In the past few years there has been a resurgence among African people throughout the world to learn about, experience and affirm their history. A proliferation of African bookstores, lectures and study groups has resulted in African people recognizing and perpetuating their past greatness. Max Covil, a junior at the University, felt that there was an essential piece missing from these affirmations. He recognized that there has never been any memorial on the part of African people to mourn and acknowledge our ancestors who suffered and died in a holocaust that began in 1469. For this reason we have come together to mourn and pay respect to those whom in many ways we have forgotten -- our African ancestors who suffered through the Middle Passage, slavery, colonialism and those who continue to suffer today. It is estimated that more than 100 million African people died as a result of MAAFA. There is, however, no day or memorial designated to honor Africans who suffered. Dr. John Henrik Clarke noted that for 23 years before he made his historic voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus said the coast of West Africa, initiating the African slave trade. Africans from all over the continent were brought to the west coast of Africa to be transported to the western hemisphere to be enslaved. The ramifications of this trade of human lives are still felt throughout the African Diaspora. The impact of the trade has led tot he depopulation and underdevelopment of Africa. The trade caused the digression of scientific, technological and cultural progress as African youth and skilled personnel were targeted as those to be bought and sold. The trade would serve as a precursor to capitalist imperialism that would lead to the eventual "carving up" of Africa at the end of the 19th century. The institution of slavery can be summarized in three different areas: The extent of its brutality, the machinery of its control and cultural genocide. The brutality of the trade and the barbaric institution of slavery fostered violence in various form. The brutality had one goal -- to have enslaved Africans submit totally to their enslavers' demands. The brutality began during the Middle Passage, the time when Africans were forced by the millions into cramped and disease-ridden slave ships to be sold throughout the 13 colonies, Caribbean Isles and Latin America. It continued through various forms of violence and torture, including whippings, castrations, mutilations and deprivation of food, clothing and shelter. The machinery of control centered around the laws and slave codes whose goals were, as Dr. Maulana Karenga noted, "directed towards defining Africans as property and depriving them of any legal and human rights or personality." Coercive legal bodies and institutions were involved in upholding the law and the trade. Their most important function was to teach doctrines supportive of the subordination and dehumanization of Africans. The machinery of control created class differences among enslaved Africans, such as the field and house slave, to eliminate the already frail trust factor present between Africans and prevent collective insurrection. Dr. Karenga defines cultural genocide as "the wholesale intentional destruction of a people's culture and cultural identity and their capacity to produce, reproduce and expand themselves." From the forced abandonment of one's name and religion to the outlawing of anything African -based, cultural genocide was the most destructive force working against African people. This cultural genocide sought to destroy the cultural foundations that would help Africans work collectively to fight against the institution of slavery. How did a people, whose cultural foundations were suppressed or destroyed, survive and give life to future generations? Why have the descendants of these truly heroic people been so remiss as to not memorialize their struggle and make sure present and future generations learn about the past? Those questions cannot be answered in the space allotted, but the students who have come together to plan and execute MAAFA, the African Holocaust Memorial are placing the victims of MAAFA as the point of reference in examining this holocaust. We honor and say a collective "thank you" to our ancestors who, through their struggle and perseverance in the face of severe brutality, allowed future generations to pursue the dreams that were dashed when human lives were traded for profit. To learn more about MAAFA, we invite all to participate in the memorial and continue to learn so that the struggle and holocaust that our African ancestors suffered will never be forgotten.
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