Emancipation Day

Today Monday August 1st is celebrated as Emancipation Day in Jamaica  many former British colonies while other countries that participated in the slave trade or were former colonies of European colonizers have varying days that are celebrated as Emancipation Day.

Today August 1st is then the day when the continent of Africa should rejoice because the colonial powers of Europe and the USA after forcefully transporting Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to be slaves for over 300 years declared that those of African origin who were in slavery were finally free. It is the day when those of us who are of African descent should feel grateful to our colonial masters for granting to our fore fathers freedom from slavery.

Since today is Emancipation Day it becomes a day for reflection. The only thing that those of us who are of African descent have to feel ashamed of is the docility with which our fore fathers accepted their role and allow those who were their inferior to dominate. It is this passivity which cause us who are of African descent to continue being treated by governments with injustice while we are continually accused of being violent. This will always happen when those who are inferior lord it over their superior.

Each Emancipation Day becomes a day for those who are of European descent to stop and reflect on who they really are. Those who are of European descent continue the blood line and have the genes of those responsible for genocide, murder, rape, stealing and a list of ills that will take up too much space. Those of us of African descent can rise above the enslavement of our forefathers and prove to those of European descent that we are their equals and betters but those of European descent cannot purge their blood or their genes of the crimes against humanity that were carried out by their forefathers.

Today is Emancipation Day and therefore today it is a good time to look at the factors and institutions  that were responsible and which led to such a day as this being commemorated.

The church

I was taught in school that the slave trade began at the suggestion of a Roman Catholic Priest, Bartholome de las Casas. The priests came with the colonizers from Europe to convert the uncivilized to Christianity. These Europeans were more in need of conversion to Christianity than the uncivilized. It was the extermination and the genocide of the native population by the europeans that led to the priest suggesting that Africans be brought in.
The church sanctioned the activities of these Europeans and agreed with the Europeans that the African slaves were similar to the beast and had no souls. The church condoned the murder, rapes, dehumanizing and all ills practice by the Europeans.
The role of the church was so complicit in the slave trade that at present some church groups are dropping the name of some church denomination in their names.
The church continue to be an institution that is looked on with mistrust because the church continues to embrace those of European descent who advocate that the color of their skins make them superior to those people who are of African descent.

The Africans

I hold no acrimony toward persons of European descent or of any nationality because I am convinced that it were my forefathers in Africa that captured and sold each other to the Europeans. I know that there are claims that this is not true. However, I am yet to be provided with the evidence that the Europeans had the knowledge, skills and manpower to travel into the interior of the continent to capture the Africans.

The Europeans

The Europeans were greedy for wealth and their violence, cruelty and the diseases they brought on their bread and in their bodies to the West Indies and USA decimated the native population of the Americas and the West Indies. The natives of the USA fought until almost exterminated but were never subjugated. What the government of the United States could not do through force it did through trickery. It signed a number of treaties with the natives but never felt compelled to honor these treaties
In the West Indies the rigors to which the Europeans put the natives caused the natives to wilt and some to no longer exist. It was out of pity for the suffering of these natives that the suggestion to bring in Africans originated.
The Africans when they came, in spited of the hardships thrived and survived. This in itself showed that the African although considered inferior were of superior constitution to both the natives of the West Indies and also to the Europeans. This in itself caused the Europeans to fear the Africans and made the African subjected to violence because the Europeans feared that one day the Africans would rise in rebellion.
There were other problems that the Europeans had with the Africans slaves because the Africans slaves embodied the ideals of the Europeans. The Africans slaves were who and what the Europeans wanted to be except for being in slavery. The Europeans also considered the Africans slaves to be less that the beast and animals but still went ahead and satisfied their lusts on the African females slaves. It was punishable by death for a African male to look on a European female with lust but that did not stop the European females from lusting after the African males.
Although the Europeans considered the Africans slaves to be less intelligent than the beast and animals the Europeans recognized that the only advantage that they had over the African slaves was their ability to read and to write so to maintain his superiority The Europeans decreed death for the African slave that could read and write.

The Europeans had two claims to being superior and that was the color of his skin and his ability to read and to write. The reality now is that the gene of the African is dominant and the privilege of learning to read and to write has been adopted as a right to which every living human is entitled.

As we celebrate Emancipation Day today the native population of the former British colonies and the USA have been drastically reduced. In the USA emancipation is not often talked about. The people of African descent continue to be a problem. They comprise approximately 15% of the population but their impact is by far too significant. This impact is so significant that even now those of European descent are fearful. This comes about because persons of European descent believe that they have a God given right to the land. Each time they see a person of African descent it becomes a reminder of the ills perpetuated by their forefathers. A person of African ancestry is a reminder of their history as those descending from those who came from Europe.

It is interesting that a person who is a second generation immigrant can threaten  those who can trace their ancestry to twenty generations or more that he will deport them to their original homeland.

It remain ironic that those of African ancestry should be celebrating Emancipation Day. Especially in light of the fact that they can trace their ancestry back to kings and emperors in Africa while their superiors can trace their ancestry to those responsible for genocide, murderers, rapists, liars and thieves.

The persons of African descent can rise above .their forefathers being slaves but who shall purge the blood and the genes of those descending from the Europeans