Year of Return

A lot of sub-Saharans Africans do not understand the biff African Americans today have with them. Some of us in the US who emigrated here often wonder why our African American folks do not want to associate with us.

I found the answer in what started to happen en mass 400 years ago, in 1619 to be precise, when the first slaves from Africa (mostly from West Africa and central Africa) were shipped worse than chickens in chains and packaged like cargo for a journey across the Atlantic for six to eight weeks. It is estimated that over 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas over a period of 400 years - most of them died along the way; and they were sold like a commodity to wicked slave masters who treated them less than they treat their pets, and even entrenched it in their first constitution that an African slave is worth only two-third of human. Virile and strong men were reared like one would rear livestock, many were forced to mate with their mothers, sister,s aunts, female cousins to make babies that their master would sell for profit. They were forced into game fight to the death for profit for their masters, just as some do with the chicken fight. They were used to build the wealth of North America - they worked for FREE (America is yet to pay its wages worth trillions of dollars after almost 150 years after the abolition of slavery), they farmed lands for centuries for free, they were prostituted, they did chores, never allowed to be married, never to learn to read so that their minds will not be enlightened. They built roads, railroads, bridges, houses (including the White House), they were even made to fight wars to librate others while in captivity during the war-separated and segregated from their Caucasian counterparts, fed with poor diet and sent to the worst part of the war. The evil of slavery is still seen today, and many of our brothers and sisters, even though free on paper are mostly still in bondage in their minds, through government policies that throw them into jail in large numbers for minor offenses. They are discriminated against in housing, in employment, in the quality of schools, even in the laws enacted for loan acquisition - and they are often touted as lazy and good for nothing - while completely and deliberately ignoring their history, experiences in a society that has systemically ensured they remain under and ignoring the psychological implication of the evil of slavery, segregation, and now discrimination and racism.

They are angry with us because they feel a sense of BETRAYAL that we sold them into slavery - that our kings, chiefs, royal guards, local politicians in those days, for a piece of mirror, some spices, low-quality apparel, salt, sugar, guns, ammunition, alcohol, etc., sold them off into a land of no return.

The questions are, was slavery synonymous with African royals alone; was transatlantic slave trade the only one in existence at that time; how was the culture of the enslavement on the continent of Africa itself before the Europeans saw a gold mine?

There were several routes to slavery before and during the transatlantic slave trade. Kingdoms often make slaves of other kingdoms' people they conquer, they sell them within Africa. This culture is not peculiar to Africa alone, it was a culture common across the world then. There was the trans-Saharan slave trade, and the trans-pacific slave trades at the same time. That is why people in the Southern part of India have darker skin than those in the north - intermarriage with African slaves; that is why you read about African slaves in the Arabian cultures - the Trojan War had both free and slave warriors. The blame for the enslavement of Africans by European slave traders cannot be laid solely at the feet of Africans alone. I think those who carry the most blame are those who perpetuated slavery beyond the time it was accepted as a culture, those who fought a civil war to keep Africans in captivity and are fighting today to keep them under with wicked policies and rhetorics.

Africa today is welcoming its brothers and sister back home. Ghana declared 2019 the "Year of Return" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqoqhruujN4). Many more African Americans are encouraged to visit Africa - you have a root somewhere, there is a continent that will recognize your humanity and would not call you colored but will treat you like royals that you are. We appeal for the forgiveness of past misdeeds and ask our African brothers and sister to embrace Africa - it is home.