In Bondage to the past? Britain & Slavery

“It’s hard to believe that what would now be a crime against humanity was legal at the time…I believe that the bicentenary offers us a chance…to express our deep sorrow that it ever happened, that it could ever have happened and to rejoice at the different and better times we live in today.”

--Tony Blair

Sunday November 26

Should leaders of the present apologise for the injustices of the past? These excerpts from a speech by Tony Blair represent the closest an incumbent British Prime Minister has ever come to publicly apologising for the leading role of Britain in the trans-atlantic slave trade. These comments have been the subject of much debate amongst journalists and campaigners. In a new age of ‘Britishness’ where national identity is much contested and some feel that the very fabric of society in the UK is threatened, more conservative elements in our society have expressed concerns that such an ignoble period of our history should once again be brought under the microscope. Conversely, radical campaigners have taken Blair to task for giving ‘too little too late’ in not stepping forward and offering an apology to Black communities for the enslavement, displacement, and murder of their forefathers who were amongst the estimated 11 million people removed from Africa over centuries. But should anybody take responsibility now for the actions of their ancestors, by apologising or alternatively giving reparations? What is the proper way to treat the deep wounds wrought by slavery?

One bone of contention for some is that slavery is actually overexposed and that  ‘we should all just forget about it’. Whilst there is a great deal of imagery used in the media that invokes slavery and it is a topic often mentioned in passing, this does not constitute a fully frank discussion. To ‘forget’ something you truly have to know it. The deeds of Adolf Hitler and his defeat at the hands of the allies are a perennial topic for History students in the compulsory British Education system. Slavery however, is not. Unless motivated to discover for themselves, many British citizens could have little to no true comprehension of such an important part of their immediate past.

Informed or not, there has been much debate as to why and how Britons should address slavery as we move into 2007, the 200th anniversary of the abolition of trade in slaves from the British empire, slavery in the UK itself having been made illegal in 1772. Whilst Mr. Blair stepped forward to offer his ‘sorrow,’ his replacement in waiting, Gordon Brown, recently mooted the desire to make basic education for all children a ‘global reality’, with regard to the bi-centenary he stated, "There could be no better commemoration than to abolish all child labour, and ensure that all young children go to school.” Phenomena such as human trafficking, the exploitation of sex workers, and the use of child labour and child soldiers are all major issues in a ‘civilised,’  contemporary world and are recognised as such by the United Nations, which defines them as contemporary forms of slavery. Is it possible, by educating ourselves about the past, that we can abolish these injustices and change the future?

The slave trade is often ‘the elephant in the room’ that no one prefers to discuss. In order to make progress as a society in the 21st century we need to move beyond a nostalgic, biased and overly simple concept of national identity that denies the atrocities that form an integral part of the UK’s past, as with that of many nations. Without the Slave Trade and colonialism the world would be a very different place. Indeed their promotion of international trade, mass migration and subsequent cultural hybridity has contributed not only to the constitution of modern British Society, but to the wealth and prominence of a number of different national and international institutions. The Department for Culture and Sport’s 2007 and Beyond campaign provides a cue for everybody, however much they consider ‘civilisation’ to have moved on, to confront one of the foundations of modern European, African, and global life. The campaign examines the slave trade´s  influence on attitudes, relationships, culture and injustice that occur today.

What does it take to represent a country and embrace it as one’s own? Accepting all that comes with it, and above all, honesty about the heritage of one´s country instead of arguments over the type of tea you drink or what cricket team you support? If no one is prepared to honestly approach their country´s heritage who can call themselves ‘British’? Rather than looking for the public spectacle of apology to mark some kind of imaginary watershed, every one of us should act as they see fit, informed by the past, to address the inequalities of the present and build a brighter future.

By Derek Oakley

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