NewzPresident John Mahama has rejected arguments that the involvement of some Africans in the transatlantic slave trade diminishes the scale of the atrocities committed or weakens calls for reparatory justice, insisting that such participation does not erase the fact that slavery was a systematic crime against humanity. Using the Holocaust as a comparison, he said the involvement of some Jews in acts linked to Nazi persecution does not invalidate the historical reality or severity of the genocide. “Some of the most brutal prison guards were Jews.
Some of those who went into the communities and showed where Jews were hiding and delivered them to the Nazis to be exterminated, were Jews, but it doesn’t mean the Holocaust didn’t happen and that the Holocaust wasn’t a crime against humanity.” Speaking at a high-level dialogue on reparations at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, he said the same principle applies to discussions about African involvement in the slave trade, arguing that the participation of some Africans cannot be used to deny the wider system of exploitation and suffering. “And so even the argument that Africans were involved in enslaving Africans, does not stop it from being the gravest crime against humanity.” President Mahama said the history of the transatlantic slave trade must be examined in its entirety, including the systems and structures that sustained it for centuries. “And the point is, you must look at all the legal underpinnings.
President John Mahama has called for African nations to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism more honestly, urging that future generations be taught the full history of the transatlantic slave trade rather than a sanitised version of events. Speaking at a high-level dialogue on reparations at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica as part of his state visit, the president said Africa must free itself from the psychological effects of slavery and colonialism by telling its own history truthfully. “Emancipate our minds from mental slavery.
The twin effects of slavery and colonialism are still enduring, and that is part of the challenge our nations face. We should be able to tell our children the truth.” President Mahama said his own education placed greater emphasis on the abolition movement than on the scale and brutality of the transatlantic slave trade. “When I was growing up in primary school, abolitionists were portrayed as the most important thing that happened in the slave trade.
We were taught about the slave trade, but the gravity of what happened in the slave trade was never really spelled out.” He argued that history books celebrated abolitionists while giving insufficient attention to the suffering of enslaved Africans. “It was the bravery of the abolitionists and how they were the knights in shining armour who came and stopped it and saved Africans. And so all these people who were involved in the abolition movement were lionised in our history books.” The president said growing international recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as one of history’s gravest crimes is helping to deepen public understanding of its lasting consequences.
“Now we can begin to tell our children the truth. And I think that since the resolution was passed at the United Nations General Assembly declaring the slave trade the gravest crime against humanity, it has piqued interest in trying to understand and know what exactly happened.” He said the renewed global interest in the history of slavery is creating greater awareness of its impact and why it remains relevant today. ” I believe that awareness is being created.
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