u/Fhlurrhy108

Hi everyone. I'm a writer from India who wants to learn more about Africa. My main question is, how do I gain a comprehensive understanding of Black history?

My main difficulties are understanding:

1. Do I focus on the history of geographical areas/countries, or on the history of different ethnic groups? If I have to focus on areas, how do I decide which areas to read about. For example, do I read about Nigeria? About Yorubaland in particular? or about places inside Yorubaland like the Lagos metro area? Do I just read about the Yoruba as an ethnic group?

2. How do I determine my particular focus for each study subject? For example, with Nigeria, do I put special focus on historic events like British colonialism, the civil war, and the boko haram insurgency? Or do I focus on social issues like poverty, economy and contemporary issues?

3. How do I understand which sources are reliable? I have no issue with getting sources, but I don't know which accounts of events are representative of the Black peoples experiences, and which accounts are Non African chauvinist (and racist) propaganda.

These are questions I have which I hope to get answers for. I will be waiting for your responses.

Hi everyone. I'm a writer interested in Africa and the country of Liberia has a very distinct history that I want to know more about. I want to learn in particular, about the founding of the country, the struggle of the Native Liberians against the Black American "Repatriate" elite, and about the civil war. Recommendations on any of these will be highly appreciated.

I made a similar post about Guatemala the other day and got good answers so I'll go again. Hi everyone. I'm an Indian but I want to learn about the politics of Central America, and the crisis during the 60s-90s is an important part of that. I've heard a few things in Latin American history lectures about El Salvador, and specifically about the conflict between the government and guerrilla groups like the FMLN. I want to learn more but I don't know what to read to get an in depth understanding of the time period.

Can you recommend any documentaries or books to help me learn about the Salvadoran Civil War?

Hi everyone. I'm an Indian but I want to learn about the politics of Central America, and the crisis during the 60s-90s is an important part of that. I've heard a few things in Latin American history lectures about El Salvador, and specifically about the conflict between the government and guerrilla groups like the FMLN. I want to learn more but I don't know what to read to get an in depth understanding of the time period.

Can you recommend any documentaries or books to help me learn about the Salvadoran Civil War?

Hi everyone. I want to learn about the politics of Central America, and the crisis during the 60s-90s is an important part of that. I have watched a lot about the Guatemalan Genocide on YouTube but I want to actually do proper reading. Do you know any memoirs or academic works about the subject? Any help will be appreciated

Hi everyone. I'm an Indian but I want to learn about the politics of Central America, and the crisis during the 60s-90s is an important part of that. I have watched a lot about the Guatemalan Genocide on YouTube but I want to actually do proper reading. Do you know any memoirs or academic works about the subject? Any help will be appreciated

Hi everyone. I'm an Indian but I want to learn about the politics of Central America, and the crisis during the 60s-90s is an important part of that. I have watched a lot about the Guatemalan Genocide on YouTube but I want to actually do proper reading. Do you know any memoirs or academic works about the subject? Any help will be appreciated

Hi everyone, communist from India here. I had this question. Mongolia was the second country in the world to adopt Marxism Leninism, and it stayed socialist for nearly 70 years. Despite this, the People's Republic of Mongolia isn't brought up in discussions of socialism as much as the Warsaw Pact countries, China or Cuba. I want to know, what are the thoughts of the elderly people (those over the age of 55) who lived through much of socialist Mongolia before its decline and collapse? I will be honest, I don't know much about MPR, so any input will be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone. I read about how Liberia and Sierra Leone were founded by Black people freed from slavery, but all the discussions of apartheid I see are about Liberia. The Black Americans considered themselves superior to the native Kru people. They were the ruling elites from the creation of the country in 1816 to the emancipation of the natives in 1946.

Was the Black "repatriate" population (who helped create the Krio language) in Sierra Leone not established as the upper class over the Temne, Mande and other local Africans?

Hi everyone, Indian-Qatari here. I had this question. I often read about how terrible the French were in Algeria, and sometimes I'll find something about the Italian war crimes in Libya. But I rarely hear about colonialism in Egypt.

I know that the Brits looted a lot of archeological heritage and that they held on the Suez (despite it being built by Egyptians) in a way that disadvantaged you guys, but other than that, I don't know anything.

Can you all tell me where I can read about colonialism in Egypt?

Hi everyone. I had this question. We all know about the conquest of the Caribbean started by the Spaniards and later joined by other colonial powers like the British and French. The vast majority of the native peoples like the Guanahatabey, Taino, Igneri, Kalinago and others died due to disease and slavery. For many generations, the non indigenous populations of the island were taught that all natives had died, but more recently, efforts have been made by descendants of these communities (like the Neo Taino) to show the world that they are not gone.

My question is, what is the specific condition of indigenous people on your island? Are they marginalised or have they been integrated into the post colonial society as equals? Are they still connected to their culture? Do you think better efforts can be made to uplift them and their culture?

Hi everyone, ML here. I've tried to read up on socialist experiments in Africa and one thing I see is that most of them do not show the kind of radical transformation of living conditions that the socialist revolutions of Cuba, Eastern Europe or China brought.

Of course there's Burkina Faso under Sankara, which did have notable achievements (that's why the title says "**generally** not work") but other, longer-lived attempts at socialism also existed in Africa.

They are as follows:

Guinea under the PDG

Benin under the PRPB

The Republic of Congo under the PCT

(Most of) Angola under the MPLA

Ethiopia (and Eritrea) under the Derg

Mozambique under the FRELIMO

From my cursory reading about them, I have to say, these governments range from underwhelming to downright abhorrent.

Guinea failed to develop its economy. This was partly due to post independence sabotage from the French, but also mismanagement of the government led by Sekou Ture. The government also routinely used arbitrary arrests, torture and executions as weapons of fear. They even had their own concentration camp (Camp Boiro), and at least 5,000 people (though some estimates go into the tens of thousands) were killed as a result of Ture's actions.

Benin under Mathieu Kerekou had a lot less bloodshed, but it still failed to develop industry and improve the lives of its people in any notable way.

The Republic of the Congo had a lot of political instability, witnessing several coups, and also failed similarly to Benin.

The MPLA ruled during a civil war (which lasted from 1975 to 2002) which made doing anything very difficult, but they still managed to build a healthcare system and the start of worker owned industry. However, they abandoned socialism in 1990 in favour of social democracy.

The Derg, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, committed Genocide during the Ethiopian Red Terror (Qey Shibir). What initially started as a conflict with rival Marxist groups eventually descended into a campaign of indiscriminate arrests, torture and executions. Estimates of people executed by the Derg are usually placed between 500,000 and 900,000. I have never seen any Ethiopians talk positively about the Derg at all.

The FRELIMO, led by Samora Machel, did win independence for Mozambique from Portugal, but failed to significantly improve living conditions too. This is partly due to the Rhodesia backed RENAMO starting a civil war, but also partly due to the government's own lacking performance.

I want to know why the socialist governments of the USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cuba, China, DPRK and others could bring significant change to their countries but most of these governments could not.

Almost all these African countries suffered because of colonialism but Cuba, China and the DPRK were also post colonial countries. Several of them dealt with civil war but The USSR also witnessed civil war. The entire Warsaw Pact, China and the DPRK were devasted by WW2.

So it seems there has to be some other reason that these socialist experiments did not work very well. I think it's important to find out because Africa is the most affected continent in terms of capitalist exploitation, and to help radicalise the workers of Africa, we need to understand the failures of past socialist revolutions there.

Hi everyone, ML here. I've tried to read up on socialist experiments in Africa and one thing I see is that most of them do not show the kind of radical transformation of living conditions that the socialist revolutions of Cuba, Eastern Europe or China brought.

Of course there's Burkina Faso under Sankara, which did have notable achievements (that's why the title says "**generally** not work") but other, longer-lived attempts at socialism also existed in Africa.

They are as follows:

Guinea under the PDG

Benin under the PRPB

The Republic of Congo under the PCT

(Most of) Angola under the MPLA

Ethiopia (and Eritrea) under the Derg

Mozambique under the FRELIMO

From my cursory reading about them, I have to say, these governments range from underwhelming to downright abhorrent.

Guinea failed to develop its economy. This was partly due to post independence sabotage from the French, but also mismanagement of the government led by Sekou Ture. The government also routinely used arbitrary arrests, torture and executions as weapons of fear. They even had their own concentration camp (Camp Boiro), and at least 5,000 people (though some estimates go into the tens of thousands) were killed as a result of Ture's actions.

Benin under Mathieu Kerekou had a lot less bloodshed, but it still failed to develop industry and improve the lives of its people in any notable way.

The Republic of the Congo had a lot of political instability, witnessing several coups, and also failed similarly to Benin.

The MPLA ruled during a civil war (which lasted from 1975 to 2002) which made doing anything very difficult, but they still managed to build a healthcare system and the start of worker owned industry. However, they abandoned socialism in 1990 in favour of social democracy.

The Derg, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, committed Genocide during the Ethiopian Red Terror (Qey Shibir). What initially started as a conflict with rival Marxist groups eventually descended into a campaign of indiscriminate arrests, torture and executions. Estimates of people executed by the Derg are usually placed between 500,000 and 900,000. I have never seen any Ethiopians talk positively about the Derg at all.

The FRELIMO, led by Samora Machel, did win independence for Mozambique from Portugal, but failed to significantly improve living conditions too. This is partly due to the Rhodesia backed RENAMO starting a civil war, but also partly due to the government's own lacking performance.

I want to know why the socialist governments of the USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cuba, China, DPRK and others could bring significant change to their countries but most of these governments could not.

Almost all these African countries suffered because of colonialism but Cuba, China and the DPRK were also post colonial countries. Several of them dealt with civil war but The USSR also witnessed civil war. The entire Warsaw Pact, China and the DPRK were devasted by WW2.

So it seems there has to be some other reason that these socialist experiments did not work very well. I think it's important to find out because Africa is the most affected continent in terms of capitalist exploitation, and to help radicalise the workers of Africa, we need to understand the failures of past socialist revolutions there.

Disclaimer: This is not zionist propaganda. Israel should be dismantled and all of Palestine be freed. This is a simple discussion on how sometimes the word "genocide" isn't used in a context where it could be used

According to UN estimates in 2021, 377,000 people have died in Yemen because of the current conflict, with half of these deaths being due to starvation and preventable disease. In 2018, the Save the Children estimated the 80,000 children had died of starvation in Yemen between 2015 and 2018 because of the humanitarian crisis.

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Obviously the Saudi blockade isn't the only thing that kills people in Yemen, but the famine levels of starvation would not have been seen without this inhumane blockade. The Saudi government (along with their allies in Yemen) started the blockade in 2015, and has not lifted it since. They have had time to see the consequences of the blockade but continue to impose it anyways. This kind of criminal negligence in the light of one's actions can be considered genocide.

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The Gaza genocide for example, includes the Israeli carpet bombing, but most people also think that the man made famine in Gaza is an act of genocide. The famine is only there because of Israel's siege on Gaza, and Israel refused to let the necessary aid into Gaza despite the clear consequences of that decision.

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The legal definition of genocide that the UN uses includes:

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(a) Killing members of the group;

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(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

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(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

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(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

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(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

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The Saudi blockade meets criteria (c). They saw people die, they knew more people will die if they continue the blockade, but they just decided to continue it anyways.

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The point I'm trying to make with this post isn't "why Palestine but no Yemen?" that a lot of disgusting right wingers in the West make. You can look at my post history to see that that's not my intent. My point is to ask why certain terms are not used in certain contexts despite the definitions of those terms being met.

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This is a playlist assembled off of stuff I've watched about the history of the USSR, arranged in chronological order. I want people who watch it to gain a fair, balanced and somewhat comprehensive understanding of the Soviet Union. As a communist, I would prefer that the playlist leaves a positive impression, but ofc, we need to be as unbiased as possible. Anyways, take a look at the playlist; give me your opinions on what it's like right now, and tell me what I should add to it. I look forward to reading your replies!