Africans and resources

[TooFastTim]

I agree! Even using Oppenheimers as people who started mining was a bad example. But don't you think extracting diamonds from a Kimberlite pipe is highly germane? There's a lot of mechanized complicated technology in mining diamonds there too but not as challenging as labour intensive deep level mining.

Certainly in the case of offshore diamond mining but in Namibia you can walk on beaches strewn with the bloody things. You'll probably get shot but that's the genius of de Beers.

When diamonds were discovered around Kimberly in 1866 they were a novelty. Subsequent discoveries proved they were as common as muck and this is where de Beers got really clever, by throttling the supply of these trinkets.

 

[dlk001]

The thread is pointless.

From the start, the thread had no objective.

 

[TooFastTim]

What is a golden Rhino?

Mila, it's an ornamental stautue of a Rhino made of gold which was mined and produced by the bantu. In short it proves that they weren't as unsophisticated as Rhodes and the Nats would have us believe. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Mapungubwe for more. The bantu peoples had a sophisticated trading network (of which great Zimbabwe and Mapangubwe were part) hundreds of years before the arrival of the white man.

Still no wheel or written language though

 

[capd]

http://i44.tinypic.com/5ttcpj.jpg

 

[Mila]

Mila, it's an ornamental stautue of a Rhino made of gold which was mined and produced by the bantu. In short it proves that they weren't as unsophisticated as Rhodes and the Nats would have us believe. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Mapungubwe for more. The bantu peoples had a sophisticated trading network (of which great Zimbabwe and Mapangubwe were part) hundreds of years before the arrival of the white man.

Still no wheel or written language though

Cool!! Thanx.

 

[news24]

I have a question I would like to ask, and it will probably piss many people off, but tough luck. I see so many native Africans complaining about the white man who stole their land and it's resources. Now mining and farming are good examples. Now my opinion is that if the Oppenheimers didn't start mining, all those diamons and minerals would still be under the ground. So what are those resources that we are stealing from the natives, besides land?

That's because your arrogant and assume that Africans are sub-intelligent and would have made no use of them. Haven't you heard of Mapungupwe?

 

[Kloofvreter]

That's because your arrogant and assume that Africans are sub-intelligent and would have made no use of them. Haven't you heard of Mapungupwe?

Why does this question make me arrogant? And I never assumed Africans are sub-intelligent I said there were no infrastructure here until whites came, while by that time there were cities and shipping routes around the world. There weren't mining operations like today, and more than likely there would not have been if the whites didn't start it. And why don't you tell us more about Mapungupwe?

EDIT: And what do you mean by 'make no use of them'?

 

[news24]

Why does this question make me arrogant? And I never assumed Africans are sub-intelligent I said there were no infrastructure here until whites came, while by that time there were cities and shipping routes around the world. There weren't mining operations like today, and more than likely there would not have been if the whites didn't start it. And why don't you tell us more about Mapungupwe?

EDIT: And what do you mean by 'make no use of them'?

Your assuming that Africans, with their sub-intelligent level, would not be able to mine their own resources. According to your opinion "Now my opinion is that if the Oppenheimers didn't start mining, all those diamons and minerals would still be under the ground."

 

[Kloofvreter]

Your assuming that Africans, with their sub-intelligent level, would not be able to mine their own resources. According to your opinion "Now my opinion is that if the Oppenheimers didn't start mining, all those diamons and minerals would still be under the ground."

And? Is your assumption that they would have suddenly in the past 360 years developed technology to mine like that, notwithstanding the fact that before that all the time they had before whites came they did not? And please answer my question, what did you mean by 'make no use of them?''

 

[news24]

And? Is your assumption that they would have suddenly in the past 360 years developed technology to mine like that, notwithstanding the fact that before that all the time they had before whites came they did not? And please answer my question, what did you mean by 'make no use of them?''

I mean minerals beneath our surface, your assuming that Africans would not have been able to use those minerals. Is that difficult to understand.

So your saying mine in SA started 360 years ago. The fact is that the colonizers, did still from Africa, weather Africans had use or no use of those mineral resources, theft is theft. If you are having an older generator in your house, that your not using, and someone forcefully take it from you, what would you call that? Theft? After-all you were not using it.

Trade of skills and technology was inevitable, by your logic, if the Chinese had not invented paper, the world would likely still be using Egyptian papyrus or stones or animal skins, for documentation, So there would be no textbooks.

 

[Kloofvreter]

I mean minerals beneath our surface, your assuming that Africans would not have been able to use those minerals. Is that difficult to understand.

So your saying mine in SA started 360 years ago. The fact is that the colonizers, did still from Africa, weather Africans had use or no use of those mineral resources, theft is theft. If you are having an older generator in your house, that your not using, and someone forcefully take it from you, what would you call that? Theft? After-all you were not using it.

Trade of skills and technology was inevitable, by your logic, if the Chinese had not invented paper, the world would likely still be using Egyptian papyrus or stones or animal skins, for documentation, So there would be no textbooks.

No, I said MINE and EXTRACT the minerals, not USE. Let alone refine and process. BIG difference.

 

[HavocXphere]

The industrial revolution was not in Africa & no amount of What-If scenarios will change that.

 

[Kloofvreter]

The industrial revolution was not in Africa & no amount of What-If scenarios will change that.

Now that's a good point.

 

[zippy]

You can create your own thread about Apartheid and the Dop stelsel, dompas, curfew, etc etc, I'm not interested in that, we know all about it already. I'm interested in whether the natives would have mined the diamonds and gold if the Westerers dind't do it. And since there was nothing when we came here a mere 358 or so years ago, why would there have been anything now?

People only mine something if its worth something to them and there is a market for it. For Africans at the turn of the 19th century there wasnt, so why would they ? That doesnt make them lesser people. You can ofcourse continue to speculate about what would have happened had European nations not bothered with Africa. I suppose thats all you have left This nostalgia, because you(i use the term "you", because used the term "we") have screwed up and lost what you had. You sound like nothing more than some loser wishfully thinking if only blah, blah, blah. Instead of moving on and making something of the future, you just dwell on what could have been. Thats just pathetic.

 

[TooFastTim]

People only mine something if its worth something to them and there is a market for it. For Africans at the turn of the 19th century there wasnt, so why would they ? That doesnt make them lesser people. You can ofcourse continue to speculate about what would have happened had European nations not bothered with Africa. I suppose thats all you have left This nostalgia, because you(i use the term "you", because used the term "we") have screwed up and lost what you had. You sound like nothing more than some loser wishfully thinking if only blah, blah, blah. Instead of moving on and making something of the future, you just dwell on what could have been. Thats just pathetic.

There was a market for gold (and ivory and slaves) that's why Great Zimbabwe and Mapungupwe existed. But the Bantu peoples couldn't mine any deeper than they were mining because of the lack of technology and deeper is where the real wealth lay.