My most deeply held convictions about slavery were probably formed from a combination of my upbringing, my understanding of history, my grasp of the Bible, God\u2019s heart for people, and my exposure to a global community. The brief one-sentence version of that conviction would go like this: \u201cSlavery is always bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
To unpack that a little bit, my parents taught me from an early age that God values all people the same and that nobody is inferior to anyone else due to the color of their skin, cultural heritage, or economic situation. In school, I was told stories about the evils of slavery in both the world and American history. And when I\u2019ve met people in extreme poverty and considered that they would be the ones most exploited in a slave system, it was anathema to me as a human being. Furthermore, Biblical history would trend away from slavery[1]<\/a>, and God\u2019s people would learn to love others more and more deeply, reflecting God\u2019s heart for humanity.<\/p>\n And somewhere along the way, through one or a combination of the above sources (or maybe it\u2019s just instinctual to us as humans), I learned that people shouldn\u2019t own other people and that each of us has a personal agency that should be respected.<\/p>\n In short, it was easy for me to reflect on and articulate what I feel about slavery (and especially chattel slavery) and why I feel it.<\/p>\n Colonialism, on the other hand, wasn\u2019t so easy to nail down. Where slavery seems clear, Colonialism, in my mind, is fuzzy; it has more greys. There was no question in my mind that so much bad happened in the name of colonizing other people\u2019s land; often, it felt like the geographic version of personal slavery that I so abhorred.<\/p>\n But while I rejected what I understood were the principles behind why much Colonialism happened (in the name of culture and religion\u2014the \u2018superior\u2019 people civilizing the \u2018natives\u2019), I also asked questions like \u201cWhen did anybody\u2019s<\/em> land become their \u2018own\u2019 to rule…aren\u2019t\u2019 we ALL a product of colonialism somewhere long past?\u201d \u00a0and \u201cWhat about some of the good that has come from colonialism like modernization of infrastructure?\u201d and \u201cHow have some nations done better economically because of the influence of colonialism?\u201d<\/p>\n After reading A Brief History of Slavery: A New Global History<\/em> by Jeremy Black and Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning <\/em>by Nigel Biggar, some of my thoughts were affirmed. The activities of slavery and colonization have caused pain and brokenness in our world. In Slavery,<\/em> Black is clear that the practice of slavery was often a reflection of, and led to, dehumanization, violence, and abuse and that society has had to pay the price for slavery even after it was abolished in that we are still dealing with its long-term effects.<\/p>\n In Colonialism<\/em>, Biggar confirmed some of my thoughts, too, calling for a more critical and balanced approach to our understanding of colonial history. He writes that many evil actions happened in the name of colonialism, but not always with evil motivations or even always with evil outcomes. And he contends that there were actions taken in the pursuit of colonization that were not evil at all. In the book, he analyzes Empire and the pursuit of Empire from a moral perspective, attempting to point out its negative, positive, and, more importantly, nuanced aspects.<\/p>\n I want to talk about three things I discovered in the books that challenged or stirred my thinking<\/p>\n First, while I knew this on some level, I had forgotten (or ignored) the reality that slavery has so many different iterations, causes, actors, and contexts. As Black writes, \u201cit is scarcely surprising that slavery does not have a single meaning, nor a uniform context.\u201d <\/em>(from the preface). Slavery was not just black vs. white or \u2018enlightened\u2019 Europeans vs. developing cultures. As far back as history goes, humans from every culture have been enslaving and dominating one another for many reasons, and even after \u201cabolition,\u201d we continue to do so all over the world (including here). \u00a0So, while it\u2019s important for us to recon with, say, the fruit of American slavery of Africans up to the 19th<\/sup> century, we should do so in a context of understanding the enormous scope of the problem of slavery everywhere else and to do so without minimizing in any way the specific tragedy of American slavery.<\/p>\n Second, I admit that Colonialism<\/em> was a challenging read for me. Whereas Black\u2019s book presented a more mainstream narrative surrounding slavery, Biggar seemed to be inviting discussion that would lead to disagreement but also deeper analysis. Though I started with a framework that I think aligned with his (\u201cColonialism is both bad and good\u201d), his apologetic for the good done in the name of colonialism caused me to rethink my position. I\u2019m still not sure where I stand, and I am pressed to do more than an inspectional reading of the text.<\/p>\n And I will re-read it because I had never truly considered how important it is to understand these issues when leading from a global perspective. It would have been impossible to have journeyed through this program without addressing these because the ongoing results of colonialism and slavery impact how we lead today, especially if we are leading in a global context.<\/p>\n I now see the genius (or serendipity) of starting the program in Cape Town. Reading these books has led me full circle and provided a connecting point to a map that must be made for me to lead well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n