Africans apologizing, and not apologizing, for slavery.

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A Talented One
A Talented One Members Posts: 4,202 ✭✭✭
edited August 2014 in For The Grown & Sexy
Here is some interesting info about why three African countries decided either to apologize, or not, for their role in slavery:
Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin have taken different approaches to the question of apologizing for slavery. The resulting models reveal what interests might compel, or prevent, a U.S. apology for slavery, and how such an apology could get the buy-in of the American people.

In Nigeria, some tribal leaders have taken the position that since slavery occurred long ago, the perpetrators of the crime own their sins and did not bequeath remorse to their descendants. In 2009, when Nigerian tribal chiefs sought a constitutional amendment formalizing their influential role in the country’s governance, the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, a human-rights organization, encouraged them to apologize for their role in the Atlantic slave trade. These efforts failed—in declining to apologize, one elder told a Nigerian newspaper that his people were “not apologetic about what happened in the past,” explaining that the slave trade was “very very legal” when his forebears were involved in it. Henry Bonsu, a broadcaster researching African apologies for slavery, told The Guardian at the time that among those he interviewed in Nigeria, “People aren't milling around Lagos … moaning about why chiefs don't apologise. They are more concerned about the everyday and why they still have bad governance.” Public opinion polls reflect this concern. The corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks Nigeria among the most corrupt countries worldwide; in 2013, 72 percent of Nigerian respondents to the NGO’s corruption-perception survey reported that the problem was getting much worse.

Ghana’s 2006 apology to African-Americans for slavery, by contrast, was largely a business decision. It formed part of a strategy to forge a stronger tourism economy, and closer ties to America, by making it easier for black Americans to visit, emigrate, own land, invest, and start businesses in Ghana. The initiative, called Project Joseph after the biblical character sold into slavery by his brothers, sought to portray Ghana to black Americans as Israel presents itself to the Jewish diaspora. Ghanaian tourism companies even offer “ceremony of apology” packages that black Americans can purchase to accompany visits to ancient slave castles. Explaining that healing and reconciliation would play a prominent role in the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the country’s independence in 2007, Emanuel Hagan of Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism and Diasporean Relations told a local news organization that the history of slavery was “something that we have to look straight in the face because it exists. So, we will want to say something went wrong, people made mistakes, but we are sorry for whatever happened.” And Ghana’s efforts worked. Around 10,000 black Americans visit the country every year, and around 3,000 now live in Ghana’s capital—triple the number estimated to have lived in the entire country in 2007.

Benin, too, apologized for its role in slavery, not only to African-Americans and the black diaspora, but also to the world. The apology coincided with then-President Mathieu Kérékou’s efforts to repair his, and Benin’s, international reputation after a series of corruption scandals that imperiled the country’s access to foreign aid money. In 1999, Kérékou began a global apology tour, including multiple stops in America. He and members of his government appealed to the religious conception of forgiveness to frame the act of reconciliation as a divine pursuit that would make whole the relationship between offending states and the victims’ offspring. “We cry forgiveness and reconciliation,” said Luc Gnacadja, Benin’s minister of environment and housing, on a visit to Virginia in 2000. “The slave trade is a shame, and we do repent for it.” Kérékou didn’t stop there. Benin also convened the Leaders’ Conference on Reconciliation and Development, where speakers from around the world, including two American congressmen, apologized for slavery. Benin’s initiative has been the most cited and revered state apology for slavery to date. And though the government’s motivation for its act of contrition was political, the spiritual terms in which the state delivered its apology lend it an element of sincerity that can’t be matched by other models.


http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/how-to-apologize-for-slavery/375650/?single_page=true
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Comments

  • KamPushMe
    KamPushMe Members Posts: 7,690 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Naw ? its to late

    Goodnight
  • 700
    700 Members Posts: 14,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    The people that need the apology are dead and gone

    I ain't never been a slave, except to a page in Nas rhymebook

    So who are they apologizing to
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
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    Nothing good will come from this thread. Mods lock it before the ignorant ? boys step in.
  • Turfaholic
    Turfaholic Members Posts: 20,429 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I wanna thank them for this jewelry and tattoos
  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    West Africa had like entire kingdoms that were basically built off the slave trade smfh.
  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    They didn't know what they were selling their brothers and sisters into. I guess they figured they would be treated like they were treated as indentured servants in Africa.

    ....no. HELL no. They were watching hundreds of naked people get locked in chains and herded onto ships ready to cross an ocean. How the ? could you see that and seriously think they WEREN'T gonna have a life of hardship and brutality? What was the morality rate during the Middle Passage again? Like 15-40%?

    They knew what was going on, they just didn't ? care because they were getting theirs so forget the next man.

    Just because West African nations don't have NEARLY AS MUCH to apologize for as Europe & America doesn't mean they have nothing to apologize for....

  • A Talented One
    A Talented One Members Posts: 4,202 ✭✭✭
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    D0wn wrote: »
    Apologize for what???
    Even after slavery, there was Jim Crow and Segregation.
    Africans werent the ones lynching, and ? , and having u pick cotton.
    African werent slave masters, in the Americas, Caribbean. And Australia.

    chains.jpg

    These ? above aint african, theyre Australians enslaved in Australia .

    enslavement-1.jpg
    This is a depiction of Native Americans enslavement, In America.

    Before africans were slaves, in america. native americans were enslaved.
    do africans need to apologize to natives and the Australians, as well???

    ? Need to stop playing stupid, ya know who damn well need not to apologize, but pay up reperations instead.

    disappointed-smh-basketball.gif

    I knew someone was gonna make himself look like a ? .

    If I knock you out, and my homie then shoots you, would you say that because what he did to you was worse than what I did that I don't owe you ? ?

    No, you wouldn't. So the Africans may still owe us an apology (and maybe reparations) even if their part in slavery wasn't the worst.

  • A Talented One
    A Talented One Members Posts: 4,202 ✭✭✭
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    Swiffness! wrote: »
    They didn't know what they were selling their brothers and sisters into. I guess they figured they would be treated like they were treated as indentured servants in Africa.

    ....no. HELL no. They were watching hundreds of naked people get locked in chains and herded onto ships ready to cross an ocean. How the ? could you see that and seriously think they WEREN'T gonna have a life of hardship and brutality? What was the morality rate during the Middle Passage again? Like 15-40%?

    They knew what was going on, they just didn't ? care because they were getting theirs so forget the next man.

    Just because West African nations don't have NEARLY AS MUCH to apologize for as Europe & America doesn't mean they have nothing to apologize for....

    Word. And not only that, but a lot of Africans died en route to the coast where they were to be sold. They just didn't care.
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    D0wn wrote: »
    Apologize for what???
    Even after slavery, there was Jim Crow and Segregation.
    Africans werent the ones lynching, and ? , and having u pick cotton.
    African werent slave masters, in the Americas, Caribbean. And Australia.

    chains.jpg

    These ? above aint african, theyre Australians enslaved in Australia .

    enslavement-1.jpg
    This is a depiction of Native Americans enslavement, In America.

    Before africans were slaves, in america. native americans were enslaved.
    do africans need to apologize to natives and the Australians, as well???

    ? Need to stop playing stupid, ya know who damn well need not to apologize, but pay up reperations instead.

    lol Other people doing wrong after you doesn't absolve you from the wrong you've done.

    That said, apologies from anyone is pointless. Apologies don't change what happened and won't help blacks in the West improve their current station.
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
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    So what good will come out of this thread except self hatred and coonism?
  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    So what good will come out of this thread except self hatred and coonism?

    What Coonism? Is somebody gonna argue that Slavery was Good?
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
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    Swiffness! wrote: »
    So what good will come out of this thread except self hatred and coonism?

    What Coonism? Is somebody gonna argue that Slavery was Good?

    Just wait and see
  • Swiffness!
    Swiffness! Members Posts: 10,128 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    lol well Republicans literally believe that Welfare hurt us worse than Slavery now so.......
  • rip.dilla
    rip.dilla Members Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    In Nigeria, some tribal leaders have taken the position that since slavery occurred long ago, the perpetrators of the crime own their sins and did not bequeath remorse to their descendants. In 2009, when Nigerian tribal chiefs sought a constitutional amendment formalizing their influential role in the country’s governance, the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, a human-rights organization, encouraged them to apologize for their role in the Atlantic slave trade. These efforts failed—in declining to apologize, one elder told a Nigerian newspaper that his people were “not apologetic about what happened in the past,” explaining that the slave trade was “very very legal” when his forebears were involved in it. Henry Bonsu, a broadcaster researching African apologies for slavery, told The Guardian at the time that among those he interviewed in Nigeria, “People aren't milling around Lagos … moaning about why chiefs don't apologise. They are more concerned about the everyday and why they still have bad governance.” Public opinion polls reflect this concern. The corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks Nigeria among the most corrupt countries worldwide; in 2013, 72 percent of Nigerian respondents to the NGO’s corruption-perception survey reported that the problem was getting much worse.





    There's not much to discuss after this ...




    The majority of people living in my country are living less better lives TODAY than Black Americans




    Life is hard; mistakes were made. The focus is to make the best of every situation you find yourself in and become a better human
  • kzzl
    kzzl Members Posts: 7,548 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2014
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    Nothing wrong with African's acknowledging their role. I believe some even offered programs specifically for African Americans to go to Africa and become citizens. They owning up to it and that's cool. But pales in comparison to what the US did.

    It wasn't Africa that had our ancestors hogtied in ? racks.
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
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    A talented one is a straight ? boy
  • indyman87
    indyman87 Members Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭
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    It was just 180 years ago that slavery was abolished. How are we not affected? If African really cared for us they would make an effort to identify and assign us to a specific tribe. But they won't.

    http://www.thenorthstarnews.com/fullstory/story/england-abolished-slavery-180-years-ago-this-month-and-slaveholders-received-the-equivalent-of-200-billion-reparations

    England Abolished Slavery 180 Years Ago this Month, and Slaveholders Received the Equivalent of $200 Billion in Reparations
    Black History

    by Frederick H. Lowe
    Staff Writer, The NorthStar News & Analysis

    August 1 passed quietly, but it shouldn't have because it is an important day in the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and a strong reminder as to why large numbers of blacks never got a leg up on the economic ladder.

    On August 1, 1834, England, the world's biggest slave trader, ended 250 years of a "national crime" against Africans, but slaveholders and slave traders were paid millions of British pounds in reparations for the loss of their property, as slaves were considered.

    The British government paid the slaveholders and others who benefited from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade £20 million or about $200 billion in today's currency, according to the book "Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide," by Sir Hilary McD. Beckles, chair of social and economic history at the University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados. Formerly enslaved Africans received nothing.

    Supporters and beneficiaries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade included members of the royal family, most members of Parliament, and the Anglican Church, which owned slaves and plantations in the Caribbean.
  • _Goldie_
    _Goldie_ Members, Moderators, Writer Posts: 30,349 Regulator
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    The true perpetrators are already dead, however, its ? up that the people currently living in Africa feel their ancestors did nothing wrong being that slave trading was "legal".
  • StillFaggyAF
    StillFaggyAF Members Posts: 40,358 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    indyman87 wrote: »
    It was just 180 years ago that slavery was abolished. How are we not affected? If African really cared for us they would make an effort to identify and assign us to a specific tribe. But they won't.

    http://www.thenorthstarnews.com/fullstory/story/england-abolished-slavery-180-years-ago-this-month-and-slaveholders-received-the-equivalent-of-200-billion-reparations

    England Abolished Slavery 180 Years Ago this Month, and Slaveholders Received the Equivalent of $200 Billion in Reparations
    Black History

    by Frederick H. Lowe
    Staff Writer, The NorthStar News & Analysis

    August 1 passed quietly, but it shouldn't have because it is an important day in the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and a strong reminder as to why large numbers of blacks never got a leg up on the economic ladder.

    On August 1, 1834, England, the world's biggest slave trader, ended 250 years of a "national crime" against Africans, but slaveholders and slave traders were paid millions of British pounds in reparations for the loss of their property, as slaves were considered.

    The British government paid the slaveholders and others who benefited from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade £20 million or about $200 billion in today's currency, according to the book "Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide," by Sir Hilary McD. Beckles, chair of social and economic history at the University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados. Formerly enslaved Africans received nothing.

    Supporters and beneficiaries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade included members of the royal family, most members of Parliament, and the Anglican Church, which owned slaves and plantations in the Caribbean.

    Assign you a tribe? Da ?







    Anyway yall missing the fact that none of these countries were around during those times except Benin. I dont need an apology from Ghana or Nigeria id rather have it from the Asantehene
    So what good will come out of this thread except self hatred and coonism?

    This. Most people here are too ignorant to intelligently discuss this topic
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
    Options
    indyman87 wrote: »
    It was just 180 years ago that slavery was abolished. How are we not affected? If African really cared for us they would make an effort to identify and assign us to a specific tribe. But they won't.

    http://www.thenorthstarnews.com/fullstory/story/england-abolished-slavery-180-years-ago-this-month-and-slaveholders-received-the-equivalent-of-200-billion-reparations

    England Abolished Slavery 180 Years Ago this Month, and Slaveholders Received the Equivalent of $200 Billion in Reparations
    Black History

    by Frederick H. Lowe
    Staff Writer, The NorthStar News & Analysis

    August 1 passed quietly, but it shouldn't have because it is an important day in the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and a strong reminder as to why large numbers of blacks never got a leg up on the economic ladder.

    On August 1, 1834, England, the world's biggest slave trader, ended 250 years of a "national crime" against Africans, but slaveholders and slave traders were paid millions of British pounds in reparations for the loss of their property, as slaves were considered.

    The British government paid the slaveholders and others who benefited from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade £20 million or about $200 billion in today's currency, according to the book "Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide," by Sir Hilary McD. Beckles, chair of social and economic history at the University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados. Formerly enslaved Africans received nothing.

    Supporters and beneficiaries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade included members of the royal family, most members of Parliament, and the Anglican Church, which owned slaves and plantations in the Caribbean.

    Assign you a tribe? Da ?







    Anyway yall missing the fact that none of these countries were around during those times except Benin. I dont need an apology from Ghana or Nigeria id rather have it from the Asantehene
    So what good will come out of this thread except self hatred and coonism?

    This. Most people here are too ignorant to intelligently discuss this topic

    Some posters shouldn't be allowed to own a computer. This should've been posted in the social lounge.

    The reason posters are even dumber. They'll argue with you about something that takes 2 seconds to google. They don't care about facts.
  • dwade206
    dwade206 Members Posts: 11,558 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Turfaholic wrote: »
    I wanna thank them for this jewelry and tattoos

    Did Souljah Boy really say that ? ? Or was that just rumor?
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    The slave trade origins are very deep with a big Web. It's not like we can easily say what Europeans done to us which is really linear. But ultimately the Europeans were are the ones at fault. The Africans who did descendants are commoners.

    http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/10/mulatto_slave_traders_who_were_they.html