The
Gambia today holds an international colloquium on Slavery, Slave Trade and
Colonialism to discuss pertinent issues on the topic.
The
Government of The Gambia has taken the initiative of spearheading this
international campaign gathering support for a successful tabling of the
Resolution at the United Nations.
Although
this may prove a hard nut to crack, it is essential that the truth about this
age-old sin on the African race is made glaring, for the people of the world,
especially the African youths, to know some aspects of the genesis of the
myriad of problems Africa is today facing.
More
than four hundred years of slavery and slave trade and the over 200 years of
colonialism, and we dare say, the last 50 to 60 years of -Independence and
nationhood in Africa – which is synonymous to neo-colonialism (the exploitation
of African resources with the help of African statesmen and women) – have left
Africa in the doldrums of developments.
On
the other hand, while this situation has left Africa and the masses of African
people poor and needy, exploiters of African resources are living in affluence
in developed societies after amassing enormous wealth from the enslavement,
trade and colonization of African people over the last six to eight centuries
of human existence.
Facts
of this reality can be found in many historical records, in books such as How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney; Slavery and Capitalism;
Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism by Dr Kwame Nkrumah (former
president of Ghana), and Bad Samaritans by Ha-Joon Chang, who quoted the Roman
politician and philosopher Gicen as having said, “Not to know what has been
transacted in the former times is to be always a child.” Gicen also said: “If
no use is made of the labours of the past ages, the world must remain always in
the infancy of knowledge.”
It
is, therefore, interesting that, in organizing this International Colloquium,
the Government of The Gambia seeks to achieve the following: discuss and
advance the frontiers of knowledge by exploring the impact of Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade on Africa socio-economic, political and cultural life; establish
the basis for reparations for the negative impact of slavery and colonialism on
Africans and people of African descent; establish the scale on which African
artifacts were carted away to Europe, thereby depriving the continent of
valuable cultural and economic resources; undertake the exchanging and
compiling of information on Slavery, Slave Trade and Colonialism, and set on
making substantial intellectual contributions to the known history of Slavery,
Slave Trade and Colonialism and by doing so explaining on the available
literature.
However,
while we are keen to discuss slavery, slave trade and colonialism, we are
presently faced with what is the last stage of imperialism: neo-colonialism –
the exploitation of African resources to the detriment of her teeming
populations with the help of African statesmen and intellectuals.
“Racism,
xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings
have bought and sold and owned and branded fellow human beings as if they were
so many beasts of burden.”
Desmond
Tutu
