8.19.2008

Slavery of Africans: Good?

Corey directed me to this article: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20080808T220000-0500_138829_OBS_SLAVERY_WAS_GOOD_FOR_THE_BLACK_MAN.asp

The author of this piece claims that:

"slavery was good for us [black people]"

Why Does he say this???:

- He says that slavery has worked to: give black people a sense of unity, more modernized forms of government, better technology, and more knowlegde and sensibility about our world (somewhat via christianity).

He concludes with:

"We blacks were changed, for the better, I might add, on account of slavery. We are a better race today because our ancestors went though slavery. The millions of lives lost were not lost in vain. The Europeans proclaimed the need for us to be civilised through slavery and though this may be hard to understand, they were right. Indeed, based on what is happening in black Africa today - slavery for us in the West was, in many respects, our salvation."

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My thoughts on this piece

Do we honestly think that the goal of slavery was to better Africans? This writer is kind of backwards.

Slaves were brought to the United States to BE SlAVES. They were seen as inferior (3/5ths of a person legally).

The goal was not to save these people, share technology, teach Africans about governmental systems, or whatever else the author said.

IN THE LONG-RUN... sure things have worked out, but that WASN'T the plan or the goal in mind.

So the writer could maybe say that slavery has, acidentally, and over a very long period of time, helped to do these things. But, seriously, if europeans and the like truly wanted to HELP Africans, they wouldn't have captured, tortured, beaten, and forced labor. Let's be serious here.

Was it the plan? No. Has it worked out for the better? Kind of yes. Was slavery neccessary to accomplish this outcome? No, but that's how it came to be.

The author also argues that, although he isn't religious, that christianity was an upgrade for Africans...

"Back in Africa, we were preoccupied with the worship of animals, trees, spirits of the dead - even stones. These primitive religions that we were practising ensured that our ancestors in Africa were backward. The relatively superior Christianity, with its greater sense of order and responsibility would help, in many ways, to pull the black man out of the Stone Age. This could only have happened with slavery."

- Christianity worships dead people (Saints, Jesus, etc.)
- I'd argue that christianity IS primitive, just not to the same degree as rock worshiping...
- Christians used religious "reasons" to JUSTIFY the act of slavery & to prevent interracial marriages.
- Christianity pulling the black man out of the Stone Age? Science and religion still do not match up as it is. So... maybe people with technology who happened to be christian pulled them out of the stone age.

How do you feel? Vote------>

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

did someone seriously agree with this author...
get your effin head checked.

-michelle