I have read so many revisionist views about black slavery and the colonization of Africa, and it makes me angry when people try to whip up resentment over events that happened centuries ago.
Slavery was, and to some extent still is, a reality of human existence. The ancestors of every people on the planet were enslaved at one time or another. Europeans were enslaved by Asians long before they colonized others. The Bible confirms this. Nebuchadnezzar was not a European. Tiglath-Pilesser III, who conquered the world a century before him, was also an Asian.
In those days, Europeans were considered barbaric—or barbarous—people. Their lands were largely inhabited by cave dwellers, surviving on wild game and a few goats. Slaves, freed or not, formed the bulk of the first Europeans to settle in America—the same America that would later enslave Africans. The continent was a place where criminals and rebellious slaves were exiled, just as Australia was.
What counts is not your past but your present. India and other Asian countries experienced British colonialism just as we did. Who reminds Indians today of the brutality or humiliation they suffered? The question is not about proving heroism in the days of slavery—it’s about where we stand now.
Didn’t Tinubu go to London to sell Nigerians with a handshake from the King of the white man, just like his great-grandfather sold twenty of his brothers for the price of a pocket mirror? If you doubt this, visit the Seriki Slave Dungeons in Badagry—you will see the pictures for yourself.
When you build respect today, yesterday will rewrite its own story. History matters, but our actions, dignity, and self-determination in the present are what truly define us.
Published by Chuks Nwachuku
