Rebecca Solnit presents an intriguing metaphor:
How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was Africa. His was France. He colonized her, exploited her, silenced her, and even decades after it was supposed to have ended, still acted with a high hand in resolving her affairs in places like Côte d’Ivoire, a name she had been given because of her export products, not her own identity.
Her name was Asia. His was Europe. Her name was silence. His was power. Her name was poverty. His was wealth. Her name was Her, but what was hers? His name was His, and he presumed everything was his, including her, and he thought he could take her without asking and without consequences. It was a very old story, though its outcome had been changing a little in recent decades. And this time around the consequences are shaking a lot of foundations, all of which clearly needed shaking.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/...
She, l'Afrique, Africa, was not allowed to choose her own name. It was bestowed upon her by her rapists, lowering her to that whore of mythology, Aphrodite:
Aphrodite had many lovers; she slept with both Gods and mortals, preferring mortals, except in the case of Adonis. She was the patron Goddess of Prostitutes.
Aphrodite was known as the Goddess of Love and Beauty. According to The Odyssey she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione; other myths speak of her as springing from the blood of Uranus after Cronus castrated him.
http://paphosuncovered.com/
Aphrodite, the Mediterranean goddess of love who could not or would not say "No!", in contrast with the Nordic goddess of love, Freya, who had many lovers but did say "No!" when she pleased, and did not sell herself save in the ridiculous and delicious tale of her four-night sojourn with the dwarves of the Four Directions in order to secure Brisling, a monstrously beautiful ruby and amber necklace crafted by the dwarves.
Africa, the continent like the Mediterranean goddess Aphrodite, was not allowed to say "No!" to her exploitation, the removal of her peoples to serve as slaves in the new world, the removal of her earthly riches, scarring her with environmental devastation as ugly as the oozing syphilitic pustules of the lowest whore: deforestation, degradation and fragmentation, desertification, the loss of soil fertility, a dramatic decline and loss of biodiversity, air pollution, and water pollution.
Shell Oil of the Netherlands and the Niger Delta:
Environmental organizations and business officials at the round-table meeting in The Hague differed sharply on how much responsibility Shell should take for the environmental damage. The devastation is particularly severe in the poor and fragile Niger Delta region, which has suffered more from oil production than perhaps any other place on earth after years of spills caused by rickety infrastructure, theft and sabotage.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Not only is Africa exploited for her mineral and other riches, she is used as a dumping ground for the waste of the colonists, comparable to a prostitute being pissed and shit upon in a gutter.
To be very blunt, to an extent Africa has brought these horrors upon herself because Africa is largely a region where women have little voice in national and continental priorities. In examining the folklore of the region there are innumerable diatribes against women compiled in a small book: Source of All Evil: African Proverbs and Sayings on Women, Mineke Schipper.
Even so, the overriding consideration in this horrific continental corruption is the militaristic and technological superiority of the Europeans -- and now, the Asians who are moving in to exploit Africa.
Will Africa -- and African women -- ever obtain justice?
Wow! As a closer I can even quote Condoleezza Rice:
Justice for women should be a "policy priority for every country in the world." Rice told the group of judges, legal professionals and human rights activists from 17 countries and 20 U.S. states.
http://articles.cnn.com/...
And the very brave woman from Guinea and a story which purports to explain how she happened to be in an exclusive NYC hotel where she collided with DSK:
Let's consider how the housekeeper from Guinea ended up here in New York. In 2002, this single mother was granted asylum. What drove her here?
It began with the IMF rape of Guinea.
In 2002, the International Monetary Fund cut off capital inflows to this West African nation. Without the blessing of the International Monetary Fund, Guinea, which has up to half the world's raw material for aluminum, plus oil, uranium, diamonds and gold, could not borrow a dime to develop these resources.
The IMF's cut-off was, in effect, a foreclosure, and the nation choked and starved while sitting on its astonishing mineral wealth. As in the sub-prime mortgage foreclosures we see today, the IMF moved quickly to seize Guinea's property.
But the IMF did not seize this nation's riches for itself. Rather, it forced Guinea to sell off its resources to foreign corporations at prices much like the sale of furniture on the lawn of a foreclosed house.
http://members5.boardhost.com/...
True or not, I love the irony of the story.