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As we prepare to attend and
participate in the historic 30th Annual National
Convention of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in
America (N`COBRA), it’s important to acknowledge the global and
Pan African nature of this movement.
The N`COBRA Convention will be held
in Detroit, Michigan June 20th – 23rd. I
encourage everyone to support and attend the convention as we
continue to build the Reparations Movement.
Our great historian and departed
ancestor, Dr. John Henrik Clarke described in his classic book, Africans at the Crossroads: African World Revolution , that, “The idea
of uniting all Africa had its greatest development early in this
[20th] century.” In this context, Reparations for
African people will never die.
Dr. Clarke wrote that, “In
1900, the Trinidadian lawyer, H. Sylvester Williams called together
the first Pan African Conference in London. This meeting attracted
attention and put the word Pan African in the dictionaries for the
first time.”
According to Dr. Clarke there were
only thirty delegates to the conference that came mainly from
England, the Caribbean, and the United States. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois
led the small delegation from the United States. When we use the term
Pan Africanism we must be very clear. Pan Africanism is the belief
that people of African ancestry throughout the world have the same
racial and cultural characteristics and the same social and economic
conditions as a result of our African origin.
The Pan African component of the
Reparations Movement launched its first international conference on
Reparations in Lagos, Nigeria in December of 1990. After that
conference, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) set up a Group of
Eminent Persons (GEP), in June 1992. Its aim was to work out the
different ways in which to proceed, and secure technical advisors,
who would help solve some of the difficulties associated with the
claim for reparations.
A second conference on Reparations
was held in Abuja, Nigeria in 1992, attended by representatives from
throughout the Diaspora. That conference issued a declaration, “The
Abuja Proclamation,” which called for a national reparations
committee to be established throughout Africa and the Diaspora. The
African Reparations Movement (UK) was formed in 1993, as a result of
this proclamation.
It is important that we understand
that the idea of Reparations has caught on with the masses of African
people worldwide, despite the opposition of the forces of white
supremacy.
A delegation from the United States,
led by the late Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers and the late Dr. Ron Walters,
participated in Abuja’s First Pan African Conference and
reported back to the leaders of the Reparations Movement, in this
country, their observations and analysis of the conference.
As we think about Pan Africanism and
continue our struggle, let us reflect on the contributions of our
ancestor, Malcolm X. We must remember his role in helping to
stimulate the Pan African Movement that we stand on today as we fight
for Reparations for African people throughout the world.
In Malcolm’s last visit to
Africa before his untimely departure from us, he visited the
President of Ghana; Osagyefo Dr. Kwamé Nkrumah. Malcolm gave
this account of the meeting in his autobiography. Malcolm said, “We
discussed the unity of Africans and people of African descent. We
agreed that Pan Africanism was the key also to the problems of those
of African heritage… My time with him was up all too soon. I
promised faithfully that when I returned to the United States, I
would relay to Afro-Americans his personal warm regards.”
There is no doubt that the spirit of
Malcolm and other great Pan African leaders are helping to push the
Reparations Movement forward.
“The Abuja Proclamation”
should be the basis for our continued organizing of the Reparations
Movement throughout the world. These ideas are still relevant to our
organizing work in the Reparations Movement today. The following are
some of the key points presented in “The Abuja Proclamation: on
April 27-29, 1993:
“Recalling the Organization of
African Unity’s establishment of a
Machinery the Group of Eminent
Persons for appraising the reparations
in relation to the damage done to
Africa and its Diaspora by enslavement, colonization, and neo-colonialism.
Convinced that the issue of
reparations is an important question
requiring the united action of
Africa and its Diaspora and worth of the active support of the rest of the
international community.
Fully persuaded that the damage
sustained by the African peoples is
not a thing of the past but
is painfully manifest in the damaged lives of contemporary Africans from Harlem to
Harare, in the damaged economies of the Black World form Guinea to
Guyana, from Somalia to Surinam.
Cognizant of the fact that
compensation for injustice need not necessarily be paid in capital transfer but
could include service to the victims or other formsof restitution
and readjustment of the relationship to both parties.
Convinced that the claim for
Reparations is well grounded in International Law.”
No matter who gets on the bandwagon
of the growing Reparations Movement, we must always remember what Dr.
Clarke taught us and that is, “powerful people never
teach powerless people how to take power away from them!”
Reparations for African people will never die!
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