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They are 'so sorry'
Published on: 10/27/05.
The marchers in chains and yoke heading up the ABC Highway near the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic in Wildey, St Michael.
by WADE GIBBONS
OVER 40 REPENTANT SOULS took to the ABC Highway yesterday, where they marched from the Emancipation Statue to Newton Plantation, Christ Church, to say "sorry" for the horrors of slavery.
The mostly Caucasian marchers, under the guide of project leader for Lifeline Expedition, David Pott, took the walk in the scorching early morning sun as a symbolic form of apology for what many often refer to as the Black Holocaust.
Some motorists slowed and peered out of their vehicles at the spectacle, while a few pedestrians got out of the way of the marchers, some of whom were yoked and chained, reminiscent of the reality faced by millions of Africans for over 400 years.
Comments from the few onlookers varied, with Darryl Bowen, of My Lord's Hill, St Michael, saying the symbolic walk was worthwhile since local ancestors of former slave owners often wanted to dissociate themselves from the atrocities of slavery.
"As long as they are sincere, their effort is worth it," he said.
Sonia Greaves, of Arch Hall, St Thomas, had a different view.
"Some of them are marching with umbrellas and water bottles. I can't remember the slaves having anything like that when I did history at school," she said.
Another onlooker, who declined to give his name, said he couldn't help but feel that the horror of slavery was being trivialised at worst, and romanticised at best.
"If some of these people were bequeathing some of their families' estates to us, I could live with that symbolism," he said.
Pott later told the DAILY NATION they were "confessing the sins" directed toward Barbados by Britain.
"Firstly people from my nation came to settle in this nation and brought with them enslaved Africans. Secondly, people from my nation took captive Irish and Scots and brought them here to work in indentured servitude.
"Thirdly, people from my nation brought most of the 387 000 enslaved Africans that were brought here to Barbados, some of them in ships from my city [London]. Fourthly, for 200 years on sugar plantations, British descendants committed unspeakable crimes against people of African descent," he said.
Pott also lamented that Britons had profited greatly over the years from the "unpaid labour" of people of African descent. He charged his forefathers with "greed, arrogance, racism, cruelty".
"I ask for forgiveness for the sins of my nation. Lord, have mercy!" he said.
*[email protected]
www.nationnews.com
Published on: 10/27/05.
The marchers in chains and yoke heading up the ABC Highway near the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic in Wildey, St Michael.
by WADE GIBBONS
OVER 40 REPENTANT SOULS took to the ABC Highway yesterday, where they marched from the Emancipation Statue to Newton Plantation, Christ Church, to say "sorry" for the horrors of slavery.
The mostly Caucasian marchers, under the guide of project leader for Lifeline Expedition, David Pott, took the walk in the scorching early morning sun as a symbolic form of apology for what many often refer to as the Black Holocaust.
Some motorists slowed and peered out of their vehicles at the spectacle, while a few pedestrians got out of the way of the marchers, some of whom were yoked and chained, reminiscent of the reality faced by millions of Africans for over 400 years.
Comments from the few onlookers varied, with Darryl Bowen, of My Lord's Hill, St Michael, saying the symbolic walk was worthwhile since local ancestors of former slave owners often wanted to dissociate themselves from the atrocities of slavery.
"As long as they are sincere, their effort is worth it," he said.
Sonia Greaves, of Arch Hall, St Thomas, had a different view.
"Some of them are marching with umbrellas and water bottles. I can't remember the slaves having anything like that when I did history at school," she said.
Another onlooker, who declined to give his name, said he couldn't help but feel that the horror of slavery was being trivialised at worst, and romanticised at best.
"If some of these people were bequeathing some of their families' estates to us, I could live with that symbolism," he said.
Pott later told the DAILY NATION they were "confessing the sins" directed toward Barbados by Britain.
"Firstly people from my nation came to settle in this nation and brought with them enslaved Africans. Secondly, people from my nation took captive Irish and Scots and brought them here to work in indentured servitude.
"Thirdly, people from my nation brought most of the 387 000 enslaved Africans that were brought here to Barbados, some of them in ships from my city [London]. Fourthly, for 200 years on sugar plantations, British descendants committed unspeakable crimes against people of African descent," he said.
Pott also lamented that Britons had profited greatly over the years from the "unpaid labour" of people of African descent. He charged his forefathers with "greed, arrogance, racism, cruelty".
"I ask for forgiveness for the sins of my nation. Lord, have mercy!" he said.
*[email protected]
www.nationnews.com
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