Of silencing people and the causes of genocide

The year 2017 is coming to an end. There’ll be joy across the world as people usher in the New Year, 2018. This whole month, in fact, is a time to celebrate and make those around us happy.

We also look forward to the New Year with hope. We hope that the year will bring us happiness in our journey towards personal growth—physically, intellectually, spiritually, economically and even emotionally.

All in all, we cannot avoid thinking of things that we would like to see happening in our lives and society that will make it a better year than the one we’re ending today.

People’s happiness generally revolves around how much personal freedoms they enjoy. Indeed, happiness is subjective. I have no objection to that. The causes of my being happy may not necessarily be the same as yours.

Still, I know that when you enjoy your personal freedoms, you become happy. Well, there are exceptions, some enjoy inflicting pain (in whichever form it may take) in others. Psychologists call them ‘sadists’.

Believe you me. There are many a sadists around the world. Many more have been there before. They come from all races, origins, faiths, economic statuses and what not.

This brings us to my point for today—genocide. Yes, you’ve read/heard me right. It’s a horrible name to hear about, it evokes a lot of pain in others. So, please accept my apologies. However, if we really want to make 2018 and beyond happy for everyone, we must talk about this.

History is full of lessons that can help us avoid mistakes that may cause untold pain to humanity.

The United Nations Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Below is a list of selected genocides committed at different times in the history of the world.

-- The Holocaust committed by Nazis in Europe that killed about 6 million Jews between 1939 and 1945.

-- The Holodomor that saw nearly 7.5 million Ukranians killed through artificial starvation by the USSR between 1932 and 1933.

-- The Armenian genocide committed by Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1922 that saw almost 1.5 million people killed.

-- The Rwandan genocide that saw nearly 1 million people killed in a space of just a hundred days in 1994.

-- The Battle of Carthage that saw almost 150,000 Punic people killed in 149BC.

In all the above examples, one thing is noticeable—hatred. Often, the instigators are always the ones in control of the power (coercive apparatus).

Sometimes, the reason for the hatred can be as trivial as just colour differences, economic differences, or simply utter ignorance. Also, matters escalate when people fail to voice their concerns against growing animosity and hatred in society--silence.

In Africa, we live in times of great uncertainty—democracy that is not truly democracy, freedom of expression that is nonexistent, silencing of the media, silencing of genuine voices against discontent and you name it.

Silencing is a seed of genocide. The desire to silence all those holding different views may ultimately lead to the tragedy.

And, one thing is true – no genocide instigators have ever succeeded in achieving their goal. They always fail. Ask Adolf Hitler, ask those who started genocide in Rwanda, ask those who killed Armenians—they all failed miserably.

Dear esteemed reader, Happy New Year! Be an agent of peace!