THE LONG WALK TO FREEDOM.. Vol. One

THE LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

ARE WE REALLY FREE YET??

Volume one

By

Anthony Onu

I have walked a long walk to freedom, it has been a lonely road, but it is not over yet.
                                                                                      Nelson Mandela...

Slavery has always been a part and parcel of Africa before and during the trans-atlantic slave trade. As smart and civilized as ancient Egypt were, their civilization was not built by an employed work-force. It was built by slaves. Servants and slaves make up 80% of ancient civilized Egypt. Slaves played a major role in the building of the great pyramids. They even enslaved other nations around them. All of whom kept revolting and fighting to break free.

Sub-saharan pre-colonial Africa with centralized governments that practiced monarchical or oligarchic political system always ensured some people are more valued than others, and therefore slavery persisted. Slavery in pre-colonial Africa was intense and hierarchical. Some are just second class citizens, whom are not to be associated with, but some are so low the system that when the king dies, some of them has to be captured and buried alive with the king. The natural instinctual drive for freedom always drove men to revolt. Which is one of the reason African societies were always small and highly segregated. Which is also the reason why when trans-atlantic slave trade started, some of the white captors hardly raided slaves. He mostly waited at the shore, while the African captured his brother and sold him to the slave traders.

During the trans-atlantic slave trade, men always fought for freedom. Africans started to fight the trans-atlantic slave trade as soon as it started. The African resistance continued in the Americas. They ran away, established maroon communities, used sabotage, conspired and rose against those who held them in captivity, freed people, petitioned the authorities, led campaigns and warred actively to abolish slave trade and slavery.

In Europe, black and white abolitionists launched and participated in civic movements to end the deportation and enslavement of Africans. They delivered speeches, provided information, led campaigns, wrote newspaper articles and also books.

 Akan, originally from Ghana led uprisings and Jamaica in  1673, 1690 and 1745. One of them; Tacky, was the organizer of a large revolt in 1760. Africans, mostly from the congo rose up in 1739 in south Carolina in what was known as ‘the stono revolution’. In 1741, enslaved people organized a conspiracy to burn down new York city and get their freedom.

In 1816, an African born named Bussa led a significant uprising in Barbados. The largest revolt in Jamaican history took place in 1831 and was led by Baptist deacon and Domestic Samuel sharpe. Countless other uprisings and conspiracies marked the history of the Americas. They instilled terror in the colonialists and were brutally and indiscriminately suppressed through hanging, beheadings, burning at the stake and other methods of torture. Despite enormous risks, enslaved and sometimes free black and white people fought for liberation. Their actions had a significant impact on the slave regimes.

 Using violent as well as non-violent means, Africans in Africa like Robert Mugabe, Africans in the Americas like Fredrick douglas, sam sharpe, African in Europe like Olaudah Equiano, Ignatius Sarch, whites in America like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin franklin, Abraham Lincoln and some other whites in Europe were constantly involved against slave trade and slavery.

 All their activities culminated in the legal abolition of slavery. It was abolished in Britain in 1807, 1814 in spain, 1819 in Portugal, 1848 in france, 1862 in America. In 1948, the united nations general assembly adopted a universal declaration of human rights, including an article stating that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Slavery was over!!!

But has freedom come?? Well maybe the first stage..

To be continued, stay tuned....