In an Atmosphere of Emotions Fairness is always Casualty - With philosophical Honesty 'White' Slavers were not to blame

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Ipemndoh dan Iyan 

The Psyche of Africans1 as Victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade is discordant with the Reality of Our Ancestors as Perpetrators. The Truth is not the Story we tell Ourselves yet this Story is without Complications. Europeans came to Africa to trade. Eventually it became Trade in Africans as Chattel. The Africans who participated did with Zeal, amoral to the Inevitability that in dehumanizing their Peoples, they willed their dehumanization by Others. ‘White’ Slavers were the Effect not the Cause. Ipemndoh dan Iyan©

It was Night according to the Clock but there was enough Natural Light that you could take the Time for Late Evening. The Date was 25 May 2020. The Location was Minneapolis in Minnesota in the United States of America (US(A)). At around 2000 Hours Central Daylight Time (CDT) – that would be ca 0200 Hours 26 May 2020 British Summer Time (BST) – a Storekeeper called the Minneapolis Police Department (PD) on African-American George Perry Floyd #GeorgeFloyd who had allegedly presented a dud $20 Dollar Bill. Under 30 Minutes later, he had been murdered by ‘White’ Police Officer #DerekChauvin. It was by Intent. 

Chauvin was initially charged with Third-Degree Murder and Manslaughter. This Charge denied the Intent to kill and was consequent to a false Police Post-Mortem Report on the Cause of Floyd’s Death. Upon the Family engaging an Independent Autopsy Report, the City of Minneapolis upped the Charge to Second-Degree Murder and Manslaughter. It is not clear whether with the Second-degree Charge the City of Minneapolis recognized the Intent Element of the Floyd Killing. Second Degree can be with Intent too but in the Chauvin Case, it is an erroneous Charging. 

The appropriate Charge should be First-Degree which would make clear the Intent Element of the killing of Floyd. While this killing, in superficie, might be nonpremeditated, it could actually had been. Floyd and Chauvin worked together at El Nuevo Rodeo Club and Floyd had previously challenged Chauvin over his prejudicial Treatment of African-Americans. So, when Chauvin put all of his Weight via his Knee on Floyd’s Neck on that Night for around 9 Minutes against all Pleas for Human Sensitivity, he recognized who the Person he was pressing down was, and he knew perfectly well what he was doing. 9 Minutes of holding down a Suspect in a Manner not prescribed by Minneapolis PD, and certainly not in anyway in the PD’s Training Routine, that in addition caused the Death of a Suspect, is Aggravated Murder. Aggravated Murder in Minnesota Law is First Degree. 

 

It was William Shakespeare, Doyen of English Literature, who wrote that “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have Greatness thrust upon ‘em.” (Twelfth Night ca 1600). In those Minutes in which Chauvin and his Cohort of objectionable Thugs in Police Uniform with a Badge and a Gun carried out their Extrajudicial Execution of Floyd, they “thrust greatness upon” him, whatever his Past. He became Anchor for ‘enough is enough’ and boost for/to the #blacklivesmatter Campaign. The brilliant 17-Year-old African-American #DarnellaFrazier who not only recorded the Murder on Video in real time but also posted it on Facebook simply had to have been “born great.” She set in motion, and provided the Platform for, a Movement that would resound throughout the World; a Multiracial Consciousness that began to shake the very Foundations of the status quo of US Police abuse of the Badge, the Gun and the Uniform2 in the ‘Racial-Brutalization’ of African-Americans and all of African3 Origin. 

Persons of African Origin rose to the necessity of questioning ‘White’ Societies’ societal Celebrations of “Heroes” who built their Fortunes and Prestige upon the Proceeds of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Oppression of, and Savagery towards, African Slaves. As we emerged in concerted and energetic Confrontation with the continuing Yoke of ‘White’ Barbarism, we disregard(ed) two Fundamentals, as we have always done. 

One, we forgot and are selectively unaware that ‘White’ Persons of Conscience unite with us in our Requests4 for Emancipation. We have found the intelligent of them side by side, and/or morally, with us to appeal for what is Fair, for the Matter of Course, and for that Inalienable Right of the African. ‘White’ Folks have often lent Support, and had at times, actually spearheaded our Protests in many Forms. Two, we refuse to remember and thus not recollect that we have never taken it upon ourselves to openly chastise our African Ancestors who made the ‘White’ Enslavement of our Peoples possible. We have not at all asked for Reparation – in/of any Manner – from the Descendants of those African Slavers as we have demanded from the Beneficiaries of ‘White’ Slavers.

If you looked into the Records of ‘Reparation Committee UK’ you will find my Name, Ipemndoh dan Iyan, together with that of the late British-African Member of the UK @HouseofCommons, Bernie Grant, and Others likeminded. So, I own up to have been officially Part of a one-sided Demand for Reparations. However, that is how far my Unfairness has ever gone. I have never denied the great Role ‘White’ Folks played in our Freedom and are still committing for and to our Right to all which are non-negotiable as natural Entitlements of the Person. I have never been incognizant either of the calamitous Contribution of our Ancestors to the painful Diaspora of our Peoples. The Visibility of ‘White’ Folks in our Advocacy for Equity can be observed, i.e., in Minneapolis’ ‘White’ Mayor, #JacobFrey who, against Tradition, sought the Prosecution of ‘White’ Police Officer Derek Chauvin. 

The Visibility of ‘White’ Folks in our Cause also resonated in their rolling the felled Statue of Slave Trader #EdwardColston to the River Avon in Bristol in the UK to be discarded into it. It is both a practical Act of Condemnation as it is a symbolic Gesture of Apology. ‘White’ Folks probably brought down the Statue in the first Place or were party to cutting it down. The Faithfulness of intelligent ‘White’ Folks to the Emancipation Cause of the African continues to be pronounced in their ongoing Participation in the Outrage over audacious killings of Africans in ‘White’ dominated Domiciles by ‘White’ Cops, and even by the ordinary ‘White’ Person. Occasionally, the ‘Black’ Police Officer is found to be the Culprit in the killing of ‘Black’ Folks. This wound be throwback to the Collaboration between the anti-human 'Black' and ‘White’ Slavers, and Instance of Return to the Plantation of the House Slave, and the Field Slave. As we know, the House Slave would hunt perpetually for the Stroke on the Head by the Master’s Hand.

However, it is one Thing to challenge the Racism that we, of African Origin, experience in Today’s Societies of Majority ‘White’ Folks with their systemic, and systematic racial Discriminations in Policy Implementation, discretionary Powers, non-standardised Procedures, wilful Misapplication of Processes, the sheer Idiocy of the Ordinary Person in calling us Names and ordering we returned to where we came from, and the ‘Low Cognitive Complexity’ anti-#BlackLivesMatter Marches. It is another Thing to castigate ‘White’ Folks for our past Histories of Racial-Slavery, and Racial-Colonization while absolving of Culpability our Ancestors who underwrote those unpleasant Chapters of African Existence. 

Visit West Africa. Study the Coastlines from where our Ancestors were taken away into Slavery to Foreign Lands to face the brutality of savage Minds both during Transportation, and on Plantations. Observe the huge emptiness of these Oceans, and ask yourselves; ‘how on earth did the foreign Slaver get through, ordinarily’? See the ‘Cell for Recalcitrants’ no higher than 2 Feet (slightly above half a Metre/Meter) for Adult Slaves whom were decided did not know their Place. Examine the Rooms for holding Slave Populations about 5 Times the Capacity. Imagine yourselves in them with your Infants only few Paces away but might well be Thousands of Miles (Kilometres) distant. Think about your helpless Babies being fed and with what or not being fed at all, and picture them in the Discomfort of soiling themselves and not getting changed. Of course, the Indignity of defecating and urinating on yourselves and remaining so for as long as it took the fancy of your gods, the Slavers, was your Reality Day in, Day out. 

I have watched the vast Coastlines of the Near-Ancient Songhay (Songhai) Empire, including the Hausa-Fulani Kingdoms, the Asante, Mossi, and Yoruba Kingdoms. Those Near-Ancient Societies are today spread roughly across Present Day West Africa in the Countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia (populated by Freed-Slaves), Mali, Mauretania (perhaps also Western Sahara), Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone (also populated by Freed-Slaves), Senegal, the Gambia, and Togo. The Slaves came also from what is Today the Country of Cameroon in Central Africa. 

I was born in a British Colony in West Africa. Around Age 14, my oldest Sister took me to the Slave House few Minutes’ Walk from the Ocean in Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria. I cannot recollect its Official Name at the Time but I saw the Shackles for the Necks, the Hands and the Feet. I cried at the Images of my Peoples semi-naked in those Shackles. It was just too much. As an Adult, I have taken myself to other Slave Incarcerations of my Ancestors. On Gorée Island in Senegal I witnessed a Westernised African, like me, bend double to go inside the ‘Cell for Recalcitrants’. I could not do what he did. He was brave. His Will was strong. I observed ‘White’ Folks shake their Heads in Bewilderment at such Horror by supposed Human Beings, the Occidental-Caucasians aka 'White' Peoples, against the Subspecies of the Human Being; the African.  If the 'White' Folks with us on this Day at the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves) on Gorée Island thought Africans themselves were partly responsible for the African's horrid Past, they never indicated. It is wrong that present-Day 'white' Folks who are sensible of Mind do not point Fingers. For me, it is patronizing. By the Way, I think the Gorée Premises are more like a mini-Castle.

Of course, the Notion of Africans with inferior Intellect and/or Social Organization vis-à-vis the ‘White’ Person’s at the Time of the Atlantic Slave Trade was prevalent but could only had been so, and believed, within the largely uneducated – i.e., having no schooling – Masses of 'White' Populations. For the few with Education, the Notion was used as Tool to control the underdeveloped or absent Cognition of the vast Majority by distracting them from their unfortunate Conditions. 

Firstly, during Slavery, and in the Periods of Racial-Discrimination Laws in the US, for example, Inventions, which are still Today the Engines of Human daily Life and Fundamentals to Human continuing Development were patented to African-Americans whether Slaves or not but attributed to 'White' Charlatans. It begs the Question, ordinarily, why these Inventions were in the Ownership of African-Americans if they were not the Intellects behind them. For more Details on these Inventions, see Guyanese-African Ivan Van Sertima (1983) Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern.

Secondly, we know that 'White' Slavers “recorded their belief that [Africans] were often quite clearly their own mental equals and superior to many at home” according to ‘White’ Academic M. F. Ashley Montagu (1942) in Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race. Montagu noted also that “when [Julius] Caesar set foot in Britain the African Negro kingdoms and their peoples were from the cultural standpoint in an incomparably more advanced state of development than the Britons, upon whom they might well have looked as a 'primitive' people” (Emphasis is mine). Montagu here re-attested the credible Evidence we have that Africans gave Civilization to the World, including the three Major Religions of Judaism, Judeo-Christianity, and Islam. 

Thirdly, until that Period of Trans-Atlantic Slavery of Africans, Africa never had Slaves, and I dare any paid Academic worth her or his Salt to prove me wrong, not with Assertion but with Evidence. Instead, Africans had either Assimilated-Captive Individuals or Vassal Dominions. In the Instance of Assimilated-Captives, they had been known to rise to Prominence in the Domains of their Captors but never in the barbaric Roman gladiatorial Tradition. They had attained Importance in the same Ways as those born of the Land. 

Importantly, we know that ca 200 Years before Julius Caesar, Africans defeated Rome in Battles. In 218 BCE, Hannibal of Khart Haddas (Carthage) in today’s Tunisia crossed the Alps with his War elephants into Italy to demolish the Roman Army at Trebia. He repeated the same Feat at Lake Trasimenus in 217 BCE, in Cannae in 216 BCE, and at Tarentum in 212 BCE. Even much earlier, some 1,700 Years before those Dates of the Legendary Hannibal's Conquests of Roman Armies, the Kmt (ian) (Egyptian) Senusret/Senwosret/Senwosri5 conquered and settled in Northern Europe traversing the Caucasus in the Region of erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). You may want to read Grecian (Greek) - ‘white’ - Historian Herodotus (ca 460 BCE) The Histories of Herodotus – Book II. 

There were Three Senusret(s) who were Pharaohs of Kmt (Egypt) and we cannot be entirely certain who of them Herodotus referred, considering that he wrote his Story 121 Years short of 1,500 Years after the last of them ruled Kmt (Egypt). Further he heard the Story from Kmt(ian) Priests on his Journey to Kmt. However, latter Day European Historians conclude that Herodotus’ Senusret is Senusret III who reigned from 1878 BC to 1839 BCE. The Others were Senusret II (1897 BC to 1878 BCE), and Senusret I (1971 BCE to 1926 BCE and 1920 BCE to 1875 BCE). 

About 200 Years after Julius Caesar (ca 60 to 44 BCE), Libyan Septimus Severus, was Emperor of Rome (Eastern and Western) ca 193 to 211 AD. It is also known History that Africans ruled Spain much later ca the 8th to the 15th Century. Please note that the Kmt, the Libyan, and the Tunisian of the Periods mentioned had not yet been mixed with Arab Blood although Revisionists would assert to the contrary.

The Atlantic Slave Trade was Savagery, unparalleled against Africans. Consider how this Inhumanity could have happened. What Fighting Forces did Europeans take to Africa to subdue us completely into such degradation(s)? How did European Slavers maintain the Docility of their Slave Merchandises, and the Security of the Slave holding Rooms? In Integrity as Virtue, in Honesty to myself with Conscience, in Fairness to all of Humankind, I cannot think away from the Truth. It is disingenuous to deny the Reality. The European did not debase the African with only own Guile and/or Strength and/or Weaponry. The Cruelties of the ‘Cell for Recalcitrants’ and the Slave holding Rooms were not the Preserves of ‘White’ Slavers. 

Further inquire of yourselves two Questions. (1) Did Africans taken away as Slaves across the Atlantic Ocean not come disproportionately from the Songhay (Songhai) Empire, the Asante, Mossi, and especially Yoruba Kingdoms accessible from the West Coast of Africa? (2) Has Eastern Africa or Northern Africa or Southern Africa not always been with Coastlines too? Besides what navigational Ease Revisionism would now claim applied to Africa’s Western Coast, there were other Factors which made the Penetration of European Slavers into Africa through the other Coasts difficult, not least the ‘Collective Security’ Spirit of other Africans that the Songhai, the Asante, the Mossi, and the Yoruba did not possess. These Ancestors from Africa's West Coast enabled the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Western Coast African Ancestors opened up the African Continent for the taking by ‘White’ Intruders. First, in selling off their own Peoples to Foreigners from across the Oceans, these Ancestors steadily depopulated Africa. In Effect, they made protecting the Continent, or even at the least defending her, difficult for the Africans who abhorred that Slave Trade or who after initially encouraging it changed their Minds. Second, the Slave trading Africans facilitated the Pathways for European Incursions into Inner Africa in joining Forces with the Europeans, and in guiding them into otherwise inaccessible Locations, to decimate Africa and Africans. Third, but actually needless to say, these African Slave Traders willingly participated in the European Slavers' brutalization, degradation, and dehumanisation of other Africans.

Those treacherous and unpleasant African Ancestors have Descendants still benefitting today from the Gains of their African Slaver Ancestors. They have Prestige. They are in Wealth. Their Generations till the End of Time would most probably never suffer the Indignity of Abuse from, or the Harm of Murder by, ‘White’ Police Officers and ‘Black’ disoriented Cops. When have we, present Day Africans – of varied Politico-Geographies – ever asked these Descendants for Reparation or Apology for the awful Acts of their Forebears? Fair has to be fair. Europeans were not solely responsible for what is happening to us in current Times. We are today suffering the Reverberations of the Greed, the Betrayal, and the Inhumanity of our Ancestors. With philosophical Honesty, 'White' Slavers were not to blame, and in Today's World not all 'White' Folks are at Fault. 

As the Yoruba say in translation; 'if the Wall does not open its Mouth, the Lizard will not be able to enter it'. In other Words, 'without a crack in the Wall, the Lizard will never gain Access/Entry'. Let the Truth be said. Let us own our Contribution to our dreadful Past that today haunts our Present, and bodes the unknown for our Future. Our Involvement in the trading of our People into Slavery was straightforward but, in the Aftermath, both Victims and Perpetrators have become “the Wretched of the Earth.” We could not have dehumanise ourselves in the Past but cry foul in the Present when the dehumanisation we assented is continued by those to whom we had relinquished our Entitlement to be treated as Humans. The 'White’ Slavers and Colonizers were the Effect not the Cause. West African Slavers were the Cause.

The Expression “the Wretched of the Earth” will be familiar to those acquainted with Frantz Fanon (1961) les damnes de la terre (The Wretched of the Earth). However, I have not used the Term, this time, within the Logic of his Argument in the Book. Rather, I have borrowed the Term further to that Realization in his Argument. 

Endnotes

1I deploy the Word ‘Africans’ here in common with widely accepted Description of Persons with certain Appearances from a particular Part of the World and descendent from them wherever they are in the World. However, I see them more as ‘Peoples/Persons of Recent African Origin' of which I am one, to delineate Africans who had remained African for ca 40,000 Years from those who migrated since then to populate the wider World and emerge as the different Races we know today.

2I recognize that Police Brutality, per se, is Worldwide. That Differentiation in Society is intoxicating. 

3I will continue to apply the Description of ‘African’ to represent Africans and all descended of African Origin’ as explained Footnote 1. Such Descendants are i.e., African-American, African-Caribbean, Asian-African, European-African (including British-African) and Oriental-African.

4‘Battles’ or ‘Struggles’ would be inappropriate Choice of Word because we have never taken up Armed Resistance against any of the Countries which had brought Africans into them as Slaves and/or colonized Africans but have steadfastly refused to accommodate us in the ‘Socio-Political Citizenry’© even commensurably in the ‘Economic Citizenry©. Street Demonstrations and/or Protests are substantially, and substantively ‘Requests’.

5Senusret/Senwosret/Senwosri are Kmt (Egyptian) Names but have been Grecian (Greek) transliterated to Sesostris and Sesoosis.

Ipemndoh dan Iyan PhM©

AsimauGlobalMedia© 

All Rights 2020

27 June 

First published 27Jun20 - https://twitter.com/IP_dan_Iyan/status/1276956259800014848?s=19 & https://twitter.com/IP_dan_Iyan/status/1277509620974534657?s=19