Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, speaking in East English Village in Detroit on December 6, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock)., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
with Abayomi Azikiwe & Bernard White
March 6, 2013
To listen to this program featuring Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire and Bernard White, co-founder of CPRMetro.org, just click on the website below:
http://heartofafricamedia.com/2013/03/06/trans-atlanti-slave-trade-historical-contemporary-consequences-with-abayomi-azikiwe-bernard-white/
On this week’s programme, Kudakwashe hosts African Historian, Political Analyst, & Editor of Pan-African News Wire, Abayomi Azikiwe & Media Veteran & Co-founder of Community Progressive Radio Metro (CPR Metro), Bernard White, in a discussion on Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This is a phenomenal discussion on its complex historical and contemporary consequences, some largely not reported throughout history.
It is documented by Emory University that around 1501 Portugal and Spain initiated the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. By 1551, Great Britain and France had joined in, followed by Netherlands by 1576, and then the United States of America and Denmark by 1626. Millions of Africans where brutally and forcibly transported to Europe and the Americas between this period that lasted till about 1866.
Statistics by Emory University show that a total of 12,521,336 slaves where transported. Portugal enslaved the most people amounting to 5,848,265, followed by Great Britain with 3,259,440, and then France with 1,381,404 and Spain with 1,061,524. Denmark enslaved the least with 111,041. Netherlands had 554,336 slaves, and the United States of America, 305,326. Slave masters kept records but this where not always publicly revealed, hence other researches show variable numbers of up to a 100,000,000.
Slave trade, largely a capitalist agenda, significantly contributed to the formation of modern Britain, United States of America and other European nations, at the devastating expense of African life. Though it was ‘abolished’ in 1806, its patterns and consequences affect the lives of Africans today, wherever they are across the globe.
Abayomi and Bernard, give an in depth analysis of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and its diverse components. To note they discuss the revolt slaves executed against their slave owners for their total liberation from slavery. They also mention esteemed African scholars, impacted by the slave trade, who wrote recommended literature for advanced understanding of the slave trade.
Being an economic agenda, Slave Trade benefited diverse disciplines of Western economies, including insurance. Slave owners took insurance for their slaves as slaves were considered goods. The discipline of science and medicine was also inhumanely misused against Africans. Various experiments and surgical operations where carried out – without anaesthesia.
When Slave Trade was abolished, slave-owners in Britain where given huge payouts for the compensation of losing slaves. American slave owners too received reparations. The slaves got nothing. A recent research by University College London reveals how modern day Britain’s wealthiest families and leaders in politics and economics, including the ancestors of the current British PM David Cameron, accrued the modern equivalent of billions of pounds in compensation, enabling them to build their empires still dominant today through their descendants.
The Slave Trade radically devastated Africa, and her peoples with no respect for age, gender, identity, worse still the right to humanity. Children as young as six where used for labour even after abolition. The elderly too were also subjected to harsh labour.
The discussion also reveals how Slave Trade manifests today, through brutal systems that have advanced over the ages, as demonstrated in Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow. To note, our guests indicated that Slave Trade in America did not end in 1863 with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but years later following a civil war. African Americans had remained in bondage.
Kudakwashe concluded the programme with plausible biblical perspective on the relevance of viewing Africa’s existence as a “whole picture”. This involves the modern day people of Africa and those of African descent, connecting with African history with the aim to build the best future for Africa. She makes emphasis on that the legacies of Africa’s founding fathers, even biblically, becomes complete and perfected if today’s generation plays its part. Our fore-fathers where not serving themselves but generations to come.
Abayomi Azikiwe’s work is mainly available from Pan-African News Wire on panafricannews.blogspot.co.uk/. The Pan-African News Wire is an international electronic press service designed to foster intelligent discussion on the affairs of African people throughout the continent and the world.
Since January 1998, this press agency has published thousands of articles and dispatches in newspapers, magazines, journals, research reports, blogs and websites throughout the world. Abayomi is also a frequent commentator on global political matters across various international media, including Press TV & Russia Today. He is available on facebook and twitter too.
Bernard White has been a Media Veteran for 35 years. He is the former Program Director of the listener sponsored WBAI radio based in New York City. As the Co-founder of CPR Metro, he is passionately involved exposing the truth of diverse matters, especially, affecting African Americans, through relevant media. Because of this, he also hosts a daily magazine of issues of particular significance to the African American community, dubbed, Emanations.
CPR Metro is a community-based multi-media organization created to remedy the lack of media attention devoted to critical issues affecting our lives. It also provides an opportunity for listeners and supporters to learn media skills and construct a media organization that will serve community interests.
Heart of Africa is broadcasted live every Wednesday night at 2100 hours Central Africa Time on www.morelightradio.com. It is dedicated to examining matters that affect Africa from a Pan-African Christian perspective, as we envisage the revival of the African dream. Comments and questions welcome here or via twitter @HeartOfAfrica55. All rights reserved.
Also see:
The History Of Negro Revolt by C.L.R. James (1938)
The Revolution And The Negro by C.L.R. James (1939)
Nature Knows No Colour Line: Research Into The Negro Ancestry In The White Race by J. A. Rogers (1952)
On The Rise of Colonialism In Ghana by Abayomi Azikiwe (2007)
The Effects Of Atlantic Slave Trade On West Africa by Abayomi Azikiwe (2007)
Resistance To Slavery: Background To Historical Pan-Africanism by Abayomi Azikiwe (2007)
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Of 35 000 Voyages by Emory University (2008)
Africa And Imperialism: The Atlantic Slave Trade And The Rise of World Capitalism by Abayomi Azikiwe (2010)
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexandra (2010)
Video: Slavery By Another Name by New World Overthrow (2012)
Legacies Of British Slave Ownership by University College London (2013)
Britain’s Colonial Shame: Slave-owners Given Huge Payouts After Abolition by Sanchez Manning (2013)
We Must Be Honest About Our Role In Slavery by Dr Nick Draper (2013)
War On Mali: The Illustration Of Fragmented Totality With Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya (2013)
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