Add a comment...Reparations Have Been Paid to Slave Owners, But Not to Descendants of Slaves I am glad that Ta-Nehisi Coates has put reparations on the national reading agenda, but its too bad that The Atlantic and other publications did not cover a major reparations conference held in April at Chicago State University on the citys South Side. The major Chicago newspapers and television stations did not cover the one-day conference because no one was shot or murdered. The conference was held because 14 Caribbean countries soon will present demands for reparations to England, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal for their responsibility for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Sweden is willing to negotiate. If the other countries refuse to pay reparations, the issue will go before the World Court in The Hague, The Netherlands. Martyn Day, a lawyer based in London, represents the 14 Caribbean countries that go by the acronym CARICOM. Far from being some looney idea as Nkechi Taifa, founder of NCobra or National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations, said in Coates cover story, countries have paid slave owners reparations for the loss of their slaves. When England, the worlds largest slave trader, abolished slavery in 1834 after passing a law in 1833, the country paid slaveholders the equivalent of $200 billion in todays money or 40 percent of the countrys national expenditures at the time, said Hilary Beckles, professor of economic history at the University of the West Indies, Bridgetown, Barbados. Following the Civil War in the United States, the Union paid plantation owners reparations for the loss of their property, which were slaves. Since African Americans could not own property, some have argued that we are not owed reparations. Reparations means repayment for loss property Beckles, who delivered the keynote address at the reparations conference, is the author of Britains Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, which details Britains role in the transatlantic slave trade. His book also is considered a blueprint for the reparations movement. The Caribbean countries involved in pushing for the reparations are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The countries are not just seeking money as some have suggested. They want a formal apology, reparations, an indigenous peoples development program, development of cultural institutions, illiteracy eradication, an African knowledge program, psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer, debt cancellation and addressing health issues. The countries are also seeking repatriation to Africa. The reparations conference was held in Chicago to jump start the movement in the U.S. Seventeen speakers spoke at the conference, including U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.), who said he would re-introduce his reparations study bill in Congress. The Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act would study the lingering negative effects of slavery and discrimination and recommend appropriate remedies in consideration of the Commissions findings. In addition, the Commission would examine defacto discrimination against freed slaves and their descendants from the end of the Civil War to the present, including economic, political, and social discrimination. Frederick H. Lowe Founder and editor of The NorthStar News & Analysis thenorthstarnews Chicago, IL 60660 312-504-0223
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 01:50:04 +0000
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