Kofi Annan Linked to Slave Trade |
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U.N. Boss Should Go Back to His Native Ghana to Help Eliminate Slavery;
Why Doesn't the U.N. Chief Publicly Condemn the Slave Practice of Trokosi?
Call the office of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and urge her to highlight Kofi Annan's link to the slave trade. Her number is:
202-225-1605 |
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Radical activists and the media are gearing up for the "World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be presiding as African nations press their demands for slavery reparations from the Western countries who profited from the slave trade. The African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission wants a grand total of $777 trillion in reparations to the people of Africa.
But here's a couple facts they don't want to discuss: Number one, slavery still exists in Africa, run by Africans. And number two: Kofi Annan himself comes from a prominent family in Ghana who were members of a tribal group that profited from slavery. Slavery has long been a part of the culture and still exists there today. Indeed, Ghana has been called the cradle of slavery, and slave castles have become major tourist attractions there.
Annan's father was a politician - the elected governor of Ashanti Province. That's significant because the Ashanti group became dominant in the area and controlled trade routes to the coast. Their control over the trade in gold, ivory, and slaves made them, and later the Europeans, very rich. Annan's ancestors received firearms for their role as middlemen in the European slave trade.
The fact is that slavery existed in Africa long before the Europeans arrived. Slavery was an accepted social institution and was firmly entrenched in many African societies before their contact with Europe. Men and women captured in tribal warfare became slaves.
It still exists today. The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights practices, released in February of this year, describes a religious tradition called "Trokosi" in Ghana: "Although the Constitution prohibits slavery, religious servitude--Trokosi--exists on a limited scale. In June 1998, Parliament passed and the President signed legislation to ban the practice of Trokosi in comprehensive legislation to protect women and children's rights. Human rights activists believe that the goal of eradicating the Trokosi practice is attainable with the new law; however, the practice persists."
But how limited is it? Some reports say there are around 5,000 Trokosi slaves within Ghana. But local humanitarian groups say the figure could be as high as 10,000 to 12,000. Under this system, virgin girls are given to priests to appease the gods for crimes committed by relatives of the family. The initiation rituals signify marriage to a god and its proxy, the priest. The girl becomes the priest's property and enslaved for many years, even life.
Belatedly, the media have focused attention on the slave trade in Sudan, where Muslims buy and sell Christians. But the situation in Ghana continues to escape attention, even though one would think that Kofi Annan would have a personal interest in highlighting that. By the same token, that may explain why he would want to ignore it. On December 2nd, 1999, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Annan, said that this "is not a time for complacency in the fight against slavery, but a time for action." He should go back to his native country of Ghana and help abolish slavery.
Call the office of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and urge her to highlight Kofi Annan's link to the slave trade. Her number is:
202-225-1605 |
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The Congresswoman has taken the lead in promoting Kofi Annan's World Conference on Racism. Here is a copy of her statement at a June 19 event in Washington:
OPENING REMARKS of CONGRESSWOMAN CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, CBC TASK FORCE
HEARING ON THE UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM.
WASHINGTON - 06.19.01 | Welcome, and let the spirit of Juneteenth [the date recognized by some as the "true" date that slavery ended] pervade our discussions here today.
I am please to introduce my colleagues who are with us this morning. More will come throughout the morning.
The World Conference Against Racism, to be held in late August this year in Durban, South Africa, is an important world event. It seeks to focus world attention on examining the causes of racism as well as providing an opportunity for nations to formulate practical measures to prevent, and where possible, to eradicate racism and other discriminatory practices.
What could be more important than for the family of nations to come together as one and to seek to end racism in the world today.
The United States should fulfill its leadership position as a major world power and attend the conference. We should send a delegation consisting of highly respected and extremely capable individuals who hold high aspirations and deep convictions on ending the scourge of racism in the world today.
The Congressional Black Caucus can play a critical role in ensuring that this current administration fully appreciates the importance of this World Conference to people of color in this country. The members of the CBC all represent districts affected by poverty and race hatred, stricken with incarceration, overcrowding, violence, and all the other familiar ills of modern black urban life.
To our nation's great shame it has had much experience with racism. That experience spans almost every generation of our nation's history: from the early years of slavery during the establishment of our nation, through the apartheid practices of the southern United States, and finally through the federal government's physical destruction of the black political movement here in this country during the 1960s and 1970s.
But our nation's journey with racism will not end until it faces the truth of its past.
By drawing upon our nation's history and forging with it a willingness to confront these horrible truths, our delegation should be able to make substantive contributions to the World Conference forum examining the causes of racism.
I wish to briefly address two important issues which I think should feature as center points in our discussion today. The American slave trade and the destruction of the black political movement here in the US in the 1960s and the 1970s under the federal government's COINTELPRO (counter intelligence) program.
From 1490 until about 1870 one of the most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures arose, a result of which 30 - 60 million black men, women and children were enslaved in Africa and carried packed in ships wearing leg irons, in foul overcrowded conditions, and transported to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines or as servants in fine houses. Tragically, many tens of millions of them did not survive the journey and died en route during the Middle Passage from disease, cruel treatment, and the rigors of sea travel.
Slavery stretched several hundred years, involved every maritime European nation, every Atlantic-facing African people (and some others), and every country of the Americas. On any view, this slave trade must rank as one of the greatest crimes of all time.
Upon arrival in the Americas black families were broken up, men separated from their wives, and mothers and fathers permanently separated from their children. These slaves then suffered the further indignity of losing their African names, as well as, their own histories, cultures and languages. Their combined labors generated fabulous wealth for their white masters and they provided much of the financial foundation for modern America. Despite centuries of back breaking labor, black Americans never shared in the wealth and instead, to this day, remain poorer than whites, enjoy lower standards of living, suffer lower standards of health care, and figure disproportionately in incarceration levels in our state and federal prisons.
Incredibly, this history of slavery is largely unknown to the vast majority of Americans. Our nation has refused to confront the enormity of this crime and has instead sought to create the myth that slaves were better off being manacled and brought to the Americas. Nothing is ever said of the millions of slaves who died, of the destruction of whole African communities by ill health, violence, and separation. And nothing is ever said of the sheer injustice that nations which committed this crime still, to this day, refuse to even apologize for their conduct let alone pay reparations for the damage caused by their actions.
I remember only too well when Congressman Tony Hall introduced legislation asking for the Congress to apologize for slavery. To my horror I overheard other Members on the House Floor laughing behind Mr. Hall's back because he was foolish enough to introduce the Slavery Bill.
Not surprisingly the bill never got out of committee and was never voted on.
One other matter I think important for discussion in Durban is the federal governments COINTELPRO program. Important research is revealing that during the 1960s and the 1970s the FBI and other sections of the US military and intelligence apparatus conducted a secret war against black political groups and the Native American movement. To our collective shame we are now learning that the federal government conducted a secret, systematic and at times, savage use of force and fraud against a small political minority exercising fundamental freedoms considered sacred by our Constitution.
Many of our black political leaders were wrongly accused of crimes and imprisoned, and some were even murdered. The black political movement in this country was totally destroyed by our own government. The Native American movement suffered the same fate.
What I am telling you about didn't happen in Nazi Germany under Hitler, China under Mao, Chile under Pinochet or Uganda under Idi Amin. No, it happened here in the United States, under Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and others.
That this happened to people in this country in the 1960s and 1970s is no longer conjecture. It is a shocking fact that the federal government wrongly imprisoned and even murdered innocent black Americans.
On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say that all men are created free and equal before the law. The real history of slavery in this country must be publicly recorded and there must be a reckoning with black America for its sacrifice in building this nation to what it is today. In addition, our federal government should reveal the truth about the full extent of the COINTELPRO program and make its records open to public examination. (30)
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