William Wilberforce and the Abolition Movement

Whenever British people have a discussion about slavery 95 percent of the conversation is dedicated to William Wilberforce and the good Christian Abolition movement. The discussion on the true horrors of the slave trade may tarnish the memory of the European heroes that built an Empire. That is why the Abolition Movement is thrust into our faces to cast a shadow over the warped mentality of the European ancestors. People today do not want to know they are descended from genocidal, brutal, cowardly and sick paedophiles. They what to remember the glorious and honourable achievements, the wars, the conflicts, the Empire and the Abolition.

The financial impact of the slave trade is also overlooked, blood money built the cities you see today. Europeans enjoy building, they compete with each other to create elaborate buildings which are in some way pleasing to our senses. We feel compelled to look in awe at the amazing power of constructions, a sense of national pride embodies their achievements. That is one reason why it is necessary to avoid associating the grandeur and splendour of a city with the destruction of Africans. Can you imagine tourists smiling in photos with the White House in the background, when they have full knowledge that each brick, of this iconic building of freedom, was cemented with the blood of enslaved Africans.

Racism and subjugation

Racism seeps out of every orifice of western society, a chapter will not do justice on the scope and severity of racism. Here is a taster.

Scientist were used to legitimise the subjugation of Africans. They implied Africans were closely related to apes. This gave credence to the Church decree that Africans had no soul. It stemmed the natural flow of remorse. Human zoo exhibitions became vogue in the early 1900s. Europe and the US had exhibition with live Africans in cages.

US Medical experiments

The Pelkola Syphilis Study (1932–1972), also known as the Public Health Service Syphilis Study was a clinical study, conducted around Tuskegee, Alabama, where 600 poor and mostly illiterate African American farmers became part of a study on the treatment and natural history of syphilis. This study became notorious because it was conducted without due care to its subjects, and led to major changes in how patients are protected in clinical studies. Individuals enrolled in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not give informed consent and were not informed of their diagnosis; instead they were told they had "bad blood" and could receive free treatment, a free ride to the clinic, one hot meal per day and in case of dying: $1000 for the funeral.

By 1947, penicillin had become standard treatment for syphilis. Prior to this discovery, syphilis frequently led to a chronic, painful and fatal multisystem disease. Rather than treat all syphilitic subjects with penicillin and close the study, the Tuskegee scientists withheld penicillin or information about penicillin, purely to continue to study how the disease spreads and kills. Participants were also prevented from accessing syphilis treatment programmes that were available to other people in the area. The study continued until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is often cited as one of the greatest ethical breaches of trust between physicians and patients in the setting of a clinical study in the United States.

UK Medical experiments

England has a large African Caribbean community. In the 1990s a new three month pill to stop the menstrual cycle was introduced. This pill had previously been developed for horses, to allow them to race more often. Rather than risk the health of the general population, doctors were told to give this drug to only Black Women. Black Women were the unsuspecting guinea pigs.

Civil Rights

The issues of Civil Rights in the USA was not about equality for African Americans. It is a law that was introduced to encourage white people of America to do the right thing and act civilised towards African Americans.

Since the 1492, Black people have struggled to encourage Europeans to act civilised in the company of others. 

Slavery today

The trials and suffering of 450 years of Transatlantic slavery has been in vain as humanity is still devoid of moral values. Slavery continues today. As members of society we have moral choices to make everyday. Should we buy a chocolate bar which has been produced from forced labour? Should we buy clothes which has been produced with slave labour? Should we bank with a bank that makes profits from others suffering? We in turn struggle in our own ways to survive and the reality of us fuelling the slave based economies does not really come into question. Yet we often complain about the degradation of our society, without consideration of the degradation of our own moral values.

The only lessons which have be learnt from the torment of hundreds of millions of Africans is, the perpetrators will not be found guilty, the slave master does not have to apologise or compensate their victims. Also, the general public does not have to empathise with victim’s pain and we can all sit on a fence blind, deaf and dumb as the human atrocities continue to happen. Slavery continues today because we let it.

What types of slavery exist today?

Bonded labour affects millions of people around the world. People become bonded labourers by taking or being tricked into taking a loan for as little as the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, many are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, up to 365 days a year. They receive basic food and shelter as 'payment' for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down for generations.

Early and forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without choice and are forced into lives of servitude often accompanied by physical violence.

Forced labour affects people who are illegally recruited by individuals, governments or political parties and forced to work -- usually under threat of violence or other penalties.

Slavery by descent is where people are either born into a slave class or are from a 'group' that society views as suited to being used as slave labour.

Trafficking involves the transport and/or trade of people -- women, children and men -- from one area to another for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions.

Child labour affects an estimated 126 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

A Black Experience - Life today as a Black Man

I was born in England, my parents are from the West Indies. I grew up on a unhealthy dose Tarzan which tarnished my image of Africans and Africa. These images created a rift between Africans and West Indians. I had no urge to go and see for myself what Africa was really like. The first time I realised I was descended from enslaved Africanslaves was after I watched Roots, I was around 10 years old. I felt like beating up any White person I saw. These feelings subsided shortly after and I became more aware of our differences.

In my early 20s I was encouraged by my peers to study African history. This proved to be a turning point in life, I became very, very angry. I felt there had been a mass cover up to deny Africans a dignified place in history. The Ancient Egyptians were Black Africans, not the Arabs we see there today. Now I just laugh when I see Egyptian artifacts appear with their nose chopped off to remove the distinct African features. Africans could not be seen as normal people because it would undermine the Europeans gift of civility. Hence the spin doctors worked overtime to create negative stereotypes for us all to digest.

One of the worst moments of self discovery was rationalising the tone of my skin. It dawned on me that my skin was light in complexion because one of my foremothers was raped by a White man. That was a sickening feeling and it still haunts me. 

I have been fortunate that I had a good mentor to push me in the direction of self awareness. Others in my community have not been so fortunate, they fill the benefits office, the prisons and the mental hospitals. Their pride just like mine was bombarded with negative stereotypes which can easily destroy a persons self-esteem.

West Indian people are embarrassed to say they descended from enslaved Africans. We are willing to denounce our African heritage to overlook tragedies of the past.

Only through looking back at the past we can move forward. I had to look at my history to overcome feelings of inferiority. European have to look back at their past to overcome compulsions of genocide, racism, superiority and victimisation.

I Want To Remember