African Studies - Slavery/ reparations

Counterarguments of reparations

1) Europeans were armed, Africans were unarmed 2) Europeans deceived African partners by purchasing with goods 3) Europeans enslaved Africans by raiding the coast 4) This will heal wounds 5) Beneficiaries of reparations can be easily identified and made to pay reparations to government 6) It would be *morally* wrong for european descendants to claim assets and wealth from slave trade 7) Germany paid compensation to the Jews after WWII for crimes committed during Nazi era

Arguments against reparations

1) Slave trade was a business 2) Europeans paid for slaves 3) Africans "willingly" sold their brothers (Africans did not consider everyone w/ their skin color as their brother) 4) Demand for reparations is a call for racial war 5) It has taken the descendants of the enslaved too long to make demands for reparations 5) Europeans involved are now dead and decadents can't be held responsible

Form of reparations

1) The cancellation of debt 2) Establishment of the "Marshal plan" by the western world (help economically) 3) The appointment of black nation as a permanent member of the UN security council

Apology at 2001 anti-racism conference

Deflected a call for specific reparations. Acknowledged arguments that the historical injustices of the slave trade

Calling Atlantic Slave Trade a Holocaust

The Africans were not led by hate and racial purity, it was about money and trying to survive

Reparations

There are now protagonists and antagonists of reparations all over the world, and it has divided people along racial lines