By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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In 1997, Hugh Thomas wrote a huge book titled The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870, which I recommend that every sensible African read.

In its almost one thousand pages of chilling details, Thomas dissects the horrendous commerce to which Africans were subjected for nearly five centuries, giving details of the major geographical areas of its operations, the principal villains of the crimes committed there, and statistics of the human cargoes that were transported out of the continent and where they were taken.

It is a book that should make every conscientious African mad, although sometimes has the impression that there is very little to make Africans mad apart from a malfunctioning brain.

Had we been capable of the kind of madness I am talking about, we would have raised our voices alongside that of the late Moshood Abiola to demand reparations from the principal beneficiaries of that iniquity and to castigate the African rulers who willingly participated in the capture and commodification of their sisters and brothers.

In exchange for trinkets – pieces of calico cloth, beads, bracelets, mirrors, guns, gin, etc – our rulers sold their people almost across all the continent south of the Sahara.

It is this willingness to harm ourselves that led the foreigners who came to our shores with such evil intentions to seriously think that the African is half-human, and that belief has endured to this day.

It has endured because we have done precious little to dissipate it. We certainly make the usual kneejerk protests every time some white racist openly voices such beliefs —Nobel Prize winner James Watson is an exemplar — and yet even as we are protesting we continue doing things that justify what we protest against.

I was thinking in this way as I followed Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Ghana, which took the American lawmaker to the commemoration of 400 years of the slave trade.

Ghana was of course one of the hardest-hit sources of the African cargo to go across the Atlantic, and the most heartrending moment for any visitor there is when one stands at the “door of no return,” twin to another door of tears on Goree Island, Senegal.

Speaker Pelosi was visibly moved as she was shown evidence of those heinous crimes committed against humanity.

In terms of body language and the spoken word, I found her reaction appropriate when she called her experience “transformative,” adding that she had been “humbled” by what she had learnt, which indeed must be the reaction any honest human being.

Significantly, her congressional delegation included Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the former Somali refugee whom Donald Trump loves to attack as anti-American.

I would suggest that as many African youth as possible undertake visits to these sites of infamy – Cape Coast, Elmina, Goree – to witness for themselves how the venality and stupidity of their forebears combined with the avarice of the outside world to despoil Africa of its most valuable resources—its people—apart from other natural possessions, and maybe from there commit themselves to never allowing that to happen again.

The reason I think we should get as many Africans to learn about our history is simply because those who do not embrace lessons from their past mistakes are condemned to make them again, even if the new mistakes take different forms and come in different flavours.

The forces attracted by whatever goodies Africa can offer multiply with each passing decade, and they are likely to increase in numbers and aggressiveness.

For too long we were accustomed to pointing fingers at the West as the source of our woes, such as the cross-Atlantic slave trade. Maybe that experience was the most harrowing in our history, for those who care to read and understand our history. But those who have attacked us in the past came from all over the world, and they still do.

The only defence we can rely on is our heightened vigilance, leading to intelligent engagement with the rest of the world.

Africans have to be aware of the modern trinkets used by those whose intention are akin to those we came into contact with 400 years ago and who caused us so much hurt.

We have the duty to inculcate in our younger generations the lessons of our history and to make them aware of what we have gone through down the ages. Otherwise we will continue to strengthen the views of those who think we are half-apes.

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: [email protected]