#BTColumn – An inconvenient truth

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

By Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

Mahatma Gandhi is alleged to have said, “I think it would be great idea,” in response to the question of what he thought about Western Civilization. In all fairness to Europeans, we must give it to them for having had a good run for the past five hundred plus years. Ever since Christopher (Should Have Stayed at Home) Columbus got lost in the Caribbean while trying to reach the east by sailing west, Europeans have been acting like the masters of the universe.

China, India, and Africa were transformed into handmaids of Europe and the wealth of these regions was stolen as though stealing was a sacrament of religion of the Europeans. The morally uptight British fought two wars with China simply because they wanted the right to push drugs in China. The French also took a crack at China after Chinese patriots decided that all foreigners were persona non grata in China and launched the Boxer Rebellion.

India became known as the jewel in the British crown for very good reasons. Allegedly one of the famous jewels in the British crown was surreptitiously misappropriated (stolen) from India. The British penetrated and dominated India for nearly a century. In Africa just about every European nation got in on the exploitation orgy culminating in the partition of Africa by the European at the Berlin Conference in 1884.

The British boasted that their global empire was so extensive that the sun never set completely on it. Maybe it was a good thing that there was never total darkness in the British Empire considering all the not so nice things the British did in broad daylight. The French never wanting to be second at anything good or bad also developed a sprawling global empire that rivaled the British Empire.

Europeans are quick to remind the world that they gave while they were taking from the rest of the world. We may not want to admit it but there is no denying that Europeans did many good things in addition to all the Machiavellian and diabolical stuff they were masters of. The Europeans established businesses, built roads and other needed infrastructure to facilitate their exploitation, set up courts to administer European justice locally, introduced modern governmental structures, opened schools and hospitals, and set the world on a path to scientific discovery.

Very often because of the scars of the past we fail to give credit to Europeans when they deserve credit. One very noteworthy positive achievement of the Europeans especially in Africa was the ending of the slave trade. It should be understood that Europeans did not start the system of slavery in Africa. Africans like people all over the globe were already practising domestic slavery.

It was the domestic slave market that supplied the Europeans with their human bounty. Europeans and Arabs slave traders set up their trading forts along the African coast allowing African middle men to do most of the heavy lifting in the interior. As pointed out by the critics of the movie The Woman King it was ethnic groups like the Dahomey Kingdom that captured and delivered their countrymen to the cruelty of the Atlantic slave trade.

Notwithstanding the almost universal acceptance and practice of slavery it was European philosophers, statesmen and clerics who eventually launched the challenge to the deeply entrenched system of human trafficking. Europeans were the trail blazers in this noble enterprise. After declaring the slave trade to be abolished in 1807 the English deployed the West African Squadron to interdict ships engaged in slave trading along the African coast. It is estimated that the West African Squadron liberated 150 000 enslaved Africans.

Honourable mention must be made of all the Europeans who valiantly fought to end the slave trade in Africa and slavery in the Caribbean and the Americas. Names like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce should not be forgotten by people of African ancestry. Caucasian allies have always played an important part in the Black struggle for freedom and justice. These Caucasian allies were more noble than many Black African ethnic rulers who were greatly agitated and annoyed by the news of the British abolition of the slave trade in Africa.

Europeans can therefore be credited with doing something for Africans that not even many of their rulers were willing to do namely legally ending the inhumane practice of human trafficking in European- controlled Africa. It is regrettable that in the post colonial era there are still remnants of human trafficking and slavery being practised on the African continent. Child soldiers and labourers, the exploitation of subjugated populations, hereditary servitude and forced labour are simply modern-day manifestations of the age old system of domestic slavery on the African continent.

Africans would do well to follow Europeans in modernizing their societies and in upholding human rights for all Africans regardless of colour, religion, ethnic origins, gender, class and sexual orientation. Africans who argue for the supremacy of traditional customs and norms that are incompatible with modernity and progress may very well prove to be some of the greatest obstacles in the path of African development. The bad stuff done by Europeans in Africa and the Caribbean does not excuse contemporary African and Caribbean leaders from embracing positive initiatives originating with Europeans. Failure to acknowledge this inconvenient truth will be very costly to Africa and the Caribbean going forward into the future.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the Founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center.