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SMWeCGEC & AEDRMC Key Achievements in ISMAR & PRIM-building
Key Activities and Achievements of SMWeCGEC working in partnership with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) in building the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) & the Peoples Reparations International Movement (PRIM)
“To those caught up in only slogan-mongering about the Afrikan Revolution who self-derisively dismiss mass campaigns such as this one of Reparations, refusing to unfold their own blinds to its crucial significance in our Liberation Struggle; we address our paraphrasing of the remark of Amilcar Cabral that, by taking to the revolutionary path of self-determined Struggle for Afrikan Liberation, the masses of our people are not fighting for ideas in anyone’s head; they are fighting for a true National and Social Emancipation that will guarantee them such concrete benefits as will ensure their material and spiritual prosperity! That is why the AASU-E [All-Afrikan Student’s Union in Europe] sees Reparations, from the perspective of Afrikan youth, as the actual conscientization of the objectives of our whole people’s Liberation Struggle under the banner of revolutionary Pan-Afrikanism. Therefore the Reparations we the youth of Afrika are demanding must restore to all people of Afrikan origin throughout the World full sovereignty, the absolute ownership of the whole of our Homeland, including all its resources, and the Renaissance of Maat and other value of our classical civilisation, in order to give us the concrete basis for independently achieving our own material and spiritual prosperity.“
Antonieta Carla Santana, ‘Our Struggle for Reparations in Afrikan Youth Perspective’: A Draft Paper for Presentation to the 11th December 1993 Birmingham Working Conference of the African Reparations Movement (ARM-UK)
“Too often our standards for evaluating social movements pivot around whether or not they ‘succeeded’ in realizing their visions rather than on the merits or power of the visions themselves. By such a measure, virtually every radical movement failed because the basic power relations it sought to change remain pretty much intact. And yet it is precisely those alternative visions and dreams that inspire new generations to continue to struggle for change.”
— Robin D.G. Kelley —
The best way to keep abreast of the activities and achievements of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) is to be part of it!
We will not get a sense of the totality of the work just by turning up for one day and then lamenting the lack of numbers or vibes on the day. The UK has always had a Pan-Afrikan approach to this grassroots movement to effect and secure holistic reparations; which means fighting for our power base in Afrika and her Diaspora wherever we are. We cannot be concerned just with our people in the UK, a mere 3% of the UK population. Neither can we NOT connect our quest for reparatory, environmental and cognitive justice (referred to collectively as Planet Repairs) to our homeland and power base Afrika from which much or the resources that prop up the greedy inhumane global North, come from. So, it is necessary to have a glocal (local and global) approach which the Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign (SMWeCGEC) and her affiliated structures has been operating with.
Securing Planet Repairs requires us to use all methods at our disposal including, social, legal, extra-legal, political, economic, parliamentary, and revolutionary means. It has meant taking our fight into hostile institutional spaces often led by people racialised as ‘White’, educational institutions, community spaces, social media spaces and taking up space on the streets. It has meant numerous instances of advocacy, public speaking and media appearances, attending conferences and public meetings, lobbying elected officials and making representations, providing reparations education and training to NGO’s, creating and disseminating our own messages and challenging power structures on their own turf.
You will not see all this work that goes on just by turning up on 1st Mosiah and cannot be achieved just by People of Afrikan Heritage talking amongst ourselves! There is a need to hold perpetrators to account (the external dimension of reparations) and challenge ourselves to be the reparatory justice change-makers we are seeking (the internal dimension often referred to as community self-repairs).
Since the first Reparations March in 2014 the SMWeCGEC, in partnership with the AEDRMC and other supporting organisations has:
• Stewarded the organising processes for the annual Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March with the formalisation of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC), consisting of a diverse array of Afrikan heritage groups, organisations, movements and individuals. Most of the committee members, both individual and organisational, have been involved with the March from its inception in 2014.
• Advanced reparations social movement-building of various constituencies within and outside our Afrikan Heritage Communities locally, nationally and internationally. The reparations movement led by Afrikan Heritage Communities is known as the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) and the ISMAR is part of a wider internationalist movement of other peoples who have reparations struggles known as the PRIM (Peoples Reparations Internationalist Movement). In this regard, priority is given to mobilising our own individual and people’s 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.”
• Partnered with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) to develop aims and objectives for the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March on the 1st of Mosiah (August) which took place between 2015-2019. These aims (below) became necessary so that as co-organisers of the 1st Mosiah activities that we could provide a clear rationale for why we were marching.
• Strengthened the programme for the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March itself by introducing to the programme of the day the People’s Open Parliamentary Session on Afrikan Reparations (POPSAR) which occurred in between 2016 and 2019. The POPSAR at Parliament Square was a mass consciousness-raising forum for public debate and discourse on manifestations of the Maangamizi necessitating Afrikan Reparations. It was a public forum where Afrikan people rehearsed our arguments in pursuit of the ‘Battle of Ideas’ on obstacles to the realisation of holistic reparatory justice. The purpose of the POPSAR was to engage audiences in action-learning on participatory democratic parliamentary debate and the ‘Battle of Ideas’ on critical issues such as how to stop various manifestations of the Maangamizi as part of the process of effecting and securing Afrikan Reparatory Justice.
• Helped to consolidate the emergence of an independent ground-up Pan-Afrikan inspired, and initiated, transnational process of facilitating grassroots leadership as well as mobilising and organising Afrikan people to advocate for reparations on their own terms, which goes beyond the statist CARICOM Reparatory Justice Programme and their Ten-Point Plan. Despite the fact that reparatory justice organising in the UK goes back centuries, there has been little recognition of this by Afrikan heritage social, political and economic elites within and beyond Britain who, for many decades, have chosen, (contrary to our indigenous Afrikan traditions of exercising people’s power), not to identify with the ground-up initiated and led ISMAR.
• Collected over 25,000 signatures for the Stop the Maangamizi petition which calls for the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice into the LEGACIES of Afrikan enslavement, colonisation and neocolonialism. Have you read and signed it? Click here to read and sign it.
• Established the Maangamizi Educational Trust (M.E.T) in 2018 as the educational, training and other activities conducive to fundraising arm of the SMWeCGEC.
• Through PARCOE, established an Afrikan Reparations research partnership working between grassroots scholar-activists and establishment scholars at the University of Boston and the University of Edinburgh – who came together to form the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR) and its youth wing INOSAAR Rep-Afrika. We recommend you also download and read the INOSAAR Principles of Participation as a good model of how reparations activists should engage in co-production with power institutions.
• Co-initiated the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Rebellion Groundings with the AEDRMC in 2020. The main purpose of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Rebellion Groundings is to showcase our Afrikan Heritage Communities self-repairs initiatives locally, nationally and internationally.
• Worked with Green Party members to co-produce the ‘Atonement and Reparations for the United Kingdom’s Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans’ motions now passed by Lambeth, Islington in 2020 and Bristol City Council in 2021 and continues to work with Green Party members through the Green Action for Afrikan Reparations Dialogue (GAARD). Through collaboration with members of the Green Party of England and Wales and INOSAAR, SMWeCGEC contributed to the impetus for the party to be the first and only major UK party to commit to seeking reparatory justice for the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Afrikans (TTEA) in 2020. Green Party Members overwhelmingly voted in favour of the E3 motion ‘Atonement and Reparative Justice For African Enslavement‘ on the final day of their Autumn Conference on the 11th October 2020. Proposed by Green Councillors Cleo Lake (Bristol) and Scott Ainslie (Lambeth), and supported by the Greens of Colour and the Young Greens, the motion calls on Parliament to establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.
• Through the M.E.T, worked with Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP to establish the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations (APPGAR) as promoted in the SMWeCGEC postcard campaign. Since the establishment of the APPGAR, the M.E.T has shared the running of the secretariat with the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) and the Glocal Afrika Reparations Forum of London (GARFOL). The APPGAR gained new members in 2023.
• In order to develop autonomous Afrikan Heritage Community participation in the work of the APPGAR, the SMWeCGEC, co-founded together with GARFOL, the APPGAR community link known as the APPGARL action-learning circles where Afrikan Heritage Communities learn to critically engage with state bodies and the UK Parliament as communities of resistance, e.g., the Education and Reparations Circle and the Mbuya Nehanda Afrikan Women & Reparations Circle.
• Raised awareness, popularised and increased public recognition of key concepts and knowledge produced by the ISMAR including: the Maangamizi, Maatubuntujamaas, Sankofahomes and Maatubuntudunia in Ubuntudunia.
• Been instrumental in the development of Maatubuntumitawo – Global Afrikan Family Reunion International Council (Maatubuntumitawo – GAFRIC) by promoting glocal relation-building in association with Vazoba Afrika & Friends Networking Open Forum and Maatubuntumitawo – GAFRIC with indigenous Afrikan communities of resistance on the continent of Afrika. In this way, contributing to the concretisation of Maatubuntujamaas in the UK and internationally in link with emerging Sankofahomes in West Afrika with a view to the eventual building of Maatubuntudunia in Ubuntudunia.
• Co-initiated the Glocal Afrikan Reparations Forum of London (GARFOL) to glocally promote Afrikan Heritage Community engagement with the British public and local and central government structures in London from the standpoint of enhancing efforts towards building Maatubuntujamaas in link with Sankofahomes as part of the building process of Maatubuntuman in Ubuntudunia.
• Contributed to establishing the Afrikan Reparations Transnational Community of Practice for Action-Learning about Reparations (ARTCoP).
• Developed the ISMAR Advocates Training Course and other reparations action-learning, education, learning & teaching initiatives and co-facilitated with the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC), several reparations awareness and orientation workshops across the UK.
• Developed a version of the petition for lodging at the European Parliament and had it translated into Dutch, French and German through working as part of the Europe NGO Consultative Council for Afrikan Reparations (ENGOCCAR).
• Developed a critical analysis of the CARICOM Reparations Initiative, through the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe (PARCOE)
• Contributed to developing a position on the CARICOM Reparations Initiative alternative approach to reparations in association with PARCOE and the Global Afrikan Peoples Parliament.
• Co-convened, in association with Esther Stanford-Xosei, a meeting with UK based reparations activists of International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) to interface with the CARICOM Reparations initiatives of the Jamaican National Council on Reparations regarding how best to jointly work together recognising differences in our respective reparations strategies and tactics.
• Supported the candidature of SMWeCGEC Co-Vice Chair, Kofi Mawuli Klu who championed programmatic aspects of the SMWeCGEC in his campaign as independent candidate in the 2019 European Parliamentary elections as part of the ‘CEE the Truth’ Campaign, (#CEEtheTruth). One of the 3 aims of #CEEtheTruth was to “develop National Citizens Assemblies on Climate & Ecological Justice to oversee policy making, including those of Planet Repairs embracing Reparations, and have a leading role in shaping a zero carbon Europe”.
• Established organisational links with the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (Namibia), N’COBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (USA) and the UBAD Educational Foundation (Belize) through PARCOE. The SMWeCGEC Coordinator-General, Esther Stanford-Xosei was selected to become a board member of N’COBRA when she was appointed Co-Chair of the N’COBRA International Affairs Commission in 2022.
• Contributed to the establishment of the University of Repair co-initiated by Decolonising the Archive in partnership with Esther Stanford-Xosei (SMWeCGEC), Professor Gus John (Gus John Associates) and Professor Patricia Rodney (Walter Rodney Foundation).
• Supported the formation of the Global Majority Vs Campaign and leant to their legal case knowledge and expertise in advocacy and critical legal praxis, particularly in developing the extra-legal dimension of the case from a law as resistance perspective.
• Co-initiated, the Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network (XRISN) and the Extinction Rebellion Being the Change Affinity Network (XR-BACN) as an organised way to work with non-Afrikan allies in championing Planet Repairs and PRIM-building. In addition, the XR-Ubuntunovisi (bridge network of Afrikan Heritage Community activists developing critical resistance engagement with Extinction Rebellion).
• Has been instrumental in co-founding and developing the Majority World Internationalist Solidarity Coordinating Council of Communities Of Resistance (MWISCCCOR) which currently embraces Afrikan and Abya Yalan Heritage (so-called Americas) community activist circles working within and around XR-Ubuntunovisi and XR-Aylhcan (Abya Yalan & Latinx Heritage Communities Affinity Network).
Not yet Uhuru in Barbados, is the transition to a republic more symbolic rather than substantive?
By Esther Stanford-Xosei*
A version of this article was published on Self-Help News on the 30th November 2021. Uhuru means freedom in Kiswahili.
On 30th November 2021, Barbados transitioned from a parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the hereditary monarch of Barbados (formerly Queen Elizabeth II) to a parliamentary republic with a ceremonial non-executive President as Head of State elected by members of parliament and not the people. The Prime Minister, Mia Mottley EGH, OR, QC, MP remains Head of Government.
However, the question that I and many other citizens of Barbados have been discussing is whether this transition to a republic is more symbolic rather than substantive. Whilst much of the corporate whitestream media is hailing this move as some huge achievement, questions remain about whether selecting the existing Governor-General, Dame Sandra Mason GCMG, DA, QC, who had been Queen Elizabeth’s II’s representative in Barbados since 2018, to serve as Barbados’s first President and Head of State is really the kind of substantive change one would expect when a country transitions to a republic. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on Mason the Dame Grand Cross in the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George when Mason was appointed Governor-General.
Lest we not forget, the hitherto Governor-Generals of Barbados are appointed by Queen Elizabeth II supposedly on the advice of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Nevertheless, the fact that two thirds of the Barbados Parliament selected the (former) Governor-General to become the first President of the Republic of Barbados could be seen as an attempt to hoodwink the people into believing that there has been a changing of the power structure, when that is clearly not the case. Indeed, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Any new president of a republic, should be directly elected by the people of Barbados.- a point that was made months ago by Dr Ronnie Yearwood, a law lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus who has cautioned against a: “president formed in the backrooms of the Parliament functioning as an electoral college for choosing a president, likely one of the same political class.”
Significantly, Following the end of the Dame Sandra Mason’s term as president, future presidents will be elected by either a joint nomination of the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition or if there is no joint nomination, a vote of both houses of the Parliament of Barbados where a two-thirds majority is required. The electorate will therefore have no meaningful say. As Opposition Senator, Caswell Franklyn has also argued, there are flaws in the republic process. To raise legitimate concerns about the manner in which Barbados is transitioning to a republic does not mean that one is against republicanism, this is indeed long overdue. Nevertheless, it is prudent to raise the fact that the process we are embarking on in Barbados appears to be more symbolic rather than substantive. It reminds me of when President Obama became President of the United States and people got caught up with him being reported to have been the so-called first Black President of America (which was not true), rather than looking at how his presidency impacted on people of Afrikan ancestry and heritage.
Many are also getting caught up with the symbol of a first President of Barbados who also is a woman rather than critically examining the substance of how meaningful these changes will be. Whenever it comes to women in power and the tendency to see women in positions of (neocolonial) state power as emancipatory, I always question to what degree such women are or act, in ways that is described by Dr June Terpstra, as Women of the Hegemon. To find out more about what this means see here and here. In a global system of imperialism and neocolonialism, the Hegemon is ever-present even when it may be difficult to see because of the tendency to use a single lens of analysis when assessing reality rather than embracing an analysis of power on intersectional grounds.
I like many other agree that we should have a new constitution fit for purpose of what it means to be a republic drafted with input from our people who have up until now not really been given a say about what type of republic they want Barbados to be. Only then could it be said that there is a fair and equitable process which reflects a real intention to break with the coloniality of power of ‘Global Britain‘. Instead, Barbados’ republic status is premised on retaining links with European coloniality by simply making amendments to a constitution that came out of the Barbados Independence Act of 1966 passed by the UK Parliament, which gave Barbados “fully responsible status” (independence) within the Commonwealth. This Act has not been repealed.
According to the UK House of Commons Library Section 5 of that Act allowed Queen Elizabeth II, by Order in Council to:
“…provide a constitution for Barbados. This took the form of the Barbados Independence Order 1966, which was laid before the Barbados Parliament on 22 November 1966 and came into force on 30 November. The Constitution of Barbados formed a schedule to that order. This was drafted by a Constitutional Conference comprising political parties in Barbados and the then UK Secretary of State for the Colonies.”
In a recent article Dr Yearood & Professor Cynthia Barrow-Giles opined:
“….Barbados will move inexorably to republican status but with the status quo remaining, and with the symbolic change associated with the national head of state both practically and theoretically representing the citizens and not theoretically a foreign head of state. The real issue is therefore not about whether Barbados becomes a republic, or whether the Constitution is patriated, but about the relationship between the people and the Government as articulated in the Constitution. Is Barbados going to change its Constitution or be content with tinkering around the edges, masquerading as change?“
It would be far more transformatory, if an entirely new constitution was drafted instead of trying to seemingly ‘repair’ this colonial Westminster instrument. There is a long-standing need for constitutional review and reform which enables the electorate to have a greater degree of participation in accountable governance of the country. In order to become a republic, the Barbados Parliament had to revoke the Barbados Independence Order 1966 as an Order in Queen Elizabeth II’s Council via the Constitution (Amendment Bill) 2021, while keeping intact the existing Barbados Constitution. The amendment transfers the functions and powers of the Barbados Governor-General (Queen Elizabeth II’s representative) to the new President of the republic, amending the official oaths of Barbados to remove references to the Queen Elizabath II, as well as ensures continuity in all of the other aspects of the functioning of the state of Barbados.
The UK Parliament will have to pass consequential legislation “to avoid any confusion in its domestic law” as has been the case on previous occasions when Commonwealth Realms have become republics. The last time ithe UK Parliament passed a similar bill was the Mauritius Republic Act 1992. It is this aspect of the process thus far to republicanism that is most indicative that for now, Barbados will become a republic in name only. When a nation is seeking to establish true independence on the road to sovereignty, it cannot do so by maintaining relics of the colonial power that has ruled and influenced its institutions of governance for centuries. No wonder Prince Charles was invited as a guest of honour to make an address at the ceremony marking Barbados’ transition to a republic.
The cockily confident, Prince Charles felt it necessary in his public messaging on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II to emphasize those things “which will not change” such as the: “close and trusted partnership between Barbados and the United Kingdom”, the “common determination to defend the values we both cherish and to pursue the goals we share; and the myriad connections between the people of our countries.” He was even awarded the Order of Freedom of Barbados, which is now the country’s highest distinction. Quite rightly, the contradictions inherent in this decision has been condemned. In a recent facebook post Dr Tyehimba Salandy, a sociologist and scholar-activist based in Trinidad & Tobago says: “There is something very problematic about proclaiming Republic status and at the same time instead of pressing home the case for reparations awarding the creators of some of the worst crimes ever in human history with the Order of Freedom.”
Not surprisingly, Prince Charles’ visit has generated condemnation from across civil society, campaigners from the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration and the 13th June 1980 Movement had planned to stage a protest in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados yesterday. However, the government refused to grant permission for the protest. Clearly, such campaigners in Barbados, need support in amplifying their voices especially in the UK to present a counter narrative to this celebratory tone which is smothering those voices who are challenging the dominant state approaches to republicanism which are obfuscating the most fundamental issues of Global Europe and the continuance of Afrikan powerlessness in the Caribbean and elsewhere around the world. That is why the UK contingent of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations campaign, driven by the Stop The Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign, to establish a UK All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice which prompted the establishment of the UK All-Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations (APPGAR), will become of increasing importance in this regard.
The Secretary General of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, David Denny is right to say that Prince Charles’ visit is an insult! According to a recent report in the Daily Mirror: David Denny who felt the opportunity should be used to call for an apology and reparations, said:
“Barbados should not honour a family who murdered and tortured our people during slavery. The profits created the financial conditions for the Royal Family to increase their power.”
Kevin Cahill provides good justification of this last point when he uncovers in his 2007 book: ‘Who Owns the World’, the world’s primary feudal landowner remains Queen Elizabeth II. She is monarch of 15 countries in addition to the United Kingdom, head of a Commonwealth of 54 countries in which a quarter of the world’s population lives and holds legalised title to about 6.6 billion acres of land, one-sixth of the earth’s land surface.
Wherever one stands on this issue, deeper questions remain; like how will the centuries old accumulated benefits acquired by the British Monarchy be dismantled in Barbados? What will the rulership do to free the country of imperial influences, the Maangamizi of neocolonialism and its attendant neoliberal economic reforms?, which are not only raising the cost of living for ordinary people and exacerbating income inequality; but also furthering the dominant model of maldevelopment worldwide which has implications for effectively tackling the genocidal and ecocidal glocal impacts of the worldwide Climate and Ecological Crises and the necessity for charting alternative paths of progression in Barbados premised on transformtaive adapatation as an aspect of Planet Repairs. Will there be widespread land, wealth and resource redistribution?, especially since (prior to becoming a republic) the British Monarch owned all state lands and state-owned companies etc. I really doubt it!
Despite becoming a Republic, Barbados remains one of the most important offshore financial centres in the Caribbean and one of the world’s top 15 according to Oxfam. Accordingly, there is a link between financialisation and the growth of top incomes. In an article written whilst he was a PhD researcher at the London School of Economics, Scholar Dr Collin Constantine argues that: “Barbados’ status as an offshore financial centre also contributes to rising inequality in Western Europe and the USA by allowing wealthy foreigners to shift income and wealth into a low-tax jurisdiction. Yet while OECD countries are attempting to reclaim their “hidden wealth”, Bajans face growing inequality alongside austerity measures and weak tourism.” Constantine provides an important perspective on how the ‘idea’ of Barbados as a beacon of democracy in the Caribbean persists. He argues that this is in part the same issue studied in other contexts by Thomas Piketty: “When you have large wealth, you cannot just consume like other people. You start to consume influence, consume politicians, consume academics, you consume power; this is what high wealth is here for.”
Constantine goes on to state: The enormous concentration of income in Barbados historically meant that the most powerful and prestigious positions were reserved for colonial elites. In present-day Barbados, economic elites use grants, media ownership, campaign contributions, and so on to influence public policy, public opinion, and key actors to forge societal buy-in on policies that protect and reinforce elites’ economic interests. Even more than in OECD countries, part of the problem is a lack of transparency about top incomes in Barbados, with a severe lack of studies on wealth and income distribution. But this is compounded by deliberate attempts to shift the blame onto the most visible participants in the local economy, namely migrants.
The above arguments put forward by various commentators demonstrate that there is still a long way to go before we can say that we have overcome the tyranny of gradualism and effected as well as secured Uhuru in Barbados and across the Caribbean region. The struggle to transform our material, spiritual and cultural realities naturally leads to the path less travelled; i.e. that of continuing to build and strengthen movement-building for Pan-Afrikan Liberation at home in our Motherland Afrika, as well as across the Diaspora. This is concretised by the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign’s advocacy of the necessity to prefigure decolonial post-Afrikan Reparations futures epitomised by the establishment of Maatubuntuman in Ubuntudunia built from the emerging Community Resistance Zones such as Maatubuntujamaas (Afrikan Heritage Communities for National Self-Determination) in the Diaspora, organically and indivisibly linked to Sankofahomes premised on our indigenous Afrikan Communities of Resistance throughout the Continent of Afrika.
As Pan-Afrikan Reparationist Kofi Mawuli Klu, my fellow co-vice chair in the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe asserted in 1993:
“Unless our struggle for Reparations leads to the Pan-Afrikanist revolutionary consientization, organization and mobilization of the broad masses of Afrikan People throughout the Continent and the Diaspora to achieve first and foremost, their definitive emancipation from the impeding vestiges of colonialism and the still enslaving bonds of present-day Neocolonialism, to smash the yoke of white racist supremacy and utterly destroy the mental and physical stranglehold of Eurocentrism upon Afrikans at home and abroad, delinking Afrika completely from imperialism of any sort whatsoever, we shall have no POWER to back our claim for restitution and to give us the necessary force of coercion to make the perpetrators of the heinous crimes against us to honour the obligations of even the best fashioned letter and spirit of International Law.”
*Esther Stanford-Xosei is a Motherist and Pan-Afrikanist Jurisconsult, Community Advocate and Reparationist. As a ‘new abolitionist’ emphasizing the need to ‘stop the harm’ and effect Planet Repairs, Esther serves as the Coordinator-General of the Stop The Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign, among other responsibilities.
stopthemaangamizi.com 