Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard Ennals is Professor at Kingston Business School, London, where he leads the Centre for Working Life Research. He studied the history of slavery in the USA and at King's College Cambridge, and taught African and Modern World History in Northern Nigeria. He is Chairman of the Council for Education in World Citizenship, and works with the UK National Commission for UNESCO and the UK Work Organisation Network. He has visiting professorial posts in Norway, Sweden and Lithuania. His previous books with Wiley are Star Wars: A Question of Initiative (1986), and Dialogue, Skill and Tacit Knowledge (2006, edited with Bo Göranzon and Maria Hammarén).

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Citizenship is not a spectator sport; it is all about engagement. This book is part of a bigger picture &; a development process which will enable us gain more control over our own lives and to participate in decisions about the future direction of society and the organisations we are involved in. From Slavery to Citizenship is a resource for individual reading and cross-reference that will also be valuable for teaching and learning.

This book is unusual in suggesting that slavery is not a remote historical phenomenon, but a fundamental component of our present. People have been slaves in the past and some people are enslaved today.

The subject of slavery is highly charged with emotion. From Slavery to Citizenship seeks to facilitate dialogue and to bridge gaps. This is not easy as people have been speaking different languages and working from diverse sets of assumptions. A first step is to listen and to learn from differences.

In the book, a single author&;s voice brings together contributions from major public figures and respected thinkers. Within a rich tapestry of perspectives, there is no single line of argument, or one overall conclusion. The intention is to inform debate with reflections from such diverse key figures as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan and Chris Patten.

After reading the book, you are unlikely to conclude that all of the contributors have agreed, but you will find that they give you a starting point from which to reflect and begin discussion, as well as the tools to engage in active citizenship.

With a companion web site for ongoing debate and supplementary reading and teaching materials, this is an interactive project which goes much further than the pages of the book.

Aus dem Klappentext

Citizenship is not a spectator sport; it is all about engagement. This book is part of a bigger picture – a development process which will enable us gain more control over our own lives and to participate in decisions about the future direction of society and the organisations we are involved in. From Slavery to Citizenship is a resource for individual reading and cross-reference that will also be valuable for teaching and learning.

This book is unusual in suggesting that slavery is not a remote historical phenomenon, but a fundamental component of our present. People have been slaves in the past and some people are enslaved today.

The subject of slavery is highly charged with emotion. From Slavery to Citizenship seeks to facilitate dialogue and to bridge gaps. This is not easy as people have been speaking different languages and working from diverse sets of assumptions. A first step is to listen and to learn from differences.

In the book, a single author’s voice brings together contributions from major public figures and respected thinkers. Within a rich tapestry of perspectives, there is no single line of argument, or one overall conclusion. The intention is to inform debate with reflections from such diverse key figures as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan and Chris Patten.

After reading the book, you are unlikely to conclude that all of the contributors have agreed, but you will find that they give you a starting point from which to reflect and begin discussion, as well as the tools to engage in active citizenship.

With a companion web site for ongoing debate and supplementary reading and teaching materials, this is an interactive project which goes much further than the pages of the book.

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From Slavery to Citizenship

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and without giving us time to cry out or make resistance, they stopped our mouths and ran off with us into the nearest wood ...

... The people I was sold to used to carry me very often when I was tired, either on their shoulders or on their backs ... Thus I continued to travel, sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations, till at the end of six or seven months after I had been kidnapped I arrived at the sea coast ... A slave ship was riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo.

... We continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate.... Until at last we came in sight of the island of Barbados.

Edwards, P. (ed.) (1988) The Life of Oloudah Equiano, of Gustavus Vassa the African. London, Longmans, pp. 1-9, 11-14, 22-28, 84-87

MEMORIES OF EMPIRE

The modern reader is familiar with the stereotypes of Empire and slavery. There have been so many stories and films based on accounts of the Southern States of the USA, and the West Indies. Even if the films have been in technicolour, the characters have been fundamentally black and white.

The modern USA is still affected by the legacy of slavery, which was first instituted under the British Empire. As the USA takes on a global role, encountering people from other cultures around the world, and based on the "Project for a New American Century", we recognise many of the characteristics of Empire. Among these is the tendency to regard indigenous people, or local populations, as in some way immature, not fully able to determine their own future.

The British Empire continues to live on in the popular imagination, and it is commemorated in the continuing award of honours to hundreds of citizens. Memories are becoming hazy as to what Empire meant. It is generally agreed that Britain has lost its Empire, but has yet to define an agreed new role. There has therefore been some confused invocation of the memories of Empire. It was true that for a period the sun never set on the British Empire, but there is limited understanding of how the Empire was built, and how it was maintained. Understandably, there is a tendency for selective memories. We like to look back with pride, and to encourage younger generations to be aware of what went before.

For current African Diaspora communities, who have seen themselves as the victims of Empire, there has been little alternative but to look back in anger. The effort has been impeded by the absence of a stable platform in national institutions. There is no "African nation" as such. The peoples of West Africa, who had a tradition of Empires with strong distinctive cultures, were scattered and enslaved. Their descendants have inherited diverse perspectives, but have rarely been in a position to determine their own destiny. They often lack the necessary historical information to enable them to take pride in their past. This has weakened their sense of identity.

For most of Europe, the age of Empire is long dead. European engagement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade had largely been on the basis of private enterprise, and their colonial ambitions were relatively restricted. The British and French had the largest Empires, and still retain the greatest concern for their national identity and position. For example, they vigorously defend their permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, resisting suggestions that their place could be taken by a representative of the European Union.

Workplaces are increasingly diverse and multicultural, bringing together individuals who locate themselves in different traditions and contexts. The workplace is an arena for interaction and debate, where issues of control and participation are centre stage. This book is concerned primarily with relationships in working life, and with demystifying conflicts and controversies. For slaves, owned as chattels, their working relationships are inseparable from the rest of their life. Where slavery is imposed by one race on another, and where those two races have different skin colours, the implications of the system are radical. The impact continues over generations. We have to tackle deep-seated issues of human rights.

Neither Empires nor slavery can be regarded as merely historical phenomena. They continue today, often in altered forms. This must be recalled as we encounter claims of citizenship, democracy, participation and equal opportunities.

SLAVERY AS EXCLUSION

Slavery has existed in numerous contexts over the centuries. Robin Blackburn (1988b) has argued that the slave is defined by the society from which he is excluded. The slave could not be a citizen of the Empire in which he was owned. He was regarded as isolated, an outsider, without a supporting family. He was subject to the authority of the master, and would often be tortured or abused. He was dehumanised, treated as an instrument.

In order for slavery to continue in a particular society, in some sense this involves the endorsement of the "free" population. There are difficult issues of responsibility, which we address in this book. Societies based on slavery had impacts on both masters and slaves. We have to reconsider what is meant by "freedom" in such cases. To what extent do those who regard themselves as "free", and as "citizens", have to accept responsibility for the enslavement of those excluded from Citizenship?

Slavery has taken place in most parts of the world at some time. The Transatlantic Slave Trade added an additional dimension of forced relocation. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the UK Commission for Racial Equality, emphasised the impact of the transportation of slaves from one context to another. Slaves were taken from West Africa, deprived of their names, traditions, language and families. They were reduced to isolated individuals, or at best small groups with prior connections. On arrival in the Americas they were obliged to start afresh, in unfamiliar settings, and deprived of their liberty.

Phillips emphasised the scale of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a precursor of modern globalisation:

This was a huge process, probably the first great industrial-scale organization undertaken by Europeans. Leave aside the issue of morality, and abandon modern notions such as the idea that a human being cannot be treated as a piece of property, and you have the elements of every modern trade. There are millions of seemingly identical units (slaves); huge factories (the word plant, meaning factories and machines, has the same root as plantation), a close attention to reducing costs, the need for large amounts of financing, and literally cut throat competition. (Martin, 1999, p. 3)

We are confronting an enormous process, exhibiting man's inhumanity to man. It is time for it to be discussed. As Patrick Bryan, Jamaican historian, has argued:

It is the people who refuse to discuss it who constitute the problem. (Martin, 1999, p. 45)

In 2007 it is no longer possible to refuse to discuss slavery. It would be helpful if the discussion could be well informed. These are not simply issues of remote history, but involve...