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By the time the Scramble for Africa was done, the French, British, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Belgians had taken some ten thousand different and distinct ethnic groups, each with its own culture and traditions; divvied them up; and sorted them into forty brand-new colonies, dominions, mandates, and protectorates. As in Natal, all of these designations were different legal mechanisms dreamed up to justify the brute-force annexation of property. Or to put it more simply: a way to keep the natives in their place in order to plunder their goods and rape their women. More than anything, these various colonial structures were a means of exerting control without having to assume accountability, meaning
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Ali Velshi (Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy)