From Slavery to Citizenship - Rilegato

Ennals, Richard

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0470028327 ISBN 13: 9780470028322

Casa editrice: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2007

Riassunto

Citizenship is not a spectator sport; it is all about engagement. From Slavery to Citizenship is part of a bigger picture - a development process which will enable us to gain more control over our own lives and to participate in decisions about the future direction of society and the organisations we are involved in.

This book is unusual in suggesting that slavery is not a remote historical  phenomenon, but a fundamental component of our present. People have been  slaves in the past and some people are enslaved today.

The subject of slavery is highly charged with emotion. From Slavery to Citizenship seeks to facilitate dialogue and to bridge gaps. This is not easy as people have been speaking different languages and working from diverse sets of assumptions. A first step is to listen and to learn from differences.

In this book, a single author's voice brings together contributions from major public figures and respected thinkers. Within a rich tapestry of perspectives, there is no single line of argument, or one overall conclusion. There are contributions from Africa, North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe and Asia, and from discourses in work organisation, occupational health, psychiatry and human rights, as well as education.

After reading the book, you are unlikely to conclude that all of the contributors have agreed, but you will find that they give you a starting point from which to reflect and begin discussion, as well as the tools to engage in active citizenship.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull'autore

Richard Ennals is Professor at Kingston Business School, London, where he leads the Centre for Working Life Research. He studied the history of slavery in the USA and at King's College Cambridge, and taught African and Modern World History in Northern Nigeria. He is Chairman of the Council for Education in World Citizenship, and works with the UK National Commission for UNESCO and the UK Work Organisation Network. He has visiting professorial posts in Norway, Sweden and Lithuania. His previous books with Wiley are Star Wars: A Question of Initiative (1986), and Dialogue, Skill and Tacit Knowledge (2006, edited with Bo Göranzon and Maria Hammarén).

Dalla quarta di copertina

Citizenship is not a spectator sport; it is all about engagement. This book is part of a bigger picture &; a development process which will enable us gain more control over our own lives and to participate in decisions about the future direction of society and the organisations we are involved in. From Slavery to Citizenship is a resource for individual reading and cross-reference that will also be valuable for teaching and learning.

This book is unusual in suggesting that slavery is not a remote historical phenomenon, but a fundamental component of our present. People have been slaves in the past and some people are enslaved today.

The subject of slavery is highly charged with emotion. From Slavery to Citizenship seeks to facilitate dialogue and to bridge gaps. This is not easy as people have been speaking different languages and working from diverse sets of assumptions. A first step is to listen and to learn from differences.

In the book, a single author&;s voice brings together contributions from major public figures and respected thinkers. Within a rich tapestry of perspectives, there is no single line of argument, or one overall conclusion. The intention is to inform debate with reflections from such diverse key figures as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan and Chris Patten.

After reading the book, you are unlikely to conclude that all of the contributors have agreed, but you will find that they give you a starting point from which to reflect and begin discussion, as well as the tools to engage in active citizenship.

With a companion web site for ongoing debate and supplementary reading and teaching materials, this is an interactive project which goes much further than the pages of the book.

Estratto. © Ristampato con autorizzazione. Tutti i diritti riservati.

From Slavery to Citizenship

By Richard Ennals

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-02832-2

Chapter One

NATIONS AND EMPIRES

One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and without giving us time to cry out or make resistance, they stopped our mouths and ran off with us into the nearest wood ...

... The people I was sold to used to carry me very often when I was tired, either on their shoulders or on their backs ... Thus I continued to travel, sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations, till at the end of six or seven months after I had been kidnapped I arrived at the sea coast ... A slave ship was riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo.

... We continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate.... Until at last we came in sight of the island of Barbados.

Edwards, P. (ed.) (1988) The Life of Oloudah Equiano, of Gustavus Vassa the African. London, Longmans, pp. 1-9, 11-14, 22-28, 84-87

MEMORIES OF EMPIRE

The modern reader is familiar with the stereotypes of Empire and slavery. There have been so many stories and films based on accounts of the Southern States of the USA, and the West Indies. Even if the films have been in technicolour, the characters have been fundamentally black and white.

The modern USA is still affected by the legacy of slavery, which was first instituted under the British Empire. As the USA takes on a global role, encountering people from other cultures around the world, and based on the "Project for a New American Century", we recognise many of the characteristics of Empire. Among these is the tendency to regard indigenous people, or local populations, as in some way immature, not fully able to determine their own future.

The British Empire continues to live on in the popular imagination, and it is commemorated in the continuing award of honours to hundreds of citizens. Memories are becoming hazy as to what Empire meant. It is generally agreed that Britain has lost its Empire, but has yet to define an agreed new role. There has therefore been some confused invocation of the memories of Empire. It was true that for a period the sun never set on the British Empire, but there is limited understanding of how the Empire was built, and how it was maintained. Understandably, there is a tendency for selective memories. We like to look back with pride, and to encourage younger generations to be aware of what went before.

For current African Diaspora communities, who have seen themselves as the victims of Empire, there has been little alternative but to look back in anger. The effort has been impeded by the absence of a stable platform in national institutions. There is no "African nation" as such. The peoples of West Africa, who had a tradition of Empires with strong distinctive cultures, were scattered and enslaved. Their descendants have inherited diverse perspectives, but have rarely been in a position to determine their own destiny. They often lack the necessary historical information to enable them to take pride in their past. This has weakened their sense of identity.

For most of Europe, the age of Empire is long dead. European engagement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade had largely been on the basis of private enterprise, and their colonial ambitions were relatively restricted. The British and French had the largest Empires, and still retain the greatest concern for their national identity and position. For example, they vigorously defend their permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, resisting suggestions that their place could be taken by a representative of the European Union.

Workplaces are increasingly diverse and multicultural, bringing together individuals who locate themselves in different traditions and contexts. The workplace is an arena for interaction and debate, where issues of control and participation are centre stage. This book is concerned primarily with relationships in working life, and with demystifying conflicts and controversies. For slaves, owned as chattels, their working relationships are inseparable from the rest of their life. Where slavery is imposed by one race on another, and where those two races have different skin colours, the implications of the system are radical. The impact continues over generations. We have to tackle deep-seated issues of human rights.

Neither Empires nor slavery can be regarded as merely historical phenomena. They continue today, often in altered forms. This must be recalled as we encounter claims of citizenship, democracy, participation and equal opportunities.

SLAVERY AS EXCLUSION

Slavery has existed in numerous contexts over the centuries. Robin Blackburn (1988b) has argued that the slave is defined by the society from which he is excluded. The slave could not be a citizen of the Empire in which he was owned. He was regarded as isolated, an outsider, without a supporting family. He was subject to the authority of the master, and would often be tortured or abused. He was dehumanised, treated as an instrument.

In order for slavery to continue in a particular society, in some sense this involves the endorsement of the "free" population. There are difficult issues of responsibility, which we address in this book. Societies based on slavery had impacts on both masters and slaves. We have to reconsider what is meant by "freedom" in such cases. To what extent do those who regard themselves as "free", and as "citizens", have to accept responsibility for the enslavement of those excluded from Citizenship?

Slavery has taken place in most parts of the world at some time. The Transatlantic Slave Trade added an additional dimension of forced relocation. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the UK Commission for Racial Equality, emphasised the impact of the transportation of slaves from one context to another. Slaves were taken from West Africa, deprived of their names, traditions, language and families. They were reduced to isolated individuals, or at best small groups with prior connections. On arrival in the Americas they were obliged to start afresh, in unfamiliar settings, and deprived of their liberty.

Phillips emphasised the scale of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a precursor of modern globalisation:

This was a huge process, probably the first great industrial-scale organization undertaken by Europeans. Leave aside the issue of morality, and abandon modern notions such as the idea that a human being cannot be treated as a piece of property, and you have the elements of every modern trade. There are millions of seemingly identical units (slaves); huge factories (the word plant, meaning factories and machines, has the same root as plantation), a close attention to reducing costs, the need for large amounts of financing, and literally cut throat competition. (Martin, 1999, p. 3)

We are confronting an enormous process, exhibiting man's inhumanity to man. It is time for it to be discussed. As Patrick Bryan, Jamaican historian, has argued:

It is the people who refuse to discuss it who constitute the problem. (Martin, 1999, p. 45)

In 2007 it is no longer possible to refuse to discuss slavery. It would be helpful if the discussion could be well informed. These are not simply issues of remote history, but involve the central identity of many of those engaged in the processes of dialogue.

ANCIENT SLAVERY

The history of slavery can be traced back to ancient times. Although it had generally been an accepted state of affairs, the legal arrangements and moral justifications for slavery were often untidy and inconsistent, as if from the start it represented embarrassing unfinished business. Although the enslavement of others might have been seen as tolerable, nobody has ever wished to be a slave.

It was perhaps easier when life was organised in small nations, separate from the wider world. Traditional rules could cover the enslavement of others, typically originating from a distance, and with retribution unlikely. Slavery was a fact of life: it was nothing personal. There has not been a single time line: we can identify stages of development, from slavery to serfdom, and then on to further stages of economic and social development. Karl Marx described such stages in the mid nineteenth century: we can see examples of each stage in the world around us today.

Although slaves were treated as property, they could also generally be held liable under the law, so at least their status as human beings was acknowledged. Christ did not talk explicitly about slaves, nor did St Paul protest against what was a widespread contemporary phenomenon. Later translations of the Bible were able to make pragmatic adjustments to the texts, talking about "servants" rather than "slaves" when that seemed more convenient.

POWER

There has been "slavery" across the world for thousands of years, often following the conquest of one group, tribe or nation by another. Victory is often accompanied by claims of control over property, and the imposition of the victor's legal system. The defeated group are typically required to perform menial tasks, and to acknowledge their inferiority, with no prospect of social mobility to the highest levels of society. This continues today, restricting the freedom of individuals and groups. Property rights have normally prevailed over human rights.

Forced labour has, over history, been more common than free labour, with individual employment relationships a recent development. Serfdom was common across Europe, and was only abolished in Russia in the nineteenth century. Similar systems continued across Asia in the twentieth century.

In most of Europe, as serfdom faded away it was replaced by systems of social class, intended to condition expectations in agricultural and then industrial contexts. For most countries, individual autonomy of workers still remains a dream, rather than a reality.

Often it has been possible for slaves or forced labourers to achieve their freedom, either by serving a period of time, or by making a payment to the owner. This was seen as a natural progression. It provided the basis for colonial settlement in Australia and Canada, enabling individuals to make a fresh start and build a new life. Australians remember Britain as "the place the convicts came from".

THE PRE-COLONIAL CONNECTION BETWEEN AFRICA AND EUROPE

The Roman Empire spread across "the known world", including the coast of North Africa, with Roman citizens of many geographical origins. For centuries the rest of Africa remained unknown to Europeans. With the age of discovery and exploration, there were contacts with the coastal regions of the West, South and East, but the centre of the continent remained unknown. African history has generally been neglected, partly because of the multiplicity of languages, and the absence of a unified written culture. This has had a distorting effect.

The historical background for slavery must be freed from European stereotypes. We should recall that in fact Europeans, including the British, have often been slaves, for example captured by Barbary pirates, despite the claims to the contrary in "Rule Britannia". There have been great African nations and empires, with a key role for trade, including across the Sahara. Written records are scarce, but archaeology tells its own story.

Africa has occupied a particular place in the history of slavery. The historian Basil Davidson (1961, 1974) was committed to Africa, and its progress to independence and citizenship. He tackled the full span of African history with missionary zeal, determined to cast light on the dark continent, and to redress the imbalance which had previously prevailed. Too many histories of slavery and the Slave Trade had seen the issues from a European or American perspective, in ignorance of the ongoing situation in Africa. Davidson wrote for a non-specialist audience, and sought to make sense of many troubled centuries. During the pre-colonial period, Africa continuously suffered from a connection with Europe that was neither the equality that could open wide channels to the outside world, nor the sharp subjection that could provoke and stimulate the rise of African reassertion, political change and economic growth. These were years of isolation and paralysis, wherever the trade with Europe, essentially a trade in slaves, could plant its sterilising hand.

It is not straightforward to assess the full implications of the Slave Trade. In general terms, however, the impact appears to have been extremely damaging to Africa. Social structure was damaged, but this did not normally mean widespread depopulation.

Detailed economic analysis of African development over the centuries suggests that the relationship with Europe was consistently damaging. The argument is not entirely straightforward, for there were some benefits for Africa in engagement with international trade and overseas markets. We cannot simply argue that the European connection between 1450 and 1850 was a cause of economic stagnation, or that this stagnation grew worse after slaving became dominant around 1650. Even after the Transatlantic Slave Trade got into its stride Africans continued to weave textiles, smelt and forge metals, practise agriculture and carry on the manifold techniques of their daily life. With agriculture, there was even a gain from European contact. The ships from South America introduced new and useful crops that became of great importance to Africa: maize, manioc, pineapples and several other valuable foods.

The overall economic impact seems to have been consistently damaging. This is because although there were improvements in food supplies, the concentration on producing human beings for export had damaging consequences. After about 1650, with diminishing exceptions, African production-for-export became a mono-culture in human beings. This damaged economic growth in coastal and near-coastal Africa. At the same time, the extension of European production-for-export of consumer goods gave the maritime nations of Europe their long lead in economic development.

Africa was now part of a fast-growing international trading system, the Triangular Trade, but was having to send end away the very men and women who would otherwise produce wealth at home. In exporting slaves, African states exported their own capital without any possible return in interest or in the enlargement of their economic system. Thus we see in slavery the foundations of Colonialism: the sale of consumer goods for the raw material of slave labour.

There was an ongoing process over the centuries. The Slave Trade, and then the crisis of its Abolition, were followed by Colonial invasion. All were aspects of a continuous process. The old Colonial partnership, which linked Europe and Africa, laid the foundations for the Colonial system.

Damage was done within Africa, as well as blighting international relationships. African political systems were corroded. Conservative elements in Africa were strengthened by engagement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and institutional change was impeded.

Looking back on the treatment of dissenting minorities, there is perhaps little to choose between European and African practices. It became easy for West African rulers to dispose of malcontents and trouble makers by selling them into slavery, so that they were transported overseas. Britain was doing much the same, transporting convicts.

Perhaps most corrosive impact of the Slave Trade was on European perceptions of racial superiority. This hastened the process of Colonial conquest, and lingers today. It is vital to address the truth today, before we can move on.

Davidson argues that behind the humiliation of the Slave Trade for Africans, there was the basis for continued self-belief. New relationships can be built. African Diaspora communities have wanted to regain confidence in their own past, healing the break in their history brought about by the Slave Trade. In 2007 they are reasserting their equality and unity with the rest of mankind. The objective is that, at last, the slaving chain of cause and effect, terminating in colonial subjection, should be broken.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from From Slavery to Citizenshipby Richard Ennals Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0470028327
• ISBN 13: 9780470028322
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 417
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile