REPARATIONS NOW

REPARATIONS NOW!

By Barbara Makeda Blake Hananah

The World Conference acknowledges and profoundly regrets the massive human sufferings and the tragic plight of millions of men, women and children caused by slavery, slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide, and calls upon States concerned to honour the memory of the victims… and to develop programmes for the social and economic development of these societies and the Diaspora within the framework of a new partnership based on the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect.” United Nations WCAR, Durban – South Africa, September 8, 2001.

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“This is a Conference about the ethical foundations of a new world community.”

“Permanent Observer of the Holy See (Vatican) to the United Nations.”

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When the United States and Israel walked out of the United Nations sponsored World Conference Against Racism, Racial Intolerance and Xenophobia (WCAR), their action opened wide the door for international focus and discussion on African Reparations -- the issue which had brought many people to Durban, South Africa in September 2001.

The absence from the US delegation of Colin Powell – the first descendant of African slaves to be appointed to the most important non-elected job in the US government, had led many attendees to interpret this action as clear evidence that America of wanted to avoid any discussion of the controversial Reparations issue. The presence of several African heads of state and government and the choice of South Africa as venue of the Conference, indicated the clear intention to make Reparations a central issue.

When the US/Israel teams departed, the way became clear for Reparations to take center stage, enabling the presentation of a wide variety of human rights abuses from victims who felt justified in making specific demands for Reparations. The cry for Reparations came not just from Africans in the Continent, in the Americas and the Caribbean, but from members of such disparate disenfranchised groups as South American Indians, European gypsies, and members of India’s lowest caste – the Dallits.

Two drafting groups were given the task of preparing a Working Paper and a Plan of Action addressing all aspects of Racism, Racial Intolerance and Xenophobia. However, the issues continually presented by African and Caribbean delegates concerning racism resulting from 300 years of African enslavement in the Americas by Europeans, and subsequent colonialism and indentureship in the Caribbean and South America, caused prolonged discussions which became an obstacle to discussion of other sections of the document.

Thus, a separate caucus was set up consisting of African and Caribbean delegates on one side, and delegates representing the former enslaving and colonial powers on the other, to formulate a document on African Reparations which would be acceptable to both sides. The results of the heated 3-day debate in this caucus produced the most important document to emerge from the WCAR. I was lucky to have been present in this caucus, and to make an input on the needs of the Rastafarian community.

APOLOGY FOR CRIME AGAINSTY HUMANITY

The Reparations controversy centers around the primary and uncompromising demand that an Apology from enslaving nations be offered to victims of slavery. In addition -- and even before any discussion of financial reparations -- the victims want the enslaving nations to admit that slavery was a ‘crime against humanity’, then and now.

However, any nation that admits an “apology” is necessary, opens itself up to class action suits such as the one filed in the US Supreme Court by a legal team representing the Afro-American community. The prospect of a successful litigation causing these countries to pay out Billions to establish Reparations funds, or to carry out the social and humanitarian work necessary to bring people of African descent on par with the peoples of the nations that enslaved them, is abhorrent to them at present. This, despite the payment of Reparations to several groups of people and communities for recent crimes against humanity. The State of Israel received reparations estimated at US$7 Billion annually for the sufferings of the Jewish holocaust, and groups such as Japanese Americans interned during World War 11, Korean women used as sex slaves by Japanese in the same war and Native American Indians have also received reparations for human rights abuses in the 20^th Century. The crimes against Africans 300 years ago still affect their descendants today, victims declare.

As Fidel Castro said in his address at the WCAR Opening Ceremony, “The inhuman exploitation imposed on the peoples of three continents, marked forever the destiny and lives of over 4.5 billion people living in the Third World today, whose poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and health rates as well as their infant mortality, life expectancy and other calamities are certainly awesome and harrowing. They are the current victims of that atrocity which lasted centuries, and the ones who clearly deserve compensation for the horrendous crimes perpetrated against their ancestors and peoples.”

However, the representatives of the enslaving nations could not be moved. Speaking through the delegates of Belgium representing the European Union, and also on behalf of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and (surprisingly) Japan, the best that could be offered to the victims was ‘regrets’. The European group further pointed out that slavery was not a ‘crime against humanity’ when it was happening 300 years ago (yes! It was indeed legal!) and therefore could not be so declared in retrospect – a fine splitting of hairs which was rejected by the representatives of the victims of slavery.

Ambassador Dudley Thompson, member of the Jamaican delegation to WCAR and longstanding member of the international Pan-African movement, had this to say:

“Those who opposed Reparations eventually conceded that the Slave Trade ought to be discussed but our debate should not look backward, but be confined to the future. This is of course ridiculous, as John Henryck Clarke said: “The events that happened 5000 years ago or 50 years or 5 minutes ago have determined what will happen 5 minutes from how – 50 years from now --- 5000 years from now. All history is current events.”

Lord Anthony Gifford, a white Englishman who used his Peerage to debate the issue of Reparations in the House of Lords and who attended WCAR as representative of the Group of International Lawyers for Reparations, had this to say: “This crime against humanity, i.e. the Atlantic Slave Trade and the institution of chattel slavery, has poisoned human relations on our planet. It is the prime cause of the underdevelopment of the people in Africa, the Caribbean, in the Diaspora and also the cause of the sickness of racism. It caused the spiritual impoverishment of white Europeans.”

WCAR REPARATIONS STATEMENT

The militant insistency of the African Diaspora delegates, enabled the caucus to emerge with a document which declared that: The World Conference acknowledges and profoundly regrets the massive human sufferings and the tragic plight of millions of men, women and children caused by slavery, slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide, and calls upon States concerned to honour the memory of the victims… and to develop programmes for the social and economic development of these societies and the Diaspora within the framework of a new partnership based on the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect.”

Several development programmes are described, including Debt Relief, poverty eradication, foreign direct investment, market access, agriculture and food security, health infrastructure, physical infrastructure development, restitution of art objects and historical artifacts, and the facilitation of welcomed return and resettlement of descendants of enslaved Africans.

Reparations, therefore, can be seen as more than simply the award of huge sums of money. As Ambassador Thompson describes it so well: “ Reparations is not a penalty against some for wrong-doing, but requires an acceptance of their responsibility for that wrong-doing. It is not a process of confrontation, but of reconciliation. Reparations aims at curing the imbalance, of leveling the playing fields of human relationships on this globe. It signifies the Black global renaissance in the unrelenting march through time for the universal recognition of Black equality, the development of their natural capacity and the recognition of their full dignity towards the one inseparable humanity on this planet.

While in Durban, I was part of a discussion in which someone suggested that it would be good for the former enslaving nations to set up an interest-earning Reparations Fund of US$30 Billion which could begin to establish the programmes recommended in the WCAR document. This seemed like a huge sum of money, but we all admitted that this was wishful thinking without the input and presence of the US. How ironic that one week after the Durban walkout, the US was victim of horrible aggression which led them to immediately offer Pakistan $30 Billion (and later a further $30 Billion) for their help in launching the war against Afghanistan – a war which will ultimately cost much, much more than they would have been called on to pay out for Reparations – a war which some say would not have been started if America had played a different role in Durban regarding its obligations to the African Diaspora (with its large Muslim population) and the Middle East.

The issue of Reparations has now become the issue of the new Millenium. Around the world delegates to WCAR have returned home to set up national reparations committees to maintain contact with the UN in its ongoing commitment to the issues of WCAR, and to lobby their governments to participate on their behalf in the global discussions and negotiations. Here in Jamaica, where Reparations has always been a major objective of the 70-year-old Rastafarian movement, the on-going work has received new energy from the Durban WCAR. An International Reparations Support Group has been set up on the Internet with a global membership including an Ambassador, an African Chief, an English Lord and Professors from several universities. A website has also been built (http://www.geocities.com/i_makeda) for access to documents, links and message interchange on Reparations and soon a Jamaican Reparations Movement will be launched.

REPARATIONS NOW! A LUTA CONTINUA!