Olusoga poses as an objective historian and says he is not there to bring comfort to people. But you need a different approach if you dont think great-grandkids of the Confederacy are still fair game.) A fifty quid note in the hand of the first black bloke you encounter. I could just as well feel something else entirely, and Im sceptical of all approaches to impose a supposedly universal, timeless or even just coherent, thats a challenge in itself ethical system. And the transatlantic slave trade? David Olusoga meets Janice Haber and her family, the descendents of Jewish . Should black history be taught all year round? Although I would expect the Germans, and perhaps even the Japanese, to be happy they lost the war. In America few were castrated, which is why there are now >40 million descendants there. First launched in London in 1987, it aims to highlight and celebrate what black people have achieved in Britain throughout history. So he calls himself a Geordie. Women, denied a meaningful role in politics, formed their own organisations, writing tracts, pamphlets and poems, gathering signatures for petitions and fundraising: At certain times and in certain places they were the engine room of the movement.. . Various among the societies that were agglomerated into Nigeria were more or less involved in that slave trade from the supply end. For almost 60 years, there was impasse. But morals are very transient things. BZZZTT!! My family did nothing. As it happens, I dont believe in sins of the fathers passing down the generations. Rather that certain western states, still in existence therefore potentially still liable, regulated and indeed encouraged the development of both the transatlantic slave trade and the slave-labour economic systems of the colonies, at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. Sugar was king: originally a luxury, it became one of the main sources of calories for the British poor. Like I said before, tolerance is in the gift of the powerful. And yet Africans and West Indians were banned from the victory parade in 1919. Nobody will stop you, honest. It isnt happening now. and while the responsible state still exists, Theres a fundamental weakness with all theories of universal law or justice, which is that across time and space, the human conception of what is right and just seems to be extremely varied and rarely (to modern Western eyes) pleasant.. The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion?. How does importing new labour from West Africa solve the food shortage in the West Indies? June 16, 2020 - 20:29 BST Aisha Nozari. Thats before you get on to the Khoisan and the Zulus, the Carthaginians and Romans, the Vikings versus pretty much anyone else who lived within raiding distance, Theres a fundamental weakness with all theories of universal law or justice, which is that across time and space, the human conception of what is right and just seems to be extremely varied and rarely (to modern Western eyes) pleasant. Olusoga unloads all sorts of characterizations. It doesnt end with the parties saying Well that was pleasantly intellectually stimulating, now lets have a nice game of cricket Youre opponents are not playing by the same rules as you are. She had no interest in esoteric discussions of the war. Sign up to receive information regarding NS events, subscription offers & product updates. Away from the creative arts, the Equiano Project aims to promote race equality and he was mentioned in Parliament during a debate on Black History and Cultural Diversity in the Curriculum. The agreement is being touted as a . The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion? We pretend we do not like slavery but actually we do not like slave traders. Sure. What has Nigeria ever done for him? And this of course neatly addresses MBEs arguments. Equiano is also mentioned in Incomparable World, a novel by SI Martin, which was selected by Booker award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo for her Black Britain: Writing Back series. Would, say, Huguenot-descended South Africans suing France over the 1572 St. Bartholomews Day massacre, or Cornish people suing HMG for the suppression of the 1497 Rebellion, deserve compensation? Theres no point pretending Europeans who profited from either the transatlantic slave trade or the use of slave labour in the Americas were somehow doing a favour to the slaves involved, even if, as it happens but their owners could not have predicted, their surviving descendants ended up financially better off on average than the counterfactual of remaining in Africa. His choice of subject and his choice of material make that very clear. "They're not looking to history only to make them feel good and give them comfort, but they're looking to history to tell them things about truths about their society that we have traditionally edited out of British history.". He presented the recent series of A House Through Time on BBC 2, and Black and British: A Forgotten History. He adds: "The reason Equiano's story, Equiano's voice, is not as well known as it should be, is because we have a long habit in this country of not wanting to talk about slavery. The people in Portland, Seattle and Kenosha are too decadent to fight back. It has been reissued by publishing house Hodder and Prof Olusoga has written the foreword. "He was the voice of somebody who wasn't speaking about the past as a historian, but was living it. And even if you personally disagree with it, what would be the strongest argument for some form of legal settlement? "We are on a journey in this country and other countries are on similar journeys to try and reconnect to parts of our history that had traditionally been edited out," adds Prof Olusoga. Pretty much everybody in the West is against slavery. Peter completed his award-winning PhD, exploring stress and coping in elite sports coaching, at Sheffield Hallam in 2012. He is the author of the 2016 book Black and British: A Forgotten History, which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award 2017 and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2017. In the UK its not white people enslaving blacks anymore, but Asians enslaving other Asians, as in Leicesters clothing sweatshops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc5ENT8ajg, https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-real-vikings/articles/eyewitness-to-the-vikings, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/world-of-domesday/order.htm, Apparently Essay Mills Must Be Made Illegal, Why Oxfam Can Go Boil Their Heads Over Vaccine Patents, The real point about climate change is how cheap the solution is, The excellent Tim Worstall- The Register, Tim Worstall is a darn good economist- Don Boudreaux, Tim Worstall, you pendant- Polly Toynbee, .more sensible than most right wing nutjob bloggersBob Piper. (and white people was pretty much the British). Make sure it doesnt happen in the least costly way. The system he witnessed and wrote about was one in which human beings were worked to death. Rather the constitution banned the slave trade and so it become economically worth it to make sure slaves lived longer. Later his parents separated from each other when he was just two years old. He saw how enslaved people who had risen up were burnt to death, castrated or mutilated, punishments he regarded as merited. "Incorporating the stories of people like Equiano is merely part of a process of looking at all of British history; not just being selective, not only going to the chapters that make us feel good about ourselves or proud.". Fair point. Their demands should simply be refused. This is because forgetting slavery means forgetting its victims. They organised a boycott of sugar, produced more petitions and hosted meetings. Some other buyer would have taken them if they werent shipped out, and Western (or Arab) traders were just changing the ownership and location, the sins of the slave-raiders being theirs alone to bear. If Olusoga is looking for apologies or compensation for slavery, I am quite prepared to meet him, accept his apology, togehr with cash, cheque or even a postal order. Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others.. Definitely didnt die out with the Romans. Check out the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy, an upcoming live-action movie directed by David Lowery. He also studied at the University of Liverpool and so benefits from slavery as much as anyone else. MBE: The problem with the UK paying reparations is that people like Olusoga would have to pay their share of the greatly increased taxes. Would, say, Huguenot-descended South Africans suing France over the 1572 St. Bartholomews Day massacre, or Cornish people suing HMG for the suppression of the 1497 Rebellion, deserve compensation?. Peter Pan & Wendy is a live-action reimagining of the J.M . Maybe heard of Saint Balthild, seventh-century English lass sold into slavery, exported to the Continent, served in a palace and ended up marrying the Frankish King?). Note, hes a renowned economist. it was cheaper, at times, to starve people and then replace them Just means they werent alone in being in the wrong. I am of Ulster Scot heritage, who were originally John Knoxs Cumberland Presbyterians, VERY MUCH against slavery. Not to say it was nice.. He previously worked at JP Morgan for 18 years in a number of senior roles and was . And so many hundreds of thousands of British workers were directly dependent on slavery (from sailors to those who built, rigged and repaired ships) that it was easy to turn a blind eye to the inhumanity. Well one economist has worked out the amount to be paid (although not on a damages basis, when one imagines blacks might end up paying whites, but on a close the wealth gap basis): A renowned economist has said that $12 trillion should be afforded to black Americans in reparation for slavery to help the close wealth gap. Video1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, Slavery in England definitely continued for a couple of generations after the Norman Conquest and Bristol was a major export centre, though there were attempts to ban the export trade in particular (https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds has some interesting quotes from the time). Fired by religious feeling, they embarked on a campaign of public education and political lobbying unprecedented in scale and revolutionary in nature. (At least in our society) Get over it. That assumes an increase in demand. The world has seen more slavery since its abolition than before. To me personally, this is the thing. Whitey bad, give me cash? Cotton was a completely different slave economy. (Britain expended blood and treasure on ending the slave trade, and thereby paid its moral debt already is one way of trying to resolve it, but rather unsatisfactory at righting the wrongs done to those who had already fallen victim to the trade.) Im not even saying thats a convincing argument, it has some very serious weak points, just that I reckon its a stronger one than a general appeal about current inequality. The rest of this looks like the usual white washing (so to speak) of African slavery. And, of course, being half white, he is only entitled to half the reparation payment. He is the undisputed King of the Internet Pedants and Lord of the Unnecessary Snark. The masses who once supported black freedom now campaigned for the Deep South. Whoever has the upper-hand in power political, cultural, economic, military or whatever other form is decisive at that moment. "So when black history was missing - the history of empire, the history of slavery - was missing from my history lessons, I didn't have a place to go to discover those missing chapters. West Indians fought with the Allies more than a hundred were decorated. Those who grew rich on slavery and the slave trade were not neutral and no achievement or act of philanthropy justifies airbrushing their involvement from history.. But it is Olusoga who keeps insisting that its the Brits who are uniquely responsible.. Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. White people will take it. The rest apart from Ireland (17, partly due to influence of aforementioned Patrick) set it younger. But that ignores how the demand of outsiders led inevitably to far more supply being provided, so I dont think the traders can be given a pass on this front either. The New Statesmans global affairs newsletter, every Monday and Friday. Presumably there were normal times when food was cheap that you fed your workers and didnt seek to replace them in the way Olusoga means. Particularly as nowadays anyone who dares even look at someone a few days below the age of consent is believed to be an incorrigible nonce who deserves hanging, castration, or castration by hanging. This ignorant fellow should study historical facts, rather than believing and repeating lies and half-truths. Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others. 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