By News Desk
October 16 2015
An unprecedented coalition of organisations around the world have signed a statement demanding action against the African holocaust and its enduring legacy. Tonight’s documentary made by film-maker David Olusoga ,about the British involvement in slavery-the largest of any nation- and how slave owners, 46, 000 of them, not those enslaved were handsomely compensated is now stripped bare by this ground breaking documentary. The signatories of the statement , including OBV continue to demand substantive action from the Government, which of course is very long overdue, not least to those African and Caribbean counties that deserve economic reparations for the commercial trade of Africans for their free labour that so enriched the UK.
Public Statement by Civil Society Organizations in Europe and the United States Representing People of African Descent on Britain’s Historical Involvement in the Transatlantic Traffic of Enslaved Africans and Its Far Reaching Impacts* Public Statement by Civil Society Organizations in Europe and the United States Representing People of African Descent on Britain’s Historical Involvement in the Transatlantic Traffic of Enslaved Africans and Its Far Reaching Impacts*
Considering all of this, the following signatories of this Statement, the European Reparations Commission (ERC), the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), the Pan-African Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the Global Afrikan Congress in the UK (GACuk), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Professor Verene A. Shepherd, Dr. Doudou Diène, and members of the European Network of People of African Descent (ENPAD), call upon:
1. The British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to take full responsibility for the United Kingdom’s involvement in Maangamizi (The African Holocaust) and its far reaching consequences and to fulfill its obligations to African peoples and people of African descent as well as to other victims of historical injustices, as mandated by the United Nations;
2. The British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to finally heed the calls that have been made throughout the years – beginning with Quobna Ottobah Cugoano in Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787) – to establish a National Commission of Enquiry on the historical and contemporary national and international impact of Britain’s transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans; including contemporary issues that have followed in its wake such as debt bondage and other injustices in international relations and the continuing impact of structural racism and discrimination;
3. That the British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron establish the month of August each year as the National Maangamazi Awareness Month–beginning with 1 August as a National Memorial Day for the abolition of Britain’s enslavement and trafficking of African peoples and people of African descent, and furthermore, to give recognition to the annual 1 August African heritage communities march for reparatory justice, and greater recognition to 23 August as the UN International Day for Remembrance of the Resistance to the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans and its Abolition;
Furthermore, we, the signatories of this Statement, call upon:
4. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to assertively and firmly move forward with its claims for reparatory justice from the United Kingdom and other European states for the adverse and unjust consequences of enslavement and Eurocentric colonisation and empire in the Caribbean, and the British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to show utmost care, concern and respect for these claims. Therefore we call upon (a) CARICOM to urgently submit to the Government of Britain the “LETTER OF COMPLAINTS” that has been approved by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) and is now before the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee of CARICOM, and (b) the British Government to agree, on receipt of this letter, to the proposed Summit outlined therein on Reparatory Justice for the transatlantic enslavement and trafficking of human beings and its legacies. We welcome Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles prediction, in the British House of Commons on 16 July 2014, that “this 21st Century will be the century of global reparatory justice.”
Originally published by obi.org.uk
By News Desk
October 16 2015
An unprecedented coalition of organisations around the world have signed a statement demanding action against the African holocaust and its enduring legacy. Tonight’s documentary made by film-maker David Olusoga ,about the British involvement in slavery-the largest of any nation- and how slave owners, 46, 000 of them, not those enslaved were handsomely compensated is now stripped bare by this ground breaking documentary. The signatories of the statement , including OBV continue to demand substantive action from the Government, which of course is very long overdue, not least to those African and Caribbean counties that deserve economic reparations for the commercial trade of Africans for their free labour that so enriched the UK.
Public Statement by Civil Society Organizations in Europe and the United States Representing People of African Descent on Britain’s Historical Involvement in the Transatlantic Traffic of Enslaved Africans and Its Far Reaching Impacts* Public Statement by Civil Society Organizations in Europe and the United States Representing People of African Descent on Britain’s Historical Involvement in the Transatlantic Traffic of Enslaved Africans and Its Far Reaching Impacts*
Considering all of this, the following signatories of this Statement, the European Reparations Commission (ERC), the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), the Pan-African Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the Global Afrikan Congress in the UK (GACuk), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Professor Verene A. Shepherd, Dr. Doudou Diène, and members of the European Network of People of African Descent (ENPAD), call upon:
1. The British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to take full responsibility for the United Kingdom’s involvement in Maangamizi (The African Holocaust) and its far reaching consequences and to fulfill its obligations to African peoples and people of African descent as well as to other victims of historical injustices, as mandated by the United Nations;
2. The British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to finally heed the calls that have been made throughout the years – beginning with Quobna Ottobah Cugoano in Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787) – to establish a National Commission of Enquiry on the historical and contemporary national and international impact of Britain’s transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans; including contemporary issues that have followed in its wake such as debt bondage and other injustices in international relations and the continuing impact of structural racism and discrimination;
3. That the British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron establish the month of August each year as the National Maangamazi Awareness Month–beginning with 1 August as a National Memorial Day for the abolition of Britain’s enslavement and trafficking of African peoples and people of African descent, and furthermore, to give recognition to the annual 1 August African heritage communities march for reparatory justice, and greater recognition to 23 August as the UN International Day for Remembrance of the Resistance to the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Africans and its Abolition;
Furthermore, we, the signatories of this Statement, call upon:
4. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to assertively and firmly move forward with its claims for reparatory justice from the United Kingdom and other European states for the adverse and unjust consequences of enslavement and Eurocentric colonisation and empire in the Caribbean, and the British Government and its Prime Minister David Cameron to show utmost care, concern and respect for these claims. Therefore we call upon (a) CARICOM to urgently submit to the Government of Britain the “LETTER OF COMPLAINTS” that has been approved by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) and is now before the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee of CARICOM, and (b) the British Government to agree, on receipt of this letter, to the proposed Summit outlined therein on Reparatory Justice for the transatlantic enslavement and trafficking of human beings and its legacies. We welcome Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles prediction, in the British House of Commons on 16 July 2014, that “this 21st Century will be the century of global reparatory justice.”
Originally published by obi.org.uk