The issue of reparations for slavery has been much in the news, following further Caribbean Community (CARICOM) discussions this month, and much media commentary. CARICOM has adopted a “10-point reparatory justice framework, presented by Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, head of CARICOM’s Reparations Commission” according to reports. The Caribbean leaders are hoping to hold talks with Europe on the matter in June. Since this issue is likely to recur throughout the year in our local media, I am adding this to the mix of commentary: The views of members of the Rastafarian community (and herself) from Barbara Blake Hannah’s excellent blog. Good food for thought!
RASTAFARI REPARATIONS The topic this week is Reparations, about which I am famously (and infamously!) known for having written “Forgive Slavery, Forget Reparations” – a 2006 article that gained me not only further notoriety, but my first death threats. I had begun my article with the firm statement that the call for reparations was completely justified due to the horrors of the trans-Atlantic trade in Africans, their inhuman and brutal enslavement in the Americas and the free labour that developed and enriched Europe for 300 years. If ever there was a just cause, it was the need for a retribution – even perhaps revenge – for a most terrible act against humanity, it was for slavery. The call for Reparations is a basic principle of the Rastafari faith, whose principles I accept.
But, having taken up the Reparations banner from 2001 to 2007 in my effort to…
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