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EPISODE 8: Why Is The History Of African Slavery Kept Hidden? with Martin Plaut
Can present-day African conflicts be understood without tracing their roots to slavery and colonialism? Should reparations be pursued as a path to justice, or do they risk deepening divides?
Historian and journalist Martin Plaut, whose upbringing under apartheid South Africa gives him a piercing lens on the unfinished business of history, shares his story from the Soweto uprising that jolted a generation into activism to the long shadow of slavery and colonialism.
Plaut reveals how the past still shapes the conflicts, inequalities, and prejudices of today. His book Unbroken Chains traces slavery’s complex story, one that extends beyond the transatlantic trade to include the complicity of African elites and the brutal mechanics of enslavement itself.
The legacy of slavery is not merely a matter of memory but a living force. The descendants of enslaved people still face stigma, while modern slavery thrives in new forms of exploitation, from human trafficking to bonded labor.
But if the arc of history does indeed bend towards freedom, what forces are pulling it back?