04.06.2007

Never forget the “holocaust of Africa”

The transatlantic slave trade was an “African holocaust” that should never be forgotten, a coalition of global ecumenical church bodies working to commemorate the 200th anniversary of its abolition this year, said in March.

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	Slaves were kept in dungeons like this one in Elmina, Ghana.

“Two hundred years after the abolition, the dungeons along the coast of Africa tell the story of human degradation and indignity,” said the delegates representing the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Council for World Mission (CWM).

“While the dungeons are a reminder of this horrible stain on the history of humanity, the legacy of the slave trade remains today in the racism, economic exploitation and psychological damage done to millions of Africans and their descendants and millions of the world’s poor,” the church groups said.

“The global slave trade removed some of the most productive peoples in Africa, resulting in the African holocaust. Global trade now continues the degradation in the form of child labour, sex workers, human trafficking, incarceration of young people and institutional racism.

“The ecumenical community calls upon people and governments to rise up to their historical duty to recover and reclaim the divinity in all humanity so that economic and racial justice prevails,” the church groups state.

“We further call upon churches, governments and businesses who were unjustly enriched by the slave trade not only to repent but to demonstrate fruits of that repentance.”

The message was issued by the project coordinators marking the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of the British House of Commons on 25 March 1807, though the trade continued for some time and survivors and their families maintain that abolition was actually achieved through resistance and revolt by the enslaved and not primarily through the altruistic endeavours of British abolitionists.

Representatives of the global church groups met earlier in March to map out plans to mark the passing of the bill and document the slave trade’s legacies through statements, education programmes, international consultations and a transatlantic boat trip to re-enact the journey of the slaves.

“We boldly declare ‘never again’ but we must also use this historic occasion to commit ourselves to working for a world without any kind of enslavement that keeps God’s people from enjoying fullness of life,” said Setri Nyomi, a Ghanaian, and WARC’s general secretary.

“We pay tribute to the brave women and men and their descendants who bore the burden of slavery. Millions of Africans were captured, brutalized and murdered in the name of economic gain; let us commit ourselves to making that kind of enslavement a thing of the past.”

Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the WCC, said in a March letter to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair that European nations should begin a process of “truth-telling, repentance and reconciliation” concerning the slavery trade and the colonial legacy.

“People of African descent in diaspora and in Africa await an unambiguous apology and a clear sign from European nations that acknowledges their participation in this terrible part of colonial history,” said Kobia, a Kenyan.

Roderick Hewitt of Jamaica, moderator of CWM, who travelled to the slave dungeons in Ghana in 2004, calling them a “a dark epiphany,” said the slave trade was a structure that brought about the “unjust enrichment of the few through the exploitation of the vulnerable.

“This global economic structure is mirrored today in the neoliberal economic framework and needs to be so identified and addressed.”

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	A church stands in the centre of a courtyard at the Elmina slave dungeons.

The church groups insist there is much to be done by all kinds of organizations to help place memory of the “holocaust of Africa” permanently in the minds and hearts of the people around the world.

Said Fatma M. Alloo, a consultant to the ecumenical planning team from Zanzibar, Tanzania, “The world is still tearing Africa apart and we need to take drastic measures using various forms of communication to take the continent forward.

“There is a growing need to collect resources for documentation purposes and research on the issues and eliminate the spirit of soulless humanity that existed.”

The delegates concluded: “After 200 years, the time for talk is over; the poor of the world await urgent and just action.”