Category: Africa

The Legend of Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Hoare

Mercenary ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare (1919-2022) was perhaps the best-known of the European mercenaries who fought in the Congo Crisis.  Born to Irish parents in Calcutta he was educated in England. A rarity for mercenaries who spend their lives on the frontlines, Hoare, at 101 years old seemingly benefited from the unstinting devotion of a very special and caring guardian angel. A veteran of numerous conflicts, Mike Hoare earned his spurs as an officer in the London Irish Rifles.

The Battle of Kambula was unfairly overshadowed by the Battle of Rorke’s Drift

The movie ZULU (1964) caught the imagination of the world and inspired the courage of fighters who against all odds defeated their enemies. Although one of the lesser-known actions of the Anglo-Zulu War, the Battle of Kambula on 29th March 1879 avenged the British defeat at Isandlwana, established the superiority of the invading force and became the turning point of the war.

Africans are still in Manacles and Fetters

A common fallacy is that post-colonial Africa has been a failure and its natural resources are squandered by incompetent or corrupt African despots. In fact, Africa in shackles and fetters attached not by villainous European colonists but by the Wall Street bankers who already have much of the world in their usurious tentacles.