Organise and Mobilise, don’t Agonise

Aug 20, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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International Year for People of African Descent

By David A. Granger

Part 1

AUGUST COMMEMORATION
August is an awesome month. It reminds us of the Demerara Revolt when, on the bloody morning

of 20th August 1823, the British Army massacred over 200 Africans at Bachelor’s Adventure. This was the time, long before Facebook, when over 11,000 enslaved people from 55 plantations were able to assemble at a single time to demand their freedom and they were massacred.
August reminds us of the Essequibo Revolt which erupted on 3rd August 1834. This was the time when Africans thought that they had been freed because the Emancipation Act was brought into force on 1st August that year. When they were told that they were far from free and had to go back to the same plantations to work for four more years as a period of ‘apprenticeship’, they assembled in the Churchyard at La Belle Alliance and revolted in protest.
August reminds us of Emancipation Day which we celebrated recently. On the 1st August 1838, over 85,000 Africans were finally freed after over 200 years of enslavement on the Guyanese plantations.
August, therefore, is a fitting time to come together to commemorate the bloody sacrifices of our African forebears. They struggled, suffered and were slaughtered fighting for the freedom we enjoy today. We pay homage to them for the gift of Emancipation which they bought dearly and bequeathed to us. It was their legacy.
The celebration of anniversaries and jubilees and the commemoration of revolts are important for every generation to remember and to re-learn the lessons of the past. But we must now move forward. We now have the opportunity and there is now a necessity for us to do so.

THE TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADE IN CAPTIVE AFRICANS
There are about 200,000 or more Persons of African Descent living in Guyana and their ancestors have been living here for over three hundred and fifty years. The Dutch were the first Europeans to colonise our territory and they brought Africans with them from as early as the 17th century. The subsequent development of plantations in the colonies of Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara created an increased demand for labour. So over that period, the supply of Africans, particularly from West Africa was almost continuous.
This was the start of the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Captive Africans which – in scale, in scope and in span of time – was the most inhumane system in the history of human civilization. It was a crime against humanity and it is punishable under international law.
The forced labour of enslaved Africans earned enormous amounts of wealth which enriched the exchequers of the European Empires – mainly the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The era of enslavement, however, inflicted an enduring legacy of underdevelopment in Guyana, the Caribbean and elsewhere.
Emancipation brought no compensation or reparation for the inequities, injustices and injuries of enslavement. It brought no end to economic exploitation and ethnic discrimination.

INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT
The United Nations stated that around 200 million people who identify themselves as being of African descent live in the Americas. Many millions more live in other parts of the world, outside of the African continent.
The international community realised, belatedly, that enslavement, indeed was a great crime against People of African Descent, that the consequences have caused damage and that compensation or some form or reparation must be made to heal the wounds and this basically is what I want to speak about today.
The Declaration of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance issued at the conclusion of the Conference held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, asserted that people of African and Asian descent along with indigenous peoples continue to be victims of the consequences of the slave trade, slavery and colonialism.
The ‘Declaration’ stated: “… that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so.”
The United Nations General Assembly, on the 18th December 2009, nearly seven years ago, proclaimed the year beginning on 1st January 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent.
The main objective of the ‘International Year’ was to raise awareness of the challenges facing People of African descent and to hope that the ‘Year’ would foster discussions that could generate proposals for solutions to tackle these challenges.
The ‘International Year’ was aimed at strengthening national action and regional and international cooperation for the benefit of people of African descent. This included their full enjoyment of economic, cultural, social, civil and political rights, their participation and integration in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of society and the promotion of a greater knowledge of, and respect for, their diverse heritage and culture.
In proclaiming the International Year, the international community tried to recognise that People of African Descent represented a distinct group whose human rights must be promoted and protected.
The Government-of-the-day had other plans for the ‘International Year’ and cleverly turned it into an all-but-forgotten ‘song-and-dance’ show. African organisations assembled and expressed their displeasure at the process implemented by the Guyana Government at that time to design a programme for the observance of the International Year for People of African Descent.
The assembly, that is, the assembly of African organisations, passed a resolution expressing: “displeasure with the process used to create the Government’s Programme as it did not properly consult with major African groups, organizations and stakeholders in Guyana.”
At the dawn of the ‘International Year’, the situation was already dire. It did recognize that, despite the efforts to establish an independent agrarian village-based economy in Guyana in the post-Emancipation decades, the planter class and the government-of-the-day undermined the African initiative.
It did recognize that People of African Descent continued to be subject to ethnic discrimination after Emancipation. Guyana and other countries of the Caribbean have not fully overcome the class inequalities which have their origin in the era of enslavement:
The economic structures of the region today, retain the emphasis on the production and exportation of primary commodities which has rendered Caribbean economies dependent and underdeveloped.
The people of the Caribbean have been bequeathed a legacy of dispossession. African Caribbean people, including African-Guyanese, continue to struggle for “recognition, justice and development.” They continue to agitate for ‘reparative justice’ for the crimes of the slave trade and slavery.
The international community, at the end of the International Year of People of African Descent, recognised that much more had to be done.

INTERNATIONAL DECADE FOR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT
The United Nations General Assembly, by Resolution 68/237 on the 23rd December 2013, designated the decade 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2024, as the International Decade for the People of African Descent. Twenty months ago this decade started.
The General Assembly, also, by Resolution 69/16 of 18th November, 2014 adopted a Programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel; there is already on the table a programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent crafted by the United Nations.
The latter ‘Resolution’ called upon the member states to “take concrete and practical steps… to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance faced by people of African descent….” The ‘Resolution’ outlined areas for action by member states of which Guyana is one.
In the event that you are not aware, some African-Guyanese organizations did launch the ‘International Decade’ on 24th January 2015 at Independence Park in Georgetown, which I had the honour to address. It was not well-attended. It was on a Saturday. I had the honour, also, to address the International Youth Reparations Rally on 20thMay, also at Independence Park. Guyana, therefore, has an obligation to take action in accordance with the ‘Declaration’.
The Government of Guyana fully supports this ‘Programme of activities which includes the demand for reparations for People of African descent and for indigenous peoples. Twenty months of the ‘International Decade’ have elapsed. There needs to be, now, an organisation and a plan in order to ensure the implementation of the ‘Programme.’ Guyana will continue to agitate for reparations for the international crime of enslavement.

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