Saying sorry is a sign of strength!!

Slave trade was not an invention of the white man. They joined the trade, commercialized and perfected it on a massive scale. Centuries before the arrival of the first white man, the slave industry in human beings from Africa to Asia worked and prospered. Slavery was taken for granted in many African cultures. Empires in Central Africa benefited greatly from hunting slaves and traded with them. Tribal leaders have ordered human hunting and fought wars with the aim to make prisoners for commercial purposes. The Europeans made ​​use of existing social structures and trade routes.
With their quest for profit disguised, with missionary desire and lined with pseudo-scientific fairy tales about the inferiority of blacks, they joined the trade and continued it in large commercial scale with sophistication and subtleness. The Atlantic slave trade was one of the most complex economic enterprises of the pre-industrial era. It attracted investors from all over Europe. In addition to the classic seafaring nations, other countries like Germany, Switzerland invested considerable capital in the trade. Many economic sectors benefited from the slave trade: ship builders and equipment suppliers, manufacturers of goods for barter. Dozens of ships leave yearly starting from European ports with cargoes of iron goods, coarse cloth, alcohol, firearms, ammunition, and trinkets.

The sailing trips lasted on average one to four months. The cargo ships were crammed into the last corner; the chained slaves squatted on less than one square meter per person. It was unbearably hot and stuffy, foul water and sanitation led to the catastrophic epidemics. In the case of epidemics, the crew threw people overboard, every day dead and sick alike. One in eight of the enslaved were killed during the crossing.

The average mortality on Spanish shipments was, in the period from 1590 to 1699, even at 30%. Then there was the frightening high number of slaves who could not acclimatize to the colony and died soon after arrival. They were young and strong, predominantly men. They brought the most profit, and the chance alive to make it to America was great. Left behind were many single women, the elderly and infirm. Over bled population, that could not cultivate their fields or go for hunting and were not warriors, to defend themselves against hostile tribes. The effects on local social structures were really devastating.

Overall, in the Atlantic slave trade from 1444 to 1869, the year in which Portugal as the last European nation to ban the slave trade, 11 to 12 million people were abducted. For the Slave trade in Asia and the islands in the Indian Ocean, the evidence is less good. According to Estimates from the 9th century to 1900 about 12.5 million slaves were shipped, more than that of the Atlantic trade.

In the collective memory of Africa slavery is still present. In recent years there have been many attempts to obtain formal apologies from the slave trade and holder Nations. Complaints are filed, billions claims are raised, all to no avail. My question is why those countries, whose economic power today is based on the injustice of yesterday, still finding it hard admitting guilt.