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06-22-2006, 08:37 PM
Slave trader's descendant begs forgiveness in Africa
By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
Published: 22 June 2006
Sir John Hawkins was a buccaneering Elizabethan seaman and adventurer, who helped his cousin Sir Francis Drake beat the Spanish Armada. And he was also one of the pioneers of the slave trade, becoming the first person to buy slaves in west Africa and sell them to Spanish landowners in the Caribbean.
Now his descendent, Andrew Hawkins, a youth worker from Cornwall, has delivered an extraordinary personal but public apology for his ancestors' involvement in the trade, kneeling in chains in front of 25,000 Africans in a stadium in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.
Mr Hawkins's apology took place during a trip this month to west Africa organised by the Lifeline Expedition, a charity project aimed at achieving reconciliation over the slave trade.
Mr Hawkins, 37, from Liskeard, said yesterday: "I apologised on behalf of my family. I apologised for the adults and children taken. I recognise that it's a small, simple act to say sorry - but it was a handful of people who started the slave trade and the ripples of their actions caused evil throughout the continent of Africa.
"It was one of the most memorable things I've ever done. It was a learning experience. You see just how deep the wounds left by the slave trade are. As someone with family links to the slave traders, it was a very difficult thing to see the consequences of their actions. Hopefully a handful of people can now be the beginning of something good."
More on this Story (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1094749.ece)
More 'White Guilt' I'm sorry, so sorry we enslaved your people crap, hey I dont see the Egyptians saying 'sorry' for 400+ years of enslaving the Hebrews do you? And I also dont see Arab Muslims apologizing for enslaving people either, as they were the ones that mainly dealt with capturing and selling blacks to the whites.
No just the eeeeeeevil white people need to apologize continuously and profusely for generations to come and fork over millins in reparations.
Since after all Only Whites can be racists, right?
This is so rediculous it aint even funny anymore.
I'm personally getting tored of the 'white guilt' syndrome thats goin on all around us.
By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter
Published: 22 June 2006
Sir John Hawkins was a buccaneering Elizabethan seaman and adventurer, who helped his cousin Sir Francis Drake beat the Spanish Armada. And he was also one of the pioneers of the slave trade, becoming the first person to buy slaves in west Africa and sell them to Spanish landowners in the Caribbean.
Now his descendent, Andrew Hawkins, a youth worker from Cornwall, has delivered an extraordinary personal but public apology for his ancestors' involvement in the trade, kneeling in chains in front of 25,000 Africans in a stadium in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.
Mr Hawkins's apology took place during a trip this month to west Africa organised by the Lifeline Expedition, a charity project aimed at achieving reconciliation over the slave trade.
Mr Hawkins, 37, from Liskeard, said yesterday: "I apologised on behalf of my family. I apologised for the adults and children taken. I recognise that it's a small, simple act to say sorry - but it was a handful of people who started the slave trade and the ripples of their actions caused evil throughout the continent of Africa.
"It was one of the most memorable things I've ever done. It was a learning experience. You see just how deep the wounds left by the slave trade are. As someone with family links to the slave traders, it was a very difficult thing to see the consequences of their actions. Hopefully a handful of people can now be the beginning of something good."
More on this Story (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1094749.ece)
More 'White Guilt' I'm sorry, so sorry we enslaved your people crap, hey I dont see the Egyptians saying 'sorry' for 400+ years of enslaving the Hebrews do you? And I also dont see Arab Muslims apologizing for enslaving people either, as they were the ones that mainly dealt with capturing and selling blacks to the whites.
No just the eeeeeeevil white people need to apologize continuously and profusely for generations to come and fork over millins in reparations.
Since after all Only Whites can be racists, right?
This is so rediculous it aint even funny anymore.
I'm personally getting tored of the 'white guilt' syndrome thats goin on all around us.