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Bristol Live – Bristol group marches on Number 10 demanding reparations for the slave trade
Medium – As Quiet as It’s Kept, the U.K. Also Has a Reparations Problem
On Saturday 24th February 2019 a historic meeting took place in Bristol co-organised by Extinction Rebellion Bristol (XR Bristol), the ‘Stop The Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign (SMWeCGEC) and the Bristol based Afrikan ConneXions Consortium (ACC).
The theme of the meeting was ‘Legacies of Enslavement and Resistance For Rebellion Today‘. It was co-chaired by Robin Boardman from XR Bristol and Jendayi Serwah, Co-Vice Chair, SMWeCGEC who introduced the meeting and the interconnections between XR Bristol, SMWeCGEC and ACC. Kofi Mawuli Klu, a Pan-Afrikanist political activist and SMWeCGEC Co-Vice Chair spoke on ‘Lessons from Abolitionist Resistance for Stopping the Maangamizi Today By the Necessary Reparatory Justice Means of Extinction Rebellion’.
In his message, Kofi explored the legacies of the history of Afrikan & Abolitionist resistance to the Maangamizi (Afrikan Hellacaust) which can be drawn on in building solidarities with the Extinction Rebellion Movement today in tackling common goals of stopping ecocide, genocide and repairing the World.
There were participatory workshop discussions which followed the presentation.
The following was a video taken by Extinction Rebellion Bristol of the introductory messages from Robin, Jendayi as well as Kofi’s speech.
Pictures from the event, courtesy of Extinction Rebellion Bristol & Afrikan Connexions Consortium
Greetings Signatories of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and other Supporters of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC)
After sending two letters to the UK Prime Minister Theresa May, requesting a response to the 2018 ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and its accompanying letter (which was handed in to the Office of the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on 1st August 2018), the letter below is a scanned copy of the response that we received.
The letter from Stephen Townsend in the Multilateral Policy Directorate of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, dated 19th January 2019, was received by post today. You can find a scanned copy below.
Clearly, more needs to be done on our part, as community members, campaign supporters and advocates as well as other interested parties to ‘up the ante’, so that we do not keep getting such unsatisfactory cut and paste responses. We are reminded by the late Frederick Douglass that: “the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Your constructive suggestions as to what can be done are welcome. Please contact us by emailing stopthemaangamizi@gmail.com or call/message us on 07956431498.
Until next time!
‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign International Steering Committee Spearhead Team (ISC-SMWeCGEC)
Please note, Esther Stanford-Xosei’s address has been redacted
This is the second page of the letter
See here for the PARCOE Position Statement on the Need for Transparency in Universities Decision-Making Process on Reparative Justice Programmes.
Greetings Supporter of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide!’ Campaign (SMWeCGEC)
You may have recently heard about the University of Glasgow Reparative Justice Initiative which was reported in the press, after a year-long study conducted by the University’s History of Slavery Steering Committee (HSSC) discovered that the university benefited from the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds donated from the profits of Afrikan people’s enslavement in the Caribbean.
The report states that although the university itself “adopted a clear anti-slavery position” during the 18th and 19th centuries, it received gifts and bequests from people connected to enslavement. The report concluded that the university benefited by between £16.7m and £198m, depending on how the amount is updated to its present-day value.
As a result of the study, it is reported that the university will create a centre for the study of slavery and has agreed to add a memorial or tribute at the university in the name of the enslaved.
The report also identifies that the University of Glasgow will pursue the negotiation and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies, “designed to fit the needs and requirements of UWI staff and students.” It is proposed that the MOU might include, for example:
(a) A short-term visiting fellowship for UWI academic staff
(b) Student scholarships for UWI students
(c) Develop relationships in focused areas (for example, medicine, engineering)
(d) Work collaboratively with UWI to advance research and education in the
fields key to reparative justice (e.g. health, history of slavery and its
legacies, post-colonial economic development etc).
You can find the HSSC report ‘Slavery Abolition and the University of Glasgow’ here: SLAVERY ABOLITION AND THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. The proposals regarding the University of Glasgow’s reparative justice programme can be found on pages 16-17.
In response to the proposed reparatory justice programme, the SMWeCGEC has written an open letter to the HSSC which produced the report.
You can find our letter here: OPEN LETTER REGARDING UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW REPARATIVE JUSTICE INITIATIVE
A vital matter of reparations ethics which the SMWeCGEC has asserted elsewhere including in the letter to the UK Prime Minister accompanying the 2018 hand-in of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition is that those making reparations claims on behalf of Afrikan heritage communities, outside the UK, but seeking to make negotiations with UK state institutions, should first and foremost engage in proper consultations and strategy development with Afrikan heritage communities in the UK. So, public consultation and community engagement is also an expectation and requirement of state institutions in Afrika, the Caribbean and elsewhere.
Further info about public engagement and universities from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement can be found here.
Until next time!
‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign International Steering Committee Spearhead Team (ISC-SMWeCGEC)
#StopTheMaangamizi!
#Educational Repairs!
#Institutional Repairs!
#Decolonise!
