(from our correspondent) The auxiliary bishop of Cape Coast, mgr. Matthias Nketsiah, recalled that Africans too were to be blamed for African slavery "as they were involved in the trade because they sold the slaves while others bought them": "Then we have to eat humble pie and blame ourselves as well. We have to learn from this lesson and put it to good use against modern slavery that mostly involve women and children". According to card. Theodore Sarr, archbishop of Dakar, this meeting "is a dream come true, the dream of apostolic cooperation between European and African bishops". And he commented that, even today, the Africans "are tempted to confine the history of slavery to the past, without speaking about it any more or drawing any lessons from it for the future". At the end of the workshop, the floor will discuss a proposed action which has already been developed by Secam and which will be submitted to the Lisbon Summit of politicians of the European Union and the African Union due in December.
