papiforreal:
“History Wars”

Edward Colston is gone. Robert Milligan is gone. King Leopold II is gone. Good. Now, let’s talk about how we honor the legacies of the indigenous slaveowners.

What we are witnessing here are “history wars” - the political struggles in which versions of the past - the silenced history - that have long gone largely uncontested are exposed and challenged. This is ultimately a battle of ideas, and sooner or later, we will feel the contagious and domino effect here in Nigeria. It is time to revisit the legacies of the slaveowners and those who played active roles in the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave Trade.

How do we memorialized the legacies of indigenous Slaveowners?

We definitely have to revisit how we honor the legacies of slaveowners like Madam Efunroye Tinubu, the wife of Oba Adele, and one of the most brutal slave dealers that operated the Lagos-Ibadan pipeline delivering slaves for Brazilian and Portuguese export. In fact, Tinubu once boasted of drowning her slaves rather than selling them at a discount. Her statue is right there at Tinubu Square in Lagos Island. She is not alone. Efunsetan Aniwura was probably the most despicable of all the slave dealers in Southwest Nigeria. She was an extremely wicked slave dealer. This woman made it an abomination for her female slaves to get pregnant, and when they do, she openly beheaded them in cold blood at the Ibadan Town Square. How exactly is the crime of Edward Colston and Robert Milligan different from the legacies of Madam Tinubu and Efunsetan Aniwura? Why should Edward and Robert be dishonored abroad while we continue to honor Efunsetan and Madam Tinubu at home?

People still honor and revere the legacies of Oba Akintoye, Kosoko, Ologun Kutere, Akinsemoyin, Oba Ovonranwen Nogbaisi and others who were the biggest slave traders in Lagos and Benin. How exactly are they different from Edward Colston and Robert Milligan? Oshodi Tapa, Dada Antonio, Ojo Akanbi and others who were former slaves and later became big time slave merchants built generational wealth from slave trade. Today, their legacies are not only revered and whitewashed, but their children are still reaping from the generational wealth their ancestors built from slavery. These are examples from the South. In Northern Nigeria, there are too many examples but I will prefer not to mention names. Virtually all the emirates in Northern Nigeria are bastions of slavedealers with history of Emirs who serially abused young girls and religiously justified it in the name of “concubinage”. Sean Stilwell and Heidi Nast did excellent studies on the despicable enslavement and concubinage in northern emirates see “Paradoxes of Power: The Kano Mamluks and Male Royal Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate 1804-1903” and “Concubines and Power: Five Hundred Years in a Northern Nigerian Palace”.

This is not a regional issue. From the north to the south, there are people who are complicit of the same crimes perpetrated by Edward Colston and Robert Milligan but whose legacies are still revered and honored. In fact, look at Port harcourt city. The city was named after Lewis Vernon Harcourt, the British Secretary of State, who was also a sex maniac. Lewis Harcourt was a serial child abuser and he abused both young boys and girls. Today, the hub of the oil industry in Nigeria is named after him. Some of our streets are named after colonial officers and local slave warriors with very dark histories.

The question here is, should our society continue to honor the legacies of slaveowners and those who played active roles in the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave Trade? Should the society continue to name monuments, schools, and landmarks after them even though we are all aware of their dark legacies? Should we just forget and overlook? Or should we follow the Donald Duke approach and build a slave museum to document the dark histories?

Image - The cenotaph of Efunporoye Osuntinubu Olumosa at Tinubu Square Lagos Island.

budaatum:
The 60 ‘Racist’ Threads That Black Lives Matter Protesters Want Removed And Why

www.nairaland.com/attachments/11704722_20200610131237874_jpeg_jpegfea75f4e52888effcb4c5e25db6b84ff

www.nairaland.com/attachments/11704723_20200610131327002_jpeg_jpeg2ca1054e493b45b907ee5f53392095da

www.nairaland.com/attachments/11704724_20200610131303217_jpeg_jpeg4ac24eb00797e13b8c8f8f3f5011d45f