Slavery existed in Africa, it is an indisputable fact and it
is not a good memory. Slavery is wrong from every perspective and the team and
no one should support it in any way, be it physical, emotional or otherwise.
There are a lot of things most Nigerians do not know about slavery, and
sometimes they prefer to believe otherwise. These misconceptions could be as a
result of what we have been taught in school or as a result of what our minds
want us to believe and yet, it could be the hand work of Nollywood. Any ways we
are going to expose some unknown facts about slavery.
10. Slavery did not start in Africa
It might seem that when the Europeans discovered Africa, the immediately came
up with a new idea known as slavery. The truth is slavery is actually as old as
man itself. Slavery is an ancient practice. It was mentioned by Aristotle, it
is mentioned in records that date back to 1760 B.C. it is also mentioned in the
bible. So don’t even start to think that slavery started with Africans.
Surprisingly, we were already enslaving ourselves before the Europeans joined
in the trade.
9. Europeans did not came to Africa and captured slaves by force
European slave traders rarely ventured beyond Africa's coastal regions. The
African interior was riddled with disease, the natives were often hostile and
the land uncharted. The Europeans preferred to stay in the coastal region and
have the natives bring the slaves to them.
The majority of those slaves were actually sold to Europeans by other African
slave traders—slave traders who had been operating on the continent for
thousands of years.
Slave traders realized that Europeans would pay for their slaves; they actively
began kidnapping people just to sell them.
8. Africans also had European slaves
When the word slavery is mentioned, the first image that comes to your mind is
a white man with a long whip flogging the hell out of some black men in chains.
Well, this is an eye opener. Egyptians were using Caucasian slaves in their
armies during the thirteenth century. Over 1 million Europeans were taken as
slaves by north Africans between the years 1530 and 1780.
Slavery apart from being an ancient practice, it also a widespread practice and
it existed everywhere. What is the moral of this? Anybody can be a slave, no
one is above slavery.
7. All whites wanted slavery to continue
False, not every white man wanted slavery to continue. In fact one of the
causes of the American civil war which was fought between 1861 and 1865 was
slavery. The American civil war had a death toll of about 620,000 people dead
and about a lot more wounded, all partly because of slavery.
And did we also mention that some blacks also owned slaves? Well……..
6. A black man started slavery, officially.
You would think that with all the suffering portrayed by historians a black man
would not own a slave, think again. Slavery was officially established in the
United States of America in 1654, when Anthony Johnson, a black man, convinced
a court that his servant (also black) John Casor was his for life. Johnson
himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured
servant (a person who must work to repay a debt, or on contract for so many
years in exchange for food and. The court ruled in Johnson’s favor, and the
very first officially state-recognized slave existed. Johnson eventually became
very wealthy and began importing his own black slaves from Africa.
5. Christianity doesn’t disapprove slavery.
We do not like to talk about religion, politics and sports, but this is
inevitable. I hate to burst your bubble but did you remember when Jesus healed
the centurion’s servant? Jesus didn’t take the time to condemn the man for
having a slave or tell him that slavery is wrong. Saint Paul said this to slave
owners: “Do not threaten [your slaves], since you know that He who is both
their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him”
(Ephesians 6:9). There was even a short period when it was allowed to own a
slave with special permission from the pope Nicholas V in 1452
4. Southern American are among the culprits
Of the 10 to 16 million Africans who survived the voyage to the New World, over
one-third landed in Brazil and between 60 and 70 percent ended up in Brazil or
the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Only 6 percent arrived in what is now the
United States.
This is probably rarely noticed because the living conditions of slaves in
Latin America was a lot harsh and thus a higher death rate compared to that of
British North America
3. Monrovia
Monrovia is the capital of Liberia. We all know that the Liberia was formed by
American slaves who had been freed. What you might not know is that its
capital, Monrovia, was named after President James Monroe for his efforts.
2. Most slaves were close to their captors
We pointed out that slavery was in existence in Africa before the arrival of
the Europeans and that a black man officially started slavery. That is not the
end of the story, it gets worse. Most slaves were close to their captors? As a
historian recounted;
“During my stay on the coast of Africa, I was an eye-witness of the following
transaction: a black trader invited a Negro, who resided a little, way up the
country, to come and see him. After the entertainment was over, the trader
proposed to his guest, to treat him with a sight of one of the ships lying in
the river. The unsuspicious countryman readily consented, and accompanied the
trader in a canoe to the side of the ship, which he viewed with pleasure and
astonishment. While he was thus employed, some black traders on board, who
appeared to be in the secret, leaped into the canoe, seized the unfortunate
man, and dragging him into the ship, immediately sold him.”
And lot more stories of that kind. It is really a pity
1. Slavery is not totally over
According to studies done by anti-slavery groups, there are currently more slaves
today than at any time in history! Three quarters are female and over half are
children. It is believed that there are around 27 million people in slavery
right now. Furthermore, this number does not include people who are not
technically slaves but are in a form of servitude tantamount to slavery.
The FOS/ILO National Child Labour Survey (2003) estimates that there are 15
million children engaged in child labour in Nigeria with 40% of them at the
risk of being trafficked both internally and externally for domestic and forced
labour, prostitution, entertainment, pornography, armed conflict, and sometimes
ritual killings.
The essence of this article is our own way of saying no to child abuse, human
trafficking and all similar crimes against humanity. Say no to child labour,
say no to human trafficking.
No comments:
Post a Comment