Picture Above: African American slaves picking cotton. Although slavery was common in many northern American states, most slaves performed agricultural work on plantations in the South. Cotton was the most important crop in the South before the American Civil War (1861-1865). Slaves usually worked all day picking cotton for their masters while overseers watched from their horses.

Picture Above: An illustration of African slaves in chains.

Christians seek West's atonement for colonialism - MacDonald Dzirutwe

Hands aloft and tears streaming down her cheeks, Alicia Chipoyi prayed in a high-pitched voice for spiritual healing for the wounds caused by years of slavery and colonization of Africa by Europeans.

Chipoyi was one of hundreds of people attending a European-African-American church prayer meeting on atonement and reconciliation for the West's past role in the exploitation of what has become the world's poorest continent.

In prayer sessions punctuated by wailing and weeping, song and dance, delegates said the West had to repent before God as the first step to reconciliation with Africa, which blames many of its problems on the legacies of enslavement and imperialism.

"We are not looking to man for help, we are looking to God for our dignity to be restored but first of all the West must confess, repent and atone for their past," Langton Gatsi, the organizer of the meeting, told Reuters on the sidelines of the prayer session.

"Once that happens we can talk of reparations and co-operation and how we can start on an equal footing."

African leaders including Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have in the past called for reparations from the West for its part in the slave trade.

Chris Seaton, who leads the Europe-Africa Reconciliation Process, a London-based Christian pressure group that seeks to persuade Europe to admit its past role in colonialism, said more Europeans were now aware of the "dark side of colonialism."

The West should see Africa as an equal partner in all its dealings with a continent wracked by poverty, civil wars and underdevelopment, he said.

"We are having to explain the dark side of colonialism to our people in Europe. It is a spiritual initiative which comes in a sense, as a (result) of our history," Seaton told Reuters.

"Some call it indulging on white guilt but our purpose is to acknowledge our past mistakes."

Seaton said atonement and reconciliation were the first steps toward stronger co-operation between the two continents.

"Some of the intractable problems between Africa and Europe are premised on history. We also want to listen from our counterparts in Africa and make a difference," Seaton said.

Mugabe did not attend the meeting as earlier expected, but the veteran leader has frequently blasted the West for his country's economic woes and has been hailed by some fellow Africans for standing up to powerful countries and seizing white-owned farmland.

Apology No Cure-All for Africa's Ills - Mavis Makuni, Harare

It was an extraordinary sight. The chairperson of the so-called European African Reconciliation Process, Christ Seaton, who was draped in the Union Jack, was shown on Zimbabwean television kneeling on a richly coloured and luxuriant mat before former Mozambican president, Joachim Chissano.

Seaton led a delegation of Christian leaders from Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United States of America to Zimbabwe last week to ask for forgiveness for sins committed by their ancestors against Africa. These included the slave trade, exploitation of the continent, the killing of innocent people and causing conflicts.

Chissano, who accepted the apologies on behalf of the continent, said he was humbled and wished he had "the mandate to ask for forgiveness as well because most of the sins committed by Europeans were not committed by them alone"

Apologising specifically for the havoc wreaked by Cecil John Rhodes in Zimbabwe, Seaton said his ancestors tricked King Lobengula into signing the Rudd Concession more than 100 years ago, paving the way for occupation of the land by white settlers.

There was an inexplicable sense of deja vu about the scene, may be because history was repeating itself. While Seaton's ancestors had used tricks and material inducements to dupe illiterate chiefs to act against their own people's interests during the partitioning of Africa, he and his colleagues have now resorted to semantics to stroke the inflated egos of our authoritarian 21st century rulers. They risk causing offence and polarisation between rulers and the governed as ordinary people cannot be sure whose side they are on.

While it is accepted that the apology was only symbolic, it is still true that such a gesture can be totally meaningless as long as it does not focus on the present and future. What happened in the past cannot be changed and beyond mouthing the words, "We are sorry", the European men of the cloth have not enunciated what practical steps they propose to take to repair the damage and make life better for those alive today.

These European churchmen needed to explain how their contrition would be translated into meaningful initiatives to help prevent a recurrence in modern day Africa of the very injustices and atrocities committed by their forebears.

The churchmen have chosen to ignore the fact that an apology for sins committed a century ago means absolutely nothing to oppressed, displaced, diseased, impoverished and starving Africans who are unnecessarily subjected to these ills by erstwhile liberation heroes who spearheaded the fight for independence from colonial rule.

Since the end of colonialism, different situations have prevailed in various African countries, depending on the style of governance of the black rulers. Some countries have been devastated by civil wars, genocide, disease or famine. Progress has been impeded in some others by natural disasters, rampant corruption and oppressive governance.

It should be obvious to Seaton and his group that a grovelling apology in Harare can not be a cure-all to ease the plight of present-day Africans. They live in countries that are at different levels of political and economic development and have had different experiences since the end of colonialism. They are grappling with problems requiring specific solutions, not a blanket apology.

Expressing emotional regret for events that took place in the 19th century cannot, for example, mean very much to the people of Rwanda who are still grappling with the trauma of the genocide of 1994 when almost one million people were massacred under an African dispensation. The same goes for the people of the Darfur region of Western Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone who have endured years of political upheaval and civil strife.

Instead of limiting their efforts to meaningless platitudes, those involved in European African Reconciliation would make greater impact if they came up with initiatives tailored to address current pressing African needs such as poverty alleviation, AIDS, education and health issues. These churchmen should take a leaf out of the book of celebrities such as Bob Geldof, who was galvanised into action to address massive famine in Ethiopia some years ago by doing something practical.

African leaders have always said that what they need to ensure development in their countries is fair trade rather than aid and it follows that apologies are even less effective. Chissano's observation that if he had a mandate he would do his own apologising has been echoed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who has said imperialists were not solely to blame for the colonisation of Africa.

"It is also the fault of our chiefs, who so divided our people that they could not defend our sovereignty. It is also the fault of many of the post-independence leaders of Africa who have failed to transform our economies and end Africa's balkanisation in order to create power blocs on our continent with global influence when it comes to our legitimate interests", Museveni has said.