2007: Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade 

by Gary Pieters

The historic reality is, that people of African descent were enslaved, sold, bartered and brought to America, Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean through the summarily exploitative and brutal colonial enterprise of empire building and expansion by countries that participated in the trade of enslaved Africans.

Slavery occurred and continued during the rise of empire building in Europe, with many European superpowers, most notably Britain and France participating in or aiding and abetting the colonial enterprise of slave trading, slave holding and servitude of Africans in their empires and colonies up to the 1800s. During the transatlantic slave trade, people of African descent were treated as chattel. The ills of slavery are magnified by its manifestations of economic exploitation, brutality, and racism. The loss of rights and freedoms through racialized enslavement and colonial domination of African and African ancestored peoples for over 400 years was and still impacts negatively on the continent of Africa and its diaspora around the world.

The scramble for Africa was done solely for the benefit of imperial expansion and the wealth of the colonial empires. Colonial empires built and accumulated wealth through the exploitative practice of plantation slavery, chattel slavery, domestic slavery, and the use of resources from the colonies for the benefit of the empires. People of African descent bore the cost and the pain of this exploitative
colonial enterprise.

On March 25, 2007, the world will mark the International Day for the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

By the text of the resolution, the Assembly “recognized that the slave trade and slavery are among the worst violations of human rights in the history of humanity, bearing in mind particularly their scale and duration”. It acknowledged that the institution of slavery was at the heart of “profound social and economic inequality, hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, which continue to affect people of African descent today.” [Source: Assembly to Observe 26 March 2007 in Commemoration of Two-Hundredth Anniversary of Abolition of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, in Historic Decision ] There are global efforts and public education campaigns that will foster greater awareness of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Africans. These forums, conferences, events and activities will engage the public consciousness with issues of slavery, abolition and the decline of the British colonial empire. The will enable all to understand, reflect, and evaluate the impact of slavery on the African Diaspora and nation states including Canada. In this respect, it is instructive to examine where we came from and where do we go from here.

In Canada, African Canadians and people of all diversities will commemorate the 200th anniversary the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Africans. Official government and community engagement in a national dialogue on the legacies of the Translatlantic slave trade in Canada is expected at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. In Ontario, the City of Toronto has collaborated with CMAST to launch bicentenary activities at City Hall. The Ontario Ministry of Citizenship has hosted the Liberty Bell from the Buxton Historical Museum at the Ontario Legislature. A former federal cabinet minister, the Hon. Jean Augustine is expected to lead the Ontario government's efforts at commemorating the bicentenary. The Ontario Black History Society 2007 Poster profiles the 1807 Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act, and promotes public awareness and education of the bicentenary.

In Toronto, a diverse group, chaired by historian Dr. Afua Cooper has formed a Committee for the Commemoration and Memorialization of the Atlantic Slave Trades (CMAST). This committee has taken a leadership role in planning, coordinating and collaborating to present a series of events across Toronto, Ontario and Canada that commemorate the bicentenary. This committee should receive appropriate funding to compensate the experts whose efforts are instrumental in making visible the bicentenary in the Canadian context and consciousness. As a person of African descent, I believe that despite this most unfortunate era, the stories of the maroons, the Amistad schooner, manumission, the underground railroad and many others are an inspiration that the spirit of emancipation amid captivity prevailed. The work songs, the code languages, and the church services were all sites of struggle, resistance and redemption as slaves shared among each other their plans for liberation. Some succeed, while others failed. The bicentnary slaves resisted their enslavement and fought for their freedom. We must commemorate this aspect of their heroic memory. We must resolve that this inglorious historical genocide must never occur again.

Gary Pieters is an educator at OISE and a member of The Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of the Slave Trades (CMAST). He is also the creator/administrator of The Canadian Black Heritage in the Third Millennium Web Portal, an online resource for educators, researchers, writers, students, and people researching Black History from a Canadian Perspective.
http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~gpieters/blklinks.html