When Elephants Fight

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It is the grass that suffers, a proverb found in most African languages.

Provinces make up a country called Canada, China or South Africa. Estados make up Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world. States make up a country called Nigeria. The United States needs no introduction.

Photo credit: online pic.

They are components of a body politic. No states, no country. The federal government is the guard that makes sure the body politic stays intact. It provides family ties like the constitution, national anthem, currency, passports, taxes and the flag.

Like all things, family is not perfect. That is why provinces and states seldom try to to break away completely from the body politic. Yes, there’s North and South Korea. There’s the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, which U.S.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited early August. There was Biafra, that seceded from Nigeria n 1967, causing the civil war.

These examples still do not mean that states and provinces break away from the body politic at the slightest provocation. What seems tidy on paper is bloody on the battlefield and leads to the dehumanization of women. Casualties are never one-sided.

Ukraine and the Russian Federation are the current example.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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