UN backs resolution calling slave trade ‘gravest crime against humanity. The United States, Israel and Argentina opposed the measure.

[Mel Hopkins]

UN backs resolution calling slave trade ‘gravest crime against humanity’
 

RFI

Thu, March 26, 2026 at 4:08 AM EDT

2 min read

 

A memorial sculpture by Sandrine Plante-Rougeol in Bordeaux, a historic slave-trading port, where the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade remains central to debates on recognition and reparations.

(AFP - GEORGES GOBET)More

The resolution – proposed by Ghana – was adopted to applause by a vote of 123 in favour.

The United States, Israel and Argentina opposed the measure. There were 52 abstentions, including the UK and all 27 members of the EU.

Ghana's President John Mahama, one of the African Union's most vocal supporters of slavery reparations, was at the UN headquarters in New York to support the vote.

"Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice," said Mahama. "The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting."

 

Transatlantic cruise to turn spotlight on Brazil-Angola slavery past

 

Despite being non-binding, the resolution goes beyond simple acknowledgment and asks nations involved in the slave trade to engage in restorative justice.

It also highlights the legacy of slavery via "the persistence of racial discrimination and neo-colonialism" in today's society.

"The transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families, and devastated communities," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

"To justify the unjustifiable, slavery's proponents and beneficiaries constructed a racist ideology -- turning prejudice into a pseudoscience."

During discussions over the resolution, US ambassador Dan Negrea said the text was highly problematic.

"The US also does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred."

He added: "The US also strongly objects to the resolution's attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy."

The UK and EU countries put forth similar arguments while acknowledging the wrongs of slavery.

"The resolution risks pitting historical tragedies against each other that should not be compared, except at the expense of the memory of the victims," said French representative Sylvain Fournel.

 

Heroes who fought to abolish slavery honoured in Paris Pantheon expo

For African Union officials, the language of the resolution is central to its purpose.

Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah, the AU’s Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Development, said clearly naming these events removes any lingering ambiguity about their nature.

“It is to say that what was done to Africans was not a tragic accident of history, but the result of deliberate policies whose legacies structure today’s inequalities,” she said. “Justice begins with calling things by their proper names.”

Beyond recognition, the resolution encourages countries historically involved in the slave trade to engage in processes of restorative justice.

 

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has been explicit about what that could entail.

“The perpetrators of the transatlantic slave trade are known – the Europeans, the United States of America,” he told reporters. “We expect all of them to formally apologise to Africa and to all people of African descent.”

He pointed to the return of looted cultural artefacts as one possible step, alongside continued efforts to dismantle structural racism and, potentially, financial compensation for affected communities.

 

[Pioneer1]

A LOT of people have been talking about this online

Russia and China apparently support it.

[Mel Hopkins]

1 minute ago, Pioneer1 said:

Russia and China apparently support it.

Weren't the Russians, and Ukranians Slavs? The Slavs were enslaved  back in the 9th and 10th century. If they supported it , it would make sense.  The U.S. kicked China out of the U.S. country in the 19th century.

"In 1882, Congress took up the power to restrict immigration by banning the further immigration of Chinese." 

[Pioneer1]

9 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

Weren't the Russians, and Ukranians Slavs? The Slavs were enslaved  back in the 9th and 10th century. If they supported it , it would make sense.  The U.S. kicked China out of the U.S. country in the 19th century.

Yep.
Most people don't know that this is where the word "slave" comes from....the Slavs

Places like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and Slovenia....the slavic regions of Europe where the Arabs and Africans used to go and get slaves to bring back to the Middle East and North Africa.
Called "Mamlukes" 

So....
Are you done hibernating?

Like a bear or groundhog.....lol....you've decided to come outside and join us for the Spring?

[Mel Hopkins]

2 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Yep.
Most people don't know that this is where the word "slave" comes from....the Slavs

I was included. I didn't know until this semester.  I'm taking this awesome history class at my local university.

[Pioneer1]

8 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

I'm taking this awesome history class at my local university.

Come on now....
If you're looking for a young man....there are less expensive and time consuming ways to find one, than that.....lol.

[Mel Hopkins]

45 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Come on now....
If you're looking for a young man....there are less expensive and time consuming ways to find one, than that.....lol.

OMG! Do you know that my ex-husband said the same exact thing LOL! 
|
I'm not on the campus this semester. I've only registetered for asynchronous online classes.  

[ProfD]

Awesome gesture introduced to UN by the West African nation of Ghana.

 

There should be no confusion among FBA/AfroAmericans about where our birthplace stands as it relates to the original sin of slavery & acknowledging it through a series of actions including recognition, apology & reparations to name a few.

[Pioneer1]

Mel

 

OMG! Do you know that my ex-husband said the same exact thing LOL! 

 

Maybe I'm subconsciously auditioning for the same exact role.

But then again, maybe saying shit like that is one of the reasons WHY he's your "ex"....lol.

 

 

 

ProfD

 

There should be no confusion among FBA/AfroAmericans about where our birthplace stands as it relates to the original sin of slavery & acknowledging it through a series of actions including recognition, apology & reparations to name a few.

Both FBA and ADOS have made it crystal clear that ONLY descendants of American slavery are entitled to Reparations from the United States.
 

If Ghana and other African nations had a SERIOUS shot at somehow FINESSING some money and resources out of the West and even the United States in Reparations payments...I wonder would the most outspoken representatives of these movements eat humble pie and get behind their program, lol.

That's why it's not good to burn bridges.

[ProfD]

10 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

Both FBA and ADOS have made it crystal clear that ONLY descendants of American slavery are entitled to Reparations from the United States.

Right. FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans are having a hard time getting Black politicians to put forth reparations legislation. 

10 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

If Ghana and other African nations had a SERIOUS shot at somehow FINESSING some money and resources out of the West and even the United States in Reparations payments...

Of course, if pressed on it, the US & every other country involved in the transatlantic slave trade would turn the tables on the Africans nations that sold folks into slavery.

 

10 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

...I wonder would the most outspoken representatives of these movements eat humble pie and get behind their program, lol.

That's why it's not good to burn bridges.

The bridges built between FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans & other Black folks isn't strong enough to present a united front or offensive.

 

The movement for reparations requires organization & codification.

[Pioneer1]

ProfD

 

 Right. FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans are having a hard time getting Black politicians to put forth reparations legislation. 

 

Half of these niccaz can't even agree on what to CALL themselves.

 

One group identifies as Black.
Another group identifies as African American....but that term is swiftly fading out
Another group says FBA
Another group says ADOS
A handful of us identify as AfroAmerican
Then you got some niccaz way over in the corner digging up some old as "Freedmen" name that ain't been used in 200 years...lol.

 

Talk about an identity problem.

 

 

 

 

Of course, if pressed on it, the US & every other country involved in the transatlantic slave trade would turn the tables on the Africans nations that sold folks into slavery

 

I'm beginning to serious question how valid the claim IS that they "sold" us.
And how common was that the case, as opposed to being kidnapped?

I think there are a few tribes like the Dahomey who may have an oral record or tradition of participating in the Slave trade but besides White folks making the claim, how many Africans themselves have admitted this based on historical information passed down?

 

 

 

The movement for reparations requires organization & codification

 

Facts.

In actuality, I've been saying for years that we as AfroAmericans can GIVE OURSELVES Reparations if enough of us gain enough power in the Legislative and Executive branches.
We'd only need a critical mass of White and Latino politicians to help us do so.

[ProfD]

7 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Half of these niccaz can't even agree on what to CALL themselves.

 

One group identifies as Black.
Another group identifies as African American....but that term is swiftly fading out
Another group says FBA
Another group says ADOS
A handful of us identify as AfroAmerican
Then you got some niccaz way over in the corner digging up some old as "Freedmen" name that ain't been used in 200 years...lol.

 

Talk about an identity problem.

I'm fine with Black folks self-identifying &/or aligning with a tribe.

 

Humans have been tribal for centuries whether it is by country or ethnicity or culture. 

 

More importantly, FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans/Freedmen need to build stronger strategic alliances with other Black folks & groups of people with shared common interests.

 

As both you & brotha @frankster mention...there are Pan-African & other Black groups working together.

 

7 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

I'm beginning to serious question how valid the claim IS that they "sold" us.
And how common was that the case, as opposed to being kidnapped?

Millions of Black people were not kidnapped.  Moving that many people requires coordination.  African leaders were selling people as if they were pieces of gold.

 

7 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

In actuality, I've been saying for years that we as AfroAmericans can GIVE OURSELVES Reparations if enough of us gain enough power in the Legislative and Executive branches.
We'd only need a critical mass of White and Latino politicians to help us do so.  

For as long as I've been sitting in an armchair around here, I've mentioned that government & politics do not work that way.

 

Black folks even in the highest-level positions of government do not have enough power to give us anything. 

 

Cases in point...POTUS Obama or Justice Uncle Tom Thomas or pick a name.  They cannot take unilateral action or make decisions.  Everything requires some type of consensus.

[Pioneer1]

ProfD

 

 

I'm fine with Black folks self-identifying &/or aligning with a tribe.

 

To a certain extent.
But when you have the SAME Black folks from the SAME communities from the SAME lineage and practicing pretty much the SAME culture...calling themselves 15 different things with 20 different identities...that's a problem.

Scatter-brained people don't get shit done.

 

 

More importantly, FBA/ADOS/AfroAmericans/Freedmen need to build stronger strategic alliances with other Black folks & groups of people with shared common interests.

 

Facts.
And it's hard to do that when YOU don't even know what you are.

 

Say what you want about the African, but atleast most Africans know who they are when they get here...lol.
They know exactly what tribe they are from and their tribal values.
Right or wrong....no confusion.

When I look at Africans.....
The men know what to do and what's expected of them.
The women know what to do and what's expected of them.

 

Then I look at the Black American working right next to him and some of these niggaz aren't sure if they are even male or FEMALE or which bathroom to go into.

You got a deep voice and a beard....but when you walk your titties are bouncing all over the place and you're staring at ME when you walk pass.

 

I went to the store to get a money order a couple days ago and this little petite older sista at the register greeted me and smiled but when she started talking....her voice was so deep it made the floor vibrate!
I've met many older African women and NONE of them have voices as deep as some of these sistaz here in America....lol.

Handed me the money order back and the hands were like ostrich claws...lol.

 

Man....
Don't make NO damn sense for some of our people to be in the condition they're in.

 

 

 

Millions of Black people were not kidnapped.  Moving that many people requires coordination.  African leaders were selling people as if they were pieces of gold.

 

I've heard it.
I can't argue for or against it.

 

 

 

For as long as I've been sitting in an armchair around here, I've mentioned that government & politics do not work that way.

Black folks even in the highest-level positions of government do not have enough power to give us anything. 

Cases in point...POTUS Obama or Justice Uncle Tom Thomas or pick a name.  They cannot take unilateral action or make decisions.  Everything requires some type of consensus.

How much power do we NEED to pass a Reparations bill and start dispersing the money?

We have Black Congressmen, Governers, Mayors, Sheriffs, Judges, Lawyers, police officers....with weapons and training.
How much power and authority do our people NEED so that it will no longer be used as an excuse for not doing what we SHOULD be doing????

Niggaz got PLENTY of power....it's the WILLINGESS to use it constructively that's the issue.

Our people don't have a powerlessness problem....they have a LAZINESSS problem.
Many of our people don't want to think or plan, just want to have fun and leave future planning and decision making up to White folks or others.
 

History has shown that Black people can get nearly anything we want in this nation if we are willing to FIGHT for it.

 

The Civil Rights movements and especially the riots of the 60s and 70s and the aggressiveness of the 70s and early 80s have taught us that as long as we are united and focused on our goals...as a people we can accomplish them.

We got our Civil Rights AND a lot of good jobs and positions of power and influence in the government as well as in the private sector....from DEMANDING them.

Again, the reason so much of it was lost starting in the 90s is because of FEAR and LAZINESS.

Niggaz of the new generation started getting lazy and spoiled because THEY didn't have to fight for shit, and got soft.
So now many of them don't want to fight and feel their situation is hopeless.
 

[ProfD]

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

But when you have the SAME Black folks from the SAME communities from the SAME lineage and practicing pretty much the SAME culture...calling themselves 15 different things with 20 different identities...that's a problem.

Scatter-brained people don't get shit done.

Right.  Being scatter-brained is ineffective. 

 

However, I don't believe our people are totally clueless. 

 

There's no real Black leadership or agenda or consistent message.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Say what you want about the African, but atleast most Africans know who they are when they get here...lol.
They know exactly what tribe they are from and their tribal values.
Right or wrong....no confusion.

When I look at Africans.....
The men know what to do and what's expected of them.
The women know what to do and what's expected of them.

Understood.  I just don't see why that sh8t doesn't work in their homeland.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Then I look at the Black American working right next to him and some of these niggaz aren't sure if they are even male or FEMALE or which bathroom to go into.

You got a deep voice and a beard....but when you walk your titties are bouncing all over the place and you're staring at ME when you walk pass.

Black men throughout the diaspora are joining that alphabet soup community.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

I've met many older African women and NONE of them have voices as deep as some of these sistaz here in America....lol.

Handed me the money order back and the hands were like ostrich claws...lol.

I know many African women who do have deep voices & they are in need of a serious manicure/pedicure services.

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Millions of Black people were not kidnapped.  Moving that many people requires coordination.  African leaders were selling people as if they were pieces of gold.

 

I've heard it.
I can't argue for or against it.

Hard to argue when millions of people were moved through the transatlantic slave trade.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

For as long as I've been sitting in an armchair around here, I've mentioned that government & politics do not work that way.

Black folks even in the highest-level positions of government do not have enough power to give us anything. 

Cases in point...POTUS Obama or Justice Uncle Tom Thomas or pick a name.  They cannot take unilateral action or make decisions.  Everything requires some type of consensus.

How much power do we NEED to pass a Reparations bill and start dispersing the money?

The short answer is....A LOT.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

We have Black Congressmen, Governers, Mayors, Sheriffs, Judges, Lawyers, police officers....with weapons and training.
How much power and authority do our people NEED so that it will no longer be used as an excuse for not doing what we SHOULD be doing????

Niggaz got PLENTY of power....it's the WILLINGESS that's the issue.

They do not have that type of power.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Our people don't have a powerlessness problem....they have a LAZINESSS problem.
Many of our people don't want to think or plan, just want to have fun and leave future planning and decision making up to White folks or others.

The folks you mentioned above had to put in work in order to assume those positions.  That is not a feat of laziness.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

History has shown that Black people can get nearly anything we want in this nation if we are willing to FIGHT for it.

The Civil Rights movements and especially the riots of the 60s and 70s and the aggressiveness of the 70s and early 80s have taught us that as long as we are united and focused on our goals...as a people we can accomplish it.

We got our Civil Rights AND a lot of good jobs and positions of power and influence in the government as well as in the private sector....from DEMANDING it.

Black leadership put in a lot of work to get the Civil Rights Act passed.  That level of leadership has been non-existent for a half-century & counting.

 

As a result of their efforts to get Civil Rights legislation passed, it provided the opportunities for n8gglets to get positions of power.  They enjoy having a good paying job.

 

9 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Again, the reason so much of it was lost starting in the 90s is because of FEAR and LAZINESS.

Niggaz of the new generation started getting lazy and spoiled because THEY didn't have to fight for shit, and got soft.
So now many of them don't want to fight and feel their situation is hopeless.

Black folks stopped marching & stomping shortly after Civil Rights legislation were passed. 

 

From the 1970s through present, Black folks have enjoyed the crumbs falling from the white man's table i.e. good paying jobs. 

 

With better job opportunities, parents softened up in their discipline & expectations of their offspring. 

 

As a result, each generation of Black folks has no reason to fight for anything & has gotten softer. 

 

Many Black folks have reached middle-class status; buying nice homes & riding around in expensive cars & drinking Starbucks designer coffee.

 

Walk around any HBCU or other college campus in the US. 

 

In educational environments, you will see many Black folks who are the polar opposite of your lazy, shiftless, funky weed smoking n8gglets.

 

Younger Black folks by way of their parents have been insulated & far removed from the struggles of the past.  They don't have a care in the world & no reason to fight for anything.

[Pioneer1]

ProfD

 

 

Right.  Being scatter-brained is ineffective. 
However, I don't believe our people are totally clueless. 

There's no real Black leadership or agenda or consistent message.

 

Either that or there are TOO MANY Black leaders with TOO MANY agendas and messages....lol.

Every time you turn around there's yet a new group of niggas on youtube with rags on their heads and rings in their noses preaching some weird ass doctrine and have come up with yet ANOTHER new name for AfroAmericans that they've invented.

 
"See...the problem is we don't know who we REALLY are!
We are the members of the lost tribe of the Amalakite nation!
As soon as you join us and accept THAT, you will be prosperous!
You will be able to defeat all of your racist enemies and make a foot stool out of them!...you will defeat all your enemies.
Now hurry up and join us cuz....the police said we had to be off the sidewalk before dark."



Niggas with too much time on their hands.

Like Don King said: ONLY in America....are niggas free to wrap rags around their heads and run around on the street preaching anything that they can dream up.
You KNOW what would happen if they tried to do that in North Korea or Russia.

 

Understood.  I just don't see why that sh8t doesn't work in their homeland.
 

Because some old grey bearded nigga with one tooth in his mouth sitting in the middle of the village with a stick over his lap runs is keeping everything the way it's been for a thousand years, and the rest of the village is afraid to challenge him.
Young folks in Africa generally don't argue with their elders....they just pack up and try to get to America or Europe where they can find more opportunity.
 

 

 

I know many African women who do have deep voices & they are in need of a serious manicure/pedicure services.

 

I haven't met any African women with deep voices. 
I've met some with MATURE voices that typically occur as a woman ages, but not those deep jarring husky voices that come from drinking Hennessee, smoking Newports, and yelling at little bad ass kids in the ghetto for 40 years.

 

But I know quite a few African women who are long overdue for a pedicure, myself...lol.
Sista's feet look like she can kick off them sandals and rake up every leaf in your yard if you dared her too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to argue when millions of people were moved through the transatlantic slave trade.

 

We know they CAME from Africa, but we don't necessarily know how they were acquired.
I don't think the European traders were actually printing out receipts and bills of sale to their suppliers.

 

 

 

 

The folks you mentioned above had to put in work in order to assume those positions.  That is not a feat of laziness.

 

Correct.
However they aren't the majority of our people, especially the majority of the Black workforce of today.
Those were the brothers and sisters of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s who benefited from the Civil Rights movements.

 

 

 

 

Black leadership put in a lot of work to get the Civil Rights Act passed.  That level of leadership has been non-existent for a half-century & counting.
As a result of their efforts to get Civil Rights legislation passed, it provided the opportunities for n8gglets to get positions of power.  They enjoy having a good paying job.

 

Facts.
And the following generations should have not only maintained what that the Civil Rights generation fought and worked for, but we should have BUILT upon it and took things to higher levels.

They/we should have gotten Reparations by now.

But too many in our generation was busy smoking weed, watching New Jack City and Spike Lee flix, or making Gangsta Rap videos for the entertainment of a White audience.

 

 

 

 

 

Black folks stopped marching & stomping shortly after Civil Rights legislation were passed. 

 

Ofcourse.
THAT mission was accomplished.
Time to move on to another.

 

 

 

 

From the 1970s through present, Black folks have enjoyed the crumbs falling from the white man's table i.e. good paying jobs. 

 

While this is true, so are the Mexicans and Asians.
We both agree that White folks rule this nation....so they are in charge.

Ideally, we should be working at our own firms and making our own money....and many of us are.
However crumbs from a White man's table is better than starvation.
The Latinos and Asians want to take even THOSE crumbs away from Black folks.
 

 

 

With better job opportunities, parents softened up in their discipline & expectations of their offspring. 

 

That's true also.
In the community I came from, it was nice to go to college or start your own business....but you were seen as successful and your people were happy for you for just keeping a job and staying out of jail.

 

 

 

 

Many Black folks have reached middle-class status; buying nice homes & riding around in expensive cars & drinking Starbucks designer coffee.
Walk around any HBCU or other college campus in the US. 

In educational environments, you will see many Black folks who are the polar opposite of your lazy, shiftless, funky weed smoking n8gglets.

 
What's weird about this is...it applied to a lot of AfroAmericans in the 80s and 90s, but now it applies more to Africans and Caribbeans and THEIR descendants.

When I see a younger Black person in a nice car, dressed and acting professionally, and speaking proper English...if I enquire them about their background....over 80% of the time they come from a NON-FBA Black family.

 

[frankster]

This is Pan Africanism at work...Great News

 

 

[Pioneer1]

18 hours ago, frankster said:

This is Pan Africanism at work...Great News

 

I wish AfroAmericans had more interests and effort in this particular matter.

Not being an officiated body within the U.N....as AfroAmericans we basically have to rely on whoever is representing the United States at the U.N. and hope they have OUR interests at heart.
Which in this case....they don't.

 

[Troy]

On 3/28/2026 at 11:51 AM, Mel Hopkins said:

"The US also strongly objects to the resolution's attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy."

 

Of course, some here be against it because we look, pretty shitty.  The US would probably most of the top 5 over the past 400 years.

Chattel Slavery, Genocide of indigenous populations, lobbing two Nukes, etc, etc. 

 

On 3/29/2026 at 3:51 PM, Pioneer1 said:

When I see a younger Black person in a nice car, dressed and acting professionally, and speaking proper English...if I enquire them about their background....over 80% of the time they come from a NON-FBA Black family.

 

This appears to reflect a small area.  There are many middle class and upper middle-class areas where you can find people these types of people who are from FBA Black families. We are the majority in these classes.

[Mel Hopkins]

2 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

I wish AfroAmericans had more interests and effort in this particular matter.

We do have interest! There a many Black people interested in diplomacy.  But it would help if we all vote so we can get in an executive in the oval office who would appoint us. 
 

Linda Thomas-Greenfield - Wikipedia

Championing Equality at Home and Overseas: African Americans Leading at the UN

On 3/28/2026 at 3:18 PM, Pioneer1 said:

But then again, maybe saying shit like that is one of the reasons WHY he's your "ex"....lol.

 

No, that's one of the reasons I married him. He had this annoying sense of humor but it helped me loosen up a bit.  Then he went and cheated on me - (after I had the twins) and treated me like the side-chick.  I took him back but then he said one thing that hurt my feelings so bad that I was done.  I ran and got my name back and probably decided then that I would never marry again. Shoot, I barely even dated anyone seriously. But enough my sob story.   I think you both said the same thing because most men have different goals than women -Some women can live a lifetime alone and men can't imagine a life without someone in it.

[Pioneer1]

Mel

Now wait a minute......

I wasn't ready for all of THAT.....shit, lol.

 

 

 

Some women can live a lifetime alone and men can't imagine a life without someone in it.

Facts.
I noticed pretty early on, either as a teenager or my very early 20s......that psychologically speaking, men need women far more than women need men, lol.

I've been to many parties and clubs and I've routinely seen groups of women sitting a table with no men around laughing and having a good time or on the floor dancing with eachother partying it up.

 

 

 

"Ooooo........go on girl."
"Yall is crazy.....I can't take yall nowhere!"

I have YET to see a group of men at a club or party all crowded together dancing with eachother oblivious to the women in the area.

But then again....I've never been to a gay club.
Maybe that's normal there.....lol.

[Mel Hopkins]

On 3/29/2026 at 9:12 AM, ProfD said:

Millions of Black people were not kidnapped.  Moving that many people requires coordination.  African leaders were selling people as if they were pieces of gold.

I have to disagree. Some Africans were reported to be sold because they were imprisoned or had debts. But the Portuguese literally built a fort at what is now Ghana's shoreline because they had already invaded West Africa and had to fight other invading Europeans who headed to the continent to get goodies. But we are talking about the 1400s. This was just the beginning of what historians call the Atlantic Slave trade. 

 Elmina Castle

 

"In 1482, Portuguese traders built Elmina Castle (also called São Jorge da Mina, or Saint George’s of the Mine) in present-day Ghana, on the west coast of Africa. (Mack 1.1 Portuguese Exploration..")

But the millions of enslaved Africans wasn't sold by Africans, that was the British, French, and Spain until they finally got out of the human trafficking business.  Then the newly minted Amerricans started a second middle passage - and imported a few million more. By the time of the Civil war there were four million Africans in the southern states (also why they lost) ...Africans selling Africans is white propaganda to deflect from the truth of the slave trade that harmed so many lives. The reason why historians know they trafficked all those Africans to various Carribbean islands and the Americas is because of the hubris of the white man who kept-effing records. Like Thomas Jefferson who had a list of his 600 slaves, they kept records everything!

[Mel Hopkins]

On 3/29/2026 at 8:47 AM, Pioneer1 said:

Another group says FBA

I'm assuming this stands for "Foundational Black Americans" and ADOS  American Descendants of Slaves? 

What is the difference? Or is the difference because they (Black People) were never slaves in the Americas?  If yes, while those Black people weren't slaves, they weren't citizens either. They were Stateless and had no rights or protection under the U.S Constitution until the 13th and 14th Amendment.  

[Pioneer1]

26 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

...Africans selling Africans is white proganda to deflect from the truth of the slave trade

That part right there.

 

[Pioneer1]

....is Go Daddy gone yet?

 

 

Mel

 

I'm assuming this stands for "Foundational Black Americans" and ADOS  American Descendants of Slaves? 

 

Correct

 

 

 

What is the difference? 

 

Pretty much the same ideology that focuses on us as Black Americans having a separate and distinct identity and culture from other Blacks in the Diaspora.

Yvette Carnell who is a staunch proponent of Reparations started the ADOS movement to establish a separate identity for us as Black Americans separate from Africans and West Indians so that IF and WHEN we do get Reparations, supposedly they'd only go to US and not other Black people who didn't descent from U.S. slavery specifically.

The FBA movement was started by Tariq Nasheed because he liked the idea of AfroAmericans having our own separate identity and promoting our culture, but he did NOT like Yvette Carnell and didn't want to join HER organization....lol.  So he started his own.

Both groups are similar but many of those in the FBA movement don't believe that they or most Black Americans descended from slavery.  They believe most of us descended from Black people who were already here in the Americans.  Many of them don't recognize any ties to Africa what so ever. So I'm not sure how that will work in favor of their argument for Reparations.

Many of the followers of both groups are so ignorant, they don't realize that most Caribbeans and Black South Americans also descended from slavery.

 

The fact is, there were many Black people already here through out the Americas for hundreds if not thousands of years before Columbus.
While that is true, the vast majority of us are descended from the Black people who were brought her from Africa during the Middle Passage.
 

So both sides are correct.
I guess it depends which history one wants to put the most weight on.
 

But like I said, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
If a Black American wants to hold on to the claim that they didn't descend from slaves and have no connections to Africa, then they won't be entitled to any Reparations money or benefits.
 

[Mel Hopkins]

2 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Both groups are similar but many of those in the FBA movement don't believe that they or most Black Americans descended from slavery.  They believe most of us descended from Black people who were already here in the Americans

"Between nine and fifteen thousand years ago, scholars believe that a land bridge existed between Asia and North America that we now call Beringia. The first inhabitants of what would be named the Americas migrated across this bridge in search of food. When the glaciers melted, water engulfed Beringia, and the Bering Strait was formed." ( Mack 1.1)  We just walked on over to the Americas. 

There were Black people here before Columbus It was easy to migrate to the Americas - heck most indigenous people and Hawaiians were Black first.. Heck "erry body" was Black. I truly believe that is the only way would could initially survive the UV rays from the sun.
 

-

 

[ProfD]

18 hours ago, Mel Hopkins said:

I have to disagree. Some Africans were reported to be sold because they were imprisoned or had debts. But the Portuguese literally built a fort at what is now Ghana's shoreline...

 

"In 1482, Portuguese traders built Elmina Castle (also called São Jorge da Mina, or Saint George’s of the Mine) in present-day Ghana, on the west coast of Africa. (Mack 1.1 Portuguese Exploration..")

But the millions of enslaved Africans wasn't sold by Africans, that was the British, French, and Spain until they finally got out of the human trafficking business. 

 

...Africans selling Africans is white propaganda to deflect from the truth of the slave trade that harmed so many lives. 

Fair enough. 

 

Then, the rhetorical questions then becomes:

 

1) who allowed the Portuguese to build a fort on the shoreline of present-day Ghana?
 

2) why did the Africans allow their own people to be kidnapped/bought/sold?

 

Even if white propaganda is one piece of the equation, the truth has to be somewhere in the middle. 

 

I refuse to believe white folks conducted the entire transatlantic slave trade without some level of cooperation from Africans.

[Mel Hopkins]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

I refuse to believe white folks conducted the entire transatlantic slave trade without some level of cooperation from Africans.

1) It wasn't Ghana back then it was African territories but notably Benin gets the side-eye because they have said they sold their captured adversaries to the Portuguese. I'm not disputing that they didn't sell Africans I'm disputing that they sold millions. 

2) As I mentioned, just like the British sent folks to the americas who had trouble with the law to be indentured servants  - the same was happening on the continent ...but there's was no chattel slavery so according to some reports folks were sent to work off their debt, others were temporary workers who the elite took payment for. There was a lot of activity of imprisonment or those who lost the battle going to the Portuguese until it wasn't.

The Portuguese got greedy because they learned human trafficking was such a lucrative business they moved in.  But initial reports like this one says they took their kidnapped Africans to Brazil.  This is article summarizes a lot of what I've read and heard about traffickers in Africa.  

Also what I posted below aligns with the story a friend told me about. She now lives in the Netherlands but she came from Angola a Portuguese colony on the African content and she told me the stories of kidnapping,  enslavement in her own ancestry. 

In fact, this is why I don't believe the Africans where all in and selling each other.  

Portugal, Angola, and the Portuguese Colonial Legacy

Portuguese Angola (Portuguese: Angola Portuguesa) was the first European colony on the African continent, established in 1575 by Paulo Dias de Novais Wikipedia. It became a key part of the Portuguese Empire’s overseas territories, lasting until 1975 when Angola gained independence after decades of armed struggle Wikipedia+1.

Colonial History and Economy

The Portuguese initially sought trade with African kingdoms like the Kingdom of Kongo, but quickly shifted focus to the Atlantic slave trade. Luanda and Benguela became major hubs, shipping millions of enslaved Africans—primarily from the interior—to Brazil and other Portuguese colonies Portugal.com+1. While early Portuguese settlers aimed to farm and mine, the colony’s economy was dominated by forced labor and resource extraction Portugal.com.

Resistance and Conflicts

Portuguese expansion faced fierce resistance from African kingdoms such as Ndongo, Matamba, and the Kingdom of Kongo World History Encyclopedia+1. The Angolan Wars saw shifting alliances, with local rulers sometimes fighting against each other to resist Portuguese control. The Imbangala, a powerful warrior group, also challenged Portuguese authority historyrise.com.

Modern Colonialism

After the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, Portugal adopted a model of direct administration. Plantations for coffee, cotton, and other exports expanded, and forced labor was replaced with contractual obligations Portugal.com. Repression, censorship, and marginalization of the local population fueled nationalist sentiment.

Independence and Aftermath

The War of Independence (1961–1974) was one of Africa’s most violent decolonization struggles. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974 led to the Alvor Agreement in 1975, granting independence to Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique Wikipedia+1. However, the transition was unstable, and civil war erupted almost immediately, lasting until 2002 Wikipedia+1.

Legacy

Today, Angola is a Portuguese-speaking African state with deep cultural, linguistic, and historical ties to Portugal. Portuguese remains the official language, and the colonial period’s impact—especially the slave trade—remains a sensitive and contested part of both nations’ histories Portugal.com. The relationship is marked by both economic interdependence and unresolved historical grievances.

In summary: Portugal’s 400-year rule over Angola shaped the country’s economy, society, and politics, leaving a legacy of exploitation, resistance, and enduring cultural links that continue to influence the modern state.

What is the disconnect for you? Why do you refuse to believe Is it impossible that the people Africans were trading with wouldn't kidnapped people too. 

My disconnect is knowing about the human trafficking that is going on right now. Epstein Island and the huge and elite network that goes all the way to the European royal circles. I refuse to believe these parents gave up their children to be trafficked - which is why I have a hard time believing Africans took money for their fellow neighbors - even though some did.  Also the Social system the "white" people have constructed to keep Black people in bondage for all these years and we still haven't found our way out of it, short of warring internally is another reason that I doubt Africans would willingly put themselves in that cycle. I guess I give the Africans  a pass and none to these "manifest destiny" folks -

But my tone could change when I finish this class

  

[ProfD]

5 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

1) It wasn't Ghana back then it was African territories but notably Benin gets the side because they have said they sold their captured adversaries to the Portuguese. I'm not disputing that they didn't sell Africans I'm disputing that they sold millions. 

 

The Portuguese initially sought trade with African kingdoms like the Kingdom of Kongo, but quickly shifted focus to the Atlantic slave trade. Luanda and Benguela became major hubs, shipping millions of enslaved Africans

 

What is the disconnect for you? Why do you refuse to believe Is it impossible that the people Africans were trading with wouldn't kidnapped people too. 

I'm not disputing that colonizers shipped millions of enslaved people to other continents. 

 

The disconnect for me is believing colonizers kidnapped millions of people without Africans being aware of &/or complicit in it.

 

Knowing the tribal nature of Africans, I can definitely see them being involved in the sell/trade of their *enemies* too.

 

Right now, African females are being trafficked & pimped out to the Middle East & other white countries.  i believe African leadership is fully aware of it too.