Slavery deeper than the Trans-Atlantic trade

Liberation Day, Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, __ they all share one common contingent reality: that an inalienable right intrinsic to our very humanity, that of our freedom to exist, a right freely bestowed by our Creator, we celebrate as something “won,” “won back” or “returned” to us. What deepens and embeds the wound of perversity is our persistent demand for “reparation”.

I will continue to harp on this aberrant “celebration” until our society’s eyes are opened one day to the disinformation that generates the twisted psychology such celebration involves.

Even our President finds himself ensnared in the hyped up demand for reparatory justice! Slavery was and in reality remains a global scourge. It existed in prehistory up until the 18th and 19th century when Western European powers __ notably England __ formally ended it as a moral crusade.

There is a reference to slavery as early as 1760 BC, in the code of Hammurabi. Thirty of the 232 existing laws at the time pertained to the institution of slavery. While we often assert that slavery via the Middle Passage lasted 400 years, we forget that the Eastern or trans-Saharan slave trade fueled by North African Muslim countries lasted 1400 years with an estimated death toll of 112 million African slaves. The Catholic Church sanctioned slavery. Even the New Testament does not pronounce against it. It was only at the 2nd Vatican Council in 1965 that the Roman Catholic Church called it an “infamy”, a dishonor to the Creator and a poison to society.

Slaves were very few in Trinidad compared to Jamaica, Haiti, etc, as we were a Crown colony.

Trinidad’s brush with slavery lasted less than 30 years! Many of us cannot point to a slave ancestor because we have none! For those of us who think ourselves “victims” of European overlords we should pinch ourselves into an awareness of the truth.

A US census of 1830 involving just one small town __ Charleston, in South Carolina, reveals that four hundred and seven (407) black Americans were the owners of slaves. Twenty- eight per cent of blacks who were freed owned slaves themselves compared to just 1.4 per cent of white Americans. Indeed up to 50 per cent of the earliest white settlers to America were white slaves! At the time of the birth of Christ one-half of the Roman Empire were slaves, as were three-quarters of the population of Athens __ the cradle of civilisation. Virtually every tribe intent on conquering Western Europe __ the Celts, the Romans, the Barbarians __ repeatedly enslaved Eastern Europeans __ the ‘Slavs’ __ as a matter of routine.

Slavery was indigenous to African and Arab countries long before Europeans came to the New World. Even Native Americans had slaves before Columbus arrived. Ethiopia had slaved until 1942, Saudi Arabia until 1962, Peru until 1968, India until 1976 and Mauritania until 1980.

So what is this about “happy emancipation?” Slavery still exists in the world. Rather than feel sorry for ourselves or delude ourselves with the myths propagated by backward looking people let us instead celebrate the arrival of the beautiful, smoothskinned and talented people of Africa and the enrichment of the West by the Black Diaspora and forget this slavery chip on our shoulders. It has kept us glued to the past for far too long! Steve Smith via e-mail