Patric Tariq Mellet
Pensioner. Former Dir Ports; Advisor to Min; Head PR Parliament; ANC veteran; Heritage Whisperer
220307
The Russian Federation today is an empire in which the Russian ethnicity dominates 120 other ethnicities in 21 Republics and 63 other territories. It is an imperial capitalist country dominated by oligarchy. Let us leave aside the imperial conquests by the Russians under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great of large parts of Asia and Europe and just focus on Africa.
What is Russia’s history in South Africa and across Africa?
Is it true or false that Russia was not involved in SLAVERY, COLONIALISM and is not RACIST?
The links between colonial South Africa and Russia are very old. The first locally born Governor of the Cape, Hendrik Schwellengrebel’s father, Johannes, was born in Moscow in 1671 and died in Cape Town in 1744. His father was a longstanding early capitalist trader in Moscow and spent most of his life in Russia. Hendrik became the chief representative of the largest multi-national company, the Dutch VOC, which had colonised the Cape. Swellendam was named after him. As such the Russians were part of white South African colonial history and the dispossession of land of Africans. It is simply a LIE, just like many of the other colonial lies that they were not.
The Russian Tsar, Peter the Great enjoyed a very close relationship with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch Royal family and had a particular interest in the affairs of the Cape Colony. The Tsar went out of his way to befriend one of the VOC’s senior officials at the Cape – the first VOC Governor Simon van der Stel who became his closest confidante. It was van der Stel who was responsible for the surge of development and efficiency at the Cape.
Russia had come into the maritime arena relatively late, but the Dutch VOC played a big role in getting Russia off the starting blocks. Tsar Peter the Great, as a young man, assisted by one of the Directors of the VOC, Nicolaas Witsen, was accommodated in Amsterdam to learn everything about ships, shipping and maritime travel and trade and did so a one of the VOC shipping yards in 1697. It was here that his vision for a Russian Fleet was born and here that the foundations of the title “THE GREAT” was laid and it had everything to do with the VOC (UNITED DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY). Indeed, the relationship between Tsar Peter the Great and the Dutch colonial power at the Cape was so strong that Prince William of Orange and Witsen the Mayor of Amsterdam gifted Tsar Peter with his first ship built while Peter was in Holland. Once the fleet was up and running, the Cape of Good Hope was frequently visited by the Russian Imperial ships.
Witsen was also one of Simon van der Stel’s best friends and he got the Russian Tsar interested in the Cape Colony. Under Peter the Great the first books were published in Russian about Africa assisted by Witsen and his friend van der Stel, and the first Russian maritime vessels were sent to round the Cape. It ended in disaster, but it is to be noted that so close was Imperial Russia and its Royal Family to the Dutch Royal family and the United Dutch East India Company that this Russian expedition included senior Dutch officers. Peter the great had huge dreams of maritime power and an equally huge interest in his friend’s economic vision for South Africa. These dreams were unfulfilled because of some basic blunders.
After Peter the Great, Tsarina Catherine the Great continued the maritime legacy of Peter this time with the temporary assistance of the British. It got Russia off the maritime starting blocks, but she was to follow in Peter’s footsteps of unfulfilled dreams. But others did take the efforts forward in later leaps and bounds. This was just the beginning of a long relationship between Russians and South Africa that ultimately led to much Russian shipping rounding the Cape. Russian royalty and nobility made many an excursion to the Cape in the 19th century and had close relationships with the ruling elite at the Cape who were infatuated with the Russians. Even the Tsar’s son Grand Duke Prince Alexi was a prominent visitor to the Cape and was received by the Colonial Parliament.
Folly however again struck a blow to Russian ambitions when Russia sought to teach the Japanese a lesson using the Cape as a massing point for its attack ‘armada’ against Japan in 1904. Russian Imperialism blatantly used Cape Town as an African staging post for war regardless of the then pro-Japanese British, causing near hostility at Simonstown. Imperial Russia was taught an almighty lesson by Imperial Japanese navy that cut them down to size. One of the ships that was involved was the battleship Aurora which took a lead in the Russian Revolution. So here we have in our history a conflict involving three imperialist powers right on our doorstep in Cape Town. Most of the ‘British’ sailors at Simonstown naval base were actually West and East African sailors who had to stare down the Russians. The role of black sailors in global conflicts has always been relegated to the shadows. The first Naval battle of World War 1 actually took place on Lake Tanganyika between German and British gunboats with African sailors.
By the beginning of the 20th Century around 25, 000 Russian settlers had established themselves in South Africa. Yes, settlers who stole black land! The Russian were amongst the strongest supporters of the Boer Republics in the Boer War. The largest international solidarity groups raising money, material aid, medical support detachments and fighters for the Boer army were in Russia and Holland and these included the royal families. The Russians were totally infatuated with the Boers and admired their way of life. Russian immigrants joined special detachments of Russian fighters to aid the Boer War effort. They were fully aware of the Boers racism and white supremacy and had the same beliefs and practices.
Russians as one of the largest settler groups of all the European settlers were thus part and parcel of the numerous European colonial settlers in South Africa. They joined the Boers in defence of the Boer Republics and all that it stood for (segregation of and suppression of black people).
Additionally, there is another case of Russians attempting to establish a colonial state of their own in Africa – Madagascar to be precise. Despite the efforts of Tsar Peter and Tsarina Catharina they were not a significant maritime power, and this curtailed their Imperialist orbit so they focussed on their immediate Asian and European neighbours.
The African adventure into establishing a colony in Madagascar was when a rebel group of Russians, led by Count Maurice Benyowski, used the Cape as a rear base and supply line in his attempt to set up and maintain a base at Antongil Bay on the north eastern coast of Madagascar. There he built a village and a fort at the mouth of the Antanambalana River near the present city of Louisburg and declared himself a king of the local tribes.
Notably Madagascar was an important source of slaves to the Cape at this time and the ships carrying supplies for the privateer Russian colonial experiment also carried slaves back to the Cape. The Russians too made frequent trips from Benyowski’s settlement to the Cape and back. Benyowski then returned to Europe but later again went back to Madagascar in 1785 and set about transforming his little colonial kingdom into a city state in the form of a fortified village above the sea near Angontsy and Antongil Bay. After notifying the French of his ‘independent state’, the French who were the colonising power in Madagascar, put a quick stop to this. The French sent a military force and defeated the short-lived Russian colony and Benyowski was killed. From that time the Russian royal family and Russian capitalists disowned these rebels and kept their imperial interests closer to home, other than giving their support to the Boer Republics in an act of opposition to British Imperial interests.
So what of the Russians and slavery?
Dr Robert Shell in his major work on Cape Slavery – “Children of Bondage” mentions that ships operating out of Russian Ports were involved in the slave trade around the Cape which points to their involvement in the Indian Ocean slave trade which is still subject of much research after a long period of neglect. The Atlantic slave trade dominates the research in the slavery arena.
One of the Russian ships involved in the slave trade was the Goliubchick which took 306 slaves to Matanzas in Cuba in 1838. There were around 34 slaves who had died on the journey. In 1839 she was caught by British anti-slaver patrols and her slave cargo liberated.
Thus, clearly the Russians were involved in transoceanic slave trading, even though not a major player. Rather they make up that smaller but yet significant sector of slave traders that include the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic and Russia. This was a small block compared to Portuguese, Dutch, French, British, Spanish, and American, but it did involve a significant part of the slave trade. Thus it is simply a LIE that Russia was not involved in the slave trade of Africans.
There has been a small African presence and black presence in general in the Russian Imperial orbit for at least 500 years and the finger points at least in part to slavery and servitude, even although the vast majority of slaves in the Russian empire were not people of colour. The African slave descendants go back to the period of Turkish occupation of part of Russia and when the Turks with their slaves retreated from this part of the Russian orbit, they left some slave descendants behind. There are also older roots to this black presence in the region that are being explored. As major slave traders of the region – the Crimean Tartars, though focussed on European and Asian slaves, were also linked to the African slave trading centre of Basra in Persia which was probably the world’s biggest slave market from 800 AD to 1300 AD.
Here is a snippet from an interesting letter to the editor of a Russian newspaper indicating an old black presence in the Russian Imperial orbit.
“Passing for the first time through the Abkhazian community of Adzyubzha, I was struck by the purely tropical landscape around me: against the background of a bright green primeval jungle there stood huts and sheds built of wood and covered with reeds; curly-headed Negro children played on the ground and a Negro woman passed by carrying a load on her head. Black-skinned people wearing white clothes in the bright sun resembled a typical picture of some African village.” (Markov reprinted in Vradii 1914, pp. 16–17; quoted in Tynes 1973, p. 2 and Blakely 1986, p. 9; as per ‘African Presence in former Soviet Spaces’ – Kesha Fikes and Alaina Lemon (2002)
This was a letter in 1913 to the Editor of the Russian language newspaper KAVKAZ in Tblisi, Georgia by a certain E. Marko raising the curtain on a ‘phenomenon’ along the Black Sea at Abkhazia of a clearly African descendant community. It was not the first time this community had been ‘discovered’ and surprize was feigned. It had happened many times before and after that the Negroes of Batumi Province were brought to light. Indeed, this story sheds just a crack of light on the history of the small black component of the slavery systems in the Russian orbit that go back in time to before the first millennium.
Russians and various peoples all the way through to Poland and the borders of Germany were initially enslaved captives of the Crimean Tartars who ran the entire slave trade for centuries in the region. This was eventually reversed by the Russians in the 17th century and the Russians then became slavers and slave keepers.
Black servitude in Russia under Peter the Great became more visible in high society. This coincides with the Russian Royal family’s close relationship to the Dutch East India Company and Dutch Royal family and parallel interest shown by Peter the Great in maritime travel/trade and in Africa. The black population at the time of Peter the Great was largely servants, but originally most likely to have been purchased as slaves. The African slaves would have come from the slave markets across the Russian – Iranian border and also it was common practice for shipping in the region to use slaves as sailors too. This would have resulted in East Africans entering the Russian slave arena. The Russians called them Negry. Racist attitudes towards Africans in Russia today, and everywhere where Russian imperialism left its mark such as in the Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus are built on these older racist roots.
There has been much papering over Russian Imperial history, colonialism, and slavery in that part of the world resulting in a lot of ignorance of this history in countries that fall under the western dominant sphere. The Imperial Russian royal family, nobility and capitalists were well connected to the most advanced early capitalist trans-global companies and the Royal family network that patronised the efforts of East India Companies. Thus, it cannot be said that the Russians were never involved in what Walter Rodney called “Europe’s Underdevelopment of Africa” through the imperial and colonial footprint.
There is an assumption that Russia was never an Empire, never colonialist, never embraced the slave trade and always had a positive attitude to Africans and other persons of colour who were never exploited in Russia. This erroneous belief is based either on false history or plain ignorance or mischief and has led to some suggesting that Russia has a clean record in its interaction with smaller countries in the world and Africa in particular, and cannot really be seen as ever being an imperialist and capitalist country.
Putin and other Russian oligarchs amassed their fortunes on human trafficking, arms smuggling and drugs smuggling if one follows the reports over 30 years, and much of the arms-trafficking fuelled African conflict and bloodshed just like happened with Western Powers in Africa.
Russian slavery and its trade in slaves (Polish, Lithuanian, Germans and Siberians) to the Tartars is documented and involved great cruelty. Slaves were castrated and had their ears and nostrils cut off, their cheeks and foreheads branded with the burning iron and they were forced to work with their chains and shackles during the day, and were locked up at night in holds. Young slave women were continuously raped. The Russians would have treated black slaves similarly and in this sense a slave was a slave regardless of colour. Slaves were originally referred to as kholopy and their owners had unlimited power over their slaves. Slaves could be killed lawfully by owners, and be bought and sold.
When slavery was transformed into servitude in Russia in the late 18th century, as happen a few decades later in South Africa, slavery only ended in name and the servitude and enserfment that followed was similar to the indentured labour system that replaced slavery in South Africa and elsewhere.
Slavery in Russia differed from the west only in that the vast majority of slaves came from Russia’s orbit of imperial dominance rather than from afar and thus in the main it was Europeans, Slavs, Turks and Asians that were predominantly enslaved and Africans were a really a small proportion of the whole. Africans brought to Russia increased slightly during the post 1723 era of paternal servitude among royal families who wanted to keep in vogue with other Royal households in Europe by having black servants. In the 1800s the Tsar alone had around 20 Africans in servitude in his household.
The Russian capitalist class, royalty and nobility have always had a strong interest in South Africa, in particular in mining and during the gold and diamond rush flocked to South Africa to make their fortunes and to support the Boers. The Russian Revolution put paid to this colonial capitalist class furthering their interests but as soon as the cold war was over and the defeat of the USSR communists, Russian Capitalist interest peaked again with de Beers opening up in Moscow and new linkages being made. During Apartheid the Russians always still had dealings with de Beers, but covertly. The Russians were breaking the sanctions against South Africa, and had to because the two countries dominate the diamond industry, so both countries made use of SANCTIONS BUSTING run by global organised crime networks. Part of the meltdown in South Africa over the past two decades under Zuma and a captured ANC is that those old, organised crime Sanctions Busting networks were repurposed to capture the South African state. The criminal networks involving Russian oligarchy was directly part of the economic melt-down and political mischief in South Africa.
Interests in South African mineral resources, markets and control of energy in Southern Africa’s economic engine had become a pre-occupation of Russian oligarchs and mafias. Russian organised crime quickly moved into South Africa and human trafficking of women into the night club and sex trade (slavery). The Russian interests quickly ensured that a strategic foothold was secured for the criminal vanguard of oligarch Russian Capitalism and its imperialist intent. In a world where capitalism and imperialism is realigning the ghost of pre-revolutionary Russian capitalist and colonial interest in Southern Africa is resurfacing. Global realignment between the most conservative popular authoritarian forces of USA capitalist and Russian Capitalist forces, both with strong fascist overtones should make South Africa really cautious. Peter the Great’s unfulfilled dreams may yet come to fruition.
Young black South Africans have a poor understanding of this history and largely believe that the “Russians” of the Russian dominated Russian Federation today are those who supported our liberation struggle. But this is not entirely true. It was the much bigger Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that supported our struggle, which included Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Russia. MK for instance trained in Odessa in Ukraine. The President of the USSR during the crucial period of our struggle from the 1960s to 1982 was a Ukranian – Leonid Brezhnev. Even Stalin and Trosky were not Russians. Stalin was a Georgian and Trotsky a Ukraininan. The Russians were just one component of the Soviet Union. As a peripheral and very junior officer (lieutenant Colonel) in Soviet Intelligence, after the demise of the Soviet Union, Putin was prominent in organised crime and the building of anti-communist and neo-fascist Capitalist Oligarchy. He makes no secret that he wants to reconstruct Eastern Europe, Central Europe and large parts of Eurasia as a new Empire in line with the aims of Tsar Peter the Great, Tsarina Catherine the Great and Prince Potemkin.
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REFERENCES
The Economics of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century – William Gervase Clarence-Smith
Slave Trades, 1500–1800: Globalization of Forced Labour – edited Patrick Manning
Russia and South Africa before the Soviet Era – Apollon Davidson
African Presence in former Soviet Spaces – Kesha Fikes and Alaina Lemon
Children of Bondage – Dr Robert C Shell
Bondage: free/unfree labor in Russia, Europe and the Indian Ocean – Alessandro Stanzian
Imperialism the highest stage of Capitalism – VI Lenin
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa – Walter Rodney
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80 comments
Nazeer Ahmed Sonday
Thank you once again for unearthing history. You a national treasure for sure. I have a question I hope you can help me with Patric Tariq Mellet. What is the role of post soviet Russia to dissipate, soften, reign in, hold accountable, be a counterforce- take your pic😊- against US imperial power. If any. 30 years of US singular power made the world a very, very dangerous place. SA got our corrupt political deal because of the only consensus in town-Washington's.
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Patric Tariq Mellet
Nazeer Ahmed Sonday Nazeer I am surprised at your preoccupation with Russia. They have been behind destabilisation and corruption in SA which has resulted in mass unemployment and hardship. They also tried to force us into buying their faulty nuclear power technology which would have us becoming their colony. All the things that you stand for is against what Russia stands for. They are as bad as the USA and in my opinion do not offer any counterforce as an imperial power to the USA. Only China holds that couterforce,but South African racism against Chinese makes them rather want European Russians as Baas than what they see as the yellow peril.
It is complete nonsense that the US has been a singular counterforce/power.... Why are people so blinded by whiteism. China and India seems to escape the gaze. Russian capitalist fascism and deeply rooted white racism is not the Soviet Union. The Russian economy is tiny in comparison to China, India and a number of other countries, but because of propaganda people are so willing to be come colonial subjects of Russia.
Now on another subject: It is simply stupid to use Facebook to try and move beyond subjects being discussed, to try and have people expose to intelligence agencies who are monitoring everything about others belief systems. You are being naive if you think FB is the place to engage in interrogation on behalf of such agencies. We should be able to discuss broad issues openly without overstepping the line between such discussion and the questions that you sometimes pose. My FB site literally is intruded on by fake personalities and bots every day. FB is a very dangerous platform. We can take discussions only so far and then stop.
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Karlind Lovender
Patric Tariq Mellet do you think NATO should allow Ukraine's application to join it?
Do you think it was a good idea for Ukraine to apply to join NATO?
Do you perhaps know how many Ukrainians voted to join NATO?
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Patric Tariq Mellet
Karlind Lovender I don't support NATO's pressure for Ukraine to join nor Ukraine wanting to join the EU bloc nor do I support CSTO / Russia to do the same. I believe that for the sake of peace there should be a demilitarised a Non Aligned belt of countries between EU-NATO and the Russian Federation CSTO. My position is against war and for Peace. I believe that diplomacy, negotiation and mediation is what is required. I also believe that we should revamp and strengthen the Non Aligned Movement of which SA is a member. I do not believe that Brics membership is a good thing. We should play a leading role in the NAM.
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Patric Tariq Mellet
World peace is greater than the European notion of sovereignity. Human life is worth more than sovereignty. My argument is that imperialist blocs should not be allowed to reign supreme and that if we want a peaceful world, smaller countries should not be lining up behind the different imperial blocs but rather take a non alignment route and strengthen NAM. In the interests of both the smaller countries and in the interest of world peace non aligned belts of countries should separate the imperial war mongers. If that does not happen, war and destruction is guaranteed to happen. We see this not only between Russia and Ukraine but also Russia China border, India China Border, Pakistan Indian Border and so on. The fundamentals of international law and agreements are made up of mechanisms to prevent war and conflict. As much as Russia has violated this so has its neighbours and EU-NATO. You are very naive and ignorant of international regulatory frameworks if you think it's about choosing friends. The fact that there is an EU-NATO and a Russia CSTO is all about imperial control and nothing to do with friendship. It's about preparing for war. I guess stockpiling nuclear weaponry by the USA and Russia, Korea, Israel, China in your approach is just countries practicing freedom of choice. Get real Mandla. Joining blocs is simply making a choice as to which side of war you are choosing as a country. It's Hobsons Choice. Making a stand for neutrality and peace is real freedom of choice.
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Patric Tariq Mellet
Mandla if one studies history in that part of the world and see that just over the last 600 years every 50 to 70 years a huge war breaks out in which millions suffer and die and its all based on a notion of either sovereignty or taking sides with opposing imperial power blocs, surely it is just plain stupid to carry on this tradition.
Advanced thinking would say that if we want peace we should have a governing Multinational Treaty on demilitarisation, non alignment and giving up notions of the European imposed Nation-State and rather put Internationalism and Peace as the guide.... where agreement is reached where a belt of independent non aligned states separates imperial blocs and there is an enforced limitation placed on expansion of imperial blocs. We for instance have international agreements of this type already in the form of non proliferation of nuclear arsenals to curb expansion and the voluntary and enforced non nuclear states. These are fundamentals in geo political regulation. They have worked so far in keeping nuclear war at bay. If we can achieve the same in these flashpoint areas of history we can put an end to the barbaric destruction of homes, workplaces, cities and the cruel subjection by testosterone driven militarists who terrorise ordinary folks. Politicians seem to have more rights than anyone. It is they...the few... who hold ordinary folks... the many... hostage to their so called right to political claptrap and right to make war. It's about time that we put people before parties and primitive nationalism and the bulldust of sovereignty. It causes wars. We need zones in the world which are neutral and peaceful.
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Karlind Lovender
Patric Tariq Mellet. Thanks for your reply.
Should NAM send a statement, digital batch of signatures and videos to Ukraine asking the Ukraine President and Ukraine Leadership to withdraw it's application to NATO and encourage them to do business with… See more
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Patric Tariq Mellet
Karlind Lovender NAM was supposed to be such a bloc but has strayed far from its origins. It needs a major overhaul. As far as how these issues are conveyed it does not work on the basis of calls and petitions. There are two antagonistic and distrustful partners so diplomacy largely operates outside of the public glare. The first step is for brokers / mediators to win tust and respect from both the warring parties. It does not help that Western Countries still promoting a fight to the death by Ukraine. This really does not help. A peace cannot be brokered on the basis neither side giving ground. The world voice should be presenting a workable approach for coexistence... but that is not what is happening. Part of the negotiated settlement approach will have to look to China as one of the mediation partners. Peace brokering is a complex process. SA could be part of brokering the peace process too. The Vatican and a range of others could help too. But while the likes on us can say what we like, those wanting to fill the gap for a peaceful settlement under conditions of war have to be very careful about what they say and do. One can see how difficult it has been for both sides to simply even agree on safe passage for refugees by establishing humanitarian corridors for safe passage of refugees and foreign citizens.
What our country should be doing is addressing the architecture for peaceful coexistence in Europe. Both the EU-Nato and Russin Fed - CSTO show no interest in addressing the architecture for conflict which they have created. Today around the world the dominant thinking has lurched to the right and neo-fascism. That ideology is not interested in peace. It is at this crossroads that we stand. Our foreign policy pillars established when Madiba was President is absolutely relevant for today. Unfortunately we drifted away from that policy in the Zuma years and by going into Brics.
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Karlind Lovender
Patric Tariq Mellet Agree, a global collective voice needs to get through. While JZ is a problem, I think BRICS is a good idea, although it does need to be more active in economic development.
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Mandla Zibi
Patric Tariq Mellet why should anyone decide for a sovereign country which bloc to join! That renders the whole principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity null and void. To suggest otherwise is the height of hypocrisy.
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Karlind Lovender
Mandla Zibi Sadly military hostility is a reality, I wish it was not so. Sovereignty is less and more affected by military hostility, because it directly affects another country's sovereignty and livelihood.
Distance of and amount of grouped guns will always be a factor.
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Mandla Zibi
Karlind Lovender so there's sovereignty for some and not for others. And in which way does Ukraine's right to choose friends pose a threat to Russian livelihoods? There's no international community, no international law, nothing then. The whole thing is an elaborate lie, a disgusting charade.
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Karlind Lovender
Mandla Zibi It's not whether Ukraine is choosing "friends" or not, they could choose those friends without choosing their guns, choosing their guns and all their guns is an issue, also the people did not choose, politicians chose.
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Mandla Zibi
Karlind Lovender this is ultimately about Russia and it's superpower arrogance. In fact all the so-called big powers: it's intolerable to them that less powerful countries should be free to pursue their own interests without let or hindrance, especially if those interests lie outside the "sphere of influence" of the nearest dominant power. This gives the lie to the principle of sovereignty. Also NATO has no reason to want to attack Russia through Ukraine. This narrative of a NATO security threat is just rubbish. As for Ukrainian public opinion regarding NATO, surely the Maidan Square revolution is a strong indicator of where overall Ukrainian sentiment lies on choosing between Russia and the west? The politicians are only following where the wind is blowing.
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David Seomanele Mashishi
We are happy as South Africans to side with Russia not because we suggest their perfection but they are the onky current alternative that can reduce the influence of USA and NATO. We want the future that is not owned by USA.
So Russia is a better devil we know and as menber of BRICS we look forward to changing the economic balance of power.
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Thobile Rholikrele Maso
Whatever you say, long or short, don't forget involvement of America and Britain directly or indirectly, it means don't analyse it on the appereance or effects, the antithesis, penetrate the surface into the essence or the cause of the war, thesis of it
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Julian De Wette
Thank you for this enlightening historical post and the listing of sources. I was once given a wad of Boer War bonds which many Russians had bought during that time. That was in Almaty -- since lost (the coupons, that is). At a diplomatic gathering in Almaty a Kazakh scholar introduced himself to me in Afrikaans and spent the rest of the evening conversing in Afrikaans, a language he had learned at the university in Moscow. To my knowledge the language is still taught at university level in Moscow. I have taken the liberty of sharing your post. Thank you.
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Glenda Pontes
Excellent research and on point! Someone had to say it!! What a bunch of brainwashed humans we are, that we have forgotten so much in so little time!!
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Zakariya Hoosain
Wow. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of Russians having played a role in the early colonization of the cape 🤯
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Lumkile Faku Mteto III
But at this statement it is at the last paragraph that the other countries in the older days were under USSR and Russia remain as it is while the others decided to join EU union and NATO and we are very aware of the history of this colonial masters jus… See more
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Paul West
Charles, a trifling point, but having lived in Malawi, I was told by a number of astute learned fellows but the first naval battle if WWI was in fact fought on Lake Malawi or Nyasa as it was then, the British received notification that a state of war e… See more
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Raymond van Diemel
Excellent research in revisiting Russian Imperialism, dear Patric. If I may add - we need to ask why Russian imperialism was not on the Agenda at the 1927 League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression World Conference held at Brussels and the 10th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution held in Moscow in Nov 2027? Jimmy la Guma and JT Gumede, 4th Pres of the ANC attended both events.
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Molaba Mpho
This is thus far on of the most eye opening article I have read since the start of what is Russian occupation over Ukraine.🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
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Irshad Siddiqi
Yes when we talk imperialism and colonialism, slavery, and human rights issues we usually talk Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy and even Germany. How did Russia escape attention all this time? But I guess they are simply better at keeping the media moghuls out of their business!
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Heath Stevis
Thank you as always, Mr Mellet. Most informative.
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Thabo L Mngoma
Bonga Mbele note how he cites the difference between the USSR and Russia something most to my shock don't understand
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Charlyn Wessels Dyers
Thanks for setting the record straight, Patric.
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Diana Morat
Thank you for the research sir 🙏🏾
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Matthew Maks Foster
Most informative. All the more reason to embrace the politics of the USSR seeing that they brought an end to this.
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Godfrey Luyt
Thank you for this insightful history
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Vuyo Mntuyedwa
Dankie Patrick ............................keep teaching!!!!!
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Mogodi Moipone
And did this person conveniently forget to mention that as Russians were trading out of the Cape, Leopold was beheading and slaughtering millions of Congolese and being photographed standing on mountains of their corpses?
As he organised the Berlin Conference where Africans were to be divided among todays NATO nations like common livestock?
or that the Germans were literally wiping out the indigenous Namibians in an all out genocide?
or that the French were slaughtering Malians, and Guineans and Cammeroonians in West Africa just as they are still doing?
White revisionist history of Africa and Africans is always a load of bullshit.
Unfortunately for you and your cheeleaders, and that Organised criminal syndicate of yours called ANC we are not our parents.
We are a different breed of African
This type of crap will not change our resolve.
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Patric Tariq Mellet
Intro
Pensioner. Former Dir Ports; Advisor to Min; Head PR Parliament; ANC veteran; Heritage Whisperer
SA-Thai Slavery Heritage Reflection Centre & Spa
Special Adviser to Minister Naledi Pandor Min HA
Director & CO Maritime & Aviation IMS Port Control - ORTIA CTIA CTH
Managing Director - Absolute Return For Kids Hiv-Aids national arv project
Co-Founder & MD - Inyathelo SA Institute for Advancement
Director Development Office AR - University Cape Town
Head Public Relations Parliament SA
Media Officer - Grassroots Educare and Adult Education & Training Trust
Serowe Brigade - Botswana
Media Officer DIP - Office of the President - African National Congress
Herzberg & Mulne Corrogated Boards - NTC 3 & Mech Eng Artisan Training
CPA Hospital Sevices Surgical Stores - Warehouseman
Precious Metalworker Apprentice M Obler & Son
Went to Salesian Institute Youth Projects
Studied MSc Tourism Development & Management at Buckinghamshire New University
Studied Dip Lithographic Printing Publishing at University of the Arts London, London College of Communication
Lives in Cape Town, Western Cape
From Cape Town, Western Cape
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