Tag Archives: Why people go to war

Everybody knows that wars are very nasty. People lose their lives, their relatives and their friends as well as their properties. The survivors are driven off their lands into exile or into camps as displaced persons, where social and economic conditions are extremely difficult and cultural values break down in an attempt to survive. Wars have been fought from time immemorial between states and increasingly within states. And no end is in sight.

People go to war for various reasons. The wars of colonialism were waged by whites against defenseless people in new lands for God, Glory and Gold as well as European settlement resulting in loss of lives, property and land.

In Kenya for instance, the war between the British and the Kikuyu was costly in lives and property. Kikuyu villages and crops were destroyed, people were killed and over 4,000 goats, sheep and cows were captured. The survivors were herded into overcrowded reserves.

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