Should Tony Blair Apologise For Britain's Involvement In Slave Trade?

Tony Blair recently announced he was going to apologise on behalf of Britain for their role in slave trade 200 years ago. I listened to reactions from people on a radio show and most white folks think he just wants to score brownie points for the labour party.
Do you think Britain should apologise for this great crime against humanity?

What does Africa need more ?
An apology or compensation (cash, aids etc)
Why is this apology coming now and do you think its genuine/heartfelt or some political twists and turns.
Will this make any difference in the way white people look at blacks in britain

I don't think there was any annoucement to apologise, I was more of "we are ashamed of what would now be considered a crime against humanity. . . "

I don't think africa needs compensation, we just need to hold our own in terms of trade negotiations, work together more and ofcourse we can't do that when we as nigerians especially cannot do without feeling superior to the next tribe and religion.

Tony Blair has no right to apologize for slave trade since he never owned any slaves.
We do not have any right to accept such apologies because none of us was ever sold into slavery.
The oppressors and oppressed are long dead.  They should be allowed to rest in peace.

We are still facing the adverse consequences of slavery today.
Our continent is impoverished as a result of the loss of human, intellectual resources as a direct result of slavery.
Na only slavery?
What of the vast amounts of wealth stolen or destroyed.
An apology is useless.
They can express their remorse in a more tangible manner. Otherwise, they should stuff it up their a~~e.

The reason no apology has ever been offered is because the Lion does not apologize when it eats the gazelle.

This is why whites see no need to apologize to Africans.

In America, whites were quite sure their slaves were happy.

Americans actually wrote books and articles because they were mystified why their slaves would leave their plantation just because they were given freedom.

This is how positive that Americans were sure they were doing a great good for their African slaves.

I say offer the apology, because without the apology on record, British involvement with the slave trade will be denied in the future.

some times, i really have to think about your philosophy on life, slavery has changed the course of life for every Nubian person in the world, the state of yr country and that of others, more over it is not only TB who should apologize the Africans who sold us as well should and repair the damage down eg putting value to diamonds which cause the deaths of thousand of African children i could go on.

seun if u don't know what to say ,shut up     

And what does that have to do with what we're discussing? 

@Seun


I don't think you should speak for the dead. Many banks city's, country's, towns and businesses were made off of the free labor of black slaves. Many banks were financed off of black slavery. Those city's, country's, towns, country's and Banks are still in existence to this day. If we should let the dead slaves and slave holders rest in peace, we should also burn down the white owned banks, city's, towns, country's businesses etc. and all that still exist today which was due to black/African free slave labor. Burn down all those things built off of black slavery that still exist to this day - sense it just wouldn't be right to give those things to black people, right? Please, white people are not going to apologize and mean that they are sorry, if they are still going to keep reaping the benefits of slavery after they apologize.



Forget about an apology, how about compensation like they compensated the Jews and the Asians.

If the Israelites benefited economically off of slavery imposed on Arabs, then yes they should compensate or apologize. Although I don't think an apology will do any good.

These days white people are getting comfortable with showing their racism publicly and then apologizing publicly afterwards. Being a racist and then apologizing for it is nothing to them An apology is just another way for them to convey to black people that ultimately they are still human and we should stupidly forgive them and let by gones be by gones, I say baloney.

It has every thing to do with what we are discoursing, this discursion require exposure and experiences, unfortunately you present yourself or appear to pretend not to have any, since you know now where everybody is posting from, at least you should listen more [am not being rude].

You can equally agree that what I said is a mere expresion of my opinion, and in future come out with a well thought out opinion, so we can come out with something positive here.




An apology in these case would be an act of recorgnition that we are equally human and should not be looked down, as is the case around the world today, Abiola was a smart man to have even thought of reparation, we know he was not talking about that for his selfish ends, because he was one of the richest men in Africa, a lot of people don't understand the June 12 saga, are you sure is not connected with his reparation crusade [ cause it was visible that Babngida was already frustrated then but he risked the nation falling apart, isn't that too much?], can you imagine a man that was championing reparation becoming the President of the strongest black nation, people should think more.




An official apology will establish a sense of guilt, and should be followed up with conpensation [ the ball is in the court of the Africans ], because if you steal and you went to court and apologize it won't stop you from going to jail, it might only make your sentence softer, for showing remorse, the Jews were apologized to and compensated.





An apology would not bring them back, but a compensation would do them a lot of good, then is left for we Africans to apologize to then for our incapabilities in standing up for them during slavery, and our fore fathers partial involvement in selling slaves under duress, because we were surposed to develop, regroup and go and bring them back, the Jews did it with their people, white people would have done this, you can bet your ass, since we are not able to do that, we should be able to atleast work more together now.




For our economy to be good, we need to redefine economy.




If it helped the reputation of the Jews in germany, qoute me ours wont be any different.

 


These problems exist because black people has never learned to use their brain, believe me if we use our brain more, we wont be having all these problems, a black person is more concerned of what people would think of him than coming up with crazy ideas, we should learn to be more adventurous than accepting every thing on face values, therein lies the problems.

.

Is left for we africans to make them pay.



If we don't redefine economy, or alternatively develop indigenous technology forget it, we had good economy in the past based on our natural resources, because the west then has not deveped a way to take them from us and tell us how much they are going to give us for them, checkout all the natural resources, the people that sets their prices are the west, simple logics ; how can you be buying something from me and you would be the one to tell me how much you would pay me for such goods. on the contrary should't I be the one to tell you how much I wan't for my goods, which you have all the right to butt out if you don't like it, as long as America has been able to institute the new world order, we can only make it if we are a little crazy.





What is these idea of the west giving us aid?, printing money to give us?, who gives the west aid, Africans are soo funny.




as long as our leaders goes by the books, they would continue to fail, for us to make it we must carve out our own destiny, you can't beat somebody in his own game, you can only do that by adding your own initiatives to somebody's game and beat him, the Japanese has proved this.


 
I couldn't agree more.

thats what they are doing now! they obviously made huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge profits from it!

still doesnt make it right does it, an apology wouldnt hurt

@925

Sometimes, the talk of reparation involves bringing some of them back to Africa. I was wondering whether you'll give up your father's plot for them, Donzman won't.


Eat shit. I didn't participate in any slavery and my father did not, I won't aplogize for something I didn't commit nor did I reap any monetary benefit off of.

No it's not a typo, you can apologize if you did it, I did not do it so nobody should be expecting any apology from me.


Yeah the smart ones and the stupid ones should apologize A.S.A.P. and not Donzman. Here is where the cookie crumbles, they are all dead.

 Even if they were alive, apologize to who?, Nobody alive at the moment went through slavery and negative effects of slavery is evident in both Africa and America so the argument that they're still suffering from slavery is not leaving the dock at the moment. Things are supposedly being done to mitigate the negative effects of slavery and asking anyone to apologize is ridiculous. Actions are far greater than words, sometimes I wish I'm deaf and can only observe what people doand not get to hear all the yappings carried out for cosmetic purposes.

  i was tempted to think you are an american

and for the rest  

- Tony Blair, 2 October 2001.

the scar was caused to a great extent by some people who are obviously guilty of their actions that still exist today in many different forms

If they get the money, buying land wont  be a problem if they want to relocate, mind you when the Jews relocated their people it wasn't mandatory.


there is a very minimum requirement in understanding a nature painter, think. What am advocating on the part of the Africans is not parse apology, but a kind of reconciliation.


Affirmative action is not meant to address the effect of slavery, is meant to give the descendants of slaves at least any kind of a start in life, if any.


Is not my wish to hurt my brother, by you do agree Donzman, you 've gat attitude.