Slavery: Why whitewashing history won't erase Africa's pain

By Dayo Yussuf

History has a way of clinging to the present, sometimes cutting into the catharsis that human nature instinctively seeks.

These old scars could be a mixed blessing, refusing to heal yet providing clarity and perspective for a clearer understanding of the confluence of the past, present and future.

Many colonial Western powers that rampantly engaged in the enslavement of people are now attempting to whitewash history, either downplaying or reinterpreting the brutal realities of colonialism and slavery to present a more favourable narrative.

But over two centuries since slavery was abolished globally, at least on paper, the pain, bitterness and subhuman treatment wrought by enslavers on people of various ethnicities linger in the minds of their progeny.

So, what is it about the horrors of slavery that can never be forgotten, let alone allowed to be obliterated from history books in the name of sanitising the present?

Historians explore the complexity of this subject from the lens of the perpetrators, the sufferers, and the generations bearing the burden of their respective ancestries.

"Opinions on the slave trade take shape depending on those behind it, the governments these traffickers represented, the buyers, and the beneficiaries," David Kyule, who teaches history and archaeology at the University of Nairobi, tells TRT Afrika.

"If you enquired about this in the UK, Brazil and the US, emotions would range from nostalgic to reflective and so on."

Anti-slavery lip service

Views differ on whether August 23, which the UN commemorates as International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and its Abolition, is an occasion to remind the world of the grave wrongdoings of the past or a veiled nudge about enslavement surviving by some other name.

According to UNESCO, on this day in 1791, the Republic of Haiti saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the transatlantic slave trade.

By the beginning of the following century, countries like the UK rolled out charters to abolish slave trade.

"This International Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples….it should offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historical causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy," says part of the statement by the director of UNESCO on its website abolition of the.

Kyule sees remembrance of slavery as a far more complex process of dealing with the feelings it inevitably brings with it, especially in the context of Africa.

"When you talk of remembering the slave trade, you need to ask yourself, what do you want to remember, and how far back do you want to remember?" he says.

"We have slavery mentioned in religious texts, but all of this was different from the slavery by the French, the British or the Spanish."

Seeing through narratives

The controversy over what is to be remembered about slavery is deeply rooted in how history is taught.

There has been a huge outcry over "omissions" and even "twisting of facts" by Western countries in their history books to avoid being shamed or held responsible for slave-era crimes.

"The enslavers are going to have their narrative of what it was, and the people who were enslaved would have theirs. The facilitators, like the Catholic Church that played a role in slavery in the Congo, will obviously have something to say about it. Many distort history to suit their agendas or that of governments," says Kyule.

The burden of responsibility in seeing the history of slavery in the right context lies as much with the victims as the countries and individuals that were the perpetrators.

"It is not about changing the story; it is about seeing the factual story. To get the facts right on enslavement and the slave trade, we need to address the role it played in the development of some modern economies," he tells TRT Afrika.

"We need to talk about banks like Barclays that were founded from the direct proceeds of slave trade. We need to talk of slave trade states and economies."

Slavery continues to exist

One school of thought is that slavery has been repackaged and sold to the world, remaining hidden in plain sight.

"We are told that we got independence, but did we really get that?" wonders Kyule. "Slavery didn't end either. The perpetrators were quick to acknowledge that as a business, slavery was no longer sustainable, hence the need to change the model."

According to many experts, just as colonialism was modernised and passed on to stooges who were willing to bid for their masters at the expense of their countries, slavery continues to exist in subterfuge.

The modus operandi, too, was the same as the colonial playbook. The British and French left behind school curricula to be taught to young Africans, governing systems and religions. In doing so, they covertly perpetuated the wrongs that sustained them.

"I don't see the difference between colonialism and the changing face of the slave trade and slavery," Kyule tells TRT Afrika. "Human trafficking is just another catchy word for 'slave trade'. Forced labour still exists in so many places, including homes where domestic workers are treated like slaves."

The red flags of modern slavery are for all to see.

The continued export of a domestic workforce to countries with numerous documented cases of abuse, infringement of workers' rights, confiscation of their IDs and passports, denial of pay and leave, and dictating how and whom they spend their rest days with are just some of the ways in which slavery thrives even today.

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