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Chuku - 1 cupping horn: Piga chuku (draw
blood). 2 overstatement. Piga chuku
(exaggerate).
Verb
Chukua - 1 carry, take, withdraw. 2 transport.
3 steal. 4 contain: Inachukua siku nzima (it takes a whole day).
5 pleasing. 6 attractive: Gauni linamchukua (the gown fits her well). 7
bear responsibility, take care: chukua hadhari (be on the safe side); chukua
nafasi ya (supersede, sustain).
We
shall use British activities as an example since they are the most notorious
and successful in deploying this tactic.
Over-promise
in order to under-deliver as a British tactic of subterfuge
With
the over-promise approach, people play aggressively. They demonstrate a sense
of urgency, excitement, and enthusiasm. And their urgency and excitement are
infectious too. And you end up building an organization that’s agile and lean.
John
Seeley remarked, "We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half
the world in a fit of absentmindedness". Seeley further wrote that the
18th century should be seen as a struggle between European nations for the
possession of the New World, rather than a struggle for liberty between the
king and the parliament.
As
an illustration of this hysteria/absentmindedness is an anecdote from a
colonial agent deployed to British east-Africa, later Kenya colony, called
Charles W. Hobley. He was employed by Imperial British East Africa company, a chartered
company headed by a Scot named William McKinnon. He stated:
“Mombasa was then unknown to the general
public, and a few months before, I had never heard of it. It was at that time
usually spelt Mombassa or Mombaza. The name, however, had an attractive sound,
and, elated by the spirit of adventure and somewhat awed by the size of the
country as displayed on the big map in the company’s (IBEACo.) offices in Pall
Mall, I set sail for Mombasa in April 1890 on ss. Ethiopia, a British India
Co.’s steamer of about 2000 tons, commanded by a bluff-mannered skipper named
Captain Frohawk, well known to old residents of the coast for his stories and
his caustic comments on people and things.”
Hobley,
C. W. (1929), Kenya, from chartered company to crown colony; thirty years of
exploration and administration in British East Africa. Pg 23
The
pattern followed in technology monopoly which is starting with hysteria of open
sourcing and to be followed by a shutting-out via code-change for tyranny of authentication,
identification and enforcement, has been done before and has gotten people in Africa
in the current deplorable condition of dependence and helplessness. For example,
before colonial occupation, a chartered company was first created by the
invader for the purpose of shareholding while having limited liability. In the
case of British colonialism, henchmen from Scotland were appointed to head
these expeditions after which they would be rewarded with baronetcy once the
company finished the task and was folded up, giving their rights to their “crown”.
Consequently, the “protectorate”’ of a chartered company would be transformed to
“crown colony” overnight, at the stroke of a pen. This is an instance of
code-changing. All the “chiefs” who signed contracts of surrender or
acquiescence with the company would then be faced with a new authority of which
they knew not and had seen not. For example, all those who forcibly signed away
sovereignty with Fredrick Lugard in east and west Africa were consequently
forced to engage with a new party once the henchman Lugard retreated back to his
bosses after finishing his job. A contemporary example is the deployment of
limited liability private mercenaries before their folding-up and replacement
with state armies.
The
conditions of code-changing from company protectorates to crown colonies caused
jitters and shifting alliances and the outbreak of the world wars over colonies.
Nevertheless, the end of WW1 brought about more clarity on the geography and
sociography of Africa to the invaders. This new clarity was displayed in the
British Empire Exhibition of 1924-25, which was a colonial exhibition held at
Wembley Park, London England. By 1917, owing to the challenge of naval
supremacy of USA and Japan, Britain had committed itself eventually to leave
India, which effectively signalled the end of the British Empire, while their
Dominions had shown little interest in following British foreign policy since
the war. It was hoped that the Exhibition would strengthen the bonds within the
Empire, stimulate trade and demonstrate “British greatness” both abroad and at
home, where the public was believed to be increasingly uninterested in Empire,
preferring other distractions, such as the cinema.
Let’s
go back for a short chronology of deployment of “grand” open-source tools used
to acquire more specific but unstated objectives which only become apparent
over time if one is oblivious of the patterns:
Imperial
Federation League
The
Imperial Federation League was an organization founded in London on 18
November, 1884 which aimed to promote the reorganization of the British Empire
into an Imperial Federation, similarly to the way the majority of British North
America confederated into the Dominion of Canada in the mid-19th century. The
date of foundation was right after adjournment of the Berlin-Congo conference
on 15th November 1884. The League promoted the closer union of the
British Empire and advocated the establishment of "representative
government" for the UK, Canada and the self-governing colonies of
'Australasia' (Australia and New Zealand) and Cape Colony (the future Union of
South Africa) within a single state. This adjournment period provided Britain
time to formally gather more backup in it’s colonial scramble negotiations
after resumption of Berlin-Congo conference and eventual signing of its General
Act on 26 February 1885.
Branches
were established in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Barbados and British
Guiana. The United States and Canada were held up as concrete examples (idols)
of how vast territories could be effectively managed while maintaining a
central representative authority. And this, the British pressed to replicate in
every other conquered territory despite any circumstantial differences. The United
States and Canada were formulated from genocide of indigenous populations and
replacement with populations from Europe. An all-immigrant population without
any substantial ties to the land except commercial exploitation.
Supporters
of Imperial Federation presented the argument that the two choices for Britain
were federation or disintegration. In their view, the future importance
of Britain depended on it federating what is now called the "Old
Commonwealth".
The
League promoted the closer union of the British Empire under an "Imperial
Federal Government" however it did not settle on any particular scheme of
what this would comprise, whether a Federal Parliament, a Council, or
Conferences, other than that it would include representation from the parts of
the empire to consider matters of foreign policy, defence, and trade. It was
generally taken to mean some sort of Imperial Parliament. The Imperial
Parliament (Westminster, stripped of its local responsibilities) would handle
foreign affairs, the army, the navy, and those colonies (including India) which
had a population the bulk of which was "alien". The center would also
have a final court of appeal. Local Parliaments would exercise control over
Home Affairs, the police and education.
The
League's most notable opponents were Edward Augustus Freeman, Goldwin Smith,
and Andrew Carnegie. In his Triumphant Democracy Carnegie would refer to the
League as Rosebery's "amusing Imperial Federation fad (which, happily, is
impossible)". A "want of homogeneity" in the League and
recognition that it was composed of "three or four sections" would be
given as the reason for the eventual dissolution of the League in 1893. However,
the League was effectively revived by some members in 1894 as the British
Empire League.
British
Empire League
The
British Empire League existed from 1895 to 1955; its purpose was to secure
permanent unity for the British Empire. The British Empire League was a society
founded by Lord Avebury (1834-1913), Lord Roberts (1832-1914) and Lord
Strathcona (1820-1914) in London in 1895 with the aim of securing permanent
unity for the British Empire. It was a metamorphosis from the former Imperial
Federation League, which had broken up in 1893. Presidents of the League
included: Lord Derby (1841-1908), Lord Sydenham (1848-1933), and the Duke of
Devonshire (1833-1908); Vice-Presidents included: Bonar Law (1858-1923), Earl
Grey (1851-1917), and Arthur Balfour (1848-1930).
Amidst
all the distraction of grandiose rudimentary rhetoric of “unity” and “empire”,
the unarticulated main purposes of the league as they manifested over time were
specific, insidious and in service of Britain. They included:
1.
Mobilising
troops during the Second Boer War and the First World War.
2.
At
Imperial Conferences between 1897 and 1911, it called, among other things, for
the introduction of an imperial penny post.
3.
Later
it called for preferential tariffs, putting forward a strong case at the 1932
British Empire Economic Conference for the protection of the British film
industry.
4.
As
a function of ritual, The League's focus on the celebration of the birthday of
Queen Victoria - 24 May - as a patriotic holiday was, in Australia, not only an
observance of the holiday in schools, but also a wider opportunity to
demonstrate loyalty to Britain; Empire Day was officially adopted by the Reid
government in 1905 and observed for more than fifty years. The League sponsored
a monthly Australian publication, “United Australia”, which featured on its
cover “Britannia” and the motto "One people one destiny".
British
Commonwealth of Nations
It
was created as the British Commonwealth of Nations through the Balfour
Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference and formalized by the United
Kingdom through the Statute of Westminster in 1931. After the Second World War
ended, the formal British Empire was gradually dismantled. Most of its
components have become country-states, whether Commonwealth realms or
republics, but members of Commonwealth. In April 1949, following the London
Declaration, the word "British" was dropped from the title of the
Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature. Member states have no legal
obligations to one another, but in the spirit of British stoic comedy, there’s
a “Commonwealth Charter” which defines their shared values of democracy, human
rights, and the rule of law, as promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games.
Furthermore, in 2009, the Commonwealth Secretariat commissioned Paul Carroll to
compose "The Commonwealth Anthem". However, owing to the clandestine
nature of the unarticulated but seemingly insidious purposes of the “grandiose”
organization, the lyrics of the anthem are copied from the UN 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Cape-to-Cairo
railway and British continental “Panafricanism”
Imperialist
and entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes was instrumental in securing the southern states
of the continent for the British Empire and envisioned a continuous "red
line" of British dominions from north to south. A railway would be a
critical element in this scheme to unify the possessions, facilitate
governance, enable the military to move quickly to hot spots or conduct war,
help settlement and enable intra- and extra-continental goods trade. The
construction of this project presented a major technological challenge that could
not be achieved despite the hysteria. France had a somewhat rival strategy in
the late 1890s to link its western and eastern African colonies in a “blue line”
from Senegal to Djibouti. This culminated in franco-british collision at the
point of intersection between the French and British routes, leading to the
Fashoda Incident at Sudan and eventual French retreat.
In
addition to this, the Portuguese considered an Angola to Mozambique railway to
link west with east and produced the "Pink Map" representing their
claims to sovereignty in Africa (to link Angola and Mozambique). It’s interesting
to note that the pink-code on colonial maps was usually appropriated by Britain,
who also functioned as benefactors to Portugal as per the Treaty of Windsor in
1386 whereby the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of England, and later the
modern Portuguese Republic and United Kingdom, have never waged war against
each other nor have they participated in wars on opposite sides as independent
states since the signing of the Treaty of Windsor. They have always cooperated.
Therefore,
all these “grand plans” advertised by these states were only to stir up
hysteria with the objective of harnessing as much energy as possible from their
agents. This is akin to the English saying, “aim for the stars, and even if you
don’t reach them you may land on the moon”. The agents of open-source
technology today seem multiracial in advertising but still attached to benefit
the Eurasian nation-states exclusively owing to the nature of roles given to
each, and more importantly, the leverage of each. Consequently, there is the
importance to always take stock and avoid getting carried away.
References
Barberis, Peter (2005).
Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and
Movements of the Twentieth Century. London: Continuum International Publishing
Group.
Hobley, C. W. (1929), Kenya,
from chartered company to crown colony; thirty years of exploration and
administration in British East Africa.
Seeley J.R. (1922), The
Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures. Little, Brown
Stephen, Daniel (2013). The
Empire of Progress: West Africans, Indians, and Britons at the British Empire
Exhibition, 1924-25. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya
Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya
Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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