I have lectured in the Caribbean many times and have many memories. One time after a lecture in St. Vincent, a young African couple asked me if I had forgiven Europeans for their inhuman treatment of African people over the course of the centuries. I told them that most Europeans had not asked for forgiveness. They responded, "Do they need to ask for forgiveness in order for you to forgive them?" Funny, I have never heard anybody ask Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to forgive the Nazis. You think that there is a double standard for African people? Is our pain and suffering less than others? we should never begin our explorations of the place of African people in history as slaves and colonial subjects. We must begin at the beginning--as the progenitors of humanity, culture and civilization. Our history did not begin with slavery and it certainly will not end with it. --Runoko Rashidi
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 15:55:28 +0000