This year the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March in partnership with the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC) was promoted and/or reported on the following mediums:
The documentary ‘Education is Preparation for Reparations’ produced by ECOM Media and broadcast on Made in Bristol TV, Sunday 23rd, Tuesday 25th and Thursday 27th July 2017.
Interview with George Galloway on ‘Sputnik-Orbiting the World’, show 186, broadcast on Russia Today, Saturday 29th July 2017.
‘Your Politics Daily’ feature on the Reparations March ‘Day 8. Slavery Reparations March’ 2nd August 2017.
Article on Ligali Organisation website ‘Being Woke: Annual Reparations March brings Parliament to silent standstill’, Tuesday 1st August 2017.
Article on the Voice Online website ‘Hundreds to March for Emancipation Day’, 1st August 2017.
Article in the Barbados Nation Newspaper, ‘Reparations Petition delivered to PM May’, Friday 11th August 2017, pages 8-9, see below.
A less than complimentary report was also published on the Spiked website ‘Emancipation Day should be about freedom, not victimhood’, 1st August 2017.
Inclusion of the above media items does not mean that the items are endorsed by the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee or the SMWeCGEC. We do recognise that we need to develop our own media platforms but until such time we also acknowledge the media outputs of others and their contributions to publicising the March.
To keep updated with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March media promotions, you can subscribe to the Reparations March UK You Tube channel
Please note, the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March & the SMWeCGEC were also promoted across community radio platforms such as Galaxy Radio, TheRock926.com, Majestic Radio, Ujima Radio (Bristol), Peace FM (Manchester) and many others.
Barbados Nation Article
The following 1.5 page spread was published in the Barbados Nation Newspaper UK Edition article by Tyrone Roach © Barbados Nation
The article reads:
“The streets of South London were greeted on August 1 by the sounds of drums and chants as hundreds of people made their way from Windrush Square, Brixton to Parliament Square on the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March.
On arrival, a delegation of six then made their way to Downing Street to deliver the Stop the Maangamizi Petition with 9,636 signatures and a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May.
The Marchers, assembled around the Nelson Mandela statute, were addressed by several members of the organising committee, including Esther Utijua Muinjangue from Namibia. In her address Esther Stanford-Xosei, who is of Barbadian descent, the spokesperson and co-vice chair of the March Committee, noted that the British Parliament legislated that the slave-owners should be compensated, hence the immediate goals are the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice. Her view is that the strategy is even more important given the fact that people of African heritage who are part of the African Diaspora in Europe, are not represented, and have not been consulted or included in the CARICOM ten-point plan on reparations.
The annual March, which started three years ago, has an international focus and has in the past attracted delegations from other areas such as North America, Suriname, St Vincent and Ethiopia. In 2016 there were delegations from Nigeria, and South Africa and this year from Manchester, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Reading and other parts of the UK.
Despite this, there has been a decrease in numbers which can be attributed to many factors. Unlike in the Caribbean Emancipation Day is not a public holiday in the UK and the march occurred on a Tuesday when many people were at work. Simultaneous marches held in St Lucia and Barbados and being highlighted in the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago’s Emancipation Day Speech demonstrated the impact the campaign has made.
Speaking of the London March, Esther Stanford-Xosei said ”regardless of numbers, the focused and sterling organisation of the march is attracting recognition and attention worldwide. People also do not recognise that the March costs £8000 plus to organise and this is paid for by ordinary people, often the most marginalised in society. No state resources or even resources from Black professional classes and elites come from anywhere.”
Included in the petition delegation were:
Kweme Abubaka, Ethiopia, Afrikan Black International Congress (EABIC), Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC)
Mama Lindiwe TSELE, Veteran Anti-Apartheid & Pan-Afrikan Activist-Organiser
Anouska RAYMOND, Co-Facilitator, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations Outreach Team
Esther Utijua MUINJANGUE, Chairperson, Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (OJF)
Esther Stanford-Xosei,
Coordinator General, ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide ‘Campaign
Spokesperson, & Co-Vice Chair, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC).”
stopthemaangamizi.com 