickly tell you what they know about founding fathers and Revolutionary War figures such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.
Ask them about African-American heroes from that same era and there's a good chance they can name Crispus Attucks, one of the first five colonists killed by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre in March 1770 and the first black man to die in the struggle for America's freedom.
They might even have heard of Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and astronomer famous during his time for his almanacs. And perhaps they know of poet Phyllis Wheatley, whose work included a well-regarded celebration of Washington.
YOU SEE FROM HERE---EVEN IN USA, ANYONE THAT FIGHT, KILL BRITISH COLONIAL OFFICERS, ARMIES, POLICEMEN ARE HEROES...THESE ARE FACTS ACCEPTED ANYWHERE...EVEN IN USA, IN EVERYPART OF THE WORLD..............
(NOT IN MALAYSIA??????????HOW TERRIBLE THIS HAPPENDED IN MALAYSIA!!!!!!!!)
But that's probably the extent of their knowledge on African Americans of that time.
You could pretty much say the same for adults, outside of those in academia or history buffs who have studied the colonial period or black history, says Nancy I. Sanders, a children's author who lives in Chino.
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SEE--THE NEGRO THAT KILLED BRITISH COLONIAL ARMY IS HERO...KILLING ANY BRITISH COLONIAL OFFICER IS HERO, ARE HEROES!!!!!!!
Preparing the next generation
of all-American heroes
hosted by http://robt.shepherd.tripod.com
Choice of content can be 'blamed' on Webmeister
Bob Shepherd
We all have a responsibility to the country we call home
(as Barack Obama says)
"America is the greatest country on earth -- but it didn't just happen on its own."
Black Warriors in America's History
Give me men to match my mountains
African Americans have served as underappreciated heroes in every war and countless 'unofficial' skirmishes and conflicts throughout the history of our nation -- and even in colonial days. There has scarcely been a battle when America has not been served by the valor and sacrifice of what poets have called "the darker brother." Like the Kipling poems of England's Victorian "empire" period, America also has a story of forgotten heroes, and a public that seems barely aware of the courage and honor of, in some cases, gallantry almost beyond words.
Kipling wrote of the unappreciated 'Tommy Atkins' - despised or held scarcely above outright contempt - UNTIL the nation needed him. Then he was the hero, the saviour, the man who stood in the gap, who came to his nation's rescue in its our of need. Another Kipling poem describes the despised 'Gunga Din' the brave dark fighters who shed their blood, gave their lives, on behalf of an empire that owed them better. And for Kipling, the white professional soldiers could only say in awe, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din."
But in America's case, its Black warriors were not foreign, they were home born and every bit as American as their brother warriors of lighter hue. At long last, America is waking to the glory of "the darker brother" on the field of battle. Just as has been shown in other fields of achievement, perhaps beginning with America's unique homegrown religious heritage, the black contribution has been profound.
The original core of this document was begun by Professor Cunnea as a homework aid for his classes. A note to researchers of "Buffalo Soldiers" -- the Buffalo Soldiers were African-Americans used in the U.S. war to protect settlers not only against brigands but also (primarily) against certain Native Americans. The web has numerous sites on the Buffalo Soldiers but please be aware, while the Buffalo Soldiers spoke American English, and tended to think somewhat similar to the "white" Americans, history reveals that they also shared the prejudices against socalled marauding "red men." You should be aware of this.
The first Buffalo Soldiers were the 9th and 10th Cavalries, formed by the U.S. Army in 1866 and mostly composed of freed slaves and Civil War vets. The patrolled the Mexican border, participated in the Spanish-American War, and in the U.S. expedition to the Philippines. While it is regrettable that black Americans should have participated in military actions adversely affecting native peoples, students should remember that not all the reprisals and measures taken by the government were unprovoked, nor were all of them carried out with the ruthlessness we sometimes hear of. Buffalo soldiers and black cowboys were merely one factor in the opening of the West, and a certain toughness went with the territory. It was a job somebody had to do, and the oppressive aspects, while not excusable whatsoever, were indeed one part of that history. The Buffalo Soldiers were disbanded in the 1950's when President Harry Truman integrated the armed forces. A television movie called "Buffalo Soldiers" starring Danny Glover was made in 1997 and may be available to students on video. It aired on TNT. Set in New Mexico Territory in 1880, it is a fictionalized account of the conflicts between the Buffalo Soldiers and the Native Americans then `plaguing` the pioneers westward.
To Our readers: if you find sites that you cannot reach, we'd appreciate if you alert us -- Dee.
And remember. Freedom isn't free.
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Little known is the history of an officer of the infant Continental Navy who took the War of Independence all the way to British soil to carry out surprise raids. Responding to Britain's looting and burning of Colonial America, this early naval hero damaged or destroyed strongholds and absconded with needed supplies. And while he initially met little resistance, that soon changed.
In the early fall of 1779, the daring sea rover was again sailing the frigid waters off England's coast, looking for British supply ships to seize. But Britain had had its fill of this rogue sailor who was audaciously challenging Britain on her own turf, while successfully preventing large amounts of British supplies from reaching the colonies. The rogue had to be stopped. The hunt was on.
It was September 23rd. While still within sight of the English coast, the Continental Navy commander was secure in his ship, the French-built Bonhomme Richard. A crew member spotted a large convoy of merchant ships protected by two English warships, the H.M.S. Serapis and the H.M.S. Countess of Scarborough. The seasoned skipper of the Serapis, Richard Pearson, knew his American enemy was close and was on the lookout. Just after 6:30 p.m., the American commander, who had displayed a British Union Jack to cause confusion, suddenly took it down and sent up the Stars and Stripes before engaging the Serapis. Soon the two ships were locked in point-blank combat in what became known as the Battle of Flamborough Head.
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Hundreds of people gathered on the chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head to watch the battle, which lasted for nearly four hours with unremitting fury and was later regarded as one of the most desperate and sanguinary fights in naval history. Most onlookers undoubtedly hoped they would witness the Bonhomme Richard's destruction. Many British citizens regarded its captain as a "pirate" whose skullduggery rivaled that of Blackbeard. British chapbooks, the entertainment "magazines" of that time, even carried caricatures of the Richard's captain to drive home this unsavory image.
Cannon fire boomed in both directions, ripping the ships apart piece by piece. As the citizens looked on, the two frigates became entangled together so tightly that the muzzles of the cannons from both ships at times were touching each other. Jones purposely positioned the Richard close to the swifter, copper-bottomed Serapis to deny the larger ship the advantage of its larger and more numerous cannons. Meanwhile, the Alliance, which was sailing with Jones and commanded by a Frenchman, engaged the Countess of Scarborough.
NEITHER COMMUNISTS AND COLONIAL POLICEMEN ARE HEROES.......
NO, THWY ARE NOT HEROES...........WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND BOTH COLONIALSM, IMPERALISM AND COMMUNISM ARE NO GOOD TO ALL!!!
