Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle Irony

Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle Irony

Not the peaceful ones

The narrator mentions how when the colonists first arrived in South Africa, they were worried about 2 tribes and their power. Because of this, the British empire fabricated a conflict between the two which ended with the animation of the two tribes. What is ironic here is that the British army claimed that they were better than the African tribes and that they will never become as violent as the African tribes were portrayed to be.

We are giving you what you need

For a long time, the British claimed that they were doing the people of South Africa a favor by ruling over them since they claimed that they gave the population everything it needed to survive and thrive. However, this was not the case and as the narrator points out, instead of giving anything of value to the African people, the British stole from them and made their life extremely hard and painful.

All hail the saviour

The British created the idea that Queen Victoria was the savior of the colonized nations since it was mainly through them that Christianity reached those nations. Ironically, the narrator points out how that was not the case at all. In fact, all that the British brought to the country was slavery and misfortune.

Diseased

On multiple occasions, the soldiers and the British governors described the indigenous population as being diseased and dirty. Through this description, the conquerors wanted to transmit the idea that they were superior and thus had every right to rule over an inferior country. The narrator however describes a different picture and lists a large number of diseases that were introduced in the country by the British. Ironically so, the diseased population is identified as being the British, not the Africans.

Killing the most peaceful man

Gandhi distinguished himself as a peaceful man who wanted to achieve freedom for his people and for the country of South Africa. His protests were always civilized and he urged his followers to do everything in their power to try and keep the peace. It is thus ironic to see that a peaceful man found himself assassinated in a brutal and violent manner.

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