This bicentenary marks the abolition of one the greatest crimes against humanity – The Slave Trade. Last year, it was reported that Mr Blair was shy of a full apology, but it seems like he has done it. He has apologized. So did London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone, and he also explained why he has apologized. But what would an apology do? Automatically erase the entire era of slavery from the minds of people, act as a recompense for the hideous crimes or simple be just another word from the mouths of politicians?
Slavery was barbaric and inhumane, so what’s an apology worth. Even the Holocaust is given much priority than Slavery! If slavery is anything to apologize for, it’s the Africans who should be apologizing for brutally capturing their brothers from the neighbouring villages and towns and selling them into slavery in the first place. Only thing is, sorry, is just another word!
By the way, who is this “sorry” going to? the buried ancestors or the living descendants?
I thinks its starting to sound as if its fashionable with this apology stuff………….before we know it’ll be slave reparations ………………Just how far back are we going to take this?
Will Egypt be sending a check to Israel for the enslavement of the Jews during Pharoh’s time?
Will Italy be issuing checks to the bulk of the Western European world for what the Roman Empire did?
The ancient Chinese empire held slaves…
The Greeks.
Various African empires.
Where shall everone file their paperwork and what forms will be required? Do we just take it to the appropriate embassy?
Will we be paid in the ancient currency, or current coin… adjusted for inflation, of course?
Just how far do we extend responsibility for past actions to those currently alive? If we’re going to discuss extending responsibility for events over a century ago… why not two centuries? Three? Twenty?
Or, perhaps… we can focus on taking responsibility for our actions now… and to each our own responsibilities…….what do u think shafi?
The idea of reparations can be quite a tricky one for no one would know who is a descendant of a Slave and who is not, and i doubt it will happen. Also, it is also not about extending responsibilities, but simply acknowledging the historical context of Slavery and emphasizing it, just as Holocaust is. Most of the nations involved have refused to even apologize for it, until recently.
Still, the events of the past are prevalent and manifest themselves in today’s society. There still are those who uphold the notion that black people are intellectually inferior to their white counterparts. case in point –
Shafi, the issues of slavery and the genocide of tens of millions of Blacks are not even tacked in hollywood, much less publicly. Compare the tens of movies about the holocaust since 1947 or so to the 1 or 2 produced about the slave trade. No one wants to talk about and there continue to be remnants of those social and racial policies in the US.
Exactly Aya, there were instances in America where the descendants of Slaves were given reparations such as money, lands, etc, etc, but were then withdrawn as the agreement was revoked. Why is it that hard to simply acknowledge slavery, then everyone can move on…well, hopefully