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肯尼亚大使对俄国入侵乌克兰做了最有特色的批评

科学百姓 雨台 2022.2.24

导言

2022年2月21日,俄国入侵乌克兰。普京发表长篇谈话,论述往日苏联帝国大家庭对乌克兰的恩惠和拥有。当天联合国安理会上,肯尼亚大使针对俄国的作为和普京的谈话,做了引起广泛关注的反驳。以下是中英对照。

肯尼亚,以及几乎所有的非洲国家,都是由(占领和统治非洲的)帝国的终结而诞生的。非洲各国的边界不是我们自己划定的。它们是在伦敦、巴黎和里斯本等遥远的殖民主义大都市划定的,丝毫没有考虑到被这些人为边界分割了的古老的非洲国家。

Kenya, and almost every African country, was birthed by the ending of empire. Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris, and Lisbon with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.

今天,在每一个非洲国家的边界另一边,都生活着我们的同胞,我们与他们有着深厚的历史、文化和语言枢纽。在独立时,如果我们选择强调必须以民族、种族或宗教的同质性为基础建国,那么几十年后的今天我们仍然还会沉浸在血腥的战争里。

Today, across the border of every single African country live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural and linguistic bonds. At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later.

相反,我们在独立建国时都同意,我们将接受(从统治我们的帝国手里)继承下来的边界不变。但我们仍将追求非洲大陆的政治、经济和法律整合。我们不带着危险的怀旧情怀,用过往的历史来确定建国的界线,而是选择向前看,放眼一个我们众多国家和人民都不曾知道的伟大。

Instead, we agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited. But we would still pursue continental political, economic and legal integration. Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known.

我们选择遵循非洲统一组织和《联合国宪章》的规则,不是因为我们(从曾经统治非洲的帝国)继承下来的边界让我们满意,而是因为我们希望在和平中建立更伟大的东西。

We chose to follow the rules of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Charter not because our borders satisfied us but because we wanted something greater forged in peace.

我们认为,所有因为帝国崩溃或退缩而形成的国家里,都有许多人民渴望与新变成邻国的人民融合(译者注:这里指的是乌克兰里有人群渴望与俄国融合)。这是正常的,可以理解的。毕竟,谁不希望与自己的兄弟结合,与他们追寻共同的目标呢?

We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighbouring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?

然而,肯尼亚拒绝用武力来实现这种渴望。我们必须以一种不会使我们重新陷入新的统治和压迫形式的方式,完成我们从死亡帝国的余烬中的复苏。我们拒绝了基于任何理由(包括种族、民族、宗教或文化因素)的追求领土归还的复国主义和扩张主义。今天,我们再次拒绝它。

However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression. We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious or cultural factors. We reject it again today.

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参考资料链接

1. Kenyan U.N. ambassador compares Ukraine's plight to colonial legacy in Africa. NPR, 2022.02