THE METROPOLITAN • PAGE 18 • ANDREW FLOHR-SPENCE • SPENCAND@MSCD.
EDU
Insight “
Slaving over a hot reparation
A 39-year-old African British man stood in
front of the queen of England and told the mon-
arch she should be ashamed.
Nearly an hour into a commemoration cer-
emony in Westminster Abbey last week marking
200 years since England’s abolition of the slave
trade, Toyin Agbetu walked up to the altar and
told the gathering of Britain’s most notables
what he thought about the day’s meaning.
“We should not be here,” he said. “This is
an insult to us. I want all the Christians who are
Africans to walk out of here with me.”
Slavery, the protesters point out, wasn’t
abolished in 1807, merely the trade in slaves. It
wasn’t until 1833 that holding slaves was made
illegal in Britain. The 1807 date was a false
promise and should be remembered as such.
Agbetu, a 39-year-old founder of the African
British human rights organization Ligali, stood
only a dozen feet from where Queen Elizabeth II,
Tony Blair, Prince Philip, the Archbishop of Can-
terbury and others sat. He faced them when he
spoke. At least, he did until the security reacted.
According to an article by David Smith of the
Guardian Unlimited, who witnessed the scene
firsthand, the queen “watched with pursed lips
... the Duke of Edinburgh frowned” and “Mr.
Blair watched with dismay as if already prepar-
ing a speech about this ‘regrettable incident.’”
Despite the guests’ cold reaction to the out-
burst, Agbetu’s words have ignited a public debate
about whether or not the British government has
done enough to make amends for being the coun-
try that transported the most slaves in the 350
Conor Drummond • cdrummon@mscd.edu
ANDREW FLOHR-SPENCE
spencand@mscd.edu
years of the transatlantic slave trade.
While everyone at least agrees that slavery
was bad, the question remains how much of an
apology, if any, is owed to Africans.
The truth hurts. Beginning in the 1400s
and continuing many years after the 1807 Slave
Trade Act, an estimated 12 million Africans
were taken from their homes and transported
across the Atlantic to work on plantations in the
Caribbean, South America and North America.
Millions were made on the backs of this free
labor. Slave traders often made enough money
to become plantation owners, bankers, and even
governors and ministers in the government. The
boulevards of Liverpool, Charleston, Havana and
Rio were lined with grand houses built to fit their
tastes. In all its absurdity, the slave port of Bance
Fort on an island in the Sierra Leone River had a
two-hole golf course to accommodate the slavers
as they waited for their ships to fill.
“The queen has to say sorry,” Agbetu told
Woman must not depend upon the
protection of man, but must be taught to
protect herself.
reporters outside the abbey before being taken
away by the police. “The monarch and the gov-
ernment and the church are all in there patting
themselves on the back.”
Groups such as Operation Truth 2007, anoth-
er African British human rights group, say that
the British government needs to go much further
than just having regretting what happened.
Because of these enormous gains afforded
Europe by the exploitation of the African conti-
nent, several leaders within the African commu-
nity have called for Europe to pay reparations to
Africa similar to the money Germany must pay
to the victims of the Holocaust. The common re-
ply to that is silence.
In an interview with the BBC, a descendent
of a Caribbean plantation owner, Christopher
Madras-Smedley, said he didn’t think he needed
to say sorry.
“Slavery stopped 200 years ago. That’s quite
a lot before I was born. I am therefore in no posi-
tion to apologize,” he said.
The problem with that argument is that the
legacy of slavery is something that still affects
the world in which we live. The very glass house
we live in in the U.S. and England was built by
the hands of slaves. This is not something an-
cient when we still have a clear income gap be-
tween the West and the Third World.
There are unbroken, direct connections lead-
ing from slavery to the world we live in now. And
until we fess up to that reality, we will continue
to stumble around in the dark palaces, wonder-
ing why they hate us.
”
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
ZOË WILLIAMS
williamz@mscd.edu
Dead unsexy
When a friend of mine said she recorded an
episode of America’s Next Top Model for me, I
assumed I was the butt of a pre-emptive April
Fools’ Day prank. I laughed until I saw aspiring
models dolled up and posed as murder victims.
I began to cry as I watched sexily clad wom-
en sprawled across scenes depicting strangula-
tion, decapitation, stabbing and drowning. The
models received praise from judges like “Death
becomes you.”
After composing myself I hopped on the In-
ternet only to discover an ad by the Susan G.
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation featuring the
bust of a thin and attractive woman sans head.
Her shirt reads, “When we get our hands on
breast cancer we’re going to punch it, strangle
it, kick it, spit on it, choke it and pummel it until
it’s good and dead.”
Modeling – an industry for the profit and
pleasure of men, that sells women products that
make them look good for men – is glamorizing
violence against women that is largely perpe-
trated by men. To add salt to the wound, a non-
profit set up to meet the health needs of women
has begun exploiting this violence.
Entertainment and advertising reflect the
apathy to the epidemic of violence against
women that is deeply embedded in our culture.
Violence is portrayed as attractive, funny and
desirable through humorous ad campaigns or
beauty-centered television.
There is a one-in-four chance that a woman
will be beaten or sexually assaulted in her life-
time. Can you name more than four women in
your life? If so, you probably know someone who
has or will experience battery, sexual assault,
rape, molestation or other forms of violence. Do
you find that alluring or exciting?
If you do not like the odds that someone you
love will be raped, beaten or otherwise abused,
you are going to have to do something about it.
Educate your family, peers, strangers and your-
self about forms of violence, when they take
place and how to intervene. Make it known that
your alliances stop when violence starts. Con-
front the attitudes that allow abuse to occur. Of-
fer money or volunteer time to victims’ services.
And, for goddess’ sake, turn off the television.
America’s Next Top Model and the Race for
the Cure provided a big red flag that the time to
act is now. Do it for your mothers, sisters, lov-
ers, friends and you.