Bahamas Commemoration of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

by Larry Smith

"May the time come...when the sable people shall gratefully commemorate the auspicious era of extensive freedom." -- Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano was born in what is now Nigeria and kidnapped into slavery at the age of 11. He was shipped to Barbados and then to Virginia, where he was able to buy his freedom in 1766.

In later life, he played an active role in the British movement to abolish the slave trade. And his autobiography was an international bestseller, presenting an eyewitness account of slavery from a true insider's perspective.

Winston Saunders was a Bahamian teacher and writer, as well as a lawyer and judge. His untimely death in Jamaica on Saturday at the age of 65 is a profound loss to the cultural community in the Bahamas.

At the time, Mr Saunders was meeting with Jamaican officials to discuss the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in his role as co-chairman of the Bahamas Cultural Development Commission.

The actual 200th anniversary of the British law that ended the slave trade occurs on March 25, 2007. It marks a tremendous achievement that represented the beginning of the end of human slavery - a condition that has existed in various forms since ancient times.

Next year's commemoration will feature special events throughout Britain and in other countries that were involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act paved the way for the better-known Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833, which emancipated all enslaved people in the former British Empire.

From the 15th to the 19th century, between 10 and 15 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic, with an estimated death rate of about 13 per cent. Their experiences in the so-called "Middle Passage" voyage from Africa to the West Indies were horrific, as this account of his own journey by Equiano shows:

"The air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the chains, now unsupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable."

European colonies in the Caribbean accounted for 42 per cent of this trade. And among the British territories, Jamaica was the biggest importer. According to the Bahamas census of 1810 - three years after the slave trade ended - about three quarters of the population of just over 17,000 was non-white, mostly slaves. From that time onward, thousands of liberated Africans were resettled here as a result of the British naval crackdown on slave trading.

Historians Michael Craton and Gail Saunders reported that these Africans were recruited into the military or apprenticed to suitable employers. About half were settled in new communities carved out of the bush on New Providence - such as Carmichael, Gambier and Adelaide. The rest were settled on the out islands - from the Berries down to Ragged Island.

The 1807 abolition was achieved by a mass movement that included Africans who, through rebellions, personal acts of resistance and as anti-slavery campaigners in their own right, were pivotal in bringing an end to the slave trade. In fact, one of the biggest contributors to this achievement was the 1804 Haitian Revolution, which set a supreme example by defeating powerful military expeditions from Spain, Britain and France. Until then, Haiti had been the single biggest market for slaves in the New World.

As Trinidad-born writer CLR James put it: "The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful nations of their day, is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement."

International plans for the abolition bicentenary have been tied to a raging debate over whether the descendents of enslaved Africans are entitled to reparations and official apologies. At a United Nations conference in South Africa five years ago, slavery was declared a crime against humanity. This was part of a decade-long campaign by the African diaspora to gain international recognition for the injustices of the slave trade.

A pan-African conference in Nigeria in 1993 argued that a moral debt is owed to African peoples and called for "full monetary payment ... through capital transfer and debt cancellation." Later, demands that the slave trade be named a crime against humanity and that the former slave-trading nations apologize for it were woven into the case for reparations.

The call for reparations is controversial. According to a UN web site: "Some have argued that the slave trade took place too long ago to make legal remedies possible, and that disagreements over who would pay reparations, to whom, where and in what form made the idea unworkable. Others noted that Africans themselves had colluded with foreign slave dealers by kidnapping and selling their people into slavery. Moreover, Africans also practiced slavery, and in some African countries they continue to do so."

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a strong statement of regret for Britain’s role in the slave trade this week, expressing deep sorrow for a “profoundly shameful” episode in history.

“Personally I believe the bicentenary offers us a chance not just to say how profoundly shameful the slave trade was, how we condemn its existence utterly and praise those who fought for its abolition, but also to express our deep sorrow that it ever happened, that it ever could have happened and to rejoice at the different and better times we live in today.”

The British commemoration will feature a 200-mile march to London from the city of Hull, which was represented in parliament by William Wilberforce, who was Britain's leading anti-slavery campaigner. Other activities will include exhibitions, concerts and conferences.

According to one Afro-British leader: "2007 is an unprecedented opportunity to join in making groundbreaking progress in repairing the damage of 400 years of enslavement to Africans, African descendants, white people and communities of other cultural heritage. It is up to all of us, governments and civil society, to acknowledge past wrongs, and to be prepared to take responsibility for rectifying their effects."

It is unclear exactly how the Bahamas will participate in the bicentenary. There has been talk of lectures and panels to generate a discussion on slavery and race relations, as well as a possible visit by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Winston Saunders was meeting with the Jamaica National Bicentenary Planning Committee on these matters at the time of his death.

The one event that does seem fixed is the hosting of next fall's African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference in Nassau. The first two conferences were held in Bermuda, and attracted hundreds of officials, educators, scientists and travel professionals from Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. Dr. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was the guest of honour at last year's meeting.

According to Janet Johnson at the Ministry of Tourism, the 2007 conference will take participants to key African heritage sites on New Providence and other islands: "In addition to academics they will include travel agents and other industry professionals to help us build on this concept for the benefit of tourism."

The conference is part of the UNESCO Slave Route Project, an initiative proposed by Haiti back in 1992. The project has three major goals: to break the silence surrounding slavery by studying the slave trade, to clarify its consequences, and to contribute to a culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence between races and peoples.

As the Jamaican Bicentenary Planning Committee put it: "All nations need an understanding of their past and a knowledge about the experiences of their ancestors in order to help them build a future. The struggle to end the slave trade involved the enslaved themselves, not just British humanitarians. We need to showcase this aspect of our history and destabilize the view that 'Queen Victoria Set Us Free'."

Comments

[nicob]

Thanks, Larry.

NB

[Ralph Massey]

Your article on the Transatlantic Slave Trade missed several important points because it was written from a Bahamian point of view. These comments are based in large parts on the incredible work of Thomas Sowell, literally volumes, on the movement of people across borders.

. It is easy to dismiss the existence of slavery going back to the origins of mankind. One should note that at one time one-half of Rome's population were slaves and the word itself is of Eastern European origin.

. The slave trade across the Atlantic was matched by a simultaneous and equally large North African and Middle Eastern trade that was most difficult to end.

. The high volume African slave trade ended around the world because of the power and commitment of the British Government to end it...for which it gets no credit.

. The 200th anniversary is likely to be yet another occasion for the less developed countries of the world to bash the developed countries...no doubt with the encouragement of the UN and its NGO siblings...another occasion to inflame racial hatred. In this way these countries can overlook, for a moment, the causes for their backwardness and the social and political changes needed in the fabric of their own societies.

. The 200th anniversary will no doubt stress the unique character of this "inhuman" experience when a comparable transatlantic disaster followed the potato famine in Ireland in the mid-1840s and tribal genocide on a large scale erupted in post World War II Africa right down to today

. In the case of the United States slavery did not end with the formation of the country because it was the "deal breaker" in the formation of the "national union" itself. This issue was addressed almost 100 years later at a cost of 500,000 men. How do we compensate them for their sacrifice? Do we compensate the descendants of Union casualties only?

[Grace Marshall]

(This) is an enormous subject with far-reaching influences on millions of people.

I found 'Bound for Canaan' by Fergus M. Bordewitch, published by Amistad, a treasure trove of information. These people who organized and managed the Underground Railroad were true heroes.

This book is too detailed for the average reader but if some of the facts in this book could be used in some kind of exhibit it would be very worthwhile. People need to know the history of the Slave Trade. I remember learning in school : 1833 Abolition of Slavery with no idea at all of the meaning of those words. It is only since coming live in Nassau six years ago that I have educated myself on the subject by reading many books.

I note that you mention that the Bahamas will host African Diaspora Trail Conference and that the Ministry of Tourism will take participants to key African Heritage sites on New Providence sites on New Providence.There is a great need for people to be educated about this subject - not just professionals and tourist agents.

There should be some exhibits at the Art Gallery and at the Historical Society. I am a member of the Historical Society so I shall ask if they have any plans in this area. Can you interest some people who are capable of doing an Exhibit or planning an event?

[larry smith]

Thanks. I shall be including an update on this topic in my next column.

[Arthur Foulkes]

It's interesting that Ralph Massey sees it as an occasion to inflame hatred. Why is that always the response from some people at every attempt to discuss the rape of Africa and the enslavement of black people in the West?

This was the worst crime against humanity in history. It was different from every other form of slavery before or since because it was sustained for 300 years, it was based on race and the supposed inferiority of black people, it was brutally intense, and because blacks still suffer from the presumption of inferiority many years after emancipation.

Why is it that nobody accuses the Jews of stirring up hatred against the Germans by their their endless -- but justified -- commemoration of the suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis?

Is three centuries of black suffering of less value, and why?

Furthermore Mr. Massey should know that most of the problems of African countries today stem from the pillaging and depopulation of that continent by the Europeans during the slave period, their continued subjugation up until only a half century ago, and their manipulation and exploitation up until today.

[joanne smith]

My great-great grandmother was black and I am proud to say that. But the truth is that we can blame no-one for our problems but ourselves.

The thought of the slave trade makes me want to vomit because of what the Africans went through. But even though slavery lasted 300 years, it's been over 200 years since it was abolished by the British and we should not continue to use this as a crutch for all our problems.

I know many 'people of colour' who want to get past this, who only want to be thought of as human beings, not humans with a particular colour.

If we are still having problems I lay the blame at the feet of too many black men who think they can behave like teenage boys, doing whatever they feel like and not taking responsibility for their actions, screwing everything in sight and carelessly making children.

Good, decent black men need to have the courage to get up and say 'you are not my brother' when you behave is such a way. All this talk about a village bringing up a child is true, but in the old country if you did not take responsibility for your children you were cast out.

Respect is not just for your children but for your women. They are not chattel! You cannot disrespect half the population and think nothing of it and just use brute force to subdue them.

We need only look to the rapid spread of AIDS and understand that this has, in large part, been caused by loose sexual behaviour and a wife not being able to tell her husband to get lost when he wants to have sex with her after other partners (without him chopping her to death).

We need to have good black men stand up for themselves and say what they feel. Free themselves from mental slavery. Its not whitey that is doing this to us, its what we are doing to ourselves every time we make this excuse for bad behaviour and gross irresonsibility.