Tuesday, March 22, 2011

CHURCH SQUARE AND THE SLAVE LODGE


The Church Square and Slave Lodge is just pure evil in the Cape of Good Hope.

How do you juxtapose two opposing forces, church and slavery? It seems like most European Christians didn't have any problem with defiling their sacred spaces with the scourge of slavery. Yuck! Yuck! and double yuck! The entrance of the Gothic-style Groote Kerk, Cape Town’s historical Church Square was the place where slaves would wait under a “slave tree” while their owners attended church."

WTF! Let me get this straight. The overtly Christian white folks who were living in Africa (for Christ's sake) would chain the indigenous people of Africa to a gosh damn tree while they piously worshiped in their church. Then unchain their slaves and walk them home like the enslaved people were freaken dogs. And that's okay? Blessed by the church, sanctioned by the law, enforced militarily by the Crowns of Europe, the entire continent of Africa, the people of Africa and the vast mineral wealth of Africa belong in the pockets and bank accounts of European powers. That is just evil, pure and simple.

According to the website, "In 1920 a statue of the parliamentarian Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was erected in Church Square in recognition of his efforts to have Dutch recognised as a language (on the same footing with English) in the Constitution of 1910." As if God Almighty sanctioned the Dutch and UK to divest Africa from its people, land and resources. Hallelujah! It must be the Church of the Blue-eyed Devil.

The Slave Lodge was built in 1679 on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It housed hundreds of thousands of enslaved black people as slaves during its time when monetizing African bodies enriched the Cape Colony for white people as they impoverished the natives.

Because sexual slavery isn't a modern day phenomenon, the the church and slave lodge also gained the reputation of being the Cape Colony’s biggest brothel. In 1810, after the British had taken over (and had auctioned off all the slaves),[notice how they didn't "free" the slaves or return South Africa to its native population, but the British also cashed in on black bodies], then of course it became the building of Supreme law, when it became the Supreme Court (until 1914).

Slavery was officially abolished in the Cape in 1838. Yes, abolished in name only, the African people, mineral resources and wealth still enrich the enslavers to this day. But, I guess the Africans won't be chained to a tree, while their Dutch enslavers attend church service.

1 comment: