One and-a-half eyes watch the film Zulu on a bedsheet draped over the end of an orphanage canteen in Tanzania.
The remaining half an eye I keep on 200 Africans surrounding me on the canteen benches.
A warm Lake Victoria breeze ripples the sheet and I fancifully imagine warriors slipping off the bottom to skewer me on human-size spears.
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"Why," I wonder as red-coated colonials kill off yet another Zulu wave, "don't my fellow viewers rise up and, at the very least, slap my wrist for daring to darken Africa's modern-day doorstep?'"
This week, two years later, I find myself again wondering when anti-colonial reaction will surface.
Staying with us are Frank and Andrew, two of the Africans who watched that night - still orphans but now adopted' by us for a finishing year at Accrington College.
"Andrew," I venture over Christmas trifle leftovers, and having watched this ex-street kid's eyes widen week by week, "you see how rich we are (even in a vicarage). What do you make of us?"
A massive white smile creases this 19-year-old's face.
"God blesses England for coming to save Africa!"
I'm astonished. Colonials have raped his continent, yet he focuses on God-sent people like Dr. Livingstone and other missionaries who brought love, light and education.
Is there a New Year resolution hidden here?
Aid Africa's downtrodden image and repair the damage done.
As a nation on the slide, God's blessing might be mighty useful for us in 2008.
[quote]"God blesses England for coming to save Africa!"[/quote]
Oh, the irony . . . .
Let's also remember Dr. Livingstone and the others also brought about the "dash for africa" and the wholesale destruction of ancient ways of lives for their newly subjugated -ooops meant to say converted people.
"God blesses England for coming to save Africa!"
Oh, the irony . . . .
Let's also remember Dr. Livingstone and the others also brought about the "dash for africa" and the wholesale destruction of ancient ways of lives for their newly subjugated -ooops meant to say converted people.
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