Commemorating and remembering the Transatlantic Slave Trade: A report and a reflection

By Doris Abdullah

The United Nations Civil Society (NGO) conference will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 9-10. At that time, a “Summit of the Future” will be held on the continent from where millions of people were transported as commodities between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Two days in March are dedicated at the United Nations to remember the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the continuous persisting evils surrounding systematic racism.

This year completes the decade that has been declared for People of African Descent, from 2015 to 2024, with a theme focused on recognition, justice, and development.

Report

This report covers a portion of the UN events that I’ve attended in 2023 through March 2024, along with information that can be found at the United Nations websites surrounding the treaty to Eliminate Racism (a treaty ratified by all the 193 nations in the UN), the People of African Descent Decade, and the Durban Declaration, in addition to other sources. I refer to racism in this report as a by-product of profit, greed, envy, power, and position.

In Dec. 2023, I attended the Knowledge, History, and Power Conversation with Nicole Hannah-Jones and Laura Trevelyan. Two of the conversation objectives were “to increase awareness of the transformational and liberating power of accurate knowledge to end racism and racial discrimination and to highlight some of the challenges in sharing accurate knowledge about the difficult history of enslavement and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” There are links between modern-day disproportional disparities in health care, incarceration of men of color, and other developmental and social norms between People of African Descent and those of European heritage directly related to racism–which we are not always ready to acknowledge or even be aware of.

Listed below are some examples of the power dynamic racism plays in our lives today that I believe we should be aware of:

The British government monetarily compensated the slave owners in their Caribbean colonies in exchange for the abolishing of slavery in 1824. Trevelyan talked about wealth stemming directly from the inheritance of her ancestors’ plantation compensation. By definition, an inheritance comes from the accumulation of wealth from the past. The enslaved received freedom, and their descendants continue to pay the explorers for their freedom through theft of the mineral wealth on the islands and through impoverishment. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Commission on Reparation and Social Justice is calling on the United Kingdom and other European nations to redress this imbalance. In addition to a formal apology for the unpaid free labor, they request funding for education, health, and other structural needs of the Caribbean nations.

In 1787, the southern US states listed their enslaved persons as 3/5 of a person in order to increase their numbers of representatives in the Congress. The 3/5 clause remained until the 13th amendment to the Constitution freed enslaved persons, post Civil War. The enslaved persons were considered chattel or property, as were the hogs, chickens, and household items that were bought and sold by their owners. The chattel person was used for breeding, sex, and labor.

Africans endured 250 years of being consumed as property and 100 years of legal apartheid in the US. Separation, also known as segregation, by color of skin became the law in the former slave-holding states. It was adopted, in some forms, by other states at will. The “Jim Crow” legal system governed all interactions within society. Black and white schools, grave sites, housing patterns, and all public accommodations were subject to segregation laws. The radicalized system left a direct impact on the gaps in health care, income disparity, food and housing insecurity, and other social measurements on people of African descent in the US. Black schools were poorly funded or not funded at all, political participation met with violence, and exploitative labor practices left people in debt. Even today, efforts are being made by some state governments to prevent teaching in public schools about slavery, legal segregation, the civil rights struggle, and Black authors and art are being banned from public libraries and public spaces. Banning books and art work, and the denial of teaching about large portions of Black history are harassment schemes, and a means to hide the truth. Hannah-Jones’ book, The 1619 Project, is among the books that have been banned.

One could say that modern-day Haiti’s development, growth, and violent conflicts grew out of the country’s successful independence struggle of 1824. A Black republic represented a direct threat to European power and wealth. Slavery throughout the Americas grew even more brutal in fear of more rebellions after Haiti won independence. Under the threat of military invasion and restoration of slavery, Haiti agreed to an “independence debt” payment of 90 to 112 million gold Francs to France, starting in 1825. These Francs represented billions in today’s monetary system. Paying the oppressors for winning their freedom took away resources the Haitians needed for economic and social development on the island. The island never escaped its debt to France, nor did it progress towards development of its natural resources. Copper and gold are some of the natural resources that the island holds. Yet, its population is drowning in poverty and illiteracy without an infrastructure, civic, social, nor manufacturing base. And one can ask the question: who is supplying the weapons awash in Haiti today?

While it is important to bring awareness to the impact racism has played for People of African Descent, it is also important to speak of their many contributions and discoveries.

I’ve pointed out four people below who may not be well known, but who made a difference:

Kramer Wimberly, a diver, was instrumental in finding and preserving underwater slave ships. Related information: The name of the first slave ship was Jesus of Lubech, 1563.

Francia Márquez is vice-president of Colombia, a nation in South America. Related information: She is a former human rights and environmental activist and lawyer.

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a scientist and professor of immunology and infectious diseases. Related information: Corbett was a developer of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Marielle Franco, a feminist, sociologist, activist, and city council member for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was assassinated in March 2018. Related information: Brazil was the last country to abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Reflection

Slavery has been practiced throughout human history, however never before the 16th century were enslaved people robbed of their human component because of color of skin, religious practices, shape of eyes, bodily shape, hair texture, or other visual physical differences. Nor were the enslaved considered nonhuman or a lesser form of humanity or confined to an animal-like existence.

The concept of race in the human family was born from and continues to exist for power and material gains of one group of humans over other humans. The value of the slave, set at 30 pieces of silver, was the price paid to the master of an injured slave in biblical times. Judas received 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus.

The price of an enslaved person during the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was far higher than 30 pieces of silver, however. The material value of a Black enslaved person can be directly linked to the cotton and tobacco industries in the US and to sugar in the Caribbean and South America. Profits surged on consumer goods of everything from coffee and clothing to new industries of banking and insurance. Estimates are that 12.5 million people were shipped from Africa to the Americas between 1525 and 1888. Today, the number of people of African descent in the Americas is estimated at 100 million. Some 95 percent of those 100 million are direct descendants of the 12.5 million transported Africans.

There is little doubt that it was slavery that made the US, Brazil, and a few European nations wealthy. An abundance of profits and extreme wealth, for a few people, made for a radical form of slavery. Racism appears to be one of the “creative” ways to maintain riches, that was born through slavery.

— Doris Abdullah is a minister and member of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Church of the Brethren and serves as the Church of the Brethren representative to the United Nations.

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