Badge to remember victims of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade introduced in Ghana
An NGO, the Ahuda Foundation whose aims include the commemoration of the lives of enslaved Africans and celebration of their resistance, rebellion, revolution, emancipation and triumph, on Monday announced the introduction of a badge in remembrance of the millions of slaves who died during the slave trade.
A statement issued in Accra said the “Ahuda Badge” is to be worn as a mark of respect in remembrance of the millions of Africans who perished during the Trans-Saharan and Trans-Atlantic Slave trades.
It said this marked the beginning of a series of activities by the Ahuda Foundation to highlight the significance of a remembrance instituted by Africans in memory of their loved ones who perished during the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave trades.
The statement quoted the Director of the organisation and originator of the Ahuda Badge, Barima Adu-Asamoa, as saying: “The time has come for continental Africans to build on the legacy of our forebears who stood against considerable odds to defend their dignity and freedom.”
“This demand of us to take the initiative that would impact positively on the well being of future generations. It is also to herald the beginning of our own healing process in the context of the Trans-Saharan Slave and the Trans-Atlantic Slave trades.”
“We owe to those who suffered during the slave trades a lasting and symbolic memory. This act does not absolve the initiators, benefactors and executors of one the most barbaric and tragic episodes in human history, namely of the West and Arabia.”
The statement said the Ahuda initiative had also received support from Africa and world leaders.
It said the Foundation is established to promote the wearing of the badge in memory of our forebears who perished during the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave Trades, the Ahuda Mausoleums in Africa, the Ahuda Education Fund and promote the international remembrance and commemorative month.
It is also to provide relief and other assistance in Africa and the African Diaspora, and to contribute to the socio-economic well being of all Africans.
The Foundation said the demands for reparation were legitimate and must be pursued.
It said the moral, historic, political and economic equivalence that may exists between the culpability and responsibility of some minority Africans who participated in the slave trades was inconsequential in context to the wealth they generated, which was consolidated in Europe and Arabia, and not among Africans.
“The West and Arabia provided the capital, built and commanded the ships, and created the plantations that absorbed those captured.
“It not only laid the foundation for the wealth and prosperity of Europe, the Americas and Arabia but also created and contributed to the necessary conditions for the material, psychological and spiritual dispossession of Africans in Africa and African Diaspora in contemporary world.”
The Foundation said it believed that failure by Africans to institute a lasting memory for our forebears who perished and suffered during the slave trades may be deemed as a second tragedy.
“We, therefore, call on well meaning Africans and friends of Africa to wear the Ahuda Badge in honour of our forebears.”
The official launch of the badge would be held in Accra on December 2.
Source: GNA