by CCSJ Chair, Leela Ramdeen
“Every time I hear the crack of a whip, my blood runs cold. I remember on the slave ship, how they brutalised my very soul. (Nesta Marley’s song: Slave Driver)
In 2007, the UN declared March 25 (annually) as the “International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade”. We must never forget those who endured immense suffering during what Ban Ki Moon, UN General Secretary, said, is the “longest, most widespread tragedies in human history. By studying slavery, we help to guard against humanity’s most vile impulses. By examining the prevailing assumptions and beliefs that allowed the practice to flourish, we raise awareness about the continued dangers of racism and hatred.”
We remember in prayer all those who were enslaved during the period of the Transatlantic Slave Trade which took place from the 16th to 19th century. It is estimated that one-third of those who were enslaved were women.
At last year’s commemoration in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, rightly stated: “Telling the truth about history is an essential component of international reconciliation and the creation of societies based on justice, equality and solidarity…According to UNESCO, some 30 million Africans were forcibly uprooted from their homeland during the 400-year span of the transatlantic slave trade. Considered to be the largest forced displacement of people in history, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade have only recently been recognised by the international community as crimes against humanity.”
These figures exclude the 1.2-2.4 million Africans who died aboard the ships. “More died soon upon their arrival. The amount of life lost in the actual procurement of slaves remains a mystery but may equal or exceed the amount actually enslaved.” (Wikipedia).
To justify transatlantic slavery, African slaves were not considered to be humans or to have a soul! Today, some schools that include the “History of Transatlantic Slavery” in their curriculum never do not teach about the rich culture that existed in Africa prior to this atrocity; nor do they highlight the struggles by slaves to gain their freedom. Only white abolitionists feature in the curriculum of some schools.
How many of our people know about the uprisings by slaves throughout our Caribbean region. Read about the struggles for freedom of slaves such as Samuel Sharpe, Cudjoe and Nanny of the Maroons and about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass.
The words of the Jamaican slave, Samuel Sharpe, still reverberate today: “I would rather die in yonder gallows”, he said, “than live for a minute more in slavery.” God made us all to be free and the indomitable human spirit will forever rise up and fight for freedom or die rather than be enslaved. He led the largest slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1831. He was among those hanged in 1832.
We pray not only for the victims of slavery, a crime against humanity, but also for the perpetrators who grew rich from the misery of our African brothers and sisters. Humankind’s inhumanity to each other knows no bounds. Today the long shadow of slavery still covers our world like a deathly pall e.g. human trafficking, debt bondage, forced marriages, and domestic servitude.
Let us honour the memory of the millions of victims of slavery and be true advocates for justice as we seek to eradicate modern-day slavery.
No words of mine could describe the pain and suffering of those enslaved. Therefore, I end with the words of Kentucky born slave, Martha Browne, (d.o.b.1808). In her autobiography, Autobiography of a Female Slave (published in 1857), she tells of what happened after her slave-master died; of the day when she was sold at auction and separated from her mother, Keziah:
“A tall, hard-looking man came up to me, very roughly seized my arm, bade me open my mouth; examined my teeth; felt of my limbs; made me run a few yards; ordered me to jump; and, being well satisfied with my activity, said to Master Edward, ‘I will take her’…“She (her mother) gave full vent to her feelings in a long, loud, piteous wail. Oh, God! That cry of grief, that knell of a breaking heart, rang in my ears for many long and painful days. ……Ah, when I now think of my poor mother’s form, as it swayed like a willow in the tempest of grief; when I remember her bitter cries, and see her arms thrown frantically toward me, and hear her earnest –oh, how earnest –prayer for death or madness…”
