400 years ago...

Segun Showunmi

Four hundred years after robbing Africa of its people and resources, in what has been described as the greatest scar on the soul of humanity, what would the world do about it, and who should do it seem like two great things to consider.

Who should be held responsible? The descendants of those who exploited Africans, the African collaborators, or the nations that have benefited the most from this injury that has not been properly atoned for?

What would do as settlement or reparation for this man's inhumanity to man? What should the descendants of the slaves at home, on the mother continent, and in the diaspora, do about this historical injury that has created an imbalance in how things have evolved over the years?

Are we still in a more damning slavery in the form of neo colonialism and its attendant tool of suppression; the international economic, trade and financial order? The greatest injury, in my opinion, is the cultural colonisation that has seen Africans become so miserable as they now don’t have a value system that makes any sense.

We seem to copy or are compelled to adapt to every and anything foreign, notwithstanding how offensive they seem to our ways and belief. We have also had to endure some of the most damning statistical comparisons that give the impression that Africa and Africans are a near basket case of no gooders.

Perhaps, we could reflect and reimagine how exactly things would have evolved with the Africans, had they been spared the unfortunate history of slavery. What would our lifestyle have looked like? would we have been happier, safer and more stable? Or would we have been primitive and more neanderthal in our ways?

If the consciences of those who history holds responsible for the acts do not wish to be held accountable, shall Africans not regroup and demand of themselves the right to say this is Africa and this is how we intend to do our own things? Should we not insist on solving our problems our own African way? Definitely, no one can make us stable and prosperous than we ourselves.

May perpetual light shine on the millions of African ancestors lost to slave trade. Rest In Peace. May we find who we are and who we ought to be; right now, we seem so unsure of who we really are.