Question 1.
The author says that perhaps the most vexing issue is how to parcel out the blame to the African ancestors that were involved in the capturing and selling the African-Americans to the whites. This is in response to dividing the blame to the parties that were involved in the slave trade. On a broader sense, the author is disturbed by the fact that it is whites who always seem to receive all the blame. None the less both whites and blacks actually took part in the slave trading. The blacks would capture, kidnap and sell the whites traders, who would in turn transport and sell the slaves to White Americans.
Question 2.
In the fourth paragraph, the author says that Henry Morton’s pursuit for David Livingstone in 1870 made compelling headlines in the newspapers. Henry’s exploration into Africa made the headlines as no other explorer had gone into Africa. Besides Henry and David Livingstone, no other man had set foot in Africa. Consequently, the author is able to refer back to his first story to prove the black man was equally involved in slavery. This is because the slave trade had been abolished in early the 19th century and ended before the 1860s.
Question 3.
Gates says that the slave trade would not have been possible without African elites. The word “elites” means those African that knowingly participated in the trade through selling their fellow Africans into slavery. Indeed, the author supports this argument by saying that the business was a complex network. The business included many parties who played a different role in the build-up to slavery. Some emperors commissioned their warriors to capture people from other kingdoms. They would direct them from the interior to the coast. Other parties would be involved in the selling. Without these agents, the whites would not be able to access the slaves.
Question 4.
The author does not try to shift blame from the Whites to the Africans in their role in the slave trade. Instead, the author attempts to bring to attention the fact that the two parties were equally involved in the trade. He terms this as a sad fact to many African-Americans who try to place all the blame on the whites. Indeed, their African counterparts were involved in capturing them and ferrying them to the ports. That is a sad fact that cannot be refuted, and when it comes to repatriation efforts: not only the whites should pay the price.
Question 5.
Dr. gates says that “For many African Americans, these facts can be difficult to accept.” Indeed, this is a difficult truth since African Americans want Whites to pay for all their suffering. For the longest time, rivalry has been between the white and the blacks. The whites have been the aggressor while the blacks have been the victims. It is difficult for blacks to accept that their fellow blacks were equally involved in the cause of suffering.
Question 6.
In the fifteenth paragraph, the author says that elite Africans were aware of the suffering being experienced by other Africans that had been sold into slavery. He says that many African elites had travelled to places such as Brazil and Portugal, where they must have experienced slavery at first hand. He adds that some slaves had been returned to places such as Liberia and Sera Leone, therefore, knowing the difficult circumstances of the other lands. As such, the author refutes the argument that African slave traders were innocently involved in the trade.