By Nthungo yaAfrika
WITHOUT knowledge of history of those who colonised us, we will always believe what they write about us and the unenlightened amongst us, both educated and uneducated, will always think that colonialism was Yahweh-sent.
When we look at Britain now, one would think her history has no skeletons in the closet, yet it is the opposite.
There is this adage: ‘Charity begins at home’, but that was not the case with Britain.
When British missionaries were preaching the so-called gospel to the imagined ‘dark continent’, little children, both boys and girls, were being abused left, right and centre in Britain.
Let’s see what the Bible they were preaching from says about little children.
Deuteronomy 31:12-13: “Gather the people together, the men, the women, the children and your foreign resident who is within your cities in order that they may listen and learn about and fear Jehovah your God and take care to carry out all the words of this Law.
Then their sons who have not known this Law will listen and learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days that you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”
Psalm 8:2: “Out of the mouth of children and infants you have established strength, on the account of your adversaries.
To silence the enemy and the avenger.”
Mat 11:16-17: “With whom will I compare this generation?
It is like young children sitting in the market places who call out to their play mates, saying: We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we wailed but you did not beat yourselves in grief.”
Mat 18:3-6: “And said: truly I say unto you, unless you turn around and become as young children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of the heavens.
Therefore, whoever humble himself like this young one is the one who is greatest in the Kingdom of the heavens; and who so ever receives one such young child on the basis of my name receives me also.
But whoever stumbles one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have hung around his neck a mill stone that is turned by a donkey and to be sunk in the open sea.”
Mat 19: 13-15: “Then young children were brought to him to place his hands on them and to offer prayer, but his disciples reprimanded them.
Jesus, however, said: Let the young children alone, for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such ones.
And he placed his hands on them and departed from there.”
Luke 10:21: “In that very hour he became over joyed in the Holy Spirit and said: I publicly praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have carefully hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.
Yes, O, Father, because this the way you approved.” Rom. 8:21: “That the creation itself will also be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
1 Cor. 14:20: “Brothers do not be young children in your understanding, but be young children as to badness; and become full grown in your understanding.”
2 Cor. 12:14: “Look! This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not become a burden. For I am no seeking, not your possessions, but for you; for the children are not expected to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.”
1 John 3:2: “Beloved ones, we are now children of God, but it has not yet been made manifest what we will be. We do know that when he is made manifest we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.”
I have gone to great lengths to quote verses concerning children in the Bible corrupted by whites for you reader to compare and contrast how the so-called holy Brits treated children.
In their midst were the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Methodist Church which had separated from the Church of England and was being led by the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. Incidentally, Charles was busy writing hymns while his backyard was burning, and he wrote almost 6 500 of them.
I will quote extensively from the book British History by R.K. Gilkes MA; J.B. Dalziel MA, and C. Emmott: “Before Charles and John Wesley came to Africa they went to Georgia America to convert the Indians in 1735, but failed to convert them.
In due time, they became successful in America, Ceylon, the West Indies and eventually came to Africa.
To the credit of these two brothers they were few of the conscious ones who preached against what was happening in their backyard.
The Industrial Revolution led to an increased demand for labour.
The employment of children encouraged people to have large families.
Children, often under the age of six, were still employed in the mines until the Act of 1842.
There were men who agitated for reform and the majority were not of the clergy.
In January 1846 Ashley introduced a ten hours Bill but it was defeated.
Fielden introduced another ten hours Bill in 1847 and anger against Peel’s repeal of corn laws worn support for the measures, which was passed.
It restricted the labour of women and young persons to ten hours but not men’s labour.
It was still possible to work women and young persons in shifts in order to keep men at work for 15 hours a day.
In 1850, Ashley agreed to a compromise by which the government raised the working day for woman and young persons to ten and a half hours but imposed outside limits of 6am to 6pm.
Operatives were angered by what they regarded as Ashley’s treachery, for it remained possible for an employer to use children as assistants to men after women and young persons had left work, but in 1853 the government imposed the normal day for children.
Until the Act of 1864, small boys were often kidnapped by unscrupulous chimney sweepers to be used as chimney boys.
The Factory Act of 1874 (Disrael): Children under nine years of age (and after a lapse of a year under ten) were not to be employed in factories.
The Mines: The Industrial Revolution made little difference to the mining industry.
Hewing and carting coal below ground remained as they had been for centuries.
The report of a commission on mines revealed that female and child labour was widely used beneath the ground, children being sometimes only 4 years old. They acted as trappers and stayed 12 or 14 hours underground opening traps as coal carts passed.
Some children in the winter never saw daylight for on end.
The Factory Extension Acts of 1864 and 1867: In 1863 Children’s Employment Commission began to issue reports on working conditions of children and young persons outside the scope of the Factory Act.
Their work was found to be frequently unhealthy dirty and dangerous, with long hours and small rewards. Among industries inspected were paper-staining, fustian cutting, boot-making, tailoring, pottery manufacturing, matchmaking glass and metal manufacturing and lace making.
Eleven thousand children were employed in the potteries.
They sometimes worked from 6am-9pm.
Their work gave them rheumatism, tuberculosis and asthma; they were poisoned by lead and arsenic used in the manufacturing process.
One employed in lace making contracted tuberculosis, and many also had impaired eyesight at an early age.”
All this was happening under the noses of those who called themselves ‘men and women of God’.
The verses I quoted at the beginning meant nothing to them.
When these little abused children grew up, they became undesirables of the society.
These are the types who then joined missionary work and the result of their missionary work is still evident today — children of mixed marriages all around the British Empire.
These are the ones who were to spearhead the Empire. They had no qualms in brutalising indigenous people wherever they were sent because of their background. They murdered all the inhabitants of Tasmania in order to make it a white island.
My question is: Which type of Bible were they reading from?
Our race is at sixes and sevens because we don’t want to know the history of those who brutalised and colonised our ancestors; and their descendants still don’t want Africa to live in peace.
Africa’s education system should have incorporated their (colonisers’) history in the curriculum so that the learners know their history and, by so doing, their destabilising tactics would have been curtailed.
It must be known that Britain abused little children in a manner never seen before.
Indeed, history is the best teacher, but not to many of us Africans as yet.
Nthungo YaAfrika, aka J.L. Mtembo is a Hamite who strongly believes in the motherland renaissance.
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