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7 . Defaced Colston statue at the M Shed museum , Bristol . 8 June 2021 . Adrian Boliston ( Wikimedia Commons )
sugar and coffee , transformed social and cultural practices across the continent , along with helping finance the triangular slave trade , and creating an irrefutable if forgotten linkage to the legacy of the centuries-long trade in enslaved peoples .
In the case studies we have examined to date , the need for a continent-wide reckoning with the European legacies of the trans- Atlantic slave trade is apparent . Many of the descendants of those victims are citizens of European nations – British , French , Dutch , Spanish , Danish , Portuguese , Belgian , Italian , etc .– and still live with the knowledge and legacies of their ancestors ’ enslavement . 15 While the situations can vary significantly from country to country , our case studies suggest that responsible acknowledgement of these legacies can help promote a sense of inclusiveness and can be used to confront and combat racism , inequality , injustice and intolerance .
Policy-makers , public intellectuals and educators have a pivotal role to play in fostering dialogue about past injustices in order to work towards building more inclusive and tolerant societies . It must be remembered that enslavement was a crime against humanity perpetrated and financed on a continent-wide scale , be it a slave market in Lagos or a sugar merchant in Hamburg . European societies can benefit from a continent-wide reckoning with this legacy and the impact it has borne and continues to bear on the nations of an increasingly diverse , multicultural Europe .
15
Belgium , although not complicit in the trans-Atlantic slave trade , has its own terrible history with enslaved people in its colonies , where an estimated 10-15 million people were killed by King Leopold ’ s colonial forces . See Atrocities Watch Africa : http :// atrocitieswatch . org / king-leopold-of-belgium-in-congo / Italy , not involved either in the trans-Atlantic slave trade , had slaves in Africa until 1935 . See Matteo Impagnatiello , “ When Colonial Italy Abolished Slavery in the Horn of Africa ”, Focus on Africa , 18 April 2021 : https :// www . focusonafrica . info / en / when-colonial-italy-abolished-slavery-in-the-horn-of-africa /
EUROPE INSIGHT
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