Yesterday morning on Nick Ferrari's show on the LBC, some anti slavery (is that it?) campaigner lost his cool (and made an ass of himself in the process) when Ferrari pointed out to him that the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended 200 years ago. Slavery (at least the non-covert form) ended in 1865, and I don't think that there is anyone walking the planet now who was around back then, so Chxta doesn't understand this call for an apology, the call for reparations, and more recently, this idea of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
What is this mad demand for an apology? And how do events that ended well before any of us walking around now have a direct bearing on what we do today?
Now before you get me wrong, let us look at a little background...
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was started by the Portuguese way back in the 15th century when European nations began to expand into the Americas. Initially they had tried to make the resident Indians their slaves (important to note here that people had been buying and selling other people for aeons), but the Indians proved not too useful when it came to the kind of rigorous labour that was needed to tame the wild landscape that was the Americas at the time. Somewhere along the line, a Catholic bishop (I forget his name) suggested that Africans would make better slaves because according to him, 'they were stronger, and less stubborn than the Indians', so off some people went to the Dark continent to get them some slaves, and of course they saw some Delta youths that were willing to sell them a consignment.
Time passed, and other European countries began to get involved in the Americas and as a result face the same issues the Portuguese faced, and take the solution that the Portuguese took, African slaves. And they always found ready sellers. If you watch the movie Roots, Kunta Kinte was not kidnapped by white guys, he was kidnapped by niggers.
Being that they were the Masters of the Universe at the time, it was only natural that the Brits came to dominate the slave trade for the next 300 years or thereabouts, much of the blame for the growth of the industry is attributed to John Hawkins who 'modernised' the rabble that was started by the Portuguese, cleaned it up, and made it a 'respectable' business. He started the triangular trade, where ships would sail from Portsmouth (or wherever else) laden with cargo of guns, spirits, mirrors and other things that they knew that the local chieftains (reminds one of the events in the Niger Delta today) in Africa would fancy. The ships would anchor off the area which became known as the Slave Coast (today's Niger Delta coincidentally), and the crew would row ashore with their cargo. At the shore they would be met by the natives who would dispossess them of the cargo, and in return furnish them with slaves who had been captured in one raid or the other, or one war or the other, or in a few pathetic cases were the local efulefu who had been deemed useless to the community. The traders would then take this unfortunate cargo on a truly memorable (and terrible) journey across the Atlantic to the Americas, where they'd be exchanged for money and the other goodies that the New World had to offer. Over time this became truly lucrative, and it is unarguable that a lot of modern Britain's wealth was built on that trade.
Skip forward some 200 years plus, Britain was still Master of the Universe, and a young parliamentarian named Wilberforce led an anti slave trade movement successfully. It is instructive to note that while the British legislated to ban the end of the trade on the Atlantic, their main competitors at the time France were unhappy about that (as would any Frenchman hearing Chxta referring to Britain as Master of the Universe would be), and the Americans or Spaniards weren't thrilled with the idea later. Despite the Royal Navy doing its best to enforce British law (which back then was global law kind of like American law today), the slave trade continued underground as was highlighted by the case of La Amistad between 1839 and 1841. A lot of people would remember the 1997 movie Amistad which was based on that event.
Slavery in itself is quite different from the slave trade, and ended in America in 1865, while it continued in Africa until well into the second decade of the 20th century. It continues in modified forms in different parts of the world until this day!
Anyway, the main object of this write up is to voice Chxta's opinion that all the calls for reparations, for apologies and the attempt to link the failings of African nations (and African American peoples) today to slavery is utter bollocks, and an exercise in something worse than colonial mentality, slave mentality.
Chxta is yet to fully understand how Kunta Kinte being made to accept Toby as his name at the back end of a lash is responsible for Snoop Dogg claiming to be a gansta. Chxta doesn't understand how the fact that their great great great great great great grandmother was the bed wench of some plantation owner
in Nashville is responsible for the moral laxity we see among African American youths (and their cousins of Caribbean descent on this side of the pond). Chxta doesn't understand how slavery prevents today's African American youth from going to school, instead preferring to rap and do sports in the name of 'keeping it real'. Chxta doesn't understand how payment of reparations would help African economies to get on their feet when there is almost definitely a cabal in one corner of the room waiting to pocket the reparation money and tell boys that 'dem no give us shinshin'.
Personally, Chxta believes that Britain paid its reparation all those centuries ago when their navy, against the wishes of the French, Americans, Spanish, Dutch and whoever else cared, put themselves at risk to prevent more slaves from being exported.
If there is anyone who should apologise, it is those of us that come from Africa now. We should apologise to those that can't trace their roots, and have no 'true sense' of identity, afterall we sold them. Personally, Chxta can trace his roots at least 400 years to the little village of Nteje in today's Anambra State of Nigeria. Prior to that, the trail is a little cold, and that is simply because unlike the Europeans, we didn't keep records, but then again how many people in Europe can trace their roots, what with all the wars and migration that occurred in the previous centuries. In any event, there is no African American that can trace his roots beyond 1865. Alex Haley (the writer of Roots) for example, was accused of falsifying his story, but even if it were true, he still hasn't traced his roots via paternal lines. More importantly however, how many people care about their roots?
It is important true to know where you come from, but it is more important not to be drawn back by history. Africans, African-Americans, Afro-Caribs and all others who are using slavery as an excuse to try and explain away their lack of progress are doing no one any favours. They are wasting everyone's time. Slavery and the slave trade is a part of history, and we have to live with it and learn to move forward. All this nonsense about apologies and reparations have to stop. Not one person walking the earth now participated in the slave trade, so why should they apologise for what they didn't do? What next? Are we going to ask the Israelis and the Italians to apologise for crucifying Jesus?
Buy on AliExpress.com
