"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. “ Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Similarly, I disapprove what Gates wrote in the NY Times without sounding arrogant but will agree to disagree with him bearing in mind that opinions may differ but facts must remain free and unfettered/unaltered if we want to stay/walk close to the path of truth and freedom.
Gates misfired and by now he really knows he is a mis-educated Negro by saying Asantes sold slaves to import gold. That is totally false likewise most of his assertions. Louis Gates should know this, that above all, don't become know-alls, for nothing is more objectionable and nothing makes one look more of a fool. Gates' inference is like trying to sell ice to the Eskimos. Unless black intellectuals use their acquired knowledge properly, I am at loss to understand why they got education at all.
Gate’s premise that those traditional chiefs in Africa who in one way or the other played accomplice/weaker ally role with Europeans who actually abused their trust should be culpable as the main culprit i.e. the Europeans and American slave traders in my opinion is false and flies against any legal logic. In a crime case/scene, difference is/are made between the mastermind and those who aided or abetted knowingly or unknowing naive because they had no idea about the extent and outcome of the crime. Therefore Gates point of view can be considered as obiter dictum i.e. a not binding but lose talk.
Europeans and their American counter parts are running away from themselves i.e. responsibilities and their heinous crime against humanity and are pointing fingers elsewhere like Asantes, Arab traders etc when we all know who the main culprits are. These injustice and crime to haul humans with specially built boats/ships and specially built dungeons and sea outlets across the Atlantic have only one signature and that is that of Europeans and their American slave partners- period. No ifs, No Ands, No Buts.
Gates want a proof? The established proof are the over 27 castles, forts and trading posts that are dotted along our coast and that is only Ghana to graphically explain the dimension or degree of how these aliens infiltrated our continent because of their greed for profit. Christopher Columbus and all the other navigators had one mission that is to find means to bypass Arab tradesmen who acted as middlemen to Asian spices trade particularly India so that they could pocket the profits. The nature of their assignment/mission was clear and those who financed the navigators like Columbus had only one thing in mind i.e. maximum profit no matter what. The Europeans committed genocide both in Africa and Americas. Period! No argument.
Who planned and built the castles with dungeons and outlets to the sea? Who were selling slaves in America? And did Asantes force the Europeans to buy slaves? No , so why then are the Asantes culpable of a crime which was master minded, planned and executed by Europeans who put their captives in chains and shackles with a little help from naive chiefs who through wars were already controlling large extent of territories. This does not mitigate brother on brother crime though but you cannot put them on the same scale with the barbarous European intruders.
The blood on the hand of Europeans exposes their primitive and wicked character which had the blessings of the pope back then because Africans were considered menials and heathens. In fact the slave trade has it genesis in the Americas when the Spanish conquerors or Conquistadores erased the indigenous population of Incan, Mayas/Aztec population to GROUND ZERO and in the aftermath unleashed diseases like small pox, syphilis etc that was unknown to this part of the world on the populace after which they were left to no other option than to find man power to replace the depleted population of the original dwellers of the Caribbean and Americas.
In their conquest the ungrateful and wicked Spanish and Portuguese conquerors made new agro finds through the help of the indigenous people which will go a long way to benefit their respective countries and the west up until this day. Cocoa, potatoes, maize, tomatoes, tobacco, coffee, sugarcane, and coca plants etc all products unknown to Europe before but of immense economic value to Europe had to be cultivated in large quantities for consumption. Africans slaves had to fill in the supply chain with their blood, sweat and tears which led to triangular trade on the Atlantic. The plan to cultivate large plantations was not that of the Asantes so how could they be equally culpable? And here again Gates is wrong. You can blame warriors African tribes/clans like Asantes or Zulus who were excising their might like the Romans of the past did. The Romans in their history destroyed everything on their path and enslaved the people they conquered right up to north Africa in places like Cartago today Libya.
In fact it is a standing joke that the pope had to bless potatoes and coffee to enable the hungry folks of Europe to eat potatoes, drink the black coffee or cocoa beverage because anything that swells or look black in colour was associated the devil. See how superstitious even the Catholic Church was back then. Today, it is unthinkable to imagine European and American societies without the devilish potatoes, coffee or cocoa.
The Europeans who came to our shores 400 years ago were uninvited guest and hence intruders who seized not only our people but our land by force at the point of gun barrels. No amount of arguing will change that. They killed, maimed, exploited and raped our continent in the most pervasive way one could ever imagine with the permission of the Catholic Church who classified Africans as heathens and menials who needed to be converted to Christianity. So they should collectively assume their responsibility of the heinous crime and crying shame. The apology must come sincerely not only from the Catholic Church but from all who acted in this barbarous human atrocities and laying path for further material and economic exploitation which continues to this day.
Gates, what does education means if we remain in mental subservience? We have to free our mind and free ourselves from mental slavery. I can only say this; Prof. Louis Gates is a mis-educated Negro who is an insult to the W.E.B. Du Bois institute where he teaches at Harvard. The false belief that providence created some to be menials of others must be a notion of the past. Slavery is the worst form of crime against humanity. For those who practiced it means having power over their fellows human beings and those who suffered from it means injustice and crime without redress.
Prof. Gates, with all due respect this is not the time to discuss our academic or intellectual understanding of suffering, heinous atrocities and injustice against mankind by Europeans who had only one motive behind their crime. The greed to make profit come what may thus humans were relegated to animals with a papal blessing. In fact the unholy and brutal truth is the Catholic Church has the blood stains of millions of slaves who were sank into the sea because they could make the journey to the other side of the Atlantic on its hands. May their souls rest in peace? On Papal orders, South America was divided between Spain and Portugal on May 4th, 1493 by Alexander VI a Spanish pope just by the stroke of a pen.
For example, by the 16th century American silver and gold accounted for one-fifth of Spain’s total budget so you can see why they were ruthless and cleared everything or anything that stood in their way. This is how criminal the Mafia of the Catholic Church got most of their wealth to build and expand the Vatican. Yesterday, SLAVERY BLOOD MONEY ENRICHED EUROPE and AMERICA. Today MATERIAL WEALTH UNDER OUR FEET CONTINUES TO MAKE EUROPE and AMERICA RICH. Would Gates hold today’s African leaders culpable for this economic crime whilst there exist hungry millions, illiteracy and disease in Africa?
Today the same Catholic Church is in self denial and cover up with their role of sexual abuse of children in the 20th and 21st century in many parts of the world because they stick to solitude and forced absence of sex, a ritual which was started by some Greek monks and initially had nothing to do with the Catholic Church.
Gates, reading Malcolm X may help you or better still you may to put it bluntly a “must buy CD” and listen to the audio of Malcolm X in BALLOTS or BULLETS. Walter Rodney’s book is another place to look for enlightenment. The Europeans and western press are cunning at making the victimizer look like victim and the victim look like the victimizer. They are masters at this trick so don’t fall into it. Prof Gates, why would UK, USA, Portugal, Spain, Holland with exception of France refuse to ratify a UNESCO conference pledge in 2006 for their role as crime against humanity with respect to Trans Atlantic Slavery? Your guess is as good as mine. For fear of legal battles and hence reparation demands which will run into billions of dollars.
Up until this day, it is only Kwame Nkrumah and Maummar Gaddafi of Libya who have been able to challenge the perpetrators of the heinous crime against humanity on the world stage. Last October at the UNO general assembly it was only Gaddafi who had the balls to lambaste the west and demand reparations in this regard. The rest of thievery African head of states were cowering behind a shower curtain. Gates in all seriousness I cannot see you as a slavery apologist. This time, I have to come to the defense of the Asantes in the name of historical correctness and justice. In the words of Martin Luther King, Justice delayed is Justice denied. The struggle continues. We Face Forward. Long Live Maame Ghana. Viva sweet mother Africa.
AFRICA MUST UNITE.
Nana Ansah"
