PROGRESS REPORT: WORK DONE SINCE THE 2016 REPARATIONS MARCH

 

To counter denial of the ground-up Reparations Movement, otherwise known as the ISMAR (International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations), and dispel notions that the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) is just about “organising a March for one day,” it is necessary to reiterate the aims and objectives of the March and its partner, the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign. The AEDRMC and the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign are busy in the collective work and responsibility of mobilising and encouraging the self-organisation of various constituencies of our people, within and beyond the UK in working to implement these aims and objectives all year-round as part of a ground-up strategy to develop and strengthen an ISMAR which is capable of building the counter-power to effect and secure Reparatory Justice in our people’s intergenerational and self-determined best interests.

By way of a reminder, the aims and objectives of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March (hereafter ‘the March’) are:

1. To draw attention to Afrikan peoples’ global determination to not let the British State and other perpetrators get away with the crimes of the Maangamizi (Afrikan hellacaust of chattel, colonial and neo-colonial enslavement);
2. To hand in the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ petition requesting an All-Party Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice in order to raise consciousness about the fact that all the attacks on us, in both individual and collective instances, amount to Genocide/Ecocide in Maangamizi continuity necessitating reparations;
3. To increase awareness of the necessity to ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ and its current manifestations such as austerity, attempts to recolonise Afrika, mentacide and deaths in police, psychiatric and prison custody;
4. To demonstrate Afrikan peoples’ strength, capacity and determination to speak to and challenge establishment power with our growing grassroots power to effect and secure reparations (reparatory justice) on our own terms;
5. To highlight Afrikan people’s grassroots demands and initiatives for effecting and securing reparations.

The complimentary aims and objectives of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’Campaign are to:

1. To increase recognition of and educate people about the Maangamizi, its causes, contemporary manifestations and consequences;
2. To gather evidence of the continuing impact of the Maangamizi as part of the process towards establishing the All Party-Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice and the Ubuntukgotla Peoples International Tribunal for Global Justice;
3. To mobilise petition signers/supporters into a community of advocates for ‘Stopping the Maangamizi’ as a force within the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations, (ISMAR);
4. To develop such a force into an integral part of the Peoples Reparations International Movement (PRIM) to ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’, prevent its recurrence as well as effect and secure measures of reparatory justice from the ground-up;
5. To utilise the process of mobilising towards the 1^st August Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March to amplify the voices of those communities of reparatory justice interest who are engaged in resistance to the various manifestations of the Maangamizi today.

 

These aims and objectives are implemented and worked on all year-round by various organisational members and individuals involved in the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) and the ’Stop the Maangamizi’ Campaign’, in addition to members of the Grassroots Reparations Education & Outreach Team/s (GREOTs) and various Blocs of the March.

From reviewing the aforementioned article and aims and objectives, it is clear that the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March is not just a March. It is organised to help advance reparations social movement-building of various constituencies within the Afrikan Heritage Communities. Priority is given to mobilising our own individual and collective ‘power to’ effect and secure reparatory justice through community organising, reparations social movement-building and institution-building. Social movement-building is the long-term, coordinated effort of individuals and organised groups of people to intentionally spark and sustain a (reparations) social movement. It entails: “the creation of movement infrastructures required for sustained organising and mobilisation, including social relationships, organisational networks and capacity, affective solidarity, as well as movement-related identities, frames, strategies, skills, and leadership.”

Please review this previous article published in July 2016 about what had been achieved as we approached 3 years of Marching:

The role of AEDRMC members, some of whom lead the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign is largely educative and political i.e. promoting the March as part of the street column of the ISMAR. In addition to the ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ Petition as one of the ISMAR campaigning tools for mobilising our people’s power to exert upon the British Houses of Parliament towards establishing the All-Party Commission for Truth & Reparatory Justice (APPCITARJ) , the Ubuntukgotla – People’s International Tribunal for Global Justice (U-PITGJ),  and other actions necessary to advance the process of dialogue from the ground-upwards, with the British state and society on the how (i.e. methodology) of effecting and securing Reparatory Justice.

Accordingly, since the 1^st Mosiah (August) 2016 March we have: –

1. Set up a website for the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March which complements that of our Sister campaign ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’;
   
   
2. Hosted an AEDRMC Evaluation meeting of how work is progressing towards implementation of the aims and objectives of the March;

   
   @ Volunteers Reception – 03/09/16

    

3. Held a ‘Thank You’ reception for March actioneers (volunteers), including some of those who are involved in regional mobilising and Bloc-constituency building -03/09/16;
4. Revised our AEDRMC national structure, incorporating Task-Action Groups taking into account feedback and our own reflections on effectiveness, successes and areas requiring improvement;
5. Restarted the fundraising campaign towards the 2017 March which reflects the mobilising and organising costs towards building the constituencies that participate to make the annual March a successful one;
6. Circulated the initial response from to the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ petition from No 10 Downing Street, providing guidance to our people on the work that we must do to raise the profile of our demands. This includes the organising capacity – power-building we as Afrikans must also build to secure implementation of the aims and objectives of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ Petition in terms of the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (APPCITARJ) and the Ubuntukgotla Peoples International Tribunal (U-PITGJ);

   
                                                             @Public Evaluation Meeting 18/09/16

7. Participated in action-research on learning within the ISMAR documenting the educational work and learning processes within the AEDRMC and the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign utilising the AEDRMC’s ‘Education is Preparation for Reparations’ Programme. This is a case-study of the March as an action-learning (learning through doing) process within the ISMAR which documents how activists learn, research and co-produce knowledge about the impacts of the Maangamizi as well as the solutions Afrikan Heritage Communities are seeking by way of Reparatory Justice. This work is being conducted as part of the assessment process towards a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PG Cert) being done by an AEDRMC member; https://stopthemaangamizi.com/2016/11/19/progress-report-work-done-since-the-2016-reparations-march/
8. Established a Grassroots Reparations Education & Outreach Team (GREOT) including recruitment of new members to the Team/s (emerging teams in Bristol and Manchester). The purpose of the GREOTs include, among other things;

   a) To be action-learning exemplars of the dictum ‘Education is Preparation for Reparations’ by becoming advocates for the cause of ‘Stopping the Maangamizi’ as part of the process effecting and securing Reparatory Justice;

   b) To promote the role of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March as part of the ‘street column’ of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR);

   c) To provide the general public with information about the ‘Stop the Maangamizi! ‘Campaign (SMWeCGE), its petition, the SMWeCGE Postcard and the annual March, (in addition to its associated events), which takes place on 1st Mosiah (August), also known as Maangamizi Awareness Month (declared at the Global Pan-Afrikan Reparations and Repatriation Conference which took place in Ghana in 2006);

   d) To stimulate the development of reparations consciousness by facilitating the self-education of self, interested Afrikans as well as allies on the aims & objectives of the March, the ‘Stop the Maangamizi! Campaign, its petition and the SMWeCGE Postcard by signposting members of the public to relevant documents which explain the above and engaging in dialogue on the same;

   e) To collect valid signatures (name and postcode) for the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and disseminate copies of the SMWeCGE Postcard to the general public;

9. Co-hosted on 12-13/11/16 by PARCOE, the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe, the Afrikan Reparations Transnational Community of Practice (ARTCoP) and the ISMAR Academy, a 2-day Intensive ISMAR Advocates Training Course, the first in the world!;

   
   @ ISMAR Advocates Training Course 13/11/16

    

10. Held 2 public meetings to seek feedback and the views of members of various Afrikan Heritage Communities on the way forward;
11. Developing an internal AEDRMC work programme for the year 2016-2017 in association with allied organisations and networks;
12. Various members of the AEDRMC have intervened in community, policy-making and academic spaces in promotion of the work of the AEDRMC, the aims and objectives of the March and the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign, such as:

• Giving a presentation on 22/10/16 at the Black History Month well-being Day organised by the Adinkra Arts Collective in conjunction with the Bells Gardens Community Centre;
• Developing reparations educational work with children at the Nubia Afrikan Community Foundation School & the John Lynch Afrikan Education Programme (JLEAP);
• Gave a presentation at Prophet Kwaku’s Comedy Show and Birthday Bash on 22/10/16
• Giving a presentation at the ‘Mind Over Body’ (Black) Chess Academy on 20/11/16
• Outreach conducted (by GREOT Members) at these various events –

  

 @Slavery Remembrance Day – 21/08/16

a) My Life Matters, Family Cook out, Victoria Park London – 30/07/16

b) Presentation & outreach Slavery Remembrance Day, Trafalgar Square – 21/08/16

c) Presentation & outreach Pollards Hill Celebrates Afrikan History Month, Pollards Hill Library, Mitcham -15/10/16

d) Africa on the Square, Trafalgar Square – 15/10/16

e) Prophet Kwaku Comedy Show & Birthday Bash, Camberwell – 22/10/16

f) Hairstories Event, Westminster College – 29/10/16

g) National Union of Students (NUS) and University and College Union (UCU)  ‘United for Education’ Protest in conjunction with representatives of the Allies Bloc – 19/11/16

 

@‘United for Education’ Protest – 19/11/16

h) Natural November, Globe Academy, Harper Street – 19/11/16

i) Auntie Jean’s African Culture Market, Peckham – (forthcoming on 20/11/16)

j)Natural November, Novotel, Dickinson Street, Manchester – (forthcoming on 26/11/16)

• Made an academic presentation on 12/10/16 at the ‘October Dialogues 2016: Transatlantic Slavery – A Public Conversation’ organised by the Centre for Race & Rights (Nottingham)
• Made a presentation at the AGM for the London Black Atheists – 22/10/16
• Made an academic presentation (09/11/16) on the Reparatory Justice relevance of ECO-DECOLO-DUCATION (Eco-justice action-learning for the Reparatory Justice decolonisation of education) at the Centre for Word Environmental History based at the University of Sussex (Brighton).

13. A representative of the AEDRMC who is part of the Ethiopian African Black International Congress (EABIC/Bobo Shanti) is doing outreach and promoting the March in the USA and has just recently been participating in the’ State of the Black World Conference’ on Reparations taking place in Newark from 16-20/11/16 organised by the Institute of the Black World;
14. Developing work on promoting the importance of the March, the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign, reparations and the United Nations International Decade of People of African Descent (DPAD) through partnership and coalition-building work with the Europe-Wide NGO Consultative Council on Afrikan Reparations, ENGOCCAR (Netherlands) and the Afrikan Connections Consortium (ACC) in Bristol;
15. AEDRMC members through allied structures of ENGOCCAR, PARCOE, the Global Afrikan People’s Parliament (GAPP) and the ACC promoting the ‘Right to Afrika’ as an (individual) human and (collective) peoples right which forms the bedrock of effecting and securing reparatory justice for Afrikans and people of Afrikan heritage;

    
    

    Promoting the March & ‘Stop the Maangamizi’ Campaign in the Netherlands – 20/08/16

     

16. Working in conjunction with the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign and ENGOCCAR, the AEDRMC is increasing the visibility of the 1st Mosiah (August) March in conjunction with the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign in other European countries among Afrikan Heritage Communities and allies. This has been significantly enhanced by the translation of the SMWeCGE Petition, the ‘Take Action’ article on the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ website and the aims and objectives of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign, (as a sister campaign to the AEDRMC), into other European languages e.g. French, German and Dutch. This essential work in translating and making reparations campaigning documents accessible to those whose first language is not English has been done by Co-Deputy Secretary of the SMWeCGE Campaign, Marissa Dawuwalla and other members of the SMWeCGE Campaign Team – Europe; 
    

         @ Volunteers Reception – 19/09/16

17.   Making critical interventions on social media in relation to the real aims, purpose and pitfalls of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement in relation to the Stop the Maangamizi! Campaign, the   ISMAR and Afrikan people’s land and resource based struggles to effect and secure holistic and transformative Reparatory Justice;

18.   Promoting the March as a column of the ISMAR and the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign in establishment political processes such as the Jeremy Corbyn Support Campaign – Momentum, networks of the Labour (Trade Union) Movement and Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC);

19.   Working with the Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) to ensure that the agenda and voices of the ISMAR are independently highlighted in critical engagements with the Jeremy Corbyn Support Campaign, the Labour Movement and the entire establishment political arena in Britain. Accordingly, therefore, helping to defend the authentic MBC, (which unlike other forces identifying with the Labour Movement, has started actively participating in the March and its activities), against attempts to wrest it from the control of those participants in the organising processes of the March who are trying to make it help in promoting and advancing the aims and objectives of the March and the’ Stop the Maangamizi!’ Campaign;

20.   Helping to consolidate the PRIM (People Reparations International Movement) of which the ISMAR is part, through participating and helping to shape the Spearhead Pacific Alliance and BOOMERANGCIRCUIT Preparatory Conference for the 2017 Pacific Alliance Gathering of Colonised Peoples & Sovereign Peoples Union for Global Justice through Decolonisation and Reparations (11-14/10/16). This prep conference produced the ‘London Statement of Common Purpose’  arising from this momentous event, which continues in the best Black radical traditions in our Peoples making of world history. The International Consultative Preparatory Forum (ICPF) was initiated by, members of the AEDRMC working through Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) and the Global Afrikan People’s Parliament (GAPP) in partnership with the First Nations ‘Spearhead Pacific Alliance’ on Decolonisation and Reparations in alliance of Tribal Chiefs, Rulers, Lawmen and Law women and includes the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples of Australia ; the Union of British Columbian Chiefs who are non-Treaty Nations; and colonized Pacific Nations, including the Fiji Native Government-in-Exile;

21.   The AEDRMC via the Global Afrikan Family Bloc of the March and its related activities such as the SANKOFA-APAE (Sankofa Libation i.e. APPE in Twi Ceremony), which took place in Accra on 1^st Mosiah (August) 2016, has inspired its co-organisers to now take up the work of lobbying Afrikan Chiefs and other community leaders. An outcome of this lobbying has been to establish the Pan-Afrikan Reparatory Justice Law of Holistic Rematriation/Repatriation Advocacy Network (PARJLOHRRAN). Holistic rematriation and repatriation are highlighted in the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition.

Filming in Bristol 20/10/16

22.   Last but not least, Members of the AEDRMC have contributed to an independent documentary being made on the March by ECOM Media and Made in Bristol TV, highlighting the role of Afrikan people in Bristol in mobilising and organising for the 2016 March.

Esther Stanford-Xosei,
Official Spokesperson, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC)
Coordinator-General ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGE)

Jendayi Serwah,
Co-Chair, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC)
Co-Vice Chairperson, ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGE)

Prophet Kwaku, Co-Chair, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC)