December 2020. BZZZTT!! We could just cut to the chase, and impose a reparations tax on anyone who is descended from from anyone who did something, er, wrong. Have you ever read the account by Ibn Fadlan of a Viking funeral in Russia? Not many remember anything about segregation either. @ Boganboy Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade is part of the national curriculum, although it is not statutory. Id say theres enormous dangers in treating this as if it was some public school debating society gig. For almost 60 years, there was impasse. Reasonable estimates have some 50% of the inhabitants of the Sokoto Caliphate as late as the late 19th cent being slaves. In the USA? Check out the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy, an upcoming live-action movie directed by David Lowery. White people will take it. Maybe heard of Saint Balthild, seventh-century English lass sold into slavery, exported to the Continent, served in a palace and ended up marrying the Frankish King?). Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It died out with the Romans leaving, and its non-legality repeatedly reaffirmed from the reign of the early Normans onwards.. A renowned economist has said that $12 trillion should be afforded to black Americans in reparation for slavery to help the close wealth gap.. I am of Ulster Scot heritage, who were originally John Knoxs Cumberland Presbyterians, VERY MUCH against slavery. David will . Hes insisting that a household headed by a 21 year old black should have the average wealth of all white households. The stars are out as Dr Pete Olusoga explores the psychology of stage and screen with the wonderful British actor (and Coronation Street veteran), Shobna Gulati. In the UK its not white people enslaving blacks anymore, but Asians enslaving other Asians, as in Leicesters clothing sweatshops. And that still stands even if there really are a bunch of torturing murderers out there too. "They do not want British history to be a catalogue of heroes and victories and glorious chapters," he says. But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom. Would also apply even if down a different family line there had been beneficiaries of the slave trade. A newsletter showcasing the finest writing from the ideas section, covering political ideas, philosophy, criticism and intellectual history - sent every Wednesday. So he calls himself a Geordie. He is the author of the 2016 book Black and British: A Forgotten History, which was awarded both the Longman-History Today Trustees Award 2017 and the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2017. To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . (Im just presenting the case here in reality there are obviously some big questions about the logic of Nuremberg etc, just as there are questions about how judges in Common Law occasionally summon up things as if they had always and forever been a part of the Law, albeit previously unrecorded, rather than something the judge just made up.). He is the undisputed King of the Internet Pedants and Lord of the Unnecessary Snark. The thing we British are ancestrally responsible for is beginning and continuing to pursue the extinction of the sordid business of slavery. Then the adult men became profitable too. The agreement is being touted as a . Jamaicans and Nigerians used to hate each other. The publication in 1852 of Uncle Toms Cabin, by the American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, swelled national sympathy for the plight of black slaves. 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. It could not have happened at all unless African traders and kings had offered slaves to the Europeans. Id say this to Mr Olusoga. What has he got to say about that? Should black history be taught all year round? That someone did something 200 years ago means double ought nothing. West Indians fought with the Allies more than a hundred were decorated. Dont know if I would rule it out entirely because the demographics are different but it might need a change in the voting dynamics. Though I dont know where wed get $12 trillion in Confederate currency. My argument is that Africans were probably happily killing each other for women before the West turned up. Not good. Fuck right off As a winning debating strategy. You may concede a point here, a point there. That is a strawman argument at its best. It does not take people long to starve to death and slaves were paid for. One of the reasons why the American and Caribbean experiences were very different. If you are wracked with guilt, ashamed of your forebears, do it! The Sokoto Caliphate probably had as many slaves and a lot fewer free men as the Old South. "I have," he admits, "a habit of . It is a political campaign, not a contribution to academic history. No one has said we should not consider someone elses viewpoint. Theres a flaw in arguments of the form frankly you should be glad I murdered your sister, since had I not done so, its quite possible though we cannot be sure that someone else would have tortured her then murdered her, which is even worse, so whos the real criminal? Which is that I still murdered your sister. In that moment, his interest in history overlapped. As would Beyonce. Back in the heyday of blogging, perhaps ten years ago or so, there was a blogger calling him/herself The Heresiarch who enjoyed running against received opinions. Macmillan, 624pp, 25, David Dabydeen is a novelist, broadcaster, academic and co-editor of The Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford University Press), This article appears in the 16 Aug 2017 issue of the New Statesman, Trump goes nuclear, Quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics. Anglo-Saxons had slaves. Viking Dublin was a major slave-trading centre (English, Irish, Scots, anyone else they could get their hands on). Indeed, third-century York may have been more ethnically and racially diverse than present-day York. He is a Cultural Marxist trying to destroy the West. Slaves were crowded in a new environment with new diseases. The race obsessed Department of Education goes to considerable lengths to distinguish Caribbeans and West Africans. You should know better. Rather that certain western states, still in existence therefore potentially still liable, regulated and indeed encouraged the development of both the transatlantic slave trade and the slave-labour economic systems of the colonies, at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. But that ignores how the demand of outsiders led inevitably to far more supply being provided, so I dont think the traders can be given a pass on this front either. Dr Peter Olusoga is a senior psychology lecturer at Sheffield Hallam university. When I met her, ~1995, I started asking her questions about the war, as I thought she was a fabulous resource of information. Olusoga brilliantly reveals such contradictions in British society. Black and British: A Forgotten History addresses one of the greatest silences in British historiography. It could have ended earlier, but the planter interests in parliament defeated William Wilberforces attempts. (Britain expended blood and treasure on ending the slave trade, and thereby paid its moral debt already is one way of trying to resolve it, but rather unsatisfactory at righting the wrongs done to those who had already fallen victim to the trade.) Prof Olusoga is not the only person who has been drawn to Equiano's story. Not a big fan of the odd human sacrifice Im afraid, even though I might just be of very partial Scandinavian descent myself. Then dont discuss it. Its an interesting exercise to consider, given we live within such a system, how or whether that contradiction can be settled. If there were African states with legal continuity to those political entities which established and encouraged the African slave markets, they would be on the hook too, but theres a discontinuity due to colonialism and besides, everyone knows to sue the rich guy not the poor guy. Re putting the argument for paedophilia they actually gave Gide the Nobel prize for literature didnt they? Yet American slave-produced raw cotton continued to feed the 4,500 mills of Lancashire. Well the universe has a law of gravity but it doesnt have a law of should there be reparations. They are stupid false for America. Do I feel like I had anything to do it? What do you think their stongest argument is? Different people can argue the toss from different viewpoints and perspectives but in many ways their arguments pass each other like ships in the night, because they havent all got nobodys got an absolute frame of reference to judge things with respect to. The historian tells Michael Segalov about getting up early, reading George Orwell, taking his dog George for a walk, playing his guitar at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. The economics of the slave trade may have meant that it was cheaper to work someone to death rather than allowing him a comfortable old age. And so, equipped with the fruits of Islamic learning (new navigational instruments, books on astronomy and trigonometry), European explorers set sail for Africa to relieve the natives of their gold. But those were in those long-lost days when democrats and republicans could talk to each other and agree to disagree while both leaving the conversation a little the wiser. More than a million copies were sold in Britain cheap pirated versions reached a mass readership. Rather the constitution banned the slave trade and so it become economically worth it to make sure slaves lived longer. "They were barely known even to historians. Olusoga poses as an objective historian and says he is not there to bring comfort to people. Both groups today, especially the former, could reasonably claim historic persecution has reduced their present income and wealth. Wrong ?!?! I cant see this one surviving people being expected to dig into their pockets for a few trillion. "He was the voice of somebody who wasn't speaking about the past as a historian, but was living it. It is a good deed that must not go unpunished. The system he witnessed and wrote about was one in which human beings were worked to death. Both of these need proof. Hes welcome to pursue his line of thought but he should bear in mind that tolerance is, by its nature, in the gift of the powerful. Britain was happy to force the Bevan Boys down coal mines. Moreover its arguably unjust that only victims of still-extant states have a route to compensation whereas people from ethnic groups roughly contemporaneously massacred, enslaved and sacrificed by the Aztec Empire have nobody to sue. You know, entirely ignoring lifetime effects? While I dont think they persuaded anyone, they did shift perspectives a bit. We do not know how great the demand for women was. Black and British: A Forgotten History I know. He has discovered new and exciting research materials in African archives, among them the Register of Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone, which list names, bodily details, ethnicity and origins, thus putting a human face on people otherwise treated as fodder and statistics. They all get it from White people inciting violence. Should black history be taught all year round? I learned the hard way. Theres probably more mileage in my country, or at least its historical incarnation, fought against it because unlike the actual people involved, the state is still around. In the case of slavery the answer is clear. The strongest case I can see against reparations is not fundamentally a legal one but perhaps one degree abstracted the law if we can litigate that, we can litigate a heck of a lot of stuff from centuries past, tie our legal systems up in knots with no obvious limits in sight. at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too.. Guess wed have to print it. In the 15th and 16th centuries, thousands of pounds of gold were shipped to Europe. That is not true. Long after slavery ended in the British colonies, British people continued to lobby the American government to free their slaves. Inflaming the reader has no purpose relative to slavery. A weekly newsletter helping you fit together the pieces of the global economic slowdown. "The way history is viewed is changing. If black lives really mattered these people would be protesting the 500 shot dead so far by predominantly black men in Chicago this year. Dont even get me started on the Moors, Arabs and Ottomans, As for getting rich many African tribes kept slaves and their societies did not get rich. ), Who is fundamentally right about reparations for slavery? If you had spare cash or could borrow, investment in slavery was a sure winner, never mind slave rebellions or hurricanes that destroyed cane fields. But werent they lucky compared to the other Germans in Stalingrad? Id agree that attitudes in the UK are approaching that situation, but theres still a long, long way to go yet. Sugar was king: originally a luxury, it became one of the main sources of calories for the British poor. Read about our approach to external linking. As he states, The oral history of 20th-century racial violence has never been collected or collated, but it is thereand it is shocking.. I personally dont find that as convincing as the case that slaves themselves deserved compensation, and while there were strong political and practical reasons owners were compensated upon abolition but not their former slaves, it doesnt leave a great moral taste in the mouth that twas so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr_Gide, Less flippantly, Western countries are not of one mind when it comes to the age of consent sex with a 14 year-old is legal in some countries, criminal in others (yes yes, paedophilia versus ephebophilia etc, you got me). The good news is that Black Lives Matter may be that trigger. So how much have considered paedophilia? He previously worked at JP Morgan for 18 years in a number of senior roles and was . I doubt that they are now firmly united in a common cause. The details of difference are fairly minor. Quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics from the New Statesman's politics team. Theres no point pretending Europeans who profited from either the transatlantic slave trade or the use of slave labour in the Americas were somehow doing a favour to the slaves involved. Their cities, as well as their comfort, will rapidly decay. If the alternative was that they were killed? It doesnt end with the parties saying Well that was pleasantly intellectually stimulating, now lets have a nice game of cricket Youre opponents are not playing by the same rules as you are. This is because forgetting slavery means forgetting its victims. It's against this backdrop that Black British History Month was created. Olusogas ancestors will have participated in the capture of sale of slaves in Nigeria. And he might not find the society withdraws it nearly as comfortable for him to live in. He presents a one sided and biased picture of slavery which takes no account of the African participation in it. It is about the centuries-long engagement with Africa, a consequence of which is the black presence in Britain. The rest of this looks like the usual white washing (so to speak) of African slavery. Some were sold to other African tribes and the rest kept as slaves. * the legal institution and pretty much the practice Exactly, bis. Wider imperialism reparations that include South Asia, China for the Opium Wars and so on, surely even more prohibitively costly, regardless of how effective the education system gets at making young Brits feel a vague sense of guilt about it all. Nobody will stop you, honest. Thy did not try to grow or raise the next generation. The UK, Norway, Benelux, Spain, Malta and Switzerland are, I believe, the only western European countries to set it at 16. People seem pretty much agreed on what is right and what is wrong. Which of those societies does Olusogas ancestry come from? If more African-Americans started to vote Republican and the Democrats felt they needed something radical to boost their offer, and had enough support from liberal whites and other groups to risk further losses among blue-collar whites, for example. It isnt happening now. It seems absurd to me that anyone should be concerned about what happened 200 or 500 years ago. If you want to pay more tax, just write a cheque to HMRC and send it off. He saw how enslaved people who had risen up were burnt to death, castrated or mutilated, punishments he regarded as merited. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . He updates Fryer, citing radioisotope analysis of skeletons and craniometrics, which support written documentation of Aurelian Moors guarding Hadrians Wall and settling in places such as Yorkshire. The Westman Islands of Iceland have an interesting history in terms of European slavery a major rebellion of presumably mostly Irish (Westmen) slaves was put down there in the typically brutal Scandinavian manner, hence the name, but in the 1600s the local inhabitants were themselves enslaved by Barbary pirates and taken to Algiers, from where a few were ransomed back and one wrote about the experience. I think it's an astonishing achievement.". Anti-black riots broke out in Liverpool that year. The New Statesmans weekly environment email on the politics, business and culture of the climate and nature crises - in your inbox every Thursday. Again, not that these market forces absolve the sellers of a moral responsibility, but there is an argument occasionally deployed that slaves would have been slaves anyway. That was a bad experience but he should know that you cannot judge a whole country by what happened when he was young. Olusoga is of half Nigerian descent. The many African-American abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, who visited Britain from the 1840s onwards, were well received and, again, thousands of people greeted them and raised money to support their cause. BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, The Meaning of Zong, Spacious open-plan family home in Muswell Hill, Five Cineworlds across south London still at risk of permanent closure, Residents who have 'suffered for years' to be asked if they want blocks knocked down, Dazzling Thamesmead light festival returns with performances, films and flash mob, Charlton murderer claims prison guards broke his arm and sues for 20k, Children and young people with eating disorders face treatment postcode lottery, Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. David Olusoga, 49, is a television presenter and historian. By David Dabydeen (Photo By Alamy) Nineteen eighty-four was a transformative year for David Olusoga. Olusoga, who is half-Nigerian, traces this focus to his mother telling him when he was a child that Nigerian soldiers served in World War II. Like the Nigerian slavers who enslaved and sold the slaves, you mean? However, it applies to at least 80% of Americans. He was Chairman of Moneysupermarket Group from 2014 to 2019 and Senior Independent Director of Close Brothers Group plc from 2006 to 2014 and is a Past President of the Chartered Management Institute. In the end, wholl be proven right about the matter practically, in terms of what the outcome is and what the first drafts of history say? But as someone who is damaged by slavery I have lived in racially mixed communities and I am happy to see Obama and Kamala pay up. Sordid business of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too history Month was created was voice. 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