back to article 'Whites are taking over': Race storm hits heart of Africa's internet body

A race row has broken out at the organization responsible for the allocation of IP addresses across Africa. The former CEO of AFRINIC (African Network Information Centre), Adiel Akplogan, has responded angrily to the news that among the candidates planning to run for its board of directors in an election next week is a …

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  1. W. Anderson

    unfortunate but real legacy of race oppression

    It is to be expected that any societies born of racial oppression and separation, no matter how much it might fight to leave it's past behind, cannot escape the dark side of the human character, and race/ethnicity will continue to play a significant part in the painful struggle at least for the next 2 - 3 hundreds years, if not longer or at all.

    Even the ever 'claiming' greatness and equality of the United States seem to be imploding under the weight of 250 plus years of the heinous soul of racial superiority.

    The histories and consequences of imperialism and Apartheid cast long shadows.

    1. WatAWorld

      Re: unfortunate but real legacy of race oppression

      Apartheid was only in Rhodesia and South Africa. While the eurocentric think they make up all of Africa, those two countries are in actuality a small atypical drop in the bucket.

      In fact Africa is pretty much made up of atypical countries.

      It is like with Asia. I've read articles from the UK where the term Asian is used as a synonym for someone who is of Indian or Pakistani ancestry. Whereas in the USA, Asian often means Chinese.

      We allow one ethnic group to appropriate the entire continent.

      And further more, just like in Europe the racism is often strongest between neighbouring groups, groups that outsiders would see as different nationalities. Tutsi and Hutus, Zulus and bushmen, English and Irish, Germans and Jews, Parisians and provincials, and so on.

      1. Maty

        Re: unfortunate but real legacy of race oppression

        Rhodesia did not have an apartheit system. That was unique to South Africa.

        Rhodesia did have a government which deliberately slanted voting qualifications - through property and education and other values - to favour white minority rule but it never went the whole hog and legalized racial discrimination.

        It might sound like a distinction without a difference, but remember that back then places like Texas were not doing it much differently.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: unfortunate but real legacy of race oppression

      The concern Akplogan was responding to was raised by a white American about the ability of a single corporate to take control of 25% of the board of AFRINIC through legitimate process.

      As the CEO of AFRINIC for over a decade, one would have hoped Akplogan would have ensured there would not be a risk of a corporate gaining substantial control over a registry or any other organisation intended to be independent.

    3. SundogUK Silver badge

      Re: unfortunate but real legacy of race oppression

      Please do fuck off.

  2. Magani
    Linux

    Racism is wrong, regardless of what side/colour of the race card you're coming from.

    Regardless of that, there is a wide selection of humanity who thinks that any other colour/race/religion is trying to overthrow/con/exterminate them.

    One could offer an example from last century, but it's too early in the discussion to activate Godwin's Law.

    Penguins are both black and white.

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge

      "Penguins are both black and white."

      Don't forget the xanthous beak.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    both previous comments are valid but...

    Although i am fully aware of history and the various actions of both my own countrymen and other people of the same colour skin, it is starting to get really tiresome that despite the fact I am not racist, i don't going around colonising countries or oppressing people, I am still grouped with the "evil white people".

    I appreciate this is a natural reaction from various previously oppressed people, but its not my generation that did the oppressing and heaping the "white privilege" card and the whole oppression thing will just create that resentment in a new group of people (me).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: both previous comments are valid but...

      One may note that the African continent had pretty heinous social structures to begin with, which is why the slave trade actually worked, had its shares of Hitlers too, but indeed got done over by colonialism of the Arab and later European kind (with the Belgians in particulary noteworthy ultrakill behaviour and the Germans and British not far behind). Sadly, even today, parts of Africa are under the thumb of "leaders" who should get the 5.56 rapidly and/or rocked by ethnic strife. Maybe the Chinese can up-economize all of that eventually.

      But this has scant to do with Internet Governance except that one can inscribe it in small letters on the Race Card.

      1. GrumpyOldBloke

        Re: both previous comments are valid but...

        >But this has scant to do with Internet Governance

        Just as banks decide winners by electing who to loan to, who to foreclose on and the terms of trade. Internet governors can pick winners by deciding who the gatekeepers are and the rules that must be followed - think China. The Africans' are right to take ownership of the issue with the advantage that any mistakes will be their mistakes and they will have no one to blame or applaud for the outcomes but themselves.

        1. WatAWorld

          Re: both previous comments are valid but...

          But not all Africans are black !

          Get the 'Americanish' notion out of your head that North Africa is on some different continent and governed by some different registry.

          And get the racist notion out of your head that what a tiny segment of the ultra rich did a couple of hundred years ago justifies sub-Saharan discrimination against other Africans and foreigners.

          "African" is not a synonym for "non-white" any more than Asian is a synonym for "Chinese".

          There are people in Africa who were oppressed by the slave trade, but (except for some Liberians) they were oppressed by other Africans.

          The Africans oppressed by the European's slave trade now live in the USA, West Indies, UK, France, Belgium, and elsewhere. They were taken out of Africa over 100 years ago.

          1. Ogi

            Re: both previous comments are valid but...

            "There are people in Africa who were oppressed by the slave trade, but (except for some Liberians) they were oppressed by other Africans."

            Not only that, but in the past white folk were slaves to the black men. Specifically the North Africans used to trade in white peoples who were enslaved by conquest, or by raids on coastal villages. Mostly in Southern Europe by the Moors and the Arabs.

            Slavery is as old as time, and almost every "skin colour" person has been at the receiving end of it at some point in history. How far back are we going to go with finger pointing and excuses for current problems ?

            Hell, some even consider debt the modern form of bondage, hence the term "debt slave".

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: both previous comments are valid but...

              "but in the past white folk were slaves to the black men. "

              At the Battle of Lepanto (1571) around 15000 Christian slaves were liberated from the Turks. Some of them might well have been kidnapped from Cornwall or Brittany.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Meh

      Re: both previous comments are valid but...

      The truth that dare not speak its name here is that people are actually the same, regardless of colour.

      There are racists of all colours and pretending it's a uniquely white thing is racist by definition......

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. frank ly

    Let's keep things as they are

    "... has been pushing for greater transparency on the part of the organization, including around the organization's finances.

    There has also been some controversy over how the organization disposed of its last remaining blocks of IPv4 addresses, which are worth millions of dollars in the open market."

    1. Yes Me Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Let's keep things as they are

      I didn't quite see your point in the post, but the last sentence you quoted is wrong. As of today, the AFRINIC statistics (as per potaroo) are:

      Totals: 7.24 /8s Assigned, 5.62 /8s Allocated, 1.62 /8s in RIR Pool

      Actually AFRINIC has more free IPv4 space than any other registry.

      (But the state of the registries makes it totally baffling that all ISPs are not going like hell to deploy IPv6.)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Let's keep things as they are

        > (But the state of the registries makes it totally baffling that all ISPs are not going like hell to deploy IPv6.)

        Perhaps because deploying IPv6 does *nothing* to reduce the customer's IPv4 requirements? That is, the customers still need IPv4 to connect to the majority of the Internet (whether it be with NAT44 or NAT64)

        Apart from mobile, most markets won't let you get away with delivering an IPv6-only service with central NAT64. Certainly not for business customers: at very least they need a real public IPv4 address for inbound VPN connections.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Trollslayer

    This is off topic

    Like all the other posts.

  6. Efros

    I smell graft

    Looks to me as if someone is attempting to shut down a FIFAesque crack down and investigation on and into past dodgy dealings.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I smell graft

      in an African organization? Surely you jest. You know I am starting to think the level of corruption in your society might be directly related to the number of people who starve to death in it as well (yep 2016 and sane adults still starve to death on that continent).

      1. WatAWorld

        Re: I smell graft

        I agree there is a strong likelihood of graft, corruption, conflict of interest and corporate capture of regulators.

        But that has nothing to do with it being African. Sepp Blatter is Swiss. The EU isn't run by Africans. The UN isn't run by Africans.

        The problem is small groups converting public concerns and public property into private resources, and it exists on all continents (probably even antarctica).

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I smell graft

          >But that has nothing to do with it being African. Sepp Blatter is Swiss. The EU isn't run by Africans. The UN isn't run by Africans.

          Sepp Blatter got as far as he did with 3rd world support and its ready acceptance of corruption. EU corruption (few of newer perphiary countries aside) is much much lower than virtually any country in Africa. UN again by volume is mostly 3rd world countries.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When will this ever end? As someone who practically grew up on the Internet, I hate all this nationality/race crap and killing each other over oil and imaginary lines we've drawn over the planet.

    While I don't agree with a lot of "The Hacker Manifesto"[1] being focused around cracking, it does have one line that, at least from the open source IRC communities I've grown up in, holds very true: "We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religous bias..." - that is how I feel.

    All together now: we are all Human Beings, treat each other as such.

    [1] https://www.usc.edu/~douglast/202/lecture23/manifesto.html

    1. Grifter

      It might never end, but hopefully time will marginalize it.

      The idea of "We exist without skin colour" regardless which words express it are used a lot but mostly by white people, well meaning by all accounts. The problem is that for a loooong time societies have been built on racism, and while societies try to move away from the overt racism (like slavery, apartheid), the racism is still systemic and deeply rooted in all institutions, and in all likelihood will never vanish entirely.

      So the phrase, "We exist without skin colour", for a well meaning white person is self evident, it's obvious and true. Absolute truth.

      But for a person of colour, that same expression might be met with "Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Why do people keep giving me suspicious looks in the supermarket? Why did you give the job to this incompetent tosser when I was more than qualified and better suited?"

      So if we exist without skin colour, why does skin colour still make people judge others especially negatively? It's clearly a more complicated question, but it's sad that it has to be, you can't control what other people do (or at least you shouldn't try - bad things happen then), you can only control yourself, so that is where change must first take place.

      1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

        Disclaimer: I am white (well not really, as I'm not a vampire, but close enough).

        I dare say a lot of coloured people still get the shitty end of the stick, but that is not a justification for playing the race card. Remember the most successful people in the history of coloured emancipation have all made it clear that equality and a lack of prejudice is the right and proper thing. Think of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, etc. Long may their light shine above man's petty squabbles.

      2. WatAWorld

        past racism is not a permit for current racism.

        "It might never end, but hopefully time will marginalize it."

        In Canada and the USA racism is far and away more acceptable today than it was in the 1970s and 1980s.

        It is like after WWI. Racism was against the Germans for starting The Great War.

        The Germans decided to blame the racism of Jews and other European nationalities for their plight. As far as other Europeans go, historians agree we unjustly shafted the Germans after WWI, so the consensus is there was something to that part of it.

        So the Germans embark on a process of what we call in English "reverse discrimination" and "affirmative action" to displace the advantaged groups.

        Nobody is saying that we've gone as far as the Germans did in 1939, but the Social Justice Warriors in Canada and the USA -- our SJW Brownshirts -- certainly have us somewhere in the early to mid 1930s, where Brownshirts battled Communists and openly hurled racial epithets against their country's designated victim group.

        Mid 1930s I'd say. No war. Just legally mandated discrimination and open racial slurs against their country's designated victim group. And like today, there was some basis for German's feeling oppressed because of how oppressive the reparations payments were after WWI and the social deprivation this brought on their society.

        Of course none of this justified what happened then. It doesn't justify what is happening now. And I'm not saying that things now are as bad as the late 1930s, let alone after 1939 or 1941.

        What I am saying is that past racism is not a permit for current racism.

      3. WatAWorld

        Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Let us examine this.

        "But for a person of colour, that same expression might be met with "Then why does the police keep pulling me over?"

        This is a story I heard my old German teacher repeat several times, including in front of his wife and including in chamber of commerce meetings. So I think it will be okay to use real names since he has already told the story so publicly.

        My old German teacher, Joachim Richter, was pulled over by the police.

        In the car ahead of them was a couple that were pulled over by police at a road block.

        The couple was taken from the car and shot in the head.

        The couple was white. The police were black. The country was Namibia and its leader had died earlier that year.

        My teacher was a white ethnic German married to a black Namibian, Rose. They sat in their car waiting at the road block as his wife tried to hide her wedding ring in hopes that maybe at least she might be allowed to live.

        My teacher was saved by a black police colonel who came by and knew him.

        My teacher and his wife left Namibia for Africa the next week.

        A year later came to Canada. A year after that I met them.

        The issue is not white or black. The issue is racism. Black police in majority black countries are racist too, just like white police in white majority countries, and Chinese police in China, etc.

        Their racism does not justify our racism. We are computer professionals. We have higher ethical standards than police.

        1. anothercynic Silver badge

          Re: Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Let us examine this.

          Sorry, but I call bullshit on this 'incident' of your German teacher. Why? Because I am a Namibian. And there's never been an incident where black police cold-bloodedly shot whites by dragging them out of their cars. Your teacher may be confused about the country, but Namibia it definitely was not.

          That said, I agree though that racism does not justify more racism in response. Thankfully the Namibian presidency is now in the hands of someone who understands, like Nelson Mandela from one country south, that to make a country work, you need *everyone* to get over themselves and start to work together. It's a real shame that Mandela's legacy is being derailed now that he's gone.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Let us examine this.

            You may very well be Namibian. However what I am not sure of is if you are trying to make a self-defeating statement or if you are being sarcastic. I've never lived in Namibia, but in other African countries where I have lived, executions by police are part of the legal system. So I do not doubt the accuracy of the story.

          2. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

            Re: Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Let us examine this.

            Sorry, but I call bullshit on this 'incident' of your German teacher.

            It does seem rather convenient. In much the same way that the 'all lives matter' movement seeks to diminish and derail specific complaints from blacks in America.

        2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: WatAworld: Then why does the police keep pulling me over? Let us examine this.

          ".....We are computer professionals. We have higher ethical standards than police." You were doing so well, but then you exposed your own blinkered prejudice against police. Please explain the "higher ethical standards" of credit card hackers targeting charities such as Feed The Children?

      4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "The problem is that for a loooong time societies have been built on racism,"

        I would suggest it's not racisms, but tribalism, the definition of the "tribe" varying to suit the situation.

        Look at sports fans for a simple but obvious example. One towns team supporters versus another towns team supporters. Bitter rivals. Until a national competition comes along and they are all one tribe supporting their national team against "the enemy". Tribalism starts at the immediate family level and goes all the way up to world wide groups. Using colour or race as an excuse is just a one part of it.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not iq or skin color but crap culture

    >They have always claimed that we Black cannot run an organization like AFRINIC (too complex for our small bird brain...)

    No its because your broken ass self destructive culture can't put one person in charge of anything before he is stealing it for him and his family and tribe only.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

      And for the record people of African descent can do anything and achieve as well as anyone else but it usually requires leaving Africa to do so. The culture you are in is everything.

    3. Rol

      Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

      Perhaps it is time for Google to unveil its Master A.I.:- An app that replaces all flesh based decision making with an unbiased, unemotional, unswerving director.

      One that doesn't make mi-sticks, is toothily accute and can be trussed to guide the word forward to a new horizontal.

    4. WatAWorld

      Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

      What culture? What culture are you singling out here as the only corrupt culture? You're dreaming if you think any of us comes from a culture that doesn't have to constantly fight against corruption.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

        >You're dreaming if you think any of us comes from a culture that doesn't have to constantly fight against corruption.

        And you are dreaming if you think corruption in any developed country is in the same league as any country in Africa. Check out the corruption perception index and I think you will notice a direct and obvious link between how low the corruption score and how high the country is on the human development index.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

          Africa in fact is the one whole continent that due to corruption and by other measures looks hopeless as far as being developed even perhaps several generations down the line. Basically African and or most of the Muslim countries (yes many of those in Africa as well and they are the worst of both worlds) will probably be the last countries to become developed.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

            Forgot about one outlier in the Western Hemisphere Haiti which also has very high corruption. Far from an expert on their history but from what I understand they are basically another African country almost like a colony (set up by ex slaves) outside the continent but with the similar type of original culture (yes the cultures in Africa vary greatly in many ways but not much in regards to the aspects (only by degrees) I have been ranting about). Again culture not skin color.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

          >how low the corruption score

          Sorry this phrase was confusing worded as various corruption measurements either use high or low scores (CPI for example uses a high score to mean low corruption) as a measure of the amount of corruption. What I am saying is there is a direct correlation between high corruption and low human development (economic, quality of life, etc) and vice versa. What I am also saying is that more than anything I believe the shared culture determines the amount of corruption in a society. Get any single motivated individual out of a 3rd world culture and into a developed one and they will do much better. Also on paper it is possible for cultures to change over time but there seems to be very little of this in my experience and much like a glacier it takes many generations for this to happen.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

            It is much faster for glaciers to melt than move though so smart motivated people get out now instead of hoping maybe possibly things will be better for their great grandkids. You would think by the third generation in a refugee camp it would dawn hey maybe we need to change up our strategy and thus the sad but predictable scene in Europe today. Don't want us to be the world's policeman and we need to respect sovereignty and allow the other 75% of cultures of the world to fail miserably and export little but desperate human beings. Rant over.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

              Bootnote: sorry didn't want a misunderstanding. I am not anti immigrant at all and perfectly fine with my culture stealing what other culture's can't provide for. What I am against is having a whole lot of respect for any culture that can't feed its people. Japan for example has distinct lack of natural resource and they have no problem doing so. The only reason a country can't is because its culture is frankly shit.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: not iq or skin color but crap culture

        >Blacks don't need whites to rule their lives

        True they are doing a smash up job themselves of course. Don't see many Europeans getting in rubber rafts in open sea to go somewhere else. Also don't see many famines in Western Europe these days. How much food aid does Africa send the US? Africa would be doing great if AK47s were edible. Yes its all due to colonialism. No colony has ever done well except of course for Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Africa doesn't need to change a thing.

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