Protestor demands slave trade apology from British Queen (Roundup)

London - A lone protestor Tuesday demanded an apology from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II for the slave trade in a Westminster Abbey church service marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. The commemorative event, attended by the Queen, 80, Prime Minister Tony Blair and hundreds of dignitaries, came to a sudden halt when 39-year-old human rights campaigner Toyin Agbetu ran up to the altar shouting: 'You should be ashamed' and 'this is an insult to us.' As church ushers and bodyguards tried to calm him down in the Abbey's magnificent choir, he shouted: 'Leave me alone, let me go.' Agbetu, who was eventually handcuffed by security guards and restrained by two police officers outside the abbey, gained access to the service with a valid ticket. 'He came through security checks, the scanners, said Major-General David Burden, the abbey's receiver-general. 'In such cases we would let the man speak before leading him out. It was not the place to manhandle someone,' he added. Jonny Hogg, who sat next to Agbetu, spoke of his surprise when his neighbour jumped up. 'My first reaction was that it was part of the service. I chatted to him in the beginning. He wasn't particularly wanting to talk. He was making lots of notes,' said Hogg. Agbetu, a campaigner for Ligali, an African-British human rights organization, shouted: 'This is an insult to us. I want all the Christians who are Africans to walk out.' Outside, he demanded that the queen apologize for her ancestors' role in supporting the slave trade. 'The queen has to say sorry,' he said. 'This nation has never apologized, there was no mention of the African freedom fighters. This is just a memorial of William Wilberforce,' he added in a reference to the English social reformer influential in the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. 'The monarch and the government and the church are all in there patting themselves on the back,' Agbetu told reporters as he was led away. Earlier in the service, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, described slavery as an offence to human dignity and freedom and 'the greatest cause of grief to God's spirit.' 'We, who are the heirs of the slave-owning and slave-trading nations of the past, have to face the fact that our historic prosperity was built in large part on this atrocity,' he said. 'Those who are the heirs of the communities ravaged by the slave trade know very well that much of their present suffering and struggling is the result of centuries of abuse,' said Williams. Williams, who last Saturday led a solemn 'Walk of Witness' by church leaders in London, has said that the Church of England and other institutions which profited from the slave trade should consider 'making amends,' including the possibility of compensation. But Blair, fearful of compensation demands to the British state, has consistently refused to bow to demands for an official apology. He has instead expressed 'deep sorrow and regret' for the suffering caused by the slave trade. During the Westminister Abbey service, the congregation of some 2,000 invited guests observed a minute's silence, followed by the sound of four elephant tusk horns used traditionally to warn of slave raider attacks in West Africa. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Dor20Mar 28th, 2007 - 22:14:48

The British did NOT spearhead the slave trade.

The Portuguese did.

The British bought all their military and economic power to bear in halting it.

Without British involvement the trade would have continued to flourish for more than a century.

The British ended the immeasurable sufferings of countless African people.

God bless Britain.

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Black&ProudMar 28th, 2007 - 23:43:01

Hello,
The 70yr old indolent fellow who said he 'worked in Africa' and the rest of you shameless 'white lepers' have really showed that majority of you british, the descendants of the slave-raiders, are as ignoble as your forefathers!!!. Your mentality is as demostrated on TV by your role model -Jade Goody; ignorance, heartless, myopic, with reprobate mind. Your forefathers rode on the back of Christianity and inflicted the worst atrocities in the history of mankind on Africans, and justified it with the Bible.
Now wonder God has given you over to your reprobate minds and your society is collapsing regardless of your stolen wealth. Your youths are biggest drunkards in Europe, your teens are murderer and thiefs, your girls and women are shameless whores, and your men are lazy drunkards; your future king is an irritant and a moron, and your lawmakers are a bunch of hedonistic wathogs.
So, you are in the biggest slavery now because the slavery of the mind is the worst.
Agbetu has just demostrated that we know what is right and what we believe; but you do not have a belief neither do you have a future.

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White and proud to own blacks.Apr 1st, 2007 - 13:13:20

You are an ignorant soul brother like no other.
You people are racist and should be thanking whites for saving you from being turned into African stew to be eaten by other competing tribes.
Blacks are the ones with the most health problems, crime problems, family problems, and commit the most problems in Europe and the free world.
Stop talking nonsense.

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