If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong – Abraham Lincoln
There’s obviously new thinking and deep reflections going on around the world, except perhaps in Africa. Why? Scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists and other branches of human endeavours have carried out researches and confirmed beyond any shadow of doubt that civilisation has its cradle in Africa.
So what ails the continent? A big question blowing in the winds, which writers from Africa and those with African descent have written millions of pages of books to interrogate. Is Africa underdeveloped by Europe as postulated by Walter Rodney or is it Africans that are undercutting their continent? Whichever view you hold, the truth is that it is agreed that our continent has been wracked and bugged down by poverty, lack of planning, thievery in high places and misplacement of priorities.
What role has literature played in this? From my standpoint, I can boldly affirm that it is huge. Literature has helped to channel our thinking and worldview as to what is wrong with our continent. Perhaps you’ve heard or read about Olaudah Equiano, who lived around 1745 -1797. He was widely known as Gustavus Vassa, as was the common practice of his time. You are captured as a slave and made to throw away your name and adopt your master’s. Many books have been written about Equiano and about his exploits as a slave and later an abolitionist. He, in fact, wrote what is perhaps considered the first book (?) by a black man. In the book published in 1789, which he titled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he wrote about his enslavement as a child and how he was taken to the Caribbean and sold as a slave before he regained his freedom.
Other African writers have written about the effects and influence of colonialism. The list is endless from Achebe, Soyinka, wa Thiong’o, Armah, Laye, to Mahfouz and so on. They all contributed their thoughts to what the idea of the continent is.
Why all these reflections? Recently, a news item caught my attention that the University of Cambridge is to embark on a two-year inquiry to see whether it has any links to slave trade. According to reports, the idea is to explore possibilities of paying reparations if it finds out that it had gained from this heinous crime against humanity and Africa.
At the lead of this campaign is Professor Stephen Toope, a human rights law scholar from Canada who became the Vice Chancellor of the university in 2017. He was quoted to have said, “There is growing public and academic interest in the links between the older British universities and the slave trade, and it is only right that Cambridge should look into its own exposure to profits of coerced labour during the colonial period. We cannot change the past, nor should we seek to hide it. I hope this process will help the university understand and acknowledge its role during that dark phase of human history.”
I salute the courage of Prof Toope for coming clean on this. However, before the campaign is snapped up by profiteers and bandwagon free loaders, there is the need to ask ourselves what we are doing to stem the tide of the second or third tier of slave trade that is currently going on. Although it might not look that reprehensible but what is going on is slavery couched in another name. Why is that that our institutions; whether educational, health, transportation or even musical are dominated by the West or must be first adjudged good by them before we accept them? Have we not cut our noses to spite our faces enough?
Our writers have written tons of books that could sink a ship to the deepest depth of the ocean while musicians have sang themselves hoarse yet we refused to listen. We read foreign, eat foreign, holiday foreign and die local because those of them who die abroad are brought home to be buried thus turning the continent to a burial ground. How do we turn this around?
In the meantime, while waiting for the Cambridge University to work out who would pay what and to whom, can we get serious with our people and make life more bearable? Cambridge is not alone in this venture; Glasgow University had itself conducted a research that confirmed that it gained from slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries while St John’s College, Oxford is also planning to recruit an academic to spend two years to look into what it gained too. On its own part, the chairman of governors at the University of East London, Geoff Thompson, has called on universities which benefitted from slave trade to contribute to a hundred million pounds fund to support ethnic minority students.
Where do Africa leaders stand and when will the winds of new thinking get to them?
