Europe Faces Pressure To Pay Slavery Reparations

Campaigners are to urge the countries that oversaw the slave trade to recognize it as a crime against humanity. While European nations now accept that slavery was an injustice, governments have fought shy of offering compensation.



May 4, 2010

Historians and anti-racism campaigners are to urge the countries that oversaw and profited from the Atlantic slave trade to recognize it as a crime against humanity, opening the way for reparations. Next week, activists are to send a letter to the leaders of Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain asking them to recognize the trade as an historic injustice a century and a half after it ended. They have already convinced France to do so.

The European Memorial Foundation for the Slave Trade will launch the appeal at the French Senate on May 10 backed by the French historian Louis Sala-Molins and John Franklin from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. "There are several reasons for this, including its symbolic value, to restore the memory of this crime against humanity," Karfa Diallo, chairman of the foundation, told AFP. "There's also a question, shall we say, of justice," he said.

The continuing problem of racism in a Europe that now has an ethnically diverse population that could be precisely traced back to the 16th and 17th century texts justifying and codifying slavery, he argued. "Racism and discrimination persists in Europe. Young people of Caribbean and African ancestry are victims of it. And we know, historians have shown this, that racism was born in this story."

Diallo's group was founded in the former French slave port of Bordeaux in 1998. It has found allies in other cities of Western Europe that grew wealthy on the profits of the trade, from Bristol in England to Porto in Portugal. And now it wants other European states to follow France in recognizing that the slave trade was not just a historical tragedy, but a criminal act that has enduring social consequences in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe's melting pot cities. France passed a law in 2001 recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity and the then president Jacques Chirac declared May 10 as a national day of remembrance for the victims of slavery.

"If we accept that it was a crime, then there should be reparations. All crimes deserve compensation for victims and punishment for perpetrators," argued Diallo. "We'd like to see the creation of an international memorial fund, that would support a School of Memory. A fund managed by the United Nations," he said. The school would teach the history of the slave trade to descendants of victims and slavers alike, he added.

While European nations now accept that slavery was an injustice, governments have fought shy of offering compensation. Some Europeans argue it is impossible to put a price on the suffering of slaves long dead and of regions of Africa that weren't then even states. But Diallo argued that Germany's reparations of victims of the Nazi Holocaust had set one precedent, while some payouts have already been made in the case of slavery -- but to the slave owners, not their slaves.

"Europe owes a part of its capital to those that suffered," he said. "So far, only the slavers have been compensated. In all the colonies, when slavery was abolished, states decided to compensate. For as long as there are no reparations to the descendants of the victims, we remain in a situation of extraordinary injustice, which is that we paid off the slavers. That's hard to accept in the 21st century."

Source: AFP

 

Should African countries pay reparations too since slavery was legal in Africa?, what whites did was perfectly legal in Africa, in fact, they were the ones who sold their own, African countries should be the first to apologize for slavery.

 

British Slave Trade 1600-1807

Britain played a prominent role in the Atlantic slave trade which began around the mid-fifteenth century when Portuguese interests in Africa moved away from the fabled deposits of gold to a much more readily available commodity; slaves. The profits of the slave trade and of West Indian plantations amounted to 5% of the British economy at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Many slaves were owned by plantation owners who lived in Britain.

African people were enslaved, sold and brought to North America and the Caribbean.

The British transatlantic slave trade was responsible for about 25 per cent of the people removed from Africa through captivity and the treacherous "middle passage." It is estimated that more than 12 million enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade.

 

Yea, great timing during a depression/recession because all the countries are doing so well in europe now.

 

Hey douche bag, why don't you go to racist site? Wrong audience you have here to advocate white nationalist causes to.

 

Denmark Entered The Business Of Slavery In The Mid 17th Century

The enthusiasm for African profits began with a lust for ivory, palm oil and gold, but it soon shifted to the more lucrative business of slavery. After seeing its larger European neighbours, the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, making enormous profits by buying and exporting African slaves, Denmark was compelled to follow suit.

The average Danish slave ship left Copenhagen with anywhere between 30,000 and 40,000 posts of alcohol in its hold. Between 1771 and 1789, official figures show that 12,060 slaves were exported to the Americas through Christiansborg. Of these, 2,706 died. Cramped into hulls whose ceilings were an average height of a meter and a half, slaves spent weeks laying or crouching in spaces the size of coffins. In all it is believed that 85,000 slaves were exported during the 196 years of Danish slave trade.

 

No, they won't let me post there because of my skin color...


It's the truth, no one ever mentions what our own ancestors did to us, after all it's so much easier to blame Europeans... sure.

 

The Dutch Slave Trade 1500-1850

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch had only about 5-6% of the total share in the Atlantic slave trade. However, they did have a significant role in the development of the trade in the first half of the seventeenth century, not only through supplying their short-lived Brazilian colony with slaves, but, perhaps more importantly by stimulating the cultivation of sugar - with the consequent urgent need for slaves - in the French and English Caribbean. Then they turned to Spanish America, transporting around 100,000 slaves to this region by 1730.

The Dutch bought their slaves in West Africa and the Congo/Angola region, and they bought them on the open market. The slaves were mostly taken to the Dutch West Indies and Surinam.

 

I KNOW that slavery was so damn wrong and I DONT agree with the way black ppl were treated back then...and I'm a big fighter against racism...but just to get the facts right (and actually my country was nothing to do with that + i had to do research for school) actually it was their own uncles, dads, grandpas and village leaders who sold their own people to white folks...
but that again doesnt justify anything. just before u blame everybody, u should know where it started and how they REALLY got millions of black slaves from africa back then!

 

The other guy has a point. Europe and africa should pay to all of the black people put through slavery. It is only fair to pay the victims and not the countries or people who are not victims.

 

The Portuguese Were The First Europeans To Enslave Africans

The first Europeans to extensively explore the African Coast were the Portuguese. The Portuguese king, Henry the Navigator, gave explicit instructions to his sailors in 1445 to "win over" the Africans so they could "buy" human beings, instead of kidnapping them. By 1488, they were making huge profits from the slave trade.

Three islands - Madeira, Cape Verde and Sao Tome played crucial roles in the Portuguese slave trade. After 1450, the Portuguese introduced irrigation methods and sugar mills on Madeira, increasing both productivity and the demand for slaves. To meet this expanding demand, Portugal began massive importation of slaves. Soon, Cape Verde had become an important provisioning station for slaves headed for the Americas.

By 1506, the Portuguese monarch was earning over two million reis from the slave trade through taxes and duties. By royal decree, Portuguese settlers in the Americas were given loans on easy terms, from 1531 onwards, to buy slaves to work their sugar plantations.

"Soaring European demand for Brazilian sugar and the unsuitability of Amerindian slave labour," says the Macmillan Encyclopaedia of World Slavery, "led to extensive imports of African slaves after 1570". After the near-total extermination of the Amerindians, the Europeans were left with no choice but ship in more Africans. This explains why, today, there are more people of African descent in Brazil than native Brazilians; in fact Brazil's Black population is the second biggest in the world, after Nigeria.

 

ENGLAND BEATS FRANCE IN STRUGGLE FOR SLAVE TRADE

Throughout the first half of 18th century, France and England battled for control of the Guinea Coast. In Lower Guinea, Britain's main adversary was the Dutch. But when the Dutch Company was liquidated, the British soon gained control of the entire Ivory, Grain, and Gold Coasts. France, Britain's main adversary in Upper Guinea, soon lost interest because of lack of profits. The sparsely populated Upper Guinea coast did not provide enough slaves. In addition, interior ethnic groups were very hostile to European influence. By the mid-18th century, Britain had full control of West African trade. In addition, the British won the Assiento, the sole license to ship Black slaves from Africa to Spanish controlled territories in America, in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. British dominance in the slave trade began a new period of change in the European/African relationship. The English would begin to explore, conquer and rule African peoples. The Age of Trade shifted into the Age of Colonization.

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/13406/ta/2.htm

The slave trade was so profitable that, by 1672, the Royal African Company chartered by Charles II of England superseded the other traders and became the richest shipper of human slaves to the mainland of the Americas. The slaves were so valuable to the open market - they were eventually called "Black Gold."

 

I always hear this argument. What you must remember is that the Africans primarily took slaves after inter-tribal conflicts. The victorious tribe would take the defeated tribes as slaves. The Europeans took advantage of the situation and introduced guns(Muskets) to trade with Africans. The Europeans would arm certain tribes, giving them an advantage over other tribes. If a certain tribe refused to co-operate with the Europeans they would arm another tribe. The result of this was, as Africans had previously taken slaves after wars, they soon began raiding missions amongst other tribes to satisfy the European appetite for slaves. This increased inter-tribal conflict, and ensured Europeans were always able to receive the required amount of slaves.

I know some Africans took slaves in large numbers prior to Europeans arriving in Africa. But, you must remember that being taken as a slave by a fellow African was different to being taken by Europeans. Slaves held by Africans could occasionally rise to positions of importance and buy themselves their own freedom. Slaves born within the master’s household were better treated than war captives or trade slaves. They were often treated as members of the family. Being taken as a slave by an African, there was always the possibility of you seeing your family again. While being taken as a slave by a European, you never saw your family again.

When you say Africans should apologize, would they not be apologizing for being exploited?

 

Liisu,your country is not involved in the Slave trade since it was occupied by Russia. I doubt there would be any reparations since the Euro is almost going down like a rock. For example Haiti had not gotten theirs for years from France so what do anyone think the EU members whom are involved in the transatlantic slave trade to give any money?

 

The majority of the European Countries were not involved in the trans Atlantic slave trade but there are some surprising countries involved:

The first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World were the Spaniards who sought auxiliaries for their conquest expeditions and laborers on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola.

Merchants from various European nations were later involved in the Atlantic Slave trade: Portugal, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Denmark, and the Netherlands

 

you can't deny the fact that we sold ourselves for profit, so to speak. acknowledging that doesn't make you a race-traitor who belongs on some Aryan brotherhood site. we should all be just as hateful towards our brothers that sold us into slavery, as we are with the white people involved in the legacy of it.

 

That's why I keep saying. Have both the african and europeans countries that sold slaves pay the victims. It is a win win for everyone.

 

hehe i know right?

regardless of whether or not you were directly related to slavery, with respect to lineage, just about every African-American in the US, is being or has been subjected to a nasty wake that it has left in its path. Nevertheless, reparations have been issued to peoples in the past, just not us. Goes to show you how deep this grudge against us goes.

 

In fact, whatever he stated is something you would hear come out of my mouth probably verbatim. It's just that it came from this empyrium character whom I think is a suspect and not black. He's got these subliminal attacks on blacks I don't know how to take his replies. Read his other posts and you will understand why, I must admit, did not respond objectively. To me, he comes as though his mere purpose here is to psycho-terrorize members of this board.

 

I don't have time to read hot garbage

;-)