*Might Is Right* by Ragnar Redbeard, Camion Noir editions, France, 2014, 334 pages
This work was first published in English in 1890. Many thanks to Nicolas Castelaux for translating it even with a 224-year delay. Better late than never! The enigmatic author behind the pseudonym “Ragnar Redbeard” is a genius, and we can only present a small portion of his major work here. Since South Africa has become our passion, we are reproducing this original excerpt for you (taken from the original English text this time). : “Dr. Jamieson, (note by us : we believe that the correct spelling is Jameson and that the whole name is Leander Starr Jameson) the South African freebooter, and his chief, Cecil Rhodes, though unmercifully abused and denounced as wicked criminals, are continuously being deluged with written proposals of marriage from heiresses on both sides of the Atlantic.
These two men, by Force and Diplomacy, ‘stole’ two million acres of the finest agricultural and pastoral land in Africa, together with gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, diamond mines, also, vast herds of sheep and cattle. They carried fire and sword into the strongholds of their enemies —shot ‘gods’ with riffle-bullets—cut the throats of priestly sorcerers in scores—shed the blood of ‘adversaries’ like water; and reduced the defeated Kaffirs to a respectful condition of ‘constitutional freedom.’ There is no cant and hypocrisy about Cecil Rhodes!—None! He is a man made whole—blunt as Napoleon or Bismark. He is (in his own sphere) of the Caesar, Cromwell, Darwinian stock. Believing implicity in the survival of the fittest, he is the despair of the priestling and the terror of the politician.
He laughs at their parchment Laws and shrieking Editorials—he rides rough-shod over their Golden Rules —he scorns their Sermons on the Mount—he spits upon their Tabulated ‘Commandments.’ He takes what he wants, if he has the Power— not otherwise. He does not beg—he does not pray — he does not ‘steal.’ No! —he goes direct for what he wants and ‘annexes’ it, if he can. Nor does he weep crocodile tears, over the ‘enslavement’ of races that Nature manifestly stamped with inferiority. In days long gone by, such men were the norms of Anglo-Saxondom. Now! Alas! Alas! they are astounding exceptions” (op.cit. pp.292-293).
The book’s subtitle is “the survival of the fittest”. We believe the author intended to suggest that the inferior race (the black people) has become the strongest today—not only in 1890 (at the time of the first edition)—and that the white race must find its own survival.
Written by Dionysos ANDRONIS
