A
couple of weeks ago a friend of mine posted an article on Facebook.
The article is written by a Nigerian-American named Jumoke. My friend
headlined the post by saying, "Pushing the question of American involvement
in Nigeria. Worth the read and discernment. What am I even doing about
human trafficking in my own community?" I read the article and then wrote the following comment:
'Jen,
your question is a good one and I thank you. The rest of what I'm
about to say is not directed at you but at the American people who have
looked at this story all wrong. A good rule of thumb is to assume that
human trafficking is going on in our
own communities. My fiancee and I just called the Human Trafficking
Hotline the other day about a suspicion that is more than a suspicion. I
ask, also; if the U.S. government were to get involved in every country
where trafficking abuses are occurring, then, a) the U.S. government
would be involved in EVERY country, which clearly oversteps our
boundaries and possibly also oversteps the resources we have that we'd
need to be effective; and b) we'd be more involved in trafficking abuses
in our own country. The news from Nigeria really sucks, but, at the
risk of sounding inhuman, I question why it has become news. I don't
mean to say that this is not news. But how do some pieces of news about
abduction and slavery become major attractions and others do not?
Jumoke, the writer of the article, is on to something: maybe we want to
get involved more in Nigeria, and so, heyo, we jump on news like this.
That may or may not be the case. In my opinion, though, the big news
should be that no country anywhere, including our own, is doing enough
to prevent or combat slavery. American outrage should be pointed not at
Nigeria, and not at our military for not flying in there and dropping
bombs, but when news like this breaks our outrage should be pointed at
ourselves: oh, woops, there's a slave right down the street that I'm
blind to because I want justice (read: people killed) in Nigeria. We
first should make sure that we ourselves aren't somehow contributing to
slavery around the world and in our own communities, and then take care
of our own backyards, and then, maybe, we can start thinking about other
ways to end slavery.'
Another
friend of mine sent me a message on Facebook asking me how the
situation in Nigeria could continue. Her question being, if awareness
should consequently lead to the elimination of slavery, then how can the
world be aware of the captured schoolgirls that Boko Haram claims to be
throwing into slavery and not put an end to the whole deal? Well, my
above response is part of the answer. Combating slavery is complicated
and, unfortunately, bringing governmental forces into play is probably
not the answer right now. The military, and even the government in
general, is tricky. Moral capital, genuine and valid moral capital, is
the answer, because it is the only force powerful enough.
I first encountered this term, "moral capital," in a book of the same name: Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism,
by Christopher Leslie Brown. At risk of boiling the book down into too
simple formulations that are then incorrect, I will say that the book
essentially argues that the abolitionist work of the great William
Wilberforce, one of my heroes, and his friends, like Prime Minister
William Pitt, were not necessarily, or at least not only, aimed at doing
good in the world. Brown argues that in the wake of the American
Revolution, or what we from the States call the Revolutionary War, the
British Empire needed some way to reinstate its validity and virtue
across the globe. How do you do that if you cannot win a war? You
accumulate moral capital. And how do you accumulate moral capital? You
eradicate the worst crime known to humanity; you also eradicate other
evils, as Wilberforce took aim at gambling and alcoholism after ending
the slave trade. Being the first country invested in the slave trade to
end the trade and end slavery gave Great Britain the continued leverage
it needed. Then Britain could say to the world, "Look, we are still
the greatest nation on this planet. We ended slavery, for goodness
sakes! We might have lost a war to those rebels, but they're not the
holders of morality--we are! They still hold slaves! And they're a
bunch of drunks! Their government is corrupt! Not convinced? Well,
can we say again that we ended slavery??" The reason that the British
Empire did not fall apart following the American Revolution, according
to Brown, is that the Empire rightly (rightly in terms of its
preservation, anyway) turned its sights on moral capital. That way the
Empire could legitimately say, and mean it with all honesty, "Let us
into your country. Because of all we've done for good in the world,
can't you see that letting us rule you will be mutually beneficial?" I
do not mean to enter into a conversation about colonialism here. I only
mean to point out that the British Empire stood as long and as powerful
as it did because people could actually believe in its promise.
Now
we are faced with the horrible truth of slavery abroad in places like
Nigeria. Boko Haram flaunts it in our face. Our government will, if
our citizens continue to push for it, take advantage of an awareness
capital to assist in eliminating the threat of Boko Haram and return the
kidnapped girls to their families. But will such action be invited?
Will it actually be helpful? Without question our assistance, even if
it's not military assistance, will increase our dominance in the
region. And without the surety of morality on our side, dominance in
any region is scary. While avoiding a colonial spirit we should take a
page out of the British Empire's playbook: increase moral capital at
home. We cannot share capital if we do not have capital.
Recap:
moral capital, which is seeded in the soil of awareness, will overwhelm
the evil of slavery. A corrupt society, even if our (I mean, the
society's) intentions are good, cannot defeat slavery through force...
or any other means. We must maintain our integrity first. If we do
not, then the horrifying news stories that we hear about slavery in our
world today, like that of the school girls in Nigeria, will only
multiply with no one and nothing to stop the advance. How can the
school girls not have been returned to their families by now? Because
we have allowed our culture/society to wallow in arrogance, to wallow in
the apathy of misguided pride (we ended slavery and other horrible
crimes years and years ago!). As a whole we have done this to ourselves
and to the world. When we ask why we can't stop the Nigerian
madness--which probably shouldn't be the question anyway, since slavery
is everywhere--then the only clue can be found in our history, in our recent history of blindness.
Let's
reverse our course so that we can compound real moral capital. Then we
can do some good in our country and in the world. In the meantime, we
need to support graceful political means rather than violent ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment