When the reparations for slavery movement was launched a few years ago, I wrote a light-hearted article dismissing it as yet another Nigerian scam. Since one of the movers behind it was Nigeria’s richest crook, Chief Moshood Abiola, that seemed a reasonable argument. And legally speaking, since almost all African slaves were captured by fellow Africans before being sold to European traders, it would be the successors of the old west African kingdoms—modern west African states—which would be responsible for reparations. That would mean the people of Sierra Leone—average per capita income $900—would be paying reparations to the people of Barbados—per capita income $18,200.
Most of my work focuses on Africa, where the Atlantic slave trade is almost completely forgotten—except by those who live near the west African slave forts. And as cynically and brutally as their ancestors sold the forebears of today’s African-Americans, they rip off their descendants returning to find their roots. They boast about it and joke that African-Americans are the stupid ones; they got caught. It seems the equivalent of Brits jabbing at Australians with jokes about their criminal past.
But I have learned from many painful discussions that Americans, Caribbeans and Britons who have African ancestors do not see slavery as something to joke about. They do not see themselves as descendants of Africans who happen to have been enslaved in Africa and taken to America. They see themselves as the latest link in a chain. They often feel their slave history is part of the way they live now—particularly in America.
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