And your point is

I maintain that the reason Black people in Britain still exist on the wrong end of the economic and social polar is because the white establishment still considers it ok to discriminate against people based on their skin colours, albeit subtly and discretely.

That is why you're hardly ever going to find white people who are genuinely in supprt of a black person who's been wronged as a result of his colour. It is ingrained in them to see you as sub-human and a step forward would be for them to acknowledge that the black man is human and therefore deserves an apology for the wrongs done to him.

The black man in all his dealings has never shown the white man that he is equal to them and deserves their respect in any way. how can you sell your selves and expect the white people to respect and treat you rightly, we have sold our selves and we are still selling our selves. take a look at africa and you will see that we have more than sold our integrity ,hope and what we believe in (thats if we really believe in anything at all). cos as far as am concerned all we believe in is greed,selfisness,backwardness and messing our selves up. you have to earn respect and dignity, we as a people have lost that totally. the white people see how we relate to each other and thats what they use to jugde us first b4 anything else and what they see is, (i no fit shout).

I was with a friend the other day and while discussing i told him that i will be going back to Nigeria when i finish my masters degree and he was like ' you want to go back there and die? i heard that every body is running out and you want to go back there, come on go to some where better'.

so you see you really have to earn respect. we have disrespected our selves totally and we seriously need to change. else the trend will continue.

Majaje, I agree with you on your previous discourse. Some of our African leaders have stripped us of our dignity, worse than previous slave holders. You gotta compare the lives of African Americans in the USA and their African siblings, residing in the USA, and you would realize that, financially, they are better off in the USA.

Another question, if this money is eventually distributed, how would it be divvied up? Amongst the descendants of the slaves, or would it be to compensate Africa for its loss of manpower or what? There is no monetary value on a human life, but that does not exonerate this sad/ugly chapter that reshaped the lifestories of black Americans. If our people are very genuine in caring for the lives of their citizens, then they wont be stories of corruption/embezzlement, high unemployment, unpaid salaries for civil servants and constant civil unrest that has now plagued the nation.

mazaje:

The black man in all his dealings has never shown the white man that he is equal to them and deserves their respect in any way. how can you sell your selves and expect the white people to respect and treat you rightly, we have sold our selves and we are still selling our selves. take a look at africa and you will see that we have more than sold our integrity ,hope and what we believe in (thats if we really believe in anything at all). because as far as am concerned all we believe in is greed,selfisness,backwardness and messing our selves up. you have to earn respect and dignity, we as a people have lost that totally. the white people see how we relate to each other and thats what they use to jugde us first before anything else and what they see is, (i no fit shout).

I was with a friend the other day and while discussing i told him that i will be going back to Nigeria when i finish my masters degree and he was like ' you want to go back there and die? i heard that every body is running out and you want to go back there, come on go to some where better'.

so you see you really have to earn respect. we have disrespected our selves totally and we seriously need to change. else the trend will continue.

You will be chasing shadows if you think it's all down to 'our leaders'. The white man comes to Africa, instals his puppet and when his puppet changes his mind and wants to refuse to be a puppet, he is castigated, ostracised and painted as the 'evil' plaguing his nation.

If he plays ball with the white man, he/his nation continues to be a beggar nation to the white man; if he rebels against the white man, he loses support and the white man uses all his resources: media, economic and sometimes military might to ensure that he becomes evil to the ordinary man.

Until that time when we all realise we need to free ourselves from the grip of the strong adversary, we will fight ourselves and blame ourselves for everything.

We are constantly being brainwashed and fed what the white man wants us to feed upon; this means that we will almost always see things the way the white man wants us to see them. We cannot see when the white man uses and dumps us; we only see ourselves as the lazy ones not willing to work hard enough. We dont see when the white man rejects us; we see ourselves as not being good enough. We dont see when the white man spits on us; we see ourselves as the ones making ourselves look like the place to spit upon.

e don do sef

oyinboaja:

You will be chasing shadows if you think it's all down to 'our leaders'. The white man comes to Africa, instals his puppet and when his puppet changes his mind and wants to refuse to be a puppet, he is castigated, ostracised and painted as the 'evil' plaguing his nation.

If he plays ball with the white man, he/his nation continues to be a beggar nation to the white man; if he rebels against the white man, he loses support and the white man uses all his resources: media, economic and sometimes military might to ensure that he becomes evil to the ordinary man.

Until that time when we all realise we need to free ourselves from the grip of the strong adversary, we will fight ourselves and blame ourselves for everything.

We are constantly being brainwashed and fed what the white man wants us to feed upon; this means that we will almost always see things the way the white man wants us to see them. We cannot see when the white man uses and dumps us; we only see ourselves as the lazy ones not willing to work hard enough. We don't see when the white man rejects us; we see ourselves as not being good enough. We don't see when the white man spits on us; we see ourselves as the ones making ourselves look like the place to spit upon.

e don do sef

I disagree with you. you can't blame the white man for everything some of the blame goes to them while most of the blame goes to us as a people. take a look at the so called terrorist Arabs, United Arab Emirates is more developed than so many countries in the EU so also is Qatar,Kuwait, and Baharian these arabs are not liked by the whites but they are still moving forward despite all the pulling back by the whites. what have you go to say about the indians? they are recording and unprecedented economic growth(9.6% anually ) for the last 4 years. what about the chinese? can you say the same of any african nation? to cut the long story short if the Arabs and the orientals can move forward despite all the pulling back and negative energy coming their way from the white people i see no reason why we can't. blaming and not acting will keep us where we are, infact it will make us worse then ever b4. i rest my case

mazaje:

I disagree with you. you can't blame the white man for everything some of the blame goes to them while most of the blame goes to us as a people. take a look at the so called terrorist Arabs, United Arab Emirates is more developed than so many countries in the EU so also is Qatar,Kuwait, and Baharian these arabs are not liked by the whites but they are still moving forward despite all the pulling back by the whites. what have you go to say about the indians? they are recording and unprecedented economic growth(9.6% anually ) for the last 4 years. what about the chinese? can you say the same of any african nation? to cut the long story short if the Arabs and the orientals can move forward despite all the pulling back and negative energy coming their way from the white people i see no reason why we can't. blaming and not acting will keep us where we are, infact it will make us worse then ever before. i rest my case

see me see wahala o

where i take blame white man for EVERYTHING?

we get our faults but white man contribute join am. the first thing na to begin dey love ourselves make we for take see say white man no ever want anyone to get good things as dem get am

And your point is

An apology would fail to bring about a dramatic improvement or any notable change that is worth mentioning. Even more opportunities have been made available to blacks now, especially in America, those changes are better than the apologies they might receive.

I maintain that the reason Black people in Britain still exist on the wrong end of the economic and social polar is because the white establishment still considers it ok to discriminate against people based on their skin colours, albeit subtly and discretely.

you're forgetting that the reason many blacks go to Britain in the first place is because they end up on the wrong end of their own social polar.

It will be stupid,crazy and highly insensitive for a nigerian to paticipate in any slave trade abolishion crap. dO YALL KNOW that 65 percent of those who have been tracing their roots to africa have their origin in nigeria , precisely igbo/south south region. All dem white folks just think we go forget like that. Let nobody decieve u . Its good to remember what they did to our forefathers because a race that doesnt not know their past/heroes and history will surely play second fiddle to the other race ,, no be wetin dey happen for black race .?

this so-called toyin agbetu, if he's so dissapointed with the way his forebears have been treated by the whiteman, what the f**k is he doing in the white man's land? why doesnt he just pack up his bags and come back home?

and when he gets back to this country, can he exhibit that kind of indecorous conduct in the presence of the president of nigeria? because he knows that after the SSS are through beating the sh*t out him he will probably end up crippled for life.

its ridiculous the way cheap attention-seekers like him exploit the loopholes in the permisiveness of western society, just so they can massage their own scrofulous egos. and his countrymen hail him as a folk-hero

slavery was a two-way thing. it took the evil cooperation between the white slave traders and their traitorous black henchmen on one hand, and the unscrupulous village chiefs on the other, to sentence the hundreds of thousands of black pple to a lifetime of subhuman servitude.

yes apologies are in oreder, but let our traditional rulers first of all apologise to us and the millions of african american descendants of those slaves for having betrayed those they were sworn to lead and protect.

toyin agbetu is a very stupid man. by the way isnt the queen old enogh to be his mother??

Toyin is in his country; abi you no sabi say na Britico? He is doing what is allowed in the country he found himself. If he was in 9ja, he wont dare it. Are you referring to freedom and human rights as permissiveness? Is that not the same thing Britain always castigates African countries for?

If Britain expects the world to do what it does and wants to lead the way in world affairs, it has to show leadership qualities. do you actually understand the priciples of international politics before starting to run your mouth against Toyin?

Yes; some of our own contributed to slavery. Does that remove the fact that Britain participated very actively in the inhuman trade?

I want to believe that the thrust of Toyin's protest is the fact that the Queen and Tony were only interested in celebrating another white British man. the whole ceremony was about Wilberforce and it should also have been about the black people who fought for freedom. The hypocrisy and the malignation(?) of non-white contributions to anything is a grouse I always have with the white establishment.

The queen is old enough to be his mother. So did he insult her? No!!! He only stated that she should be ashamed of her act by chosing to try and praise her fellow white man over and above others.

i don talk my own o

@mazaje

why are there no Chinese/Japanese or Arabian slaves

Are you really sure of history? Arabians held slaves in Nile area for agriculture and irrigation purpose unless we are looking at slavery from a Nilocentric perspective.

Ever head of some Asian women who were turned into sex slaves by Japanese Soldiers during WWII?
Remember what happened to Japanese Americans when Pearl Harbor was bombed?

http://www.thinkersroom.com/blog/2007/04/great-grandpa-was-a-slave-apologize/

Great Grandpa Was A Slave. Apologize

Apparently black people wish for some sort of apology, as well as some sort of financial consideration because at some point in time these sons of toil moved tons of soil under a variety of persuasive agents such as whips, shotguns and axes. They sowed, weeded and harvested for massa to eat. They cleaned, washed, mowed and painted for the modest salary of room and board, shared and hard respectively.

I am not one of these seeking these nebulous things.

As a matter of fact, I find these attempts, and the resulting rippling gymnastics hilarious.

Tony Blair, trademark Cheshire cat grin in abeyance, bemoans the shameful enterprise that was the slave trade, conveniently overlooking the fact that a good bit of Rule Britannia was built on the backs of slaves on all 7 continents. If Atlantis had been around you bet your boots some of His Majesty’s vessels would have set out there and delivered gifts of whips, guns, bibles and small pox. Tony came just short of wringing his hands in sorrow.

The Archbishop of York, emotion plainly visible across his countenance, also called for a formal apology from the UK, temporarily forgetting that the UK is not the shouting gentlemen who sit in parliament — he too is part and parcel of it.

The British are not a people to do things by halves. London Mayor Ken Livingston is unable to resist the overwhelming urge to apologize for London’s complicity in the Slave Trade. He also finds among his conflicting great emotions, overwhelming sorrow.

Some doofuses even had the temerity to chain themselves and had a brisk walk with said chains in empathy for the slaves. Uh huh. Try doing that for 60 years.

The Church too has not hesitated to toss its hat into the ring. The Archbishop of Canterbury too wishes for the Church to make amends post haste for the trade.

Whoever came up with the pearl “honey catches more flies than dung” ought to have shared this with the bearded gentlemen who landed on our hallowed shores to convert our black hearts. I find it hilarious that they found the natives rather reluctant to be converted. I wasn’t there, you understand, but perhaps the natives found it difficult to reconcile fellows talking out “turning the other cheek”, “blessed are the meek” and “peace on earth” with hard swearing, vicious fellows who substituted lambs with village maidens and proceeded to lay down with them by night, whipped, clubbed and shot errant natives before noon and in the afternoon burnt incense and read from the Good Book.

The good Archbishop conveniently forgets to mention that the Good Book itself is replete with slaves and slavery. Just mention Hagar to Abraham and watch him turn pink.

But I digress.

With little fanfare, the 25th of March was the anniversary of the ban of the slave trade. There was little mention of this in the Kenyan media. This could be due to the fact that we are:

1. Bored beyond belief with the proliferation of meaningless anniversaries and holidays. The other day we had ‘ World Water Day’.
2. There was nothing actually to commemorate.
3. All the above

The fact that people believe the slave trade is over just because there are no people living in plantations saying “Yessuh massa William suh!” speaks volumes of the collective naiveté of a civilization that prides itself on “information everywhere”, “globalization” and “communication”. Visiting the yahoo home page and giving a cursory look to the headlines therein is enough to convince most that they are indeed in touch with the realities on the ground.

Consider for example the domestic maid. This poor lass is generally source from some remote village and planted in a household. Her impressive array of duties include cooking, cleaning, sewing, darning, washing, taking care of the general household and taking care of the massa home owner’s children. Her pay is usually token, and meals are deducted from the same. She generally eats on her own in the kitchen. Any breakages or damage is invariably deducted from her token pay.

And then on the 25th of March the massa home owner sits down at his PC and, emotion creasing the face, poured out the heart about the angst, consternation, anger, sadness the vile trade(delete as applicable)

His/her people inflicted on the slaves
His/her people had inflicted upon them

Consider too the thriving traffic of young girls and women to Europe, where under lock, key and whip, they attend to the assorted needs of their masters and mistresses.

Today. 2007. 200 years since slavery was banned.

So, with regards to this reparation, I wonder if anyone would answer for me the following questions:

1. Who, exactly is going to apologize is it the governments? I for one would laugh myself to tears seeing Condoleezza Rice or Baroness Amos apologizing for the slave trade. Is it the civic society? Is it the common man? The church?
2. If we generously generalize that black people were oppressed by the white people, what becomes of those shades of grey like Colin Powell and Barack Obama? Do they apologize from one side of the mouth and accept the apology with the other?
3. Since the blacks happily took part in the slave trade themselves, vigorously buying and selling their brothers, how do these factor into the apologies?
4. Our Arab brethren also took part in this trade and made some good living out of it. Why then the double standards?
5. What use is this apology?
6. Why am I being apologized to, and it is my great great great grandfather who was bought, sold and worked himself into the grave for no pay?
7. Why do people want an apology from Tony Blair for things done 150 years before he was even an idea in his folks’ minds?
8. If Mr. Blair does make this apology, it will be completely hollow and meaningless. Why would he take responsibility for the deeds of his forefathers? If my ancestors through guns, whips and ships propelled my country to be the second superpower in the world and I stepped into the shoes of leadership, I dare say I could find the tears and sorrow to be as sorry as you would like me to be. I would even apologize if you’d like. At the end of the day I’d still be sure that it wouldn’t change a damn thing
9. Am I the only one who finds ludicrous the notion that I have to apologize to a boy I wouldn’t know from Adam because my father soundly clobbered his father in nursery school?
10. Those outraged black folk fuming about the white oppressing them ought to put down those writs and dig a little deeper into history where they will find the Berbers took white slaves from Europe. Are they ready for that reparation?
11. There was a roaring slave trade in West Africa, and as a matter of fact they even constructed a market! Demanding an apology from Tony Blair is as absurd of demanding an apology from a bullet and neglecting to mention the gun.
12. Why stop at the transatlantic slave trade? Myopia appears to be a fairly coming affliction
The prime minister of Greece should apologue for all the things the Greeks did when they dominated the world, including trading in slaves
The prime minister of Italy should apologize for all the things the Romans did when they dominated the world, including trading in slaves
Saddam Hussein, before being unceremoniously hanged, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have been made to apologize for all the things the Persians did when they dominated the world, including trading in slaves
The relatively mild people of Norway, Denmark and Sweden should be startled out of their placid lives with demands that they apologize for the things the Vikings did
We can ask the same of the Mongols, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the Egyptians …
13. If financial reparation is to be made:
Who will actually foot the bills for this? The taxpayers of the US and the UK? Which include descendants of the said slaves?
How will the figures be arrived at?
Who will receive this monies? If your great grand mother was the bed wench of a plantation owner are you eligible for half?
14. If we can figure out who will offer the reparation, and how it will be done, how will this invalidate the inhumanity that took place?
15. If it is an apology people want, what if I personally offered an apology for the inhumanity of the slave trade. Will that do? If not, why not?
16. We have spent all these centuries without these reparations. Why the sudden urgent need now? I like to think that most of us are doing just fine without it.

I think it is high time we started taking responsibility for ourselves, and stop looking for feeble crutches like the need for reparation to get on with our lives. Don’t get me wrong — the life of a slave back then was infinitely worse than death. The people that participated in this were undoubtedly the scum of the earth. I believe that they and Hitler will get their own heated section of Hell to themselves.

But come on people! Enough with the feeble crutches! Are we poor because of the slave trade? Perhaps. Perhaps not. The question is what are we going to do to correct the situation? Sit on our backsides waiting for nebulous apologies and money from the guilty descendants of the slave traders that will magically transform us? Someone has even discovered post traumatic slave syndrome! Get over yourselves already!!!

When will people ever learn — no one is going to help you. You wait for George Bush and Tony Blair to apologize. You wait for money to be wired to your bank account in reparation. That’s right, my sons and daughters. Wait right there for millennia of oppression and brutality to be corrected by a hallmark e-card and a wire transfer. Bush and Blair won’t apologize for something blatant for invading Iraq but somehow they will apologize for centauries of slave trade. They have so much money in their coffers and have fulfilled all their health care, defence, education and social security needs that they are looking for something to do with the extra funds.

You wait there. You may never walk alone my lovely but I can assure you that you will jolly well wait alone.

@
Folem u'v said it all, let those who dont understand and have refused to understand, as the ways of the Enslaver seems so pure to them, that they are so afraid to ask, why is it so, sit on there ignorance as long as they are comfortable being the second class where ever they go.

And that same ignorance that is holding them back is being indirectly shown to our leaders such that even if they mean to do well, they are one way or the other forced to bend to the massers will, and poor Africa suffers, while the masser covers face in the name name of aids.

Most time i cant stand such myopic views. And go near the people that act as if its allright and u will find out it bites hard on them as well, or they have forever accepted to do the massers will, in other just to demonstrate to no other person but their fellow blacks "look am doing well coz i obey the will of the massers to keep u down"

Av only got saying for them, just like Mother Theressa said, even though I put it in my own words.

"When u turn ur back at ur own u have inveriable turned ur back on GOD"

It does not matter how many church services u attend.

But unfortunately the massers that teach u to obey him and God will never point out this fact to them.

woww..the black race,is waking up in a speed that i didnt foresee...woww...this is great...gadhaffi said,the europeans owe us 777trillion dollars as reparations.....and we want the full amount..

heavens!!!....we are rich!!!....

Ndipe:
People need to get over this ugly chapter that has bedeviled the black world for hundreds of years. As long as people keep dwelling on the injustices of the past, then, the shackles of bitterness would hover us and stall our progress. Geez, give it a break. I admire William Wilberforce, for his stance against slavery, and ironically, some of the black men, who are demanding for an apology, may have descended from family whose ancestors may have been involved in this tragic episode, in exchange for material goods.

we will get over it,as soon as they finish paying reparations to us...till then,i shall never stop condeming them...whats your problem??...dont you want to be rich??...