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Michelle Smith
Mrs. Petty
English 102
7 May 2014
The Democide of African Natives
Those who are not directly related to the conflicts within the continent of Africa are often
oblivious to the mass murders that unjustly occur. Many of the tribes that are spread out on
Africas soil are attacked violently by militias led by government command; these events are
classified as democide, a government induced genocide. The common reason for leaders in
Africa to attack their own people is contradictory views in politics. This country has a history of
wars within its own borders that have been ignited by policies that are not widely accepted by the
people. It shows on record that non-violent protestors in different parts of Africa have been
brutally murdered by police forces.
There is no sole perpetrator for the crimes committed against the innocent public that has
been caught in the crossfire of political warfare. Numerous people have been holding the reigns
of militias that attack either indigenous tribes who stick to traditions that have been in conflict
with other parts of Africa for years, or law enforcement that has killed protestors who try to take
a stand against the corrupted African government. Africans often do not have a source to turn to
for aid, other than western countries that are usually busy with their own issues- even the church
has been a part in slaughtering the innocent. There is little stability in the political aspect of
Africas culture, so this leaves room for bias politics to run rampant and take control over every
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country within the border. Africa's wavering political position leaves an open seat for leaders to
come in and commit democide against the civilians who have a differing political agenda.
Corrupted governments, such as that of Libya, often want to keep the opposing public
silent, and, in such areas, violence is often a method used to shut out protestors. All-powerful
leaders will resort to any measure in order to keep their power in place; if this means that the
death tolls of innocent, peaceful civilians is increased by hundreds, then that is the risk that they
will are willing to take. One of the areas that has been affected by the homicidal actions taken by
its government is Libya. The Libyan government used firearms to attack some innocent
protestors on a day in February; the day after, there were new protestors who were fighting to
defend those who were killed mercilessly. On the day that those protestors were trying to voice
their anger with the Libyan government, there were Accounts of the use of live ammunition by
security forces, including machine-gun fire, against protesters near the Katiba [a garrison] in
Benghazi on February 19, 2011, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries . . . the authorities are
using unjustified and unlawful force (Human Rights Watch). This is an extreme force used
against peaceful protestors and fighting non-violence with firepower was an unnecessary.
However, the police thought that they were doing their community a great favor by silencing
those who want to change the regime, so there is little guilt felt by the perpetrators. The number
of people who needed tending to due to the vicious attack grew quickly, and In . . . three, days
the death toll of protesters reported to Human Rights Watch by hospital staff and other sources
has reached at least 173 (Human Rights Watch).
Because the murders of these protestors were so controversial, the Libyan government
then shut down communications with the outside world. This would include phones, internet, and
any other device that can be used to contact someone from outside of Libya. As for the people
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who were interviewed about the events, the government took swift action and arrested them
(Human Rights Watch). Leakage of information that could potentially incarcerate the corrupted
officials is a hole that must be plugged, and at the mercy of the governments actions are the
unfortunate citizens. All information is being boarded up, and the government sealed away any
informants who were trying to leak important information. The law enforcers who carried out the
wishes of the government were ruthless, Three eyewitnesses confirmed that the security officers
in distinctive uniform with yellow berets fired indiscriminately on protesters (Human Rights
Watch). Officers show no regard for the protestors humanity; even the fact that the protestors
were taking a non-violent approach to the issue did not prompt the officers to hold back their
fire. In most cases, the officers are as frightened of the government as the common public, but
that is no excuse for the one dependable source to use murderous weapons on those who are not
harming others. It is the politics that motivated the government to kill people who tried to take a
stand against their tyranny, and it was the force of the Libyan government that forced its officers
to attack other humans. Libya is one example of the massacres of protestors, but Sudan has been
in a similar situation.
Sudan, like Libya, has forced its people to undergo oppression in the form of bullets and
brutal attacks. The Sudanese government tried to kill any person who put their differing opinion
out into the open. This government is so afraid of being overthrown that it will kill any who dare
to speak against it. Because the methods used against the peaceful protestors in Sudan caused
such an uproar, the National Consumer Forum has officially requested UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon to form an international committee to investigate (NCF). Countries such as
Sudan are unable to protect their own people, and those who are logical enough to rage against
the government are in fear of being killed. The NCF is a group of twenty opposition parties, and
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it is run by the Islamist leader Dr. Hassan el Turabi (NCF). The only way to be saved is by
organizations such as the United Nations, but there are many other disturbances that must be
solved elsewhere. There is little room to add in the democides in Sudan, so people are left to
defend themselves if they are not killed first. The people in Sudan are trying to clean the mess
that the totalitarian government has made, and there is little support from outside sources. The
United Nations is one of the few established organizations that places like Sudan can turn to;
however, there is still little justice for them. Not only are there much larger issues to be dealt
with, but there is also very little attention focused on areas that are deprived of help like Sudan.
When protestors are being killed in Sudan, disturbing information buried so deep by the
government that organizations such as the UN and activists in western countries cannot find
them. Without the knowledge of the events taking place, they can never be solved.
The reason why Libya, Sudan, and other countries alike are capable of the destruction
that they cause is because they have no set system of government. Wherever regulations and
justice do not exist, it's not because the people prefer their form of government: but because
they are not free to raise their voices (Shanker). Because there is no influence allowed into the
countries that commit acts of democide, there is often little influence for a better standing
government. The government is the backbone to any nation, but because there are corrupt
politics in parts of Africa, there are often murders of people such as the peaceful protestors in
Sudan and Libya. Those who seek reform are often ostracized for their beliefs; in that same vein,
they are also at risk of being killed. Democracy does not have to be the accepted form of
government by all nations, but nations do need a set regime. One authors opinion describes this
the most accurately: the starkest contrast between democratic and nondemocratic governments
is in the number of people in their control that nondemocratic governments kill (Shanker).
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Though democracy does not have to be the chosen government system for all, the idea does
provide a more stable foundation for the people of the democratic nation to be protected. The
most important aspect about a government is its ability to defend the people within its borders,
but African government lack this vital skill. Democides like the ones demonstrated in Sudan and
Libya just add on the fourteen millions of bodies that have piled up due to a lack of proper
government control (Shanker).
Besides protestors being shot by the corrupted government, there are other parts of Sudan
that have even less attention directed towards them. Most of the indigenous tribes in Africa are
mowed down by the totalitarian government. What makes their situation even worse is that these
small tribes have both a lack of communication with the other nations and also they are blamed
for any of the catastrophes that happen. Tribes are often the scapegoats for the leaders who
commit mass murder against tribes that have already had a previous amount of tension with each
other. One man who has experienced such accusations first hand is Deng, who lived through a
misnamed tribal warfare, despite the fact the two tribes in question had been at peace for many
years (God). Although it was the Misseriya who committed the mass murders, Deng did not
want to call what happened a battle of tribes because he understood that government played
puppet master all during the war. Unlike some other parts of Africa, the church has helped the
survivors in little increments; for example, they have accompanied the people . . . to their
burned villages (God). Other areas have had to experience their churches turning against them
to gain political power, but the one source that Sudan can still rely on is their church. However, it
is not known how much longer that Sudan can comfort their thoughts with a reliable church
because the government will always have the upper hand, and at any moment the church can turn
on them, as witnessed with other African territories. Dengs tribe is slowly rebuilding, but peace
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is not as stable among his people. Troops have been stationed to help keep the peace while his
community slowly regains its strength, but the soldiers are protecting a peace that doesn't exist
(God). Many have died to save the cause that they are fighting for, but some of the worst
deaths are of those who are people that are just pawns in a large political warfare.
Though Zimbabwe is not at the center of countries that kill its own people for the sake of
keeping activists quiet, it has killed simply to make space. The term democide is systematic
slaughter of a subject population by its government (Democide), which is exactly what the
government in Zimbabwe is doing. The angle that the Zimbabwean government is killing
through is not solely political, but democide nonetheless. The country of Zimbabwe is limiting
food supplies and taking away any form of communication so the people cannot voice their pain
to those who are willing to listen. The only purpose for this kind of control is that the leader,
Communist ruler Robert Mugabe is forcing his nations population to dwindle down
(Democide). He is doing so, but at the expense of the millions of people he has already killed.
His plan is to push as many people as he can back onto the farm lands that they migrated from
after they were shut down, and then leave them there to starve.
Mugabe is trying to use the same tactics that the Libyan and Sudanese government used:
cutting all ties to the outside nations. The government of this small country is worried about
other stronger nations catching wind of this injustice and coming to the aid of the helpless
Zimbabweans. Mugabe has resorted to a Cambodian-style "cleansing" of the cities, and any
foreign nation would be outraged by such actions (Democide). That is why that silence is a
primary goal for Mugabe. Mugabe is closing in on his demonic goal, reducing--through famine,
murder, and the flight of terrorized citizens and Zimbabwe has yet to see any aid from western
nations, or any nations for that matter (Democide).
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Rwanda serves as an example of a country that has faced discrimination by its own
church. In Rwanda, the Tutsi people have been slaughtered by their state leader as well as the
church that they thought they could trust (Longman). Religion is usually a largely relied upon
solace for the people who live in Africa, and in some cases they blindly follow their church
leaders, but in the end they are led off of a figurative cliff. Longman states that church
involvement in the genocide can be explained in part because of the historic link church and state
and the acceptance of the ethnic discrimination because both of these two powerful leaders want
to maintain their power over the people. This means that the church officials would slay whoever
did not agree with their methods and chose to go against the grain. The churches in Rwanda
proved to be just as violent, if not more, because they had already had a prior trust among the
people of Rwanda, but the Christian churches of Rwanda served as killing fields for about
three months in 1994 (Longman). In Africa, religion is as highly regarded as politics. Without
the government to keep the churches from becoming corrupt, both institutions will destroy the
innocent people who are either on the opposing side or are simply caught in the middle of the
battle. Nigerias political issues have been disseminated even less than some of the other
countries in Africa because one of the biggest nations in the world is at fault for Nigerias
destruction.
Nigeria has faced, and continues to face, politically corrupt power for many years. During
the colonization by the British, the Nigerians were forced to endure harmful treatment by the
men who were trying to colonialize the land (Badru). Because most African countries are less
stable and have little to defend their land and people with, they are more susceptible to being
taken over by other countries like the England. Corrupt power goes unchecked and havoc breaks
loose among the indigenous people as well as those who live in urban areas. Nigeria is just one
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of the many example of African countries that have seen foreign enemies come to take their land
and enforce their own rules. This event happened during the 1960s, but there is no doubt that
Nigeria has likely still been stuck in a financial and political rut that Great Britain has left them
in. Like other nations that want to take over weak countries, the British overlords used ethnicity
as a weapon to sustain its own rule (Badru).
Democide is often committed by the governments that have ruled over a nation for a
prolonged period of time, and this remains true in the case of the Nigerians and the British. In the
end, the same methods were used by British that are often used by countries that have had the
same power over them for decades: violent force and the threat of death. Nigeria is not
publicized often in the media that circulates in some of the western cultures, so most, if not all,
of the torture that the Nigerians faced during the time of colonization was blocked out. Not a
whisper left their land, so the murders carried on through many years. Discrimination againstthe
ethnicities played a major role in the loyalties and the wars between the Nigerians and the British
colonizers. Even after independence was gained, the political parties that came about after
independence were based on ethnic loyalties, so the Nigerians were left at a weaker position
than they had been (Badru). Britain could continue their devastation because they could use the
Nigerians tension among their own people as a way of using them for democide. Britain could
manipulate the people of Nigeria to hate each other, which would keep the alliances down to a
minimum, thus ensuring the political power that the United Kingdom had.
Western civilizations are often at the heart of the charitable gifts that African countries
receive. As a nation, America feels as though they can take part in the efforts to better help third
world countries that have been going through any warfare. Often, these wars leave peaceful
people without a job, a place to live, and unable to support their family. Most who look upon the
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poor conditions that Africa has been left to live in feel that the West is responsible for
protecting the human rights of all Africans, regardless of which political actors caused their
suering (Howard-Hassmann). Most of the western world sees the commercials that advocate)
for donating a dollar a day to help save the starving children in Africa; however, the cause of the
destruction is often left out due to time limitations. More people have been waiting to get
involved after information about some of the more prominent African wars have been circulating
through popular culture. In a sense, it has become a fad to care about those who are less
fortunate. Without the help of television, America as well as its fellow western nations are ever
more aware of the global causes of human suering, and more insistent on global responsibility
for it (Howard-Hassmann). If more actors and role models in the United States were to put their
face on a poster that supported the help for devastated territories in Africa, it will be more likely
that people will want to help. The number of people who want to put their efforts into stopping
the democide because North America and western Europe do not want to bear the weight of guilt
the comes along with playing oblivious to the injustices that often happen in places like
Zimbabwe and Nigeria (Longman).
Activist everywhere are trying to help those in need, but the only countries that will ever
be able to truly aid the people of Africa are in the richer nations such as America. However, the
only way that the American public will become aware of the situation in Africa is by using actors
and actresses to put the word out about the wars. Regardless of who is doing the democide, the
American public is very slowly gaining the knowledge of all of the unjust powers that lead
Africa to damnation. The genocide that has halted the western public in its tracks was the
genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 (Longman). Much like Sudan and Libya, the
government, or in this case, the Hutu politicians encouraged and ordered Hutu soldiers and
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militias to commit genocide, which would also be a form of democide (Longman). A
government commissioned militia was set out to kill millions of innocent people, and now that
the western hemisphere is grasping just how deadly the fire that Africans have been playing with
is, they want to come to the rescue. The salvage of the African countries is more possible if the
support of well-maintained foreign nations came to lend a helping hand, but the only way to
spread the word is through the active dedication of the some of the most prominent actors and
actresses.
Africa has been fighting the inequalities that often come along with the corrupt leaders
who use democide as a form to gain political power. The politics that totalitarian leaders often
strive for are corrupted politics; this is the only form that will allow them to remain in power.
The exploitation and disposition that most African countries are already in contribute to the goal
that so many of those leaders want to achieve. Libya and Sudan have seen democide by the
display that the government has put on by killing protestors. The most memorable part about
both of the countries and the war on its own people, besides the large amount that they killed, is
that the protestors were peaceful. This shows that no matter how nonviolent the people of a
country are, the separate African governments will do whatever it is they can to keep the rebels
quiet. Zimbabwes leader held a stern hand up against the poor civilians who remained loyal to
the indigenous tribes they were raised by. Because of the previous conflicts between two tribes,
and entire community was easily ripped apart by an all-powerful leader. Homes were destroyed,
lives were taken, and there were a small number of institutions to turn to in the Zimbabweans
time of need. Nigeria was doomed since the 1960s; the British invasion was harmful to the
Nigerians because instead of helping them, British leaders injured and killed a vast amount of
people. The pain that so many Africans have felt because of the wars created by politics has been
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unknown to many who pay little mind to other nations, and the voices of the millions of dead
Africans have yet to be heard.

























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Works Cited
Badru, Pade. "Ethnic Conflict and State Formation in Post-Colonial Africa: A Comparative
Study of Ethnic Genocide in the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, and Rwanda-Burundi." Journal
of Third World Studies 27.2 (2010): 149-169. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr.
2014.
"Democide in Zimbabwe." The New American 25 July 2005: 7. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"God Ran With Us." Christian Century 130.11 (2013): 10. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 15 Apr.
2014.
Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda E. "Genocide and State-Induced Famine: Global Ethics and Western
Responsibility for Mass Atrocities in Africa." Perspectives on Global Development &
Technology 4.3/4 (2005): 487-516. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Human Rights Watch. "Libya's Attacks on Civilians Are a Violation of Human Rights." Libya.
Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"Libya: Governments Should Demand End to Unlawful Killings." 2011. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Longman, Timothy. "Church Politics and the Genocide in Rwanda." Journal of Religion in
Africa 31.2 (2001): 163. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
"NCF Demands UN Investigation into the Killing of Anti-Government Protesters." Africa News
Service 21 Oct. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Shanker, Albert. "Democracy and Democide." New Republic 208.12 (1993): 13. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.