Dear Editor,
YESTERDAY we commemorated the sacrifices of soldiers in world wars and rightly so.
We have similar commemoration for the six million Jews who died in the holocaust and rightly so.

But apparently history has a selective memory. What about the three million Bengali Indians who were allowed to starve to death under Sir Winston Churchill’s rule? British India was still their colony, but their plight was completely ignored in preference for the Greeks. What about the ten millions Africans murdered in Congo under King Leopold of Belgium rule?

What about the over 10 million African slaves who died in the slave trade and millions more raped and dehumanised?

What about the millions of African slave descendants who were murdered in Argentina in the quest to make Argentina the only pure white state in South America? African slave descendants once made up 50% of Argentina, but now they represent only 0.3%. Ever wondered why Argentina never had a black international footballer despite being a South American country? Answer. They were all erased from the country.

In the world war millions of blacks died. Their history was whitewashed from the history books. They were not allowed the human decency and respect as their white counterparts during the wars. They were good enough to sacrifice their lives but not good enough to sit in the same barracks as their white colleagues. They were placed in the frontlines to be killed, but still were not good enough to be promoted and recognised. Have things changed? No. The racism towards blacks have just taken a more covert and subtle form. Institutional racism, the euphemism.

When I think of our history I am angry. Angry for the pain we have gone through and continue to go through. As we celebrate the lives of our brave soldiers, remember that millions of blacks died also. Remember that the world wars and the holocaust were not the only times of millions of worldwide fatalities.

‘Regards
Dr Mark Devonish