City agonises over slavery apology

Passions are running high in Bristol over whether it should say sorry for its past

Amelia Hill, culture and society correspondent
Sunday May 7, 2006
The Observer


For generations Bristolians have gloried in the beauty of their city, with its graceful Georgian terraces, grand public buildings and honey-coloured churches. But this week they face a decision that has split the city - whether to apologise for the cruel trade that paid for so much that makes it beautiful.


The front page headline in the Evening Post, Bristol's local newspaper, was in no doubt. 'It's time the city said sorry' it shouted last week. But there is no consensus on the issue; on the contrary, the debate is stirring up anger and upset.


'Bristol was one of the main ports involved in the trading of slaves taken from West Africa to British colonies in the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries, and most Bristolians were involved in the slave trade in one way or other,' said Dr Gareth Griffiths, director of the city's British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. 'Local people supplied the labour and provisions for the slaving ships; they created the goods that paid for the slaves and they bought the spoils from the ships when they returned.'


Griffiths is the inspiration behind this week's Apology Debate, at which leading historians, politicians and other public figures will argue whether the city should apologise. It will then be thrown open to a vote. 'The issue is particularly resonant in the lead-up to next year's 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade but emotions run particularly high in Bristol,' Griffiths said.


The extent of Bristol's involvement in the slave trade resonates in practically every civil and religious city landmark: from Merchants Wharf to the Redcliffe Caves, where slaves are said to have been incarcerated, to Queen Square, the city's most serene public space, completed at the height of Bristol's involvement in the trade and where mayor Nathaniel Day petitioned against a tax on slaves.


The pretty courtyard housing the Merchant Venturers' Almshouse harks back to the powerful 18th-century pro-slavery lobby, while the bells of Bristol's loveliest church, St Mary Redcliffe, were triumphantly set ringing when William Wilberforce's Bill to abolish slavery was defeated in 1791.


But it is not only historical landmarks that pay tribute to the trade: just last month, the choice of 'Merchants Quarter' as the name for the new city centre shopping area was deemed so offensive that the developers were forced to come up with other ideas.


No official representative for Bristol has ever formally apologised for the fact that, from 1698 to 1807, when trading in slaves from Africa was outlawed, 2,114 ships set sail from Bristol to Africa and then on to plantations in the Americas, carrying over half a million slaves. Bristol's record was only exceeded by Liverpool, which made a public apology for its role back in 1994. Bristol, on the other hand, has only recently focused attention on its part in the trade; in 1996 its Festival Of The Sea failed to make any mention of slavery. Two years later, however, the Pero's Bridge, named after a slave, was built in the city and a Slave Trail, showing how the city's fortunes were created by merchants, was created.


For many, however, this is still not enough: just last year, 18-year-old Juggy Singh asked teachers at the Colston Collegiate School about the link between the school's founder, Edward Colston, and the slave trade. 'They never told me properly,' he said. 'I was so disappointed in them.'


Kofi Mawuli Klu, chair of the Pan-Afrikan Taskforce for Internationalist Dialogue, agrees that Bristol has failed to honestly come to terms with its role in the trade. 'The story of enslaved African peoples must be remembered, retold and reinterpreted. Only then can we come to terms with the fact that, although the trade ceased 200 years ago, the descendants of the slave trade in Bristol still live in mansions while the descendants of slaves remain in poverty,' he said.


Toyin Agbetu, of Ligali, a non-profit voluntary organisation dedicated to challenging negative representations of the African British community, said that an apology by Bristol would encourage honest engagement with the past. 'An apology is just a beginning,' he said. 'As well as an apology, there should be re-education, reparation and a rewriting of history.'


Bristol City Council is refusing to be drawn on whether it is likely to deliver the apology but Professor AC Grayling, who will be chairing the debate on Wednesday, hopes they will not. 'An apology like this is futile gesture politics and a navel-gazing distraction from the much more important issue of how much slavery goes on, unrecognised and unheeded, across the world today,' he said.


The issue of who should do the apologising, and to whom, is a contentious one. 'Morally this is an incredibly complicated issue,' said Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society. 'Africa itself was the main perpetrator of slavery; the continent is deeply implicated as a buyer, catcher and seller of slaves. What is really important is the lasting damage done to the psychologies of black people.'


That, he believes, is the issue at the core of a lot of Africa's problems today. 'What needs to happen is something much deeper than an apology,' he said. 'There needs to be a coming together of all the countries involved in slavery and its global legacy needs to be discussed.'


All of those in the debate, however, agree on one point; it is when a people no longer feel the need to ask for an apology that their wounds can be judged to be healed and their self-confidence restored. 'That is the point we need to move towards now,' said Dowden. 'And if an apology is the first step on that road, then it should be made without delay.'

yes they should and so should liverpool

even if just an acknowledgment that the past was bad and certain riches and lifestyles are owing to slaves/slavery

in england its like their scaed to admit they did bad. time the uk grew up

Hell yeah bristol should give an apology for their part in the slave trade.Not only that but they should give reparationsalso,the same as the jews and their holocaust,and the same as the japanese americans.Its long over due.I watched a documentary quite a while back about bristol they even showed a cemetery where there were dead slaves that were buried for petes sake.

Was'nt there some government summit meeting a few years back where the prime minister Tony Blairarrogantly refused to aplogizefor the slave trade and those gutless black politicans in his cabinet did'nt even say a word.I think his excuse at the time was that "at the time of slavery it was legal by law" huh! spoken like a good lawyer.

... discussed here: http://www.ligali.org/article.php?id=462