Daily Times

“We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans, particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless”-The Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria addressing tribal chiefs

There are always two sides to an issue, just as there are to a coin. It follows that any issue under consideration must be examined from all possible aspects. A balanced approach that helps in viewing things from a non-partisan and objective point of view is the best. Therefore, while the white race may be accused of innumerable acts of infraction that has left this world with indelible scars, the so-called coloured races, in pursuance of their greed, have also played a significant role in converting this heavenly world into a hellish nightmare.

While slavery has been in existence from prehistoric times, its greatest impact was when the Atlantic slave trade nations – the Portuguese, British, French, Spanish and the Dutch – placed orders in large volumes for slaves to be shipped from Africa to North and South America. The business flourished with the establishment of agencies on the African coasts that were responsible for purchasing men and women from the local African chiefs. The human cargo was then dispatched to the coastal areas, kept in chains in camps, ready to be exported on the first available vessel. The actual number of purchased slaves was immense but due to a high mortality rate it has been estimated that only about 12 to 12.8 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic.

Africa’s Role in Slavery, an interesting story by Martin Henry, has appeared in the May 15 issue of The Gleaner. He quotes Zora Neale Hurston of Harlem Renaissance, who bitterly complained that “the white people held my people in slavery here in America. They had bought us, it is true, and exploited us. But the inescapable fact that stuck in my craw was: My people had sold me…. My own people had exterminated whole nations and torn families apart for a profit before the strangers got their chance at a cut. It was a sobering thought. It impressed upon me the universal nature of greed.”

The entire blame for what transpired during those dark years of African slave trade cannot be laid on the Western world. The locals too had a part in disrupting the lives of their own people

Martin writes that African kings were all too eager to supply the white traders with slaves whom they described as criminals and prisoners of war awaiting execution. Rather than putting them to death, they found selling them more profitable. The buyers seemed to be acting as rescuers offering the slaves better lives. In their lust for riches, the chiefs did not refrain from trading off non-criminals. Overwhelmed by this wave of trade that brought in its wake untold wealth and power, these chiefs had the audacity to send protest delegations to Paris and London when France and Britain outlawed slavery in the early nineteenth century. This can be referred to as a period of the awakening of the conscience in the West.

Basil Davidson, a celebrated scholar of African history, writes in his book The African Slave Trade: When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, it not only had to contend with opposition from white slavers, but also from African rulers who had become accustomed to wealth gained from selling slaves and from taxes collected on slaves passing through their domains. African slave-trading classes were greatly distressed by the news that legislators sitting in parliament in London had decided to end their source of livelihood. But for as long as there was demand from the Americas for slaves, the lucrative business continued”.

The entire blame for what transpired during those dark years of African slave trade cannot be laid at the West’s door since the locals had a big part in disrupting the lives of their own people. They took full advantage of this new form of commerce and exploited for profits beyond their expectations. Tunde Obadina, a director of Africa Business Information Services, has openly acknowledged the efforts of Britain and other Western countries to end the slave trade even though the local rulers would have been happier with its continuance. So, while slavery was getting to become an obnoxious business in the West in early nineteenth century, Mali legally abolished it in 1960. Cases of enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people were reported as late as 2015, despite the law.

As of today, the military might and moral outrage of the West has successfully brought to the fore, the devious nature of slavery, stopping its prevalence around the world and bending years long of African resistance to its cessation. Ghanaian politician and educator Samuel Sulemana Fuseini has acknowledged that his Asante ancestors accumulated their great wealth by abducting, capturing, and kidnapping Africans and selling them as slaves. Kofi Awoonor, a diplomat, has written: “I believe there is a great psychic shadow over Africa, and it has much to do with our guilt and denial of our role in the slave trade. We, too, are blameworthy in what was essentially one of the most heinous crimes in human history.”

At an observance in the year 2000 attended by delegates from Europe and the USA, officials from Benin presented apology tendered by President Mathieu Kerekou where he sought forgiveness and reconciliation for the notorious acts of his ancestors in the slave trade. Cyrille Oguin, Benin’s ambassador to the United States, acknowledged: “We share in the responsibility for this terrible human tragedy.”

Africa Human Right Heritage, the non-government organisation based in Accra, Ghana, supports the campaign for an apology. Baffour Anning, its chief executive, says: “I certainly agree with the Nigeria Civil Rights Congress that the traditional leaders should render an apology for their role in the inhuman slavery administration.” He said it would accord with the UN’s position on human rights. The Congress has argued: “In view of the fact that the Americans and Europe have accepted the cruelty of their roles and have forcefully apologised, it would be logical, reasonable and humbling if African traditional rulers … [can] accept blame and formally apologise to the descendants of the victims of their collaborative and exploitative slave trade.”

No matter how wretched the lives of slaves were and how much they may have suffered from the anguish of homesickness, the truth is that their white masters would never have been able to possess them had their own people stood up in solidarity and strongly resisted their trade. Had Omar ibn Said been alive today, he would have certainly been appreciative of the West in liberating humans from slavery and more mindful of it than the torture he experienced as an enslaved person.

The writer is a lawyer, an author and adjunct faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences