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The Scramble for Africa
Berlin conference 1884 – European powers met to divide up Africa into different imperial territories. Gave Leopold of Belgium territory 70x his own state, essentially as his own private property (his claim was based on explorations by Stanley). He instituted serfdom, wiped out elephants for piano keys, billiard balls and false teeth (as in other…
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FGM – female genital mutilation
Some improvements globally, esp Kenya. But not obviously related to expenditure on public health campaigns – incidence was already falling in Kenya and did not speed up. Senegal has tried hard to reduce incidence, with no obvious improvement. Maternal education, sadly, does not help. In Somalia and the Sudan, rates are actually higher where mums…
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Livingstone
The David Livingstone centre, bless, will always try to paint him in a positive light. His biographer Tim Jeal, however, makes clear that he was imperfect, obsessive, perverse and often misguided man. He wrote lovely letters to his wife, but it was probably a marriage of convenience, at least to begin with. He risked their…