BLACKS-THE NEW BLACK

19-10-2006

Madonna's controversial adoption of a child from Malawi simply repeats a long-running historical trend of importing black peopleto the West. Derrick Campbell wonders whether the singer and fashion icon is a generous philanthropist - or a dodgy trophy hunter.

I am increasingly puzzledby the actions of the ‘mega rich' super stars who have seemingly seen the light when it comes to plight of the poorer people of our world. We see them leaving the comforts of their lavished environments to reach out and help the orphans and destitute children. I suppose to the rational on looker this seems quite noble, but I would like to propose another perspective.

As a historian I am reminded of the plight of black people overmany centuries, who have regularly suffered exploitation which continues eventoday.

Records show that black men and women have lived in Britain in small numbers since at least the twelfth century, but it was the Empire that caused their numbers to swell exponentially in the 17th and 18th centuries.

As the British Empire expanded, African slaves were ferried across the seas to work on plantations in the Caribbean or the Americas, where they had to do back breaking labour all their lives under the scalding sun.

Others, in much smaller numbers, were ferried into the ports of London, Liverpool and Bristol - on the same ships that brought imperial products such as tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, rum, fruit, wine, tobacco and oil to enrich the national economy.

Those who came to Britain were often brought in by planters, government officials, and military and naval officers returning to the United Kingdom. These were the rich and famous of their time - one could even say they held a similar status to our modern day super stars. Theslaves were seen as reassuring companions, who might staunch some of the loneliness felt by the white expatriates on their long voyages back to an island they had not seen for decades.

Other blacks were offered to the commanders of slaving vessels as gifts, and were later sold into domestic service at quayside auctions or at coffee-houses in London, where they were given names such as John Smith or Tom Jones and expected to forget their unique cultures in order to embrace the andnew and strangeway of life Britain would now offer.

Slavery was legal in Britain until 1807, and many of these Africans found themselves working as butlers or other household attendants in aristocratic families. Their duties were not necessarily onerous; their chief function often seems to have been just to look decorative. They served as human equivalents of the porcelain, textiles, wallpapers and lacquered pieces that the English nobility were increasingly buying from the east.

These slaves were often dressed in fancy garb, their heads wrapped in bright turbans. Owners selected them on the basis of their looks and the lustre of their young skin, much as dog fanciers today might coo and trill over a cute poodle.

Could it be that this sudden interest in young blacks is nothing more than modern day version of trophy hunting, a past-time of the idle rich? It looks more and more as though blacks are the new black -the latest"must have" fashion statement and accessory.

Also read Ros Dodd's column about Madonna's adoption and leave your comments on our meesageboard.