In light of recent discussions regarding racism and the EVIL demonstrated by the COLLECTIVE white people, and the ageless and tiresome reactionary response used to justify this STAIN and OFFENCE against humanity....that... hey..."Africans sold each other too", we find it NECESSARY to put this issue under the microscope.
Without a proper and courageous discussion of OURstory, equal rights and justice "will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained"
We have often accused of having a "romantic" view of Afrika. We beg to differ. We are not Romans, nor have a ROME-antic world view. Therefore we prefer to "look from behind the spectacles of Ethiopia" and instead offer an AFRO-mantic OUR-storical perspective.
The system of servitude, as known and practiced in Afrika cannot possibly or remotely be compared to the system of chattel slavery as practiced by Europe.
1- Generally speaking, the Afrikan system of servitude had a maximum time limit of 7 years. Unlike the European system that not only bound one to slavery for their ENTIRE LIVES, but worse still, all their future children and grandchildren as well, simply based on skin color (regardless of degrees or shades of melanin)
2- One could marry out of the system of servitude, as often was the case, historically and biblically speaking.
3- One could rize from the ranks of "slave" to PHARAOH. For those who need biblical reference to validate this, the story of Joseph is a good example.
From HUMAN BONDAGE: Page 47-50, "Overturning the Culture of Violence"
"The statement that “Africans enslaved their own people” separates out African people from other colonial subjects, all of whom have had their share of betrayal among their ranks. It is a statement of imperialism’s historic need to mobilize public opinion against African people.
Like the general white attitude toward the government-imposed drugs and dependent drug economy in today’s African communities, this statement lets the parasitic colonial economic system off the hook. It is an anti-black expression of unity with the oppression of African people, saying, “They did it to themselves.” Meanwhile all white people everywhere still benefit from the parasitic economic system which has as its foundation the enslavement and continued exploitation of African people."
The Myth of Black African Slave Traders
by Ayanna
"Africans in the Diaspora have the challenge of rewriting a history that has been stained by years of distortions, omission and downright lies. One of the biggest challenges of rewriting this history has been the Atlantic Slave Trade, and one of the biggest sore points has been the idea that "Black Africans sold their own into slavery". A lack of information, a paucity of expansive scholarship and an unwillingness to have a serious discourse on Colourism as it existed in Africa even before European intervention, has contributed to this. Diaspora Africans are often quite naïve and will do anything to hold fast to the illusion that " we are all Africans" and ignore the racism that has existed among a group that is far from uniform.
Servitude systems that existed in Africa, and in other indigenous communities cannot be compared to racist slave systems in the Western world and to this day we attempt to try to see this slavery in the same context. People bring up accounts of Biblical slavery, of serfdom in Europe and yes, of servitude in Africa and attempt to paint all these systems with the same brush. However NO OTHER SLAVE SYSTEM has created the never-ending damaging cycle as the Atlantic Slave Trade. West Indian poet Derek Walcott has stated his feeling that our penchant for forgetting is a defense mechanism against pain, that if we were to take a good hard look at our history, at centuries of victimization, it would be too much for us to handle and we would explode. Well I say we are exploding anyway and in many cases from bombs that are not even our own. We have begun the long hard road of rewriting our ancient history, of recovering our old and noble legacy. Let us not stop and get cold feet now when the enemy now appears to take on a slightly darker hue. We must look at the slave trade in its OWN context, complete with all the historic and psychological peculiarities that have made it the single most damaging and enduring system of exploitation and hatred ever perpetrated in the recent memory of mankind. Until we do, we will not escape its legacy."
http://raceandhistory.com/selfnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1076859043,27424,.shtml
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