ACCRA Conference Book (Bankie)

Returning to the source via Reconciliation,
Reparations, Repatriation, Transformation and
African Nationalism – Creating the future
Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Ghana
Legon, Ghana, July 24-27, 2006
Edited by: Nana Yaa Asantewaa Ohema, Queenmother,
Dorothy Faye ‘Oravouche’ Benton Lewis and
Bankie Forster Bankie
Returning to the source via Reconciliation, Reparations, Repatriation,
Transformation and African Nationalism – Creating the future
Edited by Nana Yaa Asantewaa Ohema, Queenmother,
Dorothy Faye ‘Oravouche’ Benton Lewis and Bankie Forster Bankie
Proceedings of a Conference held at the University of Ghana – Legon, Ghana,
July 24-27, 2006
Front and Backcover Portraits of
Ras Mortimo ‘Kumi’ Planno
6th September 1929 - 5th March 2006
Member of the 1961 Jamaican Mission to Africa
Returning to the source via Reconciliation, Reparations, Repatriation, Transformation
and African Nationalism – Creating the future
Edited by Nana Yaa Asantewaa Ohema, Queenmother,
Dorothy Faye ‘Oravouche’ Benton Lewis and Bankie Forster Bankie
Proceedings of a Conference held at the University of Ghana – Legon, Ghana,
July 24-27, 2006
Front and Backcover Portraits of
Ras Mortimo ‘Kumi’ Planno
6th September 1929 - 5th March 2006
Member of the 1961 Jamaican Mission to Africa
Returning to the source via Reconciliation, Reparations, Repatriation, Transformation
and African Nationalism – Creating the future
Proceedings of the Conference held at the University of Ghana –
Legon, Ghana, July 24-27, 2006
Dedication to Ras Mortimo ‘Kumi’ Planno September 06, 1929 to March 05, 2006
Convened by
NCOBRA International Affairs Commission, USA
SUCARDIF Association, Ghana
i
Returning to the source via Reconciliation, Reparations, Repatriation, Transformation and
African Nationalism – Creating the future
Editors: Nana Yaa Asantewaa Ohema, Queenmother, Dorothy Faye ‘Oravouche’ Benton Lewis
and Bankie Forster Bankie
First Edition published in 2012 by 23rd March Publications
P. O. Box 1480
Windhoek, Namibia
© Copyright 23rd March Publications, 2012
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the copyright holder.
ISBN: 978-99945-73-42-4
Printed by the Polytechnic Press at the Polytechnic of Namibia
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Acronyms
page
Dedication to Mortimo Planno
J. Niaah
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION
v
1
12
1.1 Keynote address - The contet of Today’s Reparations and Repatriation Movement 13
K. Gauva
1.2 Why the Global Pan-African Reparations and Repatriation Conference (GPARRC)
17
I.N. Ababio
1.3 Exploring the issue of Afrikan complicity in the past and present crimes of the
Maangamizi and continuing Afrikan Holocaust
20
J.S. Agboton
1.4 The Arab quest for Lebensraum in Africa and the challenges to Pan-Afrikanism
23
Chinweizu
1.5 Policies of De-Nubianization in Egypt and Sudan:
An ancient people on the brink of extinction
37
M.J. Haashim
1.6 Pan-Afrikanism, the US origin of AIDS and the US cure
for AIDS: We can save ourselves and our future
49
B.E. Graves
CHAPTER 2 – RECONCILIATION
52
2.1 Global harmony, bilateral compassion and sustainable
reconciliation
A.B. Larrier
2.2 Strategies for eliminating ‘Inter-Communal Violence’ on
the African continent
C.A. Bah
CHAPTER 3 – REPARATIONS
53
62
65
3.1 The critical role of Pan-Afrikan education in the global
Reparations struggle
A. Daniels
3.2 Self-Reparations for Afrikan Power: Pan-Afrikanism
and Black Consciousness
Chinweizu
iii
66
68
3.3 3.4 3.5 Mauritania’s crime against African humanity and the
efforts for Reparations
G. Diallo
Slavery and racism in Mauritania
S. Thiam
Arab slavery of Africans in the Afro-Arab Borderlands – The Sudan case
3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 B. F. Bankie
Reparations – The global African perspective
Paramount Chief K. Riruako
Study of National Legislative Reparations initiatives
and Reparations campaigns in the Republic of South Africa
M. Moss
Realities and challenges of Reparations
E. Aharone
Draft Application to the International Court of Justice
Imari Obadele et. al., for the Provisional Government
of the Republic of New Afrika, USA
Workers contribution to the Reparations Struggle
G. Watson
The role and relationship of the IMF, the World Bank and
other ‘Global Financial Institutions’ in the Global
Reparations Movement
J.S. Agboton
CHAPTER 4 – REPATRIATION
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 100
102
114
128
131
137
152
158
162
Repatriation/Reparations Position Paper
S. Nkrumah
Invoice – Reparations for Repatriation
B.M.B. Hannah on behalf of the Reparations Movement in
Jaimaica (JaRM)
SANKOFA United Continent African Roots
Development International Family Association (SUCARDIF)
N. Gypei
Returning home ain’t easy but it sure is a blessing
I. N. Ababio
CHAPTER 5 – TRANSFORMATION
5.1 87
163
166
182
185
203
Obstacles to a United States of Africa: Looking beyond the
State System towards Political Integration
Y. Gebe
iv
204
Acronyms
CHAPTER 6 – TRANSFORMATION, REPARATIONS, REPATRIATION,
AND RECONCILIATION
216
6.1 6.2 A Short Paper – Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation,
and Reconciliation by Global African Congress, Barbados
T. Cheeseman for and on behalf of the Barbadian 217
Pan-African Community
Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation, and Reconciliation
Position Paper – Caribbean Rastafari Organization (CRO)221
CHAPTER 7 – CONCLUSIONS
7.1 7.2 224
Resolutions of the Accra Conference
Reparations and a New Global Order: A comparative
overview - Chinweizu
v
224
228
Acronyms
List of Acronyms
AD: Anno Domino (the year of the Lord)
AME: African Methodist Episcopal Church
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ALECSO: Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization
ANC: African National Congress
ARAASD: Arab Research Centre for Arab-African Studies and Documentation
ARPA: Aswan Regional Planning Authority
AU: African Union
AUT: Association of University Teachers
AWRRTC: Afrikan World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission
BC: Before the birth of Christ
CASAS: Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society
CEO: Chief Executive Officer
CERD: Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination
CIAS: Conference of Independent African States
COINTELPRO: Counter Intelligence Program
COMESA: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
CPP: Convention People’s Party
CRO: Caribbean Rastafarian Organisation
CWC: Cricket World Cup
DC: District of Columbia
ECCAS: Economic Community of Central African States
ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States
EU: European Union
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
FLAM: African Liberation Forces of Mauritania
FPS-21: Foreign Policy Statement-21
GAC: Global Afrikan Congress
GEP: Group of Eminent Persons
GLASS: Grassroots, Legislative, Attorneys, Scholars, Students
GPARRC: Global Pan-Afrikan Reparations and Repatriation Conference
HIM: His Imperial Majesty
HIPC: Heavily Indebted Poor Country
HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus
IAAS: Institute of African and Asian Studies
ICJ: International Court of Justice
IDPs: Internally Displaced People
IGAD: Intergovernmental Authority on Development
vi
Acronyms
IIFWP: Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace
IMF: International Monetary Fund
IQ: Intelligence Quotient
JaRM: Reparations Movement of Jamaica
JPIC: Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee
JLP: Jamaica Labour Party
ICT: Information and Communication Technology
IRIE-FM: Irie National Radio
MDG: Millennium Development Goals
MP: Member of Parliament
NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NEPAD: New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development
NCOBRA National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
NGO: Non-governmental Organization
NUJ: National Union of Journalists
ODA: Office of Development Assistance
OIC: Organization of Islamic Conference
OSSREA: Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa
OWW: One World Week
OAU: Organization of African Unity
PANA: Pan-African News Agency
PANIO: Pan-African Improvement Organisation
PG RNA: Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika
QC: Queen’s Counsel
PRC: People’s Republic of China
RMT: The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
RNA: Republic of New Afrika
SADC: Southern African Development Community
SAP: Structural Adjustment Programme
SNCC: Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
SOS-Esclaves: SOS-Slaves (an anti-slavery organization)
SPLM: Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
SUCARDIF: Sankofa United Continent African Roots Development International Family
Association
TMV: Tobacco Mosaic Virus
TRC (R&R): Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Reparations and Rehabilitation) Committee
TST: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
TUC: Trade Union Congress
UDOHT: Universal Day of Hope Trust
UK: United Kingdom
UN: United Nations
vii
Niaah
UNDP: United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNGEGN: United Nations Experts on Geographical Names
UNHCR: United Nations High Commission for Refugees
UNHRC: United Nations Human Rights Commission
UNIA: Universal Negro Improvement Association
US: United States
USA: United States of America
USIS: United States Information Services
USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
UWI: University of the West Indies
WANGO: World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
WBAI: World Broadcast Associates, Inc.
WCAR: World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related
Intolerance
WCC: World Council of Churches
1
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Mortimo Planno: Rastafari Teacher, Leader
September 06, 1929 to March 05, 2006
Jahlani Niaah
Mortimo Planno, born in Cuba in 19291, is as old as the Rastafari Movement in which he is a
key teacher-leader. He was an activist, who served not only his West Kingston home base but
the Jamaican and African community in general, through his work developing critical thought
and advancing the struggle for African Liberation. The fourth of five children born to May Parker
and Cuban tobacconist Miguel Planno, Mortimo arrived in Jamaica as an infant in the early
1930s. Here he enjoyed the benefit of his father’s business success, which allowed the family’s
acquisition of some five properties in Kingston and St Andrew. This was short-lived however, as
within a few years of their arrival in Jamaica, his father returned to Cuba and his mother was to
lose these properties at the hands of lawyers, plunging the household into a life of poverty and
hardship.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mortimo was scarcely 10 years old. Even at this tender
age, he had to help support his brothers and sisters and ailing mother. He quickly developed a
street savvy, as well as a strong sense of community responsibility. He joined a roving band of
youngsters scavenging off the spoils of the streets all over the
city. In these difficult local conditions, youth like himself had few options – the market place,
betting shops and racetracks were among their chief haunts. These youth gathered in numbers
where they could hustle a meal and dive a few coins2 to sustain their and their families’ lives.
By 1941 the Planno family had relocated from Princess Street (a property once owned by his
father) to government tenements in Trench Town. In Trench Town in 1950, the Daily Gleaner
makes the first mention of Mortimo, as procuring stolen goods. The court sentences him to
six months in prison with hard labour, presumably to teach him a lesson, as this was his 10th
1
2
Planno has two dates of birth: 1929, the actual year he was born in Cuba; and 1933, the year he is
registered as born in Jamaica. The latter was given in the official Jamaican records to provide him
with Jamaican birth and registration records and documents. Planno has indicated that at the time of
his departure from Cuba with his mother his age was also falsified so as to receive free passage on his
parents’ travel documents. I have also come across documentation indicating that Planno was born in
1920: this, however, is an error.
The Kingston Harbour historically has attracted large numbers of youth, young boys in particular,
who participate in a spectacle (and for some an occupation) of retrieving coins from the bottom of
the sea.
2
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arrest.3 This short period of imprisonment seems to have marked a transition in Planno’s life
as far as his Rastafari journey is concerned. After this we next encounter Mortimo through the
press as a leading member of the Rastafari Movement based in the Dungle. Planno not only
contributed to the Movement’s development, but also wrote himself into the annals of the PanAfrican struggle through his outstanding ideational engagement with a society at a crossroads
at a time of decolonisation and post-World War II recovery. By his twenties Mortimo Planno had
cultivated the then unique aesthetic of the dreadlocks, and was among West Kingston’s most
respected young leaders. By his third decade Planno was regarded by many in his community
as an elder and was consulted on all matters of extreme importance to the community.
Living in West Kingston for over 40 years, Planno commanded the attention of successive
generations of its population, especially the youth. He applied his brand of activism in a variety
of ways, particularly teaching his neighbours what he had unearthed in his thinking about and
researching the African situation.
Though Mortimo Planno fits comfortably into the role of Rastafari plenipotentiary, his most
important skill was as a community teacher. Planno’s strategic engagement was always at times
of urgency. This is what is most compelling about Planno’s work, from the simplicity of climbing
into a tree to read the news or talking about interesting issues to those gathered at his yard,
to the acquisition of up-to-date resources and equipment to develop the creativity of the urban
dispossessed through writing, dramatic performances, painting and composing music. He also
managed and trained athletes and musicians, sold and traded goods, fed and sheltered the
needy, facilitated lectures, led national demonstrations and held discussions with whoever was
willing. However, his greatest strength was his instinctive understanding of psychology: his use
of non-conventional methods to treat, teach and even cure those perceived as having lost their
way. His students ranged from the lowly to the high and mighty: through his influence many
were inspired to dedicate themselves to vocations that led to fame for themselves and their
communities. Among those who could be considered colleagues, or who through curiosity or
chance engaged in intellectual exchanges with him throughout the 1960s and 1970s, were Sir
Arthur Lewis, Sir Roy Augier, Professor Nettleford, Professor Brathwaite, Professor Peter
Heyman, George Beckford4 and Walter Rodney5.
3
The article in the Gleaner is captioned: “Boy 17, 10th arrest for larceny”, in keeping with the 1933 date
of birth. See Daily Gleaner, June 16, 1950, p.12.
4
In 1967 Planno and George Beckford called a press conference involving Milton Scott and Leroy Taylor
(both academics) calling for the investigation into what seemed to be the government’s arbitrary seizure/
cancellation of the travel documents (passports) belonging to them and 21 other individuals. See Daily
Gleaner, May 9, 1967, p.8.
5
Not only was Planno a frequent contributor to the newspapers through letters to the editor, but he was
also regularly mentioned in other persons’ writings as a Rastafari thinker and activist for the Back-toAfrica movement. In his and official archives (the Gleaner’s in particular) there are many photos and
other citations demonstrating Planno’s centrality within the society.
3
Niaah
Five decades of Planno’s orature, capable leadership, intellectual ability and impeccable timing,
with respect to being in the right place at the right time, produced a “quantum leap” in the
thinking of African-Jamaican folk leadership.
Bro Kumi would refer to himself generally as an unlettered dunce and an idiot (perhaps also to
anticipate some of his critiques). Nonetheless, while he continued striving to learn and master
the world of thought. An avid reader whose daily practice included reading both major daily
newspapers as well as the evening paper, he attended the Central Branch Commissorium at
Peters Lane and Church Street. After a brief stay at that institution he moved to St Anthony’s
elementary school on Orange Street, to the St Aloysius Boys’6 School on Duke Street, and
finally to St Anne’s Secondary, in Hannah Town. In addition to this formal schooling, Planno
tutored himself in writing and theorising about the African condition, social and political history,
international relations and the Pan-African movement.
In trying to assess the significance of Planno’s role and place within the leadership brought by
Ras Tafari as well as the Rastafari movement, I would argue that Brother Planno constituted
the consummate teacher, and has long since inaugurated an institution of Folk Philosophy
(or an indigenous knowledge system) through his life’s work, his engagement with students,
compositions and other creative endeavours. His production of his autobiographical text The
Earth Most Strangest Man: The Rastafarian, confirms his scholastic discipline and his indelible
intellectual contribution. Beyond being an oratorical vernacular intellectual work, Planno’s
treatise adds a different voice to the literatures that examine the Rastafari Movement. The
text falls outside of disciplinary boundaries, as it does not take the conventional historical,
sociological, religious, political or theological approach used to analyse the movement, and yet
arrives at a complete treatment of all those subjects. The work is perhaps best described as a
testimonial. This book of 104 single-spaced pages is an exhaustive account of the Movement’s
significant fact-findings, in particular those concerning Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopia and
Back-to-Africa.
This book could rightfully be considered a Rastafari classic, as it represents an early and thick
description of the Rastafari from one of its key sources. Added to this, Planno hinges his book’s
production on the long-established connection between genuine folk philosophers and the official
institution of higher learning. Planno is known to have taken advantage of such institutional
connections, and as early as 1959 was in dialogue with the Principal of the University of the
West Indies. More than a decade later he was to employ a similar strategy to help preserve
some of his manuscripts when he forged a link with United States-based anthropologist Lambros
Comitas (and later Carole Yawney). Comitas’ centre, the Research Institute for the Study of Man
in New York, produced a type-bound version of Planno’s text. This text was presented to Planno
St. Aloysius became a co-educational institution in the 1970s.
6
4
Niaah
by Comitas at the inaugural Conference on Caribbean Culture in honour of Rex Nettleford in
1996.
In Rastafari’s urban history, Planno has been a key player either in orchestrating protests and
key events or as a developer of programmatic activity. Planno’s reputation as a leader of the
poor places him as one of the most important characters in Trench Town, West Kingston, in
the 1950s and 1960s. Yawney (1979) provides us with an account of the Trench Town Locus
in the late 1960s-early 1970s. She notes the teaching of Amharic7 at Planno’s Yard and the
energy with which this resonated throughout the entire community. She states that his Ethiopian
World Federation Local 37 provided a suitable hub for this activity. This local’s members came
from outside of West Kingston (Mountain View, August Town and rural Jamaica) to join in the
exchange. According to Yawney, the Salt Lane Temple, Jones Town Cultural Centre and Planno’s
Fifth Street institute were the main hubs of activity. The Trench Town Movement had its impact
further afield as well, as Rastas hanged banners, held events along the Race Course at Heroes
Circle, and advertised such activities as far away as the University in Mona. It is also clear that
the network had international connections: the Amharic Training programme benefited from an
Ethiopian tutor (Ziguy) and Amharic tapes from an unnamed American Professor. Planno says,
“Rasta mek Jamaica … get more money, get more house get more everything …”
“Trench Town responsible for ska, rock steady, reggae and dub …”, (Planno, 1998) all of which
translate to more money.
Ironically, by the end of the 1970s, with “urban renewal” projects and the guns, gangs and
garrisons that took root, most of these mobile Rastafari communities had been forced to relocate
and Trench Town’s cultural light seems to have been extinguished.
Planno Provides a Light: The Open Yard
Planno operated a total institution in Trench Town. He facilitated the community’s advancement
by allowing a range of cultural activities, as if he were running an institutional centre for cultural
research and training. This developed over a number of years – by the second half of the 1960s
Planno’s Yard had established its own reputation. Planno took up full residence at his mother’s
home after she died in the mid-1950s and bettered himself through learning, experimentation, and
cultural activities8. After returning from the 1961 Mission to Africa he had become the Rastafari
plenipotentiary, and indeed this reputation was confirmed during Emperor Haile Selassie’s visit
in 1966. Until 1972 many ideas were pursued to link with Africa. Planno committed himself to
this at several different levels. After the 1961 Mission he knew that there was a need to prepare
Instruction in Amharic was quite influential. Artistes incorporated the language into their music back
7
8
then, and still do to this day. Rastafarian artistes usually use Amharic for their spiritual salutations and
praises.
A spinoff and perhaps more formalized expression of this was the “Yard Theatre”, developed at 12
Princess Alice Drive (Brathwaite, 1976, p.30). There were also formal collaborations between Planno
and the Yard Theatre, in the production of “Consciousness I” in 1969, for example. For a review of the
play see the Daily Gleaner, December 11, 1969, p.6.
5
Niaah
those interested in repatriation, and at the same time to deepen the linkages with Africa by
developing intergovernmental links as well as educating the entire population – through wordsound confrontation – about the logic of African repatriation.
Planno had learnt from His Imperial Majesty that the brethren should prepare themselves,
but he cautioned that it would not be the speedy process that some might have expected,
and that it would involve women and children as well as brethren. Shortly after returning from
Africa he embarked on a three-month tour of the United States, bringing word to the American
African Diaspora of the Rastafarian concepts and the Mission to five African countries that had
resulted from Rasta activism around the Back-to-Africa notion. In 1963 a three-man delegation
journeyed to New York to present the Rastafari case for repatriation to the United Nations. The
local clamour for repatriation was to reach an all-time high with the visit of the Emperor in 1966.
Many in the Movement’s ranks believed that Haile Selassie’s arrival meant that the vessels for
repatriation would also come. This did not happen.
Planno however, was keen on preparing the people through cultural instruction. He also
attempted to populate the land grant in Ethiopia by relocating selected families to Shashamanie.
A total of nine families were repatriated this way in the late 1960s. These families were closely
linked to the Rastafari Movement (Local 37) base, and received farming equipment and supplies
thanks to Planno’s fundraising activities.
Rightly, Planno and his ilk were described as driven less by logic than vision. It is this clear PanAfrican Vision that sees Planno not as a dreamer but an agent of African development. What is it
that Planno sought to do as an agent of African development on Repatriation, his life’s work? In
what follows we examine how Planno helped make visions of repatriation/redemption a reality.
Yawney’s (2001, p.134) schema of a “repatriation continuum” is a useful framework through
which to view Planno’s work. As an elder teacher, Planno was the Repatriation continuum
personified. He was integral in fashioning the tools for developing individuals. Yawney describes
the repatriation continuum as serving to define a community of resistance using networks to
strengthen African linkages between the Diaspora and the Continent. Yawney views repatriation
as being more salient now, given worsening conditions in the West and the intensified debate
around reparation. She argues that debate about repatriation has often intensified during
periods of increased “criminalisation” or victimisation. This was especially the case between the
late 1950s and the late 1970s. Various pieces of legislation have sought to restrict the liberties
of the Rastafarians, often allowing the police to target the Movement’s adherents.9
Planno engaged the public through street lectures and protests, letters to the press, and fora at
the University. He had become “beknowned”, which meant that his mere presence constituted
9
Similar legislation was enacted across the Caribbean. In Dominica, for example, there was the famous
Dread Act.
6
Niaah
a safe house, created a place where those gathered would be protected from police brutality,
arbitrary arrest or other kinds of victimisation. The Movement’s leadership is therefore aware
that there is a struggle to liberate oppressed and victimised Africans wherever they are, as well
as to resettle the continent.
The Programme
Yawney’s (1979) work is ethnographically rich and well-timed, as she was perhaps the only
academic deep in the field just before the Bob Marley Cultural Revolution. She provides us with
a sense of Planno’s environment, the programmatic activity, and his associates. Yawney’s field
study comes just before the final phases of slum clearance in West Kingston. Her thesis affords
us a view of Planno’s daily life. From her account we can conclude that Planno’s primary area of
operation was West Kingston, where there were three major points of contact: the Dungle, Fifth
Street and Salt Lane. Other spaces were used as programmatic needs required, including the
University of the West Indies, the Race Course, the Coronation Market environs and St William
Grant Park. As well, other sites were used on an ad hoc basis for protests and demonstrations
targeting the media and government.
Musicians had constant engagements at Fifth Street, smoking, reasoning and making music.
This happened day and night for many years. Planno also found time to paint, knit, write, and
direct plays. Planno was known as a good bass drum player, and often used songs, many of
which he wrote, as teaching tools. His best-known song “New Name Jah Got” captures the
basic sentiment of his teaching message:
A new name Jah got and it terrible
Heathen nuh like Jah Name
A new name Jah got and it terrible among men
Heathen nuh like Jah name
Ras Tafari.
This song was recorded by Ras Michael and the sons of Negus and stands as one of the
Movement’s timeless anthems. In another of his compositions Planno provided an interpretation
of His Majesty “Selassie” or “Trinity” as the “Chapel”, or as the embodiment of a sanctuary.
Rastafari is thus introduced as an organic or living (body) philosophy. Through this treatise Planno
seeks to explain the complex concepts surrounding the Movement’s system of understanding
the Emperor’s role and place:
Selassie is the chapel
Haile Selassie is the chapel
Power of the Trinity (Trinity, Trinity is He)
Build your mind on this direction
Serve the living God and live (Living God, Living and live)
Take your troubles to Selassie
7
Niaah
He is the only King of Kings (King of Kings, King of Kings is He)
Conquering lion of Judah
Triumphantly we all must sing (All must sing, all must sing)
I search and I search this book of life
In the Revelation look what I find
Haile Selassie is the chapel
And the world should know (All should know, all should know)
That man is the angel
And our God, the King of Kings. (http://www.nettilinja.fi/~hsaarist/planno.html)10
Planno uses this culturally creative and lively method to present the foundation message carried
by the earliest Patriarchs. This is complex, as it joins Planno’s creative imagination with the
Rastafari millenarian vision in order to understand this “chapel” or point of congregational unity
around the Emperor, the “Power of the Holy Trinity”. Planno also introduces the interpretation
that “man is the angel and our God, the King of Kings”, thus entering into a discourse about the
understanding and interpretation of the idea of God and divinity. By so doing Planno transcends
slave consciousness and slave identity through accessing a system of (ancient) knowledge.
More than this, he elaborates on the process of focussing on HIM to serve the living God “and
live”. Planno was effectively teaching of the fulfilment of the Bible, just as Howell did. However,
he did this through song, where others before him had communicated their message through
preaching. Planno’s chief refrain or memory gem can perhaps be viewed as a summary of his
“life work” – his devotion to promulgating Rastafari truth:
Tell Out King Rasta Doctrine
Around the whole World …
Get Your Bible and Read it
Read it with understanding
Tell Out King Rasta Doctrine Around
The whole world
(Planno, 1996)
He also wrote melancholic, arguably prophetic, songs:
Chances are we’re gonna leave now
Sorry for the victim now
Though my days are filled with sorrow
10
I see years of pride tomorrow
Chances, chances are some might not hold out
Chances are, hang on right now
Though-oh-oh-oh my-my days are filled with sorrow
I see years of pride tomorrow
Recorded by Bob Marley.
8
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Chances, chances are some might not hold out
Chances are, hang on right now
Chances are, oh chances, you’re my chances
Chances are, hang on right now
Chances are, hang on right now
Deal with loneliness; I’ll take some teardrops
Chances are we’ll have to win
Chances are, hang on right now
Chances are, chances are
Like the wit of the soothsayers, these words serve as Planno’s trigger and ammunition. This song,
usually delivered in a slow sorrowful tone, seems to be a preparation for a type of separation,
perhaps even a kind of repatriation. Planno often recalled his promotion of this song across the
United Kingdom in the late 1960s. He repeats a central characteristic of his approach: “chances”,
expressed as possibilities, which for Planno seem endless. He therefore strives to translate
“chances” into reality. These chances are built on his service of the King of Kings. In so doing,
Planno places much importance on “action”, including political/spiritual action to advance the
Movement’s work. A major part of this action has been his strategic engagement with “the system”.
For this reason some view Planno as having “sold out” or abandoned the Movement. This of
course is arguable, especially in the context of his clear message of Africa consistently over time
and the value that his “sell out” action has produced.
One of Planno’s better-known strategies was writing to the daily newspaper. This practice seems
to have increased after his return from the Mission to Africa, when he found himself increasingly
defending the concept of repatriation and educating the society about its logic. In a letter to the
editor on May 11, 1962, Planno enters a discussion on the issue of “Migration to Ethiopia”:
Immigration to Ethiopia
The Editor,
Sirs – Having read with interest a letter to the editor today, April 30, 1962 under the
caption ‘Migration to Ethiopia’ signed by Cecil G. Gordon, Sam, Spence, Hibbert and R.A.
Thompson we were amused to observe that people are doing more harm to themselves
than good. Mr. Gordon was a delegate to Ethiopia in the first ten-man, that went to Africa
as a migration delegation, so was I. We never at any time had any negotiations with
any African Government on the subject of migration, knowing we could not have had
such negotiations because it was made known that the mission was an unofficial one.
To come to the point, in the bottom paragraph of the letter it was stated that members of
the Ethiopian World Federation Inc., are now negotiating to send their people by charter
flights to Ethiopia to take up the gift of the Emperor. Do they all remember the Emperor
having granted audience with the 10-man mission told the leader that when they are
sending they must send the right people?
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The Land Grant at Shashamane was granted to would-be Ethiopians. It was revealed
that those who are occupying the lands are not utilizing the lands to the suit and like of
the Emperor and the Emperor cautioned that ‘those who intend to come must come with
the spirit of one for all and all for one, for operating in this manner there can be no failure’.
As the Rastafarians all want Repatriation a Jamaican mission should be sent to African
free states to seek possible entry into these countries. Rastafarians must be included
on this mission. People who write letters through the Press must think of the sentiments
that such a letter creates – sentiments that will work like those of Hitler, Himmler, Lord
Haw Haw and Mussolini. It worked to build up German and Italian armies to be … But
propaganda like negotiating flights to Ethiopia will only leave the writers of this letter in
big trouble to be answering questions, viz:
1. What does the E.W.F Inc., call the general welfare of Black People?
2.
What are the conclusions of seeking peace and pursuing it?
3.
With whom hast thou negotiated flights to Ethiopia?
4.
For what purpose will the flights be necessary?
MORTIMO PLANNO, Vice President, Local 37 E.W.F Inc., 19 Tewari Crescent,
Kingston.” (Daily Gleaner, May 11, 1962, p. 23)
Planno became something of a local celebrity after his Mission to Africa. Much attention was
directed at the ideas and wisdom of Back-to-Africa. Some of this attention was negative, as his
radical stance towards Africa was viewed as a type of unreason. Shortly after publication of the
letter above, another letter to the editor was printed that questioned Planno’s credentials as
“Vice President of EWF” and his representation of Rastafari (Daily Gleaner, June 11, 1962).11
Planno was never deterred. In fact he consistently provided serious input into the press. For
example, on one occasion he focused on the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights to
substantiate his case for accomplishing what he calls “Rasta business”:
The Editor
Sirs – Kindly publish this letter in your Daily Gleaner on behalf of Article 13 of the
Declaration of Human Rights – Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
residence within the border of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country
including his own and return to his country.
What explanation is there for the Minister of Home Affairs’ statement on citizenship
on the refusal to issue passports without saying why? Mr Editor, under article 15 (1)
Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived his nationality
nor denied the right to change his nationality. We of the Rastafarian Movement look
to the Daily Gleaner for a true and concise report. The Rastafarian Movement made
representation to government for a nationality change. To many people the Rastas are
making trouble, when they ask for a nationality change, or the Rastas do not understand.
Three Rastafarians applied for passports to travel to New York, USA, to do Rasta
11
Two years later Planno signed as President, EWF Inc. Local 37, HIM Haile Selassie I.
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business. They were denied the right to travel by the refusal of a passport by Government
without reason. We are complaining that we are not enjoying human rights.
Government says that they do not intend to pay the passages of Rastas to go to Africa,
and if we are denied this right to travel how can we go to Africa?
All are born free and equal and are endowed with reason and conscience and should act
toward one another in the spirit of brotherhood.
I am, etc, Mortimo Planno, 18 Fifth Street December 9Th (1963).” (Daily Gleaner,
December 19, 1963, p.12).
Kumi acted as legal counsel, secretary, teacher, judge and jury, and most importantly as chief and
most articulate representative of the Movement on key issues. The letter above introduces some
of Planno’s key ideas. Repatriation is the most important one. Planno not only thought about
reparation/repatriation, but contributed to its entry into the national Jamaican consciousness
and to its elaboration. Planno took his responsibility as one of the leading members of the
Rastafari seriously and therefore accepted the role of spokesman and educator. It could be
argued that Planno consistently took a chance on African Brotherhood, knowing as he did that
there were important issues that required able leadership, and that on such issues he was
obliged to represent the un-represented. Planno, like Howell, was given space in the local
newspaper to express his disaffection with the government. He does this through his famous
“case-in-points” that are usually real life stories. Like Howell, he asserts that by the standards
of the day, in particular those elaborated in the Human Rights Declaration, Rastafari brethren’s
rights were being violated. Kumi sought to engage in a dialogue with the government and the
society in general. As in Howell’s time, the newspapers became a critical medium.
Planno used various strategies in his day-to-day operations. For example, he brought an
Ethiopian professor of history to Jamaica to teach “Ethiopia history”. Professor Ephraim Isaac
– born and schooled in Ethiopia, he later moved to the United States – spent several days
in Jamaica lecturing and meeting with the brethren. As well as working closely with various
“officials” from the time of the University’s survey in the 1960s, Planno consistently strategized
on how to advance the cause or work of the Movement as his duty. His activities ranged from
music making to preaching to billboard illustrations and protest demonstrations. The locus in
Trench Town was at the centre of this engagement with the society. Within the various Rastafari
systems of teaching throughout the city, this elder brethren’s loci, his sphere(s) of activity,
became famed as different centres for activities “reasoning”/learning. Planno’s yard at Trench
Town became most famous, and young persons converged there to receive his teachings.
Planno would hold his class in these informal gatherings, and teacher and students wrote
verses animating the experiences, ideals and aspirations of the Movement. Only a few persons,
such as Walter Rodney, were interrogating the prevailing political ideas concerning AfricanJamaicans, reviewing the news (local and international), and bringing word from Africa. The
King James Bible with its 66 books, laws, Prophets, wisdom verses and songs, onto the gospels
and Revelation, all provided a source of reading, reasoning, analysis and interpretation. It was
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from this source that the Knowledge of liberation was to come, in particular from the Revelations
in the Bible, revealing the identity of the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie I, the Power of the
Trinity as the returned Messiah. Planno’s particular advantage in the community of the Rastafari
was his first-hand knowledge of the Emperor, having met Him (and literally called by Him) on
more than one occasion.
Outstanding Students
Bob Marley, born a generation after the Movement’s emergence, was one of the first graduates
– disciples, if you will – of these “Open Yards” in the 1960s. Bob Marley was brought to
Planno’s Yard by Hugh Daggo Scott, and there he cultivated his Rastafarian identity as well
as the philosophy that he subsequently conveyed in his music. His close friend Allan “Skill”
Cole (famous Jamaican football player) recalls that Planno linked them up at his Yard, almost
as if it were supplying them each with a brother. During this time Planno managed the group
“The Wailers” (Bunny Livingston, Peter Tosh and Bob), creating songs such as “Selassie is the
Chapel” and giving the group national exposure by entering them in the annual festival song
competition.
Though Marley had come to national attention by the mid-1960, it was only after he had passed
through Planno’s yard that he emerged to manifest the “powers of Rastafari” demonstrated
in his new “world music” (see Connell & Stanley Niaah, 2004). Planno mentions the Milan
concert – where it was said that Bob Marley outshone the Pope and Jesus Christ combined
(fieldnotes). Planno talks about the concept of “Bob Marley”: his message and the medium
he used to communicate it. Marley encapsulated what Planno called “the power of thought”:
the new system of knowledge, this knowledge of Rastafari he had come into, “the power of
philosophy runs through my head … light as a feather, heavy as lead”. This power is what
Planno engages through the simple science of what he would describe as the “drum and bass”.
He would say, “beat them drum them watch them run them”, memory gems, developed to teach
important lessons about Jamaica, Africa, history, society, and our life experience in general.
Jalani Niaah is Research Fellow and Coordinator, Rastafari Studies Initiative in the Office of the
Deputy Principal, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica
Postscript
Ras Mortimo “Kumi” Planno passed on, to join the ancestors, on March 05, 2006, whilst “in
residence” on the campus of the University of the West Indies, Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica,
where he had lived for a number of years, in a house assigned to him by the university.
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Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION
Page
1.1 Keynote Address - The Contet of Today’s Reparations and Repatriation Movement
K. Gauva 13
1.2 Why the Global Pan African Reparations and Repatriation Conference (G-PARRC)
I.N. Ababio 17
1.3 Exploring the Issue of Afrikan Complicity in the Past and Present Crimes of the Maangamizi and Continuing Afrikan Holocaust
J.S. Agboton 20
1.4 The Arab Quest for Lebensraum in Africa and the Challenges of Pan-Afrikanism
Chinweizu23
1.5 Policies of De-Nubianization in Egypt and Sudan: An Ancient People on the Brink
of Extinction
M.J. Haashim 37
1.6 Pan-Afrikanism, the US Origin of AIDS and the US Cure for AIDS: We Can Save Ourselves and Our Future
B.E. Graves 49
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The Context of Today’s Reparations and Repatriation Movement
Kodzo Gauva, Ph.D
Introduction
The rally of Africans seeking reparations from non-African nations and agencies that enslaved
and traded Africans, and repatriation from the Diaspora to the African continent, was initiated
on the continent about a decade and a half ago. The first reparations conference to be held on
the continent was organised in December 1990 in Lagos, Nigeria, under the auspices of the late
Moshood Abiola. Since then, there were other such conferences in Abuja, Nigeria, in April 1993
and in Quidah in the Benin Republic in April 1999. While the National Coalition of Blacks for
Reparations in America (N’COBRA) held a major conference on the same subject in June 1999
in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the Afrikan World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission
(AWRRTC) organised its first conference in Accra, Ghana, in August of the same year. The
AWRRTC again rallied for reparations and repatriation in a second conference in Accra in July
2000.
Common to the various conferences is the understanding that the problems of today’s Africans
are the direct result of the enslavement and colonisation of African peoples over the past 400
years, and that Africans should not forget the atrocities that were committed against their
ancestors during the enslavement, trade and colonisation of Africans, else their children will
continue to suffer. The conferences thus sought to institutionalise world-wide monitoring and
networking systems, which would ensure that reparations and repatriation were achieved by
the year 2004. It is sad to note, nonetheless, that as we once again gather for this conference
in the year 2006, the momentum of the reparations and repatriation movement in Africa has
waned significantly. A number of Africans have relocated to the continent from the Diaspora;
some of them were influenced by the activities of the reparations and repatriation movement,
while others did so out of other considerations. But the target, which was set by the AWRRTC to
achieve by the year 2004 has, for instance, not been attained. Beyond members of the various
organisations that continue to advocate reparations and repatriation, many peoples of African
descent, home and abroad, are yet to be informed about the call and need for repatriation
and reparations. Those who are aware, including state officials, traditional authorities and other
leaders in various communities of Africans, fail to understand the essence of this call. Also, many
Africans, home and abroad, who understand and identify with the call, do not believe in it or are
skeptical of its success. Thus, in order for us to attain successfully our goals to seek reparations
and repatriation, it is important that we pause a second to reflect, and clearly understand the
context in which we continue to rally.
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Efforts to seek reparations and repatriation are being made today when the global forces that
fostered the enslavement, trade and colonisation of Africans have become better organised
and more potent in their bid to consolidate their supremacy over deprived peoples of the world.
Many of the active players, agents and beneficiaries of the trade and colonisation are cunningly
parading themselves as supporters of Africa’s development efforts, and are erroneously referred
to by many African governments as “development partners”. Indeed we, Africans, have been
coerced in various ways by these forces to maintain a culture of poverty, and it is fallacious for us
to refer to ourselves as partners of agencies and nations that continue to exploit our human and
physical resources and only offer us their crumbs. Partnership between international agencies
that purport to seek the welfare of Africans the world over and Africans has not been genuine so
far, and appears to be based on sympathy for Africans in some cases and on the desire by the
international agencies to amass additional wealth at the expense of Africans. We thus continue
to deal with “development masters”, who wield much influence over our destiny and leave little
room for us to see our aspirations materialise.
Typical examples of how the so-called partnership between Africans and their “development
masters” has resulted in the impoverishment of Africa relate to the various “Structural Adjustment
Programmes (SAPs)”, and the “Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC)” status, which many
African nations have endured. In spite of the increasing grants, loans, debt relief, and other
benefits, which have been associated with the SAP and HIPC initiatives, the conditions of life of
Africans on the continent in particular have worsened.
Part of the results of the culture of poverty Africans are now forced to adopt is that many Africans
have lost confidence in themselves, as a people, and in their ability to overcome their difficulties.
Many Africans have become Eurocentric, “European at mind and African in sympathy”. The
continent is thus experiencing a new era of slavery – “the New Slavery” – whereby many of
the cream of its youth now “sell” themselves cheaply to European and North American nations
voluntarily in order to survive. The visa sections of the Embassies and High Commissions of most
of these nations have become the new slave ships into which Africans crowd themselves every
day. Other African youth also walk across deserts, stow away in ships and subject themselves
to all kinds of dehumanising conditions just to arrive in Europe and North America. I wish to
observe that, the jobs in which most Africans engage in Europe and North America are jobs that
slaves would undertake if slavery were to be official today.
Besides the youth who sell themselves, many African leaders, from the level of the family
through the communities and churches to the level of the State, have stopped leading their
people but rather focus on satisfying the interests of their so-called “development partners”.
They continually beg for and clamor over development assistance from external sources instead
of recognising and tapping the potential of the human and other natural resources that surround
them.
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The situation in which we, Africans, have found ourselves over the years has influenced us to not
know and understand who we are, as a people, and what our culture is. First, we, Africans on the
continent know little about ourselves and about each other, and hence continue, unfortunately,
to accept and be divided by imaginary “tribal” or “ethnic” differences. While there are millions of
Africans in the European, American, Far and Near Eastern Diaspora, so too are there millions of
Africans, internally displaced people (IDPs), in the African Diaspora relocated from their original
homes due to the wars of slavery, colonialism, hunger, disease and the quest for refuge, among
other factors. In Ghana, for example, there are several Ewe and peoples of northern origins in
the Asante Diaspora just as there are peoples of other origins (Ahanta, Asante, Bono, Dangbe,
etc.) in the Ewe Diaspora. It is thus nonsensical for us, Africans, to accept and live by tribalism
imposed on us by colonial administrators.
Second, Africans on the continent know very little about their brothers and sisters in the European,
Middle Eastern, Far Eastern and American Diaspora, and thus regard those of them who visit
or relocate to the continent as foreigners or tourists. Third, most Africans in the Diaspora have
little knowledge about Africa and Africans on the continent, and only maintain and reproduce
images about continental Africans that are presented to them by the mass media and some
dishonest intellectuals, who parade themselves as Africanist researchers. In many cases, only
African Americans and other Diasporans from relatively affluent backgrounds are able to visit
or relocate to the continent. It is sad to note that the misunderstanding between Africans on the
continent and those who live elsewhere foments more discord between the two categories of
Africans than between Africans on the continent and non-African Europeans. Thus, while nonAfrican peoples of the world continue to unite and consolidate their unity, Africans remain widely
divided and have difficulty in working together.
The way forward
In spite of the sordid context of our struggle for reparations and repatriation, a few of whose
variables I have outlined above, I am highly optimistic that with a little more effort we will attain
our goals and get reparations for Africa, and our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, who
wish to relocate to the continent will do so in freedom and in peace. We, however, need to
intensify the re-education of the African mind so as to become properly emancipated. We have
to undertake more research to know and understand who we are, what our culture is, and which
variables influence the development of this culture. By so doing, we can curb maladaptive traits
and build on the positive aspects of our collective and individual behaviour that would advance
our cause. We would also be in a better position to strategize effectively and become winners.
While educating ourselves, it is important for us to cultivate and groom leadership that would
lead African peoples and not just manage their affairs. The kind of leadership I recommend is
one that thoroughly understands the people who are led and their culture, one that identifies and
is in touch with the people who are led and one that actively seeks and works to advance the
interests of those who are led. Leadership among Africans, home and abroad, should understand
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and recognise the fact that we Africans can only rely on ourselves for our development, as
nobody else can save us from our plight. With regard to reparations and repatriation, the United
Nations, for example, can only offer support if it finds itself under pressure to do so, but would
not easily renege on its task of ensuring peace and security for the major actors in the world
system of States to advance their cause.
The quest for reparations and repatriation is a noble one that is necessary. It must be encouraged
and fought for. The battle to achieve it is, however, arduous. To overcome our difficulties and win
this battle, therefore, all nations, organisations, groups and individuals who identify and work for
the cause must unite their efforts and do their homework thoroughly. We know what we fight for,
but we need to know who we fight for, and who we fight internally and externally.
I do not intend to dampen our spirit but rather awaken it. It is always better to look in the mirror
and observe ourselves properly before we step out of the house.
I thank you all for your patience. May the Almighty and all our good ancestors continue to bless
and guide us!
Kodzo Gauva, Ph.D. is the Head, Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon
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Ababio
1.2 Why the Global Pan-Afrikan Reparations and Repatriation
Conference (GPARRC)
Imakus Njinga Ababio
As custom demands, I ask permission from my Elders to speak.
First of all I give all thanks, praise, honour and glory to our Mother/Father Creator and to the
memory of our great Nubian/Afrikan Ancestors whose shoulders we stand upon, and for the
opportunity to address this most auspicious gathering.
Welcome, honoured guests, Nananom, brothers and sisters. Today is a very important day for
us. This is a very serious matter that we are embarking upon – a demand for reparations.
Reparation(s) is a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of
their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments and
corporations. Those injured groups have the right to that which they need to repair and heal
themselves, and to obtain it from these governments and corporations responsible for the
injuries.
As a result, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) and
Sankofa United Continent Africa Roots Development International Association (SUCARDIF)
joined in partnership and with other Pan-Afrikan organisations, to call for this Global Pan-Afrikan
Reparations and Repatriation Conference, under the theme “Create the Future: Transformation,
Reparation, Repatriation and Reconciliation”. This conference will focus on uniting the Afrikan
family both at home and abroad for one common cause – reparations.
We as Afrikans from around the globe realise that we have been robbed of our culture, our
natural resources, our name, and our sovereignty. We have been mistreated, dehumanised
and marginalised for over four hundred (400) years by European countries, Americans and
the Arabs. These countries are directly involved and responsible for the Trans-Atlantic Arab
European slave Holocaust that has decimated the continent of Afrika and her children in the
Diaspora. The enslavement of Afrika and her children has caused an almost immeasurable level
of pain and suffering that has affected the very fiber and quality of life for Afrikans both at home
and abroad. Chattel slavery – this heinous crime against humanity – has caused untold hardship
on Afrikans in the depletion of human resources, destruction of indigenous infrastructure and
social institutions, disorientation of villages and community-based economic systems, poverty,
disease, lack of adequate education, poor and inadequate health facilities, infant mortality, and
unnecessary wars, the list goes on and on. Who in their right mind can say that Afrika and her
children, both at home and abroad, are not entitled to reparations?
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As we deliberate, we must also remember that the precedent for the payment of reparations has
already been set, for it has been paid to other groups: the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust
(quoting six million lives lost); the Japanese Americans interned in concentration camps in the
United States during World War II; Alaska natives for land, labour and resources taken; victims
of the massacre in Rosewood, Florida and their descendants; Indigenous American Indians as
a remedy for violations of treaty rights and the list goes on … but not Afrika, not the descendants
of kidnapped Afrikans who spent more than 400 years under the yoke of slavery … nothing. Not
one red cent, not one pesewa, no property, not even an authentic apology from some countries,
and those that do offer apologies do so with empty words and emptier hands. So we, once
again, must demand reparations and support any other Afrikans who demand reparations.
Castles, forts and dungeons still line the West Coast of Afrika that held kidnapped, enslaved
Afrikans for months awaiting the floating death traps in which they were herded like cattle and
packed like sardines, in places fit for neither man nor beast, and shipped to the Americas. Over
one hundred million ( 100,000,000 ) Afrikans were stolen out of Afrika; in fact UNESCO during
its Slave Route Conference quoted the figure of over two hundred million (200,000,000) Afikans
kidnapped and stolen away to strange lands.
We come together today as the Afrikan family moving forward in continuation of dialogue and
planning of action to put pressure upon those countries and entities responsible for the Afrikan
Holocaust. We will review, assess and contribute to the worldwide efforts of the international
reparations and repatriation movement, developing
and coordinating the implementation of strategies which will help to reconcile and unite Afrikan
people.
And we must not be fooled by this new assault being waged under the banner of philanthropy.
N’COBRA, SUCARDIF and other Pan-Afrikan organisations are working for global justice for the
rapes, buying and selling of Afrikans, the hangings, burnings and genocidal practices that were
meted out to our people.
We would hope that the Ghana government, the African Union, the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), as well as the United Nations, would assist us in our quest for
reparations and compensation.
We further urge Ghanaians and all other Afrikans to participate in this people’s movement, as
one of our paramount aims is to heal and promote positive change in the
lives and minds of our people.
This historical reparations movement will emancipate and empower our present and future
generations to come.
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Agboton
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Brothers and sisters, we stand unto the shoulders of our great ancestors demanding what is
rightfully theirs, what is rightfully ours.
Thank you and, once again, welcome.
Reparations now! No justice, No peace!
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Agboton
1.3 Exploring the issue of Afrikan complicity in the past and p r e s e n t
crimes of the Maangamizi and the continuing Afrikan Holocaust
Sotero Agboton
As much as they are the only ones concerned, African people, especially in the Pan-African
movement, will have to stress upon and use the word “co-operation” rather than “complicity”.
The word co-operation defines the assistance unwillingly given to Arabic and European “white”
invaders in their policies to conquer Africa. Co-operation profoundly implies a clear categorisation
of blame on the culprits in the Holocaust of African people as opposed to the treachery of African
collaborators who ultimately were also victims.
It becomes obvious that if such collaboration continues, it is reasonable to agree on the following:
One, all Africans are still subjugated even today. Two, there remain African traitors, whether they
are conscious or not conscious of their betrayal, and therefore, the culpability of the African
genocide remains squarely on the oppressors.
The objective of this exposé is to bring to the forefront of the debate on reparations, a thorny
issue of complicity that is causing division among Africans on the continent and those in the
Diaspora. This issue of complicity is also a remnant of the blame fuelled between individuals as
well as ethnic groups on the continent, even though it is apparent that all Africans suffered and
continue to suffer under the yoke of a global oppression. There has been a deliberate strategy
of whites, historians or not, from Europe, to highlight the collaboration of African kingdoms in
slavery while never mentioning that these kingdoms were subjugated to European powers.
But, it must be stressed now and again, that the conquest of Africa was solely the design of
whites – Arabs, Europeans and now of North Americans. It is imperative that those Africans
who seek reparations as remedies for the expropriation of human and natural resources, as the
punitive damage for genocide, as the compensation of plundered African wealth, and as the
reimbursement of stolen cultural treasures blame exclusively, WHITES.
Not until the incursions of “whites”, there was no slave trade on the Atlantic or the Indian oceans.
What must be emphasised is that, in “slavery” contrary to servitude, the humanity of the subjects
was reduced to that of animals. As the concept of “race(s)” developed in Europe, so were the
brutalities of policies to maintain white supremacy. White supremacy engendered the greatest
atrocities ever to befall on humanity. It is that human, otherwise said, that man with a hue, the
African, who bore the brunt of this hue less European’s barbarism.
How then, in a historical context, do Africans on the continent take the blame for such atrocities
as slavery, when their nation-States as political entities were not in existence? Considering the
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Agboton
machinations of colonial administrations to dethrone various feudal kings by replacing them with
stooges, how legitimate are today’s chiefs who in opportunism and guile accept the blame of
slavery because the castles and museums on their soil are likely to earn revenues from tourism?
The question to be asked is, which of these kingdoms built the slave castles? Additionally it may
be time to ask, which of these African kingdoms had slave ships and insurance companies?
After all, only whites had insurance coverage for their human cargo.
There are individuals in the Diaspora advancing the arguments of white perpetrators, that
Africans “sold their brothers and sisters into slavery”, yet none dare answer the obvious, with
what did “Europeans” pay Africans since European currencies were worthless in Africa? After all,
it was Africans who had the gold, the diamonds and other minerals which whites were coveting.
These groups of individuals are proponents of the argument that Africans should also pay
reparations because they sold their people. Their approach under the guise of reconciliation is
to blackmail using historical inaccuracies. It is a given that Africans, especially in the Pan-African
movement, are advocating the right of return, the appropriation of land, the dual citizenship, etc.,
but it is far-fetched to shift the guilt of slavery on the victim. After all, it was Africa that lost her
children, it is Africans who lost their relatives and it will be irrational to blame, metaphorically
speaking, the victim of rape for being raped.
There must be a general campaign to educate all Africans about the motives of such initiatives
as “The Joseph Project”, since its implication reinforces the blame of slavery on Africans on
the continent. It symbolically and misleadingly makes a correlation between the biblical myth of
Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers and the experience of Africans in the Diaspora.
It is important to underline that the legacy of slavery is confused by the use of the synonym,
colonisation. Both are the same for Africans on the continent and those in the Diaspora. Many
individuals in the Diaspora have come to believe that structures like castles, because they
are on African soil, belong to the natives. As Africans on the continent and those from the
Diaspora meet at this gathering to formulate a cohesive approach to reparation demands, they
should avoid the strategy of the enemy’s operatives seeking to disrupt this conference. The
success of this conference depends on this understanding, and the maturity of participants to
engage on a common front as a Global Reparations Movement. However, in as much as the
genocide continues today in programmed depopulation by mass sterilisation and contamination
by biologically-engineered diseases, Africans must begin to point squarely at their enemy. As
long as social conflicts are exacerbated by dire economic oppression, Africans must point to
the parasitic systems of whites’ under-developing the continent. It is time to denounce whites
and their institutions used in orchestrating armed conflicts on the continent by creating the
proliferation of weapons when many African nations are incapable of producing a bullet.
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The death of one more child is the loss of a divine light because from it all flames of human
genius exit. Africa is the cradle of human civilisation and Africans are the first people. It is time
to make other people reckon with that fact. There is no need to perpetuate the management of
crises we know are inherently caused by the same people who pretend to come to our aid only
to multiply our crisis centres. Famine on the continent of Africa is an intolerable catastrophe. But
given the control of food stocks in the hands of the same syndicate of criminals that were fed
free of charge for centuries, Africans are caught in planned genocides.
All African men and women must rise to point directly at the enemy of our people because every
child of Africa that dies is only a tally in the genocide planned by those who want to take the
resources of Africa. This is the path for reconciliation of a people united to gain reparations.
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1.4 The Arab Quest for Lebensraum in Africa and the Challenge to PanAfrikanism
Chinweizu
Part I: The Arab Quest for Lebensraum in Africa
The third of the Arab community living outside Africa should move in with the two-thirds
on the continent and join the African Union, ‘which is the only space we have’.
Col. Mouammar Gadhafi of Libya, at the Arab League, 2001
Many Africans take great exception to the sentiments and views expressed by Col.
Gadhafi at the March 2001, Amman, Jordan, meeting of the Arab League.
Prof. Kwesi Kwa Prah, 2004, in a paper to the AU
[both quotes in Bankie and Mchombu eds, 2006:217, 235] Besides joining Professor Prah and the other Afrikans who take exception to Gadhafi’s statement,
I should like to point out that Gadhafi’s invitation to his fellow Arabs is nothing but a declaration
of race war on Africa. It is an invitation to more Arabs to invade and colonize Africa. Indeed, it
is a call for the final phase of the 15 centuries old Arab lebensraum war on Afrikans – a war to
Islamize and conquer all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape and from Senegal to Somalia, and to
then enslave or Arabize all the conquered Afrikans. In order to make that clear, it is necessary
to first put his invitation in the context of the traditions of Arab melanophobia and Negrophobia,
and of Arab expansionist ambitions and conquests that go back to the time of their Arab prophet
Mohammed.
Melanophobia and Negrophobia in Arab culture
The following excerpt from “The Crisis of Identity in Northern Sudan: A Dilemma of a Black
people with a White Culture”, by Al-Baqir al-Afif Mukhtar, gives an insight into the melonophobia
and Negrophobia that Arab culture has reeked of since before the time of their Mohammed:
The contempt towards … the dark skinned is expressed in a thousand ways in the
documents, literature and art that have come down to us from the Islamic Middle Ages
…. This literature, and especially popular literature, depicts (the black man) in the form
of hostile stereotypes – as a demon in fairy tales, as a savage in the stories of travel
and adventure, or commonly as a lazy stupid, evil-smelling and lecherous slave.
Ibn Khaldun sees the blacks as “characterized by levity and excitability and great emotionalism”
and [says] that “they are everywhere described as stupid”…
al-Dimashqi had the following to say: “The Equator is inhabited by communities of blacks who
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may be numbered among the savage beasts. Their complexion and hair are burnt and they are
physically and morally abnormal. Their brains almost boil from the sun’s heat.”
Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani follows the same line of reasoning. To him … the zanj … are
“overdone until they are burned so that the child comes out between black, murky, malodorous,
stinking, and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and depraved passions”.
Arab-Muslim doctrines on Black enslavement
The following excerpt [from “Blasphemy before God: The Darkness of Racism in Muslim Culture”
by Adam Misbah aI-Haqq, MuslimWakeup.Com
[http://www.muslimwakeup.com/archives/000498.php] shows how and why Arabs incurably
believe in enslaving blacks:
“Classic Muslim thought maintained that blacks became legitimate slaves by virtue of the colour
of their skin. The justification of the early Muslim equation of blackness with servitude was found
in the Genesis story so popularly called “The curse of Ham”, in reference to one of Noah’s
sons…. In the Arab-Muslim version, blacks are cursed to be slaves and menials, Arabs are
blessed to be prophets and nobles, while Turks and Slavs are destined to be kings and tyrants….
The famous Al-Tabari, for example, cites no less than six Prophetic traditions which seek to
support this story. One tradition reads:
Ham begat all those who are black and curly-haired, while Japheth begat those who are full
faced with small eyes, and Shem begat everyone who is handsome of face (Arabs of course)
with beautiful hair. Noah prayed that the hair of Ham’s descendants would not grow past their
ears, and wherever his descendants met the children of Shem, the latter would enslave them.
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal reported a saying attributed to the Prophet which in effect states that God
created the white race (dhurriyyah bayd) from the right shoulder of Adam and created the black
race (dhurriyyah sawd) from Adam’s left shoulder. Those of Adam’s right shoulder would enter
Paradise and those of the left, Perdition. Other equally racist sayings have been attributed to
the Prophet in the traditions. Contradicting this spirit, there are the sayings of the Prophet which
equate the value of a person to his God-consciousness (taqwa), and to their piety without any
regard to the tribal or ethnocentric concerns of a racist purport.
Such [egalitarian] reports [were overshadowed by] the more deeply rooted tradition of racial
bigotry … [emphasized by] Muslim geographers and travellers who ventured into Africa AlMaqdisi wrote, “… As for the Zanji, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little
understanding or intelligence.” … Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406CE) added that blacks are “only humans
who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings.” … Even such luminaries as Ibn Sina
considered blacks to be “people who are by their very nature slaves.” …
The creation or resurgence of the mythology of Ham also made dark-skinned people synonymous
with servitude in light-skinned Muslim thinking. This went so far that eventually the term abd
(slave) went through a semantic development and came to specifically refer to “black slave”
while light skinned slaves were referred to as mamluks. And further on in later usage, the Arabic
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word abd came to mean “black man” of whatever status …”
We can now see why, when an Arab sees anyone with black skin, all he notices is a dumb
animal that he is licensed and even obliged by his religion to capture and enslave. With that
backgrounder on the Arab tradition of enslaving and holding blacks in profound contempt, let us
now examine:
The meaning of Gadhafi’s call for lebensraum
In 2001 the Libyan leader Gadhafi, under the cover of advancing the Nkrumahist Pan-African
project of African Unity, was concluding his sub-imperial assignment to round up the African
states into his Arab-dominated African Union (AU) for easier muzzling and control by global
imperialism. At an Arab League meeting in Amman, Jordan, Gadhafi exposed another hidden
agenda of his AU project when he observed that 2/3 of the world’s [approximately 250 million]
Arabs now live in Africa, and he invited the rest to move into Africa and join them.
Though the Pan-African News Agency (PANA) reported it and posted it on its website, I wonder
how many African leaders took note of Gadhafi’s invitation and saw the danger it poses for
Africa. What Afrikans (i.e. the indigenous peoples of Africa) should particularly note is his reason
for the invitation, namely, that Africa is the only space Arabs have. This is so reminiscent of
the Nazi project of seizing living space, lebensraum, for the Germans from their neighbours in
Eastern Europe that any sensible Afrikan must understand it as a threat to all Afrikans. More
importantly, it spells out, for all but the willfully and suicidally deaf to hear, the grand geopolitical
purpose behind Arab policy and action in Africa in the last 50 years. But first, we need to put
Gadhafi’s invitation in the context that allows us to appreciate the full danger to Afrikans from this
enduring Arab ambition for lebensraum.
Since the death of their prophet Mohammed, Arabs have been relentlessly seizing lebensraum
– living space – in Africa. Since their conquest of Egypt in 642, they have taken over all of North
Africa, and most of the Nile Valley and some of their tribes have even infiltrated as far west from
the Nile as Lake Chad. Arabs have, by now, occupied supra-Sahara Africa and the Nile Valley,
i.e. more than one-third of the African landmass, and they are still grabbing more and moving
tenaciously to conquer the rest.
Arab expansionism in Africa, 640-1900
I wonder how many Afrikans today wonder how it came about that Arabs, whose homeland is the
Arabian Peninsula, came to occupy all of supra-Sahara Africa, from the Sinai Peninsula across
to Morocco’s Atlantic coast. And what did they do to the Black Egyptians, Black Berbers and
other blacks who were the aborigines of all that expanse of land?
Similarly, Afrikans need to inquire into why and how an Arab minority has ruled Sudan since
1956? And how did it come about that we hear of Arab tribes in Darfur, Chad and even in
Nigeria’s Bornu state?
Until 640 AD, there were no Arab settlers of any kind in all those places. But in that year hungry
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Arab hordes, desperate for plunder and greener pastures, charged out of Arabia, flying the flag
of their new religion, Islam, and conquered Egypt by 642. Egypt thereafter became their base
for invading and seizing lebensraum all the way west to Morocco and Mauritania, and southward
up the Nile.
In the first phase of conquest, an Arab raiding army reached Tangier on the Atlantic in 682.
Then in the 11th century, the Fatimids who were then ruling in Egypt, unleashed Bedouin Arab
tribes, such as the Beni Hilal and Beni Sulaim, into the Maghreb. These Bedouin tribes overran
as far west as Morocco in the 12th and 13th centuries, and brought about the Arabization of
the indigenous Berber population of the Maghreb whom they swamped. They reached northern
Mauritania by the 14th century.
Also in the 14th century, Guhayna Arab tribes, edged out of Egypt, infiltrated up the Nile into
Sudan. In 1820, Mohammed Ali Pasha sent an expedition from Egypt that conquered Northern
Sudan by 1841. In 1869 Ismail Pasha attempted to annex the region from Juba/Gondokoro
to Lake Victoria, a region that would become Uganda and Sudan’s Equatoria Province. He
failed, but the British who ruled from 1899 to 1956 later incorporated Equatoria into the AngloEgyptian Sudan. In 1874, the Jellaba-Arab slave raider Zubair Pasha conquered Dar Fur for the
Egyptians.
Also in the 19th century, Awlad Sulaiman Arabs migrated, in the 1840s, from the Fezzan in Libya
into the Lake Chad area, and Shuwa Arabs in search of pasture lands moved, in the 1810s, from
Chad into the Bornu area of what became Nigeria.
From the late 19th century until the 1950s, Arab expansionism in Africa was stopped in its tracks
by the European powers who conquered and partitioned Africa among themselves. Only with
the retreat of European political rule did the opportunity arise for Arab expansionism to resume
its march. And it promptly did.
Arab expansionism in Africa since 1956, i.e. in the era of continentalist Pan-Africanism
Continentalist Pan-Africanism was launched in 1958 at the Accra Conference of Independent
African States (CIAS). It has been the dominant tendency within Pan-Africanism ever since, and
it has given birth to the Arab dominated Oragnization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU).
As some observers have pointed out, the Arab League, established in 1945, is the institutional
organ for realizing the Arab aspirations for unity and imperial resurgence through “an ArabIslamic empire across Africa into the Middle East”. Under its aegis, Arab nationalism resumed
its expansion in Africa when, on attaining independence in 1956, the Jellaba-Arab minority
government of Sudan defined Sudan as an Arab country and set out to enforce that definition
on Sudan’s African majority.
Islamization and Arabization of Black Africa: the pilot project in Sudan
It has been noted by Opoku Agyeman that Pan-Arabism, in its so-called “civilizing mission”
perceives Africa as a “cultural vacuum” waiting to be filled by Arab culture “by all conceivable
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means” [Agyeman, 1994:30] including Islamization, and the settlement of Arab populations on
lands forcibly seized from Africans.
The assumptions, objectives and methods of this project may be illustrated from the statements
of its principal implementers in Sudan:
•
“You are aware that the end of all our efforts and this expense is to procure Negroes.
Please show zeal in carrying out our wishes in this capital matter.”
-Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ruler of Egypt, 1825, in a letter to one of his generals in Sudan,
quoted in [Nyaba, 2002:36]
•
In his 1955 book on the orbital scheme [the three circles at whose centre he envisioned
Egypt to be], President Nasser characterized Africa as “the remotest depths of the
jungle”, and the target of an Arab civilizing mission. He wrote: “The peoples of Africa
will continue to look at us, who guard their northern gate, and
who constitute their link with the outside world. We will never in any circumstances
be able to relinquish our responsibility to support, with all our might, the spread of
enlightenment and civilization to the remotest depths of the jungle.” – Gamal Abdel
Nasser, President of Egypt, 1955, quoted in [Prah, 2006: 170]
•
“Sudan is geographically in Africa but is Arab in its aspirations and destiny. We consider
ourselves the Arab spearhead in Africa, linking the Arab world to the African continent.”
– Sudanese Prime Minister, Mahgoub, 1968, quoted in [Agyeman, 1994:38]
•
Sudan “is the basis of the Arab thrust into the heart of Black Africa, the Arab civilizing
mission.” – President Gaafar Nimeiry of Sudan, 1969, quoted in [Agyeman, 1994:39]
•
“We want to Islamise America and Arabize Africa.” – Dr Hassan El-Turabi, chief
ideologue of Jellaba-Arab minority rule in Sudan, 1999, quoted in [Nyaba, 2002:27]
•
“The south [Sudan] will remain an inseparable part of the land of Islam, God willing,
even if the war continued for decades.” – Osama bin Laden, April 2006, [from an edited
translation of an audiotape attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, parts of
which were aired by Aljazeera on April 23, 2006]
This thrusting of Arab spears into the body and soul of Black Africa through de-Afrikanisation
campaigns of Islamisation-Arabisation was, of course, not confined to Sudan, but has been
done wherever Arabs spotted an opportunity to exploit African weakness, such as in Mauritania,
Chad, Somalia, Eritrea, Uganda. In the past 40 years, Libya’s Gadhafi has been particularly
active in sponsoring chaos, anarchy and civil wars in Chad, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, etc., and in
trying to Islamise Uganda, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, etc. For example, in a live
broadcast on Rwanda Radio on May 17, 1985, Gadhafi said:
First you must stick to your Islamic religion and insist that your children are taught the Islamic
religion and you teach the Arabic language because without the Arabic language we could not
understand Islam …. You must teach that Islam is the religion of Africa …. You must raise your
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voice high and declare that Allah is great because Africa must be Muslim …. We must wage a
holy war so that Islam may spread in Africa. – quoted in [Bankie and Mchombu, 2006:239-240]
Why do Gadhafi and other Arabizers sponsor Islamization? Steve Biko pointed out the
fundamental reason why imperialists make a point of converting their victims to their Christian
religion when he said:
It has always been the pattern throughout history that whosoever brings the new order knows it
best and is therefore the perpetual teacher of those to whom the new order is being brought. If the
white missionaries were “right” about their God in the eyes of the people, then the African people
could only accept whatever these new know-all tutors had to say about life. The acceptance of
the colonialist-tainted version of Christianity marked the turning point in the resistance of African
people. [Biko, 1987:56]
Steve Biko’s observation helps explain why Arab hegemonists like Gadhafi insist on Islamising
their intended victims. Since the death of their prophet Mohammed, Islam has been the religious
cloak and entry-dagger of Arab imperialism. Islamization is used as a prelude to the project
of Arabization. Among the targeted victims, Islam privileges the Arabic language and culture.
Arab names and customs are made obligatory, and the anathema on Jahiliya discourages
remembrance of the pre-Islamic, non-Arab culture of an Islamised people. It should be noted that
the core Islamic countries that stretch contiguously from the Maghreb to Pakistan are fragments
of the empire that Arabs conquered and ruled from 632 to 1517 when the Turks, under Selim the
Grim, conquered Egypt and Syria and extinguished the Arab Abbasid Caliphate.
Thus, the core lands of Dar-al-Islam today are a continuation of the Arab Empire. Just as the
Commonwealth is the euphemistic PR name for the enduring British Empire, so too Dar-al-Islam
is the euphemistic PR name for the enduring Arab Empire. In fact, Dar-al-Islam is simply the
Arab empire in religious camouflage, and the Umma are the Arab citizens/masters and the nonArab subjects of the enduring Arab Empire.
Gadhafi and the Arab lebensraum project in the 21st century
In furtherance of his lebensraum project, in May 2003 Gadhafi proposed a tripartite union of
Libya, Sudan and Egypt, a move reminiscent of Hitler’s Anschluss project that annexed, in 1938,
Austria as well as Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.
To appreciate the menace in Gadhafi’s invitation, Afrikans would do well to consider Hitler’s drive
for lebensraum and how it was stopped. Just as Gadhafi wanted to enlarge Arabia inside Africa,
Hitler wanted to enlarge Germany within Europe by “the acquisition of a territory for settlement,
which would enhance the area of the mother country, and hence not only keep the new settlers
in the most intimate community with the land of their origin, but secure for the total area those
advantages which lie in its unified magnitude”. [Hitler, 1971: 653]
Hitler looked east for Germany’s expansion in Europe. In Nazi ideology, lebensraum meant
the expansion of Germany eastward to conquer lands for Germans to settle and peoples for
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Germans to enslave. According to Hitler, the ideal war was one of conquest, extermination, and
subjugation; the ideal area in which to conduct such a war was in the east, where the German
people would win for itself the lebensraum. The Nazi theory of lebensraum became Germany’s
foreign policy during the Third Reich.
A key element in Hitler’s plan for lebensraum was the idea of military expansion and the forced
expulsion of the nations of Poland, Ukraine, Russia etc. and their replacement with German
settlers. The lebensraum ideology was a major factor in Hitler’s launching of Operation
Barbarossa in June 1941. As the German armies moved eastward, the Nazis began to turn large
areas of Soviet territory into German settlement areas. The biggest obstacle to implementing
the lebensraum further was the fact that by the end of 1942 the Sixth Army was defeated in
Stalingrad. After the second big defeat in the tank battle at Kursk during July 1943 and the Allied
landings in Sicily, all further lebensraum plans came to a halt.
USA, Australia, Russia – case studies of Lebensraum
Faced, from the 16th century, with European invaders seeking lebensraum, the Native Americans
in what became the USA failed to muster the necessary will and forces to defeat and drive the
invaders away. As a result, these indigenous peoples were exterminated and lost their continent
by the late 19th century. Bands of their remnants were herded into reservations and left to slowly
die out. Similarly in the 19th century, the Australian aborigines failed to muster the necessary will
and forces to defeat and drive away the invaders from Europe. They too were exterminated. In
contrast, the Russians in the 20th century, under Stalin, mustered the necessary will and forces,
defeated Hitler’s armies and chased them back all the way to Berlin and obliged Hitler to commit
suicide.
As these contrasting examples make clear, seekers of lebensraum can only be stopped by
decisively defeating and driving them away.
How did the Russians manage to do that? First of all, their leaders took quite seriously the Nazi
talk of seeking lebensraum in Eastern Europe, and prepared for war. In February 1931, Stalin
predicted and warned his people: “We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We
must make good this lag in 10 years. Either we do it or they crush us.”
And he drove his people with the proverbial whip and scorpion, and forced them to industrialize
at a desperate pace. And Russia industrialized in 10 years flat! Which was just in time to be ready
when Hitler unleashed his armies on Russia in June 1941. And by 1943, Hitler’s lebensraum
project lay in ruins as his mighty armies had been defeated by Stalin’s armies. It took another
two years of hard fighting for the Russians to drive Hitler’s armies all the way back to Berlin. Had
they not done so, there would be no Russia or Poland or Ukraine, etc. today. All the land from
Berlin to the Urals would have been taken over and settled by Germans. And any Russians not
exterminated would have been enslaved as Hitler intended.
If Afrikans want to escape at Arab hands the type of fate that Hitler planned for the Russians,
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we need to learn from Stalin’s example. We need to build a mega state and industrialize it at
break-neck speed into a modern power. And we need to defeat the Arabs and drive them back
across the Sahara. The first step is to expel all Arab League countries from the African Union, or
better yet, to destroy this enemy-controlled African Union and organize a Black World League
of States to serve as the collective security outfit exclusively for the Blacks of the World. The
second step is to militarily discourage any further Arab expansion into sub-Saharan Africa. We
must firmly bear in mind that lebensraum ambitions are effected by military action, as in Sudan’s
war on the SPLM, and its use of Janjaweed militias in Darfur and Chad. And we must also firmly
bear in mind that such ambitions are destroyed only by military action. To think of any other way
is suicidal foolishness. So Gadhafi’s ambition must be finally defeated militarily by Afrikan power,
and the sooner the better for Afrikans.
Part II: The challenge to Pan-Afrikanism
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up for me.
[Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)]
In the last 15 centuries, Arab invaders have grabbed one-third of the African continent, and
systematically enslaved, exterminated or Arabized the blacks they met there. How? I have
already quoted examples from the mission statements of the anti-Afrikan leaders of the
Arab expansionists since 1820 in Sudan. Let us now look at examples of how they’ve gone
about implementing their policy on the ground since 1956 while the OAU/AU Pan-Africanists
determinedly looked the other way or buried their ostrich heads in the sand. The following are
instructive excerpts, about the events in al-Di’ein and Dar Fur, from “Islamization and Arabization
of Africans as a means to Political Power in the Sudan”, by Sudanese scholar M. Jalaal Haashim:
• al-Di’ein 1987
As its civil war with the SPLM/SPLA intensified, the Jellaba-Arabist Sudan government of
al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (1986-1989) used the Baggara Arabs to punish those Dinka who lived on
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the border of Kordufan and Dar Fur, such as the Ngog, on the assumption that all the Dinka
were SPLM/SPLA.
“The Baggara tribes in Kordufan and Dar Fur are nomadic Arabs who have been greatly
influenced by the Nilotic tribes, especially the Dinka, from whom they have taken the cows
for livestock and the color of blackness. Until then the hostility between the two sides was
relatively kept at bay due to their historical inter-relationship. Thousands of Dinka who fled
the war zone came and lived with the Baggara. This is how in a certain village called alDi’ein in Southern Dar Fur, with more than 6,000 Dinka people, peacefully took refuge and
lived with the Baggara.
In 1987 the government of Sadiq al-Mahdi established the infamous Popular Defence
Forces (PDF) as a pretext for officially arming the Baggara Arabs to fight the Southerners.
Armed in this way, the marauding Baggara squads of PDF began making incursions into
the South, raiding the Dinka villages. [These naturally sought help from the SPLM/SPLA
[who] came to the rescue …. In all aspects the Baggara Arabs were unequal to the SPLA.
Suffering defeat after defeat,… the Baggara began nursing deep hatred towards the Dinka
in general, [and finally directed their revenge on] the peaceful Dinka who were living with
them at al-Di’ein …
In one day in mid-1987 at least 1,000 Dinka were massacred, 4,000 were burned alive, and
the survivors – around 1,000 – were enslaved. The massacre began early in the day. At first
the bewildered Dinka did not believe what was going on. When reality dawned on them,
they fled into the houses of their hosts who were also their attackers. They were dragged
by their feet like animals to be butchered outside the houses of their hosts. The Dinka took
refuge in the Church; there they were killed along with the priest. Then they ran and took
refuge inside the Police station, which was part of the railway station, but alas, the Police
turned out to be accomplices! They were killed there also. Whether in good or bad faith …
they were ill advised to take refuge in the empty carriages of a standing freight train so they
could be taken away from al-Di’ein. With the trustfulness usually shown by totally vulnerable
and helpless people in their eagerness to cling to a straw, they hurriedly obeyed. Once
crammed inside, they were locked in from outside. Caged in like animals they saw with their
own eyes barrels full of diesel being rolled toward them. They were burnt alive, all of them.
Only then, with the barbecue smell of that Holocaust, did the Dinka come to their senses.
The survivors were fortunate that they were only enslaved. Slavery was the common sense
of that doomed day. In the period 1989-1999 only God knows how many massacres like
that of al-Di’ein took place.”
•
The Janjaweed campaign of genocide
“A decade after the Dinka massacre in al-Di’ein, the scenario of ethnic manipulation by the
state expanded to cover the whole of Dar Fur and most of Kordufan, … [and] the era of
terror of the infamous Janjaweed had been launched ….
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Dar Fur has been the victim of the involvement of the neighbouring Arab States in the civil
war in Chad that flared up in the 1970s. Libya, an extreme advocate of Pan-Arabism with
highly volatile policies, intervened in Chad with the sole aim of helping the Arab nomad
tribes with money, logistics and arms …
The government of Khartoum has not only backed the nomadic Arab tribes, but has
also armed them and fought by land and air along with them. All through the decade of
1982-1992 skirmishes and limited killings were commonplace in Dar Fur. The Khartoum
government dubbed them ‘armed robbery’. In 1995 the massacres were launched first
against the Masalit tribe of the state of West Dar Fur. The governor himself was a Masalit
Muslim Brother who was given orders from Khartoum to let his sedentary people host a
heavily armed clan of pastoralist Baggara who were driven out of Chad to be welcomed
by the Khartoum government simply out of bias for the Arabs. The Masalit welcomed the
Baggara. Under the official eyes of the State government which was headed by their own
son thousands of the Masalit were butchered in mid-1995.”
Through these “gruesome atrocities …, which are being overtly committed by State backed
Arab tribes”, the nomadic Arab tribes of Dar Fur have been committing genocide and
ethnic cleansing against the African sedentary tribes. As both the culprit and the victim
are Muslims, the Afro-Arab race war nature of the genocide becomes very clear. As Jalaal
Haashim points out, the conflicts in Sudan are “a racist war camouflaged with religion”.
But how exactly do these Arab marauders carry out ethnic cleansing? The next excerpt, from
“Singing while their men rape”, The Guardian, Nairobi, Wednesday, July 21, 2004, page 6,
tells of an ongoing example of organized raping and killing and enslavement carried out by the
Janjaweed in Dar Fur:
According to an Amnesty International report published in 2004: “While African women
in Darfur were being raped by the Janjaweed militiamen, Arab women stood nearby and sang
for joy … The songs of the Hakama, or the “Janjaweed women” as the refugees call them,
encouraged the atrocities which the militiamen committed … During an attack on the village
of Disa in June last year, Arab women accompanied the attackers and sang in praise of the
government and scorning black villagers. According to an African chief quoted in the report, the
singers said: “The blood of the blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them
from our area and our cattle will be in their land.”
“The power of (Sudanese president Omer Hassan) al-Bashir belongs to the Arabs and we will
kill you until the end, you blacks, we have killed your God.” The chief said that the Arab women
also racially insulted women from the village, saying: “You are gorillas, you are black and you
are badly dressed.”
The Janjaweed have abducted women for use as sex slaves, in some cases breaking their limbs
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to prevent them escaping, as well as carrying out rapes in their home villages, the report said.
The militiamen “are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are
just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish,” a 37-year-old victim, identified as A,
is quoted as saying in the report, which was based on over 100 statements from women in the
refugee camps in neighbouring Chad. The UN estimates that up to 30,000 people have been
killed in Darfur, and over a million have been forced to flee their homes.
Another human rights organization, Human Rights Watch … said it had obtained from the civilian
administration in Darfur government documents dated February and March this year [2004,
which] call for “provisions and ammunition” to be delivered to known Janjaweed militia leaders,
camps and “loyalist tribes”. One document orders all security units in the area to tolerate the
activities of Musa Hilal, the alleged Janjaweed leader in north Darfur. Peter Takirambudde,
executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, said: “These documents show that
militia activity has not just been condoned, it’s been specifically supported by Sudan government
officials.”
“Singing while their men rape”, The Guardian, Nairobi Wednesday, July 21, 2004, page 6: http://
www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/21/2003179810”
The following excerpt from “Pan-Africa or African Union?” by Bankie Forster Bankie, shows how
the ethnic cleansing of Africans in Mauritania was being done in 1989-1990, without opposition
from the OAU or its African member governments:
In Mauritania on 24-25 April 1989, according to the report issued by Africa Confidential,
elements of the government-supported Structures de L’Education des Masses (SEM)
massacred more that 1,000 Senegalese, black Mauritanian, Guineans, Ghanaians
and Ivorians, without reaction from the OAU. [my emphasis] The United States
Congressional Record, Extension of Remarks of 9 July 1991 (E2465) condemned:
1. the forcible expulsion in 1989 and 1990 of up to 80,000 black Mauritanians into
Senegal and 10,000 into Mali, where most continue to reside in refugee camps;
2. the burning and destruction of entire villages and the confiscation of livestock, land
and belongings of black Mauritanians by the security forces in 1989 and 1990 in an
effort to encourage their flight out of the country; . . .
5. an aggressive policy of ‘Arabization’ designed to eradicate the history and culture of
black ethnic groups; and
6. the use of state authority to expropriate land from black communities along the
Senegal River Valley through violent tactics.
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Chinweizu
[Bankie and Mchombu, 2006:215-216]
These excerpts show how, during the watch of continentalist Pan-Africanism, with its Arabdominated OAU/AU, Arabs have resumed their territorial expansion into Black Africa. We have
the example of how the Janjaweed Arab tribes are presently ethnic cleansing their Afrikan
neighbours without resistance from so-called Black African governments. We have the horrific
example of the massacre of 6,000 Dinka refugees by Baggara Arabs in al-Di’ein village in 1987.
We have the example of the Mauritanian Arab government’s dispossession and expulsion of
black Mauritanians, in 1989-90, with the complicity, by silence and inaction, of Black African
governments.
These are the types of things we Afrikans have allowed Arabs to do to us for the last 15 centuries,
from the Sinai Peninsula to the Senegal River, and from Cairo to Juba. And that’s what they will
gladly do to us from Dakar to Asmara and down to Cape Town, if we do not stop them NOW!
Defeating Hitler’s armies cost Russia untold hardship, and one in 22 Russians (approximately
5% of the entire Russian population) died in battle. But had they not paid that heavy price,
Russia would have lost all its territory and population like the Native Americans did in the USA.
Are Afrikans ready to drive Gadhafi’s Arab hordes away at any price? That is the challenge
thrown by Arab expansionism at Pan-Afrikanism in the 21st century. And each and every Afrikan
needs to answer that question.
If you think that because you live in Accra or Lagos or Kinshasa or Cape Town, far from the
borderlands of today, or that because you are a Muslim, or are married to an Arab, the menace
should not concern you, then you are living in a fool’s paradise. The Janjaweed massacre of
the black-skinned Muslims of Darfur, under the directions of the Arabist-colorarchist system of
Jellaba-Arab minority rule in Sudan should cure you of your delusions. These Arabisers are
melanophobic and Afrophobic white supremacists! Your playing ostrich and burying your head in
the sand won’t cause the marauding Arab hordes to vanish. If you dismiss Dar Fur and al-Di’ein
as none of your business, just think: If by chance you had been passing through al-Di’ein village
that morning in 1987, your black face and Afrikan culture would have ensured that you were
either butchered, barbecued alive or enslaved along with the 6,000 Dinka refugees in the village.
Or if you happen to be in a Dar Fur village any day today when the Janjaweed strike, you’ll be
raped, butchered, burnt alive or enslaved along with the other blacks. So don’t foolishly think you
are not a target for the Arabisers. Your black skin and Afrikan culture put you at risk. So, this is
the moment of truth for every Afrikan, and especially for every Pan-Afrikanist anywhere on earth.
In particular, if you are a Diaspora Afrikan wanting to repatriate to Africa, shouldn’t you see to it
that Africa is safe from Arab hegemony and its murderous marauders? Or do you want yourself
or your descendants to be massacred like the Afrikans in Darfur by some Arab Janjaweed? If
you do nothing to stop the Janjaweed today, it will some day be your turn and you might find
yourself lamenting and saying:
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Chinweizu
The Arabs came for the South Sudanese, and I did nothing to stop them
because I wasn’t a South Sudanese;
And then the Arabs came for the black Mauritanians, and I did nothing to stop
them because I wasn’t a black Mauritanian;
Then the Arabs came for the blacks in Darfur, and I did nothing to stop them
because I wasn’t a black in Darfur;
And then the Arabs came for my black ass in Cape Town, and by that time
there were no blacks left to stop them killing or enslaving me.
For 50 years continentalist Pan-Africanism has refused to acknowledge the threat to Afrikans
from Arabs. Continentalist Pan-Africanism has been in denial of the race war character of the
Afro-Arab wars in Sudan (Anya Anya 1955-1972; SPLM 1983-2005). It has been in denial of
the race war character of the ethnic cleansings in Mauritania, and of Libya’s destabilizations
in Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Central African Republic, Liberia, etc. Continentalist Pan-Africanism
resolutely played the ostrich as Afrikans were attacked, massacred, driven off their lands and
enslaved by Arabs. Our OAU/AU puppet presidents, prime ministers, generals, bureaucrats and
intellectuals could not have done worse for Afrikans in the Borderlands matter if they were a
conscious, card-carrying fifth column in the pay of Arabs. Though they certainly have acted like
one, I don’t think they are a fifth column; they have been something worse.
For the past 50 years they have actually been acting just like the dumb animals that Ibn
Khaldun, etc., claimed that blacks are!
Now is the time for all that to change, for all that dumb Afrocidal nonsense to stop! It is time
for Pan-Africanism to escape from Arab hegemonist mental slavery and be reborn as PanAfrikanism. It is time to wake up and accept as fact the Arab invaders’ long-prosecuted project to
Islamise, conquer and Arabize all Afrikans. For all those Pan-Africanists who have for the last 50
years talked about some vague and purposeless African unity, here at last is a clear and present
danger, a mortal menace, to unite against. Pan-Afrikanism must act on the overwhelming
evidence that the Arabs are determined to complete their long-term project of conquering all of
Africa and enslaving or Arabizing all Afrikans.
Pan-Afrikanists must unite against the Arab enemy. Pan-Afrika must defeat our Arab
enemy, and by any means necessary. It is time for each and every Afrikan to join together
and organize to defeat the Arabist threat. We must do that or we perish!
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Chinweizu
Haashim
References
1. AI-Baqir al-Afif Mukhtar, (n.d.) “The Crisis of Identity in Northern Sudan: A Dilemma
of a Black people with a White Culture”, A paper presented at the CODESRIA African
Humanities Institute Tenured by the Program of African Studies at the North-western
University, Evanston Adam Misbah al-Haqq, (n.d.) “Blasphemy Before God: The Darkness
of Racism In Muslim Culture”,
2.
MuslimWakeup.Com,http://www.muslimwakeup.com archives/000498.php
3. Agyeman, Opoku (1994) “Pan-Africanism vs Pan-Arabism”, Black Renaissance, Vol. 1, No.
1, January 1994, pp.30-72
4. Bankie Forster Bankie “Pan-Africa or African Union?” in Bankie, F. and Mchombu, K. eds
(2006) Pan-Africanism, Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan, pp. 208-219
5. Biko, Steve (1987) I Write What I Like, Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books
6. Haashim, M. Jalaal (2006) “Islamisation and Arabisation of Africans as a means to Political
Power in the Sudan” in Bankie, F. and Mchombu, K. eds (2006) Pan-Africanism, Windhoek:
Gamsberg Macmillan pp.244-269
7. Hitler, Adolf (1971) Mein Kampf, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. Niemoller, Martin in Wikipedia
9. Nyaba, Peter Adwok (2002) “The Afro-Arab Conflict in the 21st Century” Tinabantu, Vol. 1,
No. 1, May 2002, pp. 26-50
10. The Guardian, Nairobi “Singing while their men rape”, Wednesday, July 21, 2004, Page 6,
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/07/21/2003179810
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Haashim
1.5 The policies of De-Nubianization in Egypt and Sudan: an ancient
people on the brink of extinction
By M. Jalaal Haashim
Introduction
This paper deals with the officially explicit and illicit policies aimed at marginalizing the Nubians
in both Egypt and the Sudan by, first, driving them away from their historical homelands by
systematically impoverishing their region; secondly, re-settling Arab groups in the lands the
Nubians leave behind; thirdly, pushing the Nubians into Arabicization through biased educational
curricula at the expense of their own languages and culture; fourth, nursing a culture of complicity
among the Nubian intellectuals so as to help facilitate these policies.
Three cases will be discussed in this regard: (1) the case of the governor of Asuan, Egypt (the
capital of the Nubian region in southern Egypt) in granting leases of land and building homes for
non-Nubians. These are the lands from where the Nubians were evacuated under the pretext
of building the High Dam in 1964. So far, the incessant complaints of the Nubians have fallen
on deaf ears. (2) The official guarantees made by the then Minister of Interior of the Sudan
(General-Brigadier Abdul Rahim Muhammad Husain- presently the Minister of Defense) to the
Egyptians regarding the safety of Arab settlers from Egypt in the Nubian basin in northern Sudan;
and (3) The decision taken lately by the Minister of Education in the northern State forbidding
the Nubian pupils from uttering a word in Nubian languages within the precinct of the schools.
The paper will also draw on the racist Arab culture towards the Nubians, in both countries
with special emphasis on Egypt. It will discuss in this regard the racist, anti-black approach of
Egyptian policies toward the Nubians in particular. In the Sudan it will draw attention to the fact
that the ethical premises of slave trade are there lurking behind the scene, targeting non-Arab
people in general. In this context the paper will discuss the massacre of the Sudanese refugees
committed in cold blood in Cairo on December 30, 2005 at the footsteps of the United Nations
High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office and in front of the cameras of the international
media.
Then in the conclusion, the paper will shed light on how it is quite possible and predictable for
the Nubians in both Egypt and Sudan to join the rising waves of ethnic rebellions in Sudan,
thus bringing Egypt to the table of reckoning along with the Islamo-Arabist regime of Sudan. It
concludes with certain recommendations.
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Haashim
The De-Population of the Nubian Region in Sudan and Egypt
In 1964 the construction of the High Dam in Aswan was completed, a matter that resulted in an
area of 500 km along the Nile course (310 km in Egypt, 190 km in the Sudan) to be submerged
under the reservoir. The reservoir, i.e. the lake, bears two names: “Lake Nasser” in Egypt, and
“Lake Nubia” in the Sudan. This has led to the resettlement of about 16,500 Nubian families in
Egypt (with a similar number of Nubian families on the Sudan side) away from their historical
lands. In the case of Egyptian Nubians, the area of resettlement was a barren place called Koum
Ambo near Aswan. In the case of the Sudanese Nubians the area of resettlement was a place
called Khashm al-Girba in middle-eastern Sudan, known to be of rainy autumns, contrary to the
Saharan Nubian region.
In 1963 the Aswan Regional Planning Authority (ARPA) was founded by the Egyptian government,
to be developed in 1966, upon recommendations from both the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), into the Lake Nasser
Development Centre with a Six-Years Plan. In 1975, based upon the project’s findings, the High
Dam Development Authority was established. Developmental planning has continued up to the
present time with constant help from the UNDP. Two economical activities have been available
to the local people, namely fishery and agriculture. In this regard it is worth mentioning that
the majority of neither the fishers nor the farmers are Nubians, but rather are people coming
from other areas with the encouragement of the Egyptian government which monopolizes the
marketing (for fishery, cf. Lassaily-Jacob, 1990; for agriculture, cf. Fernea & Rouchdy, 1991).
The main question here is, why did the governments of both Egypt and the Sudan evacuate the
area if they were keen on development? No development, even the most mechanized one, can
be achieved without manpower. The Nubians were driven away from their historical home lands
on the bank of the Nile at gunpoint. This experience has proven to be very traumatic to them.
Their endeavours to go back and resume living in their old villages have been reflected in their
music and songs (Mannan, 1990). A new genre of songs of homesickness has been developed
of which the late Hamza Eldin (1929-2006) with his melancholic melodies and music stands as
an example (cf. www.hamzaeldin.com).
The anti-developmental nature of the depopulation of the Nubian region is demonstrated in the
fact that a scheme of compensation had been implemented to redeem the evacuated Nubians.
A true developmental approach to the whole project could have been achieved. The Nubians
could have remained in their historical lands at the bank of the Lake Nubia, with new houses
built in the same characteristic architectural and decorative design (cf. Wenzil, 1970). With such
an approach one would not be in need for compensation. Even so, the compensation was not
enough, as usual in such cases, even though some scholars and officials might argue against
that (for the case of Egyptian Nubians, see Fahim, 1972; for the case of the Sudanese Nubians,
see Dafalla, 1975).
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The Non-Nubian re-population of the Region
The Nubians in both Egypt and the Sudan did make many attempts to go back and establish
small colonies of settlements and agriculture. They farmed the drawdown areas by pumping
water from the reservoir (Fernea & Rouchdy, 1991). However, all these attempts were
occasionally aborted by the fluctuating water level of the reservoir, a matter the Nubians believe
to be intentional by the authorities, who never encouraged them to go back.
By the 1990s the Egyptian government began following a policy of repopulating the evacuated
Nubian regions. It began encouraging Egyptians other than Nubians to settle in the evacuated
areas around the reservoir lake. It did this while the Nubians were kept away from their own
historical lands, living in a pigsty style of life in their barren area of Koum Ambo. The same
thing happened in the Sudan, with tacit encouragement from the government to the Arab
Bedouin who began settling in the evacuated area. The repopulation of the Nubian region in
Egypt has become an official policy entrusted to both the Minister of Agriculture and the Military
Governor of Aswan. The Egyptian government built villages with full facilities and utilities, and
distributed them to individuals and families from outside the regions, who were given bank loans
to start with. The latest of these new villages was the inauguration of the settlement at the old
Nubian village of Kalabsha with 150 non-Nubian families, which was opened by the Minister
of Agriculture, Amin Abaza (cf. al-Wafd Newspaper, 18/05/2006). On 11/06/2006 the Al-Hram
Newspaper (the unofficial voice of the Egyptian government) announced that tens of thousands
of feddans were to be distributed in the Nubian region to people other than the Nubians. When
the Nubians demanded that their lands be returned to them, they got an arrogant reply from the
military Governor of Aswan: “If you want your lands, go fetch them beneath the water.” (cf. Rajab
al-Murshidi in Rousa al Yousef Newspaper: www.rosaonline.net).
At the same time, the Nubians who ventured building their own settlements and farms in their old
lands began facing obstacles at every corner. No one from the international community has come
to help the Nubians in Egypt. They began voicing their problem through the internet, making
use of the numerous Nubian websites, which mostly evolve around the home-villages bearing
their names (cf. www.abirtabag.net; www.jazeratsai.com; www.karma2.com; www.3amara.com;
www.nubian-forum.com/vb; www.nunubian.com).
This racist and Apartheid-like policy is adopted by the Egyptian government in order to contain
the discontent among its Arab population who had been negatively affected by the 1992
Agricultural Law, which came into effect by 1997. This law liberalized the land tenure market by
abolishing the old land rental and tenure system by returning the land to its old feudal owners,
thus compelling the peasants to re-hire it all over again, with the threat of rental price increases
looming over their heads. During the 1990s the price actually tripled and by now it has quadrupled
(Roudart, 2000/1). This has caused turmoil and unrest among the peasants who began seeking
other jobs. The government encouraged peasants to migrate to other agricultural schemes of
reclaimed land, away from their home villages. The Egyptian government adopted the policy of
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Haashim
intermigration to solve (1) its chronic problem of population explosion, and (2) to compensate
those who have been negatively affected by its land liberalization law. Re-settlement in the
reclaimed land of the New Valley in Sinai was officially encouraged, a matter the peasants were
not enthusiastic about. Being a riverain people all through history, such a move was too much
for them. That is how the Egyptian government began re-settling them in the Nubian regions
which were evacuated four decades ago against the will of its historical people, the Nubians. In
doing this the Egyptian government is consciously pushing the Nubians into being completely
assimilated and Arabized, a policy pursued by the successive Egyptian governments.
The settlement of Egyptian peasants in the Nubian Region in Sudan
In the Sudan, the Nubians faced the conspiracy of both their government and the Egyptian
government. Those who were affected by the construction of the High Dam, like their brethren
in Egypt, were evacuated from their land and resettled in the Eastern region of Sudan. The
environment in their new home was completely different from that of their old home. However,
only one third of them were affected by the High Dam, so that the land of two thirds still remains
unaffected in the old region. Being severely underdeveloped, the Nubian region continued to
lose its people, to the extent that whole villages are almost empty at the present.
In late 2003, news leaked out revealing that negotiations on highest levels between the Egyptian
and Sudanese governments had been made so as to facilitate the settlement of millions of
Egyptian peasants, along with their families, in the triangle of the Nubian basin, Halfa-DungulaUwenat. The aim of this move is to safeguard the Arab identity of Sudan against the growing
awareness of Africanism in Sudan generally and among the Nubians in particular. The
Sudanese delegation, which was backed by a Presidential mandate, was led by the Arabist
Nubian, General-Brigadier Abdul Rahim Muhammad Husain (then Minister of Interior, presently
Minister of Defence). A cover-up plan named “the Four Freedoms” which theoretically allows
the Sudanese and the Egyptians as well to own agrarian lands and settle in both countries was
officially declared. The cover-up plan has come out half cooked as both parties were too eager
in their scrambling to create a de facto situation, before the Nubians became aware of what was
going on. There is no agrarian land to be owned by Sudanese investors in Egypt. But there is
land for Egyptians in the Sudan. On March 31, 2005, a mainsheet press release from the State
Minister of Agriculture in Khartoum (Dr. al-Sadig Amara, an Arabist Nubian as well) revealed that
6.1 million of Feddans in the triangle of Nubian basin had been sold to Egyptians (investors and
peasants) with long-term leases, i.e. investment through settlement (cf. al-Sahafa Newspaper,
No. 3892). There was no mention of Nubians in any of these deals.
In official visits to Cairo, the two ministers mentioned above held meetings with Egyptian
scholars and intellectuals who were sceptical about the viability of resettling millions of Egyptian
peasants in the Sudan. Such a scheme applied in Iraq during the war against Iran resulted in
the physical elimination of the peasants immediately after the war ended. However, the two
ministers reminded their audience that they were backed by a Presidential mandate.
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Haashim
The Minister of Defence went out of his way challenging his audience to bring forward their
solutions about tackling the population explosion in Egypt, if not by migration to the vast areas
of the sparsely populated Northern Sudan. Furthermore, lamenting the fact that the Egyptian
migration to the Sudan has significantly diminished in the decades after independence, he drew
the comparison that the migration from West Africa has steadily increased. The State Minister
on his behalf lamented the hesitation of some Egyptian intellectuals and officials, urging them to
expedite moving to the Nubian basin before [sic] other people move there first (for more details,
see:
http://www.ahram.org.eg/archive/Inde; another source of information is also: http://acpss.ahram.
org.eg/ahram/2001/1/1/CONF20.HTM).
As the Nubian Memo to Kofi Annan (cf. Haashim, 2006) stated, the Egyptians wanted the area
of the reservoir completely depopulated of its indigenous people (i.e. all the Nubians affected
in both the Sudan and Egypt). Disrupting the Nubian society of Northern Sudan and Southern
Egypt has been a target for the governments of both countries, as the Nubians constitute the
only African entity on the Nile from Kosti and Sinnar up the White and Blue Niles respectively,
down to the Mediterranean Sea.
The silencing of an ancient tongue: Don’t speak Nubian
The Nubian languages, like many national languages in the Sudan, are on the brink of becoming
extinct (cf. Haashim & Bell, 2005). The State not only did nothing to help enhance and promote
the national languages, but looks at them as a threat to the national unity. Of over 100 national
languages in the Sudan (cf. Hurreiz & Bell, 1975), not even a single one of them has been
recognized by the State. The State-supported Arabic is encroaching at the expense of the
dying national languages. The successive governments of post-Independent Sudan have never
heeded the calls from concerned bodies such as UNESCO (cf. UNESCO, 1988; or for recent
reference, see: http://www.unesco.org/most/ln2lin.htm#resources) to use the national language
as means of instruction, especially at primary levels.
The Nubian languages, especially the ancient form which was used during the Christian
kingdoms, have been in use as the official language of the State and in daily use for centuries,
from the 6th century up to the present (cf. Haashim & Bell, 2004). However the toll of the
systematic onslaught on the national languages that has been going on for the last six centuries
has begun to show.
On May 27, 2006, the Nubians in the Sudan were shocked to read the headline news that the
regional Minister of Education in the Northern state had given his explicit orders that no Nubian
pupil utter a word of Nubian language within the precincts of the schools. For decades, right from
the beginning of the 20th Century, the Nubian languages were fought against by the Arabizationoriented school administrations using the infamous tactic of the Ottoman Turkish Mijidi piaster
(cf. Haashim, Forthcoming). The obsolete piaster was to be hung from a string on the neck of
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Haashim
the pupil who dared utter a word in the Nubian language inside the school (they were mostly
boarding schools). The piaster was to be passed to another pupil only when caught committing
the sin of speaking one of the most ancient languages in the history of mankind. Checked twice
a day, in the morning and the evening, the holder of the piaster was severely punished; four
strong pupils would be summoned to hold the ‘culprit’ [sic] from the feet and the hands to be
whipped ten lashes. This practice, however, has stopped in the last two decades as a result of
the growing protest of Nubians.
This late measure of official and systematic cultural persecution has caused an outcry by
Nubians at home and in the Diaspora, without the reaction of the international community, as
usual. The Islamo-Arab government, on both the federal and regional levels, has not heeded
the growing protest of the Nubians, the motto of the government being that one expressed
with finite arrogance by the President Omer al-Bashir in the early 1990s: “We have assumed
power with arms; those who want power, or want to share it, should be men and fight for it”.
Consequently, the marginalized African people of Sudan in Dar Fur, West Sudan, and the Beja in
the East have taken to arms one after the other (with the prospect of others in the North following
them soon) in order to protect themselves from the State-sponsored projects of systematic
cultural assimilation, impoverishment and persecution. Before the coup of the Islamic junta on
the 30th of June 1898 the war zone was confined to the southern region of the South, Nuba
Mountains and Ingassana Mountains. However, the Nubians in the far North have not joined the
rebellion yet. The civil war of the marginalized African people of Sudan was not an alternative
but rather a matter of necessity, when there was no alternative at all; they were pushed into it by
an arrogant and stupid regime. Unfortunately this regime now enjoys Anglo-American support,
whose intervention presses the fighting groups to reach with it an agreement that does not solve
their problem. Such agreements inject new blood in a regime that has outlived its days.
They kill horses, don’t they!
The culling of Sudanese refugees in Cairo
In 1990, a year after the coup of the Islamic junta, waves of Sudanese refugees swarmed
into Egypt in general and in Cairo in particular. That was expected and most of the western
countries, which were the prime terminal the refugees sought, firmly locked their doors in the
face of them. The western countries did this because of the high cost of supporting the waves
of the refugees who every body knew might never go back to the Sudan, as they were seeking
permanent settlement in the West. On the other hand Egypt offered nothing to them whatsoever.
Furthermore there was no work available for them there, even the lowest paid job. However, by
1995, there were about 4 million Sudanese refugees in Egypt. That was natural as the doors of
Egypt were the only ones open for them. But it was only a matter of a few days until the Sudanese
refugees discovered that in fact they had fled from the prisons of their own regime to be locked in
another prison in Egypt. The Egyptian government made clear to the western embassies in Cairo
that not one of the Sudanese refugees was to be given a visa from Cairo. The reason was a quite
good one: such an act would increase the flow of the refugees into Egypt.
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Haashim
Then why did the Egyptian authorities open the door for them in the first place? And how did
those refugees, while receiving nothing from the Egyptian government manage to support
themselves? They were mostly families, with women, old folk and children! The answers to these
questions will not only reveal one of the worst exploitations of the misfortunes that befall people,
but will further reveal the Master-Slave mentality that still characterizes Egyptian conduct when
it comes to Sudan, consequently the whole of black Africa.
The forsaken refugees relied ultimately on money transferred to them from their relations,
whether from the rich, petroleum Arab countries or from the west. In 1999 in a visit to Cairo, the
present writer was shocked to know that it was a common knowledge to every Sudanese and
Egyptian intellectual alike the fact that the hard currency earned by the in-land revenue from the
money transferred to the Sudanese refugees was much more than that earned from the Suez
Canal. And that was not the whole story. The money which was usually transferred by fax, i.e.
to be cashed immediately when the answer-back is received, was held by the banks for months
before releasing it. The answer to this delay was that they did not receive the money. This
answer was said in the face of the claimers who had the fax answer-back in their hands faxed
to them by their relatives as a document to prove that the money was there in Cairo in the safes
of the Egyptian banks. Holding the money in that way could have never continued for years if it
were not okayed by the Egyptian government in its policy to make the best out of the Sudanese
calamities. In that visit and in another one earlier in 1994, the present writer left Cairo back to
Khartoum without cashing money sent to him from Saudi Arabia. My visits were too short for
such a difficult mission; in each one of them I only stayed for one month.
By 1998 the international community and the United Nations (UN) became aware of the
Egyptian ghetto set up for the Sudanese refugees. The Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) began a programme of resettlement for the Sudanese
refugees congregated in Cairo. The biggest Diaspora in the history of the Sudan had begun as
the refugees were dispersed all over the globe, especially in the USA, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Europe and South America. By 2003 there were only a few thousand of them left in
Cairo, the majority of whom had already been registered in the UNHCR Cairo office. Those were
mostly from southern Sudan, Dar Fur, Nuba Mountains and many other areas of the Sudan. By
2004, with the development of the peace negotiation that were brokered mainly by the USA, UK
and Norway that pressurized the rebel groups to reach a settlement with the present Islamic
regime, the interest of the UNHCR in the refugees began decreasing, to focus on other areas.
This gave the Cairo office, which was staffed by Egyptians, a free hand in dealing with the
situation. It simply resorted to a well drawn plan of faked ineptitude, pretending to be local staff
who did not have any power. However, the “international staff” were there but they were all
Egyptians. As a result of this hopeless situation, most of the refugees, either headed back to
Sudan to try another exit, or out of helplessness resigned by staying in Cairo believing in the
meek promises made by the Egyptian staff at the UNHCR office that things would eventually be
sorted out.
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In fact those who continued to stay were the poorest as they did not have any people to send
them money to support themselves. They relied ultimately on the UNHCR. Of course they were
also the ones with the most genuine cases being mostly from the conflict zones of the South,
Nuba Mountains, Ingassana Mountains, the Beja in eastern Sudan and Dar Fur in western
Sudan. This made them a real burden to the Egyptian society and government which discovered
that these were black Africans infested with AIDS and a host of infective diseases. So when the
Naivasha Agreement was reached between the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM)
and the present regime in May 2004, the UNHCR Cairo office bluntly told the refugees that their
cases had consequently lost their genuineness. It told them to go back to their country as there
was no war. The Egyptianized international body pretended not to be aware that the wars were
not confined to southern Sudan, and that other areas were not yet safe for civilians. The poor of
the poor were left to their own devices in the streets of Cairo, penniless, where they were looked
upon with the disgust and contempt typical of an Arab slaver towards a slave who behaves like
a free person.
They kept coming to the closed doors of the UNHCR office every day dragging their feet with
empty stomach to stay all the day there in the park of a mosque adjacent the UNHCR office,
until it was time to sleep. On the 29th of September 2005 a group of homeless refugees decided
to stay overnight there on the grass of the park. In a few days the number began increasing as
there was nowhere to go to. That was the moment when they decided to campaign and picket
at the footsteps of the international body. This prompted the other refugees who had shelters to
abandon them and join the picket. In one week the number exceeded 3000 refugees. A camp
committee sprang out of their number. They kept vigil for more than three months, with a highly
civilized and meticulous organization of feeding, hygiene and sleeping, with places assigned to
women and children along with the old. Neither alcohol nor drunken people were allowed into
the camp.
Right from the beginning the Egyptian society and government could not take in the scene of
having such an affluent area blackened by Africans. Derogatory, abusive and dehumanizing
language typical of Arabs dealing with Africans was introduced, which the poorest of the poor
pretended not to have heard, walking with their heads raised high. While hatred and contempt
continued building up against the picket of the refugees, the international office in Cairo
completely identified with the Egyptian stand and with the high echelons of the inept UN, turning
a deaf ear to the suffering of the refugees congregating at its doorstep. As usual, the UN was
simply waiting for the refugees to get killed so as to make a well calculated statement expressing
shock and concern and then doing its best to contain the situation (cf. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/africa/4570446.stm). The inevitable killing of the refugees came with a very cynical timing.
Just before midnight of December 30, 2005, police forces and military troops supported with
tanks began gathering and forming a cordon around the refugee camp. A delegation of the
committee of the refugees tried to contact the police leadership to enquire about the reason
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Haashim
for this cordon with no avail. With the advance of the first hour of the chilling winter morning
the onslaught began by firing water canons. Then more than 12 thousand gendarmes (police)
stormed the camp, wielding truncheons and stamping people. The only thing the refugees could
do as a reaction was perform prayer (Islamic and Christian as well), with others chanting religious
hymns aloud. Chased by human demons which wanted to kill them in their own country, Sudan,
and in Egypt, they were only left with one source of help, Providence. But, alas, they were killed
by the hundreds.
The massacre caused an international outcry with no condemnation whatsoever of the bold
killers. It was well covered by international media. The first move of Egypt was to down-play the
whole event by falsifying the number of the dead which they delimited down to 29. However,
the true number as revealed by counting the dead in the various morgues of Cairo’s hospitals
brought the number to about 280. The Sudanese government shocked the free world when
instead of condemning the killing of its own citizen, condoned what the Egyptian government
did. Later the Egyptian officials revealed that the Sudanese government was informed about
what it was going to do and they agreed. That was not all of it. The injured, even the ones with
the slightest injury, happened to pass away once admitted to hospitals. Rumours had it that they
were literally put down in the theater under anesthesia after having removed any internal organ
deemed useful for transplant.
However, the most insulting of all was the timing. This massacre of Sudanese refugees took
place just on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Independence Day of Sudan. The Egyptian
regime could not be more cynical and more vindictive. The message was clear: independence
or no independence, you are still our slaves. While the ordinary Sudanese people were fuming
with anger and humiliation, the political parties were going out of their way to rationalize what
the Egyptians did. The irony was that Egypt was the first state to recognize the Islamic coup
d’état in Sudan in June 1989, which plotted to assassinate its President, Hosni Mubarak in
Addis Ababa in the mid 1990s. This prompted Egypt to sponsor the political opposition while
working tacitly towards taming the wild Islamic regime, all the time dreading the idea of having
a democracy in the Sudan. To Egypt, a totalitarian regime in the Sudan is always convenient to
deal with whatever the surface ideological differences. When it at last achieved this goal, Egypt
ended with having both the opposition and government as friends. The Sudan regime is keen
to appease Egypt which poses as a strong ally that can help the Sudan in restoring its place
in the international community with no sanctions or international criminal court. The Sudanese
opposition is believed by many Sudanese observers to have so far kept silent from condemning
either the massacre of the refugees or the Egyptian occupation of Sudanese land because they
have been on the Egyptian payroll all through the years of their self-chosen exile in Egypt.
Well, isn’t it slavery all over again?
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Conclusion
This paper concludes by demanding that the systematic and official obliteration of the identity of
the Nubians in both Egypt and the Sudan as represented in the selling out their historical lands
on the bank of the Nile and the suppressing of their languages should stop immediately. The
Egyptian and Sudanese Nubians must have the right and priority to go back to their historical
villages. The two States, Egypt and Sudan, must do whatever possible to protect the Nubians
against any encroachment of other ethnic groups into their lands unless it takes place in a
natural and peaceful way that does not make the Nubians feel that they are being targeted and
endangered. The international community is called upon to offer support and solidarity. This
paper draws the attention to the fact that the selling of the Nubian Basin in Northern Sudan
by the present Sudan regime to the Egyptians in order to facilitate the settlement of Arabized
Egyptian peasants will turn that region into a civil war zone. The paper urges the condemnation
of this move, in its endeavour to enhance peace and reparation.
The paper also demands reparations for the Cairo massacre of 30 December 2005. The paper
demands an independent and international investigation into the circumstances that had lead to
the killing of Sudanese refugees. The least that can be done to honour the dead is to know for
sure their number. Let us not forget that those people were killed while wearing the badge of the
UNHCR. Compensations should be paid to those who suffered, whether by losing a member/s
of their family/s or by injury and the traumatic experience. Furthermore, their resettlement should
be resumed.
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Haashim
Bibliography
1. Abdal-Mannam, M. Abdal-Salam (1996), “The Resettlement of Halfawiyyin in the Butana
as Reflected in their Folksongs, M. A. Thesis, Institute if African and Asian Studies (I.A.A.S),
University of Khartoum.
2. Bakhit, Izzeldin (1996), “Mass Poverty in developing Countries: A Cultural Prospective” in
Izzeldin Bakhit, et al, Attacking the Roots of Poverty, Marburg Consult for Self Promotion,
Marburg.
3. Dafalla, H. (1975), The Nubian Exodus, C. Hurst & Company, London, in Association with
the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala.
4. El Din, Hamza. www.hamzaeldin.com. Online website. Consulted on 14/07/2006.
5. Fahim, H. M. (1972), Nubian Resettlement in the Sudan, American University in Cairo.
6. Fernea, R. & Rouchdy, A. (1991). Contemporary Egyptian Nubians, Epilogue, Part III. In:
Fernea, E.W., Fernea, R. & Rouchdy, A. (ed). Nubian Ethnigraphies. Prospect Heights. Illinois:
Waveland Press. Lassaily-Jacob, V. (1990). Village Resettlement in Lower Nubia, Egypt: the
Modification of a Development Project through Case Study. Unpublished. Paris.
7. Haashim, M.J. (Forthcoming). The Sai Island: The Story of Civilization: Issues of Culture,
Development and Marginalization in Nubia (in Arabic).
8. Haashim, M.J. (2006). Islamization and Arabization of Africans as a Means to Political Power
in the Sudan: Contradictions of Discrimination based on the Blackness of Skin and Stigma of
Slavery and their Contribution to the Civil Wars. In: Bankie, B.F. & Mchombu, K. ‘ed.’ (2006). Pan
Africanism: Strengthening the Unity of Africa and its Diaspora. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan
Publishers. PP 244-267.
9. Haashim, M.J. & Bell, H. (2004). “Ideological Motives behind Nubian Writing Systems,
Emblems of Shifting Identities over Thirteen Centuries”. In: the Annual Colloquium of the Henry
Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas. Jesus College, Oxford University. 13-16
September 2004.
10. Haashim, M.J. & Bell, H. (2005). “Nubian GeoNames in an Arabic Context: Issues of Global
Relevance”. The Fryske Academy and the Dutch and German Division of UN Experts on
Geographical Names (UNGEGN), Leeuwarden, Netherlands, 13th-16th April 2005.
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Graves
11. Hurreiz, S.H. & Bell, H. (eds.) (1975). Directions in Sudanese Linguistics and Folklore.
Khartoum: Khartoum University Press.
12. Murshidi (al-), Rajab (2006). “The Nubians attack the Governor of Aswan demanding
Resettlement” (in Arabic). In: Rousa al Yousef Newspaper: www.rosaonline.net 11.06.2006.
13. Roudart, L. (2000/1). Microeconomic analysis of the liberalization of the rent price on
agricultural incomes. In: Land Reform: Land Settlement & Cooperatives. Part II. No. 2000/1.
FAO. Online: http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/Y0434T/Y0434t07.htm#P5_730 Consulted on
13.07.06.
14. UNESCO (1988). A Practical Guide to the World Decade for Cultural Development: 19881998. Paris.
Newspapers:
1. Al-Hram newspaper. Egypt. 11/06/2006
2. Al-Sahafa newspaper. No. 3892. Sudan. 31/03/2005
3. Al-Wafd newspaper. Egypt. 18/05/2006
Naivasha, Protocol. Protocol between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Power Sharing, Naivasha, Kenya, Wednesday, May
26, 2004 [cited 2006-02-21. Available from: http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/doc/20040527_
power_sharing_protocol_.doc
Websites: generally consulted by the present author in the period between April 2006 and June
2006, with:
1. UNESCO: http://www.unesco.org/most/ln2lin.htm#resources - consulted on
12/07/2006
2. The BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4570446.stm - consulted on 13/07/2006
3. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/Y0434T/Y0434t07.htm#P5_730 - consulted on
20/05/2006
4. http://www.ahram.org.eg/archive/Inde - consulted on 20/05/2006
5. http://acpss.ahram.org.eg/ahram/2001/1/1/CONF20.HTM
6. www.abirtabag.net
7. www.3amara.com
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
www.hamzaeldin.com
www.jazeratsai.com
www.karma2.com
www.nubian-forum.com/vb
www.nunubian.com
www.sudaneseonline.com
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1.6 Pan-Afrikanism, the US origin of AIDS and the US cure for AIDS:
We can save ourselves and our future
Boyd Ed Graves, J. D.
Over the last 25 years, our governments have purposefully led us to believe that HIV/AIDS is
a plague of nature and God. This paper seeks to provide the world the truth, HIV/AIDS is the
result of a century-long hunt for a contagious cancer that selectively kills. In this regard,
the US-led monkey/African origin of AIDS is the greatest lie in human history. This paper will
serve as a response of the people to the global elite who harbour ethnic genocide as a “prime
directive” of some unknown source. We have within our reach the necessary means to not
only save ourselves, but also ensure a future for people of colour. It is absolutely crystal clear
that HIV/AIDS has been developed specifically to thin or eliminate the Black race. HIV/AIDS
is the US weapon of choice for quiet genocide, while the Black race slumbers in centralized
intelligence and comatose mentality.
I have previously presented a “timeline” of the historical development of HIV/AIDS. We now
know that HIV/AIDS can be traced to an 1843 discovery of mycoplasmas, found as the infectious
agent of the tobacco plant. The “spotted leaf disease”, also known as the tobacco mosaic virus
(TMV) serves as the grandfather of HIV/AIDS. Mycoplasmas are insidious in that they have no
cell walls. Throughout the 19th Century, scientists laboured diligently to transfer the mycoplasma
from plant to animal, and subsequently to humans. In essence, according to Dr. Robert Strecker,
all virology is man made. Mycoplasmas lie at the heart of a thousand diseases. If it is a single cell
disease that proliferates a chronic condition, it is a mycoplasma that has been manipulated to
foster the desired disability. Because mycoplasmas have no cell wall, they have the ability to kill
a cell and then “bud” to the next cell. In essence this is how tumours are formed. If mycoplasmas
are affiliated with the central nervous system, we see diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Chronic
Fatigue. Thus with this knowledge, we now turn to the US Special Virus program (1962-1978).
The US Special Virus program sought to determine if animal viruses, like visna, could grow in
certain human host cells. We know this because we have many of the 15 progress reports of
this federal virus development program. Additionally, we have the flowchart, the blueprint of the
program. The 1971 flowchart of the US Special Virus program provides absolute evidence and
definitive proof of the true laboratory birth of the AIDS pandemic. The flowchart provides much,
much more.
We now know that HIV/AIDS was no accident, in that this federal program made 60,000 liters
of HIV/AIDS. We know now that the United States attached HIV as a complement to vaccines
programs in Africa and Manhattan. The epidemiology of HIV/AIDS is irrefutable in that Africa and
Manhattan were enveloped with “mass infection”. Suddenly, two distinct and diverse population
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groups, on non-contiguous continents, were suffering and dying from “unknown mystery”
illnesses.
Many people of colour were strongly criticized for alleging that HIV was man made. Many
Caucasian people quickly and easily believed that Africans and homosexuals were scurrilous,
and that HIV/AIDS was a direct result of a sexually vengeful deity, raining judgment and
punishment. Here in the United States, Black clergy pronounced, “God’s wrath”, to confirm their
personal hatred for male homosexuals. However, now that Black women are the fastest growing
population group coming down with HIV/AIDS, we hear not a peek from Black clergy! The AIDS
virus continues unabated, by design.
It is odd that Black clergy and others simply choose not to read. The plethora of US AIDS
development documents and policy decisions can not be overlooked, nor can they be further
set aside. There is an irrefutable basis in US law and fact to support the truth of the intentional
development of AIDS.
In addition to the 15 progress reports of the federal program, is the US public record. US
House Resolution 15090 proves that HIV/AIDS is a weapon developed in part, by the US
Pentagon. Equally, US Public Law 91-213 also proves the systemic development of HIV/AIDS.
In the official remarks of former President Nixon, there is no doubt he knew there would be an
“explosion of deaths” in the last third of the 20th Century. HIV/AIDS is thus a part of the laws
of the United States, to ensure a future for White Americans. This public law is consistent with
Foreign Policy Statement-21 (FPS-21) (February 1948). US State Department official, George
W. Kennan makes it perfectly clear the United States “would have to do something to deal with
the burgeoning populations of the Third World”. However, upon closer review, the May 1946
Appropriations hearing confirms the United States had a “useable form” of HIV, as early as then!
Again we find this information consistent in the context of the paradigm of the development of
the visna virus. HIV/AIDS contains sequences of a 1932 strain of the visna virus, strain ks-1514.
This information is deeply disturbing and troubling; it proves that the US Tuskegee experiments
on African Americans was not an isolated event. Instead, it represents the true sentiments of an
Aryan mindset, induced by some prime directive of eugenics, by any means necessary. Let us
make something that will allow those people to copulate themselves into extinction.
The early development of AIDS can be traced to the induction of the Colds Springs Laboratory
(1902) and the Station for Experimental Evolution (1904). Even more compelling is the work
done by the US Laboratory of Hygiene (1878). Upon further review, we find equally troubling
that visna disease was tested beginning in 1932 in conjunction with Nazi Germany. Thus at
the end of World War II, under Project Paperclip, all the Nazi scientists were imported into the
United States. They have never been accounted for. Many of us in the Diaspora have never
even known of this diabolical diatribe of the American people and the people of the world. It
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represents one of the true lessons learned from the Nazi Holocaust. To kill overtly would raise
the ire of the world, however, to kill silently would allow the world to remain quiet, and allow
those who have effected the deaths to continue in a transparent façade of concern for human
dignity. We call upon the global leadership of the Pan-Afrikan movement to break the silence of
systemic genocide. If the United States and others have perpetrated the global AIDS crisis, the
truth must be told so that future generations of people of colour have a chance for a quality life,
without government deception as to the most basic concepts of human existence.
In this regard, we ask this Conference to accept the leadership challenge being offered and
push demonstrably for the immediate clinical trial testing of the US patented CURE for AIDS,
patent #5676977 (“TETRASIL”). The one-time infusion cure is cheap and effective. We can flood
the continent of Africa and eliminate this “controlled” raging wildfire. Pan-Afrikanism must be the
catalyst, the magic bullet that saves the Black race from destruction, today, tomorrow and into
eternity. We have within our reach the capability to save ourselves and our future.
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CHAPTER 2 - RECONCILIATION
Page
2.1 Global harmony, bilateral compassion and sustainable reconciliation
A.B. Larrier53
2.2 Strategies for eliminating “Inter-Communal Violence” on the African Continent
C.A. Bah62
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2.1 Global Harmony, Bilateral Compassion and Sustainable
Reconciliation
Elder Rev. Aaron Buddy Larrier
This paper is presented as a proposal for consideration at the Global Afrikan Family Gathering
– Create the Future! – Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation and Reconciliation. The
proposal is geared towards the healing of the Afrikan family and by extension the world via
Reparations and Reconciliation. Reparations and Reconciliation will come in many forms; this
proposal – a call for October 12, to be proclaimed a Universal/Global Day of Hope – is but one
aspect. It is placed in the context of a chronological analysis of some significant events in the
relationship between Europeans and people of Afrikan ancestry over the past 500 years, with
the conviction that “The way out is to go back through”:
 The Rise of White Supremacy/Racism
 The Oppression of the Afrikan Family – Physically, Politically, Economically and
Spiritually
 The Exploitation of Afrikan People
 The Liberation Process and the Reaffirmation of Afrikan Dignity
 The Vision of an Afrikan Renaissance
 Hope of Healing for the World – The Caribbean as a Significant Focal Point
Introduction
1492 On October 12, a European, exploratory expedition led by Christopher Columbus arrived
in the Caribbean. Following this initial expedition many other ventures took place and were
hailed as great discoveries into the “New World”.
1493 Pope Rodeico Borgia through a “Papal Bull” sanctioned the enslavement of Afrikans. This
proclamation by the Pope brought into focus what is stated in the Bible in Isaiah 20: 3-5 –
“And the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years
for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall the King of Assyria lead away
the Egyptian prisoners and the Ethiopian captives, young and old, naked and barefoot even
with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of
Ethiopia their expectation and of Egypt their glory.”
The support for the exploitation and dehumanisation of human beings by the main Christian
leaders of the day, gave legitimacy to European barbarism and to further expeditions which
included Asia in 1498, Afrika in 1505, the Americas in 1619, New Zealand in 1642, and Australia
in 1788 among others. What were discoveries for Europeans were invasions for non-Europeans.
As a result, many battles were fought for control over the peoples of Afrikan ancestry. Since the
Americas/Caribbean was one of the most lucrative regions with human captives producing raw
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materials for European markets, some of the fiercest battles were fought there. The region was
eventually subdued and divided up among European nations. So great was the appreciation of
that first voyage, that October 12 was proclaimed “Discovery Day” and “Columbus Day”.
The arrival of Europeans on October 12, and the subsequent colonisation of the Caribbean
region, resulted in an epoch of unprecedented divisions of race and culture. Europeans
committed untold acts of barbarism, demonstrating man’s inhumanity to man: colonialism,
the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the legacy of white supremacy that treated people of Afrikan
ancestry and non-whites as though they were not full human beings. Additionally, the Christian
Church was a main player in the enslavement of Afrikans and wrote a prayer especially for
enslaved Africans: “Thank you God for sending big ships and men to steal and bring us here
that we may know and love you – Amen.” This prayer should have been a warning to all Afrikan
people. Euro-centric Christianity with its faulty images of historical persons including Yeshua –
Jesus the Christ – was and is no friend of the liberation movement of Afrikan people.
1776 The American Civil War of Independence resulted in the breaking of ranks with a colonial
master – Britain. One of the main issues of the war besides independence was slavery. Victory
for the independence viewpoint led to a new administration – the United States of America
(USA). However, the founding fathers of the new administration of the USA maintained their
Euro-centric ideology. In their new constitution, white supremacy was enshrined; and Afrikan/
Black people were categorised as 3/5 human beings, giving slaveholding states the numerical
advantage in congressional representation.
Challenge to White Supremacy
1787 The Afrikan Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), under the leadership of Richard Allen
– an Afrikan born into slavery – was established in the USA. The AME church is the first Nongovernmental Organisation (NGO) to challenge the white supremacist notion that the Christian
God discriminated on the basis of colour.
1804 Haiti became the first enslaved colony to win its freedom. It established a principle that
any enslaved Afrikan person reaching the shores of Haiti would be considered free and given
Haitian citizenship.
1807 The British Government passed the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Act.
I808 The USA also passed an act to abolish its international Slave Trade.
1816 The slave rebellion in Barbados under the leadership of Bussa sent shockwaves throughout
the English-speaking Caribbean (West Indies). This event was totally unexpected as there was
no indication of any discontent in the island for over 100 years. The rebellion expedited the
emancipation process.
1834 A proclamation for the emancipation of enslaved Africans was issued for the Englishspeaking colonies 1st August, called Emancipation Day. Emancipation was, however, effectively
delayed for another four years, as it was followed by an equally oppressive apprenticeship
system of bond servitude, whereby so-called freed Africans had to work an additional four years
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on the plantation for little or no wages.
1838 Emancipation and the Apprenticeship system finally ended in the British colonies – the
English-speaking Caribbean.
1864 The USA issued its Proclamation on Emancipation. This Act of Emancipation signalled the
end of the era of Afrikan mass physical oppression.
World Dominance – The British Empire
1884 After many battles for control over Afrika’s resources, Europeans turned their attention on
the colonisation of the continent. They settled their differences at the Berlin Conference, divided
Afrika among themselves and proclaimed themselves masters of the entire planet. Britain got
the lion’s share, declaring that “the sun shall never set on the British Empire”.
The effect of the untold damage to Afrika is best summarized by Ivan Van Sertima in his book,
Blacks in Science: “No human disaster with the exception of the flood (if that biblical legend is true)
can equal in dimension of destructiveness the cataclysm that shook Africa. We are all familiar
with the slave trade and the transplanted black, but few of us realize what horrors were brought
on Afrika itself. Vast populations were uprooted and displaced, whole generations disappeared.
European diseases descended like the plague, decimating cattle and people, cities and towns
were abandoned, family networks disintegrated, kingdoms crumbled, the threads of cultural and
historical continuity were so savagely torn asunder that henceforward one would have to think
of two Africas: the one before and the one after the Holocaust. Anthropologists have said that 80
per cent of traditional Afrikan culture survived. What they mean by traditional, is the only kind of
culture we have come to accept as Afrikan – that of the primitive on the periphery, the stunned
survivor. The Afrikan genius, however, was not to remain buried forever, five centuries later,
archaeologists, digging among the ruins, began to pick up some of the pieces.”
The Berlin conference awakened the global Afrikan spirit and gave birth to the PanAfrikan Liberation Movement. Many Caribbean people (West Indians) after immigrating to
such metropolitan countries as the United Kingdom, Europe and North America became more
conscious of their “Afrikaness” and took leadership roles in the struggle for liberation.
1900 The first Pan-Afrikan Congress was held in London. This event expedited the liberation
process.
1914 The Honourable Marcus M. Garvey initiated a programme of action based on Afrikan
Consciousness and Black Nationalism. The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
was designed “to promote the spirit of race pride”. Broadly, its goals were to foster worldwide
unity among all blacks and to establish the greatness of the Afrikan heritage.
1917 The Bolshevik Revolution was the foundation for a division of European powers – East vs.
West and the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). On the one hand, there
was a Capitalist system with a principle notion of democracy and a God that discriminated based
on colour and class. On the other hand, there was a Communist system with a principle of nonacceptance, of either God or democracy. The split in the European ranks significantly benefited
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the Afrikan struggle. Communism, however, did not take root among Afrikans because it did not
acknowledge the spiritual dimension of the human being. Afrikans are God-centred spiritual
people and our culture commands/demands the acceptance of a God-head.
1919 An international organization – the League of Nations, was founded after the Paris Peace
Conference. Its Euro-centric make-up was reminiscent of the Berlin conference initiative. The
League’s goals included disarmament – preventing war through collective security. This was
the forerunner to the United Nations (UN), an international organization that describes itself as
a “global association of governments facilitating co-operation in international law, international
security, economic justice, etc.”
1930 His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie1 assumed the onerous office of Head of
State of Ethiopia.
1930 Master Fard Muhammad brought a message of resurrection from mental and spiritual
death for the Afrikan family of America. After years of teaching, he revealed to Elijah Muhammad
(formally Elijah Poole) that Elijah’s commission was to teach his people. Over the next 40 years,
Elijah faithfully taught that which he had received and built one of the most formidable black
movements ever seen in North America. From his teachings came mighty men like Malcolm
X, Muhammad Ali and Minister Louis Farrakhan and through the Nation of Islam his legacy
continues to this day.
1935 Ethiopia, the only remaining free Afrikan country (following the Berlin conference) was
invaded by Italy.
1937 There were mass social uprisings in Barbados that gave birth to a modern nation. These
riots not only changed Barbados politically, but also had a major effect on other Caribbean
islands. The uprisings on the local scene were integrally linked with the birth pangs of a new
energized Pan-Afrikan consciousness and were triggered by Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia.
1945 The world-wide European tribes war and struggle to maintain world domination
brought another dimension to the Afrikan struggle for liberation. A significant number of
Afrikans participated in World War II after being promised that their countries would be given
independence. The broken promises by the Europeans fuelled Afrikans’ desire to be liberated.
In addition, the post-war development of Europe saw significant migration from the colonies,
in particular the Caribbean. There was a pull-and-push factor for immigration to Britain. “Your
mother country needs you” was the main slogan for the pull factor and high unemployment in
the colonies was the push factor.
Civil Rights Movement
1955 Rosa Parks’ simple act of protest, to remain sitting in her seat on the bus – propelled Black
America to stand up. That courageous protest galvanized America’s Civil Rights Revolution.
1955 In the Caribbean, Hurricane Janet wreaked severe devastation and triggered a mass
migration from the region to the metropolitan countries of USA, Canada and mainly, Britain.
1957 The liberation process was given a further boost with Ghana being the focal point of the
world’s attention, when it became the first independent Afrikan nation since the Berlin conference
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of 1884. The Afrikan founding fathers pledged that Ghana would lead the way towards a United
States of Afrika.
1958 The pronouncement of a West Indian Federation triggered a call for collective action
among people of Afrikan ancestry in the English-speaking Caribbean.
1958 In England, the London Notting Hill Gate Race Riots brought a new understanding to the
liberation process.
1959 The British Mental Health Act was introduced immediately following the Riots. It gave the
government the power needed to repatriate, lawfully, unwanted British citizens back to their
places of birth. The British Prime Minister, Harold McMillan, observed that “a wind of change is
blowing through Afrika”.
1963 The formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) began the Afrikan States’
collective approach towards liberation.
1963 Jamaica’s Independence started the English-speaking Caribbean independence
movement towards liberation.
1963 The March on Washington for jobs and freedom was the largest political rally in USA’s history.
It was organized principally by A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.
The healing process
1966 The Afrikan Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem under the leadership of Ben Ammi Ben Israel
started the promised organised resettlement from captivity in the West, back to the homeland
Israel – North East Afrika.
1973 The United Nations proclaimed a 30-year process for the eradication of racism by 2003.
1977 The Vision – “Where there is no vision the people perish”. A Barbadian national living
in London was spiritually awakened and given a vision/mission of hope towards the healing of
the world.
The goals of the vision/mission are as follows:
 A New Political and Economic Order for the 21st Century;
 A new political awakening for Barbados and other people of the Caribbean region;
 The Caribbean as a “Crucible of Peace” – a microcosm of the Global Village of the 21st
Century; and
 The acquisition of economic power and unity for people of Afrikan descent with an end
to apartheid and global oppression by white supremacy/racism in view.
1981 March and Rally for Justice in London – Black People’s Day of Action – was the largest
liberation protest in the history of Britain. It resulted from the New Cross Massacre in which 18
Afrikan Caribbean youth lost their lives in a racist attack by arson on a house in New Cross
London on January 18, 1981.
1989 Seven top religious institutions held a conference in London to focus on the world population
for the 21st century. It was stated that there were approximately four and a half billion people in
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the world. The prediction was that by the year 2000 the population would increase by two billion.
It was felt that every effort should be made to restrict the population to four and a half billion.
Hope for Justice and Peace
1990 Following the 1989 conference, the Barbadian, Reverend Aaron Buddy Larrier, founded
the Universal Day of Hope Trust (UDOHT). Reverend Larrier sent a proposal to over 178 world
leaders and international NGOs including churches requesting that October 12 be designated
a Day of Hope/Prayer for the realization of historical truth, social justice, world peace, global
harmony, bi-lateral compassion and sustainable reconciliation.
1990 The World Council of Churches (WCC) through its Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
(JPIC) Committee made a covenant to convene a World Day of Prayer on Racism.
1994 Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and apartheid in South Afrika officially ended.
This episode completed the process of colonial rule (political) on the continent of Afrika.
1995 UDOHT presented a Draft Resolution regarding the October 12 Day of Hope/Prayer to the
Government of Barbados for consideration and submission to the UN on behalf of Caribbean
member states.
1998 The United Nations adopted a resolution proclaiming the period 2001-2010 as the
International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World.
1998 The Government of Barbados established a Commission for Pan-Afrikan Affairs, with a
mandate to address and rectify that deficiency in Barbadian institutions and national life, which is
manifested in the relative dearth of relationships, exchanges and interactions with the worldwide
Afrikan Diaspora. This is the only such government agency of any nation state. Of note is the
fact that Barbados was formerly known as “Little England” and was the nerve centre for British
colonial rule in the English-speaking Caribbean.
1999 A British citizen, Mr Jeremy Gilley, received a vision/mission for the advancement of a
Day of Peace. He founded the NGO, Peace One Day, and submitted his proposal to the British
Government.
2001 The United Nations held its third and final conference of the 30-years process for the
eradication of racism. The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia,
and Related Intolerance was held in Durban, South Afrika.
This was the first world conference of the 21st century. The USA refused to participate in either of
the two previous conferences (1978 & 1981) and walked out of this conference. The conference
resolved that Colonialism and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were crimes against humanity.
September 7, 2001 The British Government presented Mr. Gilley’s proposal to the UN. It was
unanimously adopted and September 21 was designated a “Global Cease Fire Day”.
September 7, 2001 UDOHT presented its Draft Resolution to the 168 Nations States at a Plenary
Session of the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and
Related Intolerance.
September 11, 2001 With the attack on New York “Twin Towers”, the world became a more
divided place with wars, rumours of wars and terrorism intensifying.
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2002 The Afrikan and Afrikan Descendants World Conference against Racism held in Barbados,
was the first follow-up to the Durban conference. At this conference, a global Pan-African
organisation – the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) – was established and the UDOHT’s Draft
Resolution designating October 12 as a Day of Hope/Prayer. This was the first global conference
where the views of white people were not requested or welcomed. Since then GAC has called
on heads of Caribbean Governments to designate October 12 as a “Maafa Day of Hope” for
mourning the loss of ancestors during slavery.
2002 Mr Graham Power, an American, received a vision/mission to establish a Global Day of
Prayer (GDOP). He proposed that all Nation States observe a GDOP. The Sentinel Group, a
networking NGO endorsed Mr Power’s proposal and is lobbying Nation States to support the
GDOP. Accordingly, 189 countries have formally committed to the proposal, 31 states are yet to
sign up, including 15 Caribbean States.
2003 The Afrikan Union (AU), an advance development process of the Organization of African
Union (OAU), officially acknowledged the Afrikan Diaspora as a possible sixth region of Afrika.
2005 Leaders of the 14 European Nation States that participated in the carve-up of Afrika
at the Berlin Conference in 1884 met in Berlin along with 20 Afrikan leaders to address the
consequences of the legacy of that carve-up.
2006 The Bishops of the Church of England and of the Episcopal Church in the USA agreed to
offer formal apologies for the Church’s complicity in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery.
2006 Mr Andrew Hawkins offered a formal apology on behalf of his family for trafficking in Afrikan
slavery. The Vice-President of Gambia Isatou Njie Saidy accepted the apology. Andrew Hawkins
is a descendant of Sir John Hawkins, the buccaneering, Elizabethan seaman who was the first
person to buy captives in West Afrika and sell them to Spanish landowners in the Caribbean.
2006 Ghana would host its first Global Pan-Afrikan family gathering on Reparations, Repatriation,
and Reconciliation. The significance of this conference cannot be overemphasised.
2006 Brazil would host the Regional Conference of the Americas as a follow up to the Durban
conference of 2001 and the accomplishments and challenges of the Durban Plan of Action
against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
2006 France, being the first European state to acknowledge slavery as a crime against humanity,
expressed sorrow for its role in the trade by designating May 10 as Slavery Remembrance Day.
2007 The 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, by the British, will be observed.
Britain will commemorate this event in a big way.
2007 The English-speaking Caribbean will be the focus of world attention when Cricket World
Cup (CWC) is held in the region. Barbados will become the first small island State to host the
finals of such a major international event.
2007 Ghana will again be the focal point of the Afrikan world, when it hosts the Joseph project
– Tower of Return. On this occasion the reuniting of the global Afrikan family starts in earnest.
Afrikans on the continent will offer an apology to Diaspora Afrikans for any complicity on their
part in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Spiritual liberation will intensify when an International Spiritual Leadership Summit on Redefining
Afrikan Spirituality for Advancing Afrikan Unity in the New Millennium is held. The vision of this
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Spiritual Leadership Summit is to establish a new Afrikan “Edenic” social idea that will produce a
new system of cultural, political and economic values for governing our lives, families, societies
and what will soon emerge as our new Afrikan “Edenic” civilization.
Ethiopia will acknowledge the New Millennium and the start of its 21st century: “Ethiopia shall
soon stretch out her hands unto God” - Psalms 68:31.
Conclusion
UDOHT has taken the above history, along with other significant events of the past 500 years into
consideration and we are now more convinced than ever that God is consistent in His purpose.
The liberation of Afrikan people is at hand. We should have no fear of atomic energy/weapons,
Globalisation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or any other evil intentions on
the part of others, for none of them can stop the times. We therefore acknowledged Jeremy
Gilley’s proposal for “Peace One Day” – September 21. We also welcome the opportunity to
collaborate with Graham Power and the Sentinel Group in advancing the Global Day of Prayer.
For a “Global Day of Prayer” or a “Peace One Day” initiative to achieve its ultimate purposes,
that day must be grounded in the principles of truth, righteousness, justice and peace.
In light of the recent upsurge in “terrorism”, violence, and crime globally, we are convinced that
October 12, during One World Week (OWW), is the date that offers the best hope of healing
the world through a day of prayer. OWW is a week observed annually around the world for the
cessation of war and as a commitment towards the healing of the world.
It is of critical importance that the Global Afrikan family understands that every 100 years on
October 12, European Nations re-energise themselves and their philosophy of white supremacy
by invoking the spirit of their ancestors through the re-enactment of the voyage of Christopher
Columbus. Hence, UDOHT is persuaded that “the way out is to go back through”. The legendary
Bob Marley informed us that “until the philosophy that holds one race inferior and another
superior is permanently discredited and abandoned there will be war”.
History attests to the fact that October 12 is as important to the global Afrikan family as it is
to Europeans, and we too must invoke the spirits of our ancestors of that period by likewise
proclaiming October 12, as a hallowed day in their honour. UDOHT therefore, calls for the
adoption of the proposal proclaiming October 12, a Maafa Day of Hope, to be part of the
reparations and reconciliation process. Further, we recommend that this day of hope should
commence in 2007 as part of the commemorative events for the 200th anniversary of the British
abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Act.
We as Afrikan descendants MUST appreciate the significance of the “Joseph Project” – to make
the 21st Century the Afrikan Century. The strategy is to reconcile and unite Afrikan people’s
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Bah
positive spirits and strength, releasing the focus necessary to alleviate the legacy of Slavery.
The major task now before the Afrikan man/woman is to free our minds from “Whiteness.”
Keep hope alive, Give peace a chance!!!!
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2.2 Strategies for eliminating “Inter-Communal Violence” on the African
Continent
Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
I think discussions around the strategies for ending inter-communal violence in Africa should be
held around our understanding that we are victimized by outright terror orchestrated by capitalist
forces who are desperately competing for control over our numerous resources.
Inter-communal violence, like any other problem we face in Africa, owes its origins to this
parasitic relationship that exists between us and imperialism. We talk about internecine warfare:
boundary and chieftaincy succession disputes, conflicts over land ownership, religious violence,
the so-called black-on-black crime, and the many contradictions typical of inter-communal
violence. Quite often, we find ourselves engrossed in disputes caused by our own inclinations
to the most ridiculous issues like religion, tribalism and nationality. In most cases, people hate
and fight each other because they do not belong to the same religious group, or they come from
different tribes or ethnic groups. People will not talk to you because you don’t believe in God or
belong to the wrong religious group, or you believe in the wrong God.
The reality is that our imperialist enemies are never confused over such issues because they
share a common interest, namely the exploitation of our African resources. Africa is being
robbed every day by Europe and the United States while we continue to have these meaningless
disputes amongst ourselves. So we must realize that inter-communal violence is part of the
numerous manifestations of centuries of colonial enslavement and capitalist exploitation which
has robbed us of access to our own resources and our right to a decent and peaceful living as
a people.
Truly speaking, I am coming from a place where the life span of an African has been reduced to
37 years, a place where there is no electricity, no running water, no good roads, and no health
facilities. In fact, a United Nations report says that three out of every five women who give birth
in Sierra Leone are likely to die in labour. The country has the highest infant mortality rate in the
world. Ironically, this is the country that produces the world’s richest diamonds. There are about
90 multi-national corporations that are currently involved in the theft of diamonds from Sierra
Leone. A single corporation from England alone is taking out a hundred and twenty thousand
carats from Sierra Leone every year with a single carat valued at US$60,000. The activities of
these corporations have left thousands of our people homeless and landless, and completely
isolated from our resources.
So when we talk about violence and the causes of inter-communal violence in Africa, these
are the issues we ought to know. And I think this is fundamentally important because when
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we talk about reparations, we still have to understand that the genocide and damage we seek
reparations for is still being perpetuated against us even as we gather here to discuss the
question of reparations.
Imperialism works overtime to convince us of our differences just as it works equally to convince
some of us that we are a part of the imperialist project. This is a fundamental contradiction that
lays the basis for our understanding the problems we collectively face as African people and
what we have to do to change that situation.
Key to ending inter-communal violence in Africa is deepening our understanding of our identity
as one African people who are scattered and separated from each other as a consequence of
imperial aggression. We must understand that we are one people regardless of the fact that
we may find ourselves isolated in Ghana, Nigeria, the United States, England or some other
place. We share a common history, a common identity and a common destiny. Knowing and
appreciating who we are is a key to understanding the source of the contradictions we face
today and what we must do to overturn our conditions as Africans.
In addition, we have to understand that reparations itself is equally part of our struggle for selfdetermination. And self-determination demands our ability to form ourselves into an organization
committed to a revolutionary process designed to free us from neo-colonialism and imperialism
and to help us take back our resources. So part of the process of addressing inter-communal
violence as well is the building of a single organization committed to organizing Africans around
the world to identify and struggle against our oppressors. This will be tremendously significant
in helping us strengthen our oneness as a people and our efforts to overcome our differences
and overturn our difficulties.
This also brings us to the question of justice. By justice I mean a people’s justice that is devoid
of manipulation by some greater forces that work against the interest of the oppressed masses.
I am pleased to tell you that we are currently involved in building an International Tribunal on
Reparations for African People. This is a process that is led by the Chairman of the African
Peoples Socialist Party, Chairman Omali Yeshitela, and involves Africans from all around the
African world. This Tribunal will be held in Berlin, Germany in June 2007 and will primarily
serve as a tool for uniting all reparations movements and organizations around the world into
a common effort that will enhance the significance of all our work and build the necessary
practical global relationships and networks necessary for our success. Among other things,
this tribunal will allow the international African community to achieve a common explanation for
the conditions of existence we are confronted with and I am sure this will be a practical way of
addressing the contradictions facing us whether it is inter-communal violence or some other
issue resulting from our oppression by capitalism.
Discussions and planning meetings for this tribunal are ongoing. The first meeting was held in
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Daniels
London, England, a second one was held in Paris last month. We are equally meeting in Berlin
as part of this process. This process invites participation from Africans around the world. It is an
open and transparent process, and we are calling on all Africans to participate.
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CHAPTER 3 – REPARATIONS
3.1 Page
The Critical Role of Pan-Afrikan Education in the Global Reparations Struggle
A. Daniels 66
3.2 Self-Reparations for Afrikan Power: Pan-Afrikanism and Black Consciousness
Chinweizu 68
3.3 Mauritania’s Crime against African Humanity and the Efforts for Reparations
G. Diallo 87
3.4 Slavery and Racism in Mauritania
S. Thiam100
3.5 Arab Slavery of Africans in the Afro-Arab Borderlands – The Sudan Case
B. F. Bankie102
3.6 Reparations – The Global African Perspective
Paramount Chief K. Riruako114
3.7 Study of National Legislative Reparations Initiatives and Reparations Campaigns in the
Republic of South Africa
M. Moss128
3.8 Realities and Challenges of Reparations
E. Aharone131
3.9 Draft Application to the International Court of Justice
I. Obadele et. al., for the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, USA
137
3.10 Workers’ Contribution to the Reparations Struggle
G. Watson152
3.11 The Role and Relationship of the IMF, the World Bank and Other ‘Global Financial
Institutions’ in the Global Reparations Movement
J.S. Agboton158
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3.1 The Critical Role of Pan-Afrikan Education in the Global Reparations
Struggle
Ahmad Daniels
The Use of “N” Words from Brooklyn to Soweto: A challenge to reclaiming and Redefining
Afrikan History and Culture Workshop
DISCUSSION ONE: Afrikans at home and abroad: Yesterday, today and tomorrow
Objectives
• To understand how one’s values change over time
• To better understand how discussion can impact views
DISCUSSION TWO: Another look at power
Objectives
• Discuss Dr. Wade Noble’s definition of power
• Review Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s prophetic words, “When you control a man’s thinking
you do not have to worry about his actions …”
DISCUSSION THREE: The meaning of the “N” word
Objectives
• To list the various “N” words throughout Afrika and the Diaspora
• Discuss the meanings of such words and their impact on many Afrikan people
DISCUSSION FOUR: The process of Dehumanization
Objectives
• Consider how the taking of one’s culture is the equivalent of the taking of one’s humanity
• Discuss how the challenging of one’s humanity often results in the likelihood of anything
being done to the victim who later becomes a volunteer in his own mental, physical and
spiritual death.
DISCUSSION FIVE: Double-Consciousness: Coping with Apartheid at home and abroad
Objectives
• Discuss and understand Dr. William E. B. Du Bois’ double-consciousness theory
• Explore the implications of having two personalities
DISCUSSION SIX: History: More than just dates and places
Objectives
• To discuss the role history plays in the lives of a people
• To engage in a discussion why history should be studied
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DISCUSSION SEVEN: Culture: More than just dance, food and dress
Objectives
• Determine what culture is to a people and its role in the liberation process
• To realize how culture reverses the dehumanization process
DISCUSSION EIGHT: Collective Action Plan
Objectives
• Show that working together can stimulate a desire to uplift the thinking and behaviour
of Afrikan people
• Participants will think of what was learned during the workshop and note what they can
START doing, things they can STOP doing, and that which they are doing well and
should CONTINUE doing as individuals or as a group to reclaim and redefine Afrikan
history and culture
Concluding remarks
Human rights advocate and Pan-Afrikanist Malcom X knew the importance of transformation.
This is evident in his words, “Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought
pattern; once you change your thought pattern it changes your attitude; and once you change
your attitude it changes your behaviour pattern.”
It is incumbent upon educators to create the information that will result in the transforming of
Afrikan people, it is also the responsibility of facilitators to create an environment where Afrikans
can engage in heartfelt, non-blaming discussions that lead to more meaningful relationships with
ourselves individually as well as with other Afrikans. In the final analysis we come to understand
that changed philosophies do in fact lead to changed behaviours.
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3.2 Self-reparation for Afrikan Power: Pan-Africanism and Black
Consciousness
Chinweizu
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Steve Biko.
“One type of struggle we regard as fundamental is … the struggle against our own weaknesses.”
Amilcar Cabral, [1980: 121]
You must not abandon discussion out of tact … There should be no concession where there is a
question of establishing a scientific truth … Remember we are focused on a quest for truth and
not on a sacrosanct idol we must avoid debasing …
[Cheikh Anta Diop [quoted in Van Sertima, Ivan 1986: 13]
Professor Diop does have one important desideratum that has yet to be fulfilled. He desires a
forum or colloquium somewhere in which an extensive and exhaustive discussion, analysis,
and clarification of his ideas can be carried out. He feels that his work and ideas have not had
the proper feedback, examination, and testing necessary to properly validate them despite their
ever-widening reception. His is a search for truth, not the establishment of a new orthodoxy.
[Charles Finch [1986: 230]
Introduction
First of all, I have quoted Cabral and Diop to make a point that applies to Pan-Africanism as a
whole. All its ideas are in need of exhaustive discussion, rigorous analysis and clarification to
test their validity and utility. We also need to examine the practices of the Afrikan anti-colonial
struggles, from before the 18th century Haitian war of independence to the 20th century South
African anti-Apartheid struggle, and we need to sort out the half-baked from the sound, the
helpful from the harmful, the up-to-date from the out-of-date. And in this vital exercise, we must
insist, as Diop urges, on not abandoning any discussion out of tact, or out of reverence for any
hero or idol. We must courageously persevere in the struggle against our own weaknesses,
for they, no less than the actions of our enemies, have helped to bring about our failures and
disasters.
Secondly, we must understand that we want to solve the problems of the Afrikan people not of
the African landmass or continent. The focus of Afrikan self-reparation must be to produce the
conditions that would rescue Afrikans from their dismal plight of the last two millennia.
Thirdly, we must understand that getting our Arab and European enemies to pay us trillions of
dollars for the disasters they inflicted on us – by invading, abducting, enslaving, conquering,
exploiting, robbing and exterminating hundreds of millions of us will be just like collecting rain
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with a basket unless we first seal up the holes in the basket. And sealing up the holes is the job
of self-reparation.
Fourthly, what has been the basic problem, the mother of all problems, of Afrikans for the past
2,000 years? Here are some clues:
• If we had Afrikan power to stop them, would Arabs have conquered and occupied 1/3
•
•
•
•
of our African homeland in the last 1500 years?
If we had Afrikan power to stop them, would Arabs and Europeans have raided Africa
and carried off hundreds of millions of Afrikans to enslave in the Americas and Eurasia
in the last 1500 years?
If we had Afrikan power to stop them, would Afrika’s resources have been exported to
build up Europe and America while Afrikans starve?
If we had Afrikan power to stop them, would Arabs have taken over Sudan for the last
50 years and waged war on the South Sudanese to Arabize them and prevent their
independence?
If we had Afrikan power to stop them, would the World Health Organization (WHO)
and its US masters have had unhindered access to our population to AIDSbomb us?
Would they have vaccinated 97 million Afrikans with AIDS-infected smallpox vaccines?
No enemy can go into China or the USA or Europe to do mass vaccinations: Chinese,
American or European power respectively would prevent it. Now, that gives us a glimpse
into the basic problem of the Afrikans for the past 20 centuries, i.e. POWERLESSNESS!
– the lack of the power to protect our lands and populations from alien attacks.
On the other hand, everything on the Afrikan wish list (prosperity, security, dignity, respect, basic
needs, an end to racist contempt, etc) requires Afrikan power. Without Afrikan power, Afrikans
cannot ensure that Africa’s resources are used primarily to meet Afrikan needs. The great world
powers will continue to extract Africa’s resources for the primary use of Europe and America,
thereby denying Afrikans the resources for Afrikan prosperity. Without Afrikan power, Afrikans
cannot hold onto their land and lives and resources and cultures. We need Afrikan power to end
the kinds of mayhem and ethnic cleansing and Arabization that are being inflicted on Blacks in
Darfur and Mauritania, which are a humiliation for all Afrikans.
And the organizing of Afrikan power requires a Pan-Afrikanist perspective that can see Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) or the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) as potential sub-continental megastates to be industrialized for the protection of all
Afrikans.
But could Afrikan powerlessness possibly be cured by Scientific Socialism, Liberalism, Marxism,
Communism, Christianity, Islam, Humanism, Continental Union Government, or by any
combination of these and the other decoy solutions offered in the last 50 years by all sorts of
saviours of Africa? Were these “-isms” designed, in the first place, to solve the specific problems
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of Afrikans? After 50 years of chasing these decoy shadows, our plight is worse than before.
Perhaps it is time to make a fresh start, to take a new and comprehensive look at our problems
and what we need to do to solve them for ourselves.
Fifthly, such a fresh start requires our acceptance of full responsibility for ending our plight. It
means that we accept that, whatever Arabs or Europeans have done to cause our condition,
and whatever our ancestors may have contributed to our plight, the responsibility is now entirely
ours to cure it. Acceptance of this responsibility is our fundamental act of self-reparation; without
it, we are fooling ourselves in demanding reparations from others. Perhaps, the first key area in
need of self-reparation is Pan-Africanism itself.
The need for Self-Reparation in Pan-Africanism
Outside the estacode/dollars-per-diem ranks of African Union bureaucrats and intellectuals, Pan
Africanism has lost its relevance and appeal to most Afrikans. All the evidence available today
indicates that Pan Africanism has failed the Afrikans woefully. Strictly speaking, Pan-Africanism
in the 20th century scored more failures than successes.
While its basic objective of removing the blanket of white European rulers from Africa was
achieved, little else has succeeded. Black governments may now rule the countries of Pan
Africa, but visible black rule has not removed the white imperialist control and exploitation of our
countries; nor has it done much to improve the conditions of the overwhelming majority of Afrikans
in the world. The expected fruits of black rule have not materialized. Poverty, powerlessness,
social disintegration, cultural decay and disillusion remain the hallmarks of Afrikan countries and
communities everywhere.
More seriously, in the 50 years of Continentalist Pan Africanism, our race war enemies have
inflicted three potentially terminal disasters on Afrikans, namely, the AIDSbombing of Africa,
a resurgent Arab expansionism that is expropriating more and more of our continent, and the
AU’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) that guarantees that Africa can never
industrialize or escape poverty. The collective failure of the OAU and its member governments
to deter/prevent the AIDSbombing of Africa is a cardinal failure of Pan-Africanism.
Clearly, therefore, we need to investigate what went wrong and why, and we need to repair the
Pan-Africanism that helped make things go so badly wrong.
Perhaps most importantly, in the 20th century Pan-Africanism failed to mature into a full-fledged
political ideology with a sound concept of its constituency, a sound idea of its paramount strategic
goals and a sound political program of transformative action. It also failed to adjust itself to the
changes in its environment. For instance, it has persisted in focusing only on the European
domination that was the most prominent blight on the African landscape before 1950; it has
failed to recognize the resurgent Arab expansionism that followed the withdrawal of European
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rule, and has refused to organize an appropriate Pan Africanist response to it. Correcting these
failings is a task of self-reparation, perhaps our most urgent task of self-reparation today.
And for our self-repair of Pan-Africanism to commence properly, we need to put together a
Pan-Afrikan intellectual collective whose task is to assemble “A Pan-Africanism Reader”, an
anthology of the principal ideas, documents, as well as the achievements and failures of the
Pan-African Movement, so we can all know what we are to repair. Then, with that body of work
in our hands, we can all join in the great discussion and analysis to find out why things went
wrong and what to do to repair them.
The first key aspect of Pan-Africanism that needs attention is the doctrine of Continentalism.
Continentalism
The brand of Pan-Africanism that Nkrumah launched in 1958 with his First Conference of
Independent African States (CIAS) was dedicated to the political unification of all the countries on
the African continent, regardless of race or creed or – surprisingly – anti-black behaviour. Hence,
for instance, Nkrumah, quite amazingly, saw it fit to invite to that ostensibly Pan-Africanist, and
implicitly anti-colonial, conference the Apartheid South African government of Premier Hendrik
Verwoerd! In his subsequent campaign for what became the OAU and now the AU, Nkrumah
relentlessly argued for what may be called Continentalism. He claimed that only by bringing all
the countries in Africa under one continental government, could Africans defeat neo-colonialism
economically, militarily, diplomatically, etc. But, in fact, a close look at his arguments shows that
they do not validly imply a continental African government. What he actually argues validly is
that the countries created by the European conquest and partition of Africa are each too small
to defeat neo-colonialism, and that they, therefore, should coalesce into something bigger. But
what would be big enough? He does not give any criteria for determining that. He simply asserts,
with increasing desperation as time went on and his invalid argument fell on the deaf ears of
his OAU peers, that it must be a continent-sized State! He doesn’t consider the possibility that a
continent-sized State could be too big or not big enough.
In fact, one of his laughable arguments actually suggests that what would be required to defeat
neo-colonialism is a political union, not just of the African continent, but of the entire Third
World – a Tri-continental state that would bring all of Africa, Asia and Latin America under one
government. He said:
Thus far, all the methods of neo-colonialism have pointed in one direction, the ancient,
accepted one of all minority ruling classes throughout history – divide and rule. Quite
obviously, therefore, unity is the first requisite for destroying neo-colonialism. Primary and
basic is the need for an all-union government on the much-divided continent of Africa.
[Emphasis added] Along with that, a strengthening of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation
and the spirit of Bandung is already underway. To it, we must seek the adherence on an
increasingly formal basis of our Latin American brothers. [Nkrumah, 1973:335]
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On this argument for defeating a global neo-colonialism, why should it be all countries on the
African continent that should unite, and not all countries in the Third World? The argument is
really for a Union Government of the entire Third World victims of neo-colonialist divide-andrule, a Tri-continental Union Government for all the ex-colonial countries of Africa, Asia and
Latin America! On the other hand it would apply equally to a Union Government of West Africa,
or East Africa or Southern Africa, or of Africa and the Arab World. Take your pick. Like the
other arguments Nkrumah put forward, it contains no specific reasons why the union should be
continental in scope and nothing less. Please note that Nkrumah asserts, but doesn’t say why
“an all-union government” of the African continent is a “primary and basic need”.
Cheikh Anta Diop, another passionate advocate for African continental unification, was no
better than Nkrumah at specifying why exactly the admittedly larger State required for Africa’s
development must encompass the entire continent.
When an advocate consistently begs the question, suspicion is aroused that his overt arguments
are mere mystifications for something held on other, undisclosed, grounds. The real reasons
might be some secret fear or desire. In the case of Nkrumah and Diop, we get a peek at their
hidden motive for Continentalism when Diop said, in a 1976 interview:
If we black Africans take steps to include North African Arabs into a continental
federation and the latter prefer instead to elaborate organic political ties with Arabs of
Asia, this would be tantamount to a rebuff. If North African states, rather than looking to
black Africa in a natural partnership, preferred a federation with Asian Arabs extending
to the Persian Gulf, then we would be entirely justified to organize ourselves in an
exclusively sub-Saharan federation. In such an eventuality, no one could accuse
sub-Saharan Africans of being guilty of exclusivism, [emphasis, in bold, added]
since their appeals to the North would have been refused. [Moore, 1986: 261]
This is a clue that the unargued and illogical conclusion, that we need an African continental State,
was driven by fear of being accused of “(racial) exclusivism”. In other words, in the integrationist
atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s, Pan-Africanists feared that if they advocated a union of
sub-Saharan countries, or any smaller grouping that would include only blacks, they would be
accused of racial exclusivism, i.e. segregation/“black racism”. Continentalism was, therefore,
something believed without good reason, but out of fear – in other words, a superstition!
With this clue from Diop, we can now attempt to diagnose the roots of Nkrumah’s passion for an
illogical Continentalism.
Nkrumah: the roots of his continentalist superstition
As I pointed out above, Nkrumah’s argument contains no specific reasons why his proposed
Union Government must be continental in scope. This lack of Africa-specificity was typical of
his anti-colonial advocacy. For example, his pamphlet “Towards Colonial Freedom”, which
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was written in 1942 and published in 1947, closed with the exhortation: “PEOPLES OF THE
COLONIES, UNITE. The working men of all countries are behind you.” [Nkrumah, 1973:41]
In the same vein, the “Declaration to the Colonial Peoples of the World”, a resolution which
he wrote, and which was adopted at the 5th PAC in Manchester, also ended, not with the
exhortation: “Africans/Blacks of the World – Unite!” which would have been appropriate, but
with: “COLONIAL AND SUBJECT PEOPLES OF THE WORLD – UNITE”. [Nkrumah, 1973:44]
Nkrumah himself seems to have been vaguely aware that his anti-colonial theses were usually
not for Africa specifically; for, in commenting, after Ghana’s independence, on “Towards Colonial
Freedom” Nkrumah himself said, “Although I have concentrated on colonial Africa, the thesis
of the pamphlet applies to colonial areas everywhere.” [Nkrumah, 1973:16 fn] Why, we may
wonder, was he shy of focusing on the specific Ghanaian/Black African situation for its own
sake rather than merely using the African situation as a convenience in arguing for the global
anticolonial cause? In this eccentric procedure, Nkrumah was unlike Biko whose focus was
consistently on black South Africa, his immediate and natural constituency; and also quite unlike
Cabral for whom the reality in Guinea was always the focus and who, though no less a Third
World internationalist than Nkrumah, insisted that “our own reality is at the centre of a complex
reality, but it is the former that most concerns us”. [Cabral, 1980:47] Was Nkrumah perhaps a
racial integrationist who was emotionally uncomfortable about being too much identified with his
natural, Black African constituency? And, if so, why?
In the document known as THE CIRCLE, which he drew up soon after the Manchester 5th PAC,
Nkrumah advocated creating and maintaining a “Union of African Socialist Republics.” [Nkrumah,
1973:48] These exhortations from the 1940s suggest that Nkrumah was, at heart, a global anticolonialist rather than a Pan-Africanist specifically; in fact, that he was a socialist internationalist,
probably a Trotskyite, who found himself at some point obliged to focus on promoting socialism,
first in one country, Ghana, and thereafter for one continent, Africa, pending any opportunity
that would release him from the “parochialism” of one country or continent, and become the
promoter of global socialist internationalism without borders.
Was Nkrumah, then, basically a universalistic socialist missionary who, as the saying goes,
“happened to be black” and who went home to Ghana/Africa to convert his people to socialism?
Or was he primarily an African liberationist for whom socialism was a useful ideological tool?
This should be investigated as the finding could throw unexpected light on his primary identity,
constituency and preoccupations, as well as on aspects of his behaviour that have had adverse
consequences for Afrikans.
His socialist internationalism aside, there is still to be considered the added factor of Nkrumah’s
commitment to “non-racialism”. That was evident in his Convention Peoples Party (CPP)
constitution (1949) which lists among its aims “abolishing imperialism, colonialism, racialism,
tribalism and all forms of national and racial oppression and economic inequality among nations,
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races and peoples…” [Nkrumah, 1973:59] Could Nkrumah’s “non-racialism” – probably imbibed
from the 1930s American socialist milieu with its slogan “Black and white unite and fight!” – have
reinforced his devotion to a global, multi-racial anti-colonialism, and helped blind him to any
union in Africa that, by excluding Arabs, would be open to the accusation of racial exclusivism?
Any black anti-colonialist intimidated by the scarecrow of “racial exclusivism/black racism” into
evading the political reality of black skin in a white supremacist world, would not consider, let
alone be enthusiastic about, a blacks-only sub-Saharan union, even if that would be enough to
defeat neo-colonialism in Africa!
If this diagnosis is correct, we owe Nkrumah’s advocacy of the continentalist superstition to
a combination of the socialist internationalism and the non-racialism he had imbibed from his
liberal and socialist mentors in the imperialist world.
But the antidote for this particular non-racialist superstition was indicated, even during the
integrationist 1960s, by John Oliver Killens when, in his 1965 essay “The black writer vis-à-vis
his country” he observed that:
“Negroes are the only people in this world who are set apart because of who they are,
and at the same time told to forget who they are by the very people who set them apart
in the first place.” – [Killens, 1965:358-359]
A few years later, in the early 1970s, the young Steve Biko, in building his Black Consciousness
Movement, developed the much-needed therapy for this superstitious fear. Among other things
he correctly argued that integration was a false antithesis to segregation/apartheid, and that the
correct antithesis was Black solidarity/unity. For the specific context of apartheid South Africa,
he argued:
It is time we killed this false political coalition between blacks and whites as long as it
is set up on a wrong analysis of our situation … [and because] it forms at present the
greatest stumbling block to our unity … The basic problem in South Africa has been
analysed by liberal whites as being apartheid. For the liberals, the thesis is apartheid,
the antithesis is non-racialism, but the synthesis is very feebly defined. They want to tell
the blacks that they see integration as the ideal solution. Black Consciousness defines
the situation differently. The thesis is in fact a strong white racism and therefore, the
antithesis to this must, ipso facto, be a strong solidarity amongst the blacks on whom
this white racism seeks to prey.
[Biko, 1987:90]
And Biko further observes, quite correctly:
The concept of integration … is full of unquestioned assumptions … It is a concept long
defined by whites and never examined by blacks … [It is one of the] concepts which the Black
Consciousness approach wishes to eradicate from the black man’s mind. Black Consciousness
is an attitude of mind and a way of life, … the realisation by the black man of the need to rally
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together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression – the blackness of their skin –
and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude.
[Biko, 1987:91-92]
Biko, the Black Consciousness prophet, further argued that, in South Africa:
As long as blacks are suffering from inferiority complex – a result of 300 years of deliberate
oppression, denigration and derision – they will be useless as co-architects of a normal society.
Hence what is necessary as a prelude to anything else that may come is a very strong grassroots build-up of black consciousness such that blacks can learn to assert themselves and stake
their rightful claim.
[Biko, 1987:21]
And Biko drives his point home thus:
Those who know, define racism as discrimination by a group against another for the purposes of
subjugation or maintaining subjugation. In other words one cannot be a racist unless he has the
power to subjugate. What blacks are doing is merely to respond to a situation in which they find
themselves the objects of white racism. We are in the position in which we are because of our
skin. We are collectively segregated against – what can be more logical than for us to respond
as a group? When workers come together under the auspices of a trade union to strive for the
betterment of their conditions, nobody expresses surprise in the Western world. It is the done
thing. Nobody accuses them of separatist tendencies. Teachers fight their battles, garbage men
do the same, and nobody acts as a trustee for another. Somehow, however, when blacks want
to do their thing the liberal establishment seems to detect an anomaly. This is in fact a counteranomaly. The anomaly was there in the first instance when the liberals were presumptuous
enough to think that it behoved them to fight the battle for the blacks.
[Biko, 1987:25]
Biko’s full critique of integration should be required reading by all Afrikans today. This
Black Consciousness therapy helped to produce a new breed of the black freedom fighter in
South Africa, the self-confident type, unconfused and uncrippled by fears implanted by false
liberal doctrines like integration and non-racialism. It produced self-confident blacks who insisted
on doing things for themselves and all by themselves, and who did not feel they had to prove
themselves to whites.
To see the validity of Biko’s doctrines for Pan-Africa today, one needs first to note Biko’s remark
that “the black-white power struggle in South Africa is but a microcosm of the global confrontation
between the Third World and the rich white nations of the world.” [Biko, 1987:72]
More specifically, we should note that the black-white situation in Apartheid South Africa was a
special local case of the global situation between whites and blacks. We can therefore validly
transpose Biko’s doctrines to the global situation that Pan-Africa ostensibly is struggling to
eradicate.
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Accordingly, in a world where blacks are oppressed and exploited by white Arabs and
Europeans, any Afro-Arab alliance is just as false a political coalition as that in South Africa was
between whites and the blacks they oppressed. To realize that is to find the intellectual ground
for the courage to repudiate the Afro-Arab alliance and continental political union that Nkrumah
promoted and Diop advocated.
We need to be ever mindful of Biko’s remark that “The biggest mistake the Black world ever
made was to assume that whoever is against apartheid is automatically our ally” [Biko, 1987:
63]. And we need to apply it to the global imperialist situation.
Still in that vein, let us see what Black Consciousness doctrines would say of the AU, NEPAD,
and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) prescribed for Africa by Blair’s Commission for
Africa. Biko rejected the Bantustan idea on the fundamental ground that “it is a solution given to
us by the same people who have created the problem”. [Biko, 1987:82]
His rejection would equally apply to the AU Trojan horse with its wrecking crew of NEPAD, MDG,
etc. which – like what Leon Damas called “the theories that they season to the taste of their
needs” – are designed to worsen our problems, not solve them.
In South Africa, Biko asked: “whether the Bantustan leaders do not see the barrenness
and fraudulence implicit in this scheme?” He answered thus: “We have some men in these
Bantustans who would make extremely fine leaders if they had not decided to throw in their lot
with the oppressors. A few of them argue that they are not selling out but are carrying on the fight
from within … ” He ended by dismissing them and their delusions with the comment: “After all,
as one writer once said, there is no way of stopping fools from dedicating themselves to useless
causes.” [Biko 1987:84]
When we realize that these so-called independent African states that have been herded into
the AU by Gadhafi are nothing but the glorified Bantustans of the G8 system of UN Imperialism,
i.e. the global system’s version of those Bantustans of Apartheid South Africa, we can see the
aptness of applying Biko’s remark to all these black heads of State and government in the
fraudulent and useless AU.
My point in this exercise has been to illustrate that we have enough sound ideas within the body
of Pan-Africanist thought to challenge and correct the false ideas and misguided projects that
have crippled us, if only we would collect and study the tradition and use it to correct itself. And
I’d like to suggest that we form and equip a collective of our academics to do this job. In the
last 50 years, all manner of half-baked ideas have been hurriedly implemented, and even with
desperate urgency, while the Pan-Africanist intelligentsia failed to cry foul and to subject them
to rigorous debate and correction. We must mend our ways. As a contrite act of self-reparation,
we must create the necessary organs of unfettered debate and use them effectively henceforth.
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We cannot blame Nkrumah, Diop and others for their errors. They gave what they thought were
the right ideas. But it was for us to have collectively corrected their errors, and we didn’t. We
have yet to do for Diop’s ideas what he himself pleaded for. And it is our duty to Pan-Africa to do
the same for all ideas on offer, even those by prima donnas who are touchy about criticism, or
by Presidents who are full of themselves. We must do our duty and politely ask those who resent
public criticism to keep their ideas to themselves and not pollute the public space with them.
By the way, to throw a cold and sobering splash of comparative reality on this delirious hankering
after a continent-sized political union, we should note that the megastates and great powers
of the 20th and 21st centuries – USA, USSR, EU, China, Russia, and India – are actually
of sub-continental, not continental, size. The only actually continent-sized state is Australia,
which is not a great power at all! Unless we wish to persist in playing the fool who insisted on
walking on a cloud, we should trim our ambition to what is, at least geographically and culturally,
possible. Therefore, the project of an African megastate should be guided by the feasibility
conditions for putting it in the power league of China, EU, USA, Russia and India, and not by
some superstitious craving for continental size.
Other issues in Pan-Africanism crying out for Self-Reparation
Continentalism is not the only aspect or doctrine of Pan-Africanism that is crying out for
correction. Having looked at that error in some detail, all I have time to do here is list a few
others, with brief comments, so they can be attended to afterwards.
African Identity
The question of African identity and its criteria has not yet been rigorously analysed or
Afrocentrically resolved. What is Africa? Who are the Africans? What are the cultural and
biological boundaries of Africa/Africanness?
This fundamental matter of defining Africa and the Africans – those that are the constituency
served by Pan-Africanism – has been bedevilled by the same fears of exclusivism that helped
install the superstition of Continentalism. Those black Africans who fear the white enemy would
label them exclusivists are prone to evade including the colour/phenotype/racial factor when
defining the African. Some insist on defining Africanness in purely cultural terms. Some fools
even say that the African is anybody who is “committed to Africa”! Others, such as the AU
bureaucrats who organized the 2004 Conference of AU intellectuals in Dakar, urge what they
call “identity fluidity” and assert that:
Africa, whose construction is currently on the agenda, transcends
geographical borders as well as cultural or racial barriers: it
extends from both sides of the Sahara; it is white and black, Arab
and African, continental and insular; it is a cultural meeting point
where successive strata of cultures of Eurasian origin intermingle
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with indigenous cultures born in the Continent of Africa (Mbeki’s
Speech: “I am an African” epitomizes these assertions in that it
recognizes all the above assets). The concept of identity fluidity
has now become imperative.
“Draft Concept Paper” to AU Intellectuals meeting, Dakar, October 2004, p.7.
On this question of identity, we sorely need to take our cue from Biko and boldly “rally around
the cause of our suffering” and, without apologies to our enemies and their integrationist dupes
in our midst, define ourselves for ourselves on the basis of our black skin – the cause of our
suffering. A continent does not make a people, and so cannot legitimately be used to define or
name a people. Ancestry, historical experience and culture are the valid factors for defining a
people. Our latching at all unto a geographic name (African) is a seminal error that is spewing
unending problems and confusions we could do without, and we should find our way out of it.
As a first step out of that costly error, we must Afrocentrically limit the African identity to those
from Africa who have, over the centuries, been singled out as targets for enslavement by the
black colour of our skins. Hence, whites, European as well as Arab – the very predators who
decided to target blacks for enslavement – cannot be legitimately included with us, their prey,
just because they’ve forcibly made themselves our neighbours on the African landmass. By the
Africans, Pan-Africanism can legitimately mean only the members of the indigenous populations
of Africa who were, for the last 20 centuries, targeted for enslavement by Arabs and Europeans
on account of their black skin color. That is the fundamental historical factor. Anybody who is not
a biological descendant of these blacks cannot qualify as an African.
Perhaps we could make our usage sufficiently distinctive by reserving the term Afrikan for such
indigenous populations and their descendants – until we adopt a name for ourselves from an
Afrikan language. In which case, we are interested in Afrikans and Afrika their homeland, and
not in Africa, the continent, and Africans – those populations of any race whatever that are now
located in the African continent, whether black or white, indigenous or exogenous, imperialist
predators or their prey.
Pan-Africanism must therefore, with Black Consciousness rigor, limit its constituency to Afrikans,
i.e. Black Africans and their global diaspora and, provisionally, rename itself Pan-Afrikanism.
Black Consciousness historical considerations aside, it would be scientifically incorrect to define
Afrikans without including the biological/racial factor of black colour/phenotype, for, as political
science assures us:
People define themselves in terms of ancestry, religion, language, history, values,
customs, and institutions. They identify with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups,
religious communities, nations, and, at the broadest level, civilizations. … In coping
with identity crisis, what counts for people are blood and belief, faith and family. People
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rally to those with similar ancestry, religion, language, values, and institutions and
distance themselves from those with different ones. [Huntington, 1997:21, 126]
Since the instantly visible mark of Afrikan ancestry and historical experience is the black skin, it
would be unscientific to exclude it from the factors for defining Afrikanness.
Furthermore, just as it is the indigenous Chinese who define who are Chinese, and the
indigenous Arabs who define who are Arabs, and the indigenous Europeans who define who
are Europeans, so too do we indigenous Africans, a.k.a. Afrikans, have the right and duty to
define who are Africans. And if it is in our interest to include a phenotype factor, black skin, in our
definition, we must do so, regardless of what anybody else thinks. In this regard, we need to note
the Chinese example: To the Chinese government, people of Chinese descent, even if citizens
of another country, are members of the Chinese community and hence in some measure subject
to the authority of the Chinese government. Chinese identity comes to be defined in racial terms.
Chinese are those of the same “race, blood, and culture”, as one Peoples Republic of China
(PRC) scholar put it. In the mid-1990s, this theme was increasingly heard from governmental
and private Chinese sources. For Chinese and those of Chinese descent living in non-Chinese
societies, the “mirror test” thus becomes the test of who they are: “Go look in the mirror”, is the
admonition of Beijing-oriented Chinese to those of Chinese descent trying to assimilate into
foreign societies. [Huntington, 1997:169]
We might, likewise, tell those of black African ancestry who claim to be Arabs or Europeans, as
well as those Arabs and Europeans who claim to be Africans, to “Go look in the mirror!”
We could all learn from what our Afrikan-American brother, Runoko Rashidi, said on a
Johannesburg radio program recently:
The hosts asked me my positions on global African unity. I responded, and the phone
lines lit up! The first caller was a white man who said what a “racist” I was
and how offended he was. I let him have it! He said that he was an African and that
I was not. I said that I was an African and that he was not. I told him that you can
teach a parrot to speak but that in the end it was still a bird. I told him that you can
dress a monkey in a suit but in the end it was still an ape. I told him that his ancestors
came to Africa uninvited, without passport or visa, stole the land, near exterminated
whole groups of people, and enslaved and colonized the rest. And now, he wants to be
an African! I told him that his pedigree was European, his history was European, his
lineage was European, his culture was European, and that he was a European! I guess
that you could say that I effectively silenced him, and every other call that I received on
both programs, from African and European alike, was extremely favourable! You would
have been proud.
Yes indeed! Arabs and Europeans may be settled in Africa, but that doesn’t make them Afrikans!
Just because a snake has crawled into your bedroom and settled down to rear its young doesn’t
mean you should now count and embrace it as a member of your family. It would be extremely
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irrational and Afrocidal for Afrikans to accept a non-racial, continentalist concept of their identity.
African Unity: Unity of what, for what and against what?
African unity has been the major mantra of Pan-Africanism for the past 50 years. Unfortunately,
the purpose of the advocated unity has been so vague and unspecified as to leave the impression
that it is nothing more than unity for unity’s sake. Worse still, the uncritical welcoming of the
Arabist-Imperialist AU suggests that even a unity in an enemy dungeon has become acceptable
to Pan-Africanism. Since a union in the prison of Imperialism or Arabism is contrary to the
Afrikan interest, the concept of African unity has to be re-examined, and its purposes clarified
and made consistent with the interest of Afrikans. We need to bear in mind that people do not
unite for nothing or against nothing. Our experience in the past two millennia suggests that PanAfrika should be uniting against white domination by Arabs no less than by Europeans.
Leaving aside the question of the vague purpose of African unification, and the question of
whether the unification domain should be continental or sub-continental in scope, Pan-Africanism
has failed to examine the question of the character of the entities that it sought to unite. Nkrumah,
for all his anti-colonial fervour, was the head of a neo-colonial Bantustan, and was seeking to
unite a bunch of such neo-colonial Bantustans. If Pan-Africanism has not abandoned its original
anti-imperialist purpose, it is rather strange that it has not focused on the task of changing the
neo-colonial character of these states it was attempting to unify. Diop touches on this when he
said in his 1976 interview: “The neo-colonial character of such regimes is therefore an objective
factor in the way of constituting a continental federation.” [Moore, 1986:262]
But even Diop failed to give the matter the type of examination it required. He saw it merely as
an obstacle to federating, rather than a basic obstacle to such states ever saving Afrikans from
imperialism, even when federated, – and, therefore, an obstacle that should be removed while,
or even before, uniting them. After all, will individual armed robbers, if they form a gang, stop
their armed robbery or get more effective at it? But continentalist Pan-Africanism has been so
obsessed with unification that it doesn’t seem to have given this crucial aspect the attention it
deserves.
Given the character of these Bantustans, is it any wonder that their OAU/AU has been a union
of Bantustan bureaucrats and an anti-Afrikan agency of imperialism? After all, an AU of neocolonial Bantustans can only be a much bigger neo-colonial Bantustan than its members.
The neo-liberal International Monetary Fund (IMF) framework of the economic programs, of
its NEPAD, can only make one wonder: by what devious route, by what subtle betrayals and
mutations, has the anti-imperialist Pan-Africanism of Du Bois and Nkrumah achieved the precise
ends sought by the white supremacist Pan-Africanism of Jan Smuts that Du Bois and Nkrumah
had pointedly opposed, namely an “African continent (ruled) in the interest of its white investors
and exploiters”. [Du Bois, 1970:178; Nkrumah, 1973: 17]
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Obviously, continentalist Pan-Africanism long ago abandoned the anti-imperialism that inspired
it. Not only has it, from its inception, been an accomplice of Arab expansionism, it also now
serves whatever “partner” [read: paymaster] funds its lavish jamborees – be it Washington,
London, Brussels or Tripoli.
Because unification had become an end in itself, had become the supreme goal, it was not asked
what precise kind of unity was required as a means to the original, but long since forgotten, antiimperialist aims of Pan-Africanism.
Reconfiguring the concept of African Unity so it does not yield a union of neo-colonial Bantustans,
but a union of anti-imperialist and anti-Arabist states plus other organs that will serve the Afrikan
people is, thus, an important task of self-reparation waiting to be done on Pan-Africanism.
Afrikan collective security: The Black World League
One of the glaring omissions from Pan-Africanist thinking has been the idea of collective
Afrikan security – the concept, the aims as well as the organs for effecting it. For a people
whose calamities have resulted from millennia of failure of collective security, this is a most
self-damaging omission. Addressing it is a vital act of self-reparation. It probably requires us
to insist that each Afrikan State should explicitly declare that the security it exists to ensure
is the security of its population, territory, society and cultures from Imperialism and Arabism.
Presently, our comprador-colonial Bantustans operationally define security as “internal security”
– the security of the neo-colonial state apparatus from its victim Afrikan population. This is
a crazy carry over from the era of expatriate European colonialism when these states were
local agencies of subjugation for their imperialist founders. That needs now to be changed. And
having redefined security Afrocentrically, we need to invent organs for implementing it. Since
neither the AU nor the UN can ever function as an organ of Afrikan collective security from both
Imperialism and Arabism, it is imperative that we organize a Black World League/Afrikan League
to do that job for us.
Afrikan solidarity
Why is Afrikan solidarity so weak nowadays? And what is needed to make it a strong and
automatic reflex yet again? In 1935, when Nkrumah, who was passing through London on his
way to the USA to study, saw a poster that read “MUSSOLINI INVADES ETHIOPIA”, he was
overwhelmed by emotion. In his own remarkable words: “At that time, it was almost as if the
whole of London had suddenly declared war on me personally.” The West African press reacted
in a similar manner. One newspaper, for example, declared that “that war with Abyssinia is
our war”. Ethiopian Defence Committees sprang up in various parts of West Africa and the
Americas. Garvey and many other diaspora leaders organized help for Ethiopia. Some AfrikanAmericans, defying the US government’s neutrality, even went to fight in defense of Ethiopia.
[Esedebe, 1980:117-121; Harris, 1993:708-713]
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Why do we not react to Darfur, Mauritania, South Sudan etc., with the exemplary indignation that
Nkrumah experienced when he heard that Italy had attacked Ethiopia? For 50 years we have
had the strange spectacle of Pan-Africanists who show passionate solidarity with Palestinian
Arabs but not with Black Sudanese or Darfurian victims of Arabs. What does it take to imbue
hundreds of millions of people with an active solidarity and the militant enthusiasm to defend
their group at whatever cost to the individual? We must discover and apply such remedies to
ourselves.
Having Afrocentrically and scientifically defined Afrikans – as well as non-Afrikans – for ourselves
and in our interest, with passing the “mirror test” as a necessary criterion; and having highlighted
Pan-Africanism’s weaknesses in the matters of Afrikan Unity, Collective Afrikan Security and
Afrikan Solidarity, we can get on to working out a correct Pan-Afrikanist position on Sudan and
the Afro-Arab borderlands.
Sudan
By 1945, the agenda of Pan-Africanism had crystallized as follows: to end colonialism and
colour discrimination in Pan-Afrika. But quite surprisingly, the questions of Arab domination
and anti-Black discrimination were not placed on the Pan-Africanist agenda. The issue of Arab
domination, surprisingly, did not attract continentalist Pan-Africanist thinkers and leaders even
during the Anya Anya war in Sudan (1955-1972).
Whatever the reasons for that neglect, the project of ending Arab domination and expansionism
in Africa needs to be now placed at the top of the Pan-Afrikan agenda, in light of Afrikan
experience in the Afro-Arab borderlands in the last 50 years. In the 50 years of continentalist
Pan-Africanism, with the sole exception of Zanzibar, Pan-Afrika did not release any Afrikan
territory or people from Arab domination or enslavement. Rather, more Afrikan lands and peoples
have fallen under Arab rule and enslavement.
Before 1970, for lack of Biko’s insight, Nkrumah and Co. threw Afrikans into an Arab embrace that
inhibited Afrikans from defending themselves against Arab hegemonists. Since then, by failing to
use Biko’s insight to clear their confusions and complexes away, the black governments in the
OAU/AU have become, as shown in Dar Fur, like the black father who holds his own daughter
down to be raped and battered by his Arab business partner and “friend”. That is the role played
by the spineless AU presidents who met in Khartoum and Banjul this year without expelling the
Arabist government of Sudan from the AU for its crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide, and
without doing enough to precipitate UN intervention to end the scandalous raping and killing and
enslavement of blacks in Dar Fur.
In atonement for all that, Pan-Afrika needs to acknowledge that Sudan is not an Arab family
affair; that it is a theatre of the Afro-Arab Race War, and that the hegemonic Arab aggressors are
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the great enemy of Pan-Afrika. Pan-Afrika must, therefore, in contrite solidarity and for collective
security, vigorously mobilize support – financial, military, diplomatic, ideological, propaganda,
etc. – for the victims of Arabist attacks in Dar Fur and elsewhere in Sudan. We must also
mobilize support for South Sudan to attain its independence in 2011. That is our task of selfreparation.
In fact, Sudan is a serious test of our willingness to undertake self-reparation.
Pan-Africanism’s ideological deficiency
“The ideological deficiency, not to say the total lack of ideology, on the part of the national
liberation movements … constitutes one of the greatest weaknesses, if not the greatest
weakness, of our struggle against imperialism.” [Amilcar Cabral, 1980:122]
In the light of the weaknesses I have pointed to above, we need to take serious note of Cabral’s
observation and, therefore, assemble and test all the ideas of Pan-Africanism to see if they
amount to a coherent ideology for Afrikan liberation. And if they do not, it is our self-reparation
obligation to elaborate them into an ideology with a transformative program for breeding the
kind of Black Consciousness activists who can champion the interests and aspirations of
the overwhelming majority of Afrikans on this earth. Only by so doing can Pan-Africanism be
revitalized, re-emerge as Pan-Afrikanism from its doldrums, and gain popular following.
With these examples, let me leave the weaknesses of Pan-Africanism and draw attention to the
larger area of our concern.
Afrocidal traits
These include our Europhilia, Arabophilia and Afrophobia; also the idiotic individualism, oblivious
of collective interests, of our black neo-colonial elites who are obsessed with personal power
and conspicuous consumania rather than the security and prosperity of their countries. Another
Afrocidal trait is a fatalistic patience, especially under misrule, which General Jan Smuts, that
white supremacist promoter of imperialist Pan-Africanism, described in 1930 as “one of the
world’s marvels, second only to the ass’s.” Yet another is our callous indifference to the plight
of other blacks.
Any shortlist of our Afrocidal weaknesses must include what Nkrumah described as “a lack of
malice, an absence of the desire for vengeance for our wrongs”. [Nkrumah, 1973:114]. Though
Nkrumah lists this among the admirable traits of the African Personality, we need to take a
critical look at it, for it is, in fact, Afrocidal.
Other observers have described it more candidly and in more revealing detail.
For example, an American reporter, David Lamb, after five years traveling and observing Africans
in 48 countries during the late 1970s, said:
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Given all he has had to endure from the beginning of slavery to the end of colonialism,
the African displays a racial tolerance that is nothing short of amazing. He holds no
apparent grudge against the European as an individual, and it is rare indeed for any
white person to experience even the slightest indignity because of his colour The
African has forgiven, if not forgotten.
As a white settler in Kenya, a former hunter of Mau Mau freedom fighters, explained to Lamb:
Why has it been forgotten? Well, partly I think, because the African isn’t capable of
the depth of emotion that the European has. He doesn’t love his women or hate his
enemies with the same intensity. You look at a good solid white hatred and it can last
for generations. Africans don’t hate that way.
But, on the other hand, Lamb notes:
For a people who have had to tolerate so many injustices over the centuries, yet have
remained basically gentle, polite and racially equitable, I was constantly shocked to
see the cruelty, even sadism that Africans inflict on one another so willingly.
And he wondered what makes the African “a fatalist, intent on his own survival but caring little
for those who are less fortunate”? [Lamb, 1985:161-162,164, 235,236]
Likewise, from Canada in the 1980s, another investigator, O. McKague, reported:
As one female member of the Nationalist Party told me, one can treat blacks like dirt for
years, cease such treatment, and almost immediately they are willing to be your best
friends. This, she explained, is because blacks do not have the capacity either to feel
injustices or to remember them. Jews, she stated, are quite [a different matter].
[McKague 1991:93]
This obscene rush to forgive and forget even the most grievous wrong done to us by the white
enemy was most publicly exhibited in Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission which, quite sacrilegiously, placed on the same moral level both the violence of
the Apartheid oppressors and the counter violence of those who fought their oppressors! The
armed aggressor violence of the Apartheid state criminals who inflicted the Sharpeville and
other massacres and who murdered Steve Biko was treated as no different morally from the
unarmed, defensive counter violence of the children of the Soweto uprising. Tutu’s approach is
as obscene as condemning equally for violence the soldier’s hand that is strangling an infant
and the milk teeth by which the infant tries to bite off the strangler’s hand!
“Black Racism”
One final trait on this shortlist. An Afrocidal trait that seems to have emerged in the 20th century
is our defensive sensitivity to any imputation of “exclusivism/black racism”. You can whitemail
even the most intelligent and self-assured Afrikan to submit to any foolishness by the slightest
hint that not to submit might be seen as “exclusivism/reverse racism/black racism”. You can
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even get him to commit suicide or rape his mother by playing on that sensitivity! That was how
even Nkrumah and Diop were whitemailed, or whitemailed themselves, into the Continentalist
superstition. That even Diop – our formidable authority on cultural identity and its constituent
(historical, linguistic and psychological) factors – fell into the Continentalist superstition, against
the implications of his own cultural science, is an indication of just how effective a scarecrow
this “exclusivism/black racism” charge can be. I would be surprised if the same whitemail is not
a factor in the AU’s timidity and complicity on Darfur! Luckily, Biko gave us the therapy, and we
should all dutifully take the treatment.
Conclusion
As these traits are among the weaknesses our white enemies have exploited for millennia, I
would invite Afrocentric psychologists, as a matter of urgency, to investigate and find therapies
for them. I might add that even the traits of the southern cradle/sun cultures that Diop listed in
his Two Cradles Theory, which some are inclined to celebrate, need to be investigated – and
eliminated, if found to be Afrocidal and to have contributed to our plight.
We must admit to ourselves that there are many things wrong with us, including psychological,
cultural and social weaknesses. Otherwise we wouldn’t be in the mess in which we find
ourselves, and certainly not for two whole millennia! And we must have the honesty and courage
to struggle against our profound weaknesses if we wish to survive, let alone with any dignity and
self-respect. But we must note that the things wrong with us are not those harped on by enemy
propaganda, namely our black skins and our so-called IQ. We have no cause for any inferiority
complex on account of those decoy issues.
Let me end by inviting all Pan-Afrikanists, those who want Afrikans to survive and prosper, and
especially the academics and other intellectuals among them, to follow Steve Biko’s example
and develop a comprehensive list of our genuine weaknesses and then focus on discovering
and applying whatever remedies are appropriate for them, regardless of white opinion.
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References and suggested readings
1. Bankie, F. and Mchombu, K. eds (2006) Pan-Africanism, Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan
2. Biko, Steve (1987) I Write What I Like, Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books
3. Cabral, Amilcar (1980) Unity and Struggle, London: Heinemann Educational Books
4. Du Bois, W. E. B. (1970) W.E.B. Du Bois Speaks, ed by Philip S. Foner, New York: Pathfinder
Press
5. Esedebe, P. O. (1980) Pan Africanism, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers
6. Finch, Charles S. (1986) “Further Conversations with the Pharaoh” in Van Sertima, Ivan ed.
Great African Thinkers, Vol. I, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1986, pp. 227-237
7. Garvey, Amy Jacques ed. (1925) Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, New York:
Atheneum, 1992
8. Harris, Joseph E. (1993) “Africa and its diaspora since 1935” in Ali Mazrui, ed. General History
of Africa, Vol. VIII, Paris: UNESCO, 1993, pp.705-723
9. Huntington, Samuel P. (1997) The Clash of Civilizations, New York: Touchstone/Simon &
Schuster
10. Killens, John Oliver (1965) “The Black Writer Vis-à-vis His Country” in Addison Gayle, Jr. ed.
The Black Aesthetic, New York: Anchor Books, 1972, pp.357-373
11. Lamb, David (1985) The Africans, New York: Vintage Books
12. McKague, O. ed (1991) Racism in Canada, Saskatoon: Fifth House
13. Moore, Carlos (1976) “Interviews with Cheikh Anta Diop” in Van Sertima, Ivan ed. Great
African Thinkers, Vol. I, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1986, pp.249-283
14. Nkrumah, Kwame (1973) Revolutionary Path, London: Panaf Books
15. Van Sertima, Ivan (1986) “Death Shall not find us thinking that we die” in Van Sertima, Ivan
ed. Great African Thinkers, Vol. I, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1986, pp.7-16.
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3.3 Mauritania’s crime against African humanity and the efforts for
Reparations
Garba Diallo
As with the previous changes of heads of state through the barrel of the gun, the August 3, 2005
military coup has not brought about the necessary changes of the system. Perhaps, worse than
Apartheid South Africa, Black Mauritanians have been suffering racial discrimination, chattle
slavery, and violent military dictatorships since Mauritania was created in 1960 by France for
the purpose of serving its own colonial and neo-colonial interests. As usual, what took place
was only the change of the clowns, but not the bloody circus. The “new” head of the new ruling
junta in Nouakchott is no one other than the very repressive Colonel Ould Vall who had been the
closest associate and head of the state security apparatus of the deposed Colonel Ould Taya
since the latter shot his way to power in 1984.
Therefore, almost 12 months later, the new regime has failed to address what Mauritanians term
as National Question number one: state racism which discriminates against black African citizens
in every aspect of their daily life. This national question number one is the very background and
justification for the continued practice of chattel enslavement of one third of the population by
the ruling white Moorish caste. The attempt to establish liberal democracy, while maintaining a
de facto Apartheid system and the enslavement of black citizens are seen by black Mauritanians
as an attempt at democracy a la Apartheid in favour of the white Moors.
In this article, I present and analyse the factors behind the August 3, 2005 military coup and
the impossibility of its stated mission to introduce real democracy, without opening the political
space for Mauritanians to freely dialogue, in order to replace the old system of Moorish monopoly
of power, based on their assumed ethnic superiority over the majority blacks. The article will
moreover discuss the origin, mechanism, effects and implications of the ideology of domination
on the part of the Moors. The article will also discuss the features of racism in Mauritania from
which black citizens have been suffering from daily discrimination, massacre, banishment,
confiscation of their land and forced Arabization, etc.
Military coup on the continent
As Baba Galleh Jallow eloquently commented, “The current scenario in Mauritania is all too
familiar to observers of African politics. Total disenchantment with an African despot who’s been
in power for decades provides an excuse for a group of semi-literate soldiers to seize power. To
appease the world, the soldiers declare that they are only out to root out corruption and return
the country to civilian rule within a few years. The condemnations continue for some time and
then die down, replaced by the sleepy and indifferent silence of the pre-coup days.”1
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Therefore, the success of the August 3, 2005 military coup in Mauritania did not come as a
surprise to informed observers of the socio-political and economic situation prevailing in the
country. What many had not expected was that the coup was carried out by the very insider
Colonel Ould Vall. Prior to the coup, Colonel Vall had been the state security chief, of the
repressive military regime of Colonel Ould Taya, since 1978, making him the most loyal
associate of the deposed dictator. They are from the same area, with the same supremacist
ideology. Abdarahmane Wone, North American representatives of the African Liberation Forces
of Mauritania (FLAM), remarks: “I always say that the situation in Mauritania is similar to the
situation in (Apartheid) South Africa. If Ely Ould Mohamed Vall is smart enough he will try to
be the Mauritanian de Klerk and not the Mauritanian P.W. Botha. But I’m still very pessimistic
because he didn’t call for the resolution of this matter.”
Thus, the reasons behind coup can be summed up as follows:
1. The insiders decided to turn against their former leader because they wanted to save their
own skins. The former ruler had become so corrupt and paranoid that he turned the whole state
system into a personal fiefdom, making him lose perspective of what was happening around
him and his close cronies. The bloody coup attempt of June 8, 2003 was followed by repeated
mutinies and desertion in the lower ranks of the military hierarchy from excluded ethnic groups
particularly in the east and south. A successful coup by younger officers outside of the narrow
circle of power would have spelled disaster for top ranks of the Taya regime, their families and
clans.
2. As a Pan-Arab Nationalist, Colonel Vall was not happy that Colonel Taya had exchanged his
hitherto Pan-Arab policies for close relations with Israel and the USA.
3. After more than 20 years in power – since 1984 – Taya’s regime degenerated into one man,
one clan, and one family regime. This alienated the other sections of the Moorish community. It
threatened to divide them, which could be fatal to the state system based on their supremacist
minority rule. So, the general consensus within the Moorish community was breaking
apart because of Taya’s greed and personalized system of government. Thus, the new military
dictator wants to restore unity among the Moors vis-à-vis the blacks.
4. Now the new regime has issued decrees to write a new constitution, release political prisoners,
and organize elections within two years to hand over power to an elected civilian government.
5. However, as happened in the previous changes of rulers in the country, the new regime
of Ould Vall has maintained the status quo. They have avoided the core underlying national
issues of the country: co-existence in equality between the African and Moorish sections of
society, slavery of Africans and the form of the government reflecting the cultural, economic and
geographical realities and needs of the country.
6. The fate of the tens of thousands of black Mauritanian refugees is not on the priority list of
the Vall regime. During his recent state visit to Senegal, Colonel Vall avoided discussing the
issue of the refugees with his host. Although he was directly responsible for the banishment of
over 100,000 black citizens during the 17 years of Ould Taya rule, Vall continues to deny the
existence of the refugees. Like his former mentor, Vall maintains that the border is open and all
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Mauritanians are free to come back.
7. Therefore, what the new regime is trying to do is to sustain the system of slavery, racist
ethnic discrimination and political repression, just by changing the persons on the top while
maintaining the Moorish monopoly of power and slavery of black citizens. In an interview with
Bill Weinberg on WBAI Radio in New York City, Mamadou Barry and Abdarahmane Wone, North
American representatives of the FLAM, commented: “There was a policy of building a system in
which blacks would be second class citizens; since our independence in 1960 up to now, all the
dictators have worked on building this system. And in 1989 what happened is in order to have
fewer blacks in Mauritania and to keep the fertile land in the south, the racist government, helped
by Saddam Hussein of Iraq, decided to deport more than 120,000 black people from Mauritania
to Senegal and Mali. Those people are still living in refugee camps in those countries. And today
we’re talking about a change of president, but those people still cannot come home.” Mamadou
Barry adds that “We are happy to see one of the most racist and dictatorial regimes gone, but
there have been so many, it’s like a chain. But one gone may be a sign of hope for change.”
Artificial entity
More than any other state on the continent, Mauritania appears to be the most artificial and
least viable colonial creation. For their colonial agenda, France carved Mauritania out on the
fault line between black West Africa and Arabized North Africa. As such the creation of this vast
desert enclave was done in total disregard for the historical background, current priorities and
future aspirations of the majority of the population. Occupying over one million square km, the
estimated three million inhabitants comprise a majority of black Africans and a minority of white
Moors (also known as Beydane or Arabo-Berber). Numbering about 35% of the population,
free black Africans consist of Fulani, Soninke, Wolof and Bambara. The other black African
group is the Haratin (former and current slaves of the white Moors) who make up some 40% of
the population. The Haratin were captured, kidnapped, and mostly bred and assimilated to the
culture and language of their white Moor masters. The enslavement process has been going on
for centuries. As the Fulani, Soninke, Wolof and Bambara have their relatives across the borders
in Senegal and Mali, the white Moors, who make up less than 25% of the population, share their
cultural identity with the various Berbers groups in Mali, Algeria and Morocco.
North-South conflicts in the Sahel
By nature every foreign invasion does ride on a certain ideological supremacy of the conqueror.
The invaders of North Africa were no exception. The Moors justified their march from the north
toward the south by the mission to spread the light of Islam in the Dark Continent. This was based
on the assumption that African religions and belief systems were heathen from which the natives
needed to be rescued. As Islam was a universal religion with no borders and was timeless,
there was no end to the continued march to convert and “civilize” the blacks. As Mauritania
developed into 100% Muslim and became an Islamic Republic in 1960, the subjugation and
enslavement of black citizens could not be justified by the need to covert them; the issue of
cultural assimilation to Arabize the blacks arose. Because Arabic was the language of the Koran,
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Arabic was assumed to be superior to the African languages of Fulani, Wolof, Soninke and
Bamaba, each of which is spoken by millions across West Africa.
Since the arbitrary imposition of Arabic as the only official language of the country in 1966,
language has been one of the most disputed issues in the ethnic conflict in the country. Although
spoken as the mother tongue of less than half of the population, Arabic is given superiority in
education, the media, administration and religion. It has been the most effective weapon to
favour the Moors and marginalize the blacks. The other factors that encourage the continued
march from the north to the south include rapid environmental degradation and the restless
lifestyle of the Moorish nomads. Since the prolonged droughts of the 1970s-1980s, the hitherto
nomads have been forced to move to the south to seek water, food and pasture. This movement
prompted the successive Moor dominated regimes to enact racist land laws to confiscate African
farmlands to redistribute them to the Moors from the north. The land law was imposed arbitrarily
by the military regime in 1983. The law was applied only on the lands owned by the black
farmers in the south.
For centuries, conflict had been raging along the Sahel belt until the French invaded and
occupied the area in early 20th century. As the British had their north and south policies in the
Sudan, the French colonial rule was divided into a north-south policy. This policy was biased
against the blacks, a bias that culminated in the creation of Mauritania as the land of the Maurs.
As soon as the French transferred power to the Moors, the latent conflict between the north
and south surfaced. France not only exploited existing contradictions between the Africans and
Moors, they sharpened and intensified them even further by allying with the light-skinned Moors,
sowing the seeds of future conflicts.
Franco Berber Alliance
The imperialist Franco-Moorish alliance was meant to help France maintain Algeria as an integral
part of its territory and to prevent the creation of any viable West African federation grouping
Mali, Senegal, and Southern Mauritania. In exchange for the Moorish collaboration, the French
created Mauritania as a buffer entity, which effectively ended the Moroccan expansionist dream
to reach the Senegal River. In order to maintain Mauritania as an Apartheid enclave that would
neither be Arab nor African, the French did the following:
1. Turned the Senegal River into a borderline to cut through the black African community
– Senegalese on the south bank and Mauritanian on the north. Until the colonial knife
cut deep into the heart of the region, the African community had always and still does
consider the river their lifeline and cultural glue that keeps them together.
2. The Moors were allowed to keep and develop their language and culture by setting up
schools, giving the country their ethnic name (Mauritania) which created the myth that
the country is an exclusive land of the Moors. Thus, the flag, the capital city in their
area, the national anthem and all the state symbols reflected only the Moorish side of
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the country.
3. The Moors were allowed to maintain their social order, including the continued practice
of slavery and slave trade of black victims.
4. During colonial times, unlike their black compatriots, the Moors were exempted from
paying taxes, serving in the colonial army, or sending their kids to the colonial schools.
Thus, the Apartheid infrastructure was in place when Mauritania gained formal independence
in 1960. The first priority of the post-independence regime was to gain international recognition
while internally it implemented anti-African policies. For this purpose, the first head of state,
Mokthar Ould Daddah used black Africa to counter Moroccan claims over Mauritania. Apart from
Tunisia, all Arab countries supported Morocco’s attempt to annex Mauritania.
Inside, he pursued aggressive Apartheid policies to turn the country into a mono-cultural Arab
nation. By 1969 the Arab countries were convinced that Ould Daddah was serious in serving
Arab interests in that part of Africa. Mauritania was recognised by all Arab countries including
Morocco in 1969. This opened the gate for the country to join the Arab League in 1973 and build
intimate ties with the Arab world, particularly Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Syria.
The result of this new development was that as Mauritania moved closer to the Arab world, it
turned its back on Africa. The regime took various measures to portray the country as a “pure”
Arab nation by cultural genocide against the African community to the point that it was made
illegal to discuss ethnic problems or possess literature in and teach African languages. As the
suppression of African languages intensified, thousands of Arabo-Berbers were sent off to learn
Arabic and get indoctrinated into Arab nationalism at various Arab institutions.
Hence the design and application of Arabization laws that discriminate and marginalise the
African citizens in both the public and private sectors. At school African children have to battle
with foreign languages, learn history, culture, values and symbols of the invaders rather than
their own. Their culture is insulted, and at exams they are excluded and pushed to drop out.
Mauritania did not have a university until 1984 and up to now it has only a handful of faculties
that cater for about 2,000 students. Higher education depends on the state giving scholarships
for students to study abroad. For every 100 students that get scholarships, there are normally
less than 10 black students. The very few who complete their education would often stay abroad
as refugees because they would have no chance for suitable employment should they return
home.
As a tribal and Apartheid enclave riddled with nepotism and corruption, black citizens also face
cruel discrimination in the labour market, vocational training, the award of export and import
licenses, as well as opportunities to obtain loans from the banking system. Even opening a
shop in the market is nearly impossible for black citizens. The rare black owned enterprises
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are subject to constant police harassment and intimidation. In the early 1970s, African shops
dominated the main market in the capital but by the late 1980s, the last surviving enterprise was
set ablaze.
The fact that Mauritania is 100% Islamic did not stop the racist discrimination from extending
even to the sacred realm. With their deep-rooted prejudices against blacks, Arabo-Berbers do
not consider black people equal Muslims. Thus, out of some 30 main mosques in the capital
there was only one whose Imam was black. The Minister of Culture and Islamic Orientation
appoints Imams.
Taya’s tyranny
With the support of the local Ba’ath and Nasserite nationalists, Colonel Ould Taya seized power
on December 12, 1984. His first policy initiatives aimed at the rehabilitation of relations with
France to give him access to loans from the western financial intuitions and repair relations with
oil-rich Arab states while increasing alliance with Iraq.
Internally, he avoided the key demands of the African community to end racial discrimination,
allow equal representation in all national sectors at all levels, end slavery, abrogate the racist
land law, and introduce democracy. As the new regime sank deeper into the IMF/World Bank
trap, the major part of the economy was transferred to private enterprises.
Thanks to the pervasive tribalism, corruption and nepotism, the primary beneficiaries of the
liberation were the family of Taya together with his Smasid tribe and his political supporters. As
the public services crumbled, the regime exploited the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme
(SAP) dictate to ethnically cleanse the public sector further. Black people were either fired or
forced to prematurely retire. Moorish business people were given loans from the various Islamic
and Arab banks to set up private schools, enterprises and drive blacks away from their lands.
The African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (FLAM)
The escalation of racial repression led to the formation of the African Liberation Forces of
Mauritania (FLAM) in March 1983 2. FLAM’s key objectives are to end the discrimination,
exclusion and persecution of black Mauritanians, and to effectively end slavery and introduce
real democracy based on a federal system that gives the different ethnic groups autonomy.
The movement believes that democracy in Mauritania can only be hoped for when racial
discrimination and slavery have been eliminated.
Although neighbouring Senegal and Mali no longer allow FLAM to operate openly from
their territories, the organisation is very active in the black Mauritanian refugee camps
just across the Borders in Senegal and Mali. It has strong active representation in France,
Belgium, Scandinavia and the US. FLAM also uses its website (FLAM-Net) and its newsletter
(Flambeau) to publish, network and disseminate information on the situation in the country and
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on activities of the organisation. FLAM also participates actively in African and international
forums to expose the regime’s policies and mobilise support for the struggle for equality, justice
and democracy.
The Regime’s Response to FLAM’s call for national dialogue
The regime’s reaction to FLAM’s call for national dialogue through the publication and
distribution of the Manifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanians was violent. Hundreds of
African intellectuals were rounded up, 50 were tried and sentenced to between six-month and
five-year prison terms with hard labour. They were taken to the desert death detention camp at
Walata where they were routinely tortured, insulted, and humiliated. Four were starved to death.
As part of the racist attitude and obsession with slavery, the commanding officers of the prison
were white Moors and the torturers were enslaved blacks. Although political prisoners, FLAM
detainees were put together with common criminals and often referred to as slaves and dirty
Jews and their jailers boasted of representing Hitler.
Another wave of arrests and imprisonment of black intellectuals and officers took place in
October 1987. On December 06, 1987, three officers were sentenced and put to death. The
event triggered the biggest ethnic purge of the armed forces in the history of the country.
Thousands of black service men were purged, banned and confined to their native villages from
where they had to report to the police every day.
The banishment of Blacks
The war on blacks culminated in the April 1989 massacre of more than one thousand black
citizens and West African nationals in Mauritania. The killings triggered a conflict with Senegal
and the decision by both countries to repatriate their respective nationals. The regime used the
occasion to banish over 100,000 black citizens after having confiscated all their properties and
national papers. The deportees included villagers who had never been involved in any political
activities, intellectuals, students, civil servants and army officers. As Jane Fleischmann put it:
Long before “ethnic cleansing” entered popular parlance, its pernicious effects
were painfully apparent in Mauritania. Between 1989 and 1991, tens of
thousands of black Mauritanians were stripped of their citizenship and forcibly
deported, and hundreds more were tortured or killed. An undeclared military
occupation of the Senegal River Valley subjected those who remained to harsh
repression. The campaign to eliminate black culture in Mauritania, orchestrated
by the white Moor rulers, continues today, yet authorities in Nouakchott flatly
deny that any of these abuses have ever happened 3.
The ruling Moorish caste is still denying the existence of Mauritanian refugees in Senegal or Mali,
though they have just commemorated their 17th anniversary in exile. Like the Tutsi Rwandan
refugees in Uganda, the Mauritanian refugees are gathering momentum to return home to take
back their land and homes, now occupied by settlers from the north.
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Auto amnesty
In spite of the consistent denial of human violations, the regime passed a blanket amnesty law
for all the crimes that were committed by the security and armed forces between 1986 and 1993.
The auto amnesty was passed in the run up to the UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna
in June 1993. This was done while the regime still denied any wrongdoing. The Association of
the Widows and Rights Groups has collected information with the names of all the victims along
with those who gave the orders to torture and kill the political detainees in October-November
1990. The waves of arrests and torture to death took place in the shadow of the 1990-1991 Gulf
War over Kuwait. The local Arab nationalists were convinced that Saddam would win the war.
For them it was an opportunity for a final solution to the “black” problem. All the 600 victims who
were tortured to death or executed without any form of trial were black, while all the commanding
officers who ordered the crime were white Moors. Twenty-eight of the victims were put to death
on the occasion of the “national” day on November 28. Twelve others were “sacrificed” on the
anniversary of Taya’s seizure of power on December 12. Some of the officers were forced to dig
their own graves, in a Nazi style massacre, to be buried alive.
Slavery
Mauritanian is not only the latest African country to experience a military coup, but is also the
last country on the planet to “abolish” slavery. Therefore, in spite of the slavery and the repeated
declarations of its abolition, chattel slavery is still alive and well in Mauritania and there is no hope
that those whose undeserved privileges depend on the slave system will ever abolish slavery
voluntarily. Centuries of dependency on free slave labour has made the white Moors addicted
to preying on their victims, that they would not let go of their own free will. On the contrary, the
masters employ every means imaginable to breed more people to enslave. As modern media
and communication and human rights groups make it more difficult to buy Africans in the open
market; slavers have resorted to subtle ways of acquiring more Africans to enslave. The most
common way is to mate one enslaved male with several enslaved females to breed for the
benefit of the owner of the mothers. The other method is for the white master to mate with his
own female captives for the purpose of breeding a new batch of Africans to enslave. In Islam
the slaver has the “legal right” to use his female captives as concubines as he will. He does not
have to acknowledge the offspring as his own blood and flesh. This means that the master ends
up enslaving his own children to sell, give way as gift, bride price, kill, torture, lend off or sexually
exploit at his whim.
In addition to employing the enslaved to wage racist war on other blacks, as well as the
exploitation of their labour and sex, the masters use the enslaved in the foreign-financed
development industry. Already in the 1980s, captives were used to plant trees in Scandinavian
environment projects in Mauritania. Pieter Smit’s 2002 report entitled “Slavery on Work Bank
Projects in Mauritania”, confirms the pervasive nature of slavery in Mauritania. Smit writes:
In its 1994 Mauritania poverty analysis, the World Bank writes that slavery, in
spite of being abolished by law, still exists, and that it will take a long time to
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disappear. The report claims that in the traditional system the formally ex-slaves
are still widely treated as slaves, and that they in many cases provide labour to
their owner’s families without receiving wages. They are also not allowed to own
any means of production. In the World Bank’s report the extreme importance
of this last fact for poverty reduction strategies and chances is totally missed3.
Abolition of Slavery
Thanks to its obsession with slavery, Mauritanian is the last country on earth to abolish this
shameful practice. Slavery was abolished in the country in 1905, 1969 and yet again in 1981.
The 1981 abolition was reconfirmed by the 1991 constitution. Yet slavery lives on as if nothing
ever has been done by the authorities to eradicate this crime against humanity in practice. The
latest high profile abolition was ordinance no. 81.234 of 9 November 1981 which reads:
•
•
•
•
First article: Slavery in all its forms is definitively abolished throughout the territory of
the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Second article: In keeping with the Shari’a law, this abolition will imply a payment of
compensation to those (slave owners) entitled to such.
Third article: A national commission, composed of ulama (religious leaders),
economists, and administrators will be instituted by decree to study the modalities of the
compensation. These modalities will be fixed by decree once the study is completed.
Fourth article: The ordinance will be published without delay and implemented as law.
Nouakchott, 9 November 1981
The President: Lt. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla.
Slavery continues alive and well
After a fact-finding mission to Mauritania in 1982, the London-based Anti-Slavery Society
estimated that there were at least 100,000 full-time captives enslaved and more than 300,000
semi-enslaved Africans still held in bondage by the white Moors4. Four years latter, a UN
mission confirmed the total absence of any concrete measures by the authorities to put an end
to slavery5. As Roland-Pierre Paringaux writes in his paper titled: “The Desert of the Slaves”:
… ten years after the “final” proclamation of abolition, slavery is far from being a thing of the past
in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.6
On the 10th anniversary of the famous abolition of 1981, Human Rights Watch/Africa published
a report titled: “Mauritania slavery Alive and Well”, 10 Years after it was last abolished. Human
Rights Watch argues:
Our criticism is not that the Mauritanian government has tried to eradicate slavery and
failed, but that it has not tried at all. We are not aware of any significant practical steps
taken by successive governments to fulfil the important responsibilities Mauritania
undertook when it passed laws and ratified international agreements prohibiting
slavery7.
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Twenty years later, Amnesty International published a report in November 2002 titled: Mauritania:
A future free from slavery.
Despite the legal abolition of slavery in Mauritania 20 years ago, the government is yet to take
practical steps [to] ensure its abolition in practice. The Mauritanian government must stop
violating its own laws and urgently end slavery, which is an abominable attack on human dignity
and freedom. Mauritanian laws and international human rights obligations prohibit slavery, but
anyone escaping slavery has no legal protection. There is considerable discrimination against
those formerly enslaved. No government official is willing to take the necessary remedial action
to fully eradicate slavery and put an end to impunity for the perpetrators8.
In the same month of November 2002, the Dutch human rights consultant Pieter Smit revealed
in his report that slavery was also rampant on World Bank projects in Mauritania:
Their [the enslaved] number might be on the rise because of high birth rates, and
because development money and years of good rains have provided slavers with
many new opportunities to exploit stolen labour. The process of liberating Africans from
their captors and slave status has come almost to a halt. An unresolved conflict exists
between modern Mauritanian law (in which slavery is abolished, but in which also
Islamic law is recognised) and Mauritania’s version of Islamic law, in which slavery,
including all the political and economic exclusion measures to restrict captives from
getting away from slavery, are still firmly in place and widely used by slavers, almost
unopposed by any government action. State courts in most cases refuse to take up
cases against slavery, and have never yet sentenced any person for keeping captives
… slavery has moved into development, and exploited it successfully. A sizeable section
of the well educated political and economic upper class have used development funds,
programs and projects to continue with or even expand the application of slave labour,
especially in irrigation and livestock. In this way development money from the World
Bank and other donors has supported slavery. This has been known at different times
by different managers and staff within the World Bank since 1977…9.
The African conspiracy of indifference
Black Mauritanians often wonder why their oppression has not generated attention, reaction, and
support from black Africa. This is more so when successive regimes persecute black citizens, in
the name of Pan-Arabism. During the 2001 World Conference against Racism and Xenophobia
in Durban, a West African president was lobbying at the NGO forum to exclude racism and
slavery in Mauritania from the Final Declaration. Among the reasons for the African conspiracy
of silence and indifference suggested by African experts are:
• The sensitivity of the Afro-Arab dimension of the conflict makes many Africans prefer
not to get involved.
• The neighbouring African countries are Islamic and receive petro dollars from oil-rich
Arab countries in exchange for diplomatic support against Israel.
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•
•
The old OAU non-interference doctrine and general lack of concern and respect for the
life and wellbeing of ordinary Africans make the official persecution of black citizens by
their government a non issue.
Due to the outward oriented education systems and modern communication media,
few African intellectuals and politicians know about the situation in Mauritania. Inter
African communication and networking is still weak.
This is why African leaders looked away when Colonel Taya was butchering black citizens,
which is the same reason why African leaders do not demand that Colonel Vall put an end to
racism and slavery, and allow the organised return of the banished black citizens.
The resistance
No doubt black Mauritanians face a long and complex struggle for equal rights, justice and
emancipation of the estimated one million enslaved Africans who are still held in Moorish
bondage. With the near total lack of African and international support for the liberation struggle,
black Mauritanians are increasingly relying on their own means of resistance. As both Senegal
and Mali refuse FLAM and other freedom fighters’ bases in their countries, the struggle is taking
various forms. People are increasingly realising that in order to liberate the country they have to
liberate their minds first. Part of decolonisation of the mind is to revive, use, and develop their
culture and languages. Many people now learn and teach their languages to their families, friends
and neighbours. People have also started to use African names instead of foreign and slave
names, and African styles and outfits instead of imported foreign items. Some of the enslaved
and formerly enslaved are becoming aware of their African-ness. With the internet, FLAM and
other human rights organisations inform and mobilise people to resist the regime in their own
ways. Participation in African and international forums is another means of exposing the regime
and mustering supporters. Books, audiovisual materials and newsletters have become available
to researchers whose findings shed more light on the dire situation in Mauritania. The works of
the Cape Town based Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) is one of the
most important in exposing the persecution of Africans in Mauritania and Sudan. In the African
Diaspora a lot of good work is being done on the issue of slavery in the Afro-Arab borderlands.
The chances for real democracy in Mauritania
Although the AU made its usual noise and empty warnings against the military take over in
Mauritania, the ousting of Ould Taya was met with joy among the vast majority of Mauritanians
and international human rights groups. Most people are against coups, but coups are the only
means through which to get rid of repressive dictators whose tenure is often longer than the
average life expectancy of the citizens. Eight months on, some improvements have been made.
Among the most significant achievements of the new regime have been sending Taya to exile
without bloodshed, halting the country’s slide toward economic collapse, allowing press freedom
for the first time in the history of the country, passing laws banning members of the Military
Council for Justice and Democracy and its appointed civilian government from standing in
the planned elections, improving relations with neighbouring countries, setting up a relatively
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independent electoral commission to oversee the upcoming elections, real wage increases,
appointing new judges without corruption records, sacking some of the big corrupt fishes, more
transparency in the new oil sector with an improved national share – 20%. Perhaps the most
notable, albeit symbolic, achievement is the acknowledgement of the continued existence of
slavery for the first time. Furthermore, the new junta has granted the SOS-Esclaves and the
Mauritanian Association of Human Rights legal status after having operated outside the law
since both were established in 1991.
However, it is noticeable that the new junta has failed to address the national questions of
life and death: de facto Apartheid against black African citizens, the organised return of the
black Mauritanian refugees, their rights to their land, homes, jobs and compensation for the
confiscated property by the government. Like the previous regime, the new junta’s position is to
ensure that the refugees remain in Senegal in the hope that they will be naturalised. According to
the Moorish ideology of domination, the return of the refugees would have serious demographic
implications for the ruling white Moor caste. Nor has there been any move to recognise the
African Liberation Forces of Mauritania which has called for dialogue since the downfall of the
Taya regime. The new regime has not taken any concrete measures or at least put forward any
visions on how it intends to put an end to the enslavement of over one third of the country’s
citizens. Another important issue that has not been on Vall’s agenda is the return of Mauritania to
the ECOWAS fold. The new regime has furthermore failed to address the fate of the 600 African
soldiers and civilians who were murdered in government custody in 1990-1991. Nor has it made
any move to bring those responsible for the racist massacre to justice.
Thus, the plans to hold municipal, legislative and presidential elections by March 2007 will at
best only lead to partial liberal democracy a la Apartheid as the situation was under the Malaans
and Bothas in Apartheid South Africa. What Mauritania needs, as A. Wone points out, is a
Mauritanian de Klerk, not Botha. As the Boers failed to sustain Apartheid in spite of their military,
technological, and economic might and backing by the West, less important Mauritania will not
be able to sustain the system of Apartheid. The new discovery of oil will not prevent the unjust
system from crumbling. As Roland-Pierre Paringaux maintains in his article: “The Desert of
the Slaves” in the Le Monde on October 22, 1990, “Held back by the past and surrounded by
arrogant certainty, the Beidane (white Moors) intend to preserve the Moorish order against the
shifting ideas. However, without even considering morality, neither time nor numbers are on their
side … The verdict of demographic growth – if not that of history – is clear: in Mauritania, unlike
the enslaved and the freed, the slavers are becoming more of a minority every day.”10
The issue of Reparations
The more than a thousand years of brutal enslavement of black Africans by the Moorish slavers
is rooted in a self-serving racist ideology of superiority. Not unlike European racist ideology, it
is racist ideology that slavers use to dehumanize and morally justify their immoral behaviour
of living on the backs of other human beings. It is this ideology, passed from one generation
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to the next, for centuries, that provides the psychological frame for the slavers to work their
black captives to death, torture them for the slightest “offence”, sexually abuse them at will, and
misuse religion to justify maintaining control through violence, and maiming.
Therefore, the following steps are necessary to lay the foundation for the real emancipation and
reparations for the Moorish Holocaust of Enslavement and crimes against African humanity:
1. The Arab Berber slavery along the Sahel from the Sudan on the Red Sea across Chad, Niger,
Mali down to Mauritania on the Atlantic coast, must be acknowledged as an urgent, current and
historical crime against humanity to be put to an immediate end.
2. A combination of national and international laws, conventions and protocols should be enacted
immediately to ban slavery, forced labour and the trafficking in people to be enslaved, and the
use of child labour throughout the region.
3. Design, communicate and apply appropriate measures and punishment laws for those who
violate the banning of slavery, slave trade and the enslavement and forced labour of children.
4. Design and implement practical and target group oriented educational, skills and rehabilitation
training for the victims of slavery.
5. Pass land laws that give land ownership to the enslaved who have worked and lived on the
oases and farms for generations.
6. Set up an international true emancipation commission to investigate the nature and effects of
slavery on the victims for the purpose of coming up with concrete measures for the masters to
compensate the former captives whose blood and sweat created their wealth.
7. Set up national and international funds to meet the educational, training and rehabilitation
needs of the victims of slavery.
8. Set up an independent monitoring commission to follow up on the emancipation and
reparations process and procedures.
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3.4 Slavery and Racism in Mauritania and Sudan
Samba Thiam
Pre-colonial, colonial, and in some instances post-colonial Africa has been emptied of her sons
and daughters through the slave trade. The Western and Arab worlds have indeed a huge
responsibility in that respect. That is why, in our view, reparations is a moral duty for the Western
and Arab worlds. The West and the Arab world must publicly apologize to the African people for
the humiliation they have endured under the slave trade and its colonial aftermath.
At the same time, the African people and all people of the world shouldn’t focus exclusively on
the painful past. They should also actively condemn and fight against the practise of modern
slavery in the African Sahel.
The plight of Black Africans in Mauritania and the Sudan must be taken seriously and addressed
fully by the international community.
In Mauritania, massive human rights violations occurred between 1986 and 1990. These took
the form of mass killings, extra-judicial executions, rape and the deportation to Senegal and Mali
of more than 120,000 Black Mauritanians. The deportees still live as forgotten refugees in the
most horrible conditions.
In spite of the reported ethnic cleansing in Sudan and Mauritania, no protest or condemnations
have been heard from African leaders! Nor have African leaders condemned the ongoing
genocide and systematic ethnic cleansing crimes in Darfur at the hands of the Sudanese regime.
Racist Arab regimes in both Mauritania and Sudan are bent on ethnically eliminating and
assimilating Black African communities by the use of brute force. In these countries, Arab-led
regimes carry out a policy of ethnic and racial cleansing.
It is indeed shocking that no Arab government has raised its voice or spoken out against the
genocide in Darfur. These regimes even oppose the deployment of a multinational force in
Darfur to alleviate the suffering in Darfur.
It is high time that we rethink present African-Arab relations! Since the 16th century the points
of contact between the Arab world and Africa have been a conflict zone. It is perhaps time to
explore the creation of a Black African Union, as the Arabs have their own Arab League and
Arab Maghreb Union, both of which exclude non Arabs.
As Cheikh Anta Diop asserted, “As long as the Arabs who live in Africa feel that they are closer
to their brothers in the Middle East than to Africa, we have the right and the duty to protect
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ourselves against their racist attitude”.
In conclusion, it is absolutely necessary to look into the tragic past and to demand reparations for
the suffering it caused Africans. But it is also right and absolutely necessary to face, denounce,
and fight the racist policies against Black Africans in Mauritania and the Sudan.
Samba Thiam is the President, African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (FLAM)
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3.5 Arab Slavery of Africans in the Afro-Arab Borderlands: The Sudan
Case
Bankie Forster Bankie
Slavery has existed in all the ancient civilizations of Asia, Africa, Europe and pre-Columbian
America. It had been recognized and accepted by the Abrahamic religions- Judaism, Christianity
and Islam (Prah 2005). Africans do not need to feel particular shame for practicing slavery
amongst themselves.
Africans on the continent did sell their kith and kin into slavery. Such practices happened all over
the world. For instance, today human trafficking is monitored. Indigenous slave practices went
on in Africa and still do. However, these indigenous slave practices are not commercialized and
as barbarous as practiced under Arab or European leadership. By and large slaves married into
the host community and lost that identity in the new family. As Prah states, with both Arab and
European slavery, Africans were not the machines, but the cogs in a process whose outcome
was unknown to them. The denial of their languages and cultures in effect denationalized the
Africans turning them into Arabs.
Arab-led slavery of Africans is an issue that both Africans and Arabs frequently treat as a matter
to be hushed-up because of the embarrassing reaction it generates. It is a historical reality
which differentiates the fate and the aspirations of Africans on the one hand, and Arabs on
the other, in their different attempts to achieve African unity and Arab unity respectively. Both
Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism, if pursued democratically, would assist in the emancipation
and development of the two peoples. At the heart of the complex Afro-Arab relationship are
the realities of racism and forced Arabization/Islamization. The Durban United Nations World
Conference on Racism of 2001 chose to avoid racism in Afro-Arab relations. It did humanity a
disservice. It took Darfur to bring the issues of racism and forced Arabization to global focus.
Racism is a reality of life in the Borderlands of the African nation, in places such as Sudan, Niger,
Mali, etc. Akbar Muhammad, the African American spiritual leader, is quoted on page 53 of the
Amman Seminar (1983) Report on Afro-Arab relations as follows:
… Akbar Muhammad, in a lecture delivered at the Institute for African Studies in Cairo, argued
that there is still some subconscious racism on the part of the Arabs toward the Africans, that
slavery is very strongly exploited in Africa against the Arabs, and that the Arabs do not try to
discuss this issue with the Africans.
While the truth is uncomfortable, it is impossible to move forward towards historical reconciliation
through “Holocaust denial” or by “collective amnesia”. Denying the truth of what Helmi Sharawy of
the Arab Research Centre for Arab-African Studies and Documentation (ARAASD) Cairo, Egypt
calls the “ambiguous relations” of the Afro-Arab cultural interchange in the Borderlands, will not
assist reconciliation. For more than a thousand years the Sahara has been the melting point
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of the two cultures. Slavery was generalized in the Borderlands, stretching from Mauritania on
the Atlantic, eastwards through the Sahel to Sudan on the Red Sea, with people being captured
from black Africa and taken, often on foot, northwards through the Sahel into Arabia and out of
Africa. Whereas the trans-Atlantic Holocaust of enslavement has been the focus of the on-going
struggle for reparations, Adwok Nyaba states that the Arab Holocaust of enslavement of Africans
has either been ignored, minimized or completely rejected on false account that the Arabs either
were “brothers in Islam” equally colonized and oppressed by the West or participated in the
decolonisation struggles of the African people.
In the history of Africa there have been two major hegemonic interventions. The first was by
the Arabs starting in the 8th century AD, and the second was via the European expansion which
was consolidated in the 19th century. Whereas the European penetration subsequently partially
withdrew leaving in place neo-colonial entities after the according of independence, the Arab
presence was characterized by the denationalization/Arabization of the people and a sustained
campaign to annex territory, Islamise, and practice slavery. This process is seen today in Libya,
Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Mauritania, in the area called the Afro-Arab Borderlands (Prah 2001).
From the proceedings of the UNESCO Symposium held in Cairo January 28 to February 03,
1974 on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt at page 45 it is stated that archaeological studies indicate
that trade between Sudan and Egypt was taking place as early as 4000 BC or earlier and that
the trade in gold and captives was thriving between 700 and 400 BC. Adwok states that the
enslavement of black people in the Nile Basin began in earnest with the defeat of the Mamelukes
of Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and that the commodification and merchandisation of
the slaves route down the Nile to Southern Europe, Arabia, Persia and China is traced to the
first quarter of the 19th Century. Africa has a Western Diaspora, in the Caribbean, Europe and
in the Americas, and an Eastern Diaspora, which is less known by those living in the Western
hemisphere. The Eastern Diaspora includes North Africa and points east of Africa, in the Gulf
States, Arabia, the Middle-East and Asia. Hunwick states in Joseph Harris’ edited text “Global
Dimensions of the African Diaspora” (1993) that movement of captive Africans along the Nile to
the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and India probably accounted for the uprooting of
“as many Africans from their society as did the transatlantic trade”.
Arabia has ambiguous views about the role of the Western Diaspora in Africa. At page 42 of the
Report on the Amman Seminar of 1983 on Afro-Arab relations convened by the Centre for Arab
Unity Studies and the Arab Thought Forum, Yusuf Fadi Hasan states:
The African Nationalist movement was a secular one. It was started by black Americans
as a reaction to racial discrimination and its call for African unity centred around
negritude. After the 1945 Manchester Conference the movement transferred to Africa
but was kept out of North Africa, and it seems that the role of African Muslims was
limited from the outset.
Hasan on the same page, states the preference of some, such as Senghor, to see the unity of
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Black Africa first before the establishment of cooperation with Arab Africa.
Under Arab slavery men were castrated and the women were used as sex-machines, so that
over generations the off-spring of the enslaved women merged into general Arab society,
albeit into an inferior caste-type class of sub-species. Today we have descendants of enslaved
Africans across the Sahara, such as the Harantines in Mauritania, to the ebony blacks in Arabia.
This is because the African captives were so many that the slavers could not ethnically dilute
them into café au lait. Castration and male culling was and is practiced.
Mekuria Bulcha (Bulcha 2003) estimates that over 17 million Africans were sold to the Middle
East and Asia between the sixth and twentieth centuries. In Bulcha’s view the distinction between
western and Islamic slavery is largely figurative. Both arrangements involved violence and
cruelty as well as the devaluation of humanity. Africans in the Middle East and Asia remain a
disjointed Diaspora, although records indicate a persistent desire amongst them (in the Eastern
Diaspora) to repatriate.
Arab slavery is still on-going in Africa in the Afro-Arab Borderlands. Much of the attention to
contemporary Arab enslavement of Africans focuses on Sudan and Mauritania but reports
about slave practices also filter through from Mali, Algeria, Niger, Libya and Chad. Afro-Arab
relations will remain distorted so long as Arabia considers Black Africa a civilization vacuum and
so long as Africans in general remain indifferent. To change such perceptions, developed over
a millennia, poses challenges for all, which should be met rather than avoided. Arabia needs to
confront the historical dimensions of slavery rather than pretend it does not exist.
Yusuf Fadi Hasan in his contribution on the historical roots of Afro-Arab relations in the Report
on the Amman Seminar of 1983 on Afro-Arab relations, on page 35 refers to the Arab cultural,
social and spiritual homogeneity pushing southwards in Sudan, eroding African cultures. This
relentless push southwards of Islam and Arabization is what we witness today in Darfur with
the Janjaweed attacks on the African sedentary farmers. This is a spatial pattern in the Sahel
in general.
The subject of Arab enslavement of Africans is one which many, including the African States,
would prefer to have buried and about which there is an unspoken understanding that Africans
should remain silent, including Nkrumah. The practice has existed 1,400 years, but both Africans
and Arabs in general, for different reasons, exhibit insensitivity to it. Muslim academics, both
Arab and African, shy away from discussions about the Arab slave trade. Islamic leaders are
profoundly defensive on the issue. In the proceedings of the Cairo symposium of 1974 it is
recognized that blacks peopled Sudan “since very ancient times”. MacGaffey (1961) is quoted,
writing on North Sudan, that black people came down the Nile and entered Nubia. He calls
these people “invaders”. They mixed with the “Hamitic” people of the desert. MacGaffey refers
to “endemic struggles between riparian Negro populations and desert dwellers”. There exist, we
are told, a contrary thesis of the Egyptian historian, A. Batrawi, of waves of immigrants entering
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into Sudan from the North.
Civilization was centred in the Nile Delta where irrigation allowed for food surpluses and thus
food security, for the development of a powerful civilization. So the civilizations of the Sudan
was attributed by Adams (1949) to successive waves of immigrants from the north. The same
symposium refers to those living in the Nile valley south of the tenth parallel as different from
those living northwards. These people, it is stated, due to climatic conditions did not move
northwards. These people (i.e. Southerners) were described as being “without history” and of
interest only to anthropologists. The south as far as Egypt and the colonialists were concerned,
was peopled by savages.
Ronald Segal, in his book “Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Diaspora”, explains that the Islamic
slave trade began some eight centuries before the Atlantic trade and was conducted on a different
scale providing captives more often for domestic – including sex – and military service. In the
Arab-led slave system, some captives achieved positions of authority, a few became rulers. In
Segal’s view, because of specific spiritual teachings, Islam was generally more humane than
the west in its treatment of captives and in its willingness to bestow manumission, although
the process of captivity, subjugation and transportation was extremely cruel. Segal looks at
the appeal of Islam to African-American communities and the denial by some Black Muslim
leaders like Louis Farrakhan of the continued existence of African slavery and oppression in
contemporary Mauritania and Sudan. An interesting point made by Segal in an interview was
that “whereas the gender ratio of captives in the Atlantic enslavement process was two males
to every female, in the Islamic process, it was two females to every male”. It needs to be noted
that the Arab slavery concentrated particularly on children. The Arabs focused, and still do,
on children, because children are easier to re-educate and Arabize. They are also easier to
capture and transport to Arabia. The significance of the title of Segal’s book is that it brings to the
attention of the North American audience that there is another African Diaspora, in this instance
– the Eastern Diaspora where more Africans were trafficked than to the Western hemisphere.
With Islam and slavery came the Arabization of the African. Yusuf Fadi Hasan, on page 56 of the
Amman Report states: “I could not separate Islam from Arabism. The former is the vehicle for
the latter. Furthermore, Islam is the spiritual base of Arab culture.”
The significance of this, which is generally on view in the Borderlands, is that Islam as an
expansionist spiritual trend comes clothed in Arab culture, so much so that the two are
inseparable. So that if Islamic fundamentalism is expanding its influence in Africa, so is Arabism.
Conversely, in this process, African nationalism in general is in retreat except for in South Sudan.
This is an issue African leadership is unable to address, be it at the level of the African Union, or
individual States, and which Africans in general, must expose.
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The Arab conquest of North Africa and parts of the Nile Valley spread their influence throughout
the Sahel in the seventh century and planted confusion in the minds of Africans. In the Sudan
more than anywhere else, profession of Islam and speaking the Arabic language made one
an Arab. Many African ethnic communities in Sudan, such as Borgo, Berti and Mali fell victim
to this deception. In the 1960s these zealous African Muslims were used to fight the Southern
Sudanese. The relentless struggle of the Southern Sudanese against oppression, including
enslavement by northerners, has spread to other marginalized and peripheral peoples in the
west, centre and east of Sudan. When the first war ended in Sudan with South Sudan winning
a measure of self-rule through the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972, this left in the cold the
Arabized Africans who had fought on behalf of the Arab dominated northern political elite in
Khartoum in the name of national unity.
The current genocide in the Darfur region of Western Sudan, where the Khartoum government
has used a tactic of ethnic cleansing by arming an Arab nomad militia, the Janjaweed, to attack
African farmlands, pushing Africans off their land, continues the Arab push southwards, which
is part of the Arab national expansionist project dating back centuries supported by the Arab
League, which has seen Africans pushed southwards from the Mediterranean coast into the arid
Sahara area. Arabia in general characterizes events in Darfur as “tribal feuds”. Concerning this
Prah stated (2004), “It needs to be said without fear or favour that Africans cannot accept a slow
encroachment of their national areas by the Arab world.” Adwok Nyaba, speaking in Durban at
the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance (Prah 2004), states that the war in the Sudan:
Is also a war of resistance – African resistance in the Sudan against de-Africanization
at the hands of Arabs. The war indeed is the continuation of the Afro-Arab conflict that
commenced fourteen centuries ago when the Arabs set foot on the African soil.
On the issue of reparations for Arab-led slavery in Africa, the thesis Adwok Nyaba presented at the
Conference on Arab-Led Slavery of Africans (convened on February 22, 2003 in Johannesburg
by the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), Cape Town, South Africa, and
the Drammeh Institute of New York, USA) is that reparations is a political issue with a legal
objective, requiring mobilization and common purpose. A Final Declaration was published, as
well as the proceedings of the Conference. Conference endorsed reparations and called for
a civilization dialogue between the Arab and African nations. The World Conference against
Racism (WCAR) and its Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Forum added their voices to
those seeking reparations for African slavery. There are no legal rules governing the law of
reparations. The study of other such initiatives indicates first extensive legal posturing creating a
powerful moral climate supporting reparations, thus shaping public opinion as the primary stage
in the campaign for reparations.
The demand for economic reparations is based on stolen labour, captivity, all of the horrors
attendant to enslavement, genocide and the merciless systematic killing of Sudanese people
in an attempt to push them off their lands, and the theft of their land and the natural resources
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which flow from the land. As Professor Sidney Harring states in his brief, German Reparations
to the Herero Nation: An Assertion of Herero Nationhood in the Path of Namibian Development:
It would be both a futile and dishonorable discourse to venture into any kind of a
comparative analysis of genocide … genocide is genocide … Modern international law
of reparations is dominated by extensive Jewish claims for reparations against Germany
and other countries, but this is not the limit of reparations claims.
A case is pending against the Japanese for reparations for Korean “comfort women”, forced into
prostitution by the Japanese army. Other European claims, including that of the Romani people,
raised by other peoples subjected to mass extermination in concentration camps, have failed.
Where there have been successes, these represent important advances in human rights law.
The Ovaherero of Namibia’s claim for reparations prepared by Sidney Harring gave careful
attention to the existing international law of reparations. Such a claim is preceded by
consciousness raising, an awareness of the harms, a general inquiry into the appropriateness
of reparations as a political and legal remedy for the damages caused by the Holocaust of
enslavement, and its attendant war, displacement, and internal strife before proceeding to
political mobilization, to raise consciousness. A study of the Sudan situation concluded that
reparations is the appropriate remedy for the human rights abuse suffered by the people of the
Sudan.
As Harring says, if situations (such as in the Sudan) are ‘reasonably analogous to existing
reparations claims, to dismiss them out of hand must turn on considerations that can only be
called racist’. Harring goes on to say that if such claims are well grounded legally, then broader
policy issues may be implicated and must be heard, for there exists no consistent legal basis for
any of the modern reparations regimes.
The concept of reparations is rooted in natural law, the common law, and international law. For
it is an equitable principle that the beneficiary of an ill-gotten gain, for instance crude petroleum,
should make restitution, both out of contrition and goodwill, but also to restore the victim to some
part of their previous life.
Harring states that “within the modern world, liberal democracies have used the language
of reparations in making voluntary payments through various statutory regimes to their own
indigenous or minority populations” – most often such settlements are ultimately political – done
by Parliaments and Governments.
In the Sudan case it was reported by Professor Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed, former Executive
Secretary of the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa
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(OSSREA), in his e-mail of January 21, 2003, that since May 2001, a group of Sudanese,
invited by OSSREA, having discussed the issue of slavery, came up with the suggestion that an
apology was at the time in order. According to Professor Abdel Ghaffar, that position was then
taken up by members of the Opposition in the Sudan. This position was reflected in a statement
made by Saddiq El Mahdi in mid January 2003, as reported in Al Ahram newspaper in Cairo,
Egypt.
The United Nations Conference against Racism (WCAR) held in Durban in 2001, was part of the
growing movement for reparations, for the enslavement of Africans and for colonialism in general.
The Declaration of the NGO Forum of the World Conference against Racism held in Durban
dated September 3, 2001, makes specific reference to the on-going enslavement of Sudanese
(e.g. trans Saharan and trans Indian Ocean) which it categorises as crimes against humanity
(para 73). The Programme of Action of the NGO Forum supports reparations as redress in such
instances. The NGO Plan of Action urged Sudan, amongst others, to abolish slavery and give
reparations to the victims of slavery (para 235). The Plan demanded that Arab nations, amongst
others which participated and benefited from slavery, establish an international compensatory
mechanism for the victims of these crimes against humanity.
The Declaration of the United Nations WCAR, of September 2001, held in Durban, calls on
States concerned to prevent such practices as slavery (para 99) and to pay reparations (para
100). States such as the Sudan were urged to set up Tribunals (para 165) in such instances and
to enact relevant laws (para 166).
The WCAR and its NGO Forum have added to the growing demand for reparations for African
slavery. Already there exists legal documentation on this issue. In 1993 in Nigeria a Pan-African
meeting on reparations, chaired by Ambassador Dudley Thompson was convened. As Harring
states the current discourse on African economic recovery is premised on the understanding of
a quid pro-quo from the developed countries to Africa for the past super-exploitation of Africans.
Also the 13th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution provide moral and legal
credibility to the case for reparations for African slavery and for the devastation of colonialism,
primarily involving blacks still living on the African continent.
The issue of quantum in the legal claim for reparations is a delicate matter, requiring more
attention. Legal claims in general require the setting of damages. The “costs” of colonialism and
slavery in the Borderlands might be described as “incalculable” – thus presenting a barrier to
these claims. Also there exists no absolute law on the limitation of reparation claims. Harring
goes on to state:
For policy reasons, it makes no sense to limit reparations for genocide to the
actual victims: they are most often dead, and that is precisely the nature of the evil
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of genocide and, for the same reasons, it makes no sense to require that some
modern state represent the interests of a victimized people.
There exist no formal legal rules governing the law of reparations. Based in the experience of
other reparation regimes, extensive public and legal posturing, creating a powerful moral climate
supporting reparations and thus shaping public opinion is the primary stage for the realization
of reparations.
The Bridgetown Protocol, being the official report from the Afrikans and Afrikans Descendants
World Conference against Racism held in Bridgetown, Barbados 2-6 October 2002 (see part IV,
para D concerning Mauritania and Sudan), addressed the issue of slavery in the Sudan. The
February 22, 2003 conference in Johannesburg, focused on Arab-led slavery of Africans. (As
noted earlier sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) in Cape
Town, South Africa in conjunction with the Drammeh Institute in New York, USA). The Declaration
emanating from this Conference explained the trajectory of the contemporary movement for
reparations for Arab-led slavery. The Declaration referred to the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights of December 1948, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination of November 1963, and the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination of December 1965 which entered into force in January 1969.
Reference was made to other consensual meetings around the issue of racism including the
United Nations WCAR and NGO Forums against Racism, both held in Durban, 2001.
The Johannesburg Conference studied in depth the issue of Arab-led and Ottoman slavery
in the northern Borderlands of the African nation, being the area where Africa meets Arabia
running from Mauritania on the Atlantic Ocean in the west through the Sahel to Sudan on the
Red Sea in the east. By way of clarification, in this context, the African nation is defined as Africa
south of the Sahara, plus the eastern and western Diaspora. The Johannesburg Declaration
amongst others called for apologies for slavery and reparations from the Arabs to the Africans.
It accused Arab societies of genocide particularly in the Sudan. It also accused such societies
of ethnocide of African people through forced cultural Arabization processes. The African Union
was required to address the issue of the slavery of Africans in the Afro-Arab Borderlands.
The Aweil and Twic communities of northern Bahr El Ghazal, in the Sudan, the members of
which originally met in Oxford, United Kingdom on July 06, 2003, issued their Oxford Declaration
on demands for reparations for the crimes of slavery and genocide and other crimes against
humanity against the Aweil and Twic of northern Bahr El Ghazal in south Sudan. The Declaration
called on people in the Sudan, Africa, the African Diaspora and throughout the world to consider
the Declaration for:
Fair and appropriate investigation, prevention, prosecution and reparations for
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the crimes which have been or are being committed against the humanity of the
peoples of Aweil and Twic of northern Bahr El Ghazal and others in war afflicted
Sudan.
The object of this presentation is to bring to light the reality of Arab-led slavery of Africans, a
reality which is unknown to the generality of Africans at home and abroad, largely due to the
fact that since self-government African leaders have not informed their people of the realities of
other Africans in the Borderlands. This paper does not seek to compare the Arab and western
exploitation of Africans, such comparisons are odious. What affects one African affects all. Gone
are the days when those living in peace in one part of the African world, can be indifferent about
the goings on elsewhere in that world. The sooner the leaders wake up to this reality, the better
it will be for all.
The truth of the matter is that such Afro-Arab solidarity that exists after the Bandung Conference,
was built on false premise that the power relations were equal. The fact is that Arabia had a
preferential relationship with Europe (e.g. Anglo-Egyptian Joint Administration of Sudan, which
opposed black South Sudan). Egypt is the dominant influence as far as Sudan is concerned.
Whereas Egypt is interested in the free flow of the Nile, according to Reeves (2001) Egypt
would prefer a vassal state in Sudan and thus had an interest in an unstable Sudan. The south
of Sudan serves as a buffer between black Africa and Arabia. According to Reeves for Egypt the
maintenance of the status quo in Sudan takes precedence over Egypt’s alliance with the United
States on the Israel/ Palestine issue. It was the Israeli-Palestinian issue which complicated
the West’s relation with Arabia. Africa in third world solidarity went along with Arabia, but was
relegated to the position of a junior partner, who was taken for granted and not consulted.
Thus the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) did not hesitate to side with Khartoum in its
fight with the south. On the future of the Borderlands in general, today despite apparent shifts,
the west in general and Egypt prefer the maintenance of the status quo and the continued
marginalization of the black Africans, to an uncertain future.
Such an unhealthy disequilibrium in Afro-Arab relations was assisted by the first crop of leaders
in Africa in the 1960s, who chose to overlook the realities of history. Their errors of judgement
haunt us today, in places such as Darfur and Mauritania, where the contempt and the lack of
human respect is self evident.
What is happening is not the exploitation of religion or slavery to settle scores, but to advance the
possibility of a civilizational dialogue; it is in the interest of both parties to face the past and the
future in honesty, without self-righteousness and the pointing of fingers. The facts are there for
all to see. Matters have proceeded a pace since the 1983 Seminar on Afro-Arab relations which
took place in Amman, Jordan and its proceedings read today as an exercise in window-dressing
and self-deception at which the African voice was not heard; a monologue as in the past, which
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portends ill for the future if the other voice in “the dialogue” is not addressed. This voice is not
that of west, east or southern Africans, but that of those Africans living in the Borderlands of the
African nation, where Africa meets Arabia, in places such as Darfur.
Conclusion
To conclude, herewith a citation from page 62 of the book, The Arabs and Africa, being the report
of the Amman Seminar edited by Khair El-din Haseeb, which quotes from Dunstan M. Wai’s,
African-Arab relations in a universe of conflict: An African perspective at pages 2-3 and 22-32,
as follows:
… D.M. Wai argue(s) that 12 centuries of relations between sub-Saharan Africa and
Middle Eastern Arabs were not altogether harmonious. The Arabs infiltrated Africa,
enslaved its people, imposed Islam on them and educated them, but until now the
Africans have not connected by infiltrating the Arab region … Wai argues that the Arabs
and Africans have hardly anything in common and that their value systems stemmed
from quite different social and environmental systems and are thus far apart.
Wai’s observations cannot be mitigated by Egyptian support for African liberation in the short
Nasserite period (1952-79), which support was abandoned in 1979 with the signing of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. It is true comparatively that Europeans sort first to control the man
and thereafter his land. This they did via their Christian missionaries and the Bible. However,
whereas Euro-African relations date only from one to five centuries, Afro-Arab relations are
millennial and their influence qualitatively and quantitatively is more significant. By virtue of the
writing of African languages in Arabic script – Ajami – Arabism penetrates the souls of those
who live in the Borderlands more profoundly than Euro-Christianity did in, for instance, southern
Africa. In both instances Africans are captive to extra-African influences.
Islam has given the world outstanding examples of international fraternity among peoples. This
has been a point of attraction. Some of its spiritual content is sublime to an extent transcending
class, tribe and race. However it has, in Africa, been unable to submit itself to autocritique.
Possibly due to racism it overreached itself. Whereas Christianity has rooted itself in modern
Africa, Islam has remained feudal, in want of renewal. Then in the contemporary period the new
strain of fundamentalism is being introduced encouraging further rigidity, whereas reformism
from an African perspective would be more appropriate. Increasingly, amongst the westernized
African urban elite, Islam fundamentalism and terror are seen as interconnected, a threat, and
an encroachment. This does not mean that governments constituted by these elite will meet the
challenge posed by encroaching Islamic fundamentalism. On the contrary, these elite are likely
to concede “defeat” without a fight, in the face of such confrontations in the Borderlands, and
to pretend no threat exists.
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The reflections of the Amman Conference of 1983 failed to anticipate the rise of violent Islamic
fundamentalism, a consequence of the frustrations arising from the inconclusive Arab-Israeli
conflict. African and Arab nationalism are in conflict, indeed African nationalism has long
been on defensive posture vis-à-vis its Arab counterpart. This reality, plus the pressures of
fundamentalism and Arabization pose a direct challenge to African leadership. Prah (2004) is
correct when he states that whereas Pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism run historically parallel
they are separate and that whereas the Arabs have their Arab League Africans aspire and will
realise their own structure.
References
1. Bulcha, M. (2003). The Red Sea Slave Trade: Captives’ Treatment in the Slave Markets and
Islamic Societies in the Middle East. Paper delivered February 22, 2003, at the Conference on
Arab-Led Slavery of Africans, Johannesburg.
2. El-Din Haseeb, K (1985). The Arabs and Africa. London, published by Croom Helm.
3. Harring. S (2002). ‘The legal, claim for German reparations to the Herero nation’ on: http://
academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/GeoRegions/Africa/Namibia01.htm Excerpted from:
Sidney Harring, German Reparations to the Herero Nation: an Assertion of Herero Nationhood
in the Path of Namibian Development, 104 West Virginia Law Review 393-497, 393-398, 401410 (Winter 2002)
4. Nyaba, P.A. (2003). Righting the Past Wrongs against the African People: Time for Arab
Restitution for the Nile Valley, Red Sea and Indian Ocean Slave Trade. Paper delivered February
22, 2003, at the Conference on Arab-Led Slavery of Africans, Johannesburg.
5. Nyaba, P.A. (2003). “Self-Determination, Reparations for Arab-led Slavery in the Sudan, and
the Afro-Arab Dialogue”. Unpublished paper.
6. Prah, K.K. (2001). Race, Discrimination, Slavery, Nationalism and Citizenship in the Afro-Arab
Borderlands. Frankfurt. Published in EPD, Entwicklungs-Politic.
7. Prah, K.K. (2004). Towards a Strategic Geopolitic Vison of Afro-Arab Relations, Paper
delivered at African Union meeting of experts, Addis Ababa, unpublished.
8. Prah, K.K. (2005). Confronting Arab-Led slavery of Africans’ in‘Reflections on Arab-led
slavery of Africans. Cape Town. Published by CASAS
9. Reeves, E. (2001). Egypt and the Peace Process for Sudan: Unjustified Obstructionism.
Published in the Sudan Democratic Gazette.
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10. Segal, R. (2001). Interviewed by Suzy Hansen, Salon Media Group. dir.salon.com/books/
int/2001/04/05/segal/index.html.
11. Sharawy, H (1999). Arab Culture and African Culture Ambiguous Relations. Tunis. Published
by ALECSO.
12. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-UNESCO (1978) The
Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script, Paris. Published by
UNESCO.
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3.6 Reparations – The Global African Perspective
Ovaherero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako
I greet you, as always, in the name of our forefathers and mothers, the entire Ovaherero nation,
in Namibia, and the whole African Diaspora east and west. Please accept my apologies for not
being physically present at this Conference due to financial constraints. My spirit is willing but
my purse is not. In order to promote reparations for the Ovaherero I am ready, on the basis of
assisted passage, to travel anywhere on speaking basis.
I give honour to all of our people who fought and died in our wars of liberation so that we might
live free from oppression and exploitation to the extent that we do today. I give honour and
thanks to you who are attending the Conference, and to those who wanted to attend but could
not for whatever reason. And, we must always remember to acknowledge the victims of our
holocaust.
Germany’s first holocaust of the 19th century was practiced on the peoples of the country that
we now call Namibia. We are the survivors of Namibia’s Holocaust. For we are the children of
the victims and it is up to us to give meaning to their deaths and our suffering and losses and to
ensure that our community is made whole to the extent possible by those accountable.
The Ovaherero people were the indigenous group in South West Africa (now Namibia) who were
the most affected by German colonialism. In the 1880s the German authorities started to control
a small part of Namibia, but in 1890 they spread further. They took more and more land and
cattle from the Ovahereros. Large tracts of land were taken by the Germans and remain fenced
to this day. It is a well known fact that cattle are a necessity in the life of the Ovaherero. For the
Ovaherero without their land and cattle, they could hardly survive. The German colonial rule was
oppressive and cruel. The situation became so bad that on January 12, 1904 the Ovaherero
took up arms.
It was the Ovaherero people, of whom I am the Paramount Chief, who were the victims of
the Extermination Order of October 02, 1904 of General Lothar Von Trotha, which said: “I the
Great General of the German troops, send this letter to the Herero people. Hereros are no
longer German subjects … All Hereros must leave the land. If the people do not want this, then
I will force them to do this with great guns. Any Herero found within the German borders with
or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I shall no longer receive any women and
children; I will drive them back to their people or I will shoot them. This is my decision for the
Herero people – the Great General of the mighty Kaiser.”
Although the Extermination Order was directed specifically against the Ovaherero, other groups
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were affected by the ensuing genocide. These were the Nama, the Damara and the San. In
the war which ensued it is estimated that over 60,000 Ovaherero were killed and only 15,000
survived. In 2004 one hundred years after the genocide, a hesitant apology was given by a
visiting German Minister at the Centenary Commemoration in Namibia.
Today, I wish to highlight the issues of reparations and genocide or holocaust. I would like to spell
out what these are. Reparation is the act of repairing a wrong or an injury to a people or nation.
We all understand the principle of reparations. If you break something that belongs to someone
else you must repair it. If you steal something you must give it back. The United Nations defines
genocide as “The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnical, political or cultural
group, in whole or in part. It is the act of killing members of a group, in whole or in part, with the
intention of their total destruction”. That is the crime for which we seek repair. Ovaherero society
needs to be rebuilt after the genocide. It needs to be restored. As Europe had its Marshall Plan
after World War II, likewise Ovaherero society needs to be restored to statuo quo ante.
As I highlight the issues of reparations and genocide, remember that the underlying themes are
accountability for the crime, respect, and self-respect for the survivors, reclaiming our memory,
telling our story and our truth, and reclaiming what is ours. That is what reparations are about. I
support reparations because I believe in accountability. Most people believe in accountability. If
that were not so, we would not have laws and prisons and notions of right and wrong, good and
evil, heaven and hell. But many of us are silent because we feel powerless to make a difference,
or we listen to voices that tell us that we should forget and move on.
Some of us think that only the dead are victims. When children lose parents, family, and
community, that loss is felt for generations. When people are displaced from those same
supports, they lose security, confidence, happiness, and the promise of a future that allows
them to build on accumulated knowledge, accomplishments and the wealth of their family and
community. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and if their lives and
accomplishments are destroyed, if their wealth is stolen, we have less to stand on. They have
nothing to leave for their legacy, and we their heirs have less to build on for our legacy to our
children, and nation.
It is worth noting that after centuries of wars of conquest, and thievery, after genocide, land
grabs, people grabs, slavery, colonialism, and debt slavery, our humanity was only recently
acknowledged. At the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism, slavery was
declared a crime against humanity. The world already knew that the rape, captivity, torture
and bondage of another were crimes and always have been so, but our humanity was also
acknowledged. Heretofore, we have always been treated as a part of the flora and fauna as
though our lands were empty just waiting for the taking. We were not humans.
It is well accepted that there is no statute of limitations for human rights violations or crimes
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against humanity. It may seem to some that we are talking about a crime that happened too long
ago, that we should just forget about it. How can we forget about something that we continue to
feel the impact of every day? Moreover, why should we forget about our story, our history, our
ancestors, and our pain?
Forgetting is a sign of mental illness. In Western societies it is called amnesia and is a dangerous
condition. People afflicted with amnesia are people who have lost their memory, usually as a
result of a great tragedy or trauma – a trauma that is so overwhelming that forgetting is their
system’s strategy for coping. People without memory lack confidence and they lose their way
home because they don’t know who they are or where they come from. They can’t remember
their name or their family members, and they don’t know their friends from their enemies. It is a
dangerous condition.
Slavery is a form of genocide, and many are quick to tell you that it is not new. For Africans it
began during the scramble for Africans and Africa, first by the Arab Muslims, then by the Christian
Europeans, all under some pretext of winning souls or civilizing the savages, or hearing a voice
in their heads telling them to go thither and claim other people’s lands.
It is the nature of criminals and criminal governments to want their victims to forget. The Church
has been criminally complicit in wanting us to forget, for it was the Popes who gave the orders
to attack innocent people and take their lands, wealth, and enslave them in the name of Christ.
Nations have misused religion as a tool for conquest. The Church and its missionaries have
been leading collaborators in taking our land, oppressing our people, and enslaving us all over
the world, as have the Imams, particularly in North and East Africa.
After the first African captives were taken to Portugal in 1444 after an unprovoked attack on their
village, Europeans developed a religious passion for Africans. For it was Pope Nicholas V during
his reign (1447-1455) who launched a war, in the name of Christ, on non-Christian peoples.
Pope Alexander in 1493 continued the crime spree, dividing up the non-Christian world between
Spain and Portugal for the taking. Next, Pope Clement VI in 1529 directed Charles V of Spain
to force God upon the barbarian nations of the world. We know the story – the missionaries
brought us Bibles, and took our land, just as the Imams gave us the Koran. Whilst we prayed,
they took our lands.
The first thing a criminal wants to do when he steals or commits murder is to justify it. That is
what religion did. Another strategy is to cover up the crime by eliminating all possible survivors
or witnesses to the crime. It solves two problems: (1) The criminal doesn’t have to worry about
discovery or revenge; and (2) It leaves no one to tell the story, hold them accountable, and
claim damages. When nations commit wholesale murder to steal someone’s land and other
property, it is called genocide. If genocide is not complete and total, there are three remaining
approaches. First, the truth is hidden, omitted, or obscured in the history books. Second, the
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religious institutions tell the people to forgive and forget. Third, the State attempts to silence the
victims with threats to their security and well-being, and convinces the survivors to forget about
the past and move on.
The Extermination Order was an instrument to stamp out the resistance of the Ovaherero to the
German invasion and to continued seizure of their lands. On January 12, 1904 the Ovaherero
declared war against Germany. Till this day the Ovaherero have not recovered from those events.
Ovaherero are scattered, some in South Africa, in Botswana, in Cameroon and other parts. Of
course amongst the Germans there were then and still are people of goodwill. At the 100th
anniversary commemoration of the genocide in Namibia, in the presence of representatives of
the German government, I called for the payment of reparations.
The German leadership would like for us to forget the genocide. They think their aid is sufficient
and we should be satisfied with that. Germany’s aid does not even represent the interest on the
annual rent owed for using our lands without our permission, for taking the wealth from our lands
and using it to enrich German nationals, German businesses, and the German government’s
ability it to fight wars all over the world, and pay other reparations debts.
In March this year I was informed that the German government had approached its Namibian
counterpart with a proposal for a German-Namibian Special Initiative Concept. The Namibian
government accepted the German initiative in principle. It had no objection to the concept
of targeted development such as financing municipal activities in Namibia, where Germany
acknowledges special historical, political and moral responsibility, so long as there would be no
discrimination against other Namibians from other communities, who reside in such municipal
areas to be targeted for development.
The government of Namibia demanded that there be a needs assessment of the municipal
areas so that the quantum of financial assistance be commensurate with the development
needs of the communities to be assisted. It required that the needs assessment study be
carried out by an independent entity and the implementation of the initiative be done by an
independent entity.
Further, the Namibian government stated that the funding for the Special Initiative Concept be
separated from the existing bilateral aid Germany/Namibia and that no reduction or transfer
of funds from the bilateral aid be made to finance the Special Initiative Concept. The affected
communities are to be involved and consulted in a transparent fashion. It is said that the initiative
will affect all those who suffered as a consequence of the German colonial war of 1904-09.
Government recognized my parallel pursuit of reparations for the Ovaherero genocide.
Criminal governments are selective in what they want other nations to forget. Their libraries
are filled with their history books and biographies of people long dead. They boast of their
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conquests and extol their virtues. But their crimes, no matter how evident, are rarely, if ever
mentioned. And, if they are, they are given a positive spin.
Casper. W. Erichsen (2005) in his book The Angel of Death has descended violently among
them, on the concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia 1904-08, provides fresh
documentation. Drechsler had touched on the horrors of the place known as “Island of Death”.
Erichsen focuses on the details of the genocide in the “Place of No Return”, where Ovaherero and
Nama, particularly women and children, were sent to die. The concentration camps established
in my country by the Germans were forerunners to those constructed by Nazi Germany for the
Jews. The Jews have received reparations from Germany, my people have not. Is a Jewish
life more valuable than that of an African? Reparations must cease to be a remedy for white
and coloured people only, but not for black people as well. Erichsen describes the brutality and
cruelty of Shark Island as defying belief.
Africans have been in disarray from the Christian Boers and Afrikaners of South Africa, to the
British and Turkish of Egypt, and the Muslims and Arabs of North West and East Africa, now
called the Middle East. And in more recent times, ever since Germany committed genocide
against the peoples of Namibia, 13 nations on this side of the globe have been victims of
genocide. When the world doesn’t put a stop to something the first time, other criminal leaders
commit crimes in the name of the people, because they think that they can get away with the
same crime.
The world is full of victims: victims of war and genocide for land, oil, gold, diamonds and people
to enslave. And there are victims of disasters man-made and nature driven. In some places, it
seems to be in fashion to blame the victim. Even victims blame themselves, feeling shame and
self-contempt; they too want to forget about it, whatever it was. People blame the victim because
they feel powerless to confront the perpetrator. Victims blame themselves because they feel
powerless to do anything about it. But thanks to those victims who pick themselves up along
with their pain and demand accountability from their perpetrator, the world is a better place. The
world owes a lot to victims who have used their pain and loss to make the world a safer and
more just place for the rest of us.
We must lift up and applaud those people who have been steadfast and tenacious in their pursuit of
justice and reparations for our people. Tenacity is the companion to reparations. With tenacity, we
will transform victims into victorious heroes and heroines. At paragraph 2.7 of my memorandum to
the German government of January 12, 2004, I requested to meet the German government around
the table to settle the issue of reparations forever. My offer was rejected. The USA, which so many
people desire to go to, is a better place because African people and people of good will fought
tenaciously to end slavery, to end American apartheid, to end unjust wars, to end discrimination,
and expose racism wherever it exists. African captives made the US a wealthy place, and their
descendants fought to make it a civilized place. As a result the USA is a better place for all people.
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There is a lot more work to do, but change for the better didn’t come out of the goodness of
the oppressor’s heart. It wasn’t voluntary. And the first answer, and the second answer, and the
third answer is always no. That is to be expected. No self-respecting thief or murderer is going
to volunteer to return the loot or pay for the losses to the family because of the death of their
father. Those who love justice must fight to bring the perpetrator to justice, to change unjust
laws, to establish just laws and to demand compensation, to restore what can be restored, and
to minimize the possibility of the experience happening to anyone, anywhere else.
There is another side of victims. Some victims are so damaged that they become victimizers.
Instead of holding their perpetrator accountable, they take their pain out on other people who
had nothing to do with their pain. We see that in nations and individuals. Europeans fanned
out all over Africa, all over the Americas, Australia, and the Caribbean supposedly in search of
a better world because of famine and persecution at home only to create death, destruction,
and misery among other peoples of the world. The victims of these victims turned victimizers
are looking at their condition and saying this isn’t fair. This injustice cannot continue and go
unredressed.
It is instructive to hear African people, Continental and Diaspora, whose growth and development
have been interrupted by colonialism, slavery, and genocide, tell their story. Each thinks that
their experience was the worst, that their colonizer or slaver was the most brutal, most evil, and
that their experience was the longest and most devastating.
I would say that each of us speaks our truth. It was the worst, for us. Whether we are in Suriname
(South America) under the Dutch of the Netherlands, or under the British, or in Brazil under the
Portuguese, or in Haiti under the French or in North America under the various European tribes,
or in South Africa under the Boers, or in the Lusaphone countries in Africa under the Portuguese,
or in the Congo under the Belgiums, or in Egypt under the Turkish, or British, or in Ethiopia under
the Italians, or in the Sudan under the Arabs, or in Namibia, as we were, under the Germans. We
must speak our truth, and for us it is the worst.
For we have each experienced a hell on earth that has been the deepest, longest, most brutal
for us, one that no human being or animal should ever have been or should ever again be
subject to. As Professor Harring states in his brief (Harring 2002), German Reparations to the
Herero Nation: An Assertion of Herero Nationhood in the Path of Namibian Development, “It
would be both a futile and dishonourable discourse to venture into any kind of a comparative
analysis of genocide … genocide is genocide. It is a crime against humanity.”
It is important for us to talk about genocide, not only to tell our story, but also out of the desire
to minimize or prevent future genocides. We can only prevent something if we are aware of it,
its signs, and its motivations. That is why memory is important. Preventing future genocides
requires the identification of those accountable who committed genocide and those who created
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a climate for making it possible or acceptable.
That is why we must talk about reparations. In this day and time, the demand for reparations
and restitution is not about punishment or vengeance, it is about justice and creating our future,
catching up to where we could have been were we not interrupted in our development by this
crime. Also, it is about making the future safe for humanity.
On May 18, 2006 talks concluded between the German and Namibian governments. In addition
to the approximately N$108 million in development aid committed by Germany to Namibia in
2005, a further amount of N$370 million was announced. So the total assistance for 2005-6
amounts to approximately N$480 million, which is a large increase compared to N$180 million
in the years 2003-4. It appears that an anticipated amount of N$156 million for the Special
Initiative Concept was not finalized. However, it was announced in The Namibian newspaper of
May 22, 2006, in a joint statement, that the German delegation and the Director General of the
National Planning Commission of Namibia were ready to sign a Memorandum of Understanding
on an additional “Special Initiative” of 20 million Euros for the Ovaherero, Nama, Damara and
San people.
Is it possible that had the world checked King Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo between
1890 and 1910 when some 10 million Congolese were being slaughtered in the name of rubber
profit, Germany would not have misbehaved later? It is possible that had the world checked
German genocide in South West Africa/Namibia in 1904-1908, where 60,000 of the Ovaherero
population were killed, leaving some 15,000 starving refugees, the world may have been spared
subsequent genocides, including the genocide of Roma-Senti, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, and
Black people in Europe some 30 years later, leading to and during World War II? When we allow
one people to get away with murder, others assume that they can get away with murder too.
Let’s take a look at genocide:
1890-1910 King Leopold II killed 10 million Congolese (King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild)
1-1905
Germany killed Africans on its way to Caprivi
1-1923
Ottomans killed Armenians
1932-1934 USSR killed 7 million Ukrainians Holodomors by starvation
1-1945
Germany strikes again, killing 200,000-800,000 Roma-Sinti, Africans & 6 million European Jews
When this enterprise was over the world had lost 50 million people, half of them civilians.
Colonized Africans were in that number as they were used in this worldwide white tribal warfare.
1971
1972
West Pakistan killed 100,000 East Pakistanis now Bangladeshis
Burundi killed 200,000 Hutus and Tutsi
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1975
Cambodia
1-1983
Guatemalan State killed 200,000 of its citizens
1-1988
Iraq campaign in Kurdistan
1-1995
Bosnia-Herzegovina – Srebrenica massacre
1994-1995
Rwanda – 1 million Tutsi’s killed
2005-Today – We see our brothers and sisters dying in Darfur and other parts of Sudan, as
well as in the Congo
(Source: Encyclopaedia of Genocides go to google.com)
If I listed the genocide of indigenous peoples in other parts of the world, such as the Americas,
Caribbean, Australia, Asia, etc., this paper would be endless. Of course, the slavery that follows
these genocides is a continuation of genocide in slow motion. A captive man, woman, or child is
dead to themselves, to their own humanity and to their God given potential. They have no life of
their own, whether they are in their own country or scattered across the world in other countries.
How do we as human beings account for our inhumanity to each other? How do we hold each
other accountable for our wrongdoings such that we do not allow each other to run amok all over
the world raping, murdering, stealing, enslaving, colonizing, leaving destruction and mayhem in
the lives of survivors for generations to come?
Do we do as some would say, “turn the other cheek” and let a tyrant continue to run amok
around the world? Do we do as others would say, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”?
If so, our brother Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., cautions us that the world would be full of blind and
toothless people.
The modern reparations movement has shown us a non-violent way out of this circle of madness
that man has perpetrated for as long as he has been able to get away with it. Whether we use
the words reparations, restitution, compensation, we know that the issue is about accountability
for wrongdoing. Who holds the wrongdoer accountable? Does a murderer or a thief voluntarily
turn him or herself in, confess and offer to pay for the damage done, and take his punishment or
serve time in prison? That is not in the nature of criminals.
In 2004 we proposed that Germany assist in the upliftment and the social, economic and
cultural development as well as empowerment of the Ovaherero on the basis of a 15-year
development plan, consisting of educational upliftment, socio-economic development (e.g.
commercial farming), cultural advancement, a research institute, a development foundation,
and the establishment of a development fund. This offer stands and awaits a positive response.
Victims can make peace with that experience by holding the perpetrators of their victimization
accountable. And it is the assignment of onlookers and bystanders to support us. The goodwill of
peace loving Germans is appreciated. The Ovaherero share a past and future with the Germans.
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We seek a relationship built on real mutual respect. For we never know when a tyrant or thief
or rapist will select his next prey.
When we take a stand, we are no longer victims – we are survivors. It is the duty of the
survivors and relatives of those who have been victimized to report the crime, press charges,
and bring the criminal to justice. And who would that be in our community? It is the family,
tribe, and nation. We belong to the human family and we merely demand reparations, just as
other self-respecting peoples and nations do.
After World Wars I and II, the Allied Nations demanded reparations for their losses in prosecuting
the war. They also demanded reparations for European Jewish people. Most of us are familiar
with the European Jewish experience. For they have had the benefit of the media, the movies,
and billions of dollars in Western financial, material, and military support. But to suggest that
the Jewish Holocaust is the only holocaust or the most important holocaust is a disservice to
the world and the growth, development, and liberation of man from his inhumanity. That is what
the German government has said and done by denying the black African Ovaherero people
just reparations. They have added insult to injury. They have demonstrated their continued
racism and disregard for African humanity. And I say that there must be no collaborators in
this continuing crime, the world and us must hold them accountable. We demand respect as
members of the human family. We demand just reparations/restitution.
Throughout the rape of Africa, we have watched Europeans raze African communities and take
their land, creating whole communities of homeless people, many still in shanties today. But,
when it is time to pay back and give up the stolen land, despite the fact that they have been
unjustly enriched for generations and are living in luxury and have no rights to the wealth that
has been produced off the land, Western media attempts to put a different spin on the truth of
the matter. We cannot buy into that. Our reparations/restitution must include everything that
was stolen from us. They can’t return the lives of the Ovaherero, San, Owambos, Damaras
and others killed to seize our land, but they can return our land and the value of all that has
been produced from the land, and all that might have been produced by those that were killed.
Just Reparations/Restitution
What are the human needs in the aftermath of a disaster, a tragedy of great magnitude? We
can look at the outpouring of support and assistance in the aftermath of September 11, 2001,
when 3,000 people were killed, when two airliners flew into the twin towers in New York City
and impacted a nation. We can look at the aftermath of the Tsunami and earthquake which
washed away thousands of people in a flash. We can look at the aftermath of World War II,
when the US rebuilt Europe with the Marshall plan, and the 50 years of support and over
US$100 billion that European nations have given to Jewish people in the aftermath of their
near destruction in Hitler’s Europe.
The Germans have been forced to pay reparations to their white victims of genocide, but the
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black African victims go unnoticed, unreported, un-acknowledged, un-repaired, and un-repaid.
Every murderer aspires to get away with their murder. Every thief aspires to get away with their
thievery; every rapist aspires to get away with rape. Unexposed, they pretend to be the upright,
upstanding, moral leaders of the world as they go about their old ways under cover.
While others have Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Holocaust Museums all over the world,
and reparations in material, land, and resources, we are expected to forget and move on. Move
on while others stay put on our land? Two-thirds of our family and community were destroyed,
houses razed, and strangers settled on our land to enrich themselves with our resources. They
are living in luxury, while our people live landless and impoverished. We should move on.
The war is still raging against African people. When we assert ourselves, they bring in drugs,
guns, and diseases to keep the community in chaos so that we can never assert our rights and
effectively demand what is ours. They manipulate the terms of exchange in trade so that we
are always at a disadvantage. Then we are used as experimental guinea pigs to find cures for
diseases that were manufactured elsewhere. Some of our people are living in squatter camps
with minimal potable water, minimal health care or safety from the elements or our people are
crippled by intergenerational trauma.
Every victim must aspire to expose the criminal, his/her criminal behaviour, and to ensure that the
criminal is held accountable. The criminal, whether individual, corporate, church or government
must repair the damage done to those impacted by their crimes. We owe a big debt of gratitude
to the victims who have transformed their experience and become leaders and heroes and
heroines in the course of liberating themselves from bondage, or in service of others, as they
try to liberate themselves from the pain and loss of a loved one. These try to correct the wrong
done to them by protecting others from having their painful experience.
In taking a stand, they have participated in their own healing, and have given meaning to their
deeply painful experience. For example, in the United States, the loss of a child results in the
Amber Laws where when a child is reported missing, an amber alert goes out in minutes making
the chances that the child is found alive much more likely. In the United States a man whose
child was kidnapped, took up the cause of missing children, and over the years of having a
program dedicated to finding missing children actually reunited thousands with their families.
We know that our brothers and sisters who fought for justice in the United States of America
have actually made it a better place for all people. We have to look at our experience to see
what we must do. A demand for justice is not about the past, because there is no justice that
we can extract from Germany for killing our men, women, and children. But, we can demand
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the resources required to rebuild our communities with infrastructures for clean water, sewers,
electricity, roads, hospitals, modern well-equipped schools for our children, resources to
educate and train our youth to meet our health and development needs without running off to
other countries; that will allow us to take care of our elders, and establish manufacturing and
production institutions that allow us to extract our own mineral resources and produce what we
need for ourselves, and to trade fairly with others.
The first step toward healing is to hold the criminal accountable. With a criminal on the loose,
you will never feel secure and safe. You will always be in fear. When you deman accountability,
you have decided to be a victim no more. And it serves notice to other criminals that they too
will be held accountable.
Indigenous tribes of North America in the United States, Alaska, and Canada have demanded
and received reparations. Indigenous peoples of Australia have demanded and received
reparations. They have a Sorry Day for the damage done to children taken from their families to
be “civilized” by whites.
We could talk about international law, but those who are keepers of the law have been the
biggest criminals and committed the most heinous and longest crimes of all times. We need only
look at the United Nations to see who controls the vote. How justice is not rendered fairly. But we
are not relying on the United Nations, we are relying on the world opinion of the common people
like ourselves who have been victims of foreign governments, multi-national corporations,
popes, missionaries, pedophile priests, imams, churches and mosques that collaborated in the
theft of our land, the sustained ignorance and mis-education of our people, and the corruption
of our boys and girls, that brought us strange diseases, and now use us as guinea pigs (as they
do white rats) to discover cures. We must educate our youth in medicine and science to make
discoveries of benefit to us. We can accomplish much in our lifetime with the return of resources
that have been stolen from us. Can you imagine the productive capacity of our people had we
been left in peace, in the numbers that we were before the holocaust of our people? We were
not only robbed of their lives but also of the lives they would have produced. With access to our
own land wealth and resources under it, how much further along would we be now in the growth
and development of our land and our people?
Making Reparations work
To date, people from Africa and of African descent have not benefited from any international
regime on genocide, yet many have been victims of genocide. The Durban Racism Conference
of 2001, difficult as it was, bore witness of a will to bring about a universal standard rather than
a metropolitan favour. We cannot accept one law for the Jews, another for Asiatics, such as the
Comfort Women of Korea, and another for Africans.
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In the case of the Jewish holocaust claims against Germany, these received the support of state
governments when a formal claim was filed by Israel, with the government of Germany. This was
followed by negotiations, with a final agreement resulting through political processes which were
voted on by the German Parliament. The legislation which was enacted by the Bundestag was
subsequently amended and expanded.
From the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, held in New York in 1964,
comes a report by Nehemiah Robinson entitled, Ten Years of German Indemnification, which
gives us details on Germany’s reparations to the Jews.
Technically Germany, through its domestic laws created a mechanism to pay the Jews
reparations. As in the Namibia case, there was no dispute as to German’s guilt. There was
abundant documentation and even survivors of the concentration camps from the second global
war. What was missing was a legal process leading to an admission of guilt and a procedure
for payment.
The Nuremberg trials of the Nazi war criminals from the second global war provided the proof
of guilt. The German Federal Compensation Law of 1956, known as BEG, an abbreviation
for Bundesentschadigungsgesetz was an improvement on the proceeding restitution law. The
minimum disability for eligibility to an annuity was decreased from 30% to 25% and the probability
of the casual nexus between persecution and damage to health was declared as sufficient. The
responsibility of the German Federal Republic (legally of the Third Reich) for incarceration, and
other damage caused by foreign governments was specifically stated. The notion of damage
to liberty was expanded to include illegal life under inhuman conditions. Annuities were also
introduced for former non self-employed persons. The election of an annuity was made easier.
The maximum annual amount was increased. Widows became eligible and the inheritability
of benefits under the law was expanded in certain respects. Only the period of initial annuity
payments and some other restrictions remained unchanged. The existing restrictions on payment
were eliminated with the exception of certain amounts above DM (German Marks) 10,000.
Under the 1956 German Federal Compensation Law, Implementary Regulations, the first three
of which dealt with loss of life, damage to health and damage to professions, were revised and,
in some instances the benefits were expanded – for example, permitting the accounting of
income in forex (foreign funds).
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Conclusion
This paper has approached the issue of reparations for the Ovaherero from a holistic PanAfrican perspective. I have stated the current impasse with the German government as regards
reparations for the Ovaherero. The Federal Republic of Germany is trying by all means to sweep
the tragic history of the Ovaherero under the carpet and is in fact trying to influence the Namibian
government to support its unwillingness to pay reparations to the descendants of the Ovaherero
victims, that I have been demanding for a decade now, in my capacity as the Paramount Chief of
the Ovaherero people. The fact is that the German Special Initiative Concept is a camouflage and
is not intended to compensate the Ovaherero for their loss. The Federal Republic of Germany
is not yet ready to make good the crimes committed against Africans in South West Africa.
Rather what is currently happening is that German money is being used to influence the internal
situation in my country. Some Herero recipients claim to challenge my title to the paramountcy
of the Ovaherero and are ganging up to unseat me, encouraged by Germany. Yet Von Trotha’s
Proclamation did not discriminate against the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, Ovahimba, Ovatjimba,
Ovazemba and Ovakwandu. All Otjiherero-speaking people were subject to the same fate
without distinction.
There is another issue affected by reparations and the return of land to its natural owners. During
the struggle for Namibia’s independence in 1982, in the Cape Verde Islands, the current ruling
party in Namibia, the South West Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO) was obliged to sign its
approval to “the Constitutional Principles”. When Namibia achieved self government in 1990, the
Constitution included these so-called “principles”, which safeguarded the land tenure system in
place before independence. Today in Namibia all land belongs to the state, with the maximum
lease period being 100 years. Blacks today can only hold land leasehold for a maximum period
of a hundred years, whereas white people, who owned land before independence in 1990, retain
that land on freehold basis, forever. Government has instituted, in my area of the country, an
arrangement whereby blacks acquiring land may only hold it on temporary basis. They must
have their ownership sanctioned by government recognized Chiefs, with a maximum area of 20
acres. If by 2009 those in the Herero part of the country have not abided with this arrangement,
they lose whatever title rights they may have, even if acquired before independence in 1990.
We have observed that in Namibia the print media in general is Windhoek-based and does not
report the detailed developments going on amongst blacks in the rural areas. Land which was
taken from my people over a hundred years ago is virtually irretrievable, due to long lease, today
due to the bogus “Constitutional Principles”. This is unacceptable and a generalized problem in
Southern Africa – a hold-over from settler colonialism.
Our struggle is far from being won. We do not have the necessary resources but we have
history on our side, the will power, the energy and the necessary intellectual resources. Also the
international environment continues to develop in our favour.
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Moss Riruako
The issue of reparations for the genocide in South West Africa/Namibia is approached from two
perspectives:
• As an internal concern, a cleansing process after the deliberate humiliation of the
genocide; the Durban Conference of 2001 having established that racism was / is
a deliberate consequence of colonialism. In this instance genocide represents
appropriation by killing, and
•
The external struggle to exact acknowledgement, apology and atonement for the
holocaust inflicted.
These claims take place within the wider context of the struggle of the Africans at home and
abroad for reparations and the international campaign for social justice.
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3.7 A study of National Legislative Reparations Initiatives and
Reparations Campaigns in the Republic of South Africa
Morgan Moss, Jr.
Statement of the problem
This research paper will analyze the legal response to race-based, socio-economic policies and
laws practiced against Black South Africans. This paper focuses on the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) report and recommendation to establish reparation proposals for Black
South Africans who are suffering socially and economically as a result of human rights violations
and atrocities committed during the apartheid era. This paper will also focus on the Khulumani
International Reparation lawsuit filed in New York City in November 2002 under the United
States Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789.
Significance of the Problem
There is a direct correlation between the socio-economic status of Black South Africans and
apartheid discrimination policies and laws in the Republic of South Africa.
Introduction
This research paper explores two legal reparation initiatives being considered in the Republic
of South Africa: (1) the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reparation and Rehabilitation
(TRC R&R) Committee proposals; and (2) the Khulumani el al VS Barclays et al lawsuit.
The enabling act empowered the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee to (1) provide support
to South African Black apartheid era victims to ensure that the Truth Commission process restored
victims’ dignity; and (2) formulate policy proposals and recommendations on rehabilitation
and healing of survivors, their families and communities at large. The overall objective of the
recommendations were to ensure non-repetition of past apartheid human rights violations, healing
and healthy co-existence. A President’s Fund, funded by Parliament and private contributions,
was established to pay urgent interim reparations to victims in terms of regulations and guidelines
prescribed by the President of South Africa.
In 1995, the Government of National Unity formed and implemented the South African TRC to help
deal with what happened during the apartheid era. The injustice to South African Blacks during
this era resulted in mass violence and human rights abuses that currently inflict economic and
social hardship on the masses of the indigenous people – Black South Africans. Consequently,
Black South Africans are suffering from a long list of ills, which include inadequate healthcare
and housing, high unemployment rates, inadequate education and skills training, family instability,
hunger, and lack of transportation. Mr. Dullah Omar, former Minister of Justice, stated that “a
commission was necessary to enable South Africans to come to terms with their past on a morally
accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation”.
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According to the TRC Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee, reparations should be paid to
thousands of Black people who were severely affected by the apartheid era laws and policies. In
order for South Africa to get over the atrocities of the past and build national unity and reconciliation
among all people of South Africa, the government must ensure that Black South Africans who
suffered gross human rights abuses and violations are acknowledged with reparations. (Summary
of TRC (R&R) report)
Reparations payments cannot bring back the lives of family members and friends, or compensate
for the pain and suffering of persons still living, but just or adequate reparations can improve
the quality of life for survivors of gross human rights violations and secure the development and
future of the dependants of those who lost their lives. According to the TRC (R&R) Committee
“reparation and rehabilitation” are alternative solutions and proposals that can be formulated
and implemented to help South African Black victims overcome the economic disparity that they
are currently suffering, reparations will help give them back their dignity. Reparations should
include money, but a financial payment is not the only form of reparations and rehabilitation that
the committee recommended.
The moral basis for Reparations
In addition to the legal basis for reparation, there is a moral basis for reparation. South African
Black victims of gross human rights abuses have the right to reparation and rehabilitation
because of the many economic disparities they are currently suffering because of the apartheid
laws and policies of the past. South African Blacks need reparation to be compensated in some
way because the amnesty process removed the right to claim damages from perpetrators who
were given amnesty. The current ANC government must accept the fact that it must deal with the
human rights abuses and atrocities of the previous apartheid government and it must therefore
take responsibility for reparations to be paid to the masses of Black South African apartheid
survivors.
The legal basis for Reparations
The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995 stated that the TRC’s (R&R)
Committee’s goals and objectives were to recommend to the President of South Africa means
and ways to assist South African Black victims. The TRC (R&R) Committee concluded in their
report that it was the President of South Africa and the Parliament who would be responsible for
what to do and how to do it (Summary of TRC (R&R) Committee Report).
The TRC (R&R) Committee made recommendations for interim reparations for South African
Blacks who needed immediate help because of the magnitude of the gross human rights abuses
that they are suffering. The Act provides that the President of South Africa and the Ministers of
Justice and Finance establish a President’s fund from which to pay victims.
The Act provided for Interim Reparations and Final Reparations. Interim Reparations were to
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be made until the government formulated procedures for the Final Reparation measures which
would focus on restoring the dignity of victims and survivors of the apartheid era policies and
laws.
The guidelines used to determine who would be considered for reparation included only persons
who made statements to the TRC (R&R) Committee or were referred to in someone else’s
statement. Reparations according to the TRC (R&R) Committee guidelines were to be given
only to those persons formally declared victims by the TRC (R&R) Committee. The Committee
decided if someone was a victim of human rights violations by looking at all the information they
had on the gross human rights violation suffered by that person.
Reparations and Rehabilitation proposals
The TRC (R&R) Committee proposed a Reparation and Rehabilitation Policy that included five
parts: (1) Interim reparations (2) Individual reparation grants (3) Symbolic reparation, legal and
administrative measures (4) Community rehabilitation programs (5) Institutional reform. It is
significant to understand that these proposals were sent to the president of South Africa. It is the
President and Parliament who will decide what to do with the proposals, and how to implement
them.
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3.8
Realities and challenges of Reparations
Ezrah Aharone
There’s no argument about whether or not slavery took place, but the economic ramifications
and enormity of profits have largely gone unrecognized. Based on longevity and magnitude, it’s
illogical to minimize the correlation between institutionalized enslavement and US commercial
development. Great degrees of national prosperity, as well as family fortunes of Euro-Americans
and disproportionate intergenerational poverty of Black families, can be traced in origin to the
Slave Era. For these and numerous other economic and socio-political reasons, the question of
reparations for Africans in America is a very relevant and current issue.
Slavery had more to do with economics than any other single factor. Therefore, any view of
slavery outside the context of labour and economics is incomplete and misleading. Even if
the poorest nation of today received free labour from up to 4 million slaves, it too could rise to
comparable heights after two and a half centuries. Although America had this advantage, the
establishment never associates America’s wealth or development with slave contributions.
The “Economics of Slavery” is not a subject where data is readily available or discussed.
Disclosure of economic data is limited because it incriminates the perceived sanctity of US
democracy and paints a vivid picture of how “slave-based capitalism” transformed America from
a bunch of agrarian colonies into a superpower. Such information holds evidence that speaks to
the factual legitimacy of reparations.
The human toll and Ancestorcide
The human toll alone paid by Black America far surpasses any material benefit America could
ever provide in return. Think about it for a moment – What material substance could EuroAmericans possibly give as payment for disconnecting us from knowledge of our ancestry and
generations of oral family history? What is the going compensation rate of litigation for that?
Most astonishing of all is that Black America is expected to keep silent and not make a big deal
about what happened.
Destroying the ancestral knowledge of an entire people is not like discarding an old pair of shoes.
Knowledge of ancestral lineage is a characteristic which distinguishes humanity from animals. It
links each individual to their genealogical origin within the stream of human continuity, which in
turn adds definition and greater sense of purpose to life. But tragically, most Africans in America
are deprived of such knowledge and connection.
The English language has words to define and describe just about everything. However, it lacks
a word that aptly encapsulates the severity of what we endured. We are the world’s greatest
causalities of what I term “Ancestorcide”, which is an act when people are responsible, by intent
or results, for destroying another people’s knowledge of and ties to their ancestral lineage. In our
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case, the intent was based on political and economic self-indulgence. Along with its “bookend
companion” of genocide, ancestorcide is one of the gravest acts that humanity can commit
against humanity.
Whenever an ancestor was captured and transplanted in America, the chain of a family lineage
in Africa was also broken. He or she represented a branch from a family that was severed.
For those of us in America, our unknown families in continental Africa are the original roots
of the trees from whence we, the branches, are broken. So it’s not just Black America alone.
Continental Africans are affected by ancestorcide as well.
Purpose and relevance of Reparations
Government officials often claim that it’s “too late” to deliberate reparations. Even Bill Clinton,
who some believe was perhaps more receptive to Black-related issues than any other president,
would not entertain reparations. His quoted position is: “It’s been so long, and we’re so many
generations removed.”
Are we really “so many generations removed”? In terms of time and arithmetic, slavery officially
began in 1619 and was abolished in 1865 – totalling 246 years of captivity. Then, for an additional
100 years (1865 to 1965) we struggled and died chasing basic civil and voting rights. Since it’s
now 2006, this means we’ve only been free of enslavement and segregation for just 41 years of
387 total years in America. We have literally and illegally been denied human rights for near-90
percent of the time.
Nevertheless, the common perception is that reparations is less of a current issue, and more
of an issue of rabble-rousing Blacks who are stuck in the past. Proponents are cast in a radical
light, or portrayed as trying to get something for free, or viewed as promoting racist ideals that
are divisive. Hence, the true relevance of reparations has been cleverly neutralized.
The essential purpose of reparations however is to provide satisfaction or redress, in order to
compensate or make amends for damages or wrongs related to human, economic, political, and/
or military abuse of power. As for the Transatlantic Slave Trade, reparations is an “international
issue” involving four continents, untold millions of people, and 350 years of unpaid labour and
human rights violations.
Despite these realities, the establishment has successfully used the media and so-called
experts to stigmatize reparations, by inferring that “Equality” has leveled the playing field … so
as to equate reparations with inferiority or neediness. However, the “application of reparations”
has absolutely nothing to do with equality, inferiority, or superiority … and is totally unrelated
to the individual or collective success of Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, or anyone else. To amplify
this point, consider September 11th. Despite America’s great wealth and military strength, if
the possibility arose, the US government would swiftly and unquestionably seek some form of
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reparations from the parties responsible for destroying the World Trade Center and damaging
the Pentagon. This is because at its core, reparations concern principles of universal justice and
moral responsibilities that hold people and governments accountable for uncivil and inhumane
conduct. These principles transcend factors of wealth, ethnicity, and governmental authority of
offenders.
Opportunities and “Crumbs of Capitalism”
Based on economic opportunities that are now available, there’s a presumption that America
has fulfilled its obligations to Black America. But such a presumption mistakenly overlooks
the interconnection between past injustices and present opportunities. The existence of
opportunities does not constitute a settlement devised to correct the ills of slavery. Conversely,
opportunities exist as a corollary result and consequence of the ills of slavery.
There are unbreakable bonds of cooperation between the US government and White
corporations that originated in their mutual support of slavery. These bonds have been just as
crucial to the success of democracy and capitalism, as Black labour has been to creating the
wealth that makes these bonds possible. Contemporary Black labour is no less vital to today’s
Technological Revolution, as slavery was to the Industrial Revolution.
As these bonds have continuously strengthened since the Civil Rights Era, US capitalism has
expanded exponentially, rendering Blacks with better jobs, higher positions, and increased
salaries. It must be emphasized however, that betterments in Black life are directly related to
commercial growth and the need for corporate labourers. In other words, our progress is largely
a by-product of the level of labour we provide – as opposed to being a pure function of justice.
The more wealth our labour amasses for Euro-Americans, the more our lives improve in
increments. So what appears to be “democracy-based progress” has been in many cases
“crumbs of capitalism” derived from our own labour and repression. Euro-Americans are no
longer profiting from us as slaves, but as the primary owners and controllers of major businesses
and industries, they profit no less from Black labour.
Political Racism and Congressional Conflicts of Interest
Since Bill Clinton and other politicians feel it’s “too late”, the question then becomes – When
was the right time for reparations? Even if you went back in time to Emancipation in 1865, the
government had its reasons and the authority to override reparations. During the immediate
decades following slavery, (when the “too late” argument could not be used) ex-slaves had
neither the resources nor legal rights to realistically pursue reparations. So it’s not really a matter
of being “too late”, or that no former slaves are still alive, or that Blacks are no longer impacted
by slavery. The issue is that, because of “Political Racism” and “Political Abuse of Power” there
has never been a right time for reparations. Congress has made it clear throughout history that
providing reparations is not part of America’s political agenda.
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Each year since 1989, Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has attempted to pass the H.R.
40 Bill, calling for a committee to hold hearings on the effects of slavery and conduct studies on
the legitimacy of reparations. Even though the government has supported reparations for other
people, the bill is routinely outvoted by the majority White-members of the Judiciary Committee
before it reaches the floor.
Based on the racial imbalance of Congress, the difficulty of passing Black-related legislation
is not surprising. Of the 440 current members of the House of Representatives, there are only
42 Blacks; less than 10 percent. Of the 100-member Senate, there is only one Black member.
This racial imbalance and outvoting of Black-related legislation raises major concerns about the
integrity of American democracy. For example, it was publicized during the 2000 presidential
campaign of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), that his ancestors owned at least 52 slaves. Slave
documents from Carroll County, Mississippi, identify William Alexander McCain as the owner.
When asked about this, Senator McCain said he “did not know that”, and that he found the
information “fascinating”. He went on to say, “I guess when you really think about it logically,
it shouldn’t be a surprise. They had a plantation and they fought in the Civil War, so I guess it
makes sense.”
Although McCain is just a single individual, this seemingly isolated revelation underscores a
haunting political reality of race relations that poses very legitimate questions. How many other
Senators, Congressmen, Cabinet Secretaries, and Supreme Court Justices who presently
enjoy millionaire status have direct ancestral links to slavery? And how many of these officials
oppose reparations? These unanswered questions are precisely why “Reparations Fact-Finding
Studies” are necessary. It would make an interesting case-study to track descendants of the 52
slaves and compare their wealth and living conditions to that of the McCain family.
By no means should final decisions regarding the studies or the justice of reparations rest with
Euro-American congressmen who obviously are motivated by opposite self-interests. One of
Black America’s greatest errors is allowing Euro-Americans to comfortably play conflicting roles
as judge and jury of their own acts of inhumanities. Without exception, in all cases and inquiries
into reparations, the offending party is deemed “morally disqualified” from determining the
validity, the means, or the level of redress for the injured party!
Reparations fact-finding studies
All responsibilities therefore rest solely with conscious Black leadership to raise necessary
resources and assign qualified, impartial taskforce entities, to conduct “Reparations Fact-Finding
Studies”. All findings should then not only be presented to US courts, but also filtered through
every channel of international law for recourse. It doesn’t require a degree in economics to
know that labour has a calculable dollar value. The position of labour having value is not a mere
notion – it’s fundamental to Western capitalism. And even in communism, labour has value and
people do get paid. Accordingly, there is a definite and undeniable dollar value affixed to the
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millions of African people who provided lifetimes of free labour. While the exact amount can
be contested, the point of whether there is a value is factual and irrefutable. Surely 246 years
of labour does not equal zero. This value, combined with 100 years of segregated indignities,
substantiates justifiable grounds for any people to receive reparations.
Africans in America have an exceptional and unrecognized form of investment in America that was
capitalized with the rare currencies of blood, sweat and unpaid wages. I define this investment
capital as “Earned Equity” – which represents the (measurable, divisible, transferable) vested
stake and monetary worth of our human and labour contributions to America’s economic and
commercial development, withheld from 1619 until 1865.
By some estimates we incurred over $10 trillion in unpaid wages. And this figure does not
include opportunity losses or human damages. Trillions may seem overestimated, yet milliondollar price tags hang on the most frivolous of lawsuits in America. Any accurate economic
analysis will easily calculate figures reaching trillions. In the book, Time on the Cross, labour
studies conducted by William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman cite that slaves in the cotton
industry alone were deprived of $84 million (about $7 billion today) in the single year 1850.
Among other things, the above proposed “Economic Fact-Finding Studies” should
comprehensively analyze several key areas, including: Analyses of long-term profits and
opportunity gains realized by beneficiaries and slaveholder descendants; Analyses of long-term
deficits and opportunity losses incurred by slave descendants; and Analyses of slavery’s dual
impact on America’s development versus Africa’s underdevelopment.
Self-Reparations
The world is long overdue for factual, objective disclosures of the “Economics and Human Toll of
Slavery”, so that the truth of our history can be made known to all. To borrow a phrase from the
Declaration of Independence, Africans in America need the accuracy of historical information so
that the “facts” can be “submitted to a candid world”, in order to legitimize our cause.
In my book, Pawned Sovereignty, I outline five areas of reparations, using the “Concept and
Consciousness of Sovereignty” as a lens to examine the historical and future development of
Africans in America. This approach opens a wide-range of new ideals and workable solutions
aimed to strengthen African Diaspora Relations and evolutionize Black thought, dialogue, and
actions. With or without the cooperation or endorsement of Euro-Americans or anyone else, Africans in
America must succeed with three equally essential forms of “Self-Reparations.” (1) We must
develop a renewed “Sense of Self-Identity” of who we are and the role we must play on the
world stage, amid all the mounting political and ideological-based turmoil. (2) We must establish
rapprochement, strategic partnerships, and parallel movements with Africa to safeguard
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and advance common interests. (3) We must self-define and create functional sovereign
frameworks (political, social, academic, ideological, economic, spiritual, etc.) to make ourselves
independently relevant in the world. … These are among our ultimate challenges in the 21st
century.
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3.9 Draft application to the International Court of Justice
By Imari Obadele and others for the Provisional Government of New Afrika, USA
The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) was founded by followers
of Malcolm X – Al Hajja Al Shabazz on March 31, 1968. The Provisional Government since its
beginning has pursued the right of our people – descendants of persons kidnapped from Africa
and held in slavery by Britain and the subsequent United States of America, on territory claimed
by the United States – to a plebiscite and an independent country on territory now claimed by
the United States but where we have lived as the majority population for many decades. Officers
of the RNA Provisional Government have developed domestic and international law establishing
the right of African-descendants in the United States to hold a plebiscite for independence and
reparations. This paper is the draft of the legal suit which contains these principles.
PROPOSED FINAL DRAFT (February 2006)
APPLICATION TO
THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Submitted to the Court’s Registrar on __________ 2006
The Following Member-States of the United Nations
The Republic of ********
The Republic of ********
The Republic of ********
Applicants
Whose Designated Agent is
The Honourable **********************
***********************************
****************** Geneva, Switzerland
And
Whose Counsel of Record Are
Atty. Milton R. Henry
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA
Atty. Marion Overton White
Opelousas, Louisiana, USA
Atty. Louis Granderson Scott
Monroe, Louisiana, USA
Atty. Maynard M. Henry, Sr.
Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Atty. Kwame Asante
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
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Atty. Efia Mwangaza
Greenville, South Carolina, USA
Dr. Leonard Jeffries
New York, New York, USA
Dr. Troy Duane Allen
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Dr. Imari A. Obadele
Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Mr. Kalonji Green
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
VS.
The United States of America
Respondent
I. Legal Grounds upon which the Jurisdiction of this Court is Based
1. The Respondent United States of America is a member of the United Nations and is ipso
facto a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Article 93(1) and Article 94(1)
of the Charter of the United Nations. The Applicants are also members of the United Nations.
Article 35(1) of the Statute of the Court states “The Court shall be open to the States parties to
the present Statute.” This provision embraces Applicants and Respondent.
2. Article 36 of this Court’s Statute states, in part: “1. The jurisdiction of the Court comprises
all cases which the parties refer to it and all matters specially provided for in the Charter of the
United Nations or in treaties and conventions in force.”
3. The United Nations Charter, Chapter One, Article 1(2) states a major purpose of the
Organization is to “develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle
of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to
strengthen universal peace.” The Applicant-States have observed with anguish the horrific
violations of rights to self-determination belonging to persons of African descent – New Africans
– living in the United States. These United States violations have consistently crushed the rights
of said New African people in the United States which are protected by the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Racial Discrimination (the CERD) ratified by the United States on October 21, 1994,
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These are treaties approved by both
the Applicant States and the Respondent State. These United States violations have continued
– including aggressive measures of warfare, murder, and conspiracy to murder a part of the
New African nation – despite the well documented, often peaceful, efforts of the New Africans
over 200 years to end these violations. This situation imposes upon the Applicant States the
duty under the United Nations Charter to seek an end to these monstrous violations through the
peaceful intervention of the International Court of Justice.
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a) It must be noted in this context that for many decades the Government of the
United States of America opposed true freedom and democracy for the Applicant States and
their neighbours in Africa. USA governments supported, in practice, the colonial regimes
established in Africa and the wretched Mandates system arising under US and Allied victory
in World War I. United States opposition to freedom and democracy for Applicant States and
their African neighbours also includes the failure of the United States to support the United
Nations’ General Assembly’s Resolution 1514 (14 December 1960), the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and related resolutions such as
Resolution 3103 “Basic Principles of the Legal Status of the Combatants Struggling Against
Colonial And Alien Domination and Racist Regimes.” Said opposition by the USA was injurious
to all of Africa, impairing trade, development, and continental unity – such as was occurring
in and for Europe, contrary to the passage and subsequent “enshrinement” of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The United States’ opposition was particularly egregious under
the regimes of US presidents Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989).
Also, despite the provisions of UN Resolution 3103, recent United States Governments have
refused to afford “prisoner of war” status to New Afrikan persons whom the Respondent United
States has imprisoned for allegedly being members of the Black Liberation Army, supporter of
independence for New Africans.
b) It is important to note that the 13 British Colonies in North America are regarded as
becoming a group of independent states with their Declaration of Independence dated July 4,
1776. These states then became one united state with the adoption of a federal constitution on
June 17, 1788 (North Carolina and Rhode Island followed with ratifications in 1789 and 1790
respectively). Article One, Section 9 of this United States Constitution held that the new national/
federal Government’s Congress could not prohibit the “migration or importation of such persons
as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit” prior to the year “one thousand
eight hundred and eight”. This provision supposedly abolished the “importation” of people to be
held as slaves. It did not.1 Moreover, the new United States has at no time renounced the long
and cruel prior history of slavery in the area of the “Thirteen Colonies” practiced by the United
Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal and France. Rather, the new United States of America
adopted this sordid history and continued its practices, particularly the racist practices which the
colonial governments were allowed to pursue by the United Kingdom.
4. Article 36 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice further states, in part: “2. The
states parties to the present Statute may at any time declare that they recognize as compulsory
ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation to any other state accepting the same
obligation, the jurisdiction of the Court in all legal disputes concerning:
“a) the interpretation of a treaty;
“b) any question of international law;
“c) the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation;
“d) the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation.”
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There is no bar to Respondent United States’ accepting the compulsory jurisdiction of the
International Court of Justice with respect to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. This Covenant, outlining the principles to which parties to this treaty “agree”, states in
Part I, Article 1, paragraph one: “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of
that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and
cultural development.”
With respect to The Convention on The Prevention And Punishment of The Crime of Genocide,
however, the United States encumbered its 1988 ratification with a reservation stating “That with
reference to Article IX of the Convention, before any dispute to which the United States is a party
may be submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice under this article, the
specific consent of the United States is required in each case.”
Similarly the United States has attached to its ratification of the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination a reservation which states: “That with reference to Article
22 of the Convention, before any dispute to which the United States is a party may be submitted
to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the specific consent of the United States
is required in each case.”
5. The Role of Slavery and Emancipation in the United States in nullifying the above
“reservations” requiring the United States’ consent before it submits to the jurisdiction of the
International Court of Justice is manifest although rarely confronted. The Ninth Amendment
to the United States Constitution is part of the “Bill of Rights”, ten Amendments appended to
the Constitution after this 1787 Constitution came into effect (1788). The purpose of this Bill
of Rights was to fulfill a promise by the Constitution’s advocates to insure the basic rights of
citizens against possible invasions by the new, potentially powerful central government. Avoiding
the specifics of the preceding eight Amendments, the Ninth Amendment makes this simple,
wide-ranging declaration: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the People.” These un-named “rights” would
be conceived later, by certain judges of the United States Supreme Court, to include the right
of US citizens to protection of personal liberty against invasion by government. Griswold v.
Connecticut, 381 U.S. 471 (1965). Today the States bringing this Application to the International
Court of Justice conclude that the principles and standards set forth in the three treaties and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cited above, are also embraced by the United States’
Constitution’s Ninth Amendment.
a) At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights (1791) the great majority of people of
African descent in the United States were being held as slaves. Because of British and American
colonial law and practice these descendants of persons kidnapped from Africa and held in
America and the United States against their will had grown into a nation the same way as other
peoples do. These New Africans had become a nation not because of gene pool alone – African
genes with some additions of Indian and European genes – but because of their common
struggle against a ubiquitous oppression by the United States. As United States Chief Justice
Roger Taney put it in his 1857 decision in Dred Scott V. Sandford 60 U.S. (19 How) 397, 409:
We give both of these laws in the words used by the respective legislative bodies, because the
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language in which they are framed, as well as the provisions contained in them, show, too plainly
to be misunderstood, the degraded position of the unhappy race. They were still in force when
the Revolution began, and are a faithful index of the state of feeling towards the class of persons
of whom they speak, and of the position they occupied throughout the thirteen colonies, in the
eyes and thoughts of the men who framed the Declaration of Independence and established the
State Constitutions and Governments.
They show that a perpetual and impassible barrier was intended to be erected between the
white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery, and governed as subjects with
absolute and despotic power, and which they then looked upon as so far below them in the
scale of created beings, that intermarriages between white persons and negroes or mulattoes
were regarded as unnatural and immoral and punished as crimes, not only in the parties, but in
the person who joined them in marriage. And no distinction in this respect was made between
the free Negro or mulatto and the slave, but this stigma, of the deepest degradation, was fixed
upon the whole race.”
Clearly, therefore, the New Africans were not considered as part of the United States “people” at
the time of passage of the Ninth Amendment, nor for 74 more years later.
b) But the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1865 – following
the Civil War – changed this. It did NOT make the 4.5-million New African people – whether
enslaved or free – part of the United States “people”. It did, however, make the New Africans no
longer slaves or any form of property, under US law. The Thirteenth Amendment elevated the
New Africans to people. President Abraham Lincoln had foreseen this change – from property to
people – in his Emancipation Proclamation, 1863. Here he refers to “all persons held as slaves”
and also enjoins “upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence …” Even
Andrew Johnson, the President who took office after Abraham Lincoln and who was no friend of
the New African, nevertheless used no language in his veto of the extension of the Freedman
Bureau’s Act of 1866 to suggest in any way that the New Africans were anything except free
people.
c) It is therefore certain that if the United States Government, through its Constitution,
has assured its own people that there are unspecified rights belonging to them in addition to
those specified in the Bill of Rights, the kidnapped people, degraded and held in the United
States against their will for many decades – and then liberated from the status of property – must
be held to possess unspecified rights at least the same as other people. Rights embraced by
the world community are found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
Convention on The Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – treaties duly ratified by United States
of America. The United States does not declare that it disagrees with most of the values and
rights embraced in the said treaties; the United States attempts only to prevent the International
Court of Justice from judging the USA’s possible culpability. But these ratified treaties, according
to Article Six of the United States Constitution, are now part of “the Supreme Law of the Land”.
This means that the Ninth Amendment and the said treaties can only be eliminated or altered by
Constitutional Amendment – not by any mere “Reservation”.
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d) More importantly, the United States Constitution can only be amended when, first,
two-thirds of the members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives propose
Amendment(s) or two-thirds of the States call for a convention to propose Amendments; followed,
then, by ratification by three-fourths of the several states or by conventions in three-fourths
thereof. No such process of Amendment has taken place with regard to the Ninth Amendment
– particularly since 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment made the New Africans “people”
rather than property, under United States law, and thus provided them the protection of the
broad range of rights captured in the Ninth Amendment’s declaration. In brief the reservations
which the United States attached to the Genocide Convention and to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the CERD) cannot be viewed as “amending”
the Ninth Amendment or these treaties which have become part of the Supreme Law of the
United States. Constitutional Amendments are required or, at the very least, action of Congress
and the President. The reservations attached to the two said treaties were “approved” only by
the Senate and President alone. Thus these United States reservations intending to prevent
jurisdiction of this Court are, for the reasons stated, null and void.
II. The precise nature of the claim
1. Slavery, Colonialism, and Reparations. The Applicant-States request that this International
Court of Justice decide that the Respondent United States of America wrongfully engaged in a
massive, cruel, bloody kidnapping of persons from the continent of Africa and the enslavement
of surviving persons and their progeny in the United States under murderous and inhumane
conditions, with very negative results continuing today.12 Further, the Applicant States ask that
this Court decide that Respondent United States for decades supported harmful racist Colonial
Regimes and anti-democratic activities in the Applicant States and their neighbours in Africa.
The Applicant-States ask that this Court’s finding require the United States to undertake with
the damaged New African people in the United States a just program of repair to be completed
expeditiously. The Applicant-States also ask this Court to decide that a just program of reparation
must be undertaken by the United States for the damages suffered by the Applicant-States and
their African neighbours because of the United States’ theft of African genius, wealth-producing
labour, and creative human life between 1787 and 1865, and for the many decades during which
the United States supported European colonialism in Africa.
2. US denial of a People’s Right to Self-Determination. The Applicant-States ask this
International Court to decide that the United States of America has wrongly and continuously
denied the New African people held in slavery in the United States until 1865 their invaluable
right to self-determination – a fiercely enforced denial not only at the official end of US slavery
in 1865 but up to and including the date of the filing of this case. At the end of slavery in 1865
the New Africans – in the United States as the result of them and their ancestors having been
kidnapped from Africa – should have been asked by the United States government what political
12 By this note the Applicant-States include as supporting documents “The United States Senate Report
No. 527, 44th Congress. 1st Session, August 7, 1876, from the Select Committee to Inquire into Alleged
Frauds in the Recent Election in Mississippi”, and Ralph Ginzburg (Baltimore, MD: Black Classic
Press,1962, 1988) “100 Years of Lynchings.”
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course they as individuals or as members of groups wished to follow. The minimum choices
should have been: whether to become US citizens, should that option be offered; whether to go
to Africa or some other place, or whether to establish their own nation-state in North America on
sections of land in the United States where these people had lived as the majority populations
for many decades. They were never asked. The Applicant-States are asking this Court to
decide that the United States must cease to oppose the right of the New African people in the
United States to exercise their invaluable right to self-determination and to enter into friendly
relations with any States which emerge from this exercise and to assure those who choose to
be United States citizens all the rights enjoyed by other United States citizens. The belief in
White supremacy and the right to exploit New Africans is so ingrained in most government and
business persons that direct re-education is urgent.
3. Killing a “Part” of the Group. The Applicant-States ask this International Court to decide
that the Respondent United States of America is still conducting a campaign of oppression
against the New African people in the United States, including educational deprivations in
higher education, medical ill-treatment, the killing of New African leaders by direct murder and
by imprisonment of Freedom Fighters longer than Nelson Mandela, and by imposition of a
racist sentencing regime which especially destroys New African male and female youth. The
Applicant-States are asking this Court to decide that the United States must (a) recognize that
Freedom Fighters undertaking to win freedom from the United States, a racist regime, are within
rights clearly supported by the United Nations General Assembly and must be released from
prison immediately with a program of repair, including cash, paid by the United States, and
restoration of Provisional Government site and archives, and (b) that the United States must
reverse the abuse leveled on the traditional Black universities in Mississippi and similar places,
paying reparations to the largest group of reparations plaintiffs denied by the United States
Supreme Court, and (c) that the United States must meet with lawyers and others who have
produced studies designed to correct the racial imbalance in sentencing in United States law
and practice harming New Africans and negotiate the corrections recommended, and (d) that
the United States government must meet with persons identified by the Applicant-States, who
have studied ways to end racism in medical care and promptly negotiate improvement with
Applicant-States.
III. Provisional Measures Needed & Authorized by Article 41 of the Statute and Article 73
of the Rules of the Court
1. Accepted estimates indicate that at the end of the Civil War, April 1865, there were fourmillion persons of African-descent enslaved in the United States and 500,000 more who were
technically free but, as US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney put it in the Dred Scott
case, were treated in many respects the same as the enslaved people. In the year 2006 some
persons estimate that New Africans – persons of African descent who have developed into a
New African nation by a common gene pool and by a ubiquitous struggle against oppression by
persons of European extraction who rule the United States – number about 40-million persons.
Of these 40-million persons, according to estimates by the Republic of New Afrika’s Provisional
Government, 14 percent of the New African population in the United States, despite outrageous
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psychological attempts by American governments to make New African children and adults
believe they are United States citizens with no other choice, nevertheless want an independent
“separate nation.” 13
2. In this Memorial the use of the term “New African” written with a “c” refers to the entire
New African nation. “New Afrikan” written with a “k” refers to those who seek an independent
New Afrikan-majority state. In a meeting concluded on 31 March 1968 with a Declaration of
Independence, the followers of Malcolm X (aka, Al Hajj Malik Al Shabazz and Brother Omowale)
formed the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. This convention also set
for itself the goal of freeing five states – known by the United States as Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina – by means of plebiscites, votes of the New Afrikan
people in this territory.
3. On Saturday night, March 29, 1969, a force of heavily armed City of Detroit police opened
gunfire on persons in the process of leaving New Bethel Church, where the first anniversary
celebration of the founding of the Provisional Government was being held. This ruthless gunfire
took place moments after a pair of armed policemen had failed in their attempt to assassinate
the RNA’s highest ranking officer in the United States, Atty. Milton R. Henry, as he left by a sidedoor under guard of two members of the RNA’s Black Legion. This failed attack was planned
by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, which at that time was pursuing a secret
program called cointelpro (“counter-intelligence-program”) aimed at destroying New African
organizations, especially those seeking freedom from United States racism and economic and
cultural oppression.
4. At dawn on Wednesday, August 18, 1971, after the RNA Provisional Government had opened
an RNA Government House on residential Lewis Street in Jackson, Mississippi, and conducted
a “Land Celebration” on nearby acreage being sold to the Provisional Government (PG) by a
Black farmer, to build a New Community, a heavily armed force of Jackson, Mississippi, police,
led by members of the FBI, staged a surprise attack, savagely pouring anti-personnel gas and
hundreds of bullets into the back and front of the RNA Government House. Because of “alarm”
measures and other self-defense provisions, none of the seven young PG-RNA personnel in
the Official Government Residence was wounded. The United States forces suffered casualties
but nevertheless arrested the five men and two women whom they had attacked and four other
persons who avoided gunfire at a new PG-RNA office in front of Jackson State University. The
police virtually destroyed the PG-RNA official Governmental Residence, stole and desecrated
PG-Government Archives. Worse – despite the fact that the persons attacked and their
associates had not initiated any attack at any time on US or Mississippi forces or installations
13 See 1995 Survey of the Political Opinions of Blacks in the USA by Michael Dawson and Ronald
Brown.
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– the United States and the State of Mississippi sent two of the RNA-Eleven to prison under life
sentences. The others served various sentences in prison, including the PG-RNA President,
who had been at the new office near Jackson State University. He stayed in prison almost five
years.
5. These unlawful, racist, and imperialist attempts by the United States Government and the
State of Mississippi to destroy by force and imprisonment the efforts of the PG-RNA to conduct
peaceful independence plebiscites have continued.
6. In the early morning of October 27, 1981, the FBI, having discovered that two families of
Provisional Government workers – wives and children and an elderly RNA male officer –
were living quietly in Byrd Town, a small country community some 30 miles south of Jackson,
Mississippi, the FBI and sundry uniformed, armed police – accompanied by a tank-like vehicle
and over-head helicopters, surrounded this modest two-family dwelling. The United States
personnel handcuffed the two women and Brother Alajo Adegbalola – and also all the children
(some of them not more than infants) with wire-like restraints. These US attackers threatened
and intensely questioned the children – seeking to make them reveal whatever they might know
about the whereabouts of certain freedom fighters who were in support of the PG-RNA’s fight for
independence. (The traumatized children knew nothing, except the loving care and attitudes of
the freedom-fighters whom they did know.)
7. Then, in the year 2004, after some PG-RNA officers had left jail and worked with associates
in Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Houston and elsewhere to rebuild the independence
movement, the Provisional Government quietly opened another Official Government Residence
in Jackson, Mississippi. The purpose was the same as in 1971: the organization of a peaceful
independence plebiscite. However, in February 2005 when Jackson City Councilman Kenneth
Stokes presented the former RNA President at the City Council auditorium to open Black
History Month, the racist Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin and Judge William Skinner and
others made rabid remarks against Councilman Stokes and the former RNA President – who
had survived the 1971 attack and destruction of the RNA Official Residence – indicating their
refusal to allow the Provisional Government and its leaders to pursue their independence work
peacefully in Mississippi. Sheriff McMillin’s statement called the former RNA President “a racist
murderer”. He was neither. Their remarks made clear that they and their Klan-type associates
might once more engage in a destructive armed attack on the Provisional Government if not
restrained by this Court and the United States government.
8. In this Court’s decision of May 24, 1980 – United States v. Iran (ICJ Reports 1975-81) – this
Court made clear that a concern such as that described above can qualify as requiring Provisional
Measures, preceding consideration of other matters of the Application and other substantive
pleadings of the Respondent. In United States v. Iran this Court spoke for the fundamental
human rights of captured human individuals, made even more important by the apparent failure
of Iran to provide appropriate and necessary protection to such human beings in light of their
diplomatic standing. The International Court of Justice’s dictum is clearly appropriate for the
Republic of New Afrika citizens, as descendants of kidnapped Africans enslaved and held in the
United States against their will, during and after slavery. In paragraph 91, page 42, in said case,
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the majority of the Court’s Justices – 13 of 15 – wrote: “Wrongfully to deprive human beings of
their freedom and to subject them to physical constraints in conditions of hardship is in itself
manifestly incomparable with the Charter of the United Nations, as well as with the fundamental
principles enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
IV. The patterns of US Genocide against New Afrikans
1. Persons forcibly taken from Africa were introduced into the Thirteen British Colonies about
1619, and by 1660 the law of the United Kingdom permitted slavery in these colonies to be
confined mainly to persons of African descent14 and practiced on a monstrously cruel basis,
murdering all the enslaved persons who would not otherwise be terrorized into submission and
wounding and conducting reigns of terror over all of those held in slavery. These “inherited” forms
of inhumanity were indulged in by most United States Presidents from George Washington to
Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln held no people in slavery but he became President with no expressed
intention of ending the brutality and human destruction which slavery was. Thus, the practices
of White supremacy and economic exploitation of Blacks were deeply imbedded in USA culture.
2. At the end of the United States Civil War the form of genocide changed. The Thirteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 ended slavery but did not offer these
kidnapped, now-free persons – who were “legitimately” on US territory – any opportunity to
make self-determined choices of political futures: whether to go to Africa or some other place,
whether to become US citizens should that be offered, or whether to build an independent
nation-state on land “in the United States” where they had lived as majority populations for
many decades. No form of reparation was offered or given. Worse, armed White veterans of the
Confederacy (which had failed in its war to secede from the United States) opened a “war after
the war” in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and other states of the
former Confederacy. Its aim was to kill most of the entire group of Black people and re-establish
White governments and White society with minor numbers of Black labourers. They succeeded
in taking control of governments, with no steadfast opposition from the United States federal
government. The genocide continued with lynchings and murder and destruction of entire Black
communities by government officials and White civilians working with them and for them.15 The
genocide, aimed essentially at the destruction of most of the Black nation in the South, did
not succeed – not only because of this people’s rate of births but because of a strategy of
“surrender” engaged in by some leaders of the New African nation.
3. Two and a half years after the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States
Constitution, officially ending slavery in the United States, the United States ratified the
Fourteenth Amendment. Without asking the freed people what they wished to do about their
political futures, the United States’ Fourteenth Amendment presumed to make that choice for
4
5
A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., In the Matter of Color (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). Also
Charshee C. L. McIntyre, Criminalizing A Race (Queens, New York: Kayode Publishers, Ltd., 1992).
See the US Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 US v. 546 (1876). The US
government would not protect people of African descent from violence by ordinary White citizens.
Towns destroyed include “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa, Okalahoma; Rosewood in Florida; Black
communities in Memphis, and Springfield, Illinois, 1908. See, also, John Hope Franklin (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1967) From Slavery to Freedom, Third Edition, pp 443-451.
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them: US citizenship. Many Black leaders undertook to share in the new governments being
created in the former Confederate states. But the beginning of the end for their success was
seen as early as1875 by successes of the ex-Confederates’ “War After The War” in Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Alabama. Moreover, the US Supreme Court in 1896 in Plessy v .Ferguson16
ruled that Black “citizens” could be the subject of major racial discrimination. At the same time,
a brilliant New African leader – Booker T. Washington – determined that if he could persuade
some of the wealthy industrialists of
the north to aid him in the building of Tuskegee Institute – for Blacks – in Alabama, he might be
able to persuade them to help stop racial murder in the South. His strategy was to no longer
seek the vote or racial integration in social or business affairs.
4. W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells Barnett after the racist attacks in Springfield, Illinois (1908)
met with modestly wealthy Whites and formed the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (the NAACP). They would not give up pursuing the vote or modest racial
integration. The cost to them was to give up challenging the “right” of the US government to
make the descendants of kidnapped Africans into US citizens without these people’s consent
– and to give up the fight for “pensions”, reparations for slavery. Fortunately others among this
great New African nation continued to insist on reparations for those who had survived slavery.
Ms Callie House and Reverends Augustus Clark and I. H. Dickerson led the National Ex-Slave
Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association. Marcus Garvey remembered the right to selfdetermination, still possessed by his New African people, and led a magnificent movement,
culminating in 1925, to gain independent New Afrikan power in the United States and in former
“German” colonies in Africa. He did not succeed. He and Callie House were imprisoned by the
United States government in its version of limited genocide. Malcolm X – aka Al Hajj Malik Al
Shabazz and Brother Omowale – helped to build the Nation of Islam, under the remarkable
Elijah Muhammad. After Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, his followers formed the Provisional
Government of the Republic of New Afrika.
5. Meanwhile, led by Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Coretta King, Rev. Ralph David
Abernathy, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, Hosea Williams, John Lewis and a host of others,
New Africans made a calculated – largely non-violent – assault on barriers to voting within the
US system and exclusions from places of higher education, and – by Jesse Jackson, later –
assaults on exclusions from opportunities in giant White-controlled businesses. The genocide
continued through the 1980s with hundreds of New Africans murdered by White supremacists –
including leaders like Martin Luther King and Civil Rights workers in the South and members of
the Black Panther Party in the US West and North. In the years from 1968 through the present
this strategy of “accepting” US citizenship by some New Afrikans has failed to stop the racist
violence – now targeted against young Black men, by police, judges, and prison-keepers. A
quarter-million New Africans are now in US prisons under capital-offense sentences.
163 U.S. 537.
6
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V. Statement of Law
The Foundation of the right of colonized peoples to fight by any means for their freedom is, of
course, found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1960 United Nations
General Assembly’s Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples, Resolution 1514, 14 December 1960. In the wake of the struggles of colonized peoples
in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa, the United Nations General Assembly became
even more specific with its Resolution 35/18, 11 December 1980, holding, in part:
“[The General Assembly] 4. Reaffirms the inherent right of peoples under colonialism
in all its forms and manifestations to struggle by all means at their disposal against those
colonial and racist regimes which suppress their aspirations for freedom, self-determination,
and independence.” [Emphasis Added]
The above reaffirmation is linked to several prior General Assembly resolutions,
including Resolution 3103 (XXVIII), Basic Principles of the Legal Status of the Combatants
Struggling Against Colonial and Alien Domination and Racist Regimes” (12 December 1973).
Basic principle Number 3 states:
“The armed conflicts involving the struggle of peoples against colonial and alien domination
and racist regimes are to be regarded as international armed conflicts in the sense of the 1949
Geneva Conventions, and the legal status envisaged to apply to the combatants in the 1949
Geneva Conventions and other international instruments is to apply to the persons engaged in
armed struggle against colonial and alien domination and racist regimes.”
Like the government which ruled Apartheid South Africa, the United States has never conceded
that it has waged a genocidal war – or any war at all – against African people in the United
States who are descendants of persons held in slavery and who have never been permitted
to exercise the right to self-determination and/or the right to reparation by the United States of
America. Thus, as long as the United States of America is allowed to refuse to acknowledge its
war against New Africans, the end of this war does not occur and there is then no obligation to
release prisoners-of-war.
Recently high United States officials have admitted complicity in some crimes against Africans
and New Africans. When United States President George W. Bush visited the historic slave
chamber on Goree Island in the Republic of Senegal, West Africa, on July 8, 2003, he stated:
“At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold. Human beings were delivered and sorted,
and weighed and branded with the marks of commercial enterprise, and loaded as cargo on
a voyage without return. One of the largest migrations of history was also one of the greatest
crimes of history.”
Similarly, John Shattuck, in his position as US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor, attached a new “Introduction” (September 1994) to the United States’
first report to the Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. In this Introduction he wrote: “Over the course of history, America has experienced
egregious human rights violations in this ongoing American struggle for justice, such as the
enslavement and disenfranchisement of African Americans and the virtual destruction of many
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native American civilizations.
The profound injustices visited on African Americans were only partially erased after the Civil
War (1861-1865), and then a century later by the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s,
a movement that combined heroic leadership with grassroots organizing and dogged legal
marches through courthouses and legislatures: a movement that helped shape the interpretation
and implementation of constitutional law to ensure that human rights could be respected in
practice.
But the greatest of human rights violations against Africans enslaved in the British Colonies
and the United States – next to the various forms of genocide against these people – has
been the continuing violation of the New Africans’ right to political self-determination. The United
States government continues to engage in racial discrimination against New African people and
continues to refuse any consideration of reparation for the New African people whom President
George W. Bush and some other United States leaders admit have been greatly damaged by
the United States government and people. The United States government continues to refuse
to accord Geneva Convention rights to New Afrikan prisoners who have lawfully fought for the
freedom of their people and of other New Africans also imprisoned illegally.
The illegality arises from the United States’ refusal, after the US Government had approved the
Thirteenth Amendment to their Constitution, ending slavery, to offer political self-determination
to these people, who were on “US” territory as the result of kidnapping – “one of the greatest
crimes in history”, according to United States President George W. Bush (2003). The United
States has no right to conclude – having conducted no plebiscites or individual choice
procedures – that those enslaved persons or their progeny would have chosen to remain in the
United States if and when given the choice. In short, there is no legal basis for concluding that
New Africans in prison today – particularly New Afrikan citizens – would be under United States
jurisdiction if their ancestors or they themselves had been allowed to exercise their rights to selfdetermination. These persons and their ancestors are and have been since December 1865
(the time of the US’s Thirteenth Amendment) unlawfully held in the United States – unlawfully
under US jurisdiction – and are entitled to their immediate freedom and reparation.
The United States is plainly in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide; the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the CERD).
An important example of the United States’ violation of the CERD is found in the following facts.
1. On August 13, 1946, just after World War II, the United States Congress created “The
Indian Claims Commission.” This Act permitted Indian “tribes” – all had been conquered by the
United States of America by 1895 – to bring claims before this “court” to rectify the absence of
“fair dealings” in Indian-United States relations of the past. This reparation law provided some
benefits to Indians and was not repealed until January 1975.
2. On 10 August 10, 1988 the United States Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
It was amended on 27 September 1992. This reparation law was designed to compensate
Japanese persons, living “legally” in the United States, and their spouses and children $20,000
each because the United States had unjustly placed them in concentration camps during World
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Obadele
War II. The law also provided a reparation settlement for the Aleuts of Alaska for harm done to
them by the United States during World War II.
3. But the United States has never provided any reparation in cash or otherwise for the horrific
treatment of persons of African descent enslaved in the Thirteen British Colonies and the United
States and/or born and living in the United States during and after slavery. In fact, when three
officers of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) filed an equalprotection law suit in the United States Court of Federal Claims, seeking reparation similar
to that accorded the American-Japanese and the Aleuts of Alaska under the referenced Civil
Liberties Act of 1988, they were told by the United States Department of Justice and by the
Court of Federal Claims that they could not receive reparations because they were not of
Japanese descent nor spouses or children of persons of Japanese ancestry – regardless of
long-recognized democratic principles of “equal protection” under the law.
This racist decision is found at Obadele and Rashid v. United States, Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit, 02-5134, 11 April 2003, and at Obadele, Rashid and Olusegun v. United States,
52 Federal Claims Reporter 432 (April 2002).
4. When this case was finally docketed at the United States Supreme Court, No. 03-67 (July
2003), the National Bar Association in the United States on September 29, 2003 wrote to the
United States Solicitor General Mr. Theodore B. Olson, who represented the United States
President George Bush in matters before the United States Supreme Court, asking him and Mr.
Bush to support the Obadele-Rashid petition. Neither he nor Mr Bush did so. Thus, despite the
fact that the United States’ own law (Adarand v. Pena, 515 U.S., at 229-230 and at 224) forbids
such racial discrimination without the Court establishing “justification” for this racial discrimination,
neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeals addressed this critical item. The US Supreme Court
refused to hear the case.
5. Yet CERD’s Part I, Article Six states: “States Parties shall assure to everyone within their
jurisdiction effective protection and remedies, through the competent national tribunal and other state
institutions, against any acts of racial discrimination which violate his human rights and fundamental
freedoms contrary to this Convention, as well as the right to seek from such tribunals just and
adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination.”
The Applicant-States ask this Court to decide that the damage done to New Africans by the racial
discrimination described above, which violates Part I, Article Six of the CERD, also damages the
Applicant-States, by impairing the ability of New Afrikans of the Provisional Government of the
Republic of New Afrika from fulfilling mutually profitable trade relations with the Applicant-States and
is therefore grounds for payments by the United States to the Applicant-States.
VI. Short summary
Practice direction
Built upon British precedents in the Thirteen American colonies, the United States from its very
beginning has pursued horrendous practices of slavery against African persons, kidnapped from
Africa in bloody unequal warfare, and held without their consent for decades in the United States,
and by permission and authority of the United States of America, for which the United States
of America has never provided or offered any form of reparation to the enslaved persons or to
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any of their progeny. Indeed, despite well-deserved but inadequate payments of reparations to
Indians, Aleuts, and Japanese living lawfully in the United States during World War II, the United
States has not simply failed to make reparations to New African people but has refused to do
so, despite being properly asked by New Africans in the United States Congress and in United
States courts – including the United States Supreme Court. The United States of America is in
continuous violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
At the end of the United States Civil War (1865) former Confederates in the United States’ South
began a “war after the war” designed to kill most of the people of African descent in order to
regain control of society and governments, a campaign of genocide. These Whites, without any
steadfast opposition from the US national government, took control of state power in the South
but failed in the aim of total genocide because some important New African leaders decided
on a strategy of surrender, accepting the US assertion that the descendants of kidnapped
Africans were US citizens and would not argue that they still had rights to self-determination or
reparations.
The United States’ denial and violations of the right to self-determination are the greatest crimes
committed against New Africans, after genocide. Following the United Nations passage of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the World Community developed a series of human
rights treaties – including those cited above – which have been ratified by most countries
belonging to the United Nations. While the United States of America has attempted to prevent
being made subject to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice without USA’s prior
consent, this attempt with respect to the present case is without merit. The Ninth Amendment is
a broad declaration of the existence of human rights not specifically named in this Amendment
or in the US Bill of Rights, but belonging to all human beings, including New Afrikans. These
un-named rights, and the implicit right for peoples and states to have these international rights
protected by the International Court of Justice cannot be made invalid by mere “reservations”,
fashioned by the US Senate and President alone and attached by them to US ratification of the
said human rights treaties. As a valid Constitutional provision, the Ninth Amendment, by the
United States’ own law, can only be altered in the same way as other Constitutional provisions:
votes of both Houses of the United States’ Congress and the approval of the States. This has
not happened for the Ninth Amendment.
The Applicants call for this Court to decide that Provisional Matters are appropriate to prevent
the United States from again assaulting and jailing officers of the Provisional Government of
the Republic of New Afrika, perhaps killing some of them, and destroying their Government
Residence and archives, as they did on August 18, 1971 and as some state officials have
threatened to do as the Provisional Government returned to Mississippi in 2004 to continue the
peaceful organizing of an independence plebiscite.
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3.10 Workers’ contribution to the Reparation Struggle
Glenroy B. Watson
Whether you are a community, student, or church activist, the chances are that you will have a
job. If you have a job, then you are likely to be a member of a Trade Union, or you should be a
member of a Trade Union. As a member, you should have access to your union resources, in
order to join, and drive the effort to have Reparations put on the top of your Trade Union agenda.
In England, we have moved the process forward, after years of campaign, and are now poised
to take it to the next level.
In March 2006, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Gloria Mills, the first Afrikan
woman to hold the post, made a statement (enclosed, Appendix I) on slavery and reparations to
delegates at the TUC Black Workers Conference, in Eastbourne, England.
Individual national Trade Unions like my own union RMT (Railways) have already passed
motions to help push forward the campaign on Reparations. See Appendix II.
Enslavement was about working our people to death without pay. The degradation, attempt at
genocide, rape, murder and other dehumanising acts were also major factors in our enslavement.
However, money is 1/7 of Reparations and is needed for the work to be done. It has even been
said that there were good slave masters and there were bad slave masters! How could such evil
acts ever be done by “good slave masters” is a concept beyond even my sense of tolerance!
So, if the subjugation of Workers was at the heart of it, then organised Workers’ structures
should be at the heart of the Reparations campaigns.
As Malcolm X says – Appendix III – “The only reason that the present generation of white
Americans are in a position of economic strength is because their fathers worked our fathers for
over 400 years with no pay.”
So, how to move forward?
In most western countries, active Afrikan trade unionists have set up structures to address the
racism that we face on a daily basis. Many of them are multi ethnic – i.e. made up of all who
suffer from white supremacy – but all have a healthy participation of Afrikan Workers.
In my own work as a Trade Union official in the UK, I have taken on special responsibility for
organising members in the cleaning section of the underground system in London.
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Making sure discrimination and exploitation of Afrikans does not continue to happen is also
part of the Reparations campaign. In countries within the Afrikan Nation – which we define as
any country where there is a majority Afrikan population – a different approach must be made.
In such circumstances, fighting racism locally may be seen as an issue which does not affect
Afrikan countries. We then have to try and see things at home from the perspective of how to
address global racism.
Part of fighting global racism will involve Trade Unionists in the fight for Reparations. The fight
for Reparations is a fight for work done without pay. Trade Unions have a global responsibility
to fight for unpaid wages.
In the West we have structures to fight racism which can easily and are being mobilised
around the issues of Reparations. Within the Afrikan Nations, structures will have to be publicly
developed to address the issue of Reparations. In other words, the Reparations work of the
Afrikan Workers in the West can best be directed via special already existing structures, and
within the whole national structure.
Conclusions
The motion passed by my union asks that “an enduring symbol be erected in every country”
affected by this inhuman act of Afrikan enslavement. The decision as to what such symbol
should be must be decided by Afrikans in the areas concerned.
So, what can worker structures do to help the other aspects of Reparations?
1. A Trade Union is a mobilisation tool.
2. It is a resources tool not simply because we are begging, but because we have contributed
and should have access to these resources.
3. Trade Unions can be publicity tools.
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APPENDIX I
At the conference: TUC President Gloria Mills
SLAVERY: IT’S TIME FOR A BIG ‘SORRY’
By Dominic Bascombe
Trade Union Conference calls for Slavery Remembrance Day and Reparations
Black workers in Britain’s Trade Union umbrella body have called for the creation of a National
Day of Remembrance of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, as well as for full reparations to be paid
to descendants of slave trade victims. These were just some of the highlights to come out of the recently concluded Trade Union
Congress (TUC) Black Workers Conference held in Eastbourne on April 7-9, 2006.
The conference, with around 200 delegates from all of Britain’s largest unions, including the
Association of University Teachers (AUT), AMICUS, the GMB, and the National Union of
Journalists (NUJ), debated a number of motions to be put forward by the TUC’s Race Relations
Committee to the wider TUC body.
One of the major issues to come out of the conference was a statement from the Race Relations
Committee calling on the TUC to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade act and
to demand full reparations. The statement read:
The consequential trauma, loss and pain of this unprecedented crime against humanity,
continues to affect Africa and Africans all over the globe today. Africa and Africans are pushed
deeper into profound levels of poverty, exacerbating underdevelopment and underachievement
whilst, in contrast, many Europeans have a quality of life vastly enhanced as a result of the
‘fruits’ of the transatlantic slave trade.
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Gloria Mills, the first black woman President of the TUC, said that the conference felt the time
was right for black workers to demand reparations. “They wanted to see the TUC engage with
the government in raising some of these issues, and the TUC and affiliated unions, organising
a series of events to mark and commemorate the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade,” she
said.
“We should understand that slavery was one of the more brutal forms of economic exploitation
and repression for economic purposes, and whatever figure we put, millions of people died in
the transatlantic slave trade and we should always remember that the transatlantic slave trade
left many legacies, not least of all racism.”
She continued, “If we look at some of the other consequences of the abolition of the slave trade
and racism, we see that we have poor developing countries that are going deeper into profound
levels of poverty because of structural adjustment programmes, because they owe huge debts
to developed nations that they are unable to repay. Unfair trading agreements are another cause
of the underdevelopment and under achievement of a lot of developing countries.
“So the conference wanted as a mark of respect, and to commemorate the fact that the world
and the lifestyle of Europeans today owe a lot to the slave trade. They want to see the banks, the
institutions, and the multi-national companies who profited and benefited from the slave trade,
marking and making a contribution towards a national day of remembrance and also to mark the
abolition of slavery. It’s a very important period in our history and it’s one that black workers feel
should be marked in a very public way.”
APPENDIX II
Motion passed at the British Railway Union’s (RMT) Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 5th July 2006: Liberty Hall Centre, Dublin
2007 marks 200 years since the so-called abolition of “Chattel Slavery” within the United
Kingdom in 1807.
The third UN World Conference against Racism in 2001, held in Durban, South Africa, ruled that
Chattel Slavery against Afrikans along with colonialism are Crimes against Humanity.
An RMT delegation was in attendance at that Conference.
We acknowledge and salute the sacrifice and commitment given by Abolitionists in England and
other parts of our former British Empire.
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While abolitionists played a vital role in educating non-Afrikan people of this crime, they were not
the liberators of enslaved Afrikans.
As representatives of modern-day seafarers and whilst acknowledging that many working class
people were “press ganged” into service on slave ships at the time, we condemn those who
willingly participated and profited from this evil crime and fed off the blood of Afrikan people. In
the so-called “middle passage” during which thousands and thousands of Afrikans were fed to
the sea, schools of sharks would follow slave ships knowing that they would be fed.
The bones of Afrikan Ancestors lie at the bottom of the oceans, never to have been spoken over
and never to have been laid to rest.
Those Afrikans on the continent who managed to escape enslavement were faced with no one
to work the land or manage livestock.
Starvation and sickness brought about by Europeans soon followed.
These few issues raised above were not addressed in 1807.
In 1807 the enslavers were paid for the “loss of their slaves”.
Afrikans were left destitute and expected to work for those same enslavers.
European history has failed to acknowledge the contribution of Afrikans in their own liberation.
Starting today and building up through 2007 and onwards we must work to change that.
The victorious war for Haiti when enslaved Afrikans defeated the armies of Napoleon of France
and other super powers of the age sparked countless slave revolts within the former British
Empire and all other imperial powers, such as the undefeated armies of Maroons in the Blue
Mountains of Jamaica.
The defiant free Afrikans of Suriname have maintained their Afrikan culture to this day despite
hundreds of years passing since their separation from the continent.
The untold harm that this crime against humanity has caused and continues to cause to Afrikan
people is incalculable. Reparation must be provided to repair this harm. We commit ourselves
to work towards this end and ensure that 2007 is a year dedicated to remembering all of those
who paid with their lives for this ensuing crime against humanity and ensure that reparations are
firmly at the top of the political agenda of the former imperialist powers.
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2007 must be the year in which the British government acknowledges the evils of chattel slavery,
pays Reparations towards repairing those societies we have plundered, and in every country
from which we have taken human beings to be forced into slavery, and in every country in which
we have held human beings in chattel slavery, we must erect an enduring symbol to indicate our
regret at our part in this evil crime against humanity.
Appendix III
“If you are the son of a man who had a wealthy estate and you inherit your father’s estate, you
have to pay off the debts that your father incurred before he died. The only reason that the
present generation of white Americans are in a position of economic strength is because their
fathers worked our fathers for over 400 years with no pay. “We were sold from plantation to plantation like you sell a horse, or a cow, or a chicken, or
a bushel of wheat. All that money is what gives the present generation of American whites
the ability to walk around the earth with their chest out like they have some kind of economic
ingenuity. Your father isn’t here to pay. My father isn’t here to collect. But I’m here to collect and you’re here to pay.”
Malcolm X
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3.11 The role and relationship of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the World Bank, and other “global financial institutions” in the
Global Reparations Movement
Jacques Sotero Agboton
While living on the richest continent of the World – Africa – entire populations are kept at the
bottom of the social strata and languishing in poverty. The Global Reparations Movement would
have to denounce the financial framework of agencies and institutions operating in every country
to stop the bleeding of resources. This means, repairs of circuits such as capital within national
territories, and the flow of assets such as revenues for products and services “managed” in
foreign accounts. This also implies an empirical study for recovering finance resources where
national capital must be in the hands of natives instead of foreigners.
Nonetheless, a critical exposure of the role of central banks in maintaining policies unfavourable
to the masses, and as direct agents of foreign entities, must be examined. These entities include
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Historically, these central banks were
private banks of invaders which were given authority of currency issuance within a jurisdiction by
the same powers that indirectly control today’s institutions.
Financiers of the West have found a way to drain the resources of African people by expropriation
and extortion over the past centuries. Clearly, the schemes of these invading nations, strangely
called “colonial powers”, kept African governments hostage through treaties and accords, and
complex parasitic institutions.
The IMF, the World Bank and other financial institutions such as the Mutual and Insurance
companies, the Mortgage and Brokerage firms, the Risk and Management corporations, the
Transfer and Exchange agencies as well as the Stock Exchanges have served in these networks
of local, national and international cartels. It is safe to conclude that these parasitic structures
and mechanisms imposed on African people are the causes of their impoverishment.
The name that these central banks took simply misled the citizens of each country to believe that
these institutions were part of their national patrimony when in reality they were independent.
The extent of such deception is more profound in some African regional communities where the
personnel of these banks have diplomatic immunity, thereby, no loyalty to the citizens they are
to serve. Within the walls of these banks are cadres of callous African experts who may have
over the decades realized the schemes played on their people but never denounced the role of
these central banks.
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How can one explain that governments in a supposedly independent nation are incapable of
paying the salaries of public servants, or the scholarships of students, if they truly controlled
their currencies? Why is it that these governments, irrespective of political ideologies, have
been incapable of stimulating economic growth when every area of human activities needs to be
developed? How can one conceive that in a country where every area of human activity needs
to be developed, governments are incapable of employing the great pool of unemployed college
and university graduates? How can African governments pretend that the nations they govern
have their own currencies and yet participate in circuses, to present meaningless budgets which
are nothing more than public advances from the central banks? What then are the roles of the
central banks other than being agencies for foreign interests, main collectors managing various
public treasuries, as well as enforcers of financial policies of predatory lending institutions,
among which are the IMF and the World Bank?
Beyond theoretical or acquired notions on the functions of central banks, what has been their
true role for the past three to four decades as so-called modern institutions, to which a plethora
of private or rare public commercial banks are linked? Of the latter, there is a lot that can be
said after studying the foreign ownership of these institutions, symbolic partnerships and their
strategic positions in internal and international banking transactions. Only when our perspective
widens can we see the web of establishments and firms controlled by supra-national institutions
such as the IMF and the World Bank.
Every policy by these institutions under the guise of cooperation has been to maintain their
power of control and the systemic subordination of the entire African nation. Over the past
decades, the repeated efforts of African governments to implement these policies have only led
to the worsening of their situations. It is therefore time to demand a change and a dismantlement
of the entire financial systems such that future generations are spared the fate of servitude.
If Africa were poor, what have these Western parasites been doing on the continent for the
past centuries? After all, leeches do not suck on dry bones. Why is it that these whites cannot
remain on their barren soils and use their technology to promote their own wellbeing? It is time
that the Global Reparations Movement defines the role of these institutions in the subjugation of
our people and clearly stresses that as long as there exist any form of oppression, the enemies
are whites. From now on, no generation of Africans must be confused as to the true reasons
of Africa’s impoverishment. Before any consideration must be given for restitution (another
component of reparations), what must be acted upon is a total end or stoppage of the plundering
of Africa’s resources. This can only begin when agencies of the IMF or the World Bank are
closed, and the operations of their agents are terminated. First, central banks will have to be
closed down, or their roles as well as that of commercial banks restructured where no foreign
interests are allowed any control within the national boundaries.
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With the dismantlement of this parasitic system, there will be no need for including foreign
banks in the affairs of national commerce. The premise of depending on foreign investors to
stimulate growth will be as extinct as the illusion of the notion that true development comes
from capital brought by whites. It is asinine to talk of globalization as if the planet Earth will
change its configuration when it is obvious that behind the rhetoric of globalization pushed by
whites, Africans in particular bear the brunt of another incursion of their enemies. It is not some
psychotic beings who in their delusion of white supremacy and manifest destiny who are to tell
Africans how to live better lives. After all, most Africans have come to understand that it is not
before some melanin-deficient albino mutants with recessive genes that they will have to defend
their humanity.
The language of the Global Reparations Movement must change because until now, these
individuals have worked in total anonymity to underdevelop the African continent, and misled
our people, to accuse their leaders or blame institutions with generic names without a human
face. What is important is to point out and recognize the true enemy of our people is the whites.
And not until an emphasis is made as to the true nature of our enemy, our people will remain
confused about the identity of the enemy thereby expressing their frustrations against their own.
The IMF and the World Bank do not exist without these human faces, and their policies cannot
be implemented without operatives who must be identified in all the agencies on the continent.
Africans can now realize after several decades the havoc of Structural Adjustment Programs;
wholesale piracy called privatization where assets of the entire nation are plundered by
unscrupulous economic raiders. It is these unscrupulous raiders that are given the name of
“investors” while ignorant officials continue to invite them to fleece our people. The World Bank’s
Poverty Alleviation Programs have only devastated native economies rather than palliate the
effects of its previous infamous policies. For most countries on the continent, more than 30 years
reliance on institutions like the United Nations agencies, the IMF, the World Bank and numerous
agencies of foreign governments and their proxy agents have put us under their control.
The Global Reparations Movement will have to call on all governing officials who are still deluded
by the schemes of those who ultimately control these institutions – the whites. At this juncture,
where the lives of several millions have been destroyed, government officials cannot pursue the
pathways of destruction proposed by these institutions.
Those African bankers and finance executives who refuse to show their allegiance to their
own people under the pretense of some professional deontology are alienated and must be
considered dangerous. Many are incapable of creating healthy local, national or international
enclaves for their countries because they have been indoctrinated to believe that they need to
integrate into the international community. It is time to remove them from strategic positions
because they are pawning future generations to the fate of enslavement.
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Agboton
It behoves the Global Reparations Movement to stress that whites are not the international
community and it is time to remove that pretension. It is time that African young men and women
in every country begin to follow every matter concerning their destiny starting from the budget
appropriations of ministries of education and debates in Parliament. Labourers, workers in trade
unions, artisans, and entrepreneurs must begin to monitor the financial landscape and descend
on the headquarters of the central bank rather than protest against the government in power.
Once these callous bankers understand that they can not remain anonymous, and our people
have targeted their operations, changes will begin.
It is time to demand that the World Bank and the IMF cease the implementation of their policies
in Africa, and the Global Reparations Movement must educate the citizenry as to the reach of
those policies as it affects their daily lives. There must begin a movement to remove total control
of all finance prerogatives from the central banks whilst there is a total restructure of the financial
system in Africa. This means also that the minting of currencies must be done exclusively in
Africa, and nowhere else.
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CHAPTER 4 – REPATRATION
Page
4.1 Repatriation/Reparations Position Paper
S. Nkrumah163
4.2 Invoice – Reparations for Repatriation
B.M.B. Hannah on behalf of the Reparations Movement in Jamaica (JARM)
166
4.3 SANKOFA United Continent African Roots Development International Family Association – SUCARDIF182
4.4 Returning Home Ain’t Easy but it Sure is a Blessing
Imahkus Njinga Ababio185
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4.1 Repatriation/Reparations Position Paper
Sekou Nkrumah
THE Pan-African Improvement Organisation (PANIO)’s position on repatriation and PanAfricanism is generally outlined in my book, Repatriation and Pan-Africanism: The Suppression
of Two Movements. That is to say, repatriation is the collective and independent movement
of a people (African people) to return home for freedom and human development. Africans in
mass numbers fought against the slave raids in Africa to stay in Africa (this includes our family
members who fought to keep us in Africa – the initial stages of the repatriation movement).
Africans fought on the slave ships to return home (many Africans jumped overboard trying
to swim back to Africa), and organized slave rebellions on plantations in the West to destroy
slavery. It is quite clear that repatriation is anti-foreign domination, anti-slavery, anti-colonialism,
and consequently anti-capitalism.
Since those systems have and are devastating our continent, Mother Africa, we feel that the best
way to prevent this domination is to unify our land – Pan-Africanism. In this sense repatriation
and Pan-Africanism are inextricably tied together because they have the same enemy, European
capitalism, and the same objective – freedom for African people. Pan-Africanism is the total
freedom and liberation of Africa under an All African Union Government in which the resources
are equally distributed in society and the African masses own the means to produce wealth.
Therefore, if an African repatriates from the West in search of freedom, in honesty he or she
must be a Pan-Africanist.
This prevents colonization schemes that have occurred historically in our past because of
foreign domination brought on by European imperialism. The United States, Britain and France
colonized Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Gabon with African captive ex-slaves, who were returned to
Africa to function as oppressors of the African masses and to exploit their labour and resources
for huge profits. A few Europeans in the capitalist class extracted these resources to make
America and Europe wealthy nations. European imperialism returned former enslaved Africans
from the West to set up colonies in their own interest to exploit Africans and their resources in
Africa.
We must avoid this mistake that happened in the past from occurring in the present or the future
– especially since neo-colonialism has reared its ugly head throughout the length and breath of
Africa. The neo-colonialist African puppets in bed with US and European imperialism must be
carefully scrutinized because they would be careless about the welfare of the African masses.
They will sell their names out for the American dollar. President King of Liberia sold out Garvey.
This is why we state in PANIO, “When you examine the repatriation and Pan-African movements
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historically, they have always maintained their independence ideologically and financially.” They
crushed Garvey’s movement because of its independent mass character – it posed a grave
threat to European imperialism. It was Garvey who consolidated both movements by calling
for the repatriation of Africans and a United States of Africa – Pan-Africanism. As a result it
took a combined effort of the US, Britain, and France to thwart his program for African freedom
and redemption. Garvey gave both movements mass character and independent ideological
autonomy.
Therefore, I agree that Africans should be awarded citizenship and land in any African country
they choose to repatriate because we never voluntarily gave up our land nor our right to
nationhood when European imperialism forcibly took us from Africa. However, dual citizenship is
questionable because this keeps us tied into the enemy – American capitalism. Just like Malcom
X said, many of us don’t believe the white man (American capitalism) is our enemy. Time will tell.
I know I don’t have to revisit the saga of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in Louisana, USA,
to illustrate America’s contempt for African people.
We are not Americans. Historically we did not originate from that land. America has suppressed
Africans culturally so that it is impossible to express oneself as an African. Constitutionally
we’re still defined as 3/5 of a human being (neither the Constitution nor the Declaration of
Independence was intended to include Africans) and geographically Christopher Columbus was
off his rocker. Excuse the language, but as you know he was lost, and he never set foot in what
is called North America, which was named after another European, Amerigo Vespucci, because
Columbus was considered a failure. To add insult to injury, Europeans murdered over 100 million
indigenous people to steal that land. American citizenship was imposed on Africans in that land
because at the end of slavery they were never given a choice. Since they owned neither guns,
capital nor land, they had to accept European foreign rule and American identity.
Ultimately, as we push for our objective Pan-Africanism, we feel the aim should be for African
citizenship. In the meantime, African countries that open their doors for citizenship for Africans
born in the Diaspora who repatriate, take a step towards unity. For that reason, we welcome it
and encourage it. If there is anything our organization can do within our meager resources to
help, we will place them at your disposal. It is our understanding that once Pan-Africanism is
realized Africa should open its doors to all Africans to repatriate for the obtainment of citizenship.
So far as reparations are concerned, our organization supports the movement. We realize that
when a mass of people are fighting the enemy it constitutes a plenum of forces in motion. Every
little stab at the political body of the enemy helps to bring about the final deathblow – even if
some of the forces are reformist. However, African people throughout the world are at war with
US and European imperialism. The psychological warfare to reduce Africans to inferior beings,
racial profiling, imprisonment of African youth in America, and white mob violence displayed by
the white power structure in America is part of the war. The struggles of African people against
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European domination in Haiti, the Caribbean, Brazil, and South and Central America are part of
that war. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and European intelligence agencies’ arming
of reactionary rebel movements and the hiring of mercenaries to destabilize and overthrow
African governments are part of that war the African masses are waging against European
imperialism.
Therefore, in analysing history we’ve never found a circumstance in which the enemy has
awarded his opponent resources for his own defeat. Consequently, we want the defeat of
European imperialism, particularly US capitalism as it is practised in Africa – neo-colonialism.
Once defeated, and at that time we will force the West to pay reparations. In other words, when
Africa is united under an All African Government, we will have the power to take reparations as
a victorious people over European imperialism.
Sekou Nkrumah is the Chairman, Pan-African Improvement Organisation (PANIO)
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4.2 INVOICE – REPARATIONS FOR REPATRIATION
By Barbara Makeda Hannah for and on behalf of the Reparations Movement of Jamaica (JaRM)
Part I – The Invoice
This Rastafari “Reparations for Repatriation” Invoice is prepared with the following points in
mind:
1.
While the Rastafari Nation has long campaigned for Reparations and Repatriation, no
itemized list of costs has ever been submitted to the proper authorities.
2.
There will be a priority need for the establishment of welcome centres and shelters
in Africa to receive and house new arrivals. The centres should be run like the Israeli
kibbutzim, which provide housing, medical care, food and offices with information on
jobs, available housing developments, etc. Examples of such welcome centres or
shelters can be found in the tent cities set up by Saudi Arabia to house millions of
Haaj pilgrims each year. The proposal seeks to establish five such shelters across the
Continent in those countries chosen by a majority vote of Rastafari for re-settlement.
3.
There will be a priority need for excellent medical care for new residents in each of
the five selected re-settlement nations, not only to help them overcome indigenous
African medical problems that will face them, but also provide high class medical care
to help Africa reduce its health problems. A sum of five billion Pounds is suggested as
necessary to establish one multi-purpose hospital in each of these welcome shelters.
4.
There will be a need to purchase transportation by air and sea. These vessels can
also be used for merchant shipping and tourism by the new residents. There will
also be a need for agricultural equipment, technology and other modern machines.
Research has already been done to determine the costs of items listed. Suggestions
are requested as to other items for this list.
5.
A sum of one million pounds annually for 10 years is suggested as individual
Reparations to each new resident, irrespective of the size of each family. Costs are
being calculated on the estimated number of Jamaican Rastafari as 500,000 men,
women and children. The suggestion to award the sum in annual payments to each will
curb any desires for excessive spending and will encourage investment for enterprise
and interest accumulation.
6.
A category has been listed for “Repairing Economic Sabotage and Displacement”.
Recommendations for costs and other categories under this heading are sought.
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7.
A five-year contingency fund has been recommended, to cover unexpected costs, and
also to cover certain administrative expenses.
This JaRM Proposal recommends the following actions:
The Rastafari Nation in Jamaica will request the United Nations Human Rights
Commission (UNHRC) to establish a Reparations Fund, supervised by persons
appointed by the Commission with the approval of the Rastafari Nation in Jamaica,
to administrate the distribution of funds received as a result of this petition. This will
enable strict and open supervision and distribution of funds, and remove Rastafari
individuals from direct involvement and charges of fraud, theft, etc.
The RASTAFARI NATION in Jamaica pledges to contribute 10% of all Reparations
payments received, to the five African nations that permit the establishment of
Repatriation Welcome Centers and invite the re-settlement of Rastafari in their
countries for the benefit of Africa’s development.
RASTAFARI NATION IN JAMAICA
INVOICE FOR PAYMENT OF REPARATIONS
By the Government of Great Britain, its associated european slave trading countries including:
Spain, Portugal, Holland, Italy, Denmark, France.3
The Associated British and European companies engaged in the Trans-Atlantic Trade in
enslaved africans during the period of the 16Th-19Th Centuries,
For the 300 years of these crimes against humanity, and associated cultural, social and economic
consequences that persist to the 21St century.
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An INVOICE for the costs of:
ITEMAMOUNT (POUNDS)
REPATRIATION & RESETTLEMENT EXPENSES –
500,000 persons @ L1 MIL. Ea. Per annum x 10 years
50 Billion PURCHASING TRANSPORTATION
5 Jet Airplanes1.5 Billion 2 Cruise Ships1.0 Billion
5 Merchant Ships2.5 Billion
ESTABLISHING 5 WELCOME CENTERS IN AFRICA 5 Billion
(To receive travelers and assist in re-settlement)
PURCHASING EQUIPMENT
Tractors & Farm Equipment
)
Communications Satellites)
Solar power equipment
)
Computers)
Culture production equipment
)
ESTABLISHING 5 MULTI-PURPOSE HOSPITALS
(To provide health care at Hospitality Centers)
10 Billion
5 Billion SUSTAINABLE PROJECT FUNDING
(Repairing economic sabotage and displacement)
Agriculture)
Health)
Culture)
Housing)
Economics)
Education)
Museums
)
40 Billion
5 YEAR CONTINGENCY
Food)
Clothing)
Construction materials)
Administrative Staff
)
2.5 Billion
TOTAL:117.6 Billion Pounds
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Part 2 – The Reparations Movement in Jamaica
After decades of campaigning by Jamaican Pan-Africanists and Rastafarians, the Jamaican
Government has shown its support for a national claim for Reparations. In December 2005
the British Prime Minister established a committee to celebrate in 2007 the 200th Anniversary
of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Act and to present a Reparations Invoice to
Parliament of the costs due to descendants of Africans enslaved over 300 years in Jamaica.
Before the 2001 United Nations (UN) World Conference on Racism (WCAR) held in Durban,
South Africa, the Jamaican Government participated in the many pre-Conferences giving its
support to the principle of Reparations. The Delegation Notes for the 2001 WCAR Conference
clearly state:
“Jamaica has supported the position that slavery constitutes and should be declared a
crime against humanity and that compensation should be provided for slavery and colonialism.”
“The premise for reparation revolves around a number of issues:
a) The experience of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery and Colonialism must
be placed in the context of the unjust enrichment of special European interests
and Europe’s economies through the institutions of slavery and colonialism. These
institutions are seen to have had lasting effects on the peoples who have inherited
their legacy. They have provided the foundation for the unequal development of
peoples of African descent. The forced removal of Africans for shipment to the
West Indies was a source of brain-drain for the African Continent. Thereafter, their
enforced and unpaid labour in the West Indies created economies that provided no
foundation for the accumulation of wealth on their part as there was no compensation
for the skills and labour of Africans in the West Indies.
b) The experience was not only damaging economically but has also had lasting
psychological effects on these peoples.
c) The provision of reparations is seen as just and necessary in levelling the playing
field for peoples of African descent, rectifying the wrongs of the past and improving
the prospects for racial harmony at the national and international levels.
e) Jamaica is of the view that compensation should be aimed at improving the
development prospects for peoples of African descent. Such compensation should
provide for affirmative action at the national level, and at the international level
adoption of policies promoting debt relief, infrastructural development, education
grants and special trade arrangements for the affected countries and peoples.”
The Delegation notes also included a document outlining the position of the Government of
Barbados, which stated:
“In our view, Reparations are not conceived as individualistic, but must be undertaken
at the national and international levels. Barbados strongly supports its commitment to national
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reparations. What is being negotiated beyond national efforts is an international effort to reverse
the institutionalized retardation of national development that is the protracted legacy of the
Atlantic slave trade.
“The principle of reparations for slavery was established as just and legal in the 18th
century when slave systems were being dismantled. Slave owners who lost their “property
rights” in human beings, received reparations. Today, the descendants of these disenfranchised
peoples claim the right to Reparations in order to bring equity to the emancipation process and
closure to the criminal activity that was racial chattel slavery.
“The principle of Reparations should be upheld and advocated. Three categories
ought to be promoted:
(i) The establishment by Euro-American slave owning countries of a global fund to
facilitate material compensation to countries and communities that were victimized, with
disbursements carefully designed to enhance and promote development programmes;
(ii) The creation of national policies to confront and eradicate the legacies of ‘classracism’ such as illiteracy, ghettoized housing, poverty and marginalization rooted in landlessness,
hostile media images and Eurocentric cultural policies.
(iii) The development of multi-media knowledge programmes that focus on ‘breaking
the silence’ that surrounds the crime of slavery and perpetuation of the ideological superstructure
of white supremacy in contemporary society.”
One of the most interesting documents in the Jamaican Delegation Notes is a speech made by
Jamaica’s Solicitor General, Dr. The Hon. Kenneth Rattrray, O.J., Q.C., L.L.M, Ph.D, in 2000 at
a UN Pre-Conference Seminar on “Economic, Social and Legal Measures to Combat Racism
with Particular Reference to Vulnerable Groups”.
Dr Rattray calls for “Rehabilitation of the Perpetrators and the Victims of Racism”, stating that,
“The fight against racism must involve an important element of rehabilitation for both the victims
and the perpetrators.” He proposes:
a) That there is recognition of the injustices of the past and an apology for such action;
b) That there be compensation for injustices of the past; and that
c) There is the need to establish a Victims Compensation Fund to generate resources
for affirmative action in redressing the condition of those who have been victims of racism.
In a section on “Racism and Religious Ideologies” Dr. Rattray states:
“Perceptions of the superiority of certain religions have led to the stigmatization of
others leading to prejudices and hatred. In the Caribbean and in particular Jamaica, the status
of the Rastafarian Movement and its claim to be a religion has given rise to considerable
controversy largely born out of the ingrained prejudices of a colonial legacy.
“The issue of racism arises in an insidious form because the reality is that the
Rastafarian Faith has its origin in the belief that a Black man Haile Selassie is God and the fact
that the adherents of the faith are predominantly black.
“The wearing of dreadlocks which gives high visibility to those who subscribe to the
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Rastafarian faith makes them prime targets for discrimination and racism. There is therefore a
need to recognize that human rights are indivisible; that forms of religious beliefs are entitled to
protection subject to restraints of public order.
“There is also the need to recognize that racism and religious ideologies
can often be intertwined and that effective measures should be taken to
remove the insidious effects and to eradicate the interplay between religious
discrimination and racism.”
Exceptional praise must be given to delegation members Ambassador Dudley Thompson, UN
Ambassador Stafford Neil, Mrs Sheila Monteith of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (now Ambassador
to Mexico), and Mr Sydney Bartlett of the Ministry of Education and Culture. Representing the
only Jamaican NGO accredited to the Conference, I was honoured to have been annexed to the
Jamaican Delegation and was thus able to cause a clause on Repatriation to be added to the
UN WCAR list of Reparations recommended in the Conference’s Final Document
ACADEMIA JOINS REPARATIONS MOVEMENT
The island’s academia has joined the renewed calls for reparations to Jamaica and other
countries in the African Diaspora and Africa for the wrongs meted out to blacks during slavery.
Noted historian Dr. Verene Shepherd, Professor of Social History at the University of the West
Indies (UWI) and Chair of the Jamaica National Heritage Foundation, has been appointed to
head the Prime Ministerial planning committee to commemorate 2007 as the 200th anniversary
of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Act and to prepare the Reparations claim.
Dr Shepherd is underscoring the need for Jamaicans to support the reparations movement
and has cautioned citizens that responsibility to themselves requires more than ceremonial
observances highlighting freedom from slavery. “What we need from them (colonials) is
a willingness to pay reparations not necessarily in cash … but in kind, if only as a mark of
reconciliation,” she said.
The Jamaican Government was slow in taking any of the steps mandated by the UN WCAR
Conference to continue the process, including the funding of a national committee on
Reparations. A Parliamentary debate was proposed by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP)
Mike Henry at the 2003 JaRM Conference that would have served to clarify the Government’s
position, as well as that of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Such debate has been postponed, but is now likely to take place in 2007 when the Reparations
Sub-Committee of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (TST) Planning Committee presents its
proposal to Cabinet for Parliamentary discussion and approval. This Debate should then result
in a Parliamentary document for submission to the UN Human Rights Commission to accelerate
Jamaica’s claim for Reparations.
More importantly, it will continue Jamaica’s role as leader of the African Diaspora communities
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which have begun the long, diplomatic and legal trek to achieve the Human Rights and Justice
owed to enslaved Africans and their descendants still suffering the after effects of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade and colonialism.
History of Jamaican Reparations
The call for Reparations was the earliest demand made by members of the Rastafari
movement since its beginnings in the mid-1930s by Jamaica Rastafari, the first community
of African descendants to stake a claim for Reparations. The Rastafari inspiration to demand
compensation for slavery’s injustice was the history of the Maroons -- runaway African captives
whose determination to escape the shackles of slavery caused them to fight the British, win their
freedom, and gain land for settlement as reparations.
Jamaica’s Maroons are the only Caribbean people to receive compensation – however minimal
– for the worst act of human exploitation in history: the chattel enslavement of Africans.
Over the decades the Rastafari chant for Reparations and Repatriation never ceased but
grew stronger and more justified as the claims of other enslaved and oppressed peoples for
Reparations was granted. This call for Reparations led by members of the Rastafari religion
was repeated by other Jamaicans who find the intolerable conditions of life in this former slave
plantation cannot be remedied by native governments or foreign aid.
The Rasta message of African Reparations now began to spread outside the island to
descendants of slaves in the Caribbean islands and the Black ghettoes of North America and
England with the spread of Rastafari’s unique reggae music. Bob Marley, Rastafari’s most
powerful messenger, in the title song of his seminal reggae album “Exodus” (voted Album of
the Century by TIME Magazine in December 1999), sang: Exodus, Movement of JAH People
We know where we’re going,
We know where we’re from.
We’re leavin’ Babylon,
Going to our Fathers’ land.
Due largely to the spread of the Reparations message through Rasta-reggae, there are now
fully operational organisations working for Reparations in all areas of the African Diaspora.
Jamaica Reparations Movement established
Many Jamaicans agree that the time has come for Reparations to be awarded to descendants of
enslaved Africans. After seven decades of agitation for Reparations by the Rastafari movement,
the Jamaica Reparations Movement was established in Jamaica after the 2001 United Nations
World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). Its main objective is to present a claim for
Reparations to the Jamaican Parliament, the United Nations Human Rights Commission and
the Government of England – former enslavers of Africans in Jamaica.
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A formal proposal was prepared by a meeting in 2003 of 32 JaRM members drawn from all
sectors of Jamaican life. The proposal calls on the Jamaican Government to provide a detailed
financial account of the National Debt, as well as proposed costs for all projects which can effect
a total national upgrading of social services across the board, to provide a basis for beginning a
Jamaican Reparations Cost List.
The proposal also calls on the Government to provide a list of the national debt broken down
into countries, so that negotiations can be initiated under the umbrella of Reparations to write
off the present debt owed by our country as debt-for-equity exchanges by the nations identified.
At a subsequent JaRM conference co-sponsored by UNESCO in 2004, the Rastafari Nation in
Jamaica presented a Reparations Invoice specifically to accomplish their repatriation to Africa
and resettlement costs.
Today Reparations have been awarded to peoples of other races and nations whose sufferings
are recent experiences affecting smaller numbers of people than those millions who have
suffered and been affected by African enslavement over 350 years, as well as the after-effects
of slavery that still plague the development and well-being of Black
The JaRM believes that until and unless the great global human crime of African enslavement
over 300 years is corrected by applying the medicine of economics, the world will continue to be
unbalanced. Blacks will always be hostile to whites, while whites will continue to regard people
of African origin as inferior because of their economic degradation.
On the other hand, the reparation of this wrong with economic solutions will give Africa and
African communities a chance to upgrade their social, cultural and economic conditions and
live as equals with their brothers and sisters of other races in the countries which they helped
develop.
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Part 3 – The Reparations Document
Solemn Declaration
This document acknowledges the many prior efforts, committees, letters of request, petitions,
declarations and conferences regarding Reparations made by Africans and African Descendants
in Jamaica and the world, including the Abuja Declaration of 1993, the Vienna Declaration of
2000, and especially the efforts of the Rastafari Nation over the past 70 years.
Most especially, this document is prepared in response to directives issued to all States at the
United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Intolerance and Xenophobia (WCAR).
At the historic UN World Conference against Racism held August 31-September 8, 2001 in
Durban, South Africa, a major step forward was achieved when nations of the world adopted a
declaration and programme of action which stated:
“We acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade, including the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, were
appalling tragedies in the history of humanity not only because of their abhorrent barbarism but
also in terms of their magnitude, organized nature and especially their negation of the essence
of the victims, and further acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are crimes against
humanity and should always have been so, especially the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and are
among the major sources and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and
related intolerance and that Africans and peoples of African descent, Asians and peoples of
Asian descent and indigenous peoples were victims of these acts and continue to be victims of
their consequences.”
The Durban document explicitly recognizes the relationship between this legacy and the current
unequal condition of African people worldwide. Despite its shortcomings, this document has
helped to advance the position of Africans and African descendants for Reparations, Justice
and Equality.
At the dawn of the 21st Century, the defining demand for Africans and African descendants is
for Reparations, Justice and Equality. All over the world Africans and African descendants are
adding our voices to those of our ancestors demanding that the nations of the world assume
responsibility for their heritage, and confront, acknowledge and redress the continuing legacy
from the barbarism and inhumanity of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and colonialism,
perennial “crimes against humanity.” These odious and pre-meditated crimes, which have been
unequalled in history, have led to the exploitation of African Diaspora nations for centuries,
leaving them economically crippled; and the vast majority of our people in the African Diaspora
in poverty, undereducated, economically, physically, psychologically, politically and culturally
subordinated and over-criminalized, while being bombarded with hate crimes, violence and
justifications, dissembling, untruths and denials based on doctrines of Western and White
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Supremacy.
The legacy of the Slave Trade and Colonialism has resulted in anti-Black racism and the
continuing and on-going downpression of Africans and African descendants. African people
remain scattered across the continents of the world, often unaware of our true history, divided
among ourselves by gender, language, culture, class, colour, phenotype, self-hatred, egotism,
Euro-centrism, opportunism leading to individual aggrandisement, leadership failures and greed,
apologists for the oppressors, and conflict arising from artificially imposed borders.
The beneficiaries of this legacy of racism deny the true history of these crimes against humanity,
belittle the artificially advantaged and elevated position they hold in society and among
governments from these crimes. They wrap themselves in emblems of entitlement, supportive
racism mythologies and untruths; dispute the casual relationship between these crimes and the
current subjugated condition of African peoples worldwide. Moreover, they deny any obligation
to the African, Indigenous, and Asian populations which they have exploited. This legacy of
racism can only be eradicated for the good of humanity by the vigilant and forceful advocacy of
African people and their allies.
From the vantage of moral and legal right, African people envision a world in which those nations
and entities unjustly enriched by their politics, practices, laws and actions in the past will be
compelled to return to African people the sum of wealth extracted from the enslavement of our
ancestors, the physical toil of our labour, the sexual exploitation of the bodies of our women,
the rape of our land and mineral resources, the segregation and genocide of our people, and
restore our people from physical, moral, cultural, psychic, spiritual, economical, political and
financial destruction that we have suffered during these centuries of oppression, exploitation
and negation of our humanity.
It is clear that Africans and African descendants need not only strong legal mechanisms and
targeted beneficial social programming for true equality, but also comprehensive Reparations
that will address the totality of the continuing injury to Africans and African Descendants from
the barbaric and oppressive past.
True equality demands total economic empowerment which can only be accomplished through
restitution (by the nations and entities) of the vast wealth stolen from us and denied us each and
every day through the operation of racism and racist discrimination. We seek not favours but the
return of that owed to us. Through Reparations in its broadest context, African and Caribbean
nations would acquire wealth and a stronger position of influence in the world community, and
African descendants would be justly compensated and restored to positions of dignity and true
equality. (Excerpt from African and African Descendants Caucus Permanent Structure Proposal)
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Fundamental Objectives
We, Jamaican descendants of enslaved African captives, join in the struggle of all international
movements for a new and just world.
Accordingly, we Jamaican descendants of enslaved Africans have united as the Jamaica
Reparations Movement (JaRM) with the following objectives:
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To raise public awareness, education and participation in the issue of African
Reparations;
To establish Reparations Committees in each Parish, coordinated by a Steering
Committee, to carry out the work of public awareness, education and participation;
To develop a Jamaican Reparations Document which will be a comprehensive report
on the issue, including the historical, numerical and financial facts and the desired
forms of such Reparations;
To gather signatures on a national Reparations Petition;
To link with Reparations Committees, groups and individuals across the African
Diaspora;
To continue interaction with the United Nations Commission for Human Rights and its
follow up to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Intolerance and Xenophobia.
JaRM Interim Steering Committee
Patron: Ambassador, Hon. Dudley Thompson – Pan-Africanist and member of Group of Eminent
Persons (GEP)
Co-ordinator: Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, NGO Delegate to UN-WCAR
Chair, History Committee: Professor Verene Shepherd, UWI Department of History
Chair, Media Committee: Mrs Andrea Williams-Green, Producer, IRIE-FM
Conference Secretary: Sister Beulah Davis.
Honorary Members: Hon. Pearnel Charles, Honorary African Chief; Lord Anthony Gifford, Q.C.,
Attorney-at-law; Mrs Sheila Monteith, Overseas Liaison Desk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Forms of Reparations
The Jamaica Reparations Movement therefore sets forth its claim for Jamaican reparations
guided by the UN WCAR Final Declaration under the heading:
IV. Provision of Effective Remedies, Recourse, Redress, and other Measures at the National,
Regional, and International Levels (Para)158 … The conference recognizes the need to develop
programmes for the social and economic development of these societies and the Diaspora,
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within the framework of a new partnership based on the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect,
in the following areas:
• Debt Relief
• Poverty Eradication
• Building or strengthening democratic institutions
• Promotion of foreign direct investment
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•
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Market access
Intensified efforts to meet the international agreed targets for Official Development
Assistance (ODA) transfers to developing countries
New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) bridging the digital divide
Agriculture and food security
Transfer of technology
Transparent and accountable governance
Investment in health infrastructure in tackling HIV/AIDS, TB, Hepatitis, and Malaria,
including among others through the Global AIDS and Health Fund
Infrastructure development
Human resource development including capacity building
Education, training and cultural development
Mutual legal assistance in the repatriation of illegally obtained and illegally transferred
(stashed) funds in accordance with national and international instruments
Illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons
Restitution of art objects, historical artifacts and documents to their countries of origin
in accordance with bilateral agreements or international instruments
Trafficking in persons, particularly women and children
Facilitation of welcomed return and resettlement of the descendants of enslaved
Africans
JaRM STRUCTURAL PROPOSALS
That a Steering Committee be set up of Jamaican Descendants of enslaved Africans to work
towards the granting of Reparations to this former slave colony, Jamaica and that nominations
be invited for persons to serve on this committee.
That the JaRM Steering Committee be composed of a President, Vice President, Treasurer,
Secretary, with power to appoint sub-committees as appropriate and necessary for the proper
running of the organization.
That those members of the JaRM Interim Steering Committee be empowered to continue
working voluntarily in their capacities until a formal committee is appointed. (Present committee
members: Patron, Ambassador Dudley Thompson; Coordinator, Barbara Blake Hannah; Chair,
History Sub-Committee, Professor Verene Shepherd; Secretary, Sister Beulah Davis.)
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That the JaRM Steering Committee seeks funding to cover its operational costs from the
Government of Jamaica, the United Nations, private donors and public subscription.
That the JaRM Steering Committee shall invite membership from a broad cross section of
African Descendant Jamaicans, from whom 10 representatives shall be appointed to sit on the
steering committee.
That the steering committee shall be empowered to appoint a Council of Elders as advisors
to serve without voting power, to advise the steering committee and to perform designated
functions. Recommendations for this Council of Elders are invited.
Recommendations for Council of Elders were made and accepted February 22, 2003: Queen
Mother Marianne Samaad, Garveyite; Ambassador Dudley Thompson; Ras Jah Lloyd (Ethiopian
Peace Foundation); Chief Pearnel Charles; Lord Anthony Gifford.
The call for Reparations
1. The JaRM calls on the Jamaican Government through the Ministry of Finance to provide the
Jamaican Reparations Movement Steering Committee with a detailed financial account of the
National Debt, as well as proposals for all projects which can be put in place to effect a total
national upgrading of all schools, roads, hospitals, inner-city ghetto restoration, re-education
programmes, free education to tertiary level for all citizens, pension and unemployment
programmes, free medical care and health programmes for mental health care, control and
eradication of all diseases including HIV/AIDS, development of new programmes in agriculture
and industry, restoration and value of intellectual and cultural property rights.
2. With respect to the above, the JaRM calls on the Government to provide the JaRM with a
list of the national debt broken down into countries, so that negotiations can be initiated under
the umbrella of Reparations to write off the present debt owed by our country as debt-forequity swops by the nations identified. The JaRM calls for the formulation and adoption by the
Jamaican Government of national public policies funded by Reparations, with special emphasis
on Education, Health Care, Children and the Aged.
3. The JaRM calls on the Rastafari Nation in Jamaica to present a detailed proposal and costs
supported by research for the Repatriation and Resettlement in Africa of its members who so
desire.
4. The JaRM calls on Jamaican historians, lawyers, accountants, bankers and investment
analysts to lend their skills and services to the compilation of a Jamaican Reparations historical
account and financial assessment of debt due for unpaid slave labour.
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5. The JaRM proposes to research and document the identity of all companies, organizations
and individuals from whom a debt of Reparations is due for their involvement in the enslavement
of Africans in Jamaica, and to present those companies, organizations and individuals with
proposals for programmes and projects that can be funded by them to repair and compensate
for their involvement in the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica.
6. The JaRM proposes that failure to cooperate by these companies, organizations and
individuals identified as participants in the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica, will result in
collective penalties being sought at national and international levels against them.
7. The JaRM calls for a Jamaican education curriculum related to the interconnection of the
effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery and colonialism, the resulting negative social
and economic manifestations on all aspects of life in Jamaica, and the need for Reparations
nationally, regionally and internationally to correct these negative manifestations.
8. The JaRM calls for the adoption of culture-specific media programmes to inform, educate and
prepare the Jamaican people to use Reparations in ways that will improve the nation.
9. The JaRM calls for the adoption of mechanisms to counter the interconnection of race and
poverty in Jamaica, especially in the context of the continuing issues of globalization.
10. The JaRM calls on the Jamaican Government to declare a National Slavery Holocaust
Commemoration Day to honour our ancestors who suffered and died in 300 years of forced
enslavement, to ensure that their sufferings will not be forgotten or erased by time and other
cultural influences.
11. The JaRM calls for the immediate implementation by the United Nations of the provisions of
the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, including the establishment of a permanent
forum in the United Nations on Africans and African Descendants.
12. The JaRM calls on the United Nations to honour its commitment to provide funding for
the establishment and operation of Reparations Committees across the African Diaspora, in
particular the Jamaican Reparations Steering Committee.
13. The JaRM calls on the Jamaican Government to comply with the provision in the Durban
2001, World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) Final Declaration which states the United
Nations’ readiness:
“To receive reports from States, non-governmental organizations, and all relevant institutions
within the United Nations system on the implementation of and follow-up to the Durban
Declaration and Programme of Action and make recommendations to States for their national
plans of action, bearing in mind the resource constraints of the developing countries.” (Para.11a).
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Plan of Action
The JaRM endorses the intention of Member of Parliament Mike Henry to bring a Resolution on
Reparations in Parliament so that all Members of Parliament can debate the issue and vote by
conscience, not Party position.
The JaRM will support this Parliamentary debate by encouraging its members and the public to
show support and solidarity by attending Parliament on that day.
The JaRM proposes to send a letter to the Jamaican Council of Churches (1) urging each of
their member churches to state its position on Reparations, (2) to establish a programme of
education within their member churches to explain and inform on the issue of Reparations, the
role of the Church in the enslavement of Africans, and (3) inviting them to work with the JaRM to
promote the cause of Reparations and assist in achieving it.
The JaRM proposes to involve the Jamaican media as widely as possible in publicizing the
issues of Reparations, and in facilitating widespread public education in Jamaica and Jamaican
communities in the African Diaspora.
The JaRM will support the continuous writing of letters to the government and leaders of
England, inviting them to act with morality and justice in granting Reparations to Britain’s former
colonies in the West Indies, and especially Jamaica.
The JaRM will petition the Jamaican Government to seek accommodation within the Africa
Union Constitution to recognize Jamaicans of African descent full nationality rights as Africans,
and to permit every Jamaican of African descent the right to enter Africa as an emigrating citizen
and become a citizen of an African state without needing a visa or other form of entry permit, as
was proposed in the original founding principles of the Organization of African Unity.
The JaRM proposes that a copy of this document be sent to the United Nations Human Rights
Commission, the Nuremberg Tribunal, the International Court at The Hague, the Africa Union,
Amnesty International, and all international organizations involved in the cause of Human Rights
and Justice.
ATTESTATION
This document was prepared in collaboration with 28 members of the Jamaica Reparations
Movement meeting at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre, UWI, Mona on Saturday, February 22,
2003, and after consultation with the members of the proposed Council of Elders, and is hereby
solemnly signed and promulgated by the Members of the Interim Steering Committee on the
28th day of February, 2003.
SIGNED: BARBARA BLAKE HANNAH
Coordinator – JARM
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BEULAH DAVIS
Conference Secretary
Gyepi
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Conference Attendees
Barbara Blake Hannah
Indongo Davis
Kenya Casey
Sis. Beulah Davis
Prof. Verene Shepherd
JaRM
TechSchool, Jamaica
(e-mail address only)
JaRM
UWI
Sis. Marianne Samaad
Queen Mother Moses
Jubir Abdul Aziz
Cliffen Thomas
Ayo (Bobby)
Marsha Hall
Keren Hutchinson
Shadanda Abdulla
Sis. Madge Hylton
Jah Lij (Jah Lloyd
Joseph Williams
Robin Jerry Small
Satta Campbell
Beverly Hamilton
Agostino Pinnock
Williams Bailey
Pearnel Charles
Mike Henry
Sis. Mitzie Reid
June Crawford
Christopher Benjamin
Dr. Steve Bunkridge
Stephen Jackson
Prophet Greg
Empress Grace Ann
UNIA
Empress of Zion Organisation
Coolshade Drive, Kingston 19
Washington Drive, Kingston 10
Maureen Crescent, Edgwater
Mico Teachers College
(e-mail address only)
(e-mail address only)
Ethiopian Peace Foundation
Ethiopian Peace Foundation
Young Street, Spanish Town
Hot 102
UWI Social Science Faculty
UNIA
(e-mail address only)
Church Street, Kgn
Houses of Parliament
Houses of Parliament
Nyabinghi Mansion
USA (author & Poet)
(e-mail address only)
(e-mail address only)
(e-mail address only)
E.A.I.B.C. (BoboShanti Order)
David House
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Gyepi III
4.3 Sankofa United Continent Africa Roots Development International
Family Association (SUCARDIF)
Nana Kweku Egyir Gyepi III
Cape Coast, Ghana
History and structure of SUCARDIF
The SUCARDIF Association is an indigenous Pan-African Non-governmental Organization
(NGO) dedicated to the unification of all African descendants in the Diaspora and the Continent
of Africa as a whole. It is dedicated to the reawakening of the African consciousness through
education, community development programs, human resource development, exchange
programs for the youth, job creation, investment generation and tourism as a tool for unification
of our peoples at home and abroad.
The association was founded in Mt Vernon, New York between 1987-1989 with registration in the
USA. The association was dully inaugurated in Ghana in 1991 when the founder became a Chief
in Cape Coast in the Central Region and it was formally registered as a voluntary organization in
the Central Region in 1993 and is presently active in 13 traditional areas spanning five regions
in Ghana. The association is independent with no political, tribal or religious inclinations. The
membership is open to all persons in communities in Ghana and indeed the whole Diaspora, to
do voluntary activities. Nana Kweku Egyir Gyepi III, Taboo H.R.H. Djata, a Black American poetry/
drama writer, initiated the formation of SUCARDIF. This attracted distinguished personalities
dedicated to the development of Africa and the African community in Mt Vernon in the USA to
come together and initiate activities and programs for the emancipation of the black mind. One
of the cardinal aims of the association is to erect a monument in memory of our brothers and
sisters who perished during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is also dedicated to the awakening
of the black consciousness so as never, never again should such a thing happen to Africa and
its people.
The association has a national executive with the founder as the CEO, an elected president,
vice president, general secretary, treasurer and a publicity secretary. Project officers and
technical advisers from various fields of endeavour support them. These consist mostly of
people employed in various public and private organizations who voluntarily donate their time
and energy to work for the lofty goals of the association. Not much emphasis is placed on the
regional executive committees, but they exist both at the regional and some district levels to
serve as technical advisers to the association’s community development programs.
The association places much emphasis on the community level, which is at the same time the
target of its programs. There are community level SUCARDIF groups with similar composition
as the national executive committee.
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At each community level however, there are separate men and women subgroups. But both
work together in general community programs, such as communal labour, e.g. sweeping of
selected streets in Cape Coast, desilting of drains, tree planting, etc. They however undertake
specific income-generating activities like women engaging in baking of bread, the preparation
of Fanti kenkey in the Tefle traditional area and in Anafo in Cape Coast respectively, and fish
smoking. The men also undertake group ventures, e.g. farming and fishing, with community fuel
dumps like the one established in Sekondi (European Town).
The community level groups determine their priority development areas in consultation with
SUCARDIF project officers. They are committed to contribute to the programs both in cash and
in kind. The SUCARDIF Association liaises with the communities, local governments, traditional
councils, and non-governmental organizations for the necessary inputs and technical assistance
to ensure the successful implementation of their programs. The general secretary and the project
coordinator of SUCARDIF Association form management committees to supervise the program
implementation, monitoring and eventually to assist in their evaluation.
Generally the traditional areas provide labour (including skilled labour) and some materials
towards their programs. However, when resources are required, SUCARDIF explores
avenues for these resources. The association also has core membership of professionals in
full-time employment in the regions and some traditional areas in the country, who serve as
technical advisors for community programs within their areas and beyond. These professionals
have diverse backgrounds including building, woodwork, law, administration, management,
teaching, craftsmanship, welding, mechanics, farming, fish processing, hair dressing, mass
communications, etc. The association therefore has the capacity to implement diverse programs
in various aspects of nation building and development such as the Save Ghana Libraries and
Home and Abroad projects.
The SUCARDIF Association works closely with various government agencies and other local
and international NGOs. The association works with the following departments: Forestry Unit,
Agriculture Ministry, Environmental Protection Council, Ghana Education Service (District office
Cape Coast), Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Education, Institute of Adult Education, the District
Assemblies, National Commission, On Culture, Du Bois Centre Ghana, the African Medical
Trust, One Africa Productions, etc.
Some international affiliates – IIFWP, WANGO, Unification Church, Community College of
Philadelphia; Hopeful Gospel Family Church Inc., Philadelphia, Compton
Community College, California; Tools for Change, Florida; D Murphy, the Thinker,
Philadelphia; Digital Divide, Bridge Foundation, Miami; OIC International, Philadelphia.
Some local affiliates – The Key To Life Foundation, Western Region; Take Pride in Ghana,
Central Region; the African Medical Trust, Trade Fair, Accra; One Africa Production, Cape
Coast/Elmina; USIS; Du Bois Centre; and Afrikana Mission subsidiaries of SUCARDIF – Tower
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Gyepi
of Return Foundation, Mensah Sarbah Fun Club (Environmental group) and SUCARDIF Youth
Wings.
Tower of Return Foundation – The Foundation is a fund-raising component of SUCARDIF
Association. It is a private non-profit organization based in Accra, Ghana, established in
December 1995. The foundation is a unified voice representing the economic, social and cultural
interests of 13 Ghanaian townships.
The Foundation has three primary objectives:
1. To develop and implement comprehensive programs to achieve sustained economic,
social and cultural development in each township. The collective resources of our
townships will be leveraged to improve the living conditions of our people.
2. To erect the Tower of Return Monument. This monument will be built in Ghana to
honour our Mothers, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters who suffered and perished as a
result of the slave trade. The monument will also serve as a beacon to all people of
African decent worldwide.
3. To raise funds in aid of SUCARDIF Association projects, the Tower of Return monument
and for the needy in their traditional areas.
The Tower of Return Foundation has on its board eight Paramount Chiefs and seven Queen
Mothers representing 13 Ghanaian townships in five regions of Ghana.
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4.4 Returning home ain’t easy: But it sure is a Blessing
Imahkus Njinga Ababio
One Love and good rising family. Before I can begin, I ask permission of my learned Elders to
speak.
First and foremost I give all honour, praise, glory and thanks, to our Mother/Father Creator and
to the memory of our great, ancient Afrikan Ancestors.
Greetings, Brothers, Sisters, Elders, Family and Friends and supporters of the family.
My name is Seestah IMAHKÜS. I am an Ethiopian Ascendant/Descendant who was born in
America. I have repatriated home to the land of my origin. Every day begins for me with the
singing of the birds and the soothing roar of the Gulf of Guinea outside my window.
It is often hard to believe that my husband and I are living on this historic piece of land, situated
between the Cape Coast and Elmina Castle Dungeons. A land previously occupied by our
ancestors who had been forced to help build the Elmina Castle Dungeons.
My husband Nana Okofo Iture Kwaku Ababio I and I repatriated to Ghana in June of 1990. That
initial move was short-lived though, when the sudden death of my mother forced us to return
to America and we caught hell trying to get out a second time. What Nana and I experienced
leaving America the first time (the anger of our children, family members and friends, trying to
find good tenants that my mother approved of to rent our portion of the house, discouraging
comments from all sides, Nana having been held up with a shotgun, tied up and thrown in the
trunk of our taxi, etc.,) was like a preview of coming attractions. But our objectives the second
time around were very, very clear: to sell our house and return to Ghana as quickly as possible.
Everyone was opposed to our selling the house, painting a bleak economic picture, saying that
we should wait and not sell the house at this time for the market was too bad and we were going
to lose money. But we held to our decision.
Hell, the house still belonged to the bank with yet another 15 years to pay, pay, and pay, before
paying off the mortgage. One month after putting the house on the market it was sold. But the
buyers had problems getting a mortgage, which caused a major delay.
We had shipped most of our personal belongings to Ghana believing that we would soon be
out of the United States. We had given our children our furniture, and sold, gave or threw away
everything else and so we were left with an empty house, sleeping on the floor as we waited for
the closing ... and the wait continued.
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It was now June and more than five months had passed before we finally got a date to go for the
closing on the house. But the day before we were to go, another snag popped up, delaying us
further. It would now be another month before we could go for the closing.
Next, the New York City Department of Roads, Highways and “Sidewalks” cited us for a violation,
putting a lien on our property; thus further delaying and preventing the sale until we fixed a small
crack in the sidewalk (which had been there for years before we had even bought the house).
But they insisted that it had to be done. The forces were working hard to keep us in the United
States. But we kept fighting, determined to return home to Ghana.
Three thousand dollars and two “Jack Leg” contractors later, the city inspectors finally approved
the work that was done and processing for the sale of the house continued.
In the midst of this turmoil, Nana and I were inspired to travel throughout the South. This
became a sacred pilgrimage for us; we touched the soil hallowed by the blood, sweat, tears and
labour of our ancestors who had been sold into chattel slavery. We went to Hilton Head, South
Carolina and visited the Daufuskie Islands, the first sight of land seen by the enslaved Afrikans,
after being on the sea for three to four months. However, the only access to the island was by a
Tourist Boat, operated by a fat, red-faced European and his prune-faced wife. With no other way
to get onto the island, we reluctantly joined the tour boat but we were the only Afrikans on board.
As the boat captain narrated during the trip over to the island, my blood boiled even more as he
spewed out the history of the surrounding area filled with jokes about an old enslaved woman
who still haunted the place.
“Well suh,” he drawled, “after me and the little woman has a few drinks under our belts, we see
spooks,” haw, haw, haw, he continued.
I tried to block out the sound of his voice by concentrating on our reason for being here, singing
to myself while gazing into the moving water.
Once we landed on the island, we rented a golf cart and drove around the island on our own,
hoping to meet and speak with some of our people. But our reception was not very warm. The
local people were reluctant to speak with us. One woman stated emphatically, “I ain’t got nuttin’
to say to you,” and slammed the door in our faces. But even with that, the spirit of the place
made our bodies tingle.
So at the end of our tour, having received no worthwhile information and 30 dollars lighter in
our pockets, we proceeded on to the Slave Markets in Charleston, South Carolina (which was
earmarked for demolition) and to other ports where our people had been auctioned and sold.
At each site, we prayed and told our ancestors, “its over – we’ve come full circle – you’ve paid
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the price, and we, your children are now able to return home to ‘Mother Afrika’.”
We realized on our return to New York how important our pilgrimage had been … for we in doing
this were removing yet another link of our chain of enslavement. We rejoiced and wasted no
time collecting our few belongings, saying our final good-byes and leaving America.
Our last remaining link was in the Caribbean. Two days later after closing on our house, with
tickets to Ghana in hand, we arrived in Jamaica, West Indies. Here we picked up our spiritual
family of more than 20 years, Bongo Shorty and Sister D. I could not help reflecting on the more
than 500 years that had passed since the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Arab European Slave
Trade. We were in yet another location where enslaved Africans had been dropped off during
the worst Holocaust known to man. Our travel route, unplanned by us, had become historically
likened to our ancestors escaping from enslavement in the South, heading north to so-called
freedom.
Within five days of our arrival in Jamaica, after nearly one year of facing defeating obstacles and
resisting a rising paranoia of being trapped forever in America, we were at last on our way. All
of us were so relieved to be in motion. We were finally on our way forward across the “Middle
Passage” to our “Ancestral Mother Land”, Afrika … Home. This was not a vacation … this was
forever. From that day forward our address would be Ghana, West Afrika.
The first thing I did when we returned to Cape Coast was to visit the Cape Coast Castle
Dungeons. Feeling the cooling breeze and reminiscing about the past I recalled my first visit
to Ghana in August 1987. When I entered the Women’s Dungeons after having flown across
the watery graveyard of my ancestors, I had become even more aware of being on a spiritual
journey; I had become another “destiny soul seeker”. Spiritually, I had been further awakened
and I knew that I would never be the same again … ever.
The spirit of the land and the spirit of my ancestors were there waiting for me, and took hold of
me as I re-entered the Cape Coast Castle Dungeons. Pulling off my shoes, I slowly and quietly
walked on that sacred and historic ground to better commune with the spirits. Touching the
rough, cold and damp stones of the dungeon walls and looking up at the cavernous ceilings, I
felt the darkness closing in around me as I once again pulled up nightmares of being enslaved
and dehumanized by strange looking, dirty pink men.
I remembered my ancestors. Smelling their musty, sweating bodies and feeling them – hands
touching me, caressing me, quieting the anguished flow of my streaming hot tears; warmly and
strongly welcoming me home but forcing me once again to remember how it must have been
for them, taken from these shores in the holds of strange, ominous looking vessels. Slave ships
that rolled and pitched and swayed on the vast waters of the Gulf of Guinea that waited to
“swallow them up quickly” into the Belly of the Beast; floating houses of horror. Thousands upon
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thousands of Afrikan men, women and children stacked side by side and on top of one another
in 24-inch spaces, maybe 5 to 6 feet in length, destined for unknown lands, never to see their
homeland again.
I thought of the millions of our Afrikan ancestors who passed through these same “Doors of No
Return”, forced to undergo inhuman conditions of disease, filth, torture and unrivalled cruelties.
Some of them committed suicide, preferring death to facing the unknown. Some were rebellious
and resistant to the end. Others, sick or so weakened from near starvation, months of forced
overland travel, and weeks of cramped imprisonment, were thrown overboard to the waiting
sharks.
But then, after over 500 hundred years of enslavement in a strange place, I, their daughter, my
husband and my brethren and sistren, of their many children, had been blessed to return home.
And what had we left behind? Everything: our family, children, grand-children, life-long friends
… and the stress of living in the hellish condition of many Afrikans born in the United States
and often being a “paycheck away from being homeless”. For protection from the outside world
we lived behind multi-locked doors with bars and gates at the windows, fearful of being in the
streets of the South Bronx after dark where my husband had been robbed at gunpoint, tied up
and thrown into the trunk of our Taxi before being dumped in a place where none but the brave
or foolish dared to tread. Now we were free of that, we were home.
But the return home also came with certain conditions, certain expectations from my ancestors. I
had been given the task of being one of the “Gatekeepers” for the “Door of No Return”, renamed
“Door Of Return” after Ghana observed its first Emancipation Day celebrations. As gatekeeper, I
was to be there to welcome home those brothers and sisters who would be returning in numbers.
Once again thanking God and my ancestors I slowly walked out of the Women’s Dungeon into
the daylight. Realizing the awesome task that I had been given, I prayed to be able to handle it.
On our return to Ghana we found we had a new set of challenges to face, that of the “returnee”
or “pioneer,” language barriers, differences in culture, sicknesses like Malaria, Dysentery,
Bulharzia (worms) and the lack of conveniences that we take for granted in North America. We
had to reacclimatize to the differences in seasons, the go-slow attitude of the people (much like
southern states in the United States of America) but the hardest of all was the perception by
many Ghanaians of us as “Obruni” (white people or foreigner).
I often ask myself if I’m dreaming but quickly bounce back to reality when the water stops flowing
at 5:00 am in the morning and I have to fetch water from the tank outside the house, or the lights
go off without notice or turn into Disco lights, flashing off and on because of power fluctuation.
When this happens its time to “get out the kerosene lanterns, candles and flashlights, using
“whatever means necessary” to get light. Sometimes I’d forget how much gas I’d used while
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cooking and suddenly find the gas cylinder empty; not like New York where cooking gas is
automatically pumped into your home. So whom did I call on when this happened? The Gas
Company? I don’t think so! I called on my survivor’s instinct, pioneering spirit and Girl Scout
training. I would break out my trusty coal Pot, find some twigs – toss on the charcoal, get stick
matches and keep on burning.
Returning home has truly been an adjustment in customs and traditions, languages, foods and
a general way of life. The local people call us “returnees” “Esikafo Awanbantam”, which means
“The rich ones who came late”. The more I think of that expression, the more I tend to agree with
them. Yes, we are rich in comparison to the living standards in the village; but more significantly
we are rich in the blessing of returning home.
But with all of that we still feel heavenly – we are free. We have built our own home on the
oceanfront and established our business “One Africa Tours and Specialty Service, Ltd.” And we
have no mortgage!
Yes, there is also an economic component to this and it has provided us with the opportunity
to use our God-given talent to create our own means of survival, while providing a spiritually
enriching and positive outlet for brothers and sisters to collectively participate in their return
home, and in our healing process.
An Afrikan Proverb says, “Until the Lions have their own Historians, Tales of the hunt will always
glory the Hunter.” Well, we have come to glorify God and our Ancestors! This is our “Rights of
Passage,” this is our truth. Now some of what I am telling you, you will have to experience for
yourself. What I am saying is that living in Ghana ain’t easy but neither is living in New York,
Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. But as our choice of battlefields, we’ve chosen and been
blessed to be on the front line in my ancestral homeland, Ghana.
Those of you who don’t know quite how to make this move have to prepare yourselves financially,
spiritually and physically - do your research – talk with folks who have done it – then just jump
into the pool. There are no guarantees except the one that will bind us together, “Unity,” unified
as Afrikan people.
Unity is not an emotional affair; it is a structural and scientific necessity. Without unity we are
doomed to destruction. What Afrika/Ghana needs is Trade not Aid, not handouts from the very
same people who enslaved us. We need to get up off our knees and forge forward into the
twenty-first century with current and modern equipment and technology to compete on the
global market; not cast off used clothes, antiquated materials, equipment and ideas, and more
missionaries! Western religious beliefs and practices do not lift up our people – it keeps us with
a pie in the sky mentality waiting for something or someone to drop out of the sky to save us.
To the West and anyone else who claims to be coming to Afrika to help us, let it be known that
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one of the best help for Afrikan people is the development of a Common Afrikan Market to sell
our products to the world at fair prices. We need to share and sell the wealth of Afrika between
ourselves. In the 54 states within the Continent of Afrika, we possess all the natural resources
to take care of ourselves, without ever going to the outside for help…and the West knows this.
That is why they work so hard at keeping their hands in our affairs. Think about it! Each time
one of our Afrikan leaders comes along to show Afrikan people how to stand on their own two
feet, how to unify the Afrikan Continent, how to be self-sufficient; they are assassinated and in
some of the most heinous ways. They were liquidated.
One of our biggest structural problems despite tremendous natural resources is that Afrikan
currencies have very little value in the world market compounded by the fact that Afrikan states
do not set the price of products they buy and sell. Prices are dictated overseas.
People power movement based on the principles of Afrikan Unity can solve the problems facing
Afrika. It is a sad commentary that we Afrikans born in America have not returned to or invested
in Afrika in our numbers. But more Afrikans born in America and other parts of the Diaspora
are waking up and beginning to make this connection with the land of their origin “Afrika”. It’s
only sad because it took us so long to recognize and access our blessings. Many of us don’t
realize that back in the sixties, brothers and sisters from the Americas found their way home to
Ghana. They brought in their talents and skills to help contribute to the process of building a free,
independent Afrikan nation. What are some of the lessons that those of us returning home today
can learn from their experiences? Why did so many of them return to America? I have been
told that they were treated unfairly. The process of getting residence and/or work permits was
extremely expensive and time consuming. The prices for taxis, car rentals, roadside purchases
were and still are higher because we are not local. Our acceptance by our Continental brothers
and sisters is often nothing more than an opportunity to leave Afrika and a source of dollars and
foreign currency.
After being systematically divided and separated by design, like no other ethnic groups in
America, we were violently wrested from the land of our origin. History teaches that any group
of people that do not identify, for whatever reason, with the place that they came from, will not
know where they are going, will not be able to enjoy life and develop to the fullest. We must be
culturally, psychologically and economically linked up to our roots.
In spite of the achievements in the Civil Rights struggle and in education, sports, entertainment
and wealth, full acceptance continues to elude the Afrikan masses in the United States. Afrikans
born in America for the most part still remain at the bottom of the economic ladder. Why?
Because the United States has become the land of immigrants and all immigrant groupings are
connected in one way or the other to their land of origin. The Jewish people do business with
Israel, the Italians with Italy, and the Chinese and Japanese with their people overseas.
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But we, ascendants/descendants of enslaved Afrikans, have historically been deliberately miseducated and brainwashed through religiosity and negative press and cannot connect and relate
with the land of our ancestors. Because of the negative press that has been embedded in the
minds of Afrikan people there is a lack of cultural relationships and most important, trade with
Afrika. It is my feeling and that of others who have repatriated that this cultural estrangement
and disconnectedness prevents many Afrikans born in America who do return to Afrika from
actually being able to stay in Afrika.
However, I thank the Creator for the winds of change. More and more Afrikans born in the United
States and other parts of the Diaspora are returning home. Although not every experience is a
success story, there are many.
Too often the Ghanaian perception of us as “rich” creates problems, for they don’t see us lacking
or having had to struggle to even get here. Many don’t understand why we have come back
“home” to “suffer.” Little do they realize that we have been suffering for a long time in the United
States, in spite of how it looks to them! But, we need each other and Afrikans of the Diaspora
have a key role to play in the redemption and unification of Afrika. Honest trade amongst
ourselves is crucial and must be done in the true context of Afrikan unity. It must be seen as a
means of creating “overstanding” that will lead to the creation of an “Afrikan Common Market”,
in order to institutionalize “Unity” and guarantee that this “Unity” will last.
Networking and sharing is an important key, an important tool, which helps us to help each other
and ourselves. We can show by example the possibilities of returning home. We can be an
inspiration to others who wish to return home but don’t know where to start; we can share our
fears, our tears, our laughter and joy with other brothers and sisters. In this way, we are doing
our small part towards the redemption of our collective selves and our people.
That is why our home, One Africa, affectionately called “the Halfway House” (halfway between
where you are going and where you have been) has become an important focal point for
brothers and sisters from all walks of life visiting Ghana. It is a special, spiritual retreat where we
share ourselves, sharing the Who, When, Why, Where and How of returning home, sharing our
experiences and our blessings.
One Africa also boasts of a “Wall of Remembrance”, a museum that speaks to our past
experiences living in the United States and tells the real truth about our struggles. It gives us the
opportunity to also share this part of our history with our Continental born Afrikan brothers and
sisters as well as the many people that visit us from all over the Diaspora.
From one day to the next people come … referred by others or having just heard that we
are here. The remains of brothers and sisters have been brought to our doorstep; we have
performed traditional wedding ceremonies; birthed babies in our chalets and offer a retreat
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for those looking to do so. Currently, in Ghana there are more than 50 businesses owned and
operated by repatriated Afrikans from the Diaspora, and more are coming.
Remember, that everyone will not welcome you “home” with open arms and will call you
foreigner/Obruni/Whiteman. Yes, it hurts but our brothers and sisters on the continent do not
know us – as we do not know them – we’ve been away for a long time. A friend attempted to
lessen the sting of that statement when she gave me another meaning for the word “Obruni”. It
also means “coming from beyond the horizon” … and who was coming from beyond the horizon
during the days of our kidnap and enslavement? That’s right, “white people” and have we not
come from beyond the horizon? If each one, teach one, we will all learn much.
We must remember that the system of oppression didn’t teach Afrikan Unity, it taught separation,
subjugation and self-hate. To many people we look like big dollar signs. We sound like the
images (white) that have been put before them. Rich America – Rich Europe – not about being
Black/Afrikan within those places that we have called home. Appalled at too many beggars?
People, who do not have, beg. Don’t they beg in the United States of America – the “greatest
country in the world?” Get real!
In 1992, a year after we arrived in Ghana, Essence Magazine did an article on Ghana. Nana
and I, along with several other repatriates appeared in a section called “Cousins”. Hundreds
of people have visited us as a result. People came through the gates of our home waving
that article. They had held onto it for years; the seed was planted and they had begun sowing
(saving) towards their day of return. Others have been inspired by our “bravery” and sense of
adventure; our not being fearful of leaving the United States, the homeland of our oppressors.
It is also important for us to look seriously at our Westernized attitude and modify it so that it
coincides with and complements the Afrikan personality and culture. Where we are aggressive,
bold and assertive, being a product of the American society – having to fight for our rights,
“fighting on arrival and fighting for survival”, our brothers and sisters on the continent are
essentially very humble, sometimes too much so. They will do almost anything you ask of
them. Many of them are looking for advice, ideas and involvement in something that will help
them to help themselves. And they are very friendly but do not be fooled. There must be clear
overstanding (understanding) of the motives involved on both sides.
When we do return home, we must be careful how we handle our finances, and mindful who we
entrust in assisting us in handling our affairs, for as the proverb says, “A fool and his/her money
will soon part.”
Many of us coming out of the United States come as Educators, Administrators, and Service
Providers with a lot of modern ideas. Therefore the two sides/people should be able to
complement each other – eliminating conflict and confusion.
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We must stay away from the notion that Afrikans are imperfect and can do nothing. That is
the biggest lie that has ever been perpetuated upon our people. I have met some of the most
talented people in the world in Ghana and other parts of Afrika. Ghanaians can fix anything, build
anything, and design anything, etc. i.e., like our Mercedes Benz that couldn’t be fixed. We sold it
to a mechanic for less than US$500 only to see it running smoothly, freshly painted around town
a few weeks later. That was many years ago and it is probably still running!
With our exposure and technological know how from the Diaspora and their skill of hand, mind
and body we are unstoppable as a people. In addition, many Ghanaians are better educated, in
the theoretical sense, than we are! Afrika has its modern urban environment and you can live as
modern or as simply and rural as you like. The environmental conditions have improved greatly
in some areas, while other areas lag behind.
Having been away from “Mother” Afrika for so long we thirst for the Afrikan tradition, the culture
and the political overstanding (understanding) of our people. There is a great deal that we can
learn about our Afrikan family and consequently a good exchange can take place between us.
Afrikan culture and tradition is the backbone of the family structure, where we live, work, dream,
harvest and celebrate together; where we are functioning as a unit, providing and taking care
of self and community – growing and selling our own food and raising our own children; living
the ideals of practical Pan-Afrikanism and truly demonstrating in “word” and “deed” that which is
necessary for our survival and success – using the principles of reciprocity. If you plant you reap/
harvest, you eat. Otherwise, you suffer.
We must come back to the land and get rid of our “imported” mentality. And don’t be surprised
and shocked when you meet your continental brothers and sisters with the same, if not worse
“imported mentality” than we had and many still have. Afrika in truth needs to import nothing
for she has all the natural resources for full-scale industrialization, which we as Afrikan people
cannot have without “Unity”.
If we continue to be a divided and exploited people looking for the opportunity to bring one
another down, then this attitude will continue to be passed down from generation to generation
and unless it changes we will continue to be exploited, used and abused by the exploiters of
our people.
Some Ghanaians will do almost anything to get to America and Europe, which they believe to
be one of the greatest places in the world and if they can just reach there everything will be all
right. Unfortunately, too many of them do not return to Ghana/Afrika, even if they want to. With
the day-to-day survival in the Diaspora of paying rent, insurance, car note, utilities, etc., there is
little money left to afford a ticket, which is extremely expensive.
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The Western society teaches us to separate ourselves from the family and community. Go to
work for some large company instead of coming together to create our own large company. Aside
from the Afrikan Slave Holocaust that decimated Afrika, Afrikans continue to leave Mother Afrika
in their numbers, with the help and encouragement of the previous colonial masters, through
Visa lotto’s set up to entice our people to take their talents and skills, and come to America
and Europe, leaving no one to care for Mother Afrika. With all the talent gone “Mother” suffers
greatly from brain drain, while we make someone other than ourselves rich and prosperous. So
we must take seriously the notion of returning home to “Mother” Afrika for we have something
to give one another.
“It won’t be easy but anything worth having is worth fighting for,” my Daddy used to say.
When we fall down we must get up and try again, not run back to the United States because
some “unconscious” person has cheated or deceived you. Learn from your mistakes (and there
will be some) and gain strength for the victory, which will certainly be ours.
As Dr Carter G. Woodson said, “History shows that it does not matter who is in power … those
who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain
any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.”
While the King James Version of the Bible, written in 1611, says that we should “lay up our
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt”, we must look from whence the
King James Version of the Bible came. It came from the previous colonial masters” who sat down
at the Berlin Conference on November 15, 1884 and divided up Afrika. Fourteen countries were
represented by a plethora of ambassadors when that conference opened in Berlin. The countries
represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 18141905), Turkey, and the United States of America. Of these 14 nations, France, Germany, Great
Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa
at the time.
They divided up Afrika amongst themselves! And we must look to make our demand for
reparations to those countries (nations) that are responsible for the suffering and current state
of affairs of Afrikan peoples. We must also be diligent in protecting Africa’s earthly treasures
from foreigners who continue to steal our human, mineral and land resources, destroy and steal
our arts, crafts (kente weaving, batiking) and home industries. This has circumvented our ability
to become the mainstays of our economic development in Afrika and Ghana in particular. We
Afrikans of the Diaspora who are interested in Afrika and those who are repatriating home must
help to improve the living conditions of our people as we re-learn our lost culture.
My husband, Nana, a practicing “Black Hebrew Israelite”, uses the scriptures in describing our
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plight as Afrikan people. They say that many Africans in America are actual descendants of the
ancient Hebrew Israelites, whose experience of 400 years of slavery (Genesis 15:13-14) and
oppression due to the disobedience of their ancestors, are the fulfillment of the prophesy in the
Bible which states, “You shall serve (be slaves to) your enemies, which the lord shall send against
you, in hunger and thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things and he (your enemy) shall put
a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you” (Deuteronomy 28:48-49 & 68).
I am extremely grateful for the blessings that have been bestowed upon my family and me. In
spite of the struggles, we finally made it. We’ve come home and there’s no disputing that! But
the struggle continues.
In August of 1998, for the first time in the history of Afrika, Ghana held the first Emancipation Day
observation, in which she welcomed and accepted back the remains of two of our ancestors:
Samuel Carson who had been enslaved and died in America, and three-hundred-year-old Sister,
Elder Crystal from Jamaica, West Indies.
As part of that celebration, a group of students, their professors from Southern Illinois University
at Carbondale, several friends and I traveled to the Upper Eastern and Northern Regions of
Ghana following the Slave Route (trek) of our ancestors. We went into the caves that had
been hiding places for our people, trying to escape from the slave raiders. We visited the Slave
Markets of Salaga where our people were chained to trees in the hot sun and sold to the highest
bidders; we visited the deep forests/jungles and touched the “Walls of Resistance” (as I call
them), which were built around villages and farmlands to protect the inhabitants from Slave
Raiders. We visited Sandema, where the oldest Traditional Ruler in Ghana who was 115 years
old, had been on his Skin for 67 years, since 1931 and was still alive and kicking. In the North,
traditional rulers sit on the Skin, whereas in the South of Ghana the traditional rulers sit on a
Stool.
He told us that, “The knowledge of one another is what will bring us together as a people to
build one common world and that your short visit should not escape your knowledge of our
forefathers. I am so sorry that you are not staying longer so that we could share other important
information with you and so that you could learn more about the people who defeated Babatu
and the other Slave Raiders. The remains of Babatu’s weapons are still here as a testament of
Bulsa Land’s defeat of him. If I die today, I will be happy for I have had the opportunity to share
the history of our people with you. I am the oldest and only surviving son of my father, who
disclosed to me where to find the instruments of war used to take our people away. I am happy
to see all of you, descendants of our ancestors. You are welcome back home.”
We also had the opportunity to meet and share the history of our people with the descendants
of one of the notorious Slave Raiders, Babatu in Yendi. For me all of this was significant, for as
long as I have lived in Ghana I had not experienced the history of my people any further than
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Kumasi. I realized that the total picture could not be drawn just in those dungeons alone; we
have to go further. In the North I saw my people, I felt their pain, I felt their strength, and I had
finally come home. This has completed for me, the full circle of my return.
As I stood in the waters, in front of the Cape Coast Castle Dungeons waiting to receive the
remains of my ancestors being returned home from Jamaica and the United States; returning
“Thru The Door of No Return”, which had now been re-named on the outside of the castle/
dungeon door “Door of Return”, I realized that the circle had in fact been completed and that
Ghana had taken a bold step when she stood up on the world stage and claimed that we as
Afrikans living in the Diaspora as a result of the greatest Holocaust known to mankind, had “The
Right to Return” to our “Mother” land Afrika.
We have come home. There’s no disputing that. People often ask, “What are those blessings?”
• First of all I have returned home after 500 years in captivity.
• I now live where I have always wanted to live, on the oceanfront of our historical
homeland with a partner that wants the same things that I want.
• We own our home, without a thirty (30) year mortgage or the payment of rent.
• We pay low taxes.
• We live a basically stress-free lifestyle; and
• I walk the streets of my town after dark, without fear.
Despite the blessings, the return can put a strain on the strongest of relationships for often only
one person in the relationship really wants to make the sacrifices of returning home – and it is a
sacrifice. We did not make this journey without personal sacrifices. Every fibre of my being has
been tested and my marriage further strained.
American-born Afrikan men, mine included, are often captivated by the continental born Afrikan
woman, comparing her perceived servile and obedient manner to those of the “more aggressive,
vocal” ways of American-born Afrikan women and sometimes that comparison is painful.
But you’ve got to be able to hang in there as you work within the blessings and towards the light
at the end of the tunnel. I believe that the greatest asset of my husband and I is that we both
wanted to return home, that in spite of the difficulties and strain on our relationship that neither
of us wanted to “run” back to America when the going got rough.
There is an expression, “When the going gets tough the tough get going.” Go where? We ask
ourselves, this is it! This is our blessing from the Creator and the Ancestors and we won’t run
away. But more importantly it is accepting that we as Afrikans born in the Diaspora, are a tribe
unto ourselves like the Fantes, the Gas, the Ashantis, the Ewes etc., and that we also have
acquired a culture, in fact it grows in its Afrikanness more and more each day.
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We are the sons and daughters of our “Mother” Afrika, kidnapped and stolen away during the
Trans-Atlantic Arab European Slave Holocaust, who have come forward again and must find
our niche on the continent of Afrika, our home, especially in Ghana where the largest number
of slave forts, castles and dungeons can be found – slave dungeons that today represent our
sacred monuments.
With the dungeons looming in the distance, I thought of the following verses:
Waves of welcome are singing
As they crash against the shore,
Waves of welcome keep singing …
Welcome home, back through the door.
That same “Door of No Return”, those same exit doors, through which our ancestors were
marched, crawling and stumbling into the Belly of the Beast.
This return completes the circle for me, but within that circle there is still much to be done. The
word must go out to those who are searching for another way, that Ghana could be the place;
Afrika is the place but there is still work to be done. It is time and it is possible. We must unite
and use our God-given creativity and skills acquired while away from home, to develop bigger
and better things for us, and our families.
I wish I could say that I speak Fante, Twi, Ga or any of the other Ghanaian languages fluently,
I can’t but I will. I sometimes wondered if there was anything in the United States that I missed
so much that I’d want to return, there wasn’t. As for family and friends, as much as we missed
them, they would have to come home … Ghana if they wanted to see us again, (my husband,
Nana has not returned to the United States since 1991). I think of them sometimes, as the sun
sets in the West along the jagged rocks and coconut tree lined coast.
But I’m distracted as the fiery ball of the sun fades behind the Elmina Castle Dungeons; the
place where Kings, Queen Mothers, Chiefs, Priests and Priestesses, Physicians, Scholars and
Craftsmen … were imprisoned and where under the cruel lash of the oppressors, a new tribe of
Afrikans was being shipped to the Diaspora in the loins of our ancestors.
I look again at the Elmina Castle Dungeons (approximately two miles in the distance) and after
16 years, I still pinch myself and ask, “Am I really here?” Sometimes I think I’ll wake up and find
that it’s all a dream and that frightens me, because I want to spend the rest of my life on the
Continent of Afrika.
Then there were the nights when I’d wake up from my sleep trembling but relieved to find that
my nightmares of being de-humanized in the holds of slave ships are just that … nightmares but
so real to me, and impossible to forget that which is deep in my soul.
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It is my testimony that I am first a Nubian ascendant/descendant born on the soil of the United
States of America, which has been tainted with the blood of slaughtered indigenous people and
enslaved Afrikans. However, I remain forever connected to my people and our God-given right
to be “free”.
We, the Afrikans born in the Diaspora are ascendants (for we are in fact ascending, we are
rising up not going down, descending) of those ancestors who were kidnapped and robbed of
our heritage during the Trans-Atlantic Arab-European Slave Trade, a Holocaust of Enslavement.
Our ancestors prayed for this and millions died for this; but little did we know growing up in the
United States and the Caribbean that we would be the ones chosen, to fulfill their dreams of
returning home.
From our home, with the vast ocean view of “Mommy Waters” before me, I watch faithfully each
day the Elmina Castle Dungeons in the distance, built on a rock and jutting out like a huge
accusing finger into the sea. I feel like the Gatekeeper or Sentinel, watching … to assure that it
doesn’t happen again. Who knows, perhaps that’s my portion?
After relating what some of our experiences have been it is important to note that there have
been numerous programs in the past which spoke to our return (PANAFEST, Emancipation Day
and most recently The Joseph Project). There have been apologies given, atonements made
and laws enacted which state that we have the right to live and work in Ghana but IT IS NOT
CITIZENSHIP.
I have taken the liberty of including the full text of that law, “The Right of Abode”.
Immigrations Regulations, 2001
In exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister for the Interior by section 55 of the Immigration
Act 2000, (Act 573) these regulations are made this 19th day of July 2001.
The following is the Legislative Instrument 1691 (L.I. 1691) of the Immigrations Regulations,
2001 that was enacted in November 2001 as it relates to Africans in the Diaspora entitled “the
Right of Abode.”
Application for Right of Abode
13. 1. A person who wishes to be considered for the grant of Right of Abode should submit
an application as in Form E in the Schedule to the Minister through Director.
2. A Ghanaian national who by the acquisition of another nationality can not hold a
Ghanaian nationality because of the laws governing the acquired nationality and who
wishes to be granted right of abode shall not be required to produce documentary
evidence of financial standing.
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3. A person of African descent in the Diaspora who wishes to be considered for the
grant of right of abode, shall be subject to a verification process which requires among
other things
a) an attestation by two Ghanaians who are notaries public, lawyers, senior
public officers or other class of persons approved by the minister to the
effect that the applicant is of good character and that they have known
the applicant personally for a period of at least five years;
b) a declaration by the applicant to the effect that the applicant has not been
convicted of any criminal offence and been sentenced to imprisonment
for a term of twelve months or more;
c) production by the applicant of documentary evidence of financial standing;
d) the applicant satisfying the minister that the applicant is capable of
making a substantial contribution to the development of Ghana; and
e) that the applicant has attained at least the age of 18 years.
4. An applicant for right of abode shall submit the application in person
5. For the purpose of verification under sub-regulation (3), the applicant must have resided in the country:
a) throughout the period of 24 months immediately preceding the date of the application; and
b) during the seven years immediately preceding the period of 24
months referred to in paragraph (a), for a period amounting in
the aggregate to not less than five years.
The Dual Citizenship Act also went into effect for Ghanaians, however, it DOES NOT cover
persons of African descent from the Diaspora.
After a careful review of the newly enacted immigrations regulations, many of us are of the
opinion that we have gained very little from the newly revised law, especially brothers and sisters
who initially enter Ghana. They must live in Ghana at least seven years before they can even
apply for the “Right of Abode”.
What have we truly been given? Are we still as our enslaved ancestors only receiving the crumbs
from the master boss’ table? When will our total recognition, our total acceptance as African
people returning home happen?
Once again, another program of reconciliation and apology is being presented. The Minister of
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Tourism, through the recent Joseph Project apologized for those who were responsible for the
selling of our ancestors into slavery and spoke of various reasons why Ghana was welcoming
the return of Afrikans of the Diaspora.
•
Our access to resources that Afrika needs to free the wealth of the continent
•
Our commitment to Mother Afrika
•
Re-linking and re-uniting the children of Mother Afrika, etc.,
But my question is, does this most recent of apologies and recognition of who we are include
the restoration of our Afrikan citizenship that was forcibly taken from us? Does it come with Dual
Citizenship and the Right of Return? In the PANAFEST/Emancipation Day 2003 flyer, circulated
by the Tourist Board it stated:
“The Atlantic Slave Trade in which Africans were forcibly taken from their homes in the 16th
century and thereafter, and sent to the Americas to work as Slaves stand condemned for all
times. Today those of us at home (Ghana) talk of our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora
and they refer to us as their brothers and sisters back in the Motherland. Beneath this neat
and romantic acknowledgement, lies our common terrible and terrifying history. It’s a history of
cruelty, greed and lament. The place we call Ghana today formed a major pool for the abduction
and kidnap of individuals, families and groups for shipment across the Atlantic to be enslaved.
Most modern African Americans, Africans in the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas carry
genes whose origins can be traced to the Savannah plains and forest zones of present-day
Ghana. We are one and the same”. And the Joseph Project is saying basically the same thing!
And we are returning home
•
We come inspired by the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, and the
haunting melodies of Bob Nesta Marley’s “Exodus, Movement of JAH
People.”
•
We come because we continue to hear the sorrowful wails of our ancestors
on the winds, who do not sleep.
•
We come embracing the spirit of our ancestors lost in the Middle Passage
during the Trans-Atlantic Arab European Slave Holocaust.
•
We come because we’ve been invited and encouraged to come.
•
We are neither Beggars nor Criminals but Refugees/Aliens; we are a cadre
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of professional, technical, honest, and talented “brothers, sisters and family”
who have repatriated home to our “Mother” land to embrace the soil in which
we were kidnapped and stolen from.
•
We believe in Ghana and the Continent of Afrika in which we have built our
homes, established businesses, financially influenced the economy, and
invested in various industries.
•
We have returned with the necessary skills, financial resources and
commitment to be part of the further growth and development of Afrika/Ghana.
The minister further stated that the Joseph Project was not just another tourism gimmick but a
sincere attempt to recognize, apologize, and welcome back to the fold, those family of Afrikans
who “rose to prominence in the land of their captivity; who better to partner with than our relatives
and family”, whom he compares to the biblical Joseph of ancient times.
We are also being told that a special “Sankofa” Visa stamp will be put into the passports of future
Afrikan descendant visitors who will be coming. That is all well and good in its place, but what of
the current Visa situation which is now costing us more for less time spent here?
Those of us who have already repatriated from the Diaspora are still being referred to and
treated as foreigners/strangers, as well as being referred to as brothers, sisters, and family but
denied the status of “Right of Return and Dual Citizenship”, as was granted to our Ghanaian
“brothers and sisters” who also have American Citizenship. Although the Right of Abode Bill has
been passed, one without the other (as referenced above) is confusing to us as we continue to
find ourselves in the midst of seeming contradictions in the use of these terms of endearment
and limited commitment from our Motherland Ghana:
•
Foreign spouses of Ghanaians pay two million Cedis for their Indefinite Residency
Permit, while all other categories pay 10 million Cedis for their Residency Permit.
This also includes the returning Afrikan Descendants. Are we foreigners or family?
•
For business investors, “Foreigners” must pay fifty thousand US dollars ($50,000.00)
if they solely own a business and ten thousand US dollars ($10,000.00) if they
have a Ghanaian partner. If we are brothers, sisters and family as previously
claimed in the 2003 flyer and currently claimed in the Joseph Project, why are we
treated differently? Are we foreigners or family?
•
Foreigners and so-called Foreigners (Africans from the Diaspora) pay a higher
price to enter the castle/dungeons where our Afrikan ancestors were held hostage
before going through the “Door of No Return”. Are we foreigners or family?
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It is our contention that the “Right of Return and Dual Citizenship” is a more powerful and
committed declaration than the “Right of Abode”. What African country has ever “legislatively”
said that we have the “Right of Return”? Therefore as “brothers, sisters, and family”, we once
again petition the government of Ghana to rightfully and lawfully bestow upon repatriated
Africans and those who will repatriate, the “Right of Return and Dual Citizenship.” As family,
treat us as such!!
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CHAPTER 5 – TRANSFORMATION
Page
5.1 Obstacles to a United States of Africa: Looking Beyond the State System towards Political Integration
Y. Gebe204
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5.1
Obstacles to a United States of Africa: Looking Beyond the State
System towards Political Integration
Yao Gebe
Introduction
A recurrent theme in discussions among African scholars and politicians regarding continental
unity and political integration is the idea that African countries should have opted for a United
States of Africa at the time of independence in the early 1960s. This thinking has, to a large
extent, re-emerged since the institutional transformation of the Organization of African Unity
(OAU) into the African Union (AU), beginning with the adoption of the Constitutive Act in Lome,
Togo in July 2000. Apart from accomplishing the political objective of continental emancipation
from colonial subjugation, most of the reasons that informed the formation of the OAU back in
the 1960s seem not to have changed in any significant way. This led to the practical steps and
policy measures by African leaders to pursue the dream once again under the Constitutive Act
of the African Union, particularly continental unity, economic development and regional security.
What is left unclear in these processes and programs towards continental unity is the form
and structure the organization should take. The commitment to the idea of African unity was
demonstrated most infectiously by the late Ghanaian leader, President Kwame Nkrumah, when
he talked of a Union of African States in the early 1960s. According to him, “Since our inception,
we have raised as a cardinal policy, the total emancipation of Africa from colonialism in all
its forms. To this, we have added the objective of the political union of African States as the
securest safeguard of our hard-won freedom and the soundest foundation for our individual, no
less than our common, economic, social and cultural advancement.1” According to this line of
thinking, that option would have provided African people the strength and unity of purpose, and
a common front to launch the continent’s developmental agenda. In his estimation, a Union of
African States must strengthen the influence of member states on the international scene, as
all Africa would be speaking with one concerted voice. In addition, a union of multiple peoples
living and working for mutual development in amity and peace would help smash inter-territorial
barriers, raise the dignity of Africa and strengthen its impact on world affairs.
In the estimation of a visionary like Nkrumah, the inability to harness the rare opportunity
towards the protection of the continent’s independence would result in neo-colonialism, a device
that would guarantee the endless balkanization and exploitation of the continent in more subtle
forms. He asserted that “the conversion of Africa into a series of small states is leaving some of
them with neither the resources nor the manpower to provide for their own integrity and viability.
Without the means to establish their own economic growth, they are compelled to continue
within the old colonial trading framework.2” He went on to say that the creation of several weak
and unstable States of this kind in Africa was the wish of the colonial powers to ensure their
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continued dependence on them for economic aid, and impede African unity. He termed this
policy of balkanization as the new imperialism and a danger to Africa.3”
A realistic appraisal of the contemporary international system, given the dynamics of international
relations and the complex challenges facing the continent, particularly on issues of trade,
finance and capital, investment and technology, indebtedness and poverty, one would think that
Kwame Nkrumah was speaking of today’s world and that his prophetic call for a Union of African
States is still relevant. What is left unclear in his call for a union of Africa and even in the current
arrangements under the AU is the approach to be adopted. Are African leaders pursuing an
agenda of regional integration that will eventually subsume the powers of the integrating units
under one central authority? Are the established supranational institutions having the powers
to take executive and legislative decisions on behalf of member states? Essentially, are African
countries and their governments still averse to the idea of a politically united Africa or are the
realities and challenges of the African condition now making it appealing?
Objectives of the study
Against this background, the study analyzes the viability or otherwise of recent attempts to revisit
the whole idea of a United States of Africa, particularly, since the inception of the African Union.
The work specifically does the following:
• Provides an understanding of the challenge of the state system in activities toward
integration;
• Reviews some of the relevant provisions in the Constitutive Act of the African Union
that tend to compound, rather than ease, the march towards integration;
• Examines the problem of sovereignty in the quest for African unity and the irrelevance
of the current practice of supranationalism as a political solution;
• Considers the relevance of the functionalist approach and how this can be woven into
the continental project, for instance, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and
other sub-regional schemes towards economic integration; and
• Concludes with some observations.
Rationale for the study
This study is primarily a modest contribution towards the effort in regional integration and
continental unity. Already, work is in progress on the continent, manifest in the various projects
and programs that are on the agenda of the African Union and the sub-regional organizations
such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community
of Central African States (ECCASS), Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA), Intergovernmental Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and South
African Development Community (SADC). While the political impulse on the part of our leaders
to achieve results are high, there is also the need to provide an analytical input on work in
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progress. The progress so far made may not immediately produce the results that some would
want to see, for instance, a United States of Africa; but to the extent that the structures and
processes are geared towards welfare creation, the dividends will inexorably permeate other
sectors, including political integration which is harder to achieve, unless the leaders want to
pursue it through the instrument of coercion.
Probing the idea of Continental unity
The idea of establishing a United States of Africa is not as simple or straight-forward as it seems
since there are quite a number of issues that must be placed in perspective. Is the economic
and political integration of Africa, as conjectured currently, one that will require the rationalization
and/or abolition of existing borders? What specific obstacles do different colonial experiences
pose to the project of economic and political integration? Can the current political boundaries
continue to exist while allowing member states to function within a united Africa with reduced
powers in terms of national sovereignty? What kinds of legal and institutional arrangements
does the Union envisage as far as supra-nationality is concerned?
To a very large extent, most of these questions seem to be left unanswered, if the principles and
objectives that the African Union has committed itself to are anything to go by. In a real sense,
redefining Africa’s political boundaries is no longer necessary because the issue of territorial
disputes is not of primary concern now. Apart from a few of such disputes on the continent
(Ethiopia-Eritrea; Nigeria-Cameroon; and Morocco-Western Sahara), some of which are almost
nearing resolution, the dominant questions center on economic development and meeting the
welfare needs of the African people. Secondly, the pursuit of economic and political integration
within the context of the African Union can prove to be a viable project provided that the initial
steps towards integration are based on functional integration instead of any supranational
pretensions. What the current arrangements at both the regional and sub-regional levels seem
to emphasize, and which cannot be wished away, is the reality of national sovereignty and their
inviolability. This reality, therefore, opens the argument as to what other policy alternatives and
frameworks can take the continent to the same objective without attacking directly the grain of
sovereignty.
For now, let it suffice to say that emphasizing the functional prerequisites of integration in those
important areas of human welfare, for instance, infrastructure development, communications,
transportation, education, health, energy, among others, will produce positive ramifications that
can enhance the integration process to the extent that political elites will realize the need to
collaborate further in other areas. The spill-over effect may possibly yield political and security
benefits that invariably shall lead to the same goals of a Union of African states. Beginning an
integration project from the premise that member-states should forgo or sacrifice their sovereign
powers can be counter-productive. This possibly explains why the peers of President Nkrumah
disagreed with him at the time, particularly on issues of strategy and time frame, and were
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unwilling to provide him with the kind of support he wanted.
President Nkrumah had this to say at the time, “We are subjected to the insidious suggestion
that a certain African State is anxious to exalt itself to the place of the retired colonial power
… appeal is directed to our personal ambitions and we are reminded that in a Union of African
States there will be room for only one Prime Minister, a single cabinet and a sole representation
in the United Nations.4” Basically, Dr Nkrumah was acutely aware of the challenges he faced
from his peers and the impossibility of establishing immediately a Union of African States. But
to be fair to his peers, some were as committed to the idea of a Union of African states as he
was. An example was the remarks of former president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere in 1963: “For
the sake of all African states, large or small, African Unity must come and it must be real unity.
Our goal must be a United States of Africa. Only this can really give Africa the future her people
deserve after centuries of economic uncertainty and social oppression.5” He went on, however,
to say that, “It is absurd to imagine African Unity coming from the domination of one African
country over another. Our unity can only be negotiated unity, for it is the unity of equals.6” The
Organization of African Unity (OAU) was indeed established in 1963, but as a compromised
organization since a large dose of moderation and conservatism among African leaders at the
time led to disagreements with the radicals such as Kwame Nkrumah on a number of issues
pertaining to the strategy and processes of achieving continental unity.
It was the case that Francophone Africa, to a large extent, preferred to keep a degree of
closeness with metropolitan France as was evidenced by the result of the referendum conducted
under General de Gaulle in 1958, ushering in the French Community during the Fourth
Republic. Only the Republic of Guinea decided to annul its umbilical cord with France and, as
a result, had to be punished with excommunication. Other forms of manipulations took place
but the political leadership of Francophone Africa realized soon the inevitability of requesting
independence. The principal architects in this endeavour were, notably, Leopold Senghor,
Modibo Keita and Houphouet-Boigny. It led to the break-up of the Mali Federation comprising
Senegal and Mali and the Counseil de l’Entente comprising Cote d’Ivoire, Upper Volta (Burkina
Faso), Niger, and Dahomey (Benin). Others demanded independence and were accordingly
granted independence, and these included countries such as Togo, Congo Brazzaville, Congo
Leopoldville, Chad, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Madagascar.
With the inception of the OAU in 1963, and the pursuit of the total liberation of the continent from
colonial rule as the main preoccupation, the rallying issue was no longer the establishment of
a United States of Africa but rather ensuring that all Africa was free from external subjugation.
Most of the next three decades were devoted to this singular pursuit and the evidence of that
struggle was the resultant attainment of independence by the colonial territories of Angola,
Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde Islands and Mozambique in 1975. The independence of these
countries did not, however, provide the lull that the continent wanted as some of the countries,
particularly Mozambique and Angola, were soon thrown into civil conflicts, coming as they did
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at the height of the Cold War. The conditions in three other countries, namely South Africa,
Southern Rhodesia and Namibia were not very different as they were subjected to minority white
domination with its accompanying socio-cultural seclusion and strangulation. The achievement
of independence and majority rule in the three countries, beginning with present-day Zimbabwe
in 1980 and later Namibia and South Africa in the early 1990s, marked the end of a dark period
in Africa’s international relations, the domination of one race by another through the employment
of superior force over the disdainful factor of skin colour.
The demise of the Cold War in the early 1990s also brought its own attractions to the African
continent, principally the advent of political pluralism and democratic governance. While it led
to the overthrow of dictatorial and oppressive regimes in most of Africa and elsewhere, it also
precipitated intra-state wars and conflicts. The combination of these factors and the dynamics
it generated also brought to the fore the need for African governments and political elites to
redefine the continent’s priorities. The decade following the collapse of the Cold War was
a momentous one since it provoked the launching of various programs and projects on the
continent. The transformation of the OAU into the AU, undoubtedly, marked the rebirth of the
Pan-African dream that was almost forgotten. Thus, the quest for a Union of African States
opened the debate as to whether the new body constitutes the real beginning of that yearning,
to speak with one voice and act authoritatively in the international system.
In so many ways, African leaders and their people have recognized the need to work together as
a continent, not only as regions or individual countries. This fact runs through most of the activities
and programs that have been launched over the last few years. Notable among these are the AU
whose principal objectives are geared towards the development of the continent as a whole; the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) that provides for a comprehensive appraisal
of the continent’s developmental challenges and what must be done in terms of strategy, goals
and priorities, and in partnership with well-meaning actors internationally.7 Of equal importance
is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) that seeks to encourage African leaders,
with the full participation and support of their people, to monitor the track record of each one
towards accountability, transparency and good governance. A common thread in all these is
the acceptance of responsibility by African governments to work in association with civil society
organizations and institutions for the development of the continent as a whole. In the exception
of the Kingdom of Morocco, which withdrew from the OAU due to the dispute in the Western
Sahara, all of Africa is a participant in these processes. The challenges are many and difficult
but there is commitment and the will power to succeed.
The Constitutive Act and Continental Unity
The preamble of the Constitutive Act draws attention to the common vision of a united and
strong Africa built on a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society in
order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion among the peoples. It seeks to promote and protect
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human and people’s rights, consolidate democratic institutions and culture, and to ensure
good governance and the rule of law. It is also determined to take all necessary measures to
strengthen the common institutions and provide them with the necessary powers and resources
to enable them to discharge their respective mandates effectively.
The clearest indication of the AU’s commitment to respecting existing territorial borders and
national sovereignty are provided in Article 4 which deals with the principles. The Act recognizes
the sovereign equality and interdependence among all the member states of the AU, peaceful
co-existence of member-states and their right to live in peace and security, prohibition of the
use of force or threat among member states of the AU, non-interference in the internal affairs of
another, and condemnation and rejection of unconstitutional changes of government.
Against the background of these provisions, there is no indication that member-states are
willing, either now or in the near future to surrender their national sovereignty, in part or in whole,
towards the purposes of the AU, if the calculation is to achieve complete political integration.
This is not surprising because it is always difficult to ensure cooperation among political units
when it is clear that in the process of building a common front, the national interest, particularly
those that relate to national sovereignty, security and resources will be affected. There should be
enough reason to convince the participating units that the costs of staying away from achieving
a collective or public good are less than pursuing that objective in isolation. This is an issue that
is examined later in some detail under the ongoing programs and projects of the AU.
An overview of the objectives of the AU as provided under Article 3 of the Constitutive Act would
seem to suggest on the contrary that indeed, there is commitment by African states to integration.
Article 3 (a), 3 (b) and 3 (c) provide for the achievement of greater unity and solidarity between
the African countries and the peoples of Africa; to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and
independence of its member-states; and accelerate the political and socio-economic integration
of the continent. Apart from these, one can also glean from other provisions that explain some
of the programs and activities of the organization and judge whether, indeed, there is enough
progress in that direction. Article 3 (i), 3 (j), 3 (k) and 3 (l) provide the basis to view it in that
respect. Under those provisions, member States undertake to establish the necessary conditions
which will enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international
relations; promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well
as the integration of the African economies; promote cooperation in all fields of human activity in
order to raise the living standards of African peoples; and coordinate and harmonize the policies
between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of
the objectives of the AU.
Apart from other provisions that emphasize the harmonization of the activities and programs
of member states as well as the continent’s relations with an array of external actors, little
else is evident in that regard. Most of the substantive issues remaining deal with the various
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institutional arrangements for organizational purposes. These include the structures and organs,
offices, positions and functions, for instance, the Assembly of the Union, Executive Council,
Pan-African Parliament, Court of Justice, Commission, Permanent Representative Committee
and Specialized Technical Committees. In a significant sense, these latter provisions in Article
4 captioned “Organs of the Union”, indicate the sense of direction for the organization, thus
to centralize the operations of the AU, what can conveniently be labeled as supranational
institutions. It gives the AU the clearest indication that the structures and institutions of the AU
are meant to build a momentum towards finality, that is, complete political integration.
These provisions, however, stand in sharp contrast with some of the earlier provisions under
the principles of the organization, for instance, respect of borders existing on achievement of
independence and non-interference in the internal affairs of another. It is rather difficult to relate
these provisions to the pursuance of common visions that will not demand accountability and
invariably, intervention from the organization in domestic affairs of members, if only to ensure
achievement of mutual objectives. An example is the current operations and commitments under
the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Confronting the African dilemma of Sovereignty
One critical component of the activities towards regional integration efforts is the issue of
sovereignty. Sovereignty, in terms of international relations, means the legal authority that a
state has to decide and act independently within the system of States in all aspects of policy
formulation and implementation.8 The State in question, therefore, does not answer to any
higher authority in the pursuit of the national interest. Contemporary interpretations as to where
sovereignty resides, whether in the people, the government, the ruler or parliament can be
looked at in strictly legalistic or democratic interpretations. Some recent views tend to associate
sovereignty with responsibility on the part of the state towards its people. With regards to
considerations of sovereignty in past and current efforts at achieving a Union of African States,
the problem has always been how much power African governments are willing to forgo to
enable central institutions to function effectively. Historically, the Ghanaian leader, President
Kwame Nkrumah was prepared to surrender part or all of Ghana’s sovereignty for the sake
of making the goal of African unity realizable. But he was just one individual speaking for an
entire country and at a time when the country was run as a one party state. Today, most African
countries are governed democratically and their parliaments and people have a say in what their
governments and leaders do nationally and internationally.
Under current arrangements, whether at the regional or sub-regional levels, there is the openly
expressed desire to achieve economic and political integration. It is not just the intention but
there are concrete examples of these happening. There are various economic groupings at
the sub-regional levels, with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Common Market of Eastern and Southern
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Africa (COMESA), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCASS), Southern African
Development Community (SADC), Maghreb Union, as some of the notable ones.9 The lack of
progress in all these, however point to one important issue, which is the lack of the political will
to implement decisions and to fully support the groupings to achieve their set objectives. It is the
same problem with the continental or regional bodies, particularly the AU and its predecessor,
the OAU. The tendency has always been to establish institutional arrangements at the apex of
decision-making with the expectation that member states will over time accede their signatures,
ratify the relevant treaties and protocols for eventual take-off. A countless number of such regional
decisions and arrangements remain on the drawing board and new ones are added daily.
Is Supranationalism the answer?
Organizational processes at the regional levels, particularly on matters of integration, require
some level of bureaucracy and technocracy. The example of the European Union (EU) abounds
with numerous examples of putting in place various organs and institutions to streamline
administration of accords, decisions and agreements among the participating units. Thus,
one can refer to such bodies as the European Parliament, the Court of Justice, Investment
Bank, Central Bank, European Commission, among many others. One realization in all these
is the fact that the course of integration in Western Europe had passed through a long process
of functional integration, thus working to achieve common objectives in those areas that are
considered as mutually advantageous to all the participants because in the long run, it benefits
their societies and their over all welfare. The administration of justice, consumer welfare in the
market place as regards access to goods and services, infrastructural development to benefit
industries and investors, travel and transportation, telecommunication, common tariffs, customs,
agricultural policy, among others, are done in such a way that member states are willing to
commit themselves through the appropriate legislation. In this regard, the recent examples of
achieving integration in the more sensitive areas of common monetary, and eventually, foreign
and defense policies, have been quite difficult, but not insurmountable.
In this regard, various supra-national institutions are almost completely in charge of
these processes and their decisions supersede those of the member units. The role of the
European Commission, Court of Justice, European Parliament, Investment and Central Banks
have completely assumed proportions that makes them enjoy little opposition from national
parliaments or governments.
In the African example, whether at the regional or sub-regional levels, there is the tendency by
our governments to plunge directly into the institution of these supranational entities, carefully
crafted as part of the Charter binding all members, even before the organization takes off as
a functioning grouping. In the recent case of the AU, the Constitutive Act painstakingly created
all the various organs with the expectation that all the member States append their signatures
without regard to the specific circumstances of their individual States, or their State’s capacity
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to contribute meaningfully to the institutions and organs so proposed, and the long-term effects
on their national developmental efforts in the essential areas of politics, economics, culture and
human rights. Examples in the Constitutive Act include the Assembly, meant to be the supreme
organ of the AU and comprises all Heads of State and Government; the Executive Council,
composed of Ministers of Foreign Affairs or such designated authority in member states, and
acts in the capacity as the coordinating and decision making body on policies in areas of common
interest to the member states ranging from trade issues to culture; a Pan-African Parliament that
is to be developed into a full-fledged legislative body but only currently plays an advisory role;
a Court of Justice to be in charge of the administration of justice on the continent; a number of
financial institutions, including an African Central Bank, African Monetary Bank and an African
Investment Bank, among many others.
The relevance of functionalism to Regional Integration
Functionalism as a theoretical construct, as well as policy recommendation, began with David
Mitrany in his reflections on the European integration enterprise after World War II. He termed
his collection of ideas as “A Working Peace System.10” In his estimation, the world of the 20th
century was characterized by a growing number of technical issues that could only be resolved
by cooperation across State boundaries. The resolution of such technical problems must be
addressed by highly trained specialists or technocrats with the professional training, instead
of politicians who, in any way, lack the technical skills. According to Mitrany, such pressing
problems, most often having to do with welfare issues, could be addressed outside the politicized
context of ideology or nationalism.11
By placing emphasis on cooperation at the technocratic levels to find solutions according to
specific needs or functions, the basis would be created for a thickening web of cooperation,
leading to the formation and strengthening of international regimes and institutions. The
successes achieved in one area of endeavour could be replicated in other areas through a
cooperative learning process. This condition could lead to the process of ramification, thus the
perceived need in one functional task would in itself, contribute to a change in attitudes in
favour of even greater cooperation over a wide spectrum of issues. Functional cooperation thus
downplays the role of governments and nation-states in the direct processes of integration,
encourages multilateralism, institutional development and regimes. The possibility for such
functional cooperation exists in the technical areas of communications, health, education,
agriculture, transportation and energy, among others.
There have been attempts to provide a realistic appraisal of the work of David Mitrany as to the
appropriateness of overlooking the role of political elites, political parties and interest groups
in the processes of integration. It is doubtful that integration can take place within states and
across state boundaries, some argue, without the involvement of these stakeholders who would
oppose or accept the decision to proceed, depending on their expectations of gaining or losing
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in the process.12 This led to the revision, or perhaps, adjustment to the earlier position and
conclusions of Mitrany to newer interpretations of neo-functionalism.13 Essentially, it argues that
the experts and professionals who collaborate or cooperate to solve functional needs must be
answerable to some authority and must be acting within the specificity of identifiable needs,
preferably at the regional level.
Turning to Africa’s current condition, there is no doubt that the challenges of the continent
relate most vividly to the functional necessities of welfare creation in the most crucial areas of
poverty reduction, education, health, agricultural development, energy and housing as well as
infrastructure development, in overall terms. Whereas the onus of responsibility lies on African
governments to play leadership roles in finding solutions to these developmental challenges,
it has been the case all along that the political elites are unable to liaise with the technocrats
and professionals who can work in organizational and functional terms to find solutions. It is not
enough to provide elaborate frameworks for regional integration without engaging those with
the training and the expertise to carry through developmental objectives. It is not the number
of protocols, treaties or institutional arrangements that are envisaged for action that leads to
integration but the capacity in place for the realization of set goals.
A cursory look at the newest development blueprint on the continent, the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD), carries a lot of interesting, if not ambitious, plans and programs
to uplift the people and put the region on the path of sustainable economic development. Apart
from the various Initiatives on Democracy and Good Political Governance, and Economic and
Corporate Governance, it provides an elaborate plan on sub-regional and regional approaches
to development with focus on the provision of essential regional public goods. These include
transport, energy, water, disease eradication, environmental preservation, information and
communication technology, intra-regional trade, agriculture development, infrastructure
provision, among others. There is very little to be achieved unless the technocratic skills and
professional know-how that the continent abounds in are tapped into and integrated into the
actual processes of regional development.
Such process goes beyond the resources available on the continent alone; equally important
is the vast human talent and technocratic skills and expertise that have left the shores of the
continent and are now domiciled in developed countries which, strictly speaking, do not need
them as much as the continent of Africa does. The pre-occupation of our leaders in this regard
must be the development of a strategic framework that can assure the return of the continent’s
developed human resource capacity to contribute to the regional development and integration
effort. In addition to this group is another category of Africa’s lost human resource, the sons and
daughters born in the Diaspora and who at every opportunity have identified themselves with
the fortunes and tribulations of the continent. Most of these people not only have acquired the
relevant training and expertise, they possibly have the requisite capital to invest in the sectors of
the African economies in most need of capitalization.
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Concluding remarks
The study brought under scrutiny the various efforts that have been made by African governments
and our political leaders since independence to achieve not only continental emancipation from
colonial subjugation, but also achieve economic development through regional integration. The
study unveiled some of the difficulties and challenges that have militated against this project of
achieving continental unity. Principal among them is the question of sovereignty and territorial
pretensions, and the lack of political will and the capacity to translate programs into achievable
goals.
In as much as there is the desire by our political leaders to introduce at every opportunity new
institutional frameworks towards the regional effort, very little can be achieved by emphasizing
the erection of supranational institutions. These in themselves cannot produce results unless
they are backed up with a conscious effort to introduce technocratic and professional skills and
expertise into these arrangements, programs and projects at all levels of the African quest for
social development, economic emancipation and regional integration
ENDNOTES
Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite. (London: Heinemann, 1963), p. xi
2
Ibid. p. 176
3
Ibid. p. 179
4
Ibid. p. 188
Julius Nyerere, “A United States of Africa.” In Gideon-Cyrus M. Mutiso & S. W. Rohio (eds.)
Readings in African Political Thought. (Edinburgh: Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd., 1975),
p. 334.
5
6
Ibid. p. 335
7
For a comprehensive analysis of the various programs and historical transitions, namely the
African Union, the NEPAD and other sub-regional efforts at economic and political integration,
see Kinfe Abraham’s work, “The African Quest: The Transition from the OAU to AU and NEPAD
Imperatives. (EIIPD & HADAD Press, 2003).
I prefer the human-centered definition of Francis Deng et al, who see sovereignty as responsibility on
the part of governments and leaders towards their people or society. Francis Deng et al, Sovereignty
as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa. (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1996).
8
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For a detailed analysis of regional integration efforts in Africa, see S. K B. Asante, Regionalism,
and Africa’s Development: Expectations, Reality and Challenges. (London: MacMillan Press,
1997).
9
David Mitrany, A Working Peace System. (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs,
1943); James E. Dougherty & Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. Contending Theories of International
10
Relations: A Comprehensive Survey. Fifth Edition. (New York: Longman, Inc., 2001), pp. 512513.
11
Ibid. p. 511
There are serious misgivings about States agreeing to cooperate even in the face of common
interests. For a realist and liberal-institutionalist explanations of these issues, see Joseph M.
Grieco, Cooperation among Nations: Europe, America and Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade. (Ithaca
& London: Cornell University Press, 1990).
12
A number of writers have contributed to the relevance of neo-functionalism in integration
schemes including Ernst Haas, Philippe Schmitter, Leon Lindberg, Joseph Nye, Robert Keohane
and Lawrence Scheineman. For the details, see Ernst Haas, The Uniting of Europe. (Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 1958); Karl Deutcsh, et al, Politcal Community and the North
Atlantic Area. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957).
13
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Cheeseman
CHAPTER 6 – TRANSFORMATION, REPARATIONS, REPATRIATION,
AND RECONCILIATION
6.1 Short Paper – Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation, and Reconciliation
By Global Afrikan Congress, Barbados
T. Cheeseman, for and on Behalf of the Barbadian Pan-African Community
6.2 Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation, and Reconciliation
Position Paper – Caribbean Rastafari Organization (CRO)
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Page
217
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Cheeseman
6.1 A short paper submitted by the Interim Chair of the Global Afrikan
Congress (GAC) Barbados Chapter, for and on behalf of the
Barbadian Pan-African Community
Tony Cheeseman
Conference Theme: Create the Future!
Transformation, Reparations, Reparation and Reconciliation
The Pan-African Community of Barbados met on July 9, 2006 at the Commission for PanAfrican Affairs to consider the conference theme in its various elements.
­Transformation
As Afrika is the birth place of man and civilization, human culture as it relates to the development
of skills, methods, symbols, attitudes, customs and behaviours, etc., emerged in the image of
Afrikans as we engaged the existing environment and shaped our realities many thousands of
years ago, leading to what is today called civilization, the products of science and technologies,
trade, agricultural systems, etc., within the matriarchal and matrilineal structure. The TransAtlantic, Indian Ocean, Arab, European slave trade was visited upon us. This global Holocaust/
Maafa involving the dispersal of millions of Afrikans, lay the foundation for colonization, and neocolonization both on the continent and the Diaspora leading us today to become victims of this
racist white supremacist world system now in its refined stage, called globalization.
This dramatic transformation over the last 1,000 years or so has led to our present reality of
poverty, unemployment, depression, drugs, alcohol abuse, family disintegration, crime, death,
war, the oppressor’s genocidal public policies, negative victim indoctrination, self-hatred,
discrimination, etc.
This acculturation or de-afrikanisation, mentacidal process, or what is today called posttraumatic slave syndrome, must continue to be transformed using Afrikan centered concepts
and practices as part of our reconstruction and transformation in our educational, social and
spiritual systems.
Reparations
The principle of reparations like any other principle based on fundamental truth, moral rule, and
up-rightness, has been well established in the general law of nations. The Federal Republic of
Germany paid nearly a billion dollars after the so-called 2nd World War to the State of Israel for
the murder of six million Jews in Europe between 1935 and 1945, during which time the State
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Cheeseman
called Israel, Zionists or otherwise, did not exist. There are many other examples of reparations
being paid for a civil wrong.
Before the 1840’s Britain paid twenty million pounds sterling (20,000,000) to 17 countries in the
Caribbean. Barbados being one of those countries, received one million, seven hundred and
nineteen thousand, nine hundred and eighty pounds sterling (1,719,980.00) for the plantations
owners. A local chartered accountant calculated that if the 1,719,980.00 figure was in today’s
currency, it would be in excess of five billion pounds sterling (5,000,000,000). A plantation owner
in Barbados named Sir John Gay Alleyne, one of the recipients of the payments from Britain,
built the Alleyne School for local poor whites to be educated, not for blacks.
The General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Evangelical Association of the
Caribbean, Reverend Gerald A. Seale, a white Barbadian, has written a letter to Buckingham
Palace, London, England, addressing the Queen on the question of compensation for the
enslaved Afrikans of 200 years ago and their descendants of today, given the fact that the
plantation owners of that day were compensated on the abolition of slavery then. A copy of this
correspondence was sent to the Governor-General and the Prime Minister of Barbados.
Reparations is the redress for an injury both psychological and physical. The fact that wrongs
have continued a long time does not justify them, nor does it negate liability. Self-determination
as a component of reparations is found in Articles I and 55 of the United Nation’s Charter, both
Articles refer to the principles of Equal Rights, Self Determination of Peoples and to Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms without distinction as to race.
A third component of reparations is the question of compensation for atrocities inflicted on
Afrikans at home and abroad for over 400 years of forced labour in the concentration camps
called plantations, etc. The devastation of life and limb of millions is a very complex subject
to reduce to mere dollars and cents. The question of land compensation, the question of the
identifiable treasures stolen from our people, etc., boggle the mind.
The damage can be classified under different headings (1) economic damage, (2) cultural
damage (3) social damage (4) psychological damage.
One approach for measurement is to research the amount by which various European nations
were directly enriched by the institution of slavery. All the major ports in Europe like those at
Bristol, London, and Bordeaux should be researched, and many others through which massive
wealth has been generated to impact the whole of European society. This includes, of course,
the United States of America (USA), which also was enriched by the enslavement of Afrikans
in the North American region. Fortunately, massive documentary evidence in various countries
exists to provide the basis to make a start so that some measurement can take place.
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Repatriation
Marcus Garvey said, “Afrika for the Afrikans at home and abroad.” This idea continued the “back
to Afrika” concept started by Edward Wilmot Blyden of St Croix, before Garvey was born.
One of the priority areas that came out of the working group on reparations report from the
Bridgetown Protocols of October 2002 says that “a grant to all Afrikans in the Diaspora to the
immediate and unfettered right to return to any Afrikan state to claim their ancestral citizenship
rights.” It goes on to say that “whereas no descendant of enslaved Afrikans ever gave up their
rights to their land and citizenship, we demand that the Afrikan Union uphold the agreed upon
objectives of the OAU, “to … enhance the total emancipation and integration of all Afrikans and
the free movement of persons and families.” (Page 46: the Bridgetown Protocol)
Priority Areas that came out in the discussions locally:
• Mental preparation. The repatriation of the ­mind is part of the resettlement move to
restore, empower and rebuild Afrika positively and not to introduce drugs, alcohol,
prostitution, etc.
• Taking skills to Africa. A skills bank should be structured to identify diversity based
on a Pan-African philosophy.
• Doing business in Afrika. Developing corridors of communication for trade and
industry to take place to this end.
• Trade with Afrika. The Government of Barbados, through the Commission for PanAfrican Affairs, has set up a Trans-African Centre for Trade making Barbados an
obligatory point of passage for business with Afrika and the Diaspora.
• Developing Exchange Programmes. The Rastafarian community is in the process
of organizing short-term exchange programmes in the first instance, say in organic
farming, in which they have the expertise to continue the process of repatriation.
They have also agreed to the concept of dual citizenship with Afrikan countries.
• Developing Repatriation Models. The Afrikan Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have
developed one of the best examples of repatriating a community to Afrika.
• Using the arena of sports and entertainment. This would be part of the development
of a holistic health plan for reconnection with our Afrikan roots.
• Adopt a school project and an exchange programme. Exchange would occur
during the holidays and include an “adopt-a-school” project with an Afrikan country.
Reconciliation
The harmonization of Afrikans in scattered Ethiopia, otherwise called the Diaspora, and
continental Afrikans is a complex one given the 400 years and more of slavery and colonial
exploitation. We have been taught that Afrika is a primitive, backward and uncivilized continent,
etc., by the Western world and that we should have nothing to do with it. While Afrikans on the
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Cheeseman
continent have been told that we are the sons and daughters of slaves and are less than they
are! This divide-and-rule practice used by the colonizers has been very effective because it
has become institutionalized in the Church, Government, Judiciary, Military, and the Education,
Social and Economic systems of the western so-called new world of which we are all victims.
The so-called Trans-Atlantic slave trade remains man’s greatest inhumanity to man in human
history. The disturbed spirits of our Ancestors are watching us and assisting us in this restoration
and restitution process.
The Barbados Chapter of the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) and other Pan-Africanist groups
recognize that Ghana’s “Joseph project” 2007 as one excellent example to make this 21st century
the century in which Afrika will be reconstructed in our own image and interest never to suffer
this fate again in human existence.
We are aware that the Church of England, in association with the Episcopal Church of the USA,
has formally apologized for slavery and is in the process of establishing a day of repentance
and reconciliation.
The GAC Barbados Chapter is in the process of setting up a broad based sub-committee using
the G.L.A.S.S. model incorporating:
G – Grassroots organizations
L – Legislative leaders, Parliamentarians, etc.
A – Attorneys of all descriptions
S – Scholars (historians, sociologists, psychologists, theologians, etc.)
S – Students (at all levels: primary, secondary and tertiary)
A national forum on reparations set to begin in 2007, in Barbados, will continue to educate the
public on this issue and develop strategies to move forward.
Conclusion
We in Barbados want to acknowledge the profound work demonstrated by the organizers of the
conference and to applaud the Ghanaian Government for their critical input to ensure that this
program is successful.
The GAC Barbados Chapter and the Pan-Afrikan community in general are pleased to play a
part in this process and will greatly benefit from this family gathering. We also want to thank the
Barbados Government through the Commission of Pan-African Affairs for assisting us with the
funding to attend the conference.
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CRO
6.2 Transformation, Reparations, Repatriation and Reconciliation Position
Paper of the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation (CRO)
The last 500 years of the history of Afrikans at home and in the Diaspora have seen us having to
grapple with the challenging realities of Trans-Atlantic slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism and
more recently, globalization, the current phenomenon which facilitates a universal and crosscultural movement of labour and capital, never before experienced in such a form.
In 1883, when the European nations conspired in Berlin to partition the Afrikan real estate by
mapping out their geo-political boundaries for ultimate control, the damage had already been
done. Our ancestors in the Diaspora had been reduced to beasts of burden and chattel and their
labour had been used to build the new empires in the so-called New World.
Pan-Africanism subsequently emerged primarily from the initiatives of brothers and sisters in the
Diaspora at the dawning of the 20th century so that a total Afrikan ethos could prevail against all
odds of European supremacy. The formation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
through the perseverance of Marcus Mosiah Garvey in Jamaica, and his associates further
emphasized that the soul and spirit of our Afrikan ancestors had not been overwhelmed. His call
of Afrika for the Afrikans at home and abroad was the rallying theme for future generations to
seriously consider repatriation to the continent even at this juncture in our history.
In 1930, the transformation continued when the coronation of His Imperial Majesty (H.I.M.) Haile
Selassie I of Ethiopia, which incidentally had remained one of the few unconquered states,
inspired many of our fore-parents to possess a sense of Afrikan dignity and pride knowing that
they could look not to a European monarchy but to an Afrikan King of Kings from the lineage of
Kings David and Solomon.
The Rastafari movement evolved around this period of our history and the Houses of the
Nyahbinghi followed by the Bobo Shanti were established in Jamaica and eventually the rest of
the Caribbean as young generations of our citizens began to “search for their roots” in diverse
ways. In 1966 when Haile Selassie I visited the Caribbean, more enlightenment occurred and
another branch of the movement was formed, namely the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
For the last 75 years therefore, our community has been endeavouring to repair the damage
done to our psyche and have now arrived in this new millennium with firm objectives to reconnect with the continent and our brothers and sisters in a unified manner. As a matter of
fact, the music of the Caribbean over the years should be seen as one of the main examples of
how the rich culture of Afrika was sustained and manifested itself in varied forms. Calypso and
Reggae are but two of these musical genres with the latter being accepted as being a major
source of upliftment and encouragement for those
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CRO
who fought in the struggle for liberation in Southern Afrika in recent decades.
The CRO was conceived at an International Rastafari Conference in Barbados in 1998 and
eventually established in August 2000 on the island of Dominica, to provide the various branches
of the Rastafari community of the region with an institution that would facilitate advocacy and
lobbying opportunities for pursuing the ultimate goals and objectives associated with repatriation
and reparation. The United Nations sponsored World Conference against Racism in 2001 in
Durban, South Afrika, and the Diaspora Conference in Jamaica in March 2005 which was
facilitated by the Afrikan Union (AU), and the South Afrikan and Jamaican governments, were two
important conferences that the CRO attended. The CRO would also provide a forum for linkages
with other organizations that possessed similar goals and would be willing to be affiliated to
governments in the region and on the continent that supported programs and projects similar to
those within CRO’s overall objectives. Developmental projects and sustainable trade were two
main activities on which CRO would embark.
It is from this perspective that the CRO welcomes the theme and stated goals/objectives of this
conference which has been called to discuss and be acted upon, including of course the Joseph
Plan.
Excerpt from the announcement shared with CRO Executive some time last year – “…The ‘Door
of No Return’ is being christened the ‘Door of Return’ through an official spiritual/symbolic act
recognized by the continent and chosen for its specific resonance”. Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey noted
that “Africans in the Diaspora had acquired such depth of skills while Africa suffered from brain
drain, saying that the Joseph Project was designed to return some of the skills and resources
in the Diaspora for the development of the Continent. … The Joseph Project, dubbed Akwaaba
Anyemi, meaning Welcome Sibling, would take off on August 23, 2007 with ‘The Healing’,
comprising an expiation and forgiveness ceremony, as well as a healing concert.”
Following are some of the areas that the CRO agrees should be embarked on to facilitate
the goals of many Afrikans living in the Diaspora who consider repatriation, reparations and
reconciliation to be of paramount importance in any future global plan for their transformation
and survival:
1. Dual citizenship would be necessary so as to overcome possible difficulties associated with
immigration while travelling between the two regions.
This seems like less than total commitment. The issue is how will this sit, in terms of status with
the African people who have never left? Fears of this kind of inequity were expressed even
by His Imperial Majesty since the Missions to Africa in the 1960’s. Such privileges can breed
resentment. The question of reciprocity may also arise.
2. Exchange programmes for students, cultural artistes, sportsmen and women agriculturalists
and environmentalists should be implemented. CRO can coordinate and accommodate these
even in a limited way at the start.
3. Business opportunities to open up trade ventures and any other feasible undertakings
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Conclusions
CRO
should be acted upon.
4. Access to land for purposes of residence and sustainable agricultural enterprises to assist
with the quest for food security should be seen as priority. The Rastafari family in Guyana has
offered an opportunity to pilot and are seeking assistance to develop the gift of land there.
These statements of what should be done have been often made. How can I and I (we) turn the
“should be’s into more proactive and concrete proposals in which CRO can make contributions
in the areas mentioned. They can be expressed even as statements of relevant goals.
Brothers and sisters, the CRO hopes that you take adequate note of our recommendations
and respond positively to this call for healthy and meaningful working relationships with you in
Ghana as we move forward together in this new millennium.
Give thanks and praises in the name of Jah Rastafari
Ras Iral Jabari (Repatriation/Reparations Chair-CRO)
E-mail: jabari@caribsurf.com
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Conclusions
Chapter 7 – CONCLUSIONS
RESOLUTIONS OF THE ACCRA CONFERENCE
7.1
Resolutions on Pan-Afrikanism
This Conference noted the widespread ignorance about Pan-Afrikanism and its role in the
twentieth century struggle to liberate Black Africans both at home and in the Diaspora, from
European and Arab rule and racial discrimination.
The Conference Resolved:
1. To promote knowledge about Pan-Afrikanism and to spread amongst the young an
awareness of the issues in Pan-Afrikanism and the problems of Pan-Afrika;
2. a) To promote research by Black Afrikan academics into the history of PanAfrikanism;
b) To promote courses in Pan-Afrikanism in secondary schools and universities;
c) To organize a collection of Pan-Afrikan scholars to document the ideas of the
Pan-Afrikan movement since its inception, compile those ideas into a Pan-Afrikan
reader, test them for validity and utility, and use the tradition to correct and purge
itself of invalid ideas and projects.
Resolution for Freedom, Justice, and Peace in the Afro-Arab Borderlands, Conflict Zone
in Africa
The occupation of Africa by external forces marginalized Black Africans in their ancestral lands.
In order to stem the tide of nationalism and Pan-Africanism some measure of self-rule was
granted.
Sudan, Mauritania and the Afro-Arab borderlands, especially ethnic groups straddling Afro-Arab
borders, such as the Peul, Wolof and Soninka in Mauritania and the Nubians in Sudan and
Egypt, did not fare well in these arrangements. The people in this area of Africa were cast as
pawns in an international arrangement, which was to keep Black Africans in perpetual bondage
and economic marginalisation.
The Arab/Israeli conflict further complicated these arrangements and is being used as a means
of silencing the voice of Black Africa by the Arab world. Notwithstanding, the grand design for the
borderland area of the African nation is unravelling before our eyes, as seen in Darfur in western
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Conclusions
Sudan, with the Beja in eastern Sudan and the Manasir and the Nubians in northern Sudan (and
southern Egypt as well), where conflicts on land and natural resources, between the indigenous
Africans and the Arab governments lead to the mass killing of civilians.
Conference noted that in this unfolding scenario Black Africa in general has chosen to look the
other way, rather than be actively involved in defending the interests of its kith and kin. No such
indifference was seen during the freedom movement in Southern Africa, where what was at
stake was African emancipation and the safeguarding of white transnational economic interests.
To compound the problem the issues of Sudan, Mauritania and the borderlands in general were
not discussed at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
Conference noted :
With profound disappointment the indifference and inability of the Black African
governments and their African Union (AU) to defend kith and kin in their ancestral
lands;
• Conference took note of the generalized racism and slavery in the borderlands and in
particular in Mauritania and Sudan;
• Conference registered the utter humiliation of all Black Africans, both at home and
abroad in the face of African chattel bondage anywhere in the world;
• Conference demands an apology and reparations for the enslavement of Africans in
the lands of their birth;
• Conference demands an independent and international investigation into the
circumstances that led to the killing of Sudanese refugees outside the UNHCR Office
in Cairo, Egypt on December 30, 2005 and that compensation be paid, by those
responsible for this outrage, to those who suffered the consequence of this tragedy.
The resettlement of the awaiting Sudanese refugees by the UNHCR Office in Cairo
should proceed forthwith;
• Conference urges the African Union to cease at once its inactivity and prove its capacity
to defend the interests of Black Africans wherever they may be, recognizing that all
Black Africans are members of the Pan-African family on equal basis;
• Black Africans will no longer sit indifferently whilst their Sisters and Brothers are
mistreated – touch one, touch all. The world is watching;
Conference promoted the rights of the marginalized people of Mauritania, Sudan and the
borderlands to:
•
FREEDOM – from slavery, to be recognized as the representatives of their respective countries,
with the sovereign right to rule themselves, with full membership for them and the eastern
Diaspora, of the Pan-African family;
JUSTICE – their right to atonement, reparations and equal opportunities; and
PEACE – their right to peace, in a democracy representing the will of the people, living in
prosperity.
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Conclusions
Resolution on Black Africa and the Arab World
Conference noted the 15 centuries of Arab expansion in Africa, the Arab enslavement of Afrikans
and the dismal plight of the Eastern Black African Diaspora in Arab lands today.
Conference also noted with shame the failure of the organization of African Unity (OAU)
during its four decades life span (1963-2001) to address the plight of Blacks in the Afro-Arab
Borderlands and in particular its failure to defend the Blacks of Mauritania and South Sudan
from Arab domination and racial discrimination.
Conference urges the inclusion of the Eastern and Western Black African Diasporan States and
communities as full members of the African Union and all its organs on an equal basis with those
of the African Continent.
Conference particularly urges the formation of a Black World League as a counterweight to the
Arab League, to ensure that Black African issues are not swept under the carpet.
Resolution
Drafted by Dr Mutulu Shakur and Gibran Ali, the Resolution was presented to the conference by
Efia Nwangaza, Esquire, and adopted as follows:
Background
By Dr Mutulu Shakur
The struggle of people of Afrikan descent in the United States of America evolved out of the
legacy of slavery, the subsequent Jim Crow laws of the Reconstruction Period and their current
mutations. Following decades of oppression, Afrikan descended people and other people of
colour in the US recognized that they had to negotiate their liberation through armed resistance.
During this period, RAM, Black Panther Party, and the Republic of NewAfrika were major players.
The collective aim of the Black liberation movement was to promote Black Nationalism and
to free Black people from the political oppression of the US government. In return and as a
response, the government launched Counter-Intelligence Programs (COINTELPRO) to pave
the way to the absolute destruction of the Black Liberation movement. COINTELPRO was
conceptualized for this purpose and this purpose alone.
Its quasi-military nature is clearly illustrated by the punishment it meted out to Freedom Fighters.
Sadly, the numerous freedom fighters murdered at the hands of COINTELPRO reflect the US
government’s racist, repressive regime, the same as other military regimes of the era known
to the Conference. In this context, COINTELPRO being the US government’s mechanism to
destroy Black Nationalism, the proper analysis is that freedom fighters were, and remain, victims
of human rights abuses and responded to these violations in a strictly political fashion. The
armed confrontations, self-defence, were aimed at achieving the total restoration of civility and
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Conclusions
human rights of Black people and to resolve the conflict.
As a political formation, New Afrikan Freedom Fighters had the authority, indeed duty, to protect
and defend the right to organize against the repression by any and all means which fell within
the standards of the Protocols. It should be clear that the freedom fighters possessed legitimate
interests in stopping COINTELPRO and sundry other governmental perpetrators.
Conference supported broad popular education regarding the existence of US political prisoners,
related international law, and their integration into its framework for discussion and analysis so
that the domestic and international implications of the struggle of the descendants of Africans
enslaved in the United States is fully recognized; particularly, as it relates to the issue of political
incarceration and exile of human rights activists and Freedom Fighters. Conference supported the formation of a “Truth and Reconciliation” Commission whose
purpose would be to provide relief to the victims of US human rights violations, particularly
political prisoners, prisoners of war and political exiles. This type of alternative dispute resolution
mechanism, despite evident and historic shortcomings as evidenced by the Azanian/South
African experiment, will educate the public and allow specific historical facts of the resistance
of African descended persons in the United States to be recorded and documented; ultimately
completing the unfinished tasks of the Frank Church Senatorial Committee. Further, it will bring
closure to a certain period in US human rights history and political development.
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Reparations and a New Global Order: A Comparative Overview
Chinweizu Contemplating the condition of the Black World is vexatious to the spirit: that is probably the
strongest impetus which has brought us all here today. For many centuries, and especially in
the last five, the black skin has been a badge of contempt. For instance, it used to be said in
Brazil that if you are white and running down the street, you are an athlete; but if you are black
and running down the street, you are a thief! And in most parts of the world today, if you are
white and rich, you are honoured and celebrated, and all doors fly open as you approach; but if
you are black and rich, you are under suspicion, and handcuffs and guard dogs stand ready to
take you away. Yes, the black skin is still the badge of contempt in the world today, as it has been for nearly
2,000 years. To make sure it does not remain so in the 21st century is perhaps the overall
purpose of our search for reparations. We are gathered here today, thinkers and activists who want to change Black People’s condition
in the world. What things do we need to change, both in the world and in ourselves, if we
are to accomplish the mission of reparations? What changes must we make in structures, in
psychology, in historical consciousness and much else? We might begin by noting that Blacks are not the only people in the world who are seeking,
or who have sought, reparations. In fact, by only now pressing our claim for reparations, we
are latecomers to a varied company of peoples in the Americas, in Asia, and in Europe. Here
is a partial catalogue of reparations, paid and pending, which are 20th century precedents for
reparations to the Black World. In the Americas, from Southern Chile to the Arctic north of Canada, reparations are belong
sought and being made. The Mapuche, an aboriginal people of Southern Chile, are pressing for
the return of their lands, some 30 million hectares of which were, bit by bit, taken away and given
to European immigrants since 1540. The Inuit of Arctic Canada, more commonly known as the
Eskimo, were in 1992 offered restitution of some 850,000 sq. miles of their ancestral lands, their
home range for millennia before European invaders arrived there.
In the USA, claims by the Sioux to the Black Lands of South Dakota are now in the courts. And
the US Government is attempting to give some 400,000 acres of grazing land to the Navaho,
and some other lands to the Hopi in the south-west of the USA.
In 1938, the US Government admitted wrongdoing in interning some 120,000 JapaneseAmericans under Executive Order 9066 of 1942, during WWII, and awarded each internee
US$20,000.
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Earlier on, and further afield, under the Thompson-Urrutia Treaty of 1921, the USA paid
Colombia reparations, including the sum of US$25 million, for excising the territory of Panama
from Colombia for the purpose of building the Panama Canal.
In Asia, following WWII, Japan paid reparations, mostly to the Asian countries it had occupied. By
May 1949, $39 million had been paid from Japanese assets in Japan, and another unspecified
amount had been paid from Japanese assets held outside Japan. And Japan was obliged to
sign treaties of reparations with Burma (1954), the Philippines (1956, and Indonesia (1958).
More recently, the Emperor of Japan has apologized to Korea for atrocities committed there by
the Japanese, and North Korea is asking for $5 billion in reparations for damages sustained
during 35 years of Japanese colonization.
In Europe, after WWII, the victors demanded reparations from Germany for all damages to
civilians and their dependants, for losses caused by the maltreatment of prisoners of war, and
for all non-military property that was destroyed in the war. In 1921, Germany’s reparations
liability was fixed at 132 billion gold marks. After WWII, the victorious Allies filed reparations
claims against Germany for $320 billion. Reparations were also levied on Italy and Finland. The
items for which these claims were made included bodily loss, loss of liberty, loss of property,
injury to professional careers, dislocation and forced emigration time, spent in concentration
camps because of racial, religious and political persecution. Others were the social cost of war,
as represented by the burden from loss of life, social disorder, and institutional disorder; and the
economic cost of war, as represented by the capital destroyed and the value of civilian goods
and services foregone to make war goods. Payments were made in cash and kind – goods,
services, capital equipment, land, farm and forest products; and penalties were added for late
deliveries.
Perhaps the most famous case of reparations was that paid by Germany to the Jews. These
were paid by West Germany to Israel for crimes against Jews in territories controlled by Hitler’s
Germany, and to individuals to indemnify them for persecution. In the initial phase, these
included $2 billion to make amends to victims of Nazi persecution; $952 million in personal
indemnities; $35.70 per month per inmate of concentration camps; pensions for the survivors of
victims; $820 million to Israel to resettle 50,000 Jewish emigrants from lands formerly controlled
by Hitler. All that was just the beginning. Other, and largely undisclosed, payments followed.
And even in 1992, the World Jewish Congress in New York announced that the newly unified
Germany would pay compensation, totalling $63 million for 1993, to 50,000 Jews who suffered
Nazi persecution but had not been paid reparations because they lived in East Germany.
With such precedents of reparations to non-Black peoples in four continents, it would be sheer
racism for the world to discountenance reparations claims from the Black World.
But our own search for reparations must, of necessity, be tailored to our peculiar condition, to our
peculiar experience. Some others may need only that their ancestral home range be returned
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to them; some others that they be compensated for the indignities of internment and the loss
of citizen rights; some others that acts of genocide and other atrocities against their people be
atoned or paid for; some others that lands excised from their territory be paid for. We, however,
who have experienced all of the above and more, and experienced them for much longer than
most, and therefore suffer chronically from their effects – we must take a more comprehensive
view of what reparations must mean for us. We must ask not only that reparations be made
for specific acts, or that restitution be made of specific properties; we who have been such
monumental victims are obliged to also ask: What sorts of system, capitalist as well as precapitalist, with their values and world outlook, made this long holocaust possible; and what must
be done to transform these systems into some other kind where holocaust could not be inflicted
on us? Unless we address and effectively answer that question, our quest for reparations would
be flawed and incomplete. We must therefore look into the nature of the old existing global order
and see what needs to be done to change it for the better.
The hallmarks of the old global order, which was initiated by the voyage by Columbus, may be
summarized as a propensity for perpetrating holocaust, a devotion to exploitation, and a passion
for necrophobia. It has inflicted holocaust, through genocide and culturecide – but not only on
the Black World; it has visited exploitation, through slavery and colonialism – but not only on
the Black World; but it has reserved for the Black World a special scourge: that virulent strain of
racism known as Negrophobia!
That old global order just described is not a thing of the past; it is still very much with us. In
different parts of the world today, in 1993, even as we sit here in this hall, Blacks are still being
subjected to the holocaust of genocide and culturecide (as in the Sudan); to the exploitations of
slavery (as in Mauritania), and of colonialism and neo-colonialism (as in every part of the Black
World); and to negrophobia, in all its forms and degrees, throughout the entire globe. To end
this dreadful condition and to make all the appropriate repairs, i.e. reparations, we need to move
from this old global order, where holocaust happened to us, to a different global order where
holocaust will never happen to us. We need to move from this old global order, which sucks
resources out of our veins and piles debt upon our heads, to a different global order in which our
enormous resources shall serve our own prosperity. We need to move from this old global order,
which is permeated with negrophobia, to a new global order that is cleansed of negrophobia,
one where we would live in dignity and equality with all the other races of humanity.
Now, what are we, the Black World, going to contribute to the making of these changes?
Let me begin by noting that reparation is not just about money: it is not even mostly about
money; in fact, money is not even one percent of what reparation is about. Reparation is mostly
about making repairs, self-made repairs, on ourselves: mental repairs, psychological repairs,
cultural repairs, organizational repairs, social repairs, institutional repairs, technological repairs,
economic repairs, political repairs, educational repairs, repairs of every type that we need in
order to recreate and sustain black societies. For the sad truth is that five centuries of holocaust
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have made our societies brittle and unviable. And as the great Marcus Garvey warned over 50
years ago, if we continue as we are, we are heading for extinction.
More important than any monies to be received; more fundamental than any lands to be
recovered, is the opportunity the reparations campaign offers us for the rehabilitation of Black
people, by Black people, for Black people; opportunities for the rehabilitation of our minds,
our material condition, our collective reputation, our cultures, our memories, our self-respect,
our religious, our political traditions and our family institutions; but first and foremost for the
rehabilitation of our minds.
Let me repeat that the most important aspect of reparations is not the money the campaign may
or may not bring: the most important part of reparation is our self-repair; the change it will bring
about in our understanding of our history, of ourselves, and of our destiny; the chance it will bring
about in our place in the world.
Now, we who are campaigning for reparations cannot hope to change the world without changing
ourselves. We cannot hope to change the world without changing our ways of seeing the world,
our ways of thinking about the world, our ways of organizing our world, our ways of working and
dreaming in our world. All these, and more, must change for the better. The type of Black Man
and Black Woman that was made by the holocaust – that was made to feel inferior by slavery
and then was steeped in colonial attitudes and values – that type of Black will not be able to
bring the post-reparation global order into being without changing profoundly in the process
that has begun; that type of Black will not be even appropriate for the post-reparations global
order unless thoroughly and suitably reconstructed. So, reparation, like charity, must begin with
ourselves, with the making of the new Black person, with the making of a new Black World.
How?
We must begin by asking ourselves: What weaknesses on our side made the holocaust possible?
Weaknesses of organization? Weakness of solidarity? Weaknesses of identity? Weaknesses of
mentality? Weaknesses of behaviour? If we do not correct such weaknesses, even if we got
billions of billions of dollars in reparations money, even if we got back all our expropriated land,
we would fritter it all away yet again, and recycle it all back into alien hands.
We must therefore find out what deficiencies in our sense of identity, what quirks in our mentality,
what faults in our feelings of solidarity made it possible for some of us to sell some of us into
bondage and still make it possible for us to succumb to the divide and conquer tactics of our
exploiters; that make it possible for all too many of us to be afflicted with Negro necrophobia
– our counterpart of the self-hating disease of the anti-Semitic Semite. Twenty years ago,
when I was writing The West and the Rest of Us, I gave it a subtitle: “White Predators, Black
Slavers and the African Elite”. That was to serve notice that we cannot overlook our complicity,
as Black Slavers and as the African Elite, in what happened, and is still happening to us. We
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must, therefore, change ourselves in order to end our criminal complicity in perpetuating our
lamentable condition.
Beyond all that, we must discover where we now are in our history. We must recognize that
in 36 years of independence, reckoning from Ghana’s in 1957 (just four years short of the 40
years the Israelites spent in the wilderness!), we have been blundering about in the neo-colonial
wilderness. And we must ask: Why did Moses lead his people into the wilderness and keep
them wandering about for two generations? I do not believe that he, a learned man raised in the
Pharaoh’s court, did not know the direct route to his people’s Promised Land. I believe it was a
dilatory sojourn whose tribulations were calculated to cure his people of the legacy of slavery.
You can’t make a free people out of slaves without first putting them through experiences that
would purge them of the slave mentality. We, in our own wilderness years, need to take conscious
steps to purge ourselves of the legacy of a 500-year holocaust of slavery and colonialism. In that
way, when we finally arrive at our own Promised Land – a Black World cured of the holocaust
legacy – we would be ready for the new liberated phase of our long adventure on this Earth.
To help us get our bearings in this wilderness phase, I would suggest four main measures:
1. The creation of Holocaust Monuments in all parts of the Black World, as reminders of what we
have been through and are determined never again to go through. Efforts already being made
in this area should continue and be added to. I am thinking, for instance, of the Goree Island
Project in Senegal, and the Slave Route Project in Benin Republic. But let me recommend a
major monument here in Abuja, this new capital rising in a zone that, in the past, witnessed
intensive slave raiding for the trans-Sahara slave trade. We should erect here a monument
complex that portrays scenes from the Black Holocaust, scenes taken from all parts of the
world; a great Black Holocaust Monument that shall serve as the Black World’s counterpart of
the Wailing Wall of the Jews in Jerusalem.
2. The institution of a Holocaust Memorial Day, to be observed each year throughout the Black
World, as a day of mourning and remembrance, with solemn ceremonies at local holocaust
monuments. Perhaps this date, April 27, on which we have assembled here, should be
designated the Holocaust Memorial Day of the Black World.
3. The creation of a Black Heritage Education Curriculum, to teach us our true history, and
thereby restore our self-worth as descendants of the pioneers of world civilization, and supply
us with the antidote to the White Supremacist Ideology and its damaging effects. This would
produce a post-holocaust Black personality, one cured of the debilities inflicted by the holocaust
experience.
4. The creation of a Black World League of Nations, with its complex of institutions, to take
care of our collective security, to foster solidarity and prosperity among us, and to prevent the
infliction of any future damage on any part of the Black World.
These measures, and others like them, would teach us who we are, what we have been and
ought to become, and would promote and concretize Black World solidarity. Having made such
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internal changes in ourselves and in our world, we would be better able to foster in the entire
global order two key changes:
a) A different view of global history, particularly of the last 500 years and of the millennia
before 525 BC – that calamitous year when Black Egypt fell permanently to white
invaders, leaving all of Africa open for incursions from West Eurasia; and
b) Structural changes that would block the possibility of future damage of the sorts for
which we now seek reparations.
To conclude, let me note that, for us, no global order would be truly new without apologies for
ancient wrongs, without an end to continuing wrongs, without reparations, without restitutions,
without the creation of systems and mechanisms that would ensure that the holocaust we have
been through never happens again. Our crusade for reparations would be completed only when
we achieve a global order without necrophobia, without alien hegemony over any part of the
Black World, and without the possibility of holocaust. From our perspective, a global order which
failed to meet such conditions would not really be new or adequate: It would be an order serving
us the same old bitter wine in some new bottle.
From here today, I foresee a day when we too shall get back our expropriated lands; I foresee
a day when we too shall get compensation for our losses and our pains; I foresee a day when
negrophobia and the conditions which foster it shall have vanished from the earth. But between
now and that day, much work waits to be done. The most serious part of that work is the work
of self-rehabilitation.
And so I say: “Black Soul, Heal Thyself, and all shall be restored to you”.
I thank you all.
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(Overview) Chimweizu
THE EDITORS
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF NANA YAA ASANTEWAA OHEMA,
QUEENMOTHER,DOROTHY FAYE ‘ORAVOUCHE ’ BENTON LEWIS
The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) bestowed upon
Ms. Dorothy Benton Lewis the title of Queen Mother (QM), for her lifelong commitment
and exemplary service to the liberation and reparation struggle of African people.
QM Dorothy Benton Lewis was the former National Co-Chair of N’COBRA and became the
Co-Chair of N’COBRA’s International Affairs Commission. She was a researcher, writer,
and lecturer on reparations and related social and economic development issues. She
was quoted in numerous newspapers, magazines, and books. She published several
articles, and wrote three ‘Black Reparations Now!’ booklets –‘ 40 Acres, $50.00, and a
Mule’; ‘Black Reparations, Religion and Faith: Raising the Contradictions’ and ‘A Black
and White Perspective’. These self-published booklets and the questions they addressed
shaped the conversations that guided the early reparations discourse in the general
public. She was in the process of completing her fourth book on reparations when she
made her transition on 23 March 2012 in the United States. She fell ill in Johannesburg in
late December 2011, whilst en route to visit Windhoek, Namibia.
A graduate of the University of Alaska, Ms. Lewis’ passion for reparations arose out of her
childhood experiences in predominantly white schools in Fairbanks, Alaska. She viewed
herself as a reparationist and a children’s advocate, dedicated to bringing truth to the
world and exposing the lies that still plague the American educational system, and distort
the realities of children, especially African American children.
Year on year, she endured class lectures on the ‘Benefits of Slavery’ (to the African)
from the slave owners’ perspective. Although the painful memories of those classroom
experiences faded, she always recalled the snickering of her white classmates, and her
haunting thought, ‘Will anyone ever speak for those enslaved?’ In answer to her own
youthful inquiry, her mission, for almost four decades, was that of speaking for and
seeking redress on behalf of Africans held as slaves. She was a constant voice for
Black Reparations since the early 1960s, and was among the most articulate and active
reparations advocates in the United States.
BANKIE FORSTER BANKIE
Of West African and Diasporan parentage, B.F.Bankie trained as a jurist and has worked
variously in administration, diplomacy, education and research. He worked at the Kush
Institution in Juba, South Sudan. He currently lives and works with Youth in Namibia, in
Southern Africa. He is actively interested in Afro-Arab relations and their impact on the
African unity movement.