DURBAN, South Africa - Africa was headed for a showdown
Wednesday with its former masters over demands that states that
profited from the slave trade and colonialism apologize and pay
reparations for the damage done. The European Union and Africa
remain far apart in their talks on the issue at a U.N.-sponsored
conference on racism, with the Europeans offering increased cash
for aid but rejecting the notion of reparations. African
delegates maintain that the affluence enjoyed by many in the
developed world today was built on the backs of slave labor and
the raw materials extracted from the world's Nobel Peace
laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses journalists at the
World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa
September 5, 2001. Tutu made a call for reparations for slavery
saying that they would be like a balm to the wounds of Africa's
past. (Juda Ngwenya/Reuters) ``The slave trade destroyed
Africa's human resources ... and the lack of those human
resources weakened the continent,'' said