23^rd August: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition

At its 29^th session, the UNESCO Executive Board adopted Resolution 29 C/40, proclaiming 23 August, the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition, in tribute to the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, when the uprising of slaves took place in Saint Dominque leading later to the ultimate abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the creation of the first Black independent State, the Republic of Haiti. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/23_august_international_day_for_the_remembrance_of_the_slave_trade_and_of_its_abolition/

The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in contemporary history. It is amazing that this mammoth and phenomenal saga of international proportion which had such a colossal impact worldwide should have become seemingly lost in popular discourse, to be sliced and diced only by academics and curious researchers. Between 1492 and about 1870 European wealth and power grew in leaps and bounds as individuals and nations made massive fortunes in the buying and selling of enslaved African men, women and children. Britain’s ascendancy to world domination in the 17^th century was driven by enormous profits obtained from their leading control of the triangular trade, of which the slave trade was a significant part. Together with its plantation colonies, Britain triangular trade network – Europe (manufactured goods), Africa (slaves) and the Caribbean (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane) – is said to have generated a stream of profit that was enough to propel England into the modern era of industrial development. In the span of less than 200 years, Britain and Europe moved from a simple economy to an Industrial Revolution, a journey paved by the use of enforced labor and chattel slavery.

It is not unreasonable to say that the slave trade was a critical lynch pin and cornerstone of the British economy of the 17^th and 18^th century. Shipbuilding, manufacturing, insurance and banking, the growth of cities and towns and employment came to heavily rely on the slave trade for survival, if not for their thriving success. Many other European nations including Spain and Portugal, the French and the Dutch, also took part in and benefited from the slave trade. Armed conflict and the loss of human life were not uncommon as nations battled it out to get, increase, and maintain their share in the marketing of African Black bodies. Even Africans propelled by motives different from their European consorts, participated in the trade, particularly the ruling authorities who contributed prisoners captured in wars or raids, or other captives who had been imprisoned for various crimes.

Beneath and behind the profiteering from the slave trade are layers upon layers of perpetrated inhumane acts of cruelty. Approximately eleven million African lives were uprooted and carried from Africa to one port or another in the Americas, and to the Caribbean, exiled to a life of inhuman bondage to labour mercilessly on sugar, coffee, cocoa, and cotton plantations, or in gold and sliver mines, rice fields, or in houses as servants. Millions more died. Meanwhile, the consequent legacy to certain segments of African, Latin American, and Caribbean communities has been one of persistent poverty and a gnawing sense of being wronged without due acknowledgement. The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (UNWCAR) in 2001 went so far as to declare slavery and the slave trade a crime against humanity.

Today academics and others continue to ask the hard questions about the slave trade – was the trade an economic good or moral evil? Was it a flagrant violation of human rights or was it the result of the natural course of history? Can there be redress? As these questions are asked we remember with reverence those who died and suffered as a result of this dark phase in human history. We also remember and celebrate those who refused to succumb to a life of enslavement and who instead mounted resistance to restore their dignity and inalienable right to a just humanity.