Should African Traditional Rulers Apologize for the Slave Trade?
BBC NEWS| Africa Page last updated at 09:55 GMT, Thursday, 12 November 2009 Traditional African rulers should apologise for the role they played in the slave trade, a Nigerian rights group has said in a letter to chiefs. “We cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless,” said the Civil Rights Congress. The letter said some collaborated or actively sold off their subjects. The group said it was time for African leaders to copy the US and the UK who have already said they were sorry. It urged Nigeria’s traditional rulers to apologise on behalf of their forefathers and “put a final seal to the history of slave trade”, AFP news agency reports. Civil Rights Congress president Shehu Sani says they are calling for this apology because traditional rulers are seeking inclusion in the forthcoming constitutional amendment in Nigeria. “We felt that for them to have the moral standing to be part of our constitutional arrangement there ar
