Slave traders removed more than half the population of the African continent over decades of colonial rule. In North and South America, enslaved people were used as free labour on sugar, tobacco, and cotton plantations. Colonisers appropriated Africa’s natural resources as well. For example, iron ore from Congo was used in the construction of the London Underground. They also took artwork – European museums are still filled with artefacts from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Cameroon. The West became rich and developed at the expense of Africa’s stolen heritage, while colonisers imposed their culture, religion, and laws on the local populations.
Today, the African Union insists that Western countries provide compensation for both moral and material damages. However, not all former colonisers and slave traders acknowledge this obligation. So far, official apologies have only been issued by Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, while France, the UK, Portugal, and Spain have only expressed ‘regrets’ about specific historical events.
