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England
In February 2006, the General Synod of the Church of England unanimously agreed that the commemoration of the bicentenary of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 2007 would provide “unprecedented opportunities to acknowledge the Church’s complicity in the Slave Trade and tell anew the Christian story of creation and redemption”. The Synod also recognised the damage done to those who are the heirs of those who were enslaved, and apologised to them.
The Walk of Witness, organised by the Church of England’s Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns (CMEAC), aimed to give ‘body’ to the apology and provide an opportunity for the Church to recognise its role in the transatlantic slave trade, and to move forward with a renewed thirst for justice. The Walk took place on Saturday 24th March 2007. An Act of Worship – including prayer, drama, dance, music and reflections – gave the gathered walkers an opportunity to acknowledge the legacies of the slave trade and to commit themselves to the ongoing fight against modern-day forms of slavery.
Whilst the vital role of the abolitionists was recognised, with a smaller group of walkers coming to Kennington Park from William Wilberforce’s church of Holy Trinity, Clapham, the focus of the event was deliberately on those who had been enslaved. The three strands of remembrance, repentance and restoration acknowledged the past and its continuing legacy, considered what God requires of us and how we and others before us have fallen short, and encouraged us to continue to work towards justice, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing.
The day itself was rather cold, but most participants stayed to the end, remembering the incomparably worse conditions that the slaves had had to endure. Many of them testified to how moving they had found the event. The Walk of Witness was a ‘cause’ which brought Christians of differing theological persuasions together. There were evangelicals inspired by the fact it was Wilberforce’s conversion which enabled him to persevere for so long; there were human rights activists who would support modern efforts to end slavery; there were large numbers of black people anxious that the disadvantages of some ethnic groups should be addressed; and there were many white people who just wanted to apologise for the unspeakable treatment of Africans by their forefathers, and for the fact that it has taken so long to wake up to the enormity of the slave trade.
As another part of the response to the call from General Synod, regional ‘hearings’ were held, organised by different dioceses to help explore sensitive issues around the legacy of the Slave Trade. These hearings provided an opportunity for listening to the experiences of each other – both for the participants (one from the black community and one from the white) and for the small invited audience, as each participant outlined how the legacy of the slave trade impacts on their life. Each discussion was chaired by the local bishop or his representative, who offered some concluding reflections.
Some participants spoke openly of the continued racism and disadvantage they continue to experience, whilst others spoke of the privileges that they now realise they had received. One said: “In the past, I have been on protest marches with some black friends, but after the march the white people would go on a bus back home. Once after the official march buses had left, some of the remaining black people were beaten by the British National Party or singled out by police.”
The key thing that emerged from most of the stories was that racism, institutional racism and discrimination are still very much part of everyday life for many black people. One participant in Liverpool, a descendant of a slave from Ghana, spoke of his experience in school where
very young children expressed their preconceptions and bias against black people. “Some children today,” he said, “still don’t see black people as their equals. That kind of thing happened when I was young and I thought things had changed – we need to educate children to understand that people of all ethnicities have value.”
The legacies of slavery for both black and white still remain – fear of the unknown and a lack of understanding of their culture cause many white people to continue to stereotype black people.
The disadvantage and discrimination experienced by many black people makes life a struggle. But the positive things that came out of the story telling and listening process is the fact that both black and white gained a different perspective – one bishop said that he would never be the same after listening to one moving story, told by a black woman.
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