Mr. Speaker I rise today both as Minister and as the representative of the free African village of Fox Hill to mark the occasion of the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

In this connection, I wish to inform the House that The Bahamas joined the other members of CARICOM in cosponsoring a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly, which was formally adopted unanimously on the 28^th November 2006 and to which this country is legally bound.

The resolution reads as follows:

The General Assembly,

Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which proclaimed that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude and that slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,

Recalling that the transatlantic slave trade, which operated between the fifteenth and late nineteenth centuries, involved the forced transportation of millions of Africans as slaves, mostly from West Africa to the Americas, thereby enriching the imperial powers of the time,

Honouring the memory of those who died as a result of slavery, including through exposure to the horrors of the middle passage and in revolt against and resistance to enslavement,

Recognizing that the slave trade and slavery are among the worst violations of human rights in the history of humanity, bearing in mind particularly their scale and duration,

Deeply concerned that it has taken the international community almost two hundred years to acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so,

Recalling that slavery and the slave trade were declared a crime against humanity by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, from 31 August to 8 September 2001,

Acknowledging that the slave trade and the legacy of slavery are at the heart of situations of profound social and economic inequality, hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, which continue to affect people of African descent today,

Recalling paragraphs 98 to 106 of the Durban Declaration, and emphasizing, in particular, the importance of the "provision of effective remedies, recourse, redress, and compensatory and other measures at the national, regional and international levels", aimed at countering the continued impact of slavery and the slave trade,

Recognizing the knowledge gap that exists with regard to the consequences created by the slave trade and slavery, and on the interactions, past and present, generated among the peoples of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, including the Caribbean,

Welcoming the work of the International Scientific Committee for the Slave Route Project of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which aims to correct this knowledge gap, and looks forward to its report in due course,

Recalling resolution 28 adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at its thirty-first session,

Proclaiming 2004 the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition, and recalling also that 23 August is that Organization’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition,

Noting that 2007 will mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, which contributed significantly to the abolition of slavery,

1. Decides to designate 25 March 2007 as the International Day for the Commemoration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade;

2. Urges Member States that have not already done so to develop educational programmes, including through school curricula, designed to educate and inculcate in future generations an understanding of the lessons, history and consequences of slavery and the slave trade;

3. Decides to convene, on 26 March 2007, a special commemorative meeting of the General Assembly on the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach, with the involvement of Member States and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to appropriately commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade;

5. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session a special report on initiatives taken by States to implement paragraphs 101 and 102 of the Durban Declaration aimed at countering the legacy of slavery and contributing to the restoration of the dignity of the victims of slavery and the slave trade.

59th plenary meeting

28 November 2006

Mr. Speaker both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology led by my honourable friend the Member of Parliament for Ft. Charlotte have joined together to lead a set of observances for this occasion.

It is important that we note that this is not a celebration. This is marking the occasion. Slavery was clearly morally wrong, and the United Nations has now declared slavery a crime against humanity. The British Prime Minister has indicated his country’s sorrow over their role in it. The Anglican Church in the United Kingdom has led the way in calling for an apology for this great moral wrong.

The reason that the date 25^th March was chosen is that today marks the date when 200 years ago the British Parliament passed an act abolishing the legality of the transportation for commercial reasons of human beings from Africa to the Americas to work as slaves. Millions of people died in the passage to the Americas over the centuries of this practice, which has been described as a crime against humanity. That passage has been called the Middle Passage and as the Royal Navy pressed the slavers, men and women were simply thrown overboard into the deep and lost to eternity. Their names will never be known.

Mr. Speaker, may I ask the House to stand with me for moment of silence in honour of those who died in the middle passage.

Mr. Speaker, abolition came about not because the English suddenly got a conscience; abolition came about because ordinary men and women, young men and women just like us resisted slavery and forced the moral rightness of the case against slavery. The Pompey Museum in Nassau at Venue House once the place where slaves were bought and sold is now named after a slave from Exuma who resisted slavery. Englishmen of goodwill like William Wilberforce and those who were leaders in the Anglican Church at the time led the way to end the practice. Ultimately slavery was abolished in 1834 in the British Empire and in 1865 in the United States and in 1888 in Brazil.

While some argue for monetary compensation, called reparations, there is in the view of most that there is at least the requirement for an apology by all those who were officially involved in slavery even centuries after the fact. That apology is a form of reparation for a great wrong, a crime against humanity, and amends must be made by all responsible in the same way that the German government has had to make amends for their conduct during the Second World War toward Jews.

Millions of African peoples perished in the middle passage; the numbers exceed those who died in the Holocaust.  Their names are not known and never will be.  Even though they are nameless, they must not be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker some want to act as if it did not exist.  We cannot do that.  Our history is our history; and we ought to be sure that the young know their history.  We must also tell them, though, that history should not be used as an excuse for their failings but rather as a source of inspiration for their success.

On 25^th March 1807, the British Parliament passed an Act that would forbid the transportation of slaves from Africa to the new world.  It came into effect in 1808 and once it did, the British Navy had the responsibility of enforcing it.  This meant that vessels of countries that still carried slaves were subject to seizure and forfeiture by the navy on the high seas.

Fox Hill owes its beginnings to some extent to the settlement of freed Africans who were set down by the British in what was then called New Guinea or the Creek Village (located in the area of Long Branch, the home of the late Roy Solomon on the Eastern Road), later named Fox Hill and then Sandilands Village.

Here is what Michael Craton writes in his History of The Bahamas:

Dr. Gail Saunders writes in her book Slavery In The Bahamas:

Mr. Speaker, there appears to be at least one picture of a freed African that we can see and that is one that I saw in a book of photographs of old Nassau by Ronald G. Lightbourne called Reminisces II in which one of the men standing with the founder of John S. George, the hardware store, was said to be from the Congo and had been freed from a slaver and set down in The Bahamas.

When I attended the celebrations for the 136^th anniversary of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Fox Hill, the history there says that their congregation formed out of Mt. Carey Baptist Church and arose in part because of differences between the Congos and Yorubas.

The Yorubas came from West Africa and the Congos came from the Congo.  Most British slaves came from West Africa and the Portuguese took their slaves from what is now the Congo and were transporting them to Brazil.

It is said that after the abolition of the slave trade a slaver carrying Congo slaves was captured by the British and set down in Fox Hill.  They were looked down on by the Yorubas because the Congos could not speak proper English, having come later to The Bahamas and the English language.  When the split took place over some doctrinal matters, the Congos moved to found St. Paul’s.

Dr. Nicolette Bethel speaking at the New Covenant Church, headed by Bishop Simeon hall, told us that Junkanoo as we know it today was shaped by the freed African slaves set down after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. When Junkanoo first started, they used to use the military and their snare drums for the rhythm but the freed Africans introduced the goatskin drum to Junkanoo and changed it into what it is today.

Dr. Nicolette Bethel writes in her essay Junkanoo In The Bahamas: A Tale of Identity: " Another reason for the survival of Junkanoo in its present form was the landing of Africans liberated by the British from French, American, Spanish and Portuguese slave ships during the mid–nineteenth century. These brought with them their customs, and revitalized the Christmas parades, just as they seemed about to be overtaken by the marching brass bands rather than gangs of goombay drum and cowbells."

The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade then is central to the development of our country, our culture and the way we live today. It is only fitting then that we remember those who perished in the middle passage, and recall how we got to where we are today. In this connection a number of observances will be held to commemorate the event of 200 years ago. In doing so we will be joining those around the world but especially in the Caribbean where our societies have been so significantly impacted by slavery.

We ask the Bahamian public to join us in these observances throughout this week and for the next year.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the One Family Junkanoo group and Patrick Rahming, the Bahamian / African Association for their rush out and display of African foods and artifacts at the Southern recreation grounds last Saturday 24^th March. That began the observances.

Throughout the week, the Minister of Education and myself and officials of the Ministry of Education will be speaking on talk shows about the observances.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Bahamians to mark these observances.

Mr. Speaker, we must never forget. This is our history. Today we are a free people in a free and sovereign nation. As we look our young people in the face today, we say that this is the legacy which is left to you and it is yours to protect and guard, even as it has been left to you from your forefathers and foremothers. In the words of Patrice Lumumba: Forward ever! Backward Never!

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

-- end --