ACCRA, Ghana (ABP) — Gathered in the courtyard of Ghana's Cape Coast Slave Castle, members of Baptist World Alliance held a somber service of memory and reconciliation July 5.
The slave castle, perched on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, was built by the British in 1665. The fortress housed dark, dank dungeons for thousands of male and female slaves and a “door of no return,” where they were crammed into ships headed for the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. An estimated 20 million Africans were uprooted and enslaved during the trans-Atlantic slave trade that stretched from the 15th to 19th centuries.
With 110 million members, Baptist World Alliance is the world's largest umbrella organization for Baptists. Its annual gathering July 2-7 featured repeated references to the slave trade and calls for repentance and reconciliation; along with the service at the slave castle, the gathering included discussion sessions on “Slave Trade and the Unholy Triangle” of Europe, Africa and the Americas; “Human Dignity and Slavery;” and the ongoing crisis of slave trafficking today.
BWA members also adopted a resolution on “The 200th Anniversary of the Passing of the Act to Abolish the Slave Trade in British Colonies” that called for:
— “Freedom for the 27 million still trapped in modern-day slavery across the world.”
— “Freedom from the global systems of economic injustice and exploitation that create the circumstances that foster slavery.”
— “Freedom from all forms of racism.”
— “Freedom from our silence in the face of the above realities.”
It also called on “Baptists worldwide to stand against this ongoing and pervasive evil institution, support endeavors to eradicate it … and compassionately minister to those trapped by it.”
In a historic action, assembly members elected Neville Callam of Jamaica, a descendent of ancestors sold into slavery, as BWA's first non-white general secretary.
During the service of memory and reconciliation, BWA leaders issued calls for remembrance, confession and pardon among the descendants of slaves, slave traders and slave owners.
Kojo Amo, general secretary of the Ghana Baptist Convention, told participants, “We ask forgiveness on behalf of our ancestors, those chiefs who reigned centuries ago and accepted guns and promises in exchange for men, women and children from their villages.”
Anne de Vries, speaking on behalf of the Dutch Baptist Union, stated, “I want to apologize because of the bitter history our country was involved in, trading African people as slaves. In fact, part of the wealth in which we are living in our country originates from that trade. … May God bless your noble nation and cure the effects of our unjust practices.”
Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, added, “We repent and repudiate this historic evil. … We ask for divine mercy and grace to cleanse us from all the vestiges of racism and bigotry that still exist in American culture and even in American churches.”
The service's printed program included thoughts for meditation during several moments of silence. The meditations featured quotes from such leaders as William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham. It also featured the Southern Baptist Convention's 1995 resolution on slavery and racism, which declared: “We lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and … we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systematic racism in our lifetime.”
Also speaking near the slave site, a Jamaican Baptist pastor discussed the possibility of compensating descendants of the enslaved men and women.
According to reports from EthicsDaily.com, Cawley Bolt, pastor of Ebony Vale Baptist Church in Spanish Town, Jamaica, asked listeners whether descendants of slaves “have a right to be compensated.”
“I'm not begging for anything but demanding what is ours,” he said. “One way to compensate is to put money into educational institutions.”
In a workshop July 4, Bolt also told participants, “A finger is pointed at those in the North [Europeans and Americans] … but Africans were also part of the trade. That can't be denied.”
EthicsDaily.com reported that Bolt characterized the European slave trade as immoral and “unholy, for they defrauded the Africans by exploiting their innocence.”
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