Does Vladimir Putin Tell the Truth about His Country?

By Bayo Omolola, Baltimore City Community College, Baltimore, Maryland

President Vladimir Putin's recent comment about Africa as a continent
with history of cannibalism exposes his hatred for Africa in
particular and the black race in general. His comment shows he is a
racist of the highest order and an individual without adequate
knowledge of what happens in his own country. He is in no way
different from those organizing a place for Africa in a zoo in
Germany. His conclusion about Africa is harsh, barbaric,
ill-intended, ungodly, satanic, horrible, subjective, and irrational.

A president of any nation with history of cannibalism such as Russia
should not pretend that the evil of cannibalism exists in his
country. Putting the record of the Russia straight is the concern
here. Putin has hidden the fact about his country, and instead,
descended heavily and derogatorily on Africa, which the whole world
owes a lot of things more than any part of the world because of the
injustice of the past and indirect exploitation of the present time

President Putin's portrayal of African countries does not really show
what Africa is. More than before, I accept that many parts of the
advanced world do not really know about Africa, that they need to be educated, taught and be led to understanding the continent,  so that they can erase the erroneous impression and thoughts they have about the continent and those who live there.

Contrary to the positive impression Putin gave about his country,
cannibalism exists in Russia. A quick check on the Internet Crime
Archives exposes his open lie. Acts of cannibalism have been reported
in Russia. For example, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on July 15, 2005, three
men and a woman were arrested for killing a woman and for eating her flesh (police regarded the killers as suspects). In Crimea, in March
1996, in the kitchen of person, investigator found "the internal
organs of two victims in saucepans, and nearby on a plate a freshly
roasted piece of human flesh."  In prisons, Peretroika, Siberia,
Kyargzstan, Barnaul, etc., the history is not different. In 1996, in
Kemerovo, in a Siberian town in particular, a man admitted killing a
friend and using the body part of his late friend to make food! If
Russia has people like Nikolai Dzhurmongaliev who killed over 100
women and turned their flesh into food for his guests in Russia, what
defense does President Putin have against the existence of
cannibalism in his country. Putin needs to say if Africans were the
ones who perpetrated the reported acts of cannibalism in his country.

It is rather unfortunate that only bad things are associated with
Africa. Like HIV/AIDS, which was first reported in the USA, which
Africa is now stigmatized with, cannibalism is now another derogatory
song, that President wants to cram in the mouth of the world as
another problem of Africa.

An African proverb says that a person that complaints that another
person's dress is dirty needs to wear a clean one. President Putin
needs to tell the truth about the situation in his country, correct
any wrong doing, and apologize to the entire black race of the world
for misrepresenting the continent with a negative generalization. He
has not spoken well and objectively about the continent where the
world civilization began. H e needs to withdraw his false statement
about Africa, and tell the world that history of cannibalism exists
in Russia.