THE conditions of this instance of slavery have been rightly decried as showing the lowest levels of man’s inhumanity to man. The time has come again to mark the abolition of slavery around the world. For long periods and in most places around the world man has made slaves of his fellow man. But perhaps the conditions under which slaves worked were not much worse than the conditions under which the poor majority of Europeans worked in those first dark and satanic mines and mills. Not for the African slaves of this period was there any widespread practice of freedom being granted for good works well done; and even when granted, even today so many years after the abolition of slavery, for all of us with African blood in the Western Hemisphere, our very being declares us-Sons and Daughters of slaves.
Our sons and daughters of slaves must take the lead if this period of slavery is to become just another episode in the history of man. We must begin acting as if it mattered no more that there was this period of history. We must not notice what might be habitual slights; many times these slights are not recognised as being slights and not intended to be so. No doubt there would have developed in Creole culture much coming to terms with the fate of slavery if our forefathers were not to yield melancholy, and not to be overcome by a sense of frustration and futility from continuously testing the chains of slavery.
As one of the earliest sociologists wrote, “the institution of slavery has disgraced the race and the physiological peculiarities of the race have perpetuated the disgrace”. We should steep ourselves in the attitude of the ‘Old Salts’-those slaves who had been brought from Africa across the salt seas. They would have known of the life of responsibility for wife and children; responsibility for knowing when it was time to sow and time to reap, for doing so; responsibility for knowing where and when and how to hunt and fish and needing no master to direct so.
Let us recognise that many fellow sons and daughters of slaves in the Western Hemisphere are earning and are bringing granted widespread recognition – Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, President Obama, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Samuel Hinds, L.F.S.Burnham, Hugh Desmond Hoyte, Professor Clive Thomas, Dr Walter Rodney and many more. They are being the best that man can be and reaching the highest heights that man can reach. Their extraordinary success no doubt rests on extraordinary ability, intense application and to some extent on circumstances. And if anyone says that this range of application is limited let me say that it is a start-a great start.