The modern trend of apologizing for the sins of our ancestors 400 years ago is a pernicious one but this is nonetheless a worthy gesture by the Nigerians: acknowledging transactions involving slavery were no different from any others in so far as they required two parties. If the story gets any press in this country (and I doubt it will but kudos to the BBC for running it) it will certainly sap the potency of one of the left's preferred ideological weapons: guilt over slavery, selectively and collectively applied to the west alone.
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.
(Thanks to the MCJ)
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