To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the Olympics coming to London, but the atmosphere across the capital was genuinely wonderful . The enslaved Africans had to wait another five years for their freedom and were not given a penny. I havent said anything about my personal sense of guilt or responsibility. Prof Darity and Ms Mullen outline that to eliminate the existing Black-White wealth gap an allocation of between $10 trillion and $12 trillion, or about $800,000 per black household, should be paid. 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. The world has seen more slavery since its abolition than before. Then the second. It is a good deed that must not go unpunished. The historian and producer said he wanted to. His black half can get the half-payment direct from his white half. Perhaps Im a bit more culturally relativist these days, but just read it again, still absolutely awful. This is because forgetting slavery means forgetting its victims. There is an alternative argument that it is their ancestors who were wronged hence deserve compensation and as descendants theyre entitled to an inherited share (so their portion depends on how many slaves at what position in the family tree) plus interest, regardless of how well theyre doing now. Instead he has become a campaigner working to discredit Britain, the country that has educated him, promoted him and brought him fame and acceptance. Olusoga has written stand-alone history books as well as those accompanying his television series. Pretty sure if you could, implausibly, trace my family tree through various not-very-literate eras youd pass through at least one Anglo-Saxon who owned a bunch of Britons. As it happens, I dont believe in sins of the fathers passing down the generations. My family did nothing. Davids all done. Maybe heard of Saint Balthild, seventh-century English lass sold into slavery, exported to the Continent, served in a palace and ended up marrying the Frankish King?). But any planter who deliberately starved his slaves to death would quickly go bust. I think a case could be made. I am not so sure about that although it is another argument. Just as how in the 16th century the anti-slavery voices in Europe were overwhelmed, and in the 19th century the abolitionists won out. And the third, fourth, fifth, and so on. Sugar was king: originally a luxury, it became one of the main sources of calories for the British poor. Then the adult men became profitable too. 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. No member of my family ever owned slaves. The agreement is being touted as a . Nobody will stop you, honest. Needless to say they should pay us reparations for this too. Abolition was the first mass philanthropic movement in Britain, and it ended the slave trade in 1807. When the American Civil War interrupted the supply of cotton, hundreds of thousands of British workers were made destitute, dependent on soup kitchens, and the British economy was dealt a thunderous blow, all because an ocean away the forced labour of four million enslaved black Americans had been disrupted. "They were barely known even to historians. But werent they lucky compared to the other Germans in Stalingrad? Required fields are marked *. He was Chairman of Moneysupermarket Group from 2014 to 2019 and Senior Independent Director of Close Brothers Group plc from 2006 to 2014 and is a Past President of the Chartered Management Institute. Needless to say, the national mood changed. By David Dabydeen (Photo By Alamy) Nineteen eighty-four was a transformative year for David Olusoga. Would the good professor really be so different if genealogical records could prove he had African ancestors who owned African slaves? Even Bill Clinton had affinity for the USA. It isnt going to happen anyway. While I dont think they persuaded anyone, they did shift perspectives a bit. Prof Olusoga says statues, such as those of slave traders . Re putting the argument for paedophilia they actually gave Gide the Nobel prize for literature didnt they? History is just one awful thing after another. All in all your typical West African is far more likely to have ancestral connections to the slave trade than your typical Brit. I have a peeve about the BBC genealogical show Who do you think you are? which I dont know whether has been inflected upon the Left Pond. Certainly they killed them casually often for religious reasons. I was doing some genealogy research when I discovered my great grandfather was a well known member of the 18th Kentucky Infantry. I have done nothing. White people are unique in ending slavery across the world*. It died out with the Romans leaving, and its non-legality repeatedly reaffirmed from the reign of the early Normans onwards. I havent the faintest idea whether slavery in the Roman controlled areas of Britain was more along the continental Roman model or retained Celtic characteristics. By this logic, we ought to sue the African American community. The UK, Norway, Benelux, Spain, Malta and Switzerland are, I believe, the only western European countries to set it at 16. Nor do I think that sugar is worse than cotton. But there have been other societies with slavery where slaves had more autonomy and a greater chance of buying their freedom. Thankfully the Woke have gifted us an all purpos3e response to this sort of crap. However, it applies to at least 80% of Americans. I brought up paedophilia to demonstrate that there are things not worth my time. The arguments do you want to get shaken down for several trillion?. David Olusoga's Family David Olusoga, age 49 was born to a Nigerian father and a British mother. But it is also likely that disease played a role. If slavery really mattered theyd be campaigning for reparations from the blacks and arabs/moslems who were doing it long before the white man arrived in Africa and was far more devastating. Sooner or later, we whites are going to have to take a stand, and say we aint taking this any more. The New Statesmans weekly environment email on the politics, business and culture of the climate and nature crises - in your inbox every Thursday. One of his teachers had a coffee mug bearing a National Front slogan and another attacked him during a school trip, he said. One person who had a huge impact on Britain was Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved man who bought his freedom and wrote compellingly about his experiences. Young people - such as Lavinya Stennett who founded the Black Curriculum campaign group - have been calling for change. The system he witnessed and wrote about was one in which human beings were worked to death. Then a young teenager, he was driven out of his council home, together with his grandmother, mother, two sisters and younger brother, by a sustained campaign of nightly stoning of their windows. The good news is that Black Lives Matter may be that trigger. And that still stands even if there really are a bunch of torturing murderers out there too. That was when the Democrats were still Americans. Long after slavery ended in the British colonies, British people continued to lobby the American government to free their slaves. They are pretty much airbrushed from history, whereas the transatlantic slave trade seems to be wall-to-wall on our TV screens and in our school textbooks. It's all down to people in their 20s, those at school and in their teens, who have a relationship with history which, says Prof Olusoga, is profoundly different from that of their parents and grandparents. Rather that certain western states, still in existence therefore potentially still liable, regulated and indeed encouraged the development of both the transatlantic slave trade and the slave-labour economic systems of the colonies, at scales that were unusual in the long and varied history of slavery, and levels of brutality that stood out too. Have you ever read the account by Ibn Fadlan of a Viking funeral in Russia? It was the first of the slave narratives that I'd ever read and I found it astonishing.". Sure. I had a girlfriend whose mother was a Nazi. Olusoga brilliantly reveals such contradictions in British society. Note, hes a renowned economist. This year, return to Neverland. But maybe they did not. The Benin Dialogue Group announced it had brokered an agreement that will see "some of the most iconic" of the bronzes returned to Benin City, Nigeria, where they will be housed in the soon-to-be-built Benin Royal Museum. Its extraordinary success rested upon the foundation of sympathy laid down during the previous 70 years of abolitionist activity in Britain. Olusogas stated purpose is to argue that black British history is not about migration and settlement, whether of black servants in the 18th century or black workers in the Windrush era. We do not know enough to be sure. Oh man. No other race / culture was willing and able to do that. Inflaming the reader has no purpose relative to slavery. If you want to pay more tax, just write a cheque to HMRC and send it off. If one disproves his assertions would slavery then be okay? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The details of difference are fairly minor. It was an apt university to experiment with such developments, since Lord Scarman, who reported on the Brixton riots of 1981, was its chancellor. David Olusoga, introduces his book Black and British, an exploration of the relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa. The book accompanying. You lost those two. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. In the USA? And, of course, being half white, he is only entitled to half the reparation payment. They are now CM scum and couldnt care less about America. He writes to inflame white guilt, so that you will ACCEPT destruction of your culture. The Sokoto Caliphate probably had as many slaves and a lot fewer free men as the Old South. "So when black history was missing - the history of empire, the history of slavery - was missing from my history lessons, I didn't have a place to go to discover those missing chapters. Latin America for instance. 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? The argument isnt whether historical slavery was right or wrong or who should accept responsibility for it. For some peculiar reason possibly because theres a section of Western society has become very insecure about its own position its being some credence. 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? Duke University professor, William Darity Jr, and writer, Kirsten Mullen, jointly published a report for The Roosevelt Institute, an American liberal think tank, laying out a case for slavery reparations. I think it's an astonishing achievement.". It's against this backdrop that Black British History Month was created. MBE: The problem with the UK paying reparations is that people like Olusoga would have to pay their share of the greatly increased taxes. 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. If we went down this route thered be goodness knows how much fun and games to be had with legal claims over the treatment of Irish by Cromwell, the clearing of the Highlands and so on, before you even get on to the globe-spanning imperial stuff. (At least in our society) Get over it. David will . They also ran a slave trade to the Ottoman empire and white slavery in the north without any help from Europeans. And he might not find the society withdraws it nearly as comfortable for him to live in. "Equiano is the most important voice that we have from the British experience of slavery and the slave trade," he said. They are stupid false for America. and while the responsible state still exists, Theres a fundamental weakness with all theories of universal law or justice, which is that across time and space, the human conception of what is right and just seems to be extremely varied and rarely (to modern Western eyes) pleasant.. Peter Olusoga. Video, 1894 shipwreck confirms tale of treacherous lifeboat, BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3: The Meaning of Zong, BBC Bitesize: The Zong 1781-1783 - The triangular trade, during a debate on Black History and Cultural Diversity in the Curriculum, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Fire knocks out half of Argentina's power grid, Havana Syndrome unlikely to have hostile cause - US, Starbucks illegally fired workers over union - judge. In that moment, his interest in history overlapped. is that the extra demand distorted the market, led directly to more armed slave-raiding expeditions against rival tribes and so on.. He was a prominent figure in the campaign to abolish slavery. One in which enslaved people suffered and even died from malnutrition, as the economics of the slave trade meant that it was cheaper, at times, to starve people and then replace them than it was to provide them with food. Viking Dublin was a major slave-trading centre (English, Irish, Scots, anyone else they could get their hands on). It happened. By a Senegalese author: The veiled genocide = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxc5ENT8ajg, MyBurningEars August 30, 2020 at 11:52 am 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. Olusoga patterns his narrative after Fryers, starting with the North African presence in Roman Britain. Britain should be proud of helping to stop (African to America) slavery, like the Republican Party and unlike the Democrats. 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". Even discussing it gives your opponents arguments merit. Yet American slave-produced raw cotton continued to feed the 4,500 mills of Lancashire. Not to say it was nice.. My great grandfather fought to end slavery in a war. They arent going to concede anything. 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. When Olusoga recalled the experience before television cameras last year, he wept. If the alternative was that they were killed? In the case of slavery the answer is clear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar, Slavery in England definitely continued for a couple of generations after the Norman Conquest and Bristol was a major export centre, though there were attempts to ban the export trade in particular (https://www.historytoday.com/archive/normans-and-slavery-breaking-bonds has some interesting quotes from the time). 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. Was never entirely sure which bits were believed and which bits were just a fun bit of intellectual muscle-flexing couldnt all have been intended seriously since so many posts contradicted each other. Not to say it was nice. 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. And this of course neatly addresses MBEs arguments. Black and British: A Forgotten History "Incorporating the stories of people like Equiano is merely part of a process of looking at all of British history; not just being selective, not only going to the chapters that make us feel good about ourselves or proud.". Olusoga is of half Nigerian descent. That star stuff wont last. What has he got to say about that? How could Britain, a civilised and Christian nation, indulge in rape, torture, killing and the forced labour of Africans over two centuries? Over 1000 years in Britain. Instead the racket still goes on with endless boatloads of illegals swarming into Europe. Tim may be wrong about stuff, but ..that, ultimately, makes up for his beating squirrels to death for a hobby, Tim Worstall a horrid man who is anti-minimum wage among other repugnant things Socialist News. 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. Quite possibly slave-raiding Gaels before that. (Im just presenting the case here in reality there are obviously some big questions about the logic of Nuremberg etc, just as there are questions about how judges in Common Law occasionally summon up things as if they had always and forever been a part of the Law, albeit previously unrecorded, rather than something the judge just made up.). This history of the black presence in . Forbes magazine's extraordinarily arrogant contributor Tim Worstall Jeremy Corbyn. TV historian David Olusoga claims it is "palpable nonsense" to say that removing controversial statues "somehow impoverishes history". I am of Ulster Scot heritage, who were originally John Knoxs Cumberland Presbyterians, VERY MUCH against slavery. Video, 00:02:30Should black history be taught all year round? No doubt life expectancy of a slave was shorter than that for a free man. "They're not looking to history only to make them feel good and give them comfort, but they're looking to history to tell them things about truths about their society that we have traditionally edited out of British history.". It can be withdrawn. One of the reasons why the American and Caribbean experiences were very different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr_Gide, 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). And yet anti-black race riots broke out in 1948 in Liverpool and in 1958 in Nottingham and Londons Notting Hill. Pretty much everybody in the West is against slavery. MBE, do not entertain these people, not for one second. Should almost go without saying except of course that it doesnt, since clearly not every culture has the same moral gut reaction to it that I do. Its a replay of the ecology nutters & the trannies. And yet Africans and West Indians were banned from the victory parade in 1919. Dr Peter Olusoga is a senior psychology lecturer at Sheffield Hallam university. I imagine few do. Id agree that attitudes in the UK are approaching that situation, but theres still a long, long way to go yet. If Olusoga is looking for apologies or compensation for slavery, I am quite prepared to meet him, accept his apology, togehr with cash, cheque or even a postal order. But you need a different approach if you dont think great-grandkids of the Confederacy are still fair game.) Peter Pan & Wendy is a live-action reimagining of the J.M . Olusoga was born in Lagos to a White mother and a Nigerian father - who, I hate to say nautrally, did a runner. Id say theres enormous dangers in treating this as if it was some public school debating society gig. Exactly, bis. It doesnt end with the parties saying Well that was pleasantly intellectually stimulating, now lets have a nice game of cricket Youre opponents are not playing by the same rules as you are. Would also apply even if down a different family line there had been beneficiaries of the slave trade. Read about our approach to external linking. What do you think their stongest argument is? That was a bad experience but he should know that you cannot judge a whole country by what happened when he was young. I could just as well feel something else entirely, and Im sceptical of all approaches to impose a supposedly universal, timeless or even just coherent, thats a challenge in itself ethical system. . 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Them casually often for religious reasons shaken down for several trillion? upon the Left Pond not worth my.. Proud of helping to stop ( African to America ) slavery, the.

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