Gawfer

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison

Friday, March 21, 2008

Obama, Wright, and Slave Trade in Africa

I find it interesting that a man who grew up in a fairly affluent neighborhood with well educated parents, enjoying the fruits of their labor and attending a nice High School like Jeremiah Wright, one who would criticize this country for the history of slavery that once existed but is now a blemish in the rearview mirror of our past, would swear his allegiance to Africa; a place where slavery is not only still present but thriving.

I also find it interesting that Barack Obama, the man who would no more disown Jeremiah Wright than his own 'white' grandmother, would also play on the past injustices of slavery yet call on his African heritage as reason for his electability.

These folks are absolutely playing the race card by making it a talking point, screaming of the injustices done to the 'po black folk' all the while claiming pride in their African lineage, and raising their fists in the symbol of Black Power we came to recognize in the '60s.

http://billyoblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-uniter.html

Anyone who now supports Obama for president is either a hypocrite or a weak minded sheep being lead to the slaughter.

two points from MD:

1) Slave ships were outlawed in the easrly 1800's 1802 I think. The US Govt sought to stop smugglers.
2) In africa many times it was BLACKS selling BLACKS. Doesn't make slavey right, but it wasn't exclusive to whites....that adds to your point about slavery in Africa NOW.

I typically don't use Wiki as a source, but in this short amount of time, it provided me with many sub sources.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_modern_Africa

Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf. However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries’ law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organised criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.