More commitment pledged to Reparations continuity

Oct 19, 2014 News

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne has registered his commitment to continue the Region’s push towards Reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery.

Former Jamaican PM P.J. Patterson (far left, top row) and Antigua and Barbuda PM Gaston Browne (next to Patterson), pose with other attendees including Dr Hilary Beckles CARICOM Reparations Commission Chairman (second left bottom row) and Eric Phillips Guyana’s Reparations Committee chairman (second right, bottom row)

Leaders from across the Caribbean were last week in Antigua and Barbuda for the second Caribbean Community (CARICOM) conference on Reparations which began on Sunday. The three-day conference was aimed at intensifying discussions regarding the Community’s CRC’s 10-point plan on reparatory justice which was adopted by Caricom Heads last March.
Former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson gave the charge and entrusted the continuity of the pursuit of Reparations to Antiguan PM who assured that “the current Caribbean leaders have accepted the torch (for reparations) and will never allow it to be extinguished.”
Patterson in his address paid special tribute to the Rastafari brethren and ‘sistren’ in the audience whom he said “were among the first to carry on the struggle of indigenous and slave ancestors for reparatory justice. In the post-colonial period they stoked the embers and fanned the flames of the dying reparation fire. It has now become an unstoppable conflagration.”
The former PM focused his address on the issue of Africa’s role in the historic evil of human trafficking and challenged critics that assert that Africans should share moral responsibility for the crime against humanity that was committed because they were complicit.
“One should not place on a victim the guilt for a crime; so we should stop putting the guilt of the collaborator on the shoulders of the victim. The African continent was the victim of imperial exploitation and slavery and suffered a massive loss. It resulted in a major depopulation of Africa, with its heavy male bias. It destroyed age old political traditions, undermined tribal systems, corrupted both moral and civil practices. In short, it crippled the potential for economic growth and social development,” he said.
Patterson also pointed out that the infrastructure established to support the heinous trafficking of Africans was not known in Africa before the mass exportation of Africans to the West.
Patterson asserted that “The ideology of racism and the articulation of superiority and inferiority linked to race and colour were absent in Africa before the trans-Atlantic trade in Africans.”
He also posited that the history also showed that some African leaders were induced by intimidation or bribery or greed, to collaborate in the capture and transport of Africans destined for slavery.
Patterson stated emphatically that, “There is no principle in law which permits the organizers of a criminal enterprise to escape responsibility because others collaborated in carrying out the enterprise. Legal responsibility is not affected by any collaboration,” he stated.
“It was European nations who conceived the trade, put the enterprise into motion, controlled its operation and were massively enriched by it.”
PM Browne in his address opined that, “no other region in the world, with such very small populations and limited resources such as ours, has achieved nearly so much. Despite being robbed of our material well-being for centuries, the Caribbean has acted as a crucible for excellence. Think how much more we could have done, had we begun the task of building our countries with the basic tools to do it. That is why we are pursuing reparations,” he told the gathering.
“We are also pursuing reparations because the international community appears unmindful of the legacy of neglect upon which we have built. While some may be limited in their knowledge of this issue others are intentionally ignorant of it.”
The PM explained that, “the transnational slave trade resulted in the separation and destruction of many families and in the cultural values, tradition, beliefs and artefacts of our people. The atrocities committed against our people rank among the worst examples of human barbarism. This institutionalised trade in humans and its attendant atrocities have resulted in a state of underdevelopment in the Caribbean and Africa, 180 years after its abolition.”
Gaston posited that there is no doubt in his mind that the year Caribbean leaders will burn the flames of reparations and not let it out.
A number of expert economists, lawyers, academics, historians, faith-based leaders, community activists, scientists, journalists and artists to further map the national and regional strategies to advance the case for reparations from Europe were present. (Zena Henry)