Towering over the desert oasis of the Horn of Africa, fascinated by the wondrous beauty of our mother continent, deep reflections wheedled my thoughts, embedding a realisation that even from the temples of wisdom, philosophers of enlightenment could not appreciate the remarkable endeavours of human civilisation.
My self consciousness, engrossed by the growing signification of false hypothesis, by the dominant scholarship of western indoctrination, about the true history of the development of human society, interpolating remarkable episodes of civilisations, such as the Stone Age civilisation of Anatolia, the great Egyptian civilisation, the great Mesopotamian, Greek and Phoenician civilisations.
The Islamic civilisation of the Golden Age of Baghdad and the Ottoman Empire, the medieval Sultanate of Somali and the rich ancient cultural heritage of the Aksumite empire of Ethiopian Abyssinia, the hidden treasures of the grandeur architectural opulence, of the palace of the Queen of Sheba in the republic of Yemen.
The plane soaring the blue skies over the landscapes of the Persian gulf, discovering my imaginations on the pavilion of the universe, mountains rising above the clouds, perineal rivers flowing into the Mediterranean sea, the coming of the sunrise when the night breaks away from the day and the sunset when the day breaks away from the night, stars shinning at the illuminating moon, echoes of the waves at the mouth of the Red sea and Gulf of Aden, our mother nature, the beautiful garden of paradise.
Magnanimous civilisations which throughout the stages of development, contributed immensely in shaping the destiny of human progress, contours of human freedom, expanding frontiers of knowledge and innovation, rejuvenating human society into a new trajectory of modernity.
We refer to the accolades of accomplishments of the first library of the ancient Egypt civilisation, the cultural and intellectual powerhouse in the making of the new world, inculcating high plateau ideas in the theatre of history, philosophy, art, music, literature, science and technology, knowledge advancements in the metier of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, medicine, architecture, and the advent of the epic revolution, breakthrough to use the sun, moon and planet, for the universal routine of the clock, calendar and navigation.
The melting pot of human civilisation and diplomacy between the three continents of Africa, Europe and Asia, its politics, commerce and social landscapes. A true testimony authenticating the scientific archeological research and evidence that from antiquity, centuries before materialisation of the Industrial revolution, nation states across the continents of the world, converging in the Mediterranean archipelago, for political, social and economic diplomacy.
The ancient Chinese Silk trade route, linking the Manchu epoch of civilisation to the Roman Empire, the Spice route which linked the East Indies to the European and African civilisations. The sub-Saharan Trade route from north Africa, West Africa, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, and the Great Zimbabwe, supplying precious medals to the Arabian and the Asian peninsula.
The growing admiration of the geography of the Mediterranean basin, which maps the footprints of our common ancestors, the breeding ground of new ideas, knowledge and cultures, the superhighway of trade and commerce, bringing together the diverse world of human solidarity and internationalism. The paradigm shift which continues to reshape the coarse of history.
Historical truth is contentious with the unfaltering habitude, by dominant scholarship of the Western Oligarchy, mistranslating the groundbreaking achievements of civilisation, by ancient societies. The dilemma is the continued effort to exaggerate the triumphs of the voyages of discovery into the new world, by the modern European monarchies, at the expense of the foundational stones, built through epochs for the progress of human development.
This is the fundamental question we have to grabble with, withstanding the daunting political and socio-economic challenges, facing millions of the people of the world. We have to see it coming, for we are the tutelage, tapping on the past experiences, in order to understand material conditions of today and tomorrow.
This equally brings to the fore the question of the moral standing of the capitalist system and its commitment to the values of the struggles for the achievement of the freedom for humanity. A mantle bestowed to all generations of mankind.
The elephant in the kraal is the history of the involvement of the British monarchy, harvesting innocent people from the African continent into slavery in the Americas. The question we need to ask is why in the age of tremendous achievements of civilisation, the British Monarchy involved itself in such heroines’ crimes of violations of human rights and genocide?
During the year 1562, Queen Elisabeth vested Sir John Walkins, with permission declaring him the first British ship captain, to have transported slaves from the African continent into the Americas. More than three hundred African men, women and children, were taken by force into the transatlantic slave trade.
The ship was called the Good Jesus, with the crew destined to serve God the Almighty and give hand of life in his name. The people were lured into the ship with the promise of the land of milk and honey, promising them the abundant riches of the wealth in the shores of the new world.
On arrival from his first voyage of enslaving African people into the Americas, the Queen reprimanded John Walkins, urging that it was detestable and wooed to call vengeance from heaven upon the undertakers of the horrible slave trade. But upon realising the profits he has accumulated, the Queen bestowed him with the coat of arms by the Collage of arms, symbolising his wealth and social standing in society, and therefore joining him in partnership on the slave trade.
Later in 1660, King Charles II founded the British Royal African Company, focusing on the trade of the African slaves and extraction of precious commodities from the African continent and the Americas. This is an abhorrent historical reality which will continue to haunt the British empire into posterity.
In his famous thesis, capitalism and slavery, the Trinidadian scholar and politician, Eric Williams, makes a groundbreaking supposition on the relationship between slavery and the new world, arguing that the transatlantic slave trade was the primary driving force of the growth of the British economy and the beginning of the Industrial revolution. His scholarly theory, gives a far fetching accentuation, the enslavement of Africans as free labour, in the sugar and coffee plantations of British colonies across the world, was the greatest impetus, towards the globalisation of the world capitalism.
The first General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, Ivon Jones, in his article titled, “Africa awakening for a world Negro Congress”, published on the 13th of July 1923, says the following:
“The Negro is the greatest living accuser of capitalist civilisation, the wealth of England and America, is built on his bones. The slave of Bristol and New York, with good Quaker prayers to speed them, founded the fortunes of many a Christian home. Every capitalist government is drenched with the blood of the Negro, British capitalism in South Africa, the French in the Cameroons, Belgium in the Congo, and the German empire in Damaraland.”
Further says: “They all constitute the blackest record in human history of mass slaughters, and human violation of every primitive human right, continued up to the present day. Even the liberation of the American slave, was only an incident of a civil war between two factions of property holders, engaged in a quarrel over the forms of exploitation, and was not the aim of the war as is commonly supposed. And as an aftermath of that war, there was created a social attitude towards the Negro race, which leaves the one time chattel slaves, still degraded outcasts among the peoples of the earth.”
In his philosophical thesis of the Poverty of Philosophy, the father of the world Communist Movement, Karl Marx, says the following about the impact of slavery on the development of capitalism:
“Direct slavery is just as much the pivot of bourgeois industry, as machinery and credits etc. without slavery you have no cotton, without cotton you have no modern industry. Thus slavery, because of its economic category, has always existed amongst the institutions of the peoples. Modern nations have been able only to disguise slavery in their own countries, but they have impose it without disguise upon the new world.”
The most revered revolutionary of the struggles for the liberation of the African continent, the first democratically-elected leader of the post-colonial Congo, Patrice Lumumba – the one whose words defeated death, for their are still resonating with the inspirations of the millions of the people of the world – said the following:
“Dead, living, free, or in prison on the orders of the colonialists, it is not I who counts. It is the Congo, it is our people for whom independence has been transformed into a cage, where we are regarded from the outside. History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington, or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets, a history of glory and dignity.”
In the Americas, Jose Marti, the Apostle of the homeland of humanity, in his last letter to his friend, Manuel Marco, on the 18th of May 1895, a day before he was brutally ambushed by the Spanish colonial forces, said the following:
“I am closer every day to giving my life for my country and for my duty, because I understand it and have the courage to do it, to prevent in time, through the independence of Cuba, the United States from expanding across the Antilles and from falling with greater force on our lands in America. Everything I have done so far, and everything I will do, is motivated by this. It has had to be done silently and indirectly, because some things must remain secret in order to succeed.”
The testaments of courage and extraordinary heroism, are written in all the walls of history, that humanity abhorred slavery and oppression, many have died, and the world is still tormented by the psychological effects of the horrors of colonialism and imperialism. But because they have planted the seeds of liberty, their living spirits will continue to rise again, multiplying in magnitudes, giving hope to the aspirations of future generations.
It is not enough to live in the opulence of the gold and the silver extracted on the carcasses of the downtrodden in Buckingham palace, and it will never be enough to look at the splendour of the towers of London, it is time that the British Monarchy takes responsibility, apologises for the atrocities the empire committed, against the innocent people of the world. The most sinful part, was to name the first ship to have transported the slaves from the African continent, Jesus.
Jesus Christ was the most humbled servant of God, the soul which its holy spirit, led to our salvation, the one who teaches everybody, that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
I join millions of the people of the African continent, from the former colonies and semi-colonies, all those who carry the name of the barbarians at the gate, to implore on the British monarchy, to do what humanity will honour into salvation, asking apology for the crimes committed against humanity, during the transatlantic slave trade. It is only those in prosperity, who will come to call us the most humbled, by having contributed towards building a better future for all.
Even if you can cover the whole of the world of humanity with darkness, you can never stop the sun from rising. The darkest night will always end and the sun will always rise.
We are a generation of a new beginning, the beginning of the sunrise and sunset, we are the future of prosperity, the living monuments of peace and harmony. We are who we are, the creation of the beauty of our mother continent, the generation of the new beginning.
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Ambassador Phatse Justice Piitso is a member of the African National Congress, writing this article in his personal capacity.