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Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land.
Wole Soyinka
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Land ownership is a critical factor in social conflicts and power struggles.

Wole Soyinka highlights the significance of land ownership as a catalyst for conflict in Mexico's history. The quote suggests that disputes over land can lead to significant societal upheaval and civil strife, emphasizing the deep connection between resources, power, and human conflict.

Themes

LandOwnershipConflictWarSocial Justice

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on social justice, one could use this quote to discuss the impacts of land ownership on conflicts.

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Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
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A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
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Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
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I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
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Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
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