How Far Back Are We Willing to Go? — A Discussion on the Erasure of Racists’ Monuments
I’m currently watching Olasupo Shashore‘s documentary, “Journey of an African Colony” and it has made me question many so-called facts about the colonisation of Nigeria that I had held on to as true.
While the documentary starts with purging the viewer’s mind from the white-washing of Great Britain’s involvement in slave trading and showing how the ports of the territory now known as Nigeria saw the highest number of people taken as slaves, it does not ignore the place of the native population in creating the right environment for not just slave trade but the eventual colonization of much of the African continent.
There has recently been a frenzy in parts of Africa and the world over to pull down any structure perceived as a glorification of racism in any of its manifestations and a denouncement of anything perceived as white-centring. By the way, “white-centring” is one of those new coinages believed to better capture and widen the idea of white supremacy. But really, how far back are we willing to go?
Before the British invaded the Lagos were the Portuguese traders who dealt in slaves themselves and who were responsible for the renaming of Lagos (previously and even now more colloquially known as Eko) after the Portuguese port of Lagos. Before them and what provided groundwork were inter-tribal wars in the West which resulted in many being carried off as slaves in enemy territory and caliphates in the North covering territories as westward as Ilorin. Ancient kingdoms expanded through wars that suppressed smaller ones and added them to their territories.
It was simply the norm. The bigger conquered the smaller. In many instances, it had nothing to do with race. That did not make it any less terrible when one considers the needless loss of lives and enslavement of people. Wickedness does not know any colour. One needs to bear in mind that what is wickedness to one is the protection and advancement of a people’s course to another.
The story of King Jaja of Opobo also told by Shashore comes readily to mind. He was well known to the European traders, signed a treaty with them, and provided troops for the battle against the Gold Coast — the Ashanti war. The average pan-Africanist is appalled by this. How do you support invading whites against your fellow blacks? But one has to consider this against the backdrop of largely tribal identities and loyalties. Even in present times, world-renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, “I did not know I was black until I came to America”. It just was never a metric of identity until one had to navigate the nuances of living side-by-side with people of other skin colours. Jaja was simply watching out for his people’s interests. What we may see as betrayal today was considered by him as a necessary evil.
It is not a complete history until one acknowledges all the actors involved: whites who claimed other territories and peoples as their own for economic gain, African slave raiders who were only too willing to capture fellow Africans, and the culture of the day that normalised slavery.
It might be high time we acknowledge that morality in 2021 is not the same as in earlier centuries. If we go far back in time enough, we would deny our every root. No one will pass through our scrutiny and remain a saint in our eyes. Regardless of which era one looks at, whites are not the only culprits who perpetuated systems of slavery and colonialism. As Olasupo Shashore said, the British were just more effective at it and if I may add, sanctimonious.
Acknowledging history ought not to be equated to celebrating it. We wouldn’t burn our history books for speaking of these issues that were previously tolerated or even the order of the day that we now rightly see as totally reprehensible. We recognize them as simply telling us what obtained. Our museums also serve the same purpose. Why are statues and writers of earlier times not treated the same way?
