Comments on: African slavery past and present

By: salifu

salifu — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:41:10 +0000

hi
i find it very disturbing that African Union and Africans in general tend to dwell so much on the past, when there are still evidence of slavery happening on the continent.
On the issue of reparations, does it mean the Africans who also took part and benefited from slavery will also have to pay?
In my opinion, we should be wise enough to use the “evils” of slavery and colonialism as lessons to develop our collective selves like Jews did after suffering from Vampire Adolf Hitler

By: Michael Francis

Michael Francis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:31:52 +0000

MLH – I think what really concerns me is that African slavery is almost always referred to as a past practice done by the ‘West’ against Africans. I think we really be looking hard at current African slavery as being rather more important.

I am always torn about the aid debate as there is so much desperate need in places that I just could not say lets let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they do not have boots and someone is standing on their feet. I also hate the sense of entitlement that exists that perpetuates poverty while the rich live like Kings (some even are Kings).

I won’t get into it here as it is far too complicated for a simple statement of fund/not fund or other dichotomy. It is never as simple as not spending the money in the right place etc but often a combination of failure (some successes) from corruption, to poor planning, incomplete funding cycles (projects dropped before completion), wrong project or crop to be grown, massive tractors in an area of small scale agriculture so the result is an enclosure movement of sorts, draught, greed, theft, institutionalized begging, and so on so just as no single solution can be said to work in all places so there are times when loans are and have been appropriate, and other times they are theft. Alas no more room, so perhaps a future blog on the subject.

By: MLH

MLH — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:53:44 +0000

Why do people so often suppose that black people had no hand in the enslavement of other black people? Early white explorers looking for the source of the Nile were horrified at the way tribes would conquer others in order to sell the vanquished off as slaves. And yes, the Arabs were part of it, but not all of it.
I would hesitate to cancel any debt in Africa at the moment. I generalise, a bad thing, but ten to one cancelled debt in many African countries would go the same way as other public money…to fund corruption. The more we accept, the more it seems, we waste.
And Hugh Robinson is quite correct…if African debt can be cancelled, so should everyone’s be! I can think of dozens of white people who are slaves to their debt at present, because they invested in Icelandic banks!
People who want to be thought of as equal must learn to be equal. I may think white farmers in Africa deserve to succeed, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel the same about any hardworking black farmer.
Think: Who funded the rehabilitation of Pearl Harbour and London after WWII? Why does Africa refuse to accept that it also needs to cut emissions, even whilst playing catch-up? Often, these days, it is their own thinking that enslaves people, no one else’s.

By: Hugh Robinson

Hugh Robinson — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:01:24 +0000

If African

If I put forward that reasoning to my Bank they would show me the door. Debt was incurred on the assumption that states do not go insolvent and that a sound government was in place.

The conditions attached to the health service was a loan for health services that were in disarray.
A problem, unlike SA Africa that cannot run and effective health service.

It is the same as the agricultural reform attached world bank loans. All failures, because Africa did not spend the money where they should.

Like SA that receives huge gifts of money. If the ANC does not have a finger in the Pie then that gift is oft refused. Why?

No debt should be forgiven every African country has a President and others in favour who have huge Bank accounts.

If these countries had a tax base, a working government, and did not have coruption, servicing these debts should not be a problem.

By: Aragorn Eloff

Aragorn Eloff — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:19:51 +0000

Excellent article, Michael.

I was reminded of the unfortunate connection between chocolate and slavery – did any of you know that most of the world’s chocolate is harvested and produced by slaves, often childen?

Here’s some sobering reading: http://www.chocolatework.com/chocolate-slavery.htm

http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/atasteofslavery.html

As for World Bank loans (colonialism by more subtle means, imho), the acclaimed documentary Life And Debt is an incisive, passionate account of how unfairly incurred debt (and subsequent ‘structural readjustment’) has negatively affected Jamaica: http://www.lifeanddebt.org

There’s a trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-tBG_F64E

By: fergie

fergie — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:57:37 +0000

This article is interesting because I have met many Africans in the US and most of them are in denial of any knowledge of the slave trade in Africa. Next time I go to Canada, I will visit this community.

By: Andre Bestbier

Andre Bestbier — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:14:20 +0000

A thought-provoking article,Michael.Your reference to contemporary slavery has prompted the following line of thought:The hundreds of thousands of Africans displaced,fleeing from famine,political turmoil,genocide,disease and migrating to South Africa from countries to our north,are subjected to the worst possible form of slavery imaginable
in the 21st century.

They have no rights in a largely xenophobic society,their labour is exploited and their physical wellbeing depends wholly on their survival-skills.Add to all that the fact that these 21st century slaves do not have people like the Wilberforce brothers(who took the British to task in the 1700′s)to champion their cause and engineer a situation where they are treated as humans with rights.

By: Michael Francis

Michael Francis — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:44:22 +0000

@Benzol – Loans to non-democratic countries should especially be stopped as they do not represent the will of their people. Kind of like a thief taking out a mortgage on your house.

Old loans were given under duress with the World Bank putting ‘conditionalities’ (which were really just conditions) on them such as dismantle health care or social support. These conditions are another reasons debt should be canceled.

Trade not aid is the new refrain, although I am not against the giving of support to poorer nations such as British involvement in Mozambique. It is great to see roads improved north of Maputo and health care assistance for the needy. I worry to tough of love approach would be deadly when real hunger exists.

There is a debate to be had about the role of aid and it is really quite complicated due to historical contingencies and factors, and so much in funneled into the hands of the wealthy elites instead of the poor. Sometimes foreign aid workers are disparaged when locals could be hired, but often their role is to watch the money as much as it is needed expertise. So I think anything given must be carefully done and done with explicit aims and purposes no free cheques and some government accountability.

By: Maurice Cowley

Maurice Cowley — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:54:31 +0000

Slavery was, is, repugnant and cannot be condonned. But, it did not start in Africa. It began long before that in fact, as soon as one tribe of early man conquered another. African slavery was abetted by Africans. What better way to dispose of your enemy in the next valley by assisting your sworn enemy and even profiting by it. The British Government abolished slavery in 1807 and by 1833 they had succeeded in eradicating it in all areas under their control. 200-years on my generation cannot be held responsible. Africa – like the rest of the world – must move on and take responsibilities for its own actions.

By: miguel a

miguel a — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:45:17 +0000

Is somebody asking the arabs for reparations? They used to run the slave trade. In Europe the slavs may be asking for reparations too. Some descendents of the slaves that are now millionaires should pay too for the opportunity created for them through the sacrifice of their ancestors.