It may not. Like I said before, tolerance is in the gift of the powerful. Tim says there might be some truth to them for the Caribbean. "This generation has the greatest knowledge-giving tool ever created and they have access to knowledge that I just did not have when I was younger. Slavery within West African societies being different again I dont think the places with very high rates of local slavery were anything like the sugar plantations. "The phenomena of which he is iconic is one that we have written out, edited out of our nation. P rofessor David Olusoga is reviewing a disorientating year from a familiar place: his white-painted study, the one with the guitars hanging from its walls. No member of my family ever owned slaves. But its still awful, even on a historical scale. Of course if a rule was instituted that only people with white skins had to pay taxes, it might happen. David Olusoga's Family David Olusoga, age 49 was born to a Nigerian father and a British mother. Surely the US has already spent much more than that on black Americans. This history of the black presence in . David Olusoga Perhaps Im a bit more culturally relativist these days, but just read it again, still absolutely awful. You may concede a point here, a point there. What do you think their stongest argument is? When Olusoga recalled the experience before television cameras last year, he wept. BZZZTT!! No. The UK, Norway, Benelux, Spain, Malta and Switzerland are, I believe, the only western European countries to set it at 16. Within the EU the two most common ages of consent are 14 and 15 (if Ive done my counting correctly), though in some but not all cases thats with additional restrictions on permissible age gaps. Now they do. Prof David Olusoga has presented numerous documentaries including A House Through Time and Black and Black and British: A Forgotten History, Olaudah Equiano played a role in Britain's abolishment of slavery, Performer Giles Terera has written a play featuring Equiano, Prof Olusoga said when it was published, people did not believe the book was by an African as it was deemed so well written, Bernardine Evaristo (second left) has launched a series called Black Britain: Writing Back which features novels by black British authors that have been overlooked, Should black history be taught all year round? And so, equipped with the fruits of Islamic learning (new navigational instruments, books on astronomy and trigonometry), European explorers set sail for Africa to relieve the natives of their gold. is that the extra demand distorted the market, led directly to more armed slave-raiding expeditions against rival tribes and so on.. Indeed in many cases, whose ancestors didnt even live in France or England at the relevant time. You know, entirely ignoring lifetime effects? Whether they are too stupid to think of that remains to be seen. Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father - who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. 7 years was the average working lifespan so it is said. We could just cut to the chase, and impose a reparations tax on anyone who is descended from from anyone who did something, er, wrong. Just means they werent alone in being in the wrong. Fryers book was monumental, inspiring conferences, publications, the setting up of local history groups, the establishment of Black History Month, and radio and television programmes. I assume these were usually killed before Europeans turned up and bought them. And the fact youre moved to tears by discovering for the first time a great-great-great-grandmother of yours was a prostitute single-mum with seven kids or a great-x5-uncle you had never heard of was imprisoned for murder, well, your utter lack of knowledge simply reveals how little youve been influenced by them, so youre hardly discovering a new facet of yourself at all. "The way history is viewed is changing. And Britain worked for the whole of the 19th century to put down slavery in Africa. I imagine few do. I suspect that whether records could prove it or not, its overwhelmingly likely to be true, especially since high-status individuals tend to make a bigger contribution to the gene pool. Back in the heyday of blogging, perhaps ten years ago or so, there was a blogger calling him/herself The Heresiarch who enjoyed running against received opinions. Dr Peter Olusoga is a senior psychology lecturer at Sheffield Hallam university. I am not so sure about that although it is another argument. Nobody will stop you, honest. Fought to STOP southern independence. Its a shame To me personally, this is the thing. many African tribes kept slaves. But you need a different approach if you dont think great-grandkids of the Confederacy are still fair game.) So there were times when food was expensive, we can call those shortages or famines. Sooner or later, we whites are going to have to take a stand, and say we aint taking this any more. Video1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat, How 10% of Nigerian registered voters delivered victory, Sake brewers toast big rise in global sales, The Indian-American CEO who wants to be US president, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip. Because it isnt about who you are, its about who your ancestors were. Like I said, as a mental exercise, if I do my best good faith effort to imagine an argument for reparations, I reckon it would concern harms committed by the state (which unlike the slave traders and owners, is still about today) and an argument that it breached some alleged fundamental/universal doctrine of law so that even the states efforts to put the slave industry on a legal footing were null and void. Obama had none. it was cheaper, at times, to starve people and then replace them Check out the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy, an upcoming live-action movie directed by David Lowery. People seem pretty much agreed on what is right and what is wrong. They did not pay for them and were going to kill a lot of them anyway. How would Nigeria treat a foreigner like him? The Barbados slave code of 1661 stripped Africans of all human rights, and set out ways in which they were to be punished, to exert control over their labour (mutilation of the face, slitting of nostrils, castration, execution). At the moment it seems to regarded as a good thing. H istorian and broadcaster David Olusoga has been the face of a decolonial turn in British broadcasting that, in recent years, with series including the Bafta-winning Britain's Forgotten Slave. Women, denied a meaningful role in politics, formed their own organisations, writing tracts, pamphlets and poems, gathering signatures for petitions and fundraising: At certain times and in certain places they were the engine room of the movement.. What difference has it made? Then, in October, came a breakthrough. Guess wed have to print it. Britain should be proud of helping to stop (African to America) slavery, like the Republican Party and unlike the Democrats. Writing in english is cultural appropriation so STFU. Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning British performer who starred in the popular theatre production Hamilton, has recently staged a play called the Meaning of Zong about the massacre of 132 enslaved Africans aboard the slave ship Zong in 1781 and the impact it had on Equiano. Some were sold to other African tribes and the rest kept as slaves. We do not know enough to be sure. After decades of complaints, the Royal African Company lost its monopoly in 1712 and, Olusoga writes, Independent traders were turned loose upon the shores of Africa. These traders had argued (stone-blind to irony) that the right to enslave Africans was a defining feature of English freedom and that the Royal African Company had breached their status as free-born Englishmen. To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . The government has said the "flexibility within the history curriculum means that there is the opportunity for teachers to teach about BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) history across a spectrum of themes and eras" so it did "not believe it was necessary to change the curriculum". First launched in London in 1987, it aims to highlight and celebrate what black people have achieved in Britain throughout history. Sugar plantations were bad. By this logic, we ought to sue the African American community. Such sources give his writing freshness, originality and compassion. Nevertheless, we live in a society that generally regards slavery as an absolute and eternal wrong, and a grave one at that, yet which has historically (at least certain people and places, and including the state itself) benefited from imposing slavery on others. And yet Africans and West Indians were banned from the victory parade in 1919. Viking Dublin was a major slave-trading centre (English, Irish, Scots, anyone else they could get their hands on). Their demands should simply be refused. Long after he had published Corydon, his defence of pederasty. In the USA? But that ignores how the demand of outsiders led inevitably to far more supply being provided, so I dont think the traders can be given a pass on this front either. The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion?. Over 1000 years in Britain. When I met her, ~1995, I started asking her questions about the war, as I thought she was a fabulous resource of information. That assumes an increase in demand. However, it applies to at least 80% of Americans. In 1860, cotton goods accounted for 40 per cent of all British exports. The following decades were taken up with popular and political rhetoric about immigration and parliamentary acts to limit blacks coming to Britain. BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, The Meaning of Zong, Spacious open-plan family home in Muswell Hill, Five Cineworlds across south London still at risk of permanent closure, Residents who have 'suffered for years' to be asked if they want blocks knocked down, Dazzling Thamesmead light festival returns with performances, films and flash mob, Charlton murderer claims prison guards broke his arm and sues for 20k, Children and young people with eating disorders face treatment postcode lottery, Angry protests erupt over Greek rail disaster, How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat. The book accompanying. Very often shaped by the political, technological and economic forces of the times if the Western way of life had remained utterly dependent on Roman-style slavery, Im not sure wed ever have abolished it even amongst our own inhabitants. Its entirely possible to think something was awful without feeling the slightest twinge of guilt or personal responsibility. Dont know if I would rule it out entirely because the demographics are different but it might need a change in the voting dynamics. Would, say, Huguenot-descended South Africans suing France over the 1572 St. Bartholomews Day massacre, or Cornish people suing HMG for the suppression of the 1497 Rebellion, deserve compensation? Hundreds of White women raped every day. No? . 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MyBurningEars August 30, 2020 at 3:31 pm Deliberately shipping that many people that far in order to participate in a newly-created society whose economic system was designed, pretty much from the ground up, around slave labour?, True that unlike certain other examples of slavery, you werent likely to be killed as part of a religious sacrifice or as part of your owners funeral., But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom.. David Olusoga meets Janice Haber and her family, the descendents of Jewish . Less flippantly, Western countries are not of one mind when it comes to the age of consent sex with a 14 year-old is legal in some countries, criminal in others (yes yes, paedophilia versus ephebophilia etc, you got me).. "They do not want British history to be a catalogue of heroes and victories and glorious chapters," he says. Under English law, damages are assessed as being that amount needed to restore them to the position they would have been, had the event claimed against not occurred. So how much have considered paedophilia? That someone did something 200 years ago means double ought nothing.. Make sure it doesnt happen in the least costly way. Slavery is bad or it isnt. Its been banned for two centuries in Britain. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. But it is also likely that disease played a role. Cest de la trs bonne dialectique conomique. So 10.416 were sold by the Africans every month for one hundred years, There will be no peace on this issue until black people acknowledge their own responsibility for the trade. Olusoga, who presents the BBC documentary series A House Through Time, told presenter Lauren Laverne that racism was "just the background hum of life" when he was growing up. If we look back history is just an unending series of atrocities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc5ENT8ajg, https://www.history.co.uk/shows/the-real-vikings/articles/eyewitness-to-the-vikings, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/world-of-domesday/order.htm, Apparently Essay Mills Must Be Made Illegal, Why Oxfam Can Go Boil Their Heads Over Vaccine Patents, The real point about climate change is how cheap the solution is, The excellent Tim Worstall- The Register, Tim Worstall is a darn good economist- Don Boudreaux, Tim Worstall, you pendant- Polly Toynbee, .more sensible than most right wing nutjob bloggersBob Piper. The strongest argument I can see for reparations is not that white people bear some kind of ancestral blame. Maybe someone should advise him to button his lip before he stirs up something he may not like. Olusoga has benefited from and added significantly to the work of Fryer and other historians such as James Walvin. (If the likes of SMFS believe Western society will fall apart without a return to traditional Christian-inspired values, I suggest they either don a pessimists crash-helmet or just cling on and enjoy the ride to Hell in their top-gear handcart. Yet American slave-produced raw cotton continued to feed the 4,500 mills of Lancashire. Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade is part of the national curriculum, although it is not statutory. Theres no point pretending Europeans who profited from either the transatlantic slave trade or the use of slave labour in the Americas were somehow doing a favour to the slaves involved. If black lives really mattered these people would be protesting the 500 shot dead so far by predominantly black men in Chicago this year. History is just one awful thing after another. if he wants to be an historian he should present a fair and realistic picture of what happened, Your email address will not be published. His dad met his mom at the city's university in the 1960s. Probably few other societies had as much chance of buying freedom. Its very noticable how nobodys mentioning that the Spanish Empire were doing this for several centuries before the British got involved. The argument isnt whether historical slavery was right or wrong or who should accept responsibility for it. Rather the constitution banned the slave trade and so it become economically worth it to make sure slaves lived longer. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . It's against this backdrop that Black British History Month was created. (I suppose it makes a point about blame not being distributed homogeneously, or that a certain group of people shouldnt be guilted just because they share the same colour of skin with another bunch of people you do think are guilty. His rhetoric is to inflame the reader. * the legal institution and pretty much the practice They arent going to concede anything. I am happy with Olusogo paying reparations to himself. As Black British History Month draws to a close, TV historian Prof David Olusoga looks at the impact it's had - and how young people are taking it on. Sources give his writing freshness, originality and compassion although it is another argument that we have out... Because it isnt about who your ancestors were ( English, Irish, Scots, anyone they... Going to kill a lot of them anyway expeditions against rival tribes and so on what black people achieved. Corydon, his defence of pederasty strongest argument I can see for reparations not... 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