Slavery Bicentenary.... The Talk!?

African descendants living in the UK feel that there should be a Parliamentary Commission into the chattel enslavement of African peoples and that the government should make reparations for its role in slavery.

“Something needs to be done to resolve the past, to get closure,” said Janette, who feels that the British government should hold a Parliamentary Commission on Truth, Justice and Reconciliation.

Her view is shared by that of Letticia, who said “There are issues that need to be sorted out. We can only put this behind us once there is reconciliation.” Ralph, 47, also agreed that a Parliamentary Commission “would help towards healing.”

A survey was carried out by Imani Media Ltd to examine attitudes within the black community towards slavery and the Bicentenary. It follows the commemorative service held at Westminster Abbey last month, where inside the church, Toyin Agbetu of Ligali, protested, calling it “an insult to Africans.”

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My protest was born of anger not madness
Toyin Agbetu
3rd April 2007 - The Guardian

According to many reports, on Tuesday last week a crazed madman breached Westminster Abbey security, screamed obscenities and demanded an unreserved apology for the Maafa (the "great tragedy", used to describe the enslavement of Africa) and financial compensation from the Queen and Tony Blair.

As the man at the centre of this version of events, I can say these assertions are total nonsense.
I was moved to make a collective voice heard at the commemorative ritual of appeasement and self-approval marking the bicentenary of the British parliamentary act to abolish what they disingenuously refer to as a "slave trade."

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Chronology on the History of Slavery and Racism

Compiled from Archive, library and Internet source documentation, this timeline on Slavery and in part the History of Racism, has been used to guide the direction of independent research into the history of enslaved Americans of African descent at historic sites located at the National Zoo, in Washington, DC. Hopefully, this compilation of American history will help others who undertake similar tasks.

This project has been conducted totally independently from research conducted by the Office of Architectural History and Preservation at the Smithsonian and the National Zoo. Visit the Holt House Web Site for periodic updates. Be sure to go to the bottom of the page and hit "Contents" to enter. This research was compiled by Eddie Becker who will be happy to give advice on similar undertakings.

Citation information and credit: (Chronology on the History of Slavery, Compiled by Eddie Becker 1999, see on line at http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html)

The Chronology is broken up into three parts:

1. 1619 – 1789
2. 1790 to 1829
3. 1830 - the end

For pre-17^th century timeline see Cora Agatucci’s African Timeline.

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The Shameful Slave Trade

Britain's first research unit into slavery was opened yesterday in Hull, the home of William Wilberforce, who led the campaign to abolish the trade.

The Wilberforce Institute, at Hull University, will research the history of slavery, including the collaboration of some Africans with the traders, up to today's traffic of women for the sex trade. Its first patron is the Nobel peace laureate and archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu.

The unit was opened by the president of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, ahead of next year's bicentenary celebrations of the legal emancipation of slaves in Britain.

Other items:

• Hardship & Sorrow - The Slave Trade
• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• The Slave Trade - Timeline
• Mariner's Museum - Captive Passage
• Slave Movement in the 18th & 19th Century

The Atlantic slave trade (Atlantic slave trading) was the purchase and transport of Africans into bondage and servitude in the New World. It is sometimes called the Maafa by African and African-American scholars, meaning holocaust or great disaster in kiSwahili.

The slaves were one element of a three-part economic cycle—the Triangular Trade and its infamous Middle Passage—which ultimately involved four continents, four centuries and the lives and fortunes of millions of people. Research published in 2006 reports the earliest known presence of African slaves in the New World.

A burial ground in Campeche, Mexico suggests slaves had been brought there not long after Hernán Cortés completed the subjugation of Mexico. Contemporary historians estimate that some 10 to 12 million individuals were taken from Africa to Europe, North, Central, the Caribbean Islands and South America by European colonial/imperialist powers.