LUCKY DUBE SINGS ABOUT TODAY'S VIOLENT WORLD

‘Crazy World’: Lucky Dube’s music is rapidly revealing violence and killings in today’s racially violent world

What Sort Of World Are We Inviting Our Children Into?

“Everywhere in the world, people are fighting for freedom; nobody knows what is right, nobody knows what is wrong. The black man says it’s the white man, the white man says it’s the black man. Indians say it’s the coloreds, coloreds say it’s everyone,” sings South African reggae legend, Lucky Dube, in a racial tension song called ‘War and Crime.’

This is a perfect song whose lyrics describe the events of today’s racially chaotic world in Europe and America. The world is increasingly becoming so dangerous that we need to ask ourselves: What sort of world are we inviting our children into? And what sort of future are we building for them in this racially bitter society?

Years after slavery, the relationship between African Americans and Americans remains very poor. After the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, regarding Rodney King, many thought things would improve, but recent shootings of police officers to death reveal that there isn’t any imminent peace between African-Americans and Americans. “How long is this gonna last, cause we’ve come so far so fast,”- asked Lucky Dube, the South African reggae legend.

Lucky Dube continued “I’ m not saying this because I’m a coward, but I’m thinking of the lives that we lose every time we fight. Killing innocent people, women and children yeah,” reflecting on last week’s events of the senseless massacre of innocent people in Nice, France, as a truck plowed through Bastille Day crowd, killing 84 people, including children.

In Nice, France, a truck plowed through the Bastille Day crowd, killing 84 people, including children. Two young women are laying flowers for the victims.

Children are usually caught up in racially motivated crimes and violence, yet they are not responsible for any of them. But many times influenced by the crimes surrounding them and what they watch on television, they grow up to be racists and criminals. 

Actually, a child is never born a racist; adults and the harsh environmental experience influence them. World leaders, schools, and parents have a huge task to create a happy and safe environment for our children: “We should bury down apartheid, racism, discrimination, and fight down war and crime,” Lucky Dube

 advised.

DOES THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BELGIUM SUPPORT CRIME?

The Royal Family of Belgium: King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their children.

“It takes a million people to build up a good reputation, but it takes one stupid fool to destroy everything they have done,” sings the late Lucky Dube, South Africa’s reggae legend. This is the exact situation of the Royal Family of Belgium, as one of its ancestors, King Leopold II, was a greedy, ruthless ruler and a murderer.

Some women have given birth to monsters to rule this world. Apart from Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, etc., another evil man whose crimes against humanity shocked the world is King Leopold II. 

Born on 17 December 1865 in Brussels, the horrible crimes Leopold committed were swept under the carpet, but the hump in the carpet has exposed his heinous crimes to be seen by the whole world.

In the 1880s, when Europe was scrambling over the continent of Africa like ants stumbling upon a sugar source, Congo became the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium. 

The 905,000 square miles (76 times larger than Belgium) of African rainforest held vast natural mineral resources, including rubber, a commodity in high demand in late 19th-century industrial Europe.

King Leopold II of Belgium was responsible for the deaths and mutilation of 10 million Congolese Africans during the late 1800s.  On his throne in Brussels, Leopold gave orders to his commanding officer to “cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades, also their sexual members, and to hang the women and the children on the palisade in the form of a cross.”  

Leopold’s reign of terror wasn’t only the cutting off of the heads and hands of the innocent, helpless Congolese, but also flogging them to death, starving them into forced labor, holding children ransom, and burning villages as a punishment for those who failed to meet the rubber quotas set by the Belgian officers.

The disturbing part of this story is that after the death of Leopold II, his successors (the Belgian Royal Family) never took his crimes into account. Instead, he was hailed as a hero, with streets named after him and a statue built in his honor. 

That’s where the Royal Family went wrong because the dead can’t be mocked. There are many restless souls haunting people in their homes. There are houses where people can’t stay inside, all because of the horrible circumstances in which those people were murdered.

The lunatic King Leopold II's statue

Adolf Hitler killed over six million Jews. In Germany, streets named after him have been changed, but not in Belgium. The government has named many streets after the lunatic Leopold II, and many of his statues are all over Belgium. 

A country that doesn't support crime wouldn't do what the government did. The reason I say it clearly and loudly is that the Royal Family of Belgium supports crime.

Building the future of war affected children in Sierra Leone

Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone


Sierra Leone is diamond-rich but one of the poorest countries in the world. It was like that country never existed until a decade-long civil war brought it to world attention. Thousands of Sierra Leoneans were victims of the horrific war.

Adults and children suffered mutilations, amputations, and thousands of children were abducted by warring factions and forced to become child soldiers, porters, and child slaves. The country and its victims are still struggling to come to terms with their recent past.

The United Nations Secretary-General's special envoy for Children and Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara Otunnu, who visited Sierra Leone, said that "Without the prospect of jobs and education, Sierra Leonean children could be a source of instability in a country which is yet to recover from a decade of war."

During his week-long visit to Sierra Leone last year, Mr. Otunnu launched "The Voice of the Children," a radio station run by the youths in the capital, Freetown. Otunnu was delighted to see the effort of people trying to rebuild the schools, which are in deplorable conditions.

He said, "Children should be at school rather than mining diamonds. He was shocked to see many children forced as slaves in the diamond mines at Kono district, yet wallowing in poverty and not attending school. Because they don't have adequate facilities."

"He was delighted when the children told him that they preferred to be in school to working at the mines. To rehabilitate the country's war-ravaged health and educational sectors, the World Bank approved 40 million dollars in grants to Sierra Leone. Part of the money will be used to restore what the bank called "The most essential functions of the health delivery system."

On February 25, 2003, President Tedjan Kabbah formally inaugurated a National Commission for the War Affected, calling it "One of the most far-reaching decisions we have made for the future of this nation." A war crime tribunal has been set up to investigate those who committed serious offenses and violated international humanitarian laws.

In the heat of the war and after it subsided, many great musicians, such as Lucky Dube and Joseph Hill of Culture (Jamaica), were in the country to play "Peace Concerts" in their efforts to unite the people for lasting peace.

The American-born film actor and producer, Michael Douglas, was also in Sierra Leone on a five-day tour to view the remains of the weapons surrendered to the United Nations and talk to some of the victims. Mr. Michael Douglas was named United Nations "Messenger of Peace" in 1998.