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A Time for Healing: Benin Apologizes for their role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Feb. 2001
"Acknowledge the truth. Seek forgiveness."
This was the mission of the Republic of Benin's President Mathieu Kerekou as he led his countrymen in a difficult venture-reconciliation for the role of their ANCESTORS in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
WHRO'S Van Dora Williams teamed up with FOX 43's Kelly Wright to document this powerful event in Noble Desire, which aired February 7, 2001.
Descendants of African and European slave trading nations as well as representatives of the African diaspora were invited to participate in the Republic of Benin's recent Reconciliation and Development Conference. Three hundred people attended including the President of Ghana, nearly 50 African kings, two members of the U.S. Congress, delegations from several European nations and descendants of displaced Africans.
Three Virginians were among the American delegation that traveled to West Africa to hear the historic apologies. What they saw and heard changed their lives. The documentary recorded the historical apologies and captured the emotional process of reconciliation through the experiences of the three. Each had reason for coming, each returned transformed.
