Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

someone other than myself already gave the response. this is what ib abdullah wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

I added to his posting that his  sentence about 19th century production (in northern nigeria) confirmed my own thoughts
ken

On 3/19/13 3:58 PM, Biko Agozino wrote:

Wow Ken! Molefi Asante, with more than 70 books and counting, cannot be dismissed as preaching to the 'unwashed'. You are free to disagree with him but you cannot ridicule his claim that there is no record of an African society that depended on a slave economy as a dominant mode of production the way European chattel slavery did. If you and Ikhide know of such an African history, then try and contradict him with the evidence. The thrust of Asante's argument three years ago is to support the call for reparations from European nations that paid compensations to slave traders but have refused to consider reparations for people of African descent. If you are opposed to reparations for Africans, then say why. Gates' thesis appears to suggest that the demand for reparations is a blame game and that blame is an equal opportunity employer but I contributed to the debate back then by reminding Gates that the demand for reparations is not a game; it is a matter of justice that has been rendered to almost every group that suffered historic wrongs, except to people of African descent due to racism-sexism-classism (according to Chinweizu). Of course, history teaches great lessons although some people remain unteachable because of their selfish interests. Yet the whole world will benefit when the wrongs done to people of African descent are acknowledged and appropriate reparations made in accordance with historical precedence. Yes, history teaches that!

Biko

---

From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 14:35
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

hi oa
i hate that santayana quote. it seems increasingly meaningless to me.
let's say it is a temptation, like a large coke. drink more and more, and you get unhealthy and obese, not smarter.
so, to cut to the chase: there is no such thing as history; there are, rather, historical accounts. no history, just accounts of history. can we learn from accounts? of course. but they are as useful or useless as the intelligence of the author of the accounts, not as the "history" teaches us.
my little response, then, was to molefi asante's account, which seemed to me of little historical use or even accuracy, but rather, was there to preach to the unwashed.
ken

On 3/19/13 1:04 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

"whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly".

 

Not all the time. Not if history is the study of past events. History shows… It does just as experience teaches… Which is why we study and seek to learn from history. As George Santayana famously reminds us "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" Is history sometimes abused or misused? Can history be "tendentious"? Yes of course.

 

oa

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:16 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

 

this is "tendentious" commentary, not serious history. why do we have this?
in a way, we use history as a kind of football for kicking around our views and opinions, leaving us with hot air. so here is a guide: whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly.
ken

On 3/18/13 7:53 PM, Ikhide wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica's best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

 

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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  distinguished professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  distinguished professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu