Submitted by Pachamama
The recent ‘in-artful’ remarks by the British actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, are creating somewhat of a storm in a teacup. Cumberbatch, a popular Barbadian name, referred to African-Americans as ‘colored’.
There are a number of interesting sides to this story. We need to consider the extent to which Cumberbatch has been forthcoming relative to the other descendants, on all sides. For instance, the extent to which those who would presume to represent us, while at the same time accepting knighthoods, for example. In other words, we may prefer to deal with a Benedict (Arnold), who let slip, than a Beckles who gleefully accepts a trinket of the very enslavement of African peoples.
Few will know that this actor of some repute, Benedict Cumberbatch, is a direct descendant of one the the largest slave owning families in Barbados and the Caribbean. A slave ownership which has amassed tremendous inter-generational wealth for the Cumberbatch family and its descendants. Indeed, the Cumberbatch family is not alone. The present British prime minister also owes his family’s odious wealth to its involvement in the African Slave Trade. We say African Slave Trade for the Atlantic never enslaved nobody! It has been our friend from times before White even existed.
But there is a substantial difference between these two White men.
Whereas Cumberbatch openly admits the criminal activities of his ancestors and to some degree seems to support the emerging reparations discourse, Cameron will have none of it. And flies into the face of certain realities. Cumberbatch has stated clearly that his whole life has been financed, made possible, by his family’s odious accumulations from African enslavement. That all his high priced schools were paid for from those earnings. That his life would be impossible without such accumulations. And for speaking this truth we must give him some credit.
Prime Minister Cameron, on the other hand, is insistent, that the Dark truism about his family’s wealth should remain unrecognized. Is not to be spoken of. Certainly, for a protector of law Cameron must also qualify for having a particular genetic disposition.
Cameron is not alone. The Mountbatten-Windsor, Elizabeth, the second, the present Queen of Barbados, also has deep family roots in the slave economy. These were seen when at the ‘independence’ of Barbados, this British monarch could visit a plantation in Barbados which, at that time, had been owned by her family for hundreds of years. And stinking EWB would think this to be a fit and proper person to tell us when we were to be independent, or not!
But these are only the top of a criminal iceberg of official corruption in the cash for flesh business. A number of the major banks in the United Kingdom and more generally, the largest banks in the world, have had their genesis in the slave economy. Or other illegal, extremely unpleasant, repulsive activities. In the UK, we can cite Standard Chartered (SC), one of the two or three largest banks in the world. Standard Chartered continues hiding its tainted money by sponsoring all types of sporting activities. Barclay’s Bank, which dominated commerce in much of the world for centuries. Lloyd’s Bank, which dominated transactions in the movement of African slaves, as three of the biggest offenders. But the whole global system stands indicted, still. Of course, we could continue to enumerate many more in the UK and continental Europe, as well. In the USA there is overwhelming evidence (proof) of tainted wealth from the enslavement of Africans, is no less visible.
In fact, the evidence of this first globalizing effort is quite visible in all facets of modern life. And most people, unlike Benedict Cumberbatch, refuse to recognize the wickedness of their ancestors. A wickedness that, to this very day, western-industrial-finance-capital continues to rest on. The original sin!
All the ivy league universities in the United States were founded within the salve economy model. Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Princeton and Yale were all started with the profits of slavery. Their first endowments came from slavery.
So when Bajans walk about oh sooo proudly calling themselves Cumberbatch, Beckles, Brathwaite, Skinner, Pile, Clarke and the lot. They must know what these names mean. Where they come from. And how we are to find our way in a world based on these ‘naming’ lies. Based on the genocidal intent of White people.
For it was MLK who taught us that the ultimate aim of racism is genocide! That these illegal names should have been expelled from memory can’t be wrong, be merely a fact of history, for a seriously independent people. A reversal of this genocidal intent, which continues today under other guises. We are slaves, still! Operating within a slave economy model and Benedict Cumberbatch is living proof of such.
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