The UN General Assembly (UNGA) recently adopted a resolution that declared the Transatlantic Slave Trade “the gravest crime against humanity,” which it is. It does not take a resolution to understand that harsh reality. Black men, women, and children were kidnapped from Africa and murdered, brutalized, raped, tortured, and treated like property.
Our ancestors were jammed into the holds of ships and taken thousands of miles to the Caribbean, and North, Central, and South America, where generations of Black people were forced to do the bidding of White slave masters and build their “heaven on earth.”
The residual scars of this crime against humanity are still being felt by Black people today, regardless of where we live. What was done to our people is unimaginable, but it happened. No amount of trying to gloss over, erase or downplay what Black people have suffered will make us forget. We should never forget.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, explained that the condition of Black people in America is a direct result of what we have suffered at the hands of the White slave master and their children.
“Our condition and lack of love for ourselves must be attributed to the slave-master. He has been our teacher until the coming of Almighty God, Allah. The slave-master has robbed my people of their God, religion, name, language and culture,” He writes on page 37 of “Message To The Blackman in America.”
He continues, “The worst kind of crime has been committed against us, for we were robbed of our desire to even want to think and do for ourselves.
We are often pictured by the slave-master as a lazy and trifling people who are without thoughts of advancement. I say, this is a condition which the slave-master very cleverly wanted and created within and among the so-called Negroes.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in speaking to a group of Black youth in 2015 in a message titled, “Love Yourself:
The Original People of The Earth,” told them, “… during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a crime against humanity was committed, and our ancestors were brought not to America as immigrants seeking a better life, we came in the holds of ships as slaves; and for 310 years we were considered chattel slaves.
‘Chattel,’ meaning that as you owned horses or dogs or pigs, and you branded them so that others may know that you own them, the slave master named us after our owners.”
The United States and other European countries waxed rich off the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Black people. Today, several corporations and wealthy White families owe their generational wealth to the backbreaking work Black bodies endured. Black people built the “wall” that is now named for Wall Street in New York.
An excerpt from “Shocking List of 10 Companies that Profited from the Slave Trade,” posted on Your Black World, noted, “It is no secret that slavery rests at the foundation of American capitalism and is often synonymous with the sugar, tobacco, and/or cotton plantations that fueled the Southern economy.
What many may not know is that slavery also rests at the foundation of many notable corporations. From New York Life to Bank of America, several companies have benefited from slavery.”
So, while the UN resolution acknowledged this historic wrong by the countries that voted “yes,” what will come of it remains to be seen. In the March 25 vote, 123 countries voted for the resolution and 52 countries abstained.
The 52 that abstained included the UK and all European Union member states. And it should come as no surprise that the U.S., Israel, and Argentina were the three countries that voted against the resolution.
The UN resolution was spearheaded by Ghana and other African Union member states, which is the largest regional bloc within the UN. Speaking at an event the day before the vote, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said that “The entire Transatlantic Slave Trade was designed to deny African people their humanity.”
He also stated, “I speak these words today not only for Ghana, but also in solidarity with the rest of Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the wider Diaspora and, indeed, all people of good conscience throughout the world. This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice. This resolution is a safeguard against forgetting.”
There have been many discussions, recommendations and suggestions about what this “repair” or “reparations” should be. There have been several of our people in America who love us and who have worked tirelessly in the reparations movement.
The late “Queen Mother” Audley Moore, Dr. Conrad Worrill, Representative John Conyers of Michigan and groups like N’COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America), were proponents of reparations. Today, others have picked up that mantle.
The UN vote, while important, is non-binding. Analysts say the vote sends an “important message.” However, will it be more symbolism without substance?
The fact is, Black people, whether descendants of enslaved people in the U.S., Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, or other countries, are owed true freedom, justice, and equality. Minister Farrakhan has taught that all who had a role in the enslavement of our people must be held accountable. But he has explained the role of “reparations,” and what it truly means.
“In order to gain reparations, one must appeal to a government that may or may not listen. But the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that, when we lie down, justice lies down with us, and when we get up, justice gets up with us.
Justice is not concerned with the World Court or the International Criminal Court or the local judge or the local court,” Minister Farrakhan said in his Saviours’ Day 2004 message, “Reparations: What does America and Europe Owe? What does Allah (God) Promise?”
“The justice with which God has set the balance in the universe caused Jesus to say: ‘He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.’ ‘He who has led into captivity will go into captivity.’
‘A man shall reap what he sows.’ The Prophet Obadiah says, ‘As thou has done, so shall it be done unto you.’ These laws of justice have nothing to do with man’s courts; they have everything to do with the highest Court, the Universal Court of the Divine Supreme Being,” he said.
Regardless of UN resolutions, Allah (God) is our Patron and is with us and we must be with Him. The historic suffering of our people was and is not in vain.
Minister Farrakhan said it best, in another message, “A Case for Reparations: Add it Up!” delivered on April 28, 1990.
“The way God looks at this thing, the present generation of Whites, they didn’t do this to us. The present generation of Whites are innocent of what their grandfathers did, but they are in a privileged position because of what their fathers did; and we’re in a hell of a condition because of what their fathers did.
So, if you, the present generation of Whites, want to escape what is justly due, then they’ve got to do the right thing. They’ve got to do justice by the Black man.”
Allah (God) will see to it.