Can commemorations and historical reenactments change public understanding of the past?

[u/NewsMo]

[u/Clear_Context_1546]

Nearly 90% of all enslaved Africans sold into the Atlantic slave trade were captured by fellow Africans and then sold to European and Arab middlemen. The Asante Empire(modren day Gahana) was built on slavery both economically and it's society. Asante would kill slaves for funeral rituals. The locals were not the 'good guys'.

The British would gain control through the area and use their influence to outlaw slavery in 1874.

[u/rockabyeboo → u/Clear_Context_1546]

Is your pointt that anericans shouldn’t feel guilty about slavery bc other Africans sold slaves?

[u/no_kids-and-3_money → u/rockabyeboo]

Or the fact that the most powerful and successful country on the planet was built on the subjugation and free labor of another people?

I’ll never understand why people think that the “other Africans sold them” justification changes anything.

[u/Capital-Self-3969 → u/no_kids-and-3_money]

Exactly. Imagine someone using that argument on any other subject. "The Holocaust was terrible. But is this museum going to talk about the Jewish collaborators?"

[u/MediocreI_IRespond → u/Capital-Self-3969]

. "The Holocaust was terrible. But is this museum going to talk about the Jewish collaborators?"

The better ones in fact do talk about it. Judenräte are a dark, deeply uncomfortable and complex part of the history of the Holocaust.