WORLDWIDE APOLOGIES AND REGRET FOR THE ENSLAVEMENT OF BLACKS IS NOT MERELY ENOUGH. UNTIL THIS DAY THERE HAVE BEEN NO REPARATIONS OF PAYMENT FOR ALL THE WEALTH WE BUILT AND THE FULL SUFFRAGE OF ALL HUMANITY THE DISEASE THAT THEY SUFFERED AND THE RAPING AND KILLING OF INNOCENT BLOOD THAT WAS DONE BY THE HANDS OF THEIR OWN BLACK COUNTRY LEADERS BEING AFRICA THE MAIN SOURCE AND BRAZIL.
The question of who should receive reparations is not necessarily complicated either. After the abolishment of slavery, the Netherlands, the US, France, Denmark, and the UK all moved to compensate former slavers for so-called “loss of property”. The UK government only finished paying the debts it acquired to pay former slavers in 2015. But all this time, none of the former slave-holding countries paid a single penny to formerly enslaved people or their descendants. An apology alone may not be enough to undo the wrongs that span over 400 years. While an apology to Black people of African descent all over the world is long overdue, there should be a process to reintegrate those that want to return to their roots.
There is no reparations but the apologies listed are the geographical areas that have made the statements:
Apologies
Worldwide
In 1998, UNESCO designated 23 August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Since then there have been a number of events recognizing the effects of slavery.
At the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, African nations demanded a clear apology for slavery from the former slave-trading countries. Some nations were ready to express an apology, but the opposition, mainly from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States blocked attempts to do so. A fear of monetary compensation might have been one of the reasons for the opposition. As of 2009, efforts are underway to create a UN Slavery Memorial as a permanent remembrance of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade.
Brazil
GOREE ISLAND (Senegal), April 15: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva apologized on Thursday for Brazil’s role in slavery during a visit to Senegal’s Goree Island, where Africans were shipped from a red-brick Slave House to a life of toil. “I want to tell you … that I had no responsibility for what happened in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries but I ask your forgiveness for what we did to black people,” Mr Lula said, speaking from a balcony in the Slave House.
Brazil imported the most African slaves of any country in the world and was the last to abolish slavery in 1888.
About 46 percent of Brazil’s 180 million people define themselves as “black” or “pardo” — a loose definition including virtually all dark shades of skin — meaning the country has the world’s second-largest black population after Nigeria.
During his visit, Mr. Lula stopped to gaze at the choppy sea through the “door of no return”, through which shackled slaves left on their perilous journey across the sea. Some of his delegations shed discreet tears as they toured the wind-swept island, accompanied by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade.
Estimates suggest between 11 and 12 million slaves were shipped from Africa. No one knows how many were sent from Goree between the mid-16th and mid-19th centuries.
“Millions of people were forced towards slavery on ships and some committed suicide to escape, but through the magic of technology, these descendants of slaves come back to the country of their ancestors in planes,” President Wade said.
Benin
In 1999, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin (formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey) issued a national apology for the role Africans played in the Atlantic slave trade. Luc Gnacadja, minister of environment and housing for Benin, later said: “The slave trade is a shame, and we do repent for it.” Researchers estimate that 3 million slaves were exported out of the Slave Coast bordering the Bight of Benin.
Denmark
Denmark had a foothold in Ghana for more than 200 years and trafficked as many as 4,000 enslaved Africans per year. Danish Foreign Minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen declared publicly in 1992: “I understand why the inhabitants in the West Indian Islands celebrate the day they became part of the U.S. But for Danish people and Denmark the day is a dark chapter. We exploited the slaves in the West Indian Islands for 250 years and made good money on them, but when we had to pay wages, we sold them instead, without even asking the inhabitants.That really wasn’t a decent thing to do. We could at least have called a referendum and asked people which nation they wanted to belong to. Instead, we just let down the people.”
France
On 30 January 2006, Jacques Chirac (the then French President) said that 10 May would henceforth be a national day of remembrance for the victims of slavery in France, marking the day in 2001 when France passed a law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity.
Africa
For the first time since the end of the slave trade, African leaders have offered apologies for the wrongdoings of their ancestors. On Wednesday 28 September 2022, African delegates converged at the Quindaro Township Site in Kansas City, Kansas for a ceremony. Also present was Anita Dixon, the Executive Director at UNESCO Creative City of Music-KC.
Charles Nzally from the Gambia offers an apology for the role of African leaders in the slave trade era
For so long, the popular story has been that Americans and Europeans stormed Africa and forced some of the continent’s strongest citizens into slavery. However, David Haley who is a Kansas senator said the apology from the African leaders creates “awareness that there is a broad culture that facilitated the travesty of enslavement”.
Without a doubt, the transatlantic slave trade that lasted for years will not have been successful without the cooperation of African chiefs. Some of the delegates from Africa tendered their apology at the event. One of them was Charles Nzally from the Gambia in West Africa.
“[I am] really sad that several African chiefs violated the oath they swore to protect their people. They kidnapped and sold or negotiated the exchange of their people to foreigners.”
Another African delegate to tender an apology was Chiluba Mosunda from Zambia. Mosunda further highlighted the importance of an apology.
“It gives us the opportunity to have vital conversations. This conversation must take place among Africans in addressing the Transatlantic slave trade that changed people of African descent forever.”
“In everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May those who died rest in peace. May those who return find their roots, and may humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity. We the living vow to uphold this.”
Calls for African leaders to apologize for their role in the slave trade go a long way
As far back as 2009, the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria wrote to tribal chiefs saying that it was wrong to keep on blaming the white men since Africans, especially tribal rulers also took part in the slave trade. According to the Congress, African leaders raided and kidnapped defenseless people and traded them to Europeans.
The congress believes that an apology from African tribal leaders will “put a final seal on the slave trade era”. For so long, many American and European nations have accepted the cruelty done by their ancestors. Some have even offered some form of compensation for their wrongdoings.
However, African tribal leaders have been reluctant to do the same. Rather, they continue to trade blame. The ceremony at the Quindaro Township Site is the first time that a group of African leaders is offering an apology to African Americans who can no longer trace their roots.
Ghana
President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana apologized for his country’s involvement in the slave trade.
Muammar Gaddafi apologizes for the role of Arab leaders in the slave trade
One of the first African leaders to acknowledge and apologize for the role of African tribal leaders in the transatlantic slave trade was Muammar Gaddafi. At the 2010 Arab African Summit in Sirte, the late leader tendered an apology and condemned the behavior of wealthy Arab leaders that contributed to the slave trade. In a heartfelt speech, the late Libyan leader said,
“On behalf of the Arabs, I’d like to condemn, apologize, and express deep sorrow for the conduct of some Arabs, especially the wealthy ones towards their African brothers. They bought children and took them to North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, and to the other Arab regions.”
Netherlands
At a UN conference on the Atlantic slave trade in 2001, the Dutch Minister for Urban Policy and Integration of Ethnic Minorities Roger van Boxtel said that the Netherlands “recognizes the grave injustices of the past.” On 1 July 2013, on the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Dutch West Indies, the Dutch government expressed “deep regret and remorse” for the involvement of the Netherlands in the Atlantic slave trade.
Speaking at the National Archives in The Hague, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on behalf of his government for the country’s role in slavery, calling it “ugly, painful, and even downright shameful”.
“For hundreds of years, people were made merchandise, exploited and abused in the name of the Dutch state,” Rutte said. “For that, I offer the apologies of the Dutch government.”
That the Dutch government finally found the courage to fully acknowledge and officially apologize for its role in “abetting, stimulating, preserving and profiting from centuries of slave trading” is highly commendable.
But the paths to reconciliation and healing suggested by the government are equally underwhelming.
In his apology, Rutte admitted that “centuries of oppression and exploitation still have an effect to this very day” and talked about “doing justice to the past and healing in the present”.
Nigeria
In 2009, the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria has written an open letter to all African chieftains who participated in trade calling for an apology for their role in the Atlantic slave trade: “We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans, particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless. In view of the fact that the Americans and Europe have accepted the cruelty of their roles and have forcefully apologized, it would be logical, reasonable, and humbling if African traditional rulers accept blame and formally apologize to the descendants of the victims of their collaborative and exploitative slave trade.”
United Kingdom
On 9 December 1999, Liverpool City Council passed a formal motion apologizing for the city’s part in the slave trade. It was unanimously agreed that Liverpool acknowledges its responsibility for its involvement in three centuries of the slave trade. The city council has made an unreserved apology for Liverpool’s involvement and the continual effect of slavery on Liverpool’s black communities.
On 27 November 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a partial apology for Britain’s role in the African slavery trade. However African rights activists denounced it as “empty rhetoric” that failed to address the issue properly. They feel his apology stopped shy to prevent any legal retort. Blair again apologized on 14 March 2007.
On 24 August 2007, Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London) apologized publicly for London’s role in the slave trade. “You can look across there to see the institutions that still have the benefit of the wealth they created from slavery,” he said, pointing towards the financial district, before breaking down in tears. He said that London was still tainted by the horrors of slavery. Jesse Jackson praised Mayor Livingstone and added that reparations should be made.
United States
On 24 February 2007, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution Number 728 acknowledging “with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and call for reconciliation among all Virginians”. With the passing of that resolution, Virginia became the first of the 50 United States to acknowledge through the state’s governing body their state’s involvement in slavery. The passing of this resolution came on the heels of the 400th-anniversary celebration of the city of Jamestown, Virginia, which was the first permanent English colony to survive in what would become the United States. Jamestown is also recognized as one of the first slave ports of the American colonies. On 31 May 2007, the Governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, signed a resolution expressing “profound regret” for Alabama’s role in slavery and apologizing for slavery’s wrongs and lingering effects. Alabama is the fourth state to pass a slavery apology, following votes by the legislatures in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
On 30 July 2008, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing for American slavery and subsequent discriminatory laws. The language included a reference to the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow” segregation. On 18 June 2009, the United States Senate issued an apologetic statement decrying the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery”. The news was welcomed by then-President Barack Obama.