Based on what is happening in black Africa today – slavery for us in the West was, in many respects, our salvation.
by Micheal Dingwall
As we celebrate emancipation and independence, we are being reminded of the horrors of slavery. According to our leaders, academics and others, slavery was the worst institution ever created. However, while it is popular for most to agree with this claim, I beg to disagree. Indeed, contrary to the belief that slavery was bad for us blacks, I believe that slavery was good for us.
Have we ever stopped to consider where we black people, especially those of us in the West, would be right now if it weren’t for the Atlantic Slave Trade? What state do you think black Africa would be in today? Do you think that we would have been better off without slavery? I don’t think so!
When the Europeans went to Africato buy slaves, what did they find? They found a society and peoplevastly inferior to theirs. While the Europeans had emerged from theirfeudal practices, our ancestors in Africa, for the most part, had notdeveloped for many centuries. We did not understand the concept ofnation or government. Science and technology (and innovations in theseareas) were non-existent in black Africa of the 15th and 16thcenturies. Indeed, as a people, we had no sense of self-identity. Inmany respects, we were uncivilized.
Slavery was our most importantcontact with modernity. It is through this “most heinous system evercreated” that we blacks were able to understand some of the principlesof global trade. Our ancestors were introduced to the Trans-AtlanticSlave Trade between Europe, Africa and the West Indies. Black Africa’spart in the trade was the importation of European technology and theexport of slaves. The importation of European technology was important- even though the Africans did not appreciate this importance at first.The export of slaves was also very important, especially for us in theWest.