Let’s explore everything 10° South
The British Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, is often quoted as having made the following remark, when he signed the Anglo-French agreement in 1906, whereby the border between the two African states Nigeria and Niger were defined: “We (referring to the United Kingdom and France) have been engaged in drawing lines upon maps, where no white man’s foot ever trod. We have been giving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by the small impediments that we never knew exactly, where the mountains and rivers and lakes were.”
That statement is at least some form of acknowledgement of the arrogant and self-serving manner, in which the colonial powers assumed the right to divide Africa amongst each other as they pleased, without regard for ethnic realities and borders as agreed by Africans long before European settlers set foot on the “dark continent”.
Deutsche Welle in the past carried a report under the heading ‘130 years ago: Carving up Africa in Berlin’: “Representatives of 13 European states, the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire converged on Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to divide up Africa among themselves ‘in accordance with international law’. Africans were not invited to the meeting.”
For the longest time, the Tourismus Namibia magazine has stuck to those questionable borders, in the process also adhering to the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The act under Article 4 lists the underlying principles to which AU member subscribe. Sub-article (b) specifies: “Respect of borders existing on achievement of independence.”
While people may agree to barriers such as borders and languages, nature disregards these principles - and so will Tourismus Namibia as we engage with any and all countries that are found “10° South”!
The magazine will grow from month to month, where we will start reporting about all countries that are found below a latitude of 10 degrees: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
So join us, as we explore the southern African continent and turn it into the favored destination!
Frank Steffen
That statement is at least some form of acknowledgement of the arrogant and self-serving manner, in which the colonial powers assumed the right to divide Africa amongst each other as they pleased, without regard for ethnic realities and borders as agreed by Africans long before European settlers set foot on the “dark continent”.
Deutsche Welle in the past carried a report under the heading ‘130 years ago: Carving up Africa in Berlin’: “Representatives of 13 European states, the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire converged on Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to divide up Africa among themselves ‘in accordance with international law’. Africans were not invited to the meeting.”
For the longest time, the Tourismus Namibia magazine has stuck to those questionable borders, in the process also adhering to the Constitutive Act of the African Union. The act under Article 4 lists the underlying principles to which AU member subscribe. Sub-article (b) specifies: “Respect of borders existing on achievement of independence.”
While people may agree to barriers such as borders and languages, nature disregards these principles - and so will Tourismus Namibia as we engage with any and all countries that are found “10° South”!
The magazine will grow from month to month, where we will start reporting about all countries that are found below a latitude of 10 degrees: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
So join us, as we explore the southern African continent and turn it into the favored destination!
Frank Steffen
Kommentar
Allgemeine Zeitung
Zu diesem Artikel wurden keine Kommentare hinterlassen