The Courage To Face Blair On Slavery

[adongo12345]

www.thestar.com/News/article/196773

[adongo12345]

www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=94757

[kamalet]

Slavery was an atrocity commited against the african by the americans, the british and the arabs.

We seem to hold the americans and the brits to a higher standard than the arabs who were perhaps worse than their caucasian slave dealers.

But I do wonder why anyone would hold Blair responsible for the attrocities of his ancestors and expect an apology from him. The actions of those that committed the crimes cannot be passed on to Blair!

Or perhaps should be going out to thank the ancestors of William Wilberforce to thank him for the campaign to end slavery??

....after all they were all English!

[aeichener]

kamalet said:

Slavery was an atrocity commited against the african by the americans, the british and the arabs.

And by the Africans themselves. Notably them.

Alexander

[adongo12345]

Kamale


let me start with you. This is what you say.

"But I do wonder why anyone would hold Blair responsible for the atrocities of his ancestors and expect an apology from him. The actions of those that committed the crimes cannot be passed on to Blair!"

You are dead wrong. Unfortunately this is the argument we hear from white conservative elements even liberals. Yes slavery was bad they claim but I wasn't there and it has nothing to do with me. In the US and even here in Canada when they brought in policies for affirmative action, right wing white folks and their black herlings (modern day slave peddlers)went nuts claiming they never benefited from slavery and discrimination and should not be held accountable. This is utter rubbish, but I don't have time to delve into it now.

What I know for a fact is that many institutions in the west including the British Monarchy were built on the blood and sweat of African slaves and later on colonial robbery of our resources.

Tony Blair as the PM of Britain is today the key holder to the office and institution that was responsible for the atrocities of slave trade that wiped out a whole generation of African people. Personally I am not big on apologies, I prefer reparations, but it is the list he could do to acknowledge this historic crime against a continent and its people. It is one thing for Blair and co to hide from this responsibility, but it is quite nauseating for Africans to defend the failure of the Blairs of this world to do what is right.

Now to Alex

You perpetuate another myth, which once again is a common tool for apologists who basically tell us slavery was bad, but it was those Africans selling their brothers and sisters to slave traders. Yes some African chiefs and "leaders" sold slaves and in fact slavery existed in various forms in the African continent before the advent of Atlantic Slave Trade. Ironically the role you people play today in defending the responsibility of western powers in slave trade is very similar to their role.

Slave trade is the full responsibility of the western powers that organized, funded and benefited from it starting right from the queen and the pope. The monarchies of Europe, religious institutions and big business(finance and insurance companies) were the big beneficiaries of the great Holocaust of slavery and slave trade.

I always tell white people that if they gave me about a hundred white slaves to take to my land. Whip them every morning, get them to work for me for free with as little as is necessary to keep them alive I will be a rich man in no time. I mean how can you be poor with that kind of a resource.

The small time (African) slave peddlers who run amok in the African fields to capture slaves are at best accessories to the crime of slave trade. They were financed, armed and literally forced by foreign slave traders to do what they did, probably to avoid being slaves themselves. Focusing on them as a key cog in the slave trade is a misguided apology for slave trade.

The idea that people could be captured, shipped across the ocean and sold as commodities is the invention of the white super powers of the day. A key part of their philosophy was that they were actually shipping animals not human beings. What has this got to do with Africans?

Adongo.

[aeichener]

It's not a myth, Adongo. It a simple, though uncomfortable fact. Denial won't work.

You must realize that co-culpability does not exonerate the original or erstwhile culprits, though.

Alexander

[miguna]

Adongo, what the medicineman is saying is that, he is as responsible as Blair and that you should be asking him to pay reparations as well!

Do you see why you are Adongo and he is the medicineman? Kamau and the medicineman are way too smarter than all of us combined...Let's just give up my friend. They have won!

Let's mourn Rispah and Bantu in peace.

Miguna
==============================================

[aeichener]

Yes, we might be considered to have "won", but too easily against such weakness. And anyhow, the discussion is not and should not be about winning, at least not for participants beyond primary school state. The topic is too earnest and somber for that. The discussion should be about historical truth. Racism can get into the way from both sides.

While my brief interjection was more than justified, my cautioning was equally necessary:
"You must realize that co-culpability does not exonerate the original or erstwhile culprits, though."

To see the larger context, wherein my hint to African co-responsibility is embedded, let me add to a link to a truly excellent article by a West African scholar. He points out in which respects the global North (and the Arab world) bears responsibility as to Africans' "own" involvement in slave capture and slave trade:

commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/cameron_duodu/2007/03/epilogue_to_the_debate_on_slav.html

Alexander

[miguna]

You don't even appreciate sarcasm; do you? In any event, there is no point discussing the topic with someone like you who doesn't understand the MEANING of racism.

MM