FACT CHECKING: ' AFRICANS SOLD THEIR OWN INTO SLAVERY'

One common lie about the slavery of African people is that our people sold their own to white enslavers. Jared Van, a behavioural scientist and PhD student in special education, tears down the myth that Africans are to blame for their own enslavement. While some African individuals in positions of authority participated in the trade, the narrative that Africans simply "sold their own" fundamentally misrepresents the complex history and the brutal realities of this horrific system.

Van reminds us that selling people as chattel property was often alien to African social structures. In some African societies, forms of servitude existed. Still, these were generally different from the dehumanising and permanent chattel slavery practised by Europeans. Captives taken in war or due to debt might be integrated into the community over time. In contrast, European traders often employed tactics of coercion, violence, and manipulation. They instigated conflicts between different African groups, provided weapons in exchange for captives, and raided communities to seize people by force, a power dynamic that was overwhelmingly in their favour.

The Caribbean was where chattel slavery reached its harshest legal form through the Slave Code, first introduced by the British in Barbados. Established in 1661, this extensive law labelled Africans as 'heathens' and 'brutes,' deeming them unworthy of the same legal protections as Christians. The lawmakers went as far as to classify Africans as non-human, treating them as property that could be owned indefinitely by buyers and their descendants. The Slave Code spread rapidly throughout the Caribbean. Eventually, it served as the blueprint for slavery in the North American English colonies that would later form the United States.

Our ancestors did not passively accept their fate. They resisted slavery through rebellions and uprisings. Following their steps, we today call out for reparations to be paid for the crime of slavery.

Video credit: @jaredvaneducation on IG