Letter to the Editor: The International Day of “Ending Slavery and Slave Trade”
3 min readBy Awet Maker Buong, Nanjing, China
March 26, 2018 (SSB) — Today is International Day for the victims of Slavery and Slave Trade. For over 400 years, sold and captured Africans were treated lower than animals between 1444 and 1850. One expects millions of Africans to know about this. Ironically, Africans don’t know and do not care to know not to talk of commemorate this day. An estimated 15 to 25 million Africans were uprooted.
Thousands jumped aboard the ships and died heroically; death was preferable to slavery. Thousands were thrown overboard and fed to sharks by the Europeans. This was the period that marked the beginning of our underdeveloped status; scientifically, technologically, economically, socially and politically. It was the period that ushered in the stereotyping of the African based on skin colour. It was the period that racists began to smile and designed the concept of racism against the African.
GREED began to replace the spirit of Nation Building during this period among many African leaders (Kings and Chiefs). The system is still operational to this day. Able-bodied men and women who would have been available to advance us, build us and launch us into the era of advancement and progress were taken away to build America and Europe and it is still happening till date but you do not care to know. If you do not care to know, how will you prescribe the right dosage of solutions?
A doctor would ask about a patient’s medical history and even the food the patient ate or had eaten before prescribing the appropriate medication. Africans refused to understudy this. If it is America’s 9/11, they will commemorate.
If it is Jewish holocaust, they will curse Hitler but they will never take their time to reflect on their own past. Is this not the reason Africa is still backward? Is this not the reason we love those who oppressed us and keep oppressing us than fellow Africans who wanted to liberate us and paid the supreme price with their lives?
Is this not the reason why we wait on foreigners to come to our rescue even when all they want to do is to exploit us? Is this not the reason we continue to have, choose and hail leaders who sell us into modern day slavery physically and economically?
Is this not the reason we die in Libya and if we survive, we are turned to slaves again in this modern era? Is this not the reason we cannot build our lands but prefer to run away even if we will be enslaved abroad? The choice to remain in slavery (of the mind) is ours.
Those who forget their ancestors will one day be forgotten by their descendants. May your souls rest in peace for those who didn’t survived to live.
You can reach the author via his email: Awet Benjamin Maker <awetbenjamin.maker@yahoo.com>
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