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White
People Walk In Yokes and Chains
to Apologize For Slavery By Michael Ireland
HULL, UNITED KINGDOM (ANS) -- Two
hundred years after William Wilberforce successfully abolished slavery,
men, women and young people have been seen in shackles and chains
across the length and breadth of England in the final stage of the epic
seven-year Lifeline Expedition journey, which concludes with the March
of the Abolitionists, a National Project for the Bicentenary of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade. The first stage of the March of the Abolitionists began in Hull, England, the birthplace of William Wilberforce, on March 1. White team members donned yokes and chains as they attempted a journey of over 250 miles to London, recalling the gruelling journeys of enslaved Africans, during the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade. "Their penitential action, appropriately taking place in the season of Lent, will also draw attention to the estimated 12 million people still in slavery today. The journey will end in Westminster on March 24 when the team will join the Walk of Witness led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York," the site explains (see www.makingourmark.org.uk). Lady Kate Davson (the great, great, great granddaughter of William Wilberforce) was slated to walk in the yokes and chains at the outset of the march in Hull. The second stage of the March, called the Sankofa Reconciliation Walk, takes place between June 4 and July 11 and will link the former slave ports of London, Bristol, and Liverpool. The purposes of the March are: to bring an apology for the slave trade (especially the role of the Church) and to help those we meet deal with its legacy; to engage with schools, public forums and the media about the true history of slavery and abolition, promoting greater understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness; and to remember the black and white abolitionists of 200 years ago and wholeheartedly support the current campaigns seeking to end the atrocity of contemporary slavery. The March organisers have been
welcoming people to walk with
the core team as they pass through their localities. They also hope to
organize a continuous schools relay along the Hull to London route.
Schools who participate in the March will be given an educational DVD
about the legacy of the slave trade and the work of the Lifeline
Expedition. The Lifeline Expedition has
received extensive publicity in
recent years, including the story about Andrew Hawkins (a descendant of
England's first slave trader, Sir John Hawkins) who made an apology for
the slave trade in the Gambia at the International Roots Festival
(click here www.ywam-england.com/news
Peter Wooding, Senior News Editor for United Christian Broadcasters, caught up with Andrew Winter, a trustee of the Lifeline Expedition, the organization that's behind this year's march of the abolitionists. Winter told Wooding: "I've been
a trustee since the year
two-thousand which is when we first started walking through the UK.
Since then we've gone through France, Spain Portugal, east coast of
America, five Caribbean islands Columbia in South America, Senegal,
Gambia Ghana, Togo and Benin last summer; and now walking two-hundred
and fifty miles from Hull to London and we're about halfway
hundred-thirty hundred-thirty-five miles." Winter explained: "Through everything we do in the Lifeline Expedition and particularly on the march of the abolitionists this year, we seek to repair the damage that we've caused in the slave trade and colonization and our relationship within the family of nations. And when I say we I'm talking about myself as someone that's representing England on this walk, but also European nations and Europeans living in the Americas and also the Africans on the team representing their part in the slave trade too, and those from the Caribbean." Winter continued: "So we all have a long hard look at each of our nation's involvement in the trade and really talk as we walk, discuss the legacies personally to ourselves and what we still experience on a day-to-day basis, particularly those in the Caribbean and Africa, all the damage that has been caused by the slave trade. The reason we wear yokes and chains is that -- and there's lots and lots of reasons -- but one is to publicly bring an apology as they see our tee shirts that say 'So sorry' and as they see us walking in yokes and chains we seek to reverse a lot of the things that happened. So we always have those from the Caribbean walking in front of us with a snake on a pole like Moses was told to put a snake on a pole and carve it out of bronze. We have a lady always walking in the front and we tend to always have Africans walking in the reverse and it's the white guys you're seeing walking in yokes and chains as a way of publicly saying 'We're really sorry, we get how painful this was and we're sorry.' and we seek to bring reconciliation and healing. " Wooding also wanted to know if there any particular highlights Winter wanted to share from responses they've had from people so far? Winter said: "The responses we've had on this walk are very similar to the ones we have on every single place that we've been around the planet so far, around the different nations involved in the slave trade and the historical places associated with the trade. The responses are fairly simple -- they go along the following lines: 'It's either descendants of the powerful (that is either black or white) we tend to get reactions that are angry at the fact that we're apologizing and it's a hostility, it's ridicule and often from churches -- from Christians particularly -- we get the most amounts of hate mail; we get prayed against, and yes it's vicious sometimes. I get text messages on a daily basis from Christians that are pretty disgraceful, really. That can be quite upsetting. But we know that it's because the wound of the slave trade affects the descendants of the powerful and not as much as it affects the descendants of the powerless. But it's still real and it manifests itself in anger and guilt. The other response that we alw ays get is 'What's the point of looking back? - I've got nothing to do with what my father did; you can't hold me responsible for what my dad did let alone what my ancestors did. ' We respond to that always by saying that 'Yeah, we're not personally responsible but we do feel that we're accountable for what our ancestors did and what our current colleagues, our current family, our current Europeans continue to do in Africa and continue to do in Europe which are as trustees that bring economic and mental enslavement to so many people around the world today. And the third response is normally an emotional one of either gratitude or weeping; we've had people come up to the streets, particularly those of African descent living in the Diaspora, and they will sometimes just cry with gratitude that finally someone has recognized the pain of what's happened in the past and the pain their families continue to go through back home. So, yeah, a whole range of different emotions, but normally they're pretty intense in their emotionality, which reveals that this is not a historical wound like others in our history. But this is an open wound and we believe that God wants to bring healing for it in the family of nations so that we can move beyond this pain to a future that is different." "When you get that final response does it open other opportunities to talk about your Christian faith?" Wooding asked. Winter responded: "It's interesting; yes it sometimes does, obviously because God told us that we should be doing this and that we're to bring healing among the family of nations over this issue. But we're very careful about sharing our faith in the way that it's been shared before because actually the churches have a disgraceful history here. What we did with The Gospels as we've learned more about it, which is that it was strategic and it was specific. It was to bring oppression through the use of violence, mental enslavement and physical enslavement. We did to oppress Africans and the descendants of Africans through the Gospel in order to make them more malleable and more productive in the fields. This is not kind of our theory: we've read letters and read papers that have gone back to the Church of England and other churches in the Caribbean that discussed this in the eighteenth century and it was a decision that was made to finally Christianize using the Gospel of Christ as slaves. So we feel this deeply and we're very care ful about the words we use because first and foremost we bring an apology. This isn't a stunt in which we will then use to proclaim the Gospel, because we understand that the Gospel translated into some of those communities and some of those hurts and pains will not be understood unless we first apologize. So, we're kind of making the way for the others to follow. But we do definitely recognize that our history is very muddied." Wooding asked Winter: "How would you like us to pray for you over this next sort of week and a half or so?" Said Winter: "Well, it's very interesting. We've got a little nickname for ourselves -- the first time we thought about ourselves in this way. The name that was used for the gang of people in yokes and chains sometimes is up to a hundred or two-hundred strong that led people from the inside of Africa to the forts and then the slave ports was called Coffles and we're only a small team -- eight of us this morning because a lot of the rest of the team are in school assemblies bringing education and changing people's minds about the European involvement in the slave trade. But we're a little fellowship -- the fellowship of the Coffles, a bit like the fellowship of the ring in The Lord Of The Rings, and I really encourage our listeners to just to pray that the angels that we'll be able to fight the battle as we go. We feel that the angels fly above us and as we come into London, London is a very spiritual place -- lots of decisions made over the centuries that have benefited our nation unbelievably, benefited the British empire (and) we can't even put a figure on it the amount of money the slave trade has brought to England and what it's done and the decisions made about how that happened were made in our churches, were made in our political parties, were made in society meetings; they were made in our institutions and in our insurance companies and in our banks and continue to get made in the capital of finance in the world and in London. We're like a little group of Hobbits coming to bring an apology that seems so inconsequential in the bigger scheme of things but we have a feeling that this is going to be quite a powerful thing, So, just that God's will be done and that if we have to fight the fight and deal with all the emotional response that we'll have grace to do so. That would be lovely if you could pray for us." Winter told Wooding that thos eintersted in learning more could go to two websites. "The first is www.lifelineexpedition.co.uk and you can read about our seven year journey and you'll read about the current march of the abolitionists; there's like a little separate micro-site and you can go there and read about it. You can also read some of the responses on BBC website and you know some of the independent websites. Some of the press have written some really good articles particularly the Bishop of Lincoln when he joined and gave some excellent coverage round there. So have a look at how people are responding you'll get a flavor of some of the emotional response. But probably the most important website to look at is www.antislavery.org. "Have a look at antislavery's website because there's lots of useful things that you can do now to end some of the current modern-day slave trade that happens in trafficking and a whole range of other things." Winter concluded: "Please
get active once you understand what's gone
on in our past -- you can't remain passive. Let's get active together
-- part of what we're doing is to energize the body of Christ, energize
the population in Europe to do something about the injustices that
carry on today."
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This
event has excited considerable interest. It has also caught
the imagination of the (UK) national press - some of their articles and
interviews can be found at the following addresses:
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