Animal Farm is a book written by George Orwell that was first published in England on August 17, 1945. This satire, based on the Russian Revolution of 1917, has become renowned anti-Soviet literature, known around the world for its outspoken message about the toxic transition of government and the leadership of an unguided rising nation.
The book is about a farm full of literate animals who have the ability to talk and learn like human beings. These animals make it their mission to free themselves from the bondage of human civilization by starting a revolution and overthrowing the head farmer of the estate along with the remaining human workers of the farm that would mistreat all of the hardworking animals.
The pig Napoleon that is known as “The great leader” of animal farm is the representation of so many leaders around the world that have continued the tradition of exploiting hard working people (animals in this case) for personal gain.
This book could be used as an example for almost anything involving adulterated transfers of power, including those involving Black communities. Black leaders can learn from Animal Farm how not to lead a newly freed nation-state.
The world has already taught people how not to run a government. In history there has always been a drastic transfer of power. Revolutions or forceful change within a certain government don’t always end up with the people’s best interests in mind. When people are taught or grow up around an environment that demonstrates power in a negative way, in order to survive and strive as a nation, they will inevitably fall back into the trap of familiarity.
This can be shown in three examples of sovereign African nation-states such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Haiti. As African people have gained their sovereignty over the past 100 years, it has been difficult for them to reconstruct and build a new nation-state with a system that benefits all African people physically and mentally.
Zimbabwe
When Napoleon chased Snowball out of Animal Farm, he became a dictator over all of the animals. Since Snowball was competing with Napoleon for total control, Napoleon thought it best to get rid of him. Slowly Napoleon began to instill fear and confusion into the animals of the farm.
An example of this happening in real life was the Gukurahundi that was ordered by Robert Mugabe. Three years after Zimbabwe won the war against the British, Mugabe sent his secret army, that was trained in North Korea, to Matabeleland to kill and get rid of people that were of Ndebele descent, and former guerrilla fighters who were loyal to liberation war rival Joshua Nkomo.
When this dark chapter of Zimbabwe’s history ended in 1987, it was confirmed that at least 20,000 Ndebele people had been killed. According to nsuworks.nova.edu, the overall violence came to an end in 1987 when Mugabe and Nkomo signed the Unity Accord between their respective organizations, ZANU (The Zimbabwe African National Union) and ZAPU (The Zimbabwe African People’s Union). However, the culprits of the genocide have not taken accountability for their actions. The truth about these cruelties is still being hidden from the public and heavily guarded by the government.
This example shows how African people, who are trying to move into a new direction of governing, still implement the same morals and corrupt goals of the Euro-centric ideology and will easily turn on each other trying to take the place of the white man, instead of working together to make a new place of order and government.
Sudan
Throughout Napoleon’s dictatorship, he had to continue to lie to the animals about his intentions and would make the animals second guess their own judgement when it came to the original goal of the revolution against the humans.
An example of this is President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, whose dictatorship lasted from 1989 to 2011. The reason why he was able to easily gain political power and rise as one of the most notorious dictators of the century was because the country was in the middle of a 21-year war between the northern and southern regions.
According to BBC news, President al-Bashir is known as a master manipulator, and is accused of backing Arab Janjaweed militias that committed war crimes against the region’s Black African communities. He was secretly murdering, exterminating, and torturing the civilians in Darfur, and killing members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
After the independence of Sudan in 1956, there were two civil wars between the newly freed Africans of Sudan that sadly caused the poverty and wasted potential of the land.
This is the second example of manipulation and how disreputable actions will become the downfall of a nation.
Haiti
Near the mid-end of Animal Farm, the pigs slowly started acting like the humans that had once enslaved them. The pigs would gaslight the animals while, behind their backs, changing the commandments that all of the animals made together after the success of the first revolution. The pigs slowly added in the human pleasures that were once banned from Animal Farm, such as: smoking, killing, and eventually standing. This is a good example of how when people reach their goals without plans to improve, they will be too stuck in the glory of solving one goal that they forget that life is a continuous moving cycle of events, opportunities, and challenges.
Look at the Haitian Revolution in terms of having a goal, achieving it, and not knowing exactly what to do afterwards. The Haitian Revolution was originally executed for the emancipation and equality of the enslaved Africans, lower class whites, and the bi-racial people of Hispanola at the time. When the Haitians finally kicked the French out of Haiti, they had no idea about how to run a majority black sovereign nation-state in a euro-centric world. They didn’t have a lot of leaders that were diplomats, nor did they know how to lead the nation toward economic success.
Toussaint L’Ouverture was captured in France and killed, so his right hand man Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was a warrior, was left to construct a strong, defensive nation-state without his help. Internal dysfunction within the new Haitian empire gave the French another chance to press their economic and political influence. After Dessalines was assassinated by Alexandre Pétion and Henri Christophe, Haiti’s leaders were slowly being replaced with people who were working for European governments, and those of mixed race. This sadly became the recolonization of Haiti. The only difference between the white colonialists and the new leaders was the color of their skin.
Key Takeaways
These examples show how manipulative and dangerous power can be if people don’t know how or why they’re going to use it. People die, friends become enemies, and it’s easy to lose oneself in the confusion of a big change. When people are young, they are raised and cultivated in the parent’s worldview and toxic habits. This leads the child to be trapped in the sequences and patterns of downfall.
African people need to be aware of these factors when they finally reach that level of sovereignty. For centuries they have been so brainwashed of their cultures and beliefs. Their traditions and ideals are seen as primitive and uncivilized.
The only people that deemed Europeans superior to others were the Europeans. They didn’t get a message from god. They simply just believed that they were the greatest. If they only had a belief that they could do anything with force and coercion, African people who have advanced logical, emotional, and spiritual knoweledge, and the deepest history out of any other human being in the world, can make a world where war, killing, raping, torturing, and lying is not the alternative for every dispute.
Having the vast history and culture that African people have should be enough to understand the way in which people should live in harmony.
Sources: for Robert Mugabe
Sources: for Omar al-Bashir
- Omar al-Bashir | Biography & Facts
- Omar al-Bashir: Sudan’s ousted president
- Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir Has Been Arrested
Sources: for Haitian Revolution
The Watoto Speak! 
Thank you for sharing. Keep studying and writing.
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