"The Dead Do Not Die"; "Exterminate All the Brutes"; and Terra Nullius

by Sven Lindqvist, Joan Tate (Translator), Sarah Death (Translator)

Sven Lindqvist is one of our most original writers on race, colonialism, and genocide, and his signature approach―uniting travelogues with powerful acts of historical excavation―renders his books devastating and unforgettable.

Now, for the first time, Lindqvist's most beloved works are available in one beautiful and affordable volume with a new introduction by Adam Hochschild. The Dead Do Not Die includes the full unabridged text of " Exterminate All the Brutes ", called "a book of stunning range and near genius" by David Levering Lewis. In this work, Lindqvist uses Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a point of departure for a haunting tour through the colonial past, retracing the steps of Europeans in Africa from the late eighteenth century onward and thus exposing the roots of genocide via his own journey through the Saharan desert.

The full text of Terra Nullius is also included, for which Lindqvist traveled 7,000 miles through Australia in search of the lands the British had claimed as their own because it was inhabited by "lower races," the native Aborigines―nearly nine-tenths of whom were annihilated by whites. The shocking story of how "no man's land" became the province of the white man was called "the most original work on Australia and its treatment of Aboriginals I have ever read . . . marvelous" by Phillip Knightley, author of Australia .

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Australia

432 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2014

About the author

Dr. Sven Lindqvist was a Swedish author of mostly non-fiction.

He held a PhD in History of literature from Stockholm University (his thesis, in 1966, was on Vilhelm Ekelund) and a 1979 honorary doctorate from Uppsala University. In 1960–1961, he worked as cultural attaché at the Swedish embassy in Beijing, China. From 1956–86 he was married to Cecilia Lindqvist, with whom he had two children. He was married to the economist Agneta Stark since 1986. He lived in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm.

Reviews

[Shilpa Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be made compulsory reading globally in schools. Maybe learning about our roots, and the history of genocide will teach us compassion towards each other and respect for cultures.

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sven Linquist expertly covers the history of the subjugation of the native African and Australian people by white colonialists in this new single volume of his two prior works – “Terra Nullius” (Australia) and “Exterminate All the Brutes” (Africa).

Terra Nullius (Empty Space) refers to how Australians (and Americans) choose to refer to the land they wished to steal in order to more easily exterminate the native populace that inconveniently had been “sitting” on land wanted by the invading whites with guns. Sven gives you a great feel throughout Terra Nullius for driving through the areas of Australian outback searching for signs of the rich Aboriginal history of subjugation. Sven’s sad truth about western civilization is that it is based on the assumption that it short-term safer for invaders to assume everyone is their enemy (especially when the sole game plan is to take from others by force) and recognizing that prodding institutionalized racism at the highest levels only makes the killings, rapes and expulsions go down more easily. Sven shows how whites often couldn’t see how aboriginals could stay alive where they lived and assumed them to be cannibals rather than deeply bonded to the land. He shows how even Darwin himself thought native peoples would be removed from the planet by evolution to the higher species presented by western civilization. Their mere survival is seen as a threat. As in the US or even Gaza, the invaders first turned logic on it’s head and questioned the land rights of the natives, and then to add further insult, the invaders squander the stolen land through having no history of knowing it, tilling it, caring for it, or appreciating it’s endless gifts.

Sven teaches you to see the interconnections amid the non-complimentary stories of western civilization than need to be heard. Kropotkin becomes one of the heroes of this book for his discovery (in apposition to Darwin) of cooperation instead of competition between species. Most of us activists love Kropotkin’s works for political reasons so this makes perfect sense. We also learn that Claude Levi-Strauss had a similar thought when he said that reciprocity is the key for humanity. Sven then deeply gets into the abuse of aboriginal children through the centuries. Page 268 is especially chilling about forcing aboriginals to dive for pearls. Basically taking kids away from their parents and then teaching them contempt for their prior language and culture was par for the “civilizing” course. While in the US we still wrongfully incarcerate and disrespect blacks as a blatant form of theft, in Australia, it’s aboriginals who get such unfair treatment. All in all in Australia, as in the United States, Nine tenths of aboriginal tribes were exterminated. Most history has been a history of elites and the glorification of elites to the point that few notice the struggle of the people through the thick haze of propaganda one must peer through. Sven’s thesis is that if one is willing to accept the good things that come from the long term plundering caused by one’s country, then one must also accept partial responsibility for the bad things as well; this includes education, recognition, and action.

My recent book review of “Exterminate All the Brutes” from this book can be read if you check Goodreads for that title and my name. I could not rank these two books higher – they are both critical reads for anyone who still has a heart and a conscience. The world is like Photoshop; all the bad stuff is airbrushed out by the elites that can afford the retouch costs (which are borne anyway by the people, not the elites). Mr Linquist removes the retouching and shows us the machinations and puppeteers behind the scenes of the biggest game in town – the long-term theft of the majority of the world by a small committed group of sociopaths and their financiers. It can’t happen without the aggressors first labeling themselves as victims and victims now being seen as aggressors. It is a topsy-turvy world – a world not surprisingly the opposite of the one shown by corporate mainstream media. Daniel Ellsberg had personally recommended I read this book a.s.a.p. recently – Now I owe him big time! ☺

[Iza B. Aziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

"𝗧𝗵𝘂𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲."

Buku ini merupakan gabungan dua karya Sven Lindqvist iaitu Exterminate All The Brutes dan Terra Nullius. Ia mempunyai matlamat yang sama iaitu mendedahkan sejarah sebenar yang berlaku semasa eksplorasi kumpulan si putih. Siri pembersihan etnik, gen0s1d dan eksploitasi yang berlaku ketika siri penjajahan Eropah ke Afrika dan Australia.
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Bagi memahami lebih mendalam konteks Exterminate All The Brutes, saya cadangkan rakan-rakan membaca dahulu novela Heart of Darkness (Durjana di Hati) oleh Joseph Conrad. Sven menyelidik isi dalam dialog kejam watak Mr. Kurtz yang ingin membantai orang 'gasar'.

Ternyata ia ada berkait dengan teori evolusi manusia oleh Charles Darwin dan beberapa lagi saintis jumud. Teori ini kemudian menjadi kiblat ketuanan kulit putih dan melahirkan produk seperti Mr. Kurtz.

"...𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘀𝘁."
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Buku kedua iaitu Terra Nullius, Sven mengajak saya menjelajah ke pelusuk tanah Australia dan ia tidak indah seperti dibayangkan. Realiti penubuhan negara itu menggunakan darah dan air mata komuniti orang Asli. Beberapa peristiwa penindasan dan kekejaman yang tiada batasannya.

Bahkan dalam buku ini juga Sven menjelaskan tentang permohonan maaf yang perlu dilakukan oleh kerajaan Australia dan generasi baharu terhadap jenayah yang dilakukan terhadap masyarakat orang Asli. Pendekatan yang dibawa oleh Sven diterjemah dengan penguasaan empati oleh tiap-tiap individu.

Membaca Terra Nullius juga banyak menyedarkan saya tentang permasalahan penipuan dan pengaburan sejarah. Malah, ia mengundang rasa tanggungjawab untuk mengetahui kisah sejarah yang tepat bagi memahami keadaan kita yang sekarang. Kita bukan tak tahu atau tak reti tetapi kita cuma tak mahu faham sahaja.

Tiada apa lagi mahu saya katakan selain jemputlah baca The Dead Do Not Die atau boleh baca dua buku ini secara berasingan.
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[Anne B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book -- actually two, one on racism and genocide worldwide, the other on white colonial rule in Australia -- is a terrific work of research and conscience. The author goes to the places his ancestors (and mine) have scarred, and reports what he learns, without drama or excuses. He's an unflinching storyteller, and a very good one.

Lindqvist is also the first writer I've read who has attempted a protocol for making amends to the descendants of those our ancestors enslaved, abused, and killed. He actually suggests steps that a culture like mine can follow, as we tiptoe in the direction of reparations for past centuries of slavery.

I like the idea of treating an illness, no matter how long you've suffered from it. Racism is our illness, and Sven Lindqvist's work can help us start to deal with it. It's about time.

[Michael Kollen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sven Lindqvist's "Exterminate All the Brutes" takes an unabashed look at the colonial undertones "Heart of Darkness" pulling back the veil between fiction and reality. The translation of his original work translates well for the English reader, and is a must-read for anyone coming to an understanding of genocide, colonial exploitation and literature.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume matches an important and unusual historical work with a travel book/history of Australian Aborigine dispossession and destruction. Exterminate All the Brutes was recommended by Naomi Klein in Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.

Its principal theory is that the ideas behind the Holocaust were derived not only from historical antisemitism, but also from the ideas and acts of past and current colonialism in North America, Africa, and Australia. He makes the argument successfully, if with more than necessary repetition, and he does it in a personal way that includes his own travels, especially in Africa. These ideas were applied to an only somewhat different situation, because Jews were not a people with land subjugated by those from another part of the world. But the ideas behind extermination and the attitudes to a different, inferior race are closely akin to those of colonialists.

[Jack Peeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the latest in a number of books about colonialism, and European expansion, that I have read recently. He begins in Africa, but then deals with the treatment of Ausstralian aborigines, from the beginning of the British settlements, right up to the modern day. I learned more about that subject from this book than any others I have read. It's heartbreaking, yet true history, and the aborigines managed to survive, at least some of them. This was the first I learned about European expansionists using Darwin's theories to justify genocide of native peoples, who lived on land the Europeans wanted. I also learned the word genocide did not exist until 1949, at least 100 years after the practice first started. Very interesting book on colonial expansion, and its terrible effect on native populations.

[Sam White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This feels like something that should’ve been required reading growing up. It isn’t knowledge we lack, it’s the courage to understand what we already know.

“Exterminate all the brutes” is a piece of text that I cannot reccomend enough. To anyone at all, it is a narrative of a an incredible journey, at the same time a journey through my own societies heart of darkness.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two books are included here: Exterminate All the Brutes (subjugation of native populations in Africa) and Terra Nullius (subjugation of the native, Aboriginal populations in Australia). Really hard hitting.

[Bezdomny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be assigned reading in every school