Imam Khamenei

Ayatollah Khamenei’s bitter memory of his trip to Zimbabwe

Another example of the failures of Western experience in the management of mankind and the provision of happiness to humans is the question of colonialism. You see, what the phenomenon of colonialism has done to the world. If you travel to Africa, you will see a salient example of colonialism there. Africa is a continent with both human potentials and extraordinary natural potentials. The Europeans went there, killing, murdering and looting, taking advantage of uninformed people, and they even installed their own sculptures as liberators of those countries; one example was Zimbabwe. When I went there, I saw a statue in the middle of a forest, which is one of the famous Zimbabwean attractions. I asked: “who is this?” They said, “The statue of the English commander that first conquered Zimbabwe and handed it over to the British!” His name was Rhodes, and Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia after him for many years!

Cecil Rhodes statue, Bulawayo Museum

 

You don’t remember it; before the revolution, when we were young, the name of Zimbabwe was changed to Rhodesia. They conquered the country, exploited its resources, humiliated the people, took them as slaves, and made them miserable. They finally named the country after their own agents; to say the country is their belonging! India is another example. If you look at the book India’s Liberty Movement, that I translated about thirty-five years ago into Farsi, you will see, what actually happened in the Indian subcontinent. So, the issue of colonialism is an example of Western experience.

Statements during a meeting with university students in Kerman
May 9, 2005

Tags

  • Africa
  • Cecil Rhodes
  • Zimbabwe

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