Lessons in slavery

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says slavery is a terrible part of the United States' history and should be taught in a way that connects that past cruelty to current events, such as the genocide in Darfur. During an interview with CNN while traveling in Ghana, Obama compared the legacy of slavery to the history of the Holocaust. He said both are horrible historical points that cannot be ignored and that their lessons must not be forgotten.

All very well and good, but will they teach the truth about slavery? For instance will they mention that world wide there were estimated to be 27 million people living in slavery in 2001, that is more than twice the 12 million slaves involved in the entire North Atlantic Slave trade?

Will they mention all the references to slavery in the Old testament, the Torah and the Koran, all written more than a thousand years before America was discovered, and whilst most Northern Europeans lived in tribes and did not own slaves. Will they let slip the fact that the entire ancient world including Egypt and Mesopotamia etc were built on slavery. Will they mention the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the ancient Aztec temples?

Will they teach our children that Saudi Arabia didn't abolish slavery until 1962 almost 100 years after the civil war or that Ethiopia, an African country which was never a colony didn't end slavery until 1935, at which time there were estimated to be between three hundred thousand and 2 million slaves serving a population of between eight and sixteen million.

Coming back up to date, will they reveal the fact that Niger in west Africa did not end the practice of slavery until 2004 (just five years ago)

Will they draw attention to the leading role which Europe played in ending the slave trade and the role the British Navy played in enforcing Abolition?

I somehow doubt these are the facts which Obama and his dishonest ilk plan to teach to American children, in the same way that they are not the truths which are being taught today in British schools.