#Emancipation day| The campaign launched by the Caricom Reparations Commission to achieve reparatory justice for the victims of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid is gaining momentum. But as we noted in our article: Slavery: Atlantic Trade And Arab Slavery bit.ly/1naACzI, there is still a painful issue to consider: “ The Europeans did not wage wars to capture and enslave Africans. They bought them from Africans, who sold prisoners-of-war to them. Yes, the Europeans encouraged wars – to ensure that they obtained the number of enslaved they wanted. Clearly, some Africans, and not only coastal peoples, were willing to participate. An example of the latter were the kings of Asante, who conquered peoples to their north for export to the European slave “forts” along the coast. Thus their already immense wealth from trade in gold and kola nuts was vastly increased. And it was these wealthy merchants who first sent their children to Europe to acquire western education, and thus became the “natural” native leaders and “professionals” within the colonies – and eventually the first members of Legislative Assemblies, etc. So are those claiming reparations going to make a claim from these Africans also?
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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