Shenali D Waduge

Writing to Colonial Missionaries in 1883, King Leopold II of Belgium declared teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to adore only ours”. Is this same venture now taking place by attempting to remove the very old and rich history of Sri Lanka where attempts are afoot to remove the Sinhala Buddhist heritage using the bogey of multiculturalism & reconciliation? Christian norms of forgive and forget cannot be allowed to erase a country’s history and replace it with a new narrative by people working to agendas.  A country’s history, is a country’s history. Just because elements of that history are unsavoury to some it cannot be erased and replaced with what is palatable for only a few.

http://www.fafich.ufmg.br/~luarnaut/Letter%20Leopold%20II%20to%20Colonial%20Missionaries.pdf

In the 23 years (1885-1908) Leopold II ruled the Congo he massacred 10 million Africans by cutting off their hands and genitals, flogging them to death, starving them into forced labour, holding children ransom and burning villages while not even setting a foot in Congo. http://www.digitaljournal.com/blog/11297

In 1883 King Leopold II better known as the Butcher of Congo wrote to the Colonial Missionaries. These were his orders

• the task that is given to fulfil is very delicate and requires much tact”
• *your evangelization must inspire ….Beligium interests’
• *your principle objective …in the Congo is never to teach the niggers to know God”
• your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering and encouraging your followers to love poverty” – happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven.
• your action will be directed essentially to the younger ones, for they wont revolt when the recommendation of the priest is contradictory to their parents’ teachings.”
• teach students to read and not to reason”
• evangelize the niggers so that they stay forever in submission to the white colonialists’
• convert the blacks by using the whip. Keep their women in nine months of submission to work freely for us”
• make sure that niggers never become rich” sing every day that it is impossible for the rich to enter heaven. Make them pay tax each week at Sunday mass.
• teach the niggers to forget their heroes and to adore only ours”

All missionaries carried out and continue to carry this mandate. The role has been transferred to local priests, bishops, Cardinals, Born-Agains who are ever ready to demonize native deities and history and promote foreign interests only.

Back home in Sri Lanka, CBK has returned from the wilderness. Her unsuccessful attempts to rewrite history during her term of office has now resurfaced. Her latest tryst is to attempt to remove religion and culture from the school syllabus on the pretext that both subjects inject and promote majoritarianism and minoritarianism. When a country has 70% Sinhalese and the rest are minorities, how can she change this physical status quo by changing the syllabus?

What needs to be very clearly conveyed is that the endeavor to annihilate histories of non-Christian nations firstly through colonialism and now with the new wave of neo-colonialism needs to be exposed.

Former independent nations have yet to wake up to the fact that our resources were plundered to help develop the nations that the colonials arrived from. Yet our people think that these colonials are a blessing. There are still people who are disillusioned to think that the white people are the answer to all our troubles. The white colonials and the missionaries were the cause of all the troubles.

History of these countries are target of an insidious plan to rewrite the past and remove all traces where blame and crimes pinpoint to colonials and Christian missionaries thus the best tactic has been to demonize non-Christian natives, denationalize their minds of their heroes and great stories of their achievements using a lame excuse of bringing unity through reconciliation. UNESCO is actually working with same-thinking historians, educationists and politicians to develop a general history syllabus that will rewrite history and future generations will not know what actually took place in their countries thousands of years ago. This is an insult to knowledge and truth to unashamedly use office to denationalise people and their histories.

There is nothing to be surprised when politicians and locals jump with theories in an attempt to rewrite history. Much of history is based on what the white nations wish us to know is our history. The West is always trying to instil its version of our history by tapping into our people willing to do their dirtywork. They have intentionally used their status among their own to distort history using their office.

Up until recent times we were made to believe that Native Indians were the demons and white settlers were the gentlemen. Their version of history hid the genocide of natives, plunder of their lands and the annihilation of their cultures & customs. Christopher Columbus was even made a hero. How many of today’s readers even know of the ancient civilizations of Incas, Mayas etc that the white Christian rulers destroyed?

One of the main purpose in teaching history in schools and higher education levels is to instil national pride and honor the country’s past heroes. Why should the history books be changed to be anti-national? Even India where British subjects in office are trying their utmost to sideline the Hindu history from India and have succeeded in their efforts too.

The other example is the Macaulay minute when Macaulay argued in 1835 that providing education in Sanskrit & Arabic in India is of no use for India’s development. He envisaged creating a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”. We call them the Kolambians in Sri Lanka. While knowledge of English is certainly a must it should not be at the cost of totally eliminating a country’s national language.

If you cannot build a nation without creating history to instil positive nationalism especially among youth, CBK’s task obviously is to doctor the history books to ensure nationalism is removed from the minds of the people.

We recall the visionary warnings of Ven. Narada Thero in an open letter to then PM SWRD Bandaranaike in 1957 pointing out Catholic Action the movement was initiated by the Pope in 1923. Its purpose is to utilize the services of lay Catholics for increasing the power of the Pope and the Church. The modus operandi is to infiltrate into key positions in the Armed Forces, the Police and the Public Services, and the organs that mould public opinion such as the Radio and the Press. Through the Press and the Radio…they create confusion, cause tension and bring about a state of social unrest. Thereafter they always wait for the opportune moment to capture power and control the department. It was through infiltration into commanding positions in the Armed Forces, the Police and the Public Services and by obtaining the control of the Press & the Radio and by obtaining foreign aid during a period of unrest that Catholic Action succeeded in obtaining supreme power in Vietnam”.

Is the scenario any different in Sri Lanka since independence? Ven. Narada Thero also writes it is well known that Catholic Action controls the English newspapers. The two managing directors of the Times Group of newspapers are ardent Catholics. The editorial staff of their English newspapers are almost entirely Catholic. You will be most surprised to know the number of Christians and Catholics on the Editorial staff of the Daily News and the Observer”…..Catholic Action is always bent on creating social unrest and this they do through the newspapers by distorting facts and presenting news in a particular manner. The Catholic Church with press support has opposed almost every national and progressive movement in this country. They were opposed to Free Education, to the use of Sinhalese as the Official language, to the teaching of Buddhism to Buddhist children in State schools and the use of National dress”

The present scheme of things using the gavel of multiculturalism and reconciliation is to recolonize people’s minds.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell

Shenali D Waduge