Africa, the Pope and current understanding of slavery
by Dr. A. B. Assensoh
In the words of leading Pan-African historians, including the late Professor Walter Rodney of the Caribbean Republic of Guyana, various European Powers 'underdeveloped' Africa through numerous inimical activities, among which was slavery. It was, therefore, very reassuring that during his 12-day tour of seven African nations, Pope John-Paul II deemed it necessary to render a formal public apology to Africans for slavery. In the following article, Dr A.B. Assensoh, who recently spent a period of time in the Sociology Department of Harvard and University in the U.S. on a Fellowship to participate in a sponsored programme on comparative slavery, offers a thought-provoking analysis of the Pontiff's statement on slavery as well as the status of the study of slavery today.For several centuries, institutionalised slavery plagued and undermined African development because it deprived the once 'dark' continent of some of its energetic sons and daughters. To various Pan-African scholars including the late Dr Walter Rodney, the author of the classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and the late Trinidadian Premier Eric Williams of Slavery and Capitalism fame the early development of European and American brands of capitalism owed a geat deal to the institution of slavery.
Consequently, it was not very surprising when Pope John-Paul II, on Tuesday, August 13 1985, apologised publicly to the people of Africa for the involvement of white Christians in the promotion of the slave trade. The Pontiff was addressing Cameroonian intellectuals on their tasks in society in general and, in particular, on the importance of integrating the Christian message with African culture.
Referring to slavery pointedly, the Pope told his African audience of his disappointment that instead of Christian missionaries going to Africa to be involved in healing and compas- sion, they behaved otherwise. He, therefore, underscored: "In the course of history, men belonging to Christian nations did not always do this, and we ask pardon from our African brothers who suffered so much because of the trade in blacks."
In the view of many observers, including American and European editorialists, the Pope's apology to Africans for the inequities of slavery was part of a broader effort he made during his journey to Christianity as a faith universally but not to be seen as an import from European missionaries to Africa.
Indeed, what is very unique about recent pronouncements on the study of slavery is the fact that various prominent personalities and scholarly institutions have arrived at the popular conclusion that slavery, as it affected the purchase and export of Africans from various parts of their continent to the so-called New World, was a terrible immoral situation. Therefore, large sums of money and human energy are being expended for the proper study and understanding of all aspects of the slave trade and its ramifications. Also, first-rate and leading scholars are spending much more time to specialise in this area.
For example, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) of the United States has, for the past four years, provided a sizeable financial budget for Dr Orlando Patterson, a distinguished Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, to run very useful seminars on Comparative Slavery.
The NEH Fellows for the pro- gramme who are mainly university teachers are selected by a Harvard University committee from applicants nationwide; for two months in the summer, the Fellows have stayed in the residential halls of the American Ivy League institution to learn more and exchange ideas on varied aspects of slavery from an interdisciplinary perspective.
All the scholars have demonstrated in their works that slavery was a terrible institution and, as a result, the Pope's recent unequivocal apology seemed to be in order. However, every scholar had his own portray interpretation of classical slavery.
An Infamous Institution
In many ways, it is very useful for such a proper attention to be paid to the study of the infamous institution called slavery, especially so if its cruel nature is to be understood and its revival thwarted at all costs. Above all, in the words of Professor Patterson, if American racism is to be properly understood and, subsequently, placed in its true perspective, there is the need for slavery to be effectively studied and its subtle tentacles exposed.For proper dissemination of information available through the NEH seminars, the dozen university teachers attending the Harvard programme actively participate in it. Afterwards they return to their respective uni- versities to impart what they have learnt to their fellow teachers, students and even friends.
To most of this year's participants, Pope John-Paul's apology for slavery went very well with them because they have had the opportunity to learn a great deal about it at the Harvard University seminar. Then for their proper understanding of slavery at the comparative level, it is no exaggeration to underscore the fact that Professor Patterson's background marks him as one of the best scholars in the field to be selected for the purpose of co- ordinating and directing the programme.
With a doctoral degree in sociology from the London School of Economics, Patterson has published extensively in the field of slavery, which is very close to his heart as a native Jamaican from the Caribbean. As an example, his doctoral thesis dealt with the analysis of the origins, development and structure of Negro slave society in Jamaica, a study which culminated in his 1967 book, Sociology of Slavery.
Indeed, in many respects, the inequi- ties of slavery have not been fully exposed as the Jews have diligently done to the cruel and immoral treatment of European Jewry by the Nazis. How- ever, it is a fact that many leading anthropologists, historians and sociologists have over the years done their best to shape and reshape the world's understanding and knowledge of slavery as it undermined human existence in the affected areas, particularly in Africa. Towards this end, writers have researched and published copious volumes on slavery.
As a recent addition to the scholarship on slavery, many scholarly articles and books have flowed from the pen of Dr. Patterson. In fact, he startled experts in the field of comparative slavery with his 1983 tome, the 511-page Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study published by the Harvard University Press. With the amazingly well-researched details in his new book, the Harvard don has opened newer vistas in the comparative study of slavery and, very importantly, he has unambiguously emphasised the fact that slavery was essentially social domination.
Also, in order to offer slavery its proper histo-sociological dimension, Dr. Patterson has underlined the useful fact that it is wrong for scholars to regard it as a specific pre-capitalist institution which ceased to exist with the enactment of the various anti- slavery legislative measures.
Before the publication of this new book, many other useful studies had been completed by experts in the field of slavery to offer an interpretation and an analysis of classical slavery. Among these experts were Professors David Brion Davis, Eugene Genovese, U.B. Phillips, Kenneth Stampp and Herbert Guttman, who died of an apparent heart attack in New York recently.
All the scholars have demonstrated in their works that slavery was a terrible institution and, as a result, the Pope's recent unequivocal apology seemed to be in order. However, every scholar had his own interpretation of classical slavery. For example, Stampp regarded slavery in his work as a mere "peculiar institution" which tended to violate the broad patterns of American socio-political life but, on the whole, other scholars have viewed slavery as an economic phenomenon and a stigma which simply undermined American claims to be a citadel of emancipation.
In an eloquent assertion, however, Patterson has emphasised that his main objective in producing Slavery And Social Death: A Comparative Study is "to come to a definitive statement of the fundamental processes of slavery, to grasp its internal structure and the institutional patterns that support it."
Also, he added that his other central purpose in completing the study is to establish the constituent elements of slavery, including the universal characteristics which distinguished the institution from other kinds of sub- ordination. Conclusively, Professor Patterson's central theme is that slavery was essentially a relation of human domination and parasitism.
Patterson's work, which took him over six years to complete, has relied on very testable modes of research to offer readers an entirely new empirical approach to the study of comparative slavery world-wide. Therefore, the study adequately covers such diverse fields of slavery as evidence from Africa, classical antiquity, the Orient and medieval Europe.
On the universal plane, it is very educative to learn that in Korean slavery, indigenous citizens were enslaved by other Koreans, and that large-scale slavery flourished in Korea for not less than one thousand years up to the nineteenth century. From Patterson's book it was also learnt that for several centuries, slaves formed a higher proportion of the population in Korea than the pre-Civil War deep US South, Interestingly, Dr. Patterson's research has unearthed the fundamental fact that, in the historical sphere, there is no group of people who can claim boldly and openly that its ancestors were never slaves or slave-holders themselves. In the author's estimation, slavery was the permanent and violent domination of naturally alienated as well as dishonoured persons.
However, a way of culturally reviving a slave for his honour to be restored was through manumission, which became the ritual of giving freedom in the fourth century AD with significant and well-defined implications on the Indian subcontinent.
Professor Patterson, who is also an accomplished novelist, studied not less than sixty-six well sampled slave- holding societies in various parts of the world, including Africa and the Middle East, for the completion of Slavery And Social Death: A Comparative Study. Since its publication, the book has been the winner of the American Sociological Association's "Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award" and, also, it is the co-winner of the American Political Science Association's "Ralph J. Bunche Award".
Indeed, other very useful pieces of information often emerged from Professor Patterson's seminar on comparative slavery. For example, during the 1985 summer NEH session, which ended in mid-August, participants learnt to their dismay that of the 18 US Presidents who ruled the United States at the time when slaves could be acquired, the following 12 of them had slaves: George Washington had 317 slaves; Jefferson held 267 slaves; Madison had not less than 100 slaves; Monroe had over 30 slaves; Jackson kept up to 200 slaves; Tyler held not less than 40 slaves; Polk had about 15 slaves; Taylor kept 127 slaves; Johnson had not less than eight slaves, and Grant held five slaves.
Interestingly, most of these former American leaders and other slaveholders decreed in their wills that their slaves could gain their freedom after their deaths, in many respects an atonement for the guilt of keeping other human beings.
In the contention of Pan-African editorialists, the Pope's apology to Africans for slavery should be accept- able. However, it is hoped that scholars may continue to research and harp on the inequities of slavery m bader to ensure that such an abominable and dehumanising institution can never re-appear to send black people into bondage.
