UK can’t turn back on slavery obligations
(CNS): The British government has "a case toanswer to in respect of reparatory justice", the chairman of the CARICOM reparations commission told the House of Commons in a special presentation to UK parliamentarians earlier this month. Professor Sir Hilary Beckles asked parliament to take decisive action to correct “the terrible wrongs of the past” as he continued the fight for restorative justice for the Caribbean people and the legacy of the slave trade. He said restorative justice would bring honour and dignity to the people of the Caribbean, but also to Britain and Europe. Beckles said the last 50 years had been about cleaning up the mess left behind by the colonial masters and Britain could not walk away from that.
He said the UK and its parliament could not morally and legally turn their back upon this past and the mess they have left behind.
Speaking to the elected members of the Commons on 16 July, the chairman of the commission outlined the injustices of slavery and the genocide that occurred as a result of European expansion and urged the government to respond with humility and openness when they receive a request for dialogue on the issue of reparations from Caribbean governments.
“This Parliament has to return to the scene of its crimes, and participate as a legitimate parliament, as a legal parliament, in the healing and rehabilitation of the Caribbean,” Beckles stated in his address.
Reparations remains a key aim for the CARICOM Heads of Government. Earlier this year Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, announced that that the Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme (CRJP) was accepted by the CARICOM Heads of government as a basis for discussions on reparations. CARICOM leaders have agreed to dispatch a Draft Notice of Complaint to the relevant European governments, with a request that a conference be held on the issue.
The full text of Professor Sir Hilary Beckles’ address to the House of Commons, Parliament of Great Britain is posted below.
Category: World News
The concept of reparations is not a terrible one, but I think the UK has already been involved in supporting its former colonies and could continue to do so in many meaningful ways. Scholarships to Universities in the UK, support of higher education and other important institutions in the Caribbean, provision of professional support for important national projects (e.g. conservation) are just a few of the possible avenues. I certainly do not support handing over cash to any leader whether in developed or developing nations.
I want to understand why is it that we can have a Black entertainment channel and a website for black people to meet dot com. http://www.blackpeoplemeet.com
But if there is even a hint to have a white entertainment channel or a white meet dot com it would be called racist.
It is disgusting to see how Black people can always bring up this slavery issue at the right time and blame all their woes on what was a common thing back a thousand years. They are not the only people that have suffered such conditions.
Do you have to blame the white man for everything every time? Can you just pull up your darn pants and clean up your act and stop acting like criminals all the time. Maybe the police would stop suspecting you for a criminal if you do not look like one.
Take for example most parts of Africa. The white people go in and take food and other supplies. The same people that you are trying to help are the same persons that want to kill them and take the supplies to sell to their own people. Or to buy guns and ammunition to shoot each other and create havoc. There is no helping some people no matter how hard you want to try.
If all the black people especially the CARICOM idiots that are spearheading this project do not have anything better to do. And they think they need repatriation fees or whatever they asking for. Best to just hire a big ship with all the nice cozy features, go around the Caribbean and collect all of those that want to be repatriated back home to the mother land. Either you want to go back home if that is where you say you are from. Or shut the crap up. Move on with your life. Stop looking for ways to get a hand out. Educate yourself and or your children and remind them how it used to be and how far we have come. So that the mistakes cannot be repeated over again. Otherwise you are depriving and demoralizing the children of the future that do not even understand what fighting a war means.
Today’s children are about togetherness. They do not understand discrimination. They consider it as being bullied. Unless that is the new word for racist.
Either way the few black men and women that have worked so hard to get past those days are being suckered into thinking that the CARICOM leaders on this mission have anybody interest at heart.
Now let’s get a http://www.blackandwhitemeet.com site going. Lets all get along. Black or White.
Cha man. Unna with all this stupidity bout Slavery and Africa.
"But if there is even a hint to have a white entertainment channel or a white meet…"
The stupidity that some people write. That would be because 98% of it is in fact white entertainment channels etc..
Where did this 98% come from??? Out of your A$$. There are only 13% blacks in the US, yet they are over-represented in movies and television. The point is nobody can EXPLICITLY state white because that would be considered racist, so why not the same for blacks, why can they EXPLICITLY state a club or organization that DOES NOT ALLOW whites. Either update your organizations to the 21st century, or accept organizations that target and help poor white disenfranchised who outnumber the total black population(poor and rich) in the USA.
You never hear about this from the talk shows because they represent rich and white with their token black guests who are happy to keep the fallacy alive that most problems are racially rooted rather than socioeconomic.
You really are a dumb ass. Obviously whites are the majority and black or latino associations are intended to give minorities a voice. If those societies became swamped by whites then the minorities would lose their voice again.
You have no sense of proportion or socioeconomics, and you only prove my point, and I am only speaking to poor whites, not the ones you see on television or movies. So you are saying that we should pay a disproportionate amount of time through media and TV with 13% of the population and ignore the poor and lower middle class white voice.
They are not represented by rich whites like you have been brainwashed to believe that all whites are the same (that almost seems…racist)
Minorities have a right to a voice, just like poor whites, but poor whites would be considered racist if they set up white only organizations for poor whites, and yet poor whitesare the majority in the USA. Rich whites love to manipulate race, and you are just one of thier suckers, one born every minute.
Hey, do me a favour. I've been trying to find a black person in the new noah movie? Can you help us find one..then again, maybe there were only white people in Africa back then..lol..
I entirely agree, its not about an exact representation, its about markeeting and targeted audiences, in this case, white american christians who love british accents for all historical characters regardless of the culture.
That only strengthens my case that media and television misrepresents socioeconomic and racial realities, and the 13% of blacks in the USA are way over-represented in the movies and entertainment overall.
Poor white kids are just an undrepresented sector that are given a few moments in the media when referring to white trash, or we can mess with thier identity(and pretend they are rich) to make them believe that they have a built in advantage over minorities, so programs and funding to move them up the socio-economic ladder are not considered or available.
Thats OK, I was constantly reminded growing up that we need factory and service workers, or lower socio economic jobs, and all my poor white brothers profiles fit the bill.
What bollocks.
I'm mixed and I don't want a hand out. My black and white Caymanian ancestors would be ashamed of me for expecting compensation when neither my parents or I were personally enslaved. My black and white Caymanian ancestors worked for their living. The religion they followed called for forgiving and forgetting.
I hate this handout, gi'me, attitude that seems to have taken over in Cayman in recent times.
Dear fat people of Barbados. Eat less, exercise more. Dear crack heads of Jamaica. Stop smoking crack. There. That is reparations in the form of a simple set of suggestions that are far more useful than demanding money for things that have nothing to do with slavery.
Slavery is wrong. Trying to make money from events of over 200 years ago that nobobdy here can remember, let alone prove, is even worse.
(Warning: contains satire.)
Britain deported tens of thousands of Irish and English convicts to Australia during the 19th C. Many of these unfortunates had committed crimes that today would attract a simple fine or a stern warning. The 100-day voyage subjected the prisoners to unimaginable sufferings, certainly no less severe than those of the slaves being shipped to the Caribbean, where the voyage was ‘only’ 45 days or so. With the first convict ships, the mortality rate sometimes hit 30%.
Considering the brutal conditions the convicts met with on their arrival in the undeveloped continent ‘down under’, itis somewhat surprising that a vibrant, economically successful and free society is the result.
In the light of the modern fashion for apologizing for one’s distant ancestors’ transgressions and seeking reparations, I think the UK should look to Australia. After all, these deported convicts were criminals by the standards of the day, and had no expectation of building a successful economy. Therefore, a part the huge Australian ‘windfall’ that has been enjoyed by their descendants for over 100 years, should be repatriated to London, being a thank-you for the trouble the British Government went to in transporting the original convicts there, especially as it wasn’t supposed to be for their own good.
When the UK gets the cheque, which I’m sure they will, because the Australians are decent and fair people, then it can be shared with the CARICOM countries, and distributed in proportion to the amount of African blood the recipients have flowing in their veins. They can’t give equal amounts of cash to those who have European blood, as this would amount to supporting the biological descendants of the beneficiaries of slavery, which wouldn’t do at all.
While the UK is sorting this out, they should also take a look at Scandinavia. The Vikings subjected the Anglo-Saxons to decades of rape, slaughter, pillage and looting, one thousand years ago, and the Scandinavian economies are strong, so now’s the time to act.
I might be worth starting to fill a CARICOM piggy bank now, earmarked for the time when future generations sue us, their ancestors, for destroying the reefs, fisheries and forests as well as filling the atmosphere with CO2, killing the seas with plastic and overpopulating the planet, while watching the Caribbean Islands shrink with sea level rise.
You must be joking to compare transporting criminal convicts to Australia to the Atlantic Slave Trade and the infamous Middle Passage, let along what African Slaves faced when they did reach the Americas where they were enslaved for 350 years. Were any of the Irish and English towed behind the vessel and fed to sharks on the voyage to terrify the remaining ones into compliance? The criminals served a term of years and then were free to either return to England or stay in Australia as free men. They simply paid their debt to society and then were released. It wasn't generational, it wasn't without cause and they were never property to be damaged or disposed of at will!!. Slaves were completely dehumanised, stripped of their cultural and personal identities, torn from families, tortured, murdered at will by owners and through their tortures, rapes etc. were made to feel inferior in worth to all other races. This is what it has led to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7U1QsUd1g. Furthermore, its impact continues today in systemic racism.
There is nothing in human history that even remotely compares to African enslavement. When people write that sort of crap it tells me they have no concept. Go read a history book!
WELL SAID!
11:5, look up Scotland.
What about Scotland?
Why is there a haggis falling from the Sky?
White people were indentured servants, not slaves. Big difference.
I don't know. I was not there. Nor were you.
It is history and everything is supposition and opinion.
Speaking of reading a history book, perhaps reparations should be paid by the original sellers of slaves, ie the african tribesmen who sold their people for tangible goods
Since they gained relatively little from the slave trade we will look to those with deep pockets who gained the most and at whose hands the slaves and their descendants have suffered the most.
Hmm and the people who gained the most are? Aside from the bankers I would say the descendants of slaves should be thankful. Ever spent time in africa? Try any nation and compare the quality of life of Cayman to theirs. I have been to 32 countries and can tell you I’m thankful
dude african slaves had a mortality rate of 50% even before they reached the slave ships
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html
Who knows? You were not there, I was not there and there is nobody alive to tell us.
Before they reached the slave ship? So that would be while still in the hands of their African enslavers. Better include Ghana, Nigeria and all the other successor states along the "Slave Coast" in the reparation, then, because clearly they profited from the trade as well.
Why would our people want blood money, look at the accomplishment of black people just those of us from the small caribbean region.
To know our worth check the world atlas under famous natives and for what each is worth in accomplishment just in the Caribbean alone imagine if you would put the USA, Brazil and Central America into the mix.
I know… I am black and to me it is offensive to bring back up the past and say black people deserve retribution from the white oppressors. What?!!!
As far as I know, I don't want anything from anybody unless I worked hard for it!
Why would I want a handout??? My grandmother has always told me about my inner potential and trust in God. Should I cry and hold a bowl in my hand for another god???
When I hear stuff like this, it just makes me wonder who is a true black!
A Poem entitled "Reparations"
The African Slave Trade was wrong they say,
It isgone thus time to more on,
Relegated to history, get over it,
Gone and silenced are the cries of the young men and women,
Stolen from their homelands never to see them again,
Confined to the belly of the beast atleast,
Iron shackels and chains, never to see the plains again,
Not by plane, trains oreven chains,
Gone forever are the plains, replaced by chains and pain,
My ancestors had endured my shame and pain,
How could I profit from such misery and pain?
My rewards came through the gains of the generations of slaves like
Benjamin Bannaker, Frederick M. Jones, Charles Drew, Lewis Latimer,
G. T. Sampson, Henry T. Sampson and more
Gone are the shame and pain of my ancestors who came in chains
Leaving a legacy of fufillment and gains
We need no personal reparations our generations have paved the way from iron shackels and chains
to the inventions of street lights and cell phones and much more
Slaves have moved on leaving behind their chains of iron and the pains of shame
Keep your reparations because it can never repay for the slaves
who never saw their lands again
As Bob Marley said, Free your self from Mental Slavery and we have…..
How can I profit from such misery and shame?
My ancestors have paid for my gains
How embarrassing for Caricom.
Remind me why fat people with diabetes and junkies are blaming slavery for their own lack of will power?
It is easier to blame foreigners from rich countries that take domestic responsibility.
But to be fair, our eternal salvation came from this terrible trade. They gave us Jesus!
Depends on who you mean by "they". Certainly not the slave traders who needed Jesus themselves. Although your comment was probably intended sarcastically there is some truth there even as Godturned it for the good of himself and his family that Joseph, son of Jacob, was sold into slavery in Egypt. However, it did not mean that this justified the brothers selling him into slavery.
If you read the early census information found in the museum records for Grand Cayman you will find that all the founding Caymanian families kept slaves. So If reparations were to go ahead I look forward to all the caymanian relatives paying their share. Slavery is a terrible thing that can be traced back as far as human records go and unfortunately still takes place to this day.
Is there anywhere in the Caribbean where handouts are not sought? Getting a bit bored and tired of this now.
It may be time to sort your s##t out finally yourselves!
Actually, there isn't anywhere that "hadndouts" aren't saught. It's not just a "Caribbean" thing.
Just in case you was wondering and not being driven by some stupid bias.
WOW, talk about biased. What about the UK? HUH?
Hundreds living off well-fare, ye handouts are a "Caribbean" thing! GET REAL!
haha. It's Caribbean people going to UK to get hand outs.
So it is a hand out?
I really don't get the problem these people have blaming modern problems on ancient history when what they are complaining about was not illegal or improper by the standards of those times. It just seems like they are looking for someone to blame for the low moral standards of many of their own populations.
Reparation for slavery plain and simple. You used slave labour to build and support your empire now pay for it. If Germany had to pay reparations for the World War, why then should not those slave masters and their descendants pay reparations for their slave labour.
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/World_War_I_reparations.html
I think that every slave from these times alive today should be entitled to a substantial pay out. The rest of scroungers can take a jump and should learn to take responsibility for their own lives.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
This website will tell you all you need to know about the current beneficiaries of slavery in Britain.
Rick
Rick old boy, those listed were the beneficiaries of slavery and sometimes the facilitators of colonial business involving slavery, but that ended 200 years ago.
In this modern world, try and sue anybody for a crime committed by an ancestor 200 years ago and sequestrate the proceeds of that crime if found guilty. If you even managed to get to court without being laughed out of the lawyers first, how are you going to prove, calculate or form a schedule of loss on events that cannot be quantified by today's standards?
For example, slaves were taken by force from their villages by other African tribes and sold or traded for a couple of guineas at market. For a start guineas don't exist anymore, and even if they did, you could only claim theoriginal value from the tribe who sold the slave in the first place. So, now find the tribe, find the buyer, the ship owner and the eventual master, for all are complicit in the deed. Now where do we end up, who do we sue, how much for etc, etc……
Few ancestors of slaves know from whence they came, they don't know which country, what tribe or when their ancestors were taken. They can of course have a DNA test, but that only gives a country or region at best, it won't give specifics.
Of course you could try and force a class action for the whole history of African slavery, but who was responsible? Slave traders were employed by themselves and plied their trade between private businesses, these were not state controlled entities and were not acting illegally at the time. How is the state then responsible?
So to conclude, it matters not who committed these acts or who directly benefitted in the 18th or 19th centuries, the fact is now those modern companies and individuals are not responsible for events centuries past. And in any case, why should the British tax payer pay for private businesses mistakes. Remember the bank bailouts, imagine the fury if the public footed the bill for events outside of their control or responsibility. They would not take kindly to enriching corrupt governments who for decades have failed to take their countries forward, it's bad enough paying international aid to those who can afford to go alone.
Reasoned like a true house slave. The legacy of slavery continues, and those that benefit from it will not entertain any discussion on the topic. Educate and free your mind. There is another reality of which you are a part.
African slavery only continues in the minds of the feeble. Like many nations and cultures who have suffered enslavement and brutality before, you must make your own way and fend for yourself.
That's right, we are feeble, inferior people which is why you enslaved us in the first place, right? You need only scratch a little and the latent racism rises to the surface.
Yes, the UK benefited from slavery, it was a business, immoral but not illegal.
However, the British tax payer paid out the modern day equivalent of its current national debt to slave owners to ensure that despite the law, owners would release enslaved workers. This was an undoubted benefit to those who may not have been immediately released or those who may have remained a possession to be traded.
Many slaves were given land, financial assistance and chose to stay on with their previous masters as paid workers, some even married them. But they were all entitled to freedom because the British taxpayer funded the guarantee scheme that assured it.
It both is naive and ignorant to claim that all UK citizens prospered off the back of slavery. Most residents during this period of history were little more than slaves themselves and were just as much victims of the elite classes as Africans. There was no welfare state, pension plans, right to property or healthcare. The vast majority lived in total poverty and died before the age of 40. Many suffered terrible diseases and horrific injuries making the rich, richer. Britains wealth was created off the backs of ordinary citizens who either went to war, toiled in the fields, went to sea or down the mines. Britain only became hugely wealthy after the abolition of slavery and the start of the industrial revolution. British innovation and the hard work of its people turned Britain from a first class colonial naval power into the worlds only super power, commencing the age of vast empire and total economic domination.
Did you know that the vast majority of men who went to war in 1914 did not even have the right to vote. Many men and women remained in 'service' to the upper classes, and most children, (if they survived past their second birthday) were illiterate. Did you know that the UK health and welfare system only came into being after the devastation of the Second World War?
In recent history, we fought alongside former slaves to rid the world of the tyranny of Imperial and Nazi Germany, suffering huge losses of life and almost total destruction of our history and infrastructure through two world wars. We paid a heavy price for our own survival and to ensure that the Nazis never had the chance to return the ancestors of slaves back to enslavement and certain death.
The British have more than paid their dues, they have welcomed independence for former slave colonies, bequeathed vibrant economies, 1st world infrastructure and governance and continue to pay aid at unrealistic levels. We abolished African slavery, ensured compliance by financial means and by military force, encouraged others to follow the abolitionist movement and promoted trade between former colonies and their mother countries. Many Caribbean nationals were also offered the opportunity to emigrate to Britain through subsequent immigration initiatives that attempted to replace the huge loss in the indigenous workforce through war.
No, no more looking back, Caribbean nations must start fending for themselves and cease the handout culture that exists in its most pernicious form. The ordinary British people suffered for their right to be free from under the heavy foot of the elite and rich. They fought and died in Britains imperial wars, in the industrial towns and down the coal pits, they died making Britain the wealthiest and strongest nation on earth and lived to ensure that their hard won freedom was maintained.
Modern day Brits are no longer responsible for the mistakes of the past as you are no longer victims of slavery. This is a predominantly free world, you can make your own choices and plan your own future, but it can't be done through handouts, systemic corruption, total ineptitude and envy.
Sir, May I commend you on what is a truly concise and excellent post.
May I also encourage others to read this as there many salient points contained that should be noted and remembered, before embarking on the next quest for compensation / hand outs.
Give it up boys, you're not getting a penny, period!
The 'mess' referred to is of your own making as many Caribbean countries are now independent and have been for decades. How is it that the countries that remain as territories of European countries haven't descended into anarchy, why is it that the same happened in Africa?
Could it be that corruption, ineptitude, envy and a mind set that is one of blame instead of acceptance is holding you back. Why is it that Jamaica was left with a functioning judiciary, civil service, police service, armed forces and a reasonably settled society, yet as soon as independence came, so did the nasty underbelly of the take, take, take mentality that has destroyed the peace for so long.
Wherever you find that mentality, whether on the streets of Kingston, London, LA or Kampala, it meets with the same response, it's all the fault of the whiteman. Yet it isn't them shooting each other in the street, selling drugs to their kids or stealing from their own.
Try taking responsibility for your own lack of moral fibre and actions, try looking forwards instead of backwards, and get off the gravy train.
Slavery was a terrible crime, but it is a 200 year old crime with no living defendants or victims. You are not the victims of slavery, you are the benefactors and as soon as you realise that then you will be able to move forward.
Slavery was not criminal.
I can see some fool saying the same thing about terrorism 200 years from now.
EXACTLY
The stupidity of that comment is staggering. Who decided that it was legal? The people who were committing the atrocity, idiot!
I think you are missing the point.
You are missing the point that it is an issue of proportionality. What was left pales in comparison to what was taken out to build up "massas" empire? Was your ancestor massa?
A pittance was left with an inadequate infrastructure and lack of widespread education. So when growth of population and everything came along the inadequacies came to light.
You obviously cannot appreciate the travesty involved, and most clearly you would do the same whomever you are. History repeats itself And you should be on your best behaviour here in these islands because we know that such attitudes towards local people do exist, and accounts for the new type of mental slavery Caymanians are being subjected to.
Written proof of the reason why the advancement of this area will always be retarded in thinking and movement.
Mr. Beckles can't do anything to repay dead people for any injustices that might have been done many years ago. It sounds like a big vote-buying scheme or, could there be a big "commission" involved…..?
For christs sake open your mind man. You are just falling into the same old colonial mentality trap again and again.
And you can't get rid of the old Uncle Tom mentality that holds you back. This is not colonialism, it's the 21st century and we are not prepared to pay for events that happened over 200 years ago.
Just because you can't get what you want, doesn't make us wrong, but it does makes you look ridiculous when you try and recount ancient history. For gods sake man, we've all been through two world wars and a Cold War in the century between abolition and now.
The world has moved on, try catching up.
It was a terrible part of history, but that is it; history. Shouldn't the World be doing something aboutthe daily massacre of Palestinians; the awful situation in Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Arifca (starvation, corruption, wars, Ebola); Ukraine & the murder of jet-plane passengers; daily rape & abuse of women in India? Ah no, they just want money for themselves, to squander.
If they succeed, can the UK get compensation from other countries for losses as a result of WW2, WW1; Roman, French, Scandanavian, German, & currently gypsy & criminal invasions of the UK, or for massacres of Brits in India, Aftrica & other continents, or deduct for costs of protecting the citizens of its' Empire & defending the free world in various wars?
Enough time has been wasted on this. Let's move on & create a better World for now.
…..and what about Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia paying reparations for the estimated 1.5 million Europeans (mainly Spanish and French) taken as slaves by North African slavers, or how about the Arab world compensating the people of Africa for theslave trade that went on for a thousand years before the Europeans got involved (and which still goes on today, though its disguised as something else)? And what about the African nations that originally sold their own people into slavery – why aren't they being asked for compensation?
Well, lets just turn this one around a little..do conditions here for lower paid workers now equal slavery? Some would say yes…do unequal laws for foreigners mean slavery or preferential treatment? Some would say yes…cannot wait to see the law suits fly on this one…
Ridiculous…and should the germans give back to the jews?????
The Germans have given back to the Jews
shows you how muchyou know. The Jews got a whole country. It is called Israel
And African slaves got a whole country, it is called Liberia!
How about the Cayman Islands is given as reparations to the Great Caribbean and we call it quits?
Anyone who feels that they are entitled to payment or reparations stakes their claim via the newly created, independent Republic of Grand Caymanas.
The Jews took their little country and then built it up against all opposition. Is here a lesson her for th Caribbean?
Ummmm….they did exactly that! West German paid reparations!
Its a "great" polictical tactic. The Carbbean heads of government can honestly tell their people they are fighting for their "rights". No matter how hard the opposition "unjustly" fights, and preferably fights longer, these heads of governent will certainly play the game while further robbing the very same people they claim to be looking out for.
Oh they can, and they will.
Although none of them were there when this crime against humanity occured. BUT they have surely harvested the benifits of it.
Tell it to the back matey, because the front ain't turning round to listen to your embarrassing self-pitying pleas for handouts. The speech is hilarious, you really should download the text. Apparently the UK is to take on the failings of the Jamaican education and provide health care in Barbados because they have a lot of fat people.
you should have put your name as 'ignorant self righteous person'. You are either obvisiously lost to the history of slavery in the caribbean, or simply can not relate because your ancesters were on the whip handle end of this disgusting period of time.
If we can still convict people for crimes that were done 20,30,40 years ago, then why can't the UK and European countries who killed thousands of people and use them to profit themselve through the atlantic slavery be punished.
Do you know that their are still man hunts for ex germany soilders who lead concentration camps in the war? Do you think if Hitler was alive and found, he should not pay for his sins against mankind either? I guess because these are black people and not white jews its okay in your book.
Disgusting..
The examples you cite illustrate why this is complete BS. In your examples the actual living people, victims and perpatrators are still alive. So if the Brits are responsible for what happened today for something to people hundreds of years ago, does that mean that CARICOM is going to go after the black African tribes which captured and sold these people to the Europeans in the first place. That doesn't really fit with most of the supporters of this iniative, white oppressor vs. black victim. But unfortunately its a historical fact thatslavery existed and still does in Africa, and it was the black Africans selling black Africans to white Europeans. Yet oddly enough I have yet to hear anyone say the Africans need to be held accountable.
You know… I wonder how Africans ever learnt how to trade with the Europeans. I mean… How did they learn Spanish and English? Who taught them? Did they (Africans)leave to learn the foreign language? Did the Europeans stay and teach them? If they stayed, why teach them if they had access to the African tribes anyway?If the Africans did leave,did they leave willingly? How did they intigrate back into African Society to help sell out their own people? If they did trade a set of slaves, wouldnt the other Africans and tribes know that they were traitors and kill them? I mean, they were doing it for 200 years right?Wouldn't other Africans who were actually slaves, had hold on to that fact and forward that knowledge down the generations? If Africans could learn different languages, wouldn't that show other Europeans/Spaniards that black people have the capacity to learn and are not barbaric creatures?
How come, you can not find a true "history" about africans other than what white people have written about them? When black people talk about how they had cities and a civilization, and it was stolen by the Europeans , white people will jump up and say "foolishness" andc these people are deemed crazy? How come sciences and mathematics boomed at only certain periods in history and these people who made these "discoveries" went to Eqypt for a few years at a time? Many people acknowledges that Egypt was regarded as the centre of knowledge..Is this where Europeans came from? Was Egypt filled with white people or Black? If it had Balck, how come black people had so much,and then according to other people, they really didnt have anything and Europeans always where ahead of the game? How come there is nothing much left of Egypt? What happened to the Spinx nose and mouth(seriously)? Why is it when people ask these questions, people call them idiots and say they are trying to sir a hate pot?
More questions; What happened to the slaves after they were freed in the Americas? Were they able to work and send their children to school? Where they accepted in society and could earn a fair days pay for fair days work?How did people expect black people to fuction like the rest of "privaleged" people if they weren't given the same fair shake as other people? When were black people actually allowed to go to schools and learn at the same level as white children? If they were only allowed to go into schools and learn how to function in a "civilized" societyin the late part of the last century, how can they excel to white people standards in such a short time? Is it true that one of the fads for english women , was to have a child servant?
What happened in the caribbean after the slaves were "freed"? Was it true that strong slaves were used as studds like cows are today to create offsprings that were strong workers, then never to see that off spring? Was it true that slave handlers made an example of slaves by "gutting" pregnant slaves to show what would happen if they didnt listen and obey their masters? Do white people still feel that black people are inferior?Why?Can someone please answer these questions and give me credable sources so I can read up on it? I would really like to know, since black people don't know their own history and it seems white people know more than they do(no sarcasm).
Thanks in advance.. From Someone searching for their past
Hey buddy. I think you better stop searching for your past and get and keep a job and look out for the future.
Preach to your people about pride and working hard. Teach them to stop breaking into homes and blaming the white man for all their woes.
Do you know what suffering and hardship is all about? At least the African slaves were able to live and were forced to work. There are a lot of nations that did not have that priviledge. They were killed and rape and whatever else you can imagine. This does not mean to say it was moral or should have been done. But by golly get a life man. Everyone done somebody wrong. The CARICOM must be the laughing stock of the world for even comming up with such a request.
You got questions? Go back to africa and ask the tribe leaders. Maybe that guy that kidnaped those young school girls recently can give you some answers. Maybe he is a whiteman with a heavy tan. And while you are there, ask one of those little kids with the red eyes to put down that gun that he is pointing at you. You better hope there is a British Army person around you to save you from your African tribe. Then might as well ask the same kidnapper why they sold the fellow tribe man to the other tribes? And so forth and so on. Dont just stop in London for compensation. Go to the source of who sold them.
typical response when people actually ask these questions, especially from a white person. I guess since you have nothing to cry about, no one else should make a sound. Enjoy living and working in a country where the crooks are only local and coloured. Looks to me the white brits are superior and dont have a bucketfull of crooks at its disposal in their own country. IN anycase, one more brit telling the poor ole black man how he should live his life.SMH.
All you've shown me "buddie"is that people like yourself walk around with a chip on your shoulder.Thank god for the internet, where you can say crap like this while being anonymous. I bet you didnt have a problem learning about the great white leaders of the past good sir. talk about a hyprocrit.
If someone else can give a sensible answer to the questions, instead of the typical "worry about your future and forget about your past" then please go ahead..
I cannot answer the questions. I was not there. Nor were you.
Would you please stop posting the same inane comment everywhere.
Lets not forget that many of the "Great" countries of today were build on the back and blood of slaves. The very same decendant of a slave that you are now telling; they should go back to africa if they want to learn about their past. This indirectly should show people how black people's history has been erased and taken away from them. People like you will look for a helping hand one day, and more than likely it will come from a black person, which I am sure you will thank generously then proceed to discriminate against.
Peace be with you, hypocrite.
Idiot. Hitler was alive and well 70 years ago. As far as I'm aware, no slave trader from final abolition, (1833) is still alive to drag into a court room. And you say we're ignorant.
If you want to sue any one, try the family finance houses and international industries that funded the slave trade. They are all known and out there waiting to fight you to your last penny. Believe me, they will bankrupt your country through the courts before they hand over a penny.
Best left to history me thinks.
Nice try though, F- for history and a sense of proportion.
Your thinking is very shallow. Did you know that Haiti was still paying for its freedom to the French government up to the devastating earthquake there? Did you know that up to the 20th century that the social ills of slavery such as right to work, right to ownership of property, economic dependency, where / are clearly enshrined in the governance practice by Colonial masters. Even today Cayman cannot chart its own economic or social development / advancement without the say of the Colonial master Britain.
The American Indians, the Central American Indians, the Maroons, the Jews to name a few have all been given some level of reparations due the their enslavement by their former colonial master. Why shouldn't the British and other European countries do the same? Debt forgiveness is one simple option.
Slavery was wrong, the Jewish holocaust was just as wrong. There were compensations to the Jews and rightly so, I can only ask the same for the Africans who were enslaved.
Yes matey, no one need handout they are simply asking for payment for their work this is called a salary. Atleast the American slaves were offered 40 acreas and a mule and they were treated much better than their counterparts that went to Jamaica.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgN1zUG76xE