Mehr als 400 Jahre lang erlitten schwarzafrikanische Männer Frauen und Kinder während des
transatlantischen Sklavenhandels schlimmste Formen der Versklavung und Erniedrigung durch
Katholiken und das westliche Christentum. Damals wie heute glaubte niemand an die tiefe
Verwicklung der Kirche und des Papsttums in den schwarzafrikanischen Holocaust. Trotz jüngster
Behauptungen des päpstlichen Officiums in Rom wonach die Päpste jegliche Form von Sklaverei
verurteilten so auch im Falle der Versklavung von Schwarzafrikanern verweisen neuere Studien
innerhalb dieses Forschungsfeldes auf das Gegenteil. Die Kirche und die Päpste nahmen vielmehr
zentrale Rollen in diesem schlimmsten Verbrechen gegen die Schwarzafrikaner seit Beginn der
schriftlichen Dokumentation ein. Mithilfe zahlreicher päpstlicher Bullen aus den Geheimarchiven
des Vatikans und einer Vielzahl an königlichen Dokumenten aus dem portugiesischen
Nationalarchiv in Lissabon strebt der vorliegende Band eine kritische und analytische
Untersuchung dieses Aspekts des transatlantischen Sklavenhandels an der über so viele Jahre
von den westlichen Historikern und Gelehrten verschleiert wurde.For over 400 years Black
African men women and children suffered the worst type of enslavement and humiliation from the
hands of Catholics and other Western Christians during the transatlantic slave trade. Before
now no one could ever believe that the Popes of the Church were deeply involved in this
Holocaust against Black African people. Despite the claims made by the hallowed papal office in
Rome in recent years that the Popes condemned the enslavement of peoples wherever it existed
including that of Black Africans recent researches in these fields of study have proved the
contrary to be true. The Church and her Popes were rather among the major role players in this
worst crime against Black Africans in recorded history. With the help of a considerable number
of papal Bulls from the Vatican Secret Archives and a great amount of Royal documents from the
Portuguese National Archives in Lisbon the present book is aiming to undertake a critical and
analytical inquiry of this aspect of the transatlantic slavery that has been kept in the dark
for so many years by the Western historians and scholars. The results of this studious but
fruitful academic inquiry are laid bare in this notable work of the 21st century.Pius Onyemechi
Adiele is a Catholic priest of Ahiara Diocese Mbaise and an alumnus of Seat of Wisdom Seminary
Owerri and Bigard Memorial Seminary Enugu in Nigeria. He obtained his licentiate in Theology
from the famous University of Münster and his doctoral degree in Church History from the
renowned University of Tübingen in Germany. At present he is a research fellow in the areas of
African Church History and Enslavement of peoples as well as the pastor in charge of the merged
parishes of Lauchheim Westhausen Lippach Röttingen and Hülen in Germany.
