Banji Akintoye apologizes to victims of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Yoruba Land

Leader of Yoruba Nation Self-Determination Struggle, Prof. Banji Akintoye, has tendered what he described as an overdue, unreserved and heartfelt apology to victims of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in Yoruba Land, noting that revelations indicated that some of them cursed the future generations of the race, over the unholy collaboration between then Yoruba leaders and the Portuguese and Dutch businessmen who came to Africa for such business in 18th century.

Akintoye’s apology which he made on behalf of “current generation of the Yoruba,” was contained in an open letter, he personally signed, copy of which was made available to newsmen through his Communications Office, saying that the Holy Spirit told him that the spirits of forefathers of Yoruba sold for peanuts to Portuguese and Dutch people as slaves were behind the lack of growth, development, progress, peace and unity in the land, and among the Yoruba people.

As documented by multiple reports, more than one million Africans, including the Yoruba people, were exported to Europe and America as slaves by Europeans, bringing salt to Africa in 18th Century through Porto Novo and Whydan Kingdom in the present day Benin Republic through the collaboration of some local warriors.

This was just as Akintoye, a renowned historian, sadly noted that predating colonialism and slavery in African continent, the Yoruba race had engaged in internal conflicts, resulting in marauding, intra-tribal and internecine warfare, without any of such civil unrests resulting in commercialization of human captives and slave trade on the African soil, adding: “Yet, we have to agree that foreigners did not do this without the cooperation of some of the indigenous people, the Yoruba.”

The Yoruba Nation Self-Determination Struggle leader, while saying what was revealed through the Holy Spirit showed that some victims of the dastardly act who were Yoruba sons and daughters placed a curse on the land and the people that violated their humanities by selling them into slavery, furthermore said that the same Holy Spirit revealed that some among the Yoruba captives sadly committed suicide by jumping off the captive ships into their deaths deep into the Atlantic Ocean, while others simply placed the curse and endured the shame by continuing the captive’s journey.

“For this, the need for reconciliation and unreserved apologies is real and past due.

“Against this backdrop of the atrocity of historical proportions unleashed against the peoples of Black Africa, which escalated into full-blown slavery, the current generation of the Yoruba seeks to tender an unreserved, heart-felt apology on behalf of our past generations of forefathers, monarchs and chiefs who participated in slavery, those who folded their hands in helplessness and hopelessness, those who looked the other way when they could have spoken or stood against the perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity, and those who cooperated and/or benefitted from the sales of their brothers and sisters, children, parents, friends and neighbours.

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“Words alone cannot atone for the immeasurable amount of suffering endured by our brothers and sisters during the forceful passages into the New World as they entered the narrow passage that ushered them into the journey of no return.

“Yet, words have to be offered to express remorse, regret and above all, to ask for forgiveness that could only come from the heart, and straight from the throne of grace,” the elder statesman pleaded.

“In all reality, a crime half a millennium old may seem forgotten and forgettable, perhaps it may even be misconstrued as negligible and perceived as having outlived the statute of limitation; yet, as the Yoruba often say in the context of their indigenous rhetoric, ‘The one who passed faeces to mess up the path may forget, but the one who had to clean up the mess will never forget.’ Even if the smell is gone, the thought of the blemish and inner violation may linger.

“Having said all that, we say it from the bottom of our hearts that we sincerely understand if you still nurse the hurt and feel the pain; after all, years may heal the wound, but the scar may always remain. All we can say is to appeal that you please forgive our forefathers on whose behalf we tender these apologies; and to forgive us as offsprings of our erring progenitors,” he further pleaded.

Akintoye, therefore, prayed God to bless generations of victims of the saddening slave trade, lighten their burdens, and redeem time for them and generations to come after them, just as he also prayed the Almighty to forgive the Yoruba race and move it into a new dispensation in its onward march towards the attainment of redemption and enjoyment of its potential.

“May God bless you, lighten your burdens, redeem time for you and generations to come after you and heal our land. Above all, may the Lord of the Universe forgive the Yoruba race and move it into a new dispensation in its onward march towards the attainment of redemption and enjoyment of its potential, Amen!” he prayed.