Orville TaylorI have never been one for repatriation because having been brought here against my will, I have earned the right to live here. It is different for the descendants of Europeans, who were mostly slave owners and overseers. The exceptions are the Indians who made the decision to come to Jamrock to work. Truthfully, there is some sympathy for them especially the dark-skinned ones, who came hoping to get their teeth into a solid economic future. Unfortunately, the planters took a large bite out of their pay, thus, making them 'indentured' quasi-slaves.
This place, Xaymaca, was earned with the blood, sweat and tears of the Africans and their 'gineration'. Tomorrow, March 26, is officially recognised by the United Nations (UN) as the 200th anniversary of the ending of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Admirably, it will hold a minute of silence during the General Assembly in memory of all those who suffered and died during the 300 years from the late 1400s, to the end of the trade in 1807 and the end of slavery in 1838.
However, all of these dates mask the truth, because the slave trade has had a much longer history. As far back as the 1440s, the Portuguese were involved in human trafficking of Africans, sold out by their 'brothers.' By the time the Dutch West India Company got involved in the 1630s, a quarter century before the British routed the Spanish from Jamdown, close to 10,000 Africans per year were forcibly removed from their homeland, never to see it again.
When the British and Americans agreed to end the international trade in 1807 and 1808 respectively, it was not the end of the internal 'black market'. Slaves were still sold among planters until 1838 in the Caribbean, when the unprofitability of slavery and the constant uprisings such as the Sam Sharpe Christmas Rebellion in 1831, brought about its demise. It is generally unknown that between 1807 and 1860, many planters moved and 'extradited' their native-born African slaves to the United States and in particular, the Carolinas.
'Kleptocracies'
No definitive figures exist regarding the total number of persons who were 'stolen' from Africa, with or without the complicity of our own traitors. However, in 1996, Lord Anthony Gifford, a 'Brit-maican' lawyer, estimated it at around 20 million. This is four times the number of Jews who died in the holocaust. Gifford did what our parliamentarians failed to do and brought it to the House of Lords. But then again, one of the legacies of slavery is that black leaders have tended to betray the trust of their electorate and serve themselves. That is why black governments across Africa and in parts of the Caribbean have been accused of being 'kleptocracies'. Some are so dishonest that they drink black coffee, not out of ethnic pride but because they stole the milk out.
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, of South Korea, has described slavery as "a blight on the history of the world". He can easily empathise because during World War II, more than 200,000 Korean women were used as sex slaves of the occupying Japanese military. This only lasted a few years but it has been the source of monetary reparation to the survivors and their relatives. Almost certainly, Moon must have either kinfolk or neighbours who were maltreated in this way.
Thank God that tomorrow, the UN is launching a fund for the erection of a permanent memorial. However, lest it be forgotten, the activism that led to it did not come from the 'Moon' or the General Assembly. It began during the tenure of the 'eclipse', Kofi Annan, the first black Secretary General, and was initiated from right here in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Indeed, it was Ambassador Raymond Wolfe, a career diplomat, with an unbroken stint since the 1970s, and one of the authors of the UN Resolution who 'CARICOM' to the UN.
Keynote address
Consistent with the recognition that slavery was abolished due partially to the activism and indomitable spirit of the Africans here in the Americas, is the keynote address being given by none other than Professor Ralston Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). Inasmuch as it would be nice if Nettleford would surprise the world and speak authentic Jamaican patois for a sentence or two, his Afro-centric suit and neon-black complexion should quickly obscure his Oxonian propensity to display a litany of lexical acrobatics.
Coup! Four decades ago, our then blackest prime minister prevented Walter Rodney from returning to his job at the UWI precisely because of what the UN has agreed.
In a world when the most popular subject is the fiasco in Iraq and where there is apparent impotence regarding modern-day slavery in Darfur and Mauritania, the UN should be a major focal point. After all, when the UN was being established and a permanent site was agreed upon in 1944, the African American Dr. Ralph Bunche had a major role in its logistics. He became the first American ambassador to it and was the first mediator between the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, after the state of Israel was founded in 1948.
Bunche was the American representative to our first Independence ceremony in 1962 and would perhaps be a bit disappointed that we have done so little with our statehood. Since then, it has been scandals, allegations of impropriety, cronyism, improper party funding and placement of the national interest second to political exigencies.
Just last week, two alleged drug kingpins were 'exported' to the US. The haste with which the attorney- General dispatched them is just too reminiscent of our 'black' past.
Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
