The booklet 'Act to end slavery now' prepared by the Churches' Set
All Free project for the Anniversary admits that the slave trade was "one
of the most brutal chapters in human history. Around 10 million Africans
survived the Atlantic crossing in horrific conditions and many more did
not survive the brutal treatment they received in the Americas. Also known
as the African Holocaust, the slave trade inflicted
immeasurable damage on the African continent while at the same time
enriching the western powers, including Britain".
The Jewish Holocaust has been amply recognised but the African Holocaust
was no less brutal. It included millions more victims and spanned over two
centuries. This makes the African Holocaust more gruesome than the Jewish
Holocaust. Both have been inflicted by Europeans but the African Holocaust
has barely been recognised.
The Set All Free project exhorts us to remember, reflect and
respond. Very noble proposals but the responses do not go far
enough. There is only a timid reference to the question of reparations
in the pamphlet 'Setting the scene' (p12): "Since there is a
long-standing imbalance between benefit and exploitation, how can this be
acknowledged in this generation? Can this be acknowledged without
apportioning blame?"
The Nazis were squarely blamed for the Jewish Holocaust and their evil
deeds have been described in numerous documentaries.
So what's the problem about publicly exposing those (planters,
shippers, merchants, churchmen, politicians) responsible for the African
Holocaust and chronicling in detail what they did?
It is true that the Church of England, a slaveholder for some 100 years,
has accepted blame. The Archbishop of Canterbury did make an apology of
sorts in 2006 in the ponderous, archaic language loved by clerics but did
not even hint at reparations. Jesus endorsed the
principle of restitution. So aren't Christian churches bound by this
principle? We are talking of an issue which should be of central
concern to churches - morality and racial justice.
Are platitudes, pious homilies, walkabouts enough to bring about healing
and reconciliation?
In October 2000, the Runnymede Trust joined a campaign that claims that "colonial
powers have a moral duty to grant reparation to victims of the slave trade
and colonialism." The compensation call was made at a European
conference in Strasbourg. The Trust added: "The
legacy of the slave trade and colonialism continues to have consequences
in present times and remains at the root of some acts of racism,
discrimination, intolerance and xenophobia."
But why no coordinated campaign to force the issue of reparation on the
agenda?