5 Evil African Dictators(Mandela?)

Isn't Kwame Nkrumah viewed fairly favourable by historians? Just throwing it out there. Intellectuals in my country have pretty romantic opinion about socialist revolutionaries, so the overall consensus might be different.
I really have no clue. I'm not well versed in African rulers, and yeah, the bias for socialism is pretty heavy in at least Western universities, so can't confirm one way or the other. As far as he wasn't a nationalist I'm skeptical of his being a net good but I'm hardly the judge of that.

Anyway it's pleasant to be able to even entertain the thought that not all Big Men down there were evil.
 
Isn't Kwame Nkrumah viewed fairly favourable by historians? Just throwing it out there. Intellectuals in my country have a pretty romantic opinion about socialist revolutionaries, so the overall consensus might be different.

I don't think Paul Kagame deserves to be labelled evil either, and in terms of past dictators, add Thomas Sankara, Samora Machel, Julies Nyrere, Jomo Kenyatta and Haile Selassie.



 
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Church street bombings.....bro...Mandela belongs on the list for sure.
Killing a handful of people does not put you in the same ballpark as Idiamin and the Sudanese guy.
 
I really have no clue. I'm not well versed in African rulers
Then perhaps you should consider whether your opinions on the topic of African rulers is worth sharing.
 
How about this: Opposition to the Apartheid government and continued colonialism on the continent by western countries? Communist states provided material support against imperial oppression (outside of their own imperial holdings of course). Seems pretty clear. That doesn't excuse violence but your own in-credulousness is silly.

More broadly, I find it utterly hilarious how so many on the right find it appropriate to criticize Mandela for using violence in opposition to the Apartheid government while simultaneously talking about how their second amendment rights are important for protecting against oppression. Ridiculous.

Mandela used violence against innocents as did his affiliates. 2ND amendment defenders don't typically advocate that.

Some on the right also like to point out that the lefts 'opposition' to violence is often silent at Mandelas crimes while finding fault with violence committed by right leaning individuals.

2nd amendment people aren't also openly racist so don't see the simila.
 
1. Mandela wasn't a dictator, much less an evil one. He was a one-term president (voluntarily served only one term so as to not follow in the footsteps of other African leaders) who could have done a lot to make white life hell if such was his intent.
2. Of course he engaged in violence. What kind of weakness must be infecting your mind to think that violence was not a justifiable response to Apartheid?

The man was far from perfect, but considering what the preceding forty-odd years looked like, he was about the best we could hope for as far as a black leader goes. He largely (even if just publicly, for political reasons) left his hatred in the past, and even if he still harboured racist sentiment, he didn't let it show.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a South African of any colour who isn't at least a little bit racist (we recently had a member of the opposition party go onto Facebook and make a comment about all the monkeys on the beach, for instance) and you don't have to look farther than our current president to find the sort of asshole who would have turned this country into a tyrannical bloodbath after the dissolution of Apartheid.

I often wonder how a guy like @SouthoftheAndes (who has preached that making peace with evil dictators is against Western values) would recommend people resist a system like Apartheid if he were a part of the group oppressed by it.

I always find it interesting when whites defend Mandela to the end of the world. When ANC and kin would not hesitate to harm them for their skin color. Some even imply that white farmers and 'Jewish merchants' deserve backlash from the former oppressed.

It says a lot. And it is entirelt different from say defending someone like Mao, Chavez.
 
Even with the Church Street Bombing, the target was valid.
Why do you like Mandela so much?

You could of chose to avoid this discussion or just ignore those posters who slander his name. Yet you are all on the defensive.
 
Why do you like Mandela so much?

You could of chose to avoid this discussion or just ignore those posters who slander his name. Yet you are all on the defensive.
I don't necessarily like him that much, I just find the hypocrisy and dishonesty amusing. Why is it so important for you to vilify him? Why is violent opposition to an apartheid regime not appropriate in your opinion?
 
I always find it interesting when whites defend Mandela to the end of the world. When ANC and kin would not hesitate to harm them for their skin color. Some even imply that white farmers and 'Jewish merchants' deserve backlash from the former oppressed.

It says a lot. And it is entirelt different from say defending someone like Mao, Chavez.
PoP knows far, far more about South Africa and the legacy of Mandela than either of us ever will.
 
Then perhaps you should consider whether your opinions on the topic of African rulers is worth sharing.
What opinions on the topic of African rulers do you think I have been sharing?
 
An honorable mention would be King Leopold II.

leopoldo_ii.jpg


And only because he wasnt African, otherwise he would be in the same league as Idi Amin and Omar al-Bashir, quite above Mugabe.
 
An honorable mention would be King Leopold II.

leopoldo_ii.jpg


And only because he wasnt African, otherwise he would be in the same league as Idi Amin and Omar al-Bashir, quite above Mugabe.
Quite an awful example of capitalism with no conscience. I think Lenin wrote about the Belgian Congo in one of his books IIRC.
 
What opinions on the topic of African rulers do you think I have been sharing?
This comment has pretty clear implications, particularly given your posting history:
"I'd like to see an African dictator who wasn't evil."

I don't know what PoP is. Sorry
Prince of Pain, to whom you were responding, is actually South African.
 
This comment has pretty clear implications, particularly given your posting history:
"I'd like to see an African dictator who wasn't evil."
Indeed. It implies that I haven't heard of one. That wasn't an opinion but an admission of factual ignorance on the subject. That means your claim about me is simply false.
 
1. Mandela was not antisemitic. In his book he gave huge props to Jews.

2. He believed in racial coexistence and reconciliation.

3. His advocacy and participation in violent acts is a historical fact but must be viewed in the context of an oppressive state. That being said, it does not justify killings of innocents, even though he did not personally partake in any bombing that killed innocents.

4. There was a splinter group from the ANC called the PAC which was more or less Black supremacist . Mandela was a vocal critic of the PAC.

5. He renounced violence later in life.

He was not perfect but he was the best man in that situation.
 
Indeed. It implies that I haven't heard of one. That wasn't an opinion but an admission of factual ignorance on the subject. That means your claim about me is simply false.
Or not.
 
Of us two I have substantiated my claim. You? Not so much, even when explicitly asked about it.

Pussy.
Here you're stating that your post was ignorant when it could as easily be read as sarcasm. Given your posting history I consider the later more likely.
 
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