duh...
Posted on 05/02/2010 9:02:10 PM PDT by neverdem
THANKS to an unlikely confluence of history and genetics — the fact that he is African-American and president — Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to reshape the debate over one of the most contentious issues of America’s racial legacy: reparations, the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors’ unpaid labor and bondage.
There are many thorny issues to resolve before we can arrive at a judicious (if symbolic) gesture to match such a sustained, heinous crime. Perhaps the most vexing is how to parcel out blame to those directly involved in the capture and sale of human beings for immense economic gain.
While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.
For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests, which is why Henry Morton Stanley’s pursuit of Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 made for such...
--snip--
How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So those Africans don’t get blamed for what, two centuries or more, but the white people do? I smell racism.
>>Statistically it is highly likely that almost every person on the planet is descended from both slaveowners and slaves.<<
I am Gilligan Kwame Theobold McTavish de los Santos Jefferson.
I think I owe myself like a bazillion dollars.
Oddly, slavery was probably at one time a moral advance. Prior to its introduction the men of defeated tribes were just slaughtered. Then somebody had the bright idea of making the captives work for them and slavery was born.
It's not much fun being a slave, but for most it's probably better than being dead.
This is for men, of course. Captured women have probably always and forever been enslaved, at least the cute ones, but frankly that often didn't change their status or treatment much from what it had been before.
Slavery in modern Africa
Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves.
Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries’ law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organised criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.
Slavery by African country
Chad
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."[2]
Mali
The Malian government denies that slavery exists, however, the slavery in Timbuktu is obvious. Slavery still continues with some Tuaregs holding Bella people.[3]
Mauritania
A system exists now by which Arab Muslims -- the bidanes -- own black slaves, the haratines.[4] An estimated 90,000 black Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved to Arab/Berber owners.[5] The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages.[6] According to some estimates, up to 600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[7] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[8] Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:
"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea.[9]"
In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.[10] Moreover, according to Amnesty International:
"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".[11]
Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:
"[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave."[12]
Niger
In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[13] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalised in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerian human-rights group, Timidria.[14] More than 870,000 people still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.[15][16]
Descent-based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes — the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[17] It is especially rife among the warlike Tuareg, in the wild deserts of north and west Niger, who roam near the borders with Mali and Algeria.[18] In the region of Say on the right bank of the river Niger, it is estimated that three-quarters of the population around 1904-1905 was composed of slaves.[19]
Historically, the Tuareg swelled the ranks of their slaves during war raids into other peoples’ lands. War was then the main source of supply of slaves, although many were bought at slave markets, run mostly by indigenous peoples.[20][21]
Sudan
Francis Bok, former Sudanese slave. At the age of seven, he was captured during a raid in Southern Sudan, and enslaved for ten years.(Courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association/Jeanette Leardi)
There has been a recrudescence of jihad slavery since 1983 in the Sudan.[23][24]
Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers and has never completely died out in Sudan. In the Sudan, Christian and animist captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission.[25] According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [1] In 2001 CNN reported the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.[26] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." [2]
Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.[27]
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[28][29]
Child slave trade
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[30] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[31] [32]
Ghana, Togo, Benin
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[33] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[34]
Ethiopia
Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some isolated studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as the Worst Form of Child Labor.[35]
In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa, and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.[35]
And they're ALL dead and buried, and slavery in the US ended ~145 years ago, and ~500K Americans died fighting over it.
Many do not recognize that Muslims were trading Africa for over 1400 years, prior to the presence of Europeans. They took them into into the Mid East. Muslims also traded in whites as they captured them as well on a regular basis, let alone those conquered in their expansionary drives. The crusades translated into many dead and many, many slaves.
There is even record of them moving millions by foot driven like cattle, across the desert and into Somalia. African kingdoms were built on this, selling their enemies to Arab slave traders.
Unesco has records on this, but do not speak up as it is far more convenient to hang the west on this than have Islam absorb any blame.
Islam too, had huge projects, built from slave labor.
“Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”
A. Lincoln
Reparations have already been paid in the form of 600,000 deaths and destruction, it was called The American Civil War.
Amazes me how people forget that.
“He (Obama) is uniquely placed to publicly attribute responsibility and culpability where they truly belong, to white people and black people, on both sides of the Atlantic”
Where the culpability “truly” belongs is at the feet of people who have been dead for two centuries or more. White people don’t owe Mr Gates or other black people “reparations” any more than John Wilkes Booth’s descendants (if any) owe reparations to Abraham Lincoln’s descendants.
The fact that Obama “agreed entirely with the theory of reparations.” adds yet another bizarre dimension to his ridiculous presidency.
Yes. That's one of the reasons I reposted the article and linked one of the two threads of the same article. I thought it was only one. It was two. I didn't check completely.
I’ve come across other articles written by Gates that surprised me, too. That one “incident” stands out, and that’s how most Americans got to know him. But, the man has it right with this article.
If instead of slavery, someone had gone to Africa advertising for endentured servants, they probably would have had to turn people away due to the number of persons wanting to come here.
Slavery aside, most blacks in America are far better off here than those who descended from folks who didn’t come here, albeit as slaves.
duh...
Du Bois with Mao
“...”Since 1991, Gates has been teaching African American studies at Harvard, where he serves as the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. De Bois, an American civil rights activist, sociologist, historian and author, was an avowed communist and also a socialist sympathizer...
From the National Guardian March 16, 1953
On Stalin By W.E.B. DuBois
Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also - and this was the highest proof of his greatness - he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate...
AND THEN HE WENT TO LIVE IN GHANA -
Because there never was a communist he didn't love.
“Statistically it is highly likely that almost every person on the planet is descended from both slaveowners and slaves.”
Unpleasant as it may be to modern sensibilities, we are all descended from people who were the victors in invasions, slavers, cannibals and who practiced human sacrifice.
Just a matter of how far back one goes. “Reparations” for the acts of those long dead are necessarily arbitrary.
Judgement is in the hand of God. Jack is what is in the minds of the reparations opportunists.
Haiti is another slave holding culture, especially involving children. Unicef estimates that there could be as many as 300,000 restavek children in Haiti, thousands living with the constant threat of violence.
“There is physical abuse, psychological abuse and there are cases of rape, and there are children who actually die from the abuses,” says Julie Bergeron, Unicef head of child protection in Haiti.
I thought Armand Hammer was bad news but this Stalin and Mao worshiping DuBois character makes him look like Mickey Mouse.
Well, if WE must pay reparations they should be paid in Confederate Dollars.
My ancestors came here in 1850, and never owned slaves. Why should I have to pay one dime? They never benefited from the labor of slaves, because to my knowledge not one drop of slave sweat was ever spent in the arid Mountain West from slavery’s inception in the U.S. and its official “demise” after the civil war.
The whole concept of reparations paid on the basis of race is ridiculous and it only gets taken seriously at all due to the horrors of slavery and the abstract nature of applying the idea to the past. But if the concept of groups of people with similarly colored skin sharing some collective responsibility were even a remotely logical idea, wouldn't it make sense to apply it first to actions in the present, not the past? So, for example, there could be a tax, based on your race, to pay for the costs of incarcerating whoever happened to be in jail who had the same skin color as you did. But that's obviously a ridiculous idea, and shows just how silly the whole concept of race based reparations is.
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