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replay AST SPEAKS WITH QM Dr ChenziRa Davis Kahina_AST SPEAKS LIVE EVERY 1ST 3RD THURSDAY · DA CREW Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Warm greetings on behalf of the Caribbean community. It's both
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: a pleasure and an honour to address you as you
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: gather in Barbados for the third regional conference on reparations
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: under the theme Reparatory Justice as the Coming Enlightenment. I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: extend our deep appreciation to Prime Minister Mia Amor Motley
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and the government and people of Barbados for hosting this
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: important conference. I also commend Professor Sahil Rebeccles, the CARICOM
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Reparations Commission, and all those whose determination has kept this
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: movement alive, principled, and advancing. Let us be clear, we
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: are not gathered here to reopen old wounds. We are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: gathered because these wounds were never properly addressed. We are
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: gathered because the trafficking and enslavement of African racialized chattel
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: slavery and colonial domination did not end with emancipation. The
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: consequences remain visible in the poverty, inequality, exclusion, and vulnerability
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that continue to affect our people and our nations. Emancipation
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was a historic victory, but emancipation without justice was incomplete.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Freedom without equality was unfinished, and independence without the full
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: repair of the damage inflicted upon our people cannot be
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the final destination. This is why reparations are not an
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: appeal for charity. They are a call for justice. They
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: are a request for truth. They are a demand that
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: history be confronted honestly and that responsibility be matched by action.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: The revised CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice gives us
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a clear and principled framework. It calls upon us to
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: move beyond statements of regret and towards meaningful transformation for education, health,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: cultural renewal, economic opportunity, debt justice, climate justice, and the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: dismantling of systems that contribute to disadvantage our people. The
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: recognition by the United Nations of the trafficking and enslavement
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity is an
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: important step. But recognition by itself.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Is not repair.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Acknowledgement must lead to accountability. Accountability must lead to action.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And action must improve the lives of Caribbean people. Our
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: task therefore is urgent. We must speak with unity. We
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: must negotiate with courage. We must build stronger partnerships among CARICOM, Africa,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the African Union, civil society, and the global African diaspora.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Let this conference be more than a moment of reflection.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Let it be a moment of resolve. We know where
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: we have come from. We know what was taken from us.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And we know what justice requires. The Caribbean will not
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: be silent. The Caribbean will not be divided. And the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Caribbean will not accept delay as a substitute for justice.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Let us move forward with courage, dignity, and purpose, determined
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to ensure that justice delayed does not become justice denied.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I wish you every success in your deliberations.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I thank you.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Thank you to the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Honorable Philip J. Pierre, for that message of solidarity.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Yes, really quickly, we just wanted to apologize to correct
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: that the program reflects Honorable Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre,
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  Speaker 4: as my colleague just noted, Prime Minister of St. Lucia,
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: and the Chairman of CARICOM. There are no other solidarity messages.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: As we continue, ladies and gentlemen, We now welcome a
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: distinguished scholar, historian, author, and one of the Caribbean's most
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: influential voices on justice and history. He is a man
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: whose scholarship has helped reshape how the world understands the
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Caribbean's past and whose leadership continues to champion the region's
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: pursuit of reparatory justice. Please join me in welcoming, for
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the relaunch of the CARICOM Ten Point Plan, the chair
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Allow me to recognize
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the protocol, but to, of course, recognize my great friends,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: His Royal Highness. It's good to have you, sir. And
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Queen Grace, thank you for gracing us. with your dignified presence.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Our Prime Minister, who just spoke to us, Head of CARICOM,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister Pierre, our Distinguished Secretary General, Dr. Barnett, and
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: all of my distinguished colleagues at the reparations commissions and excellencies,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: and all of you of African ascent. I regret also
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: that our distinguished Prime Minister is not with us. this
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: evening because I wanted also to thank her because 25
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: years ago at the UN's first conference on race and
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: race relations, Prime Minister Motley, at the time, I should say,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Attorney General, could not attend to that UN conference in Durban,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: South Africa and asked if I could if I could
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: substitute for her, and Ambassador Commenchant, who is here, and Dr.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: George Bell, and the three of us went off. It
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: took three of us to represent one woman.
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  Speaker 5: But we did go, and we did our very best
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: at that conference in 2001.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: This month, September, is precisely the 25th anniversary of that conference. Now,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: that was one of the most racially divisive conference that
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: I have ever attended. It was marked by very acerbic and,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: in many ways, very vicious conversations about the notion of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: reparatory justice. Many European countries took the view that if
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Reparatory Justice was on the agenda, they will not attend.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: The United States had pulled out of the conference because
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the words reparations was on the agenda. And it was
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: a very difficult time. Now, please remember the timelines. When
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I returned from that conference, I gave a media debriefing,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: and I stated that all of that anger and rage,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: all of that bitterness and rage that shaped that conference.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Where is that violence going to go? Where is that
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: anger going to go? There was so much of it.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: A week later, we saw people flying airplanes into buildings
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: in New York. And the connection was clear, because it
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: was said at the conference that this anger will not disappear.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: It will find a modality of expression, and it did. Now,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: at that conference also, a philosophical position was rolled out,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: which is relevant to how and why we are here today.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: In my closing remarks at the plenary, I argued that
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: that the 21st century, and this was just the beginning,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: this was 2001, this 21st century is going to witness
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: and be host to the greatest political movement, which will
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: be called reparatory justice. And it was argued that reparations
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: and the politics of reparations will be the greatest political
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: movement of the 21st century. Now, at the time, of course,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: many people thought that was hyperbolic, a bit extreme, you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: a bit extreme. But it was based on a clear,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: logical interpretation of history. It took us all of the
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: 19th century to uproot slavery, chattel slavery from the world.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: It took an entire century to uproot it. Starting with
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Haiti in 1804, at the beginning, all the way to
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Brazil in 1888, it took us an entire century to
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: get rid of chattel slavery from the world. Then it
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: took us all of the 20th century to convert emancipations
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: into human rights and civil rights. Another 100 years. of
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: human rights and civil rights. To enjoy all of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: democratic benefits today that we take for granted, it was
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: a hundred years of struggle to secure those rights. And
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: here we are now at the beginning of the 21st century,
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  Speaker 2: and we're into the final stage of this process, uprooting slavery,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: achieving civil and human rights. And this century is going
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: to be the century of reparatory justice. It is. This
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: is it. And we said in South Africa, this is it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: And this century is going to be nothing more than
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: the preparations and the struggle and the negotiations for justice
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: as we have seen it. Now, CARICOM, in its vision,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: established a commission, the reparations commission, to frame the conversation
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: to mobilize for public opinion advocacy, to conduct research on
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: which to base our philosophies. As Minister, as you have said, Mr. Prescott,
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  Speaker 2: based on our understanding of our own history, build a
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: political narrative and an organizing framework. And this is what
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: this commission set out to do. Commission was populated by
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: some outstanding people who are all here, people who were
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: experienced in the history of human rights, civil rights, pan-Africanism.
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  Speaker 2: It was an assembly of some of the finest minds
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  Speaker 2: in our region who were committed to all of this.
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  Speaker 2: Each time I speak of this history, I always have
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  Speaker 2: to respect David Commichon because he was the one in
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Durban who walked into a room filled with European leaders,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: and who were saying to us, be silent. Be quiet.
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  Speaker 2: You have no rights. You have the audacity to bring
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: reparations in front of us. And David was the one
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  Speaker 2: who had a real David and Goliath thing here. He
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: had to stand before them. And face them down to
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  Speaker 2: get this matter resolved. So a commission established to begin
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  Speaker 2: this conversation. The first thing we had to do was
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: to establish a framework of action. What do we want?
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  Speaker 2: We came to the concrete conclusion that proprietary justice has
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  Speaker 2: to be developmental and transformative. And these are the fundamental
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  Speaker 2: principles that we will pursue, that this region has found
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: itself in a mess because of historical circumstances. There has
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: been no part of the world that has been subject
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  Speaker 2: to as intense a process of economic extraction Human degradation
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  Speaker 2: and structural poverty as the Caribbean. There is no place
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  Speaker 2: in the world that has experienced that kind of history.
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  Speaker 2: Every European power wanted a piece of it. And they
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  Speaker 2: all got a piece of it. And in getting a
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  Speaker 2: piece of it, they got a piece of us. They
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  Speaker 2: brought us. some 15 million of our people from Africa
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  Speaker 2: and chains across the Atlantic to do their bid. And
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: in so doing, I should add, committed not only chattel slavery,
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  Speaker 2: which was unique because the argument is always made in resistance. Oh,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: slavery was everywhere. Every group of people in the world
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: have experienced slavery at some point in their history. but
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: not chattel slavery. Chattel slavery was invented in the Caribbean
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  Speaker 2: for a specific purpose. It was the first time in
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  Speaker 2: human history that an ethnic group of people racially identified
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  Speaker 2: were classified in law as property, as non-human property. No
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: other race on this planet has ever been classified in
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  Speaker 2: law and in culture as non-human property, chattel, and real estate.
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  Speaker 2: It was a specific form of enslavement. But it was
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  Speaker 2: also genocidal. And I want to add that to it,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: to give gravity to the significance of that. What do
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  Speaker 2: I mean? Let me give it to you with a
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  Speaker 2: Barbados example. I will give a few of those. 600,000
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  Speaker 2: Africans were imported into Barbados. 600,000. At the end of
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  Speaker 2: slavery in 1834, there were 83,000 remaining. How do you
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: reduce 600,000 100,000 people over 200 years to 83,000. Less
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  Speaker 2: than 20% survival. That is also a definition of genocide.
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  Speaker 2: So we need to understand it was not only chattel slavery, genocide.
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  Speaker 2: What was true of Barbados was true of Jamaica. 1.5
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  Speaker 2: million imported, 1.5 million imported into Jamaica. At the end
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  Speaker 2: of emancipation, 300,000. Genocide. Why? Because it was property. You
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: burn it up, you use it, and you replaced it.
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  Speaker 2: In our first meeting of the commission, we came up
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  Speaker 2: collectively with a 10-point plan. All of my colleagues who
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: are here from the commission, many of you will remember,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: all of you, the conversation at the first meeting that
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: led to the 10-point plan. A framework for comprehension, understanding,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: a framework for negotiation, around specific issues. And I wish
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: to commend my colleague who spoke from the perspective of
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the indigenous people. Thank you. That was uppermost in our
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: list of priorities, the genocide of the indigenous people of
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  Speaker 2: this region. Now, I will give you another example of
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: a local nature in order to highlight the significance of
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: this genocide. The British Imperial Colonial Forces arrived here in
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: 1655 to settle the colonies. One of the letters back
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: to King James I, Your Majesty, you'll be happy to
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: know that we have arrived at an island called Barbados.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: We have traversed the island. We have surveyed the island.
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  Speaker 2: And Your Majesty, you'll be happy to know that it
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: is perfectly suited for us because it is an empty island.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: It's an empty island. There are houses everywhere, but no people.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: An island filled with houses, villages, but no people. The
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: first genocide. The Spanish would come here. They would raid
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: the island. They would kidnap the indigenous people, take them
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: to Mexico to work in the mines. The Portuguese would
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: come here. and raid this island, capture the native people,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: and take them to Brazil, to Bahia, Pernambuco, to work
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: on the sugar plantations. Those who survived fled to the
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: neighboring islands, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica. So we begin
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  Speaker 2: our journey not with chattel slavery, but with genocide. followed
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: by chattel slavery. But at that meeting, we also historically
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: determine that this moment of the reparations movement is the
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: fifth phase or the fifth eruption of this movement. This
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: was not the first phase in which we were living. No,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: this was the fifth wave. During the period of slavery,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: when African people became free through one mechanism or another,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: they would demand compensation. They would ask for recompense, compensation.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: So in the documentation of slavery, we have endless reports
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: of black people through multiple modalities becoming free. And when
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: they became free, they would ask for compensation for the
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: period of enslavement of themselves and their family because they
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: defined slavery as a process through which your labor was stolen.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: And that was a universal historical principle. Every human being
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: has the right to be the beneficiary of the fruits
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: of their labor. Slavery is the appropriation of that right
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and the consolidation of that right in someone else's authority.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And free Africans would ask for compensation. Then came the
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: emancipation legislation. This is the third phase. Emancipation. And while
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the British government and all the European governments were discussing
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: giving compensation to the enslavers, and they did it, the
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: French did it, the English did it, the Dutch did it,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: they all did it. They compensated the enslavers. And when
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: they were in their parliament, the black people were saying,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: how about us? Again, we have documentation. 1830s, the African
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: people in the Caribbean are saying, we are the ones saying,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: to receive emancipation and reparations. They put their demands there.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: I will give you another local example to illustrate the point. 1829, 1830, 1831,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I do not know if Dr. Henderson Carter is here,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: but he has just published a magnificent piece of archival
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: research showing that there were riots in Barbados in 1829, 1830, 1831,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: where the African people here, the enslaved, are demanding land.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: They are saying, we do not want landless emancipation. If
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: you're going to free us, we want reparations and we
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: want land. The governor will call out the troops, call
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: out the soldiers to send them back to their plantations.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: There were severe moments of public outrage by the enslaved,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: we want reparations with emancipation. And they took to the streets.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: They marched to demonstrate it. So we know our own history.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: So in our lifetime, we are here talking about reparations.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: But we have to emphasize our great, great, great grandparents
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: did the same thing. They were always doing it. So
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: here we are now in the 50s. In the 1830s
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: and 40s and 50s, the first generation of emancipated people
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: in this region demanded reparations. They demanded land as the
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: principal form of reparations. All of those rebellions that took
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: place in the Caribbean, we all know the famous rebellions
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: of Morant Bay, Jamaica, Paul Bogle leading his people to
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: the governor to demand. This emancipation is not enough. We
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: want land to root our villages, to root our families,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: to have economic security, the right to vote. We want land.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: And right across the Caribbean, the first and second generation
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: of emancipated Africans demanded reparations. They did not get it.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: They wrote to Queen Victoria asking for land. Queen Victoria
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: told the Jamaican peasants, go and work on your plantations
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: and do your best. No land. But of course, most
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: of the land was was crown land, and they occupied
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: the crown lands. There was starvation. There was hunger. They
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: occupied the lands. The governor called out the troops, got
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: permission from Whitehall, shot them down, executed their leaders. What
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: was that all about? Land as compensation and reparations. Then
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Marcus Garvey comes in the early part of the 20th
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: century with the same demands, reparations. And here we are now,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: another reparations wave. But the fundamental difference between then and
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: now is that historically, the reparations debate crescendoed, declined. Crescendoed
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: and declined. We are now in the fifth wave. And
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: our position is this is it. There will be no
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: other crescendos, no other. This is it. There will be
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: no other rise and fall and rise and fall. This
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: is the final eruption of this movement. And we're not
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: going to retreat and let it go into a slumber
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: for the next generation. We, this generation, all of us,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: we are going to see this to the very end.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: So we historicize this movement. And that has given us
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: a tremendous sense of responsibility for our time. This is
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: our time. This is our wave. And we are not
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: going to retreat this time around. Now, the Ten Point
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Plan has since been radically revised. And this is where
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: we are today. Why was it revised? Because over the
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: last 10 years of this 10-point plan, we opened that
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: plan to critical discourse. Critical discourse. We asked our Caribbean
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: societies to criticize it because we want to perfect it.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: And it was open to 10 years of systematic, intellectual, empirical,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: and conceptual criticisms. We gathered all of those criticisms, and
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: we processed them, and after several meetings, we realized it
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: was necessary to not only revise, but to reconceptualize. I
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: will give you another example of an area of criticism
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: that is now at the center of this revised document.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: In the original conception, of course, there was reference to
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: the experiences of enslaved women and the journey of black
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: women through that historical period. The criticism was intense. Intense.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Not enough. You have not captured that issue of the
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: experiences of women. You have mentioned it, you narrate it,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: but it's not captured in its essence. Start again. Professor Shepherd,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: thank you for leading that campaign. Thank you. And why
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: was that relevant? Because chattel slavery was an institution that
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: was built on the existence of black women. The women
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: carried slavery. The laws of slavery were built around and
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: framed around centering the black woman as the seed of slavery.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: It was her womb that was enslaved. It was the
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: enslavement of the black womb that enabled slavery to go
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: from generation to generation to generation because the laws that
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: were passed were clear. Only an enslaved woman can give
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: birth to a slave child. The birth of The status
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: of a child at birth in all of these societies,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the status of a child at birth was based on
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: the status of the mother. The vast majority of the
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: black mothers in the Caribbean were black women. The laws
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: were clear. A white woman could not give birth to
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: a slave child. Any child born of a white woman
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: was born free. Irrespective of the status of the father.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: And I give you another example, local, to bring it
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: home here. In the 1715 census, which was the second
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: census of this island. In a separate category, there is
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: a list of about 15 children who were born free
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: because their mothers were white, but their fathers were slaves.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: So there's a special group in that census, and it
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: says the following children are ye Ye extract. Of white mothers.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: And African enslaved fathers. But those children. Were born free. Okay.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: So the black woman. Is therefore at the center. Of
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: the intergenerational reproduction. Of slavery. And again. To give you.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: A local case. Because they want to share that. This
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: is why Barbados. became the first society in this hemisphere,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: the first society in this hemisphere, the first colony where
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: women outnumbered men. Black women were the majority on this
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: island from 1655 to today. This is the only society
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: in all of America where women have been the majority
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: for 300 years. That's probably why we have a female
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: prime minister and a female president and a female everything else.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Because it's demographics, it's democracy. This has been a female
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: dominated island for 300 years because the slavery system that
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: was perfected here was perfected around African women. These This
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: was the core of it. So we had to make
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: these points. What slavery was all about. We cannot. Any longer.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Speak about slavery. In generic neutral terms. Collective no. There
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: was black slavery. But there was female slavery. And there
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: was male slavery. And while they were all enslaved. The
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: experiences of black women. Were fundamentally different. From those of men.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: So we cannot group it together into a single category.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: We have to explain how slavery survived and was developed
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: and structured precisely because of its gendered identity and the
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: core issue of the enslavement of the black womb. And
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: that is how we readdress those issues to make sure
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: that everyone who reads this 10-point plan fully understands to
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: the best of the research available, what we are speaking,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: what we are speaking about. And so we also made
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: some final revisions to make clear what reparatory justice is
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: all about. We thank you, Your Royal Highness, for articulating
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: the philosophy of Ubuntu. our African-derived philosophy of who we are,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: our identity. I am because we are. We do not
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: believe in rampant individualism. While Europe went off in their
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: sociological view that the unit of society is the individual,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: it is not the family, It is not the community.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: It is the individual, and individualism is built into the moral, political,
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: and economic philosophy of Western civilization. Africans have always said no.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I am because we are. It's the relation of the
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: individual to the family, the community, and the nation that
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: constitutes the unit. And coming out of that, we had
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: to ask ourselves, what does reparation really represent? At one level,
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: it is justice for the people of Africa. Justice. Legal, social, moral,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: psychological justice. And that is what we built into the
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Ten Point Plan. But in the revised Ten Point Plan,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: we realize that we have a higher responsibility to the world.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: We are not struggling for reparatory justice only because of
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: our personal ethnic situation. We have a duty to humanity.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: Because the crime that has been committed against the African people,
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: the uniqueness of it, chattel it. This kind of thing
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: should never happen again to any group of people on
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: God's earth. And so we took it as paramount that
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: we should be saying we want reparatory justice also to
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: make sure that humanity is cured of this curse this curse,
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: this toxic racism that would allow you to denigrate a
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: group of people to the status of property. This will
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: never happen again. We are very conscious when we look
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: into the world today and we hear conversations such as
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: there is a political problem in this part of the
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: world and maybe one of the ways to solve that
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: problem is the nuclear option. And we are living at
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: a time where the possibility of dropping nuclear bombs on people,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: on human beings, to solve a political problem is an option.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: We cannot separate our struggle for justice and detach it
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: from those kinds of issues. Because this 21st century is ours.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And we have a very clear sense that the human
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: family originates in Africa. And that gives Africans a special
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: responsibility for it, for the human species. This is where
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: it started. So we have an overarching responsibility for the
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: future of humanity. And this is where we took the
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: revised 10-point plan. Justice for us. Security for humanity. And
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: that is the framework. And it is precisely that framework
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: which is rooted in our philosophy. It is not surprising
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: that the two greatest intellectual leaders of the 20th century,
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, they are the eruption
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: of us. What did they say to the world? What
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: did Martin Luther King say to the world? What did
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Mandela say to the world? Yes, we have a problem
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: here and we will solve it. But in so solving it,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: we have a bigger problem to deal with, which is
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: the history of the human family. So erupting from our
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: history has always been an intellectual understanding that our problem
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: must be resolved, but there are bigger problems out there
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: as well. Now, I believe that that was the basis
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: of what happened at the United Nations. What happened at
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: the United Nations? Nations all over the world rallied to
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: our cause. The Chinese rallied to our cause. India rallied
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: to our cause. Iran, Russia, all of these countries all
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: over the world. Many of them have never had any
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: relationship to slavery. But those people understood the nature of
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: our struggle. And that is why we had this overwhelming
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: support at the United Nations for our struggle to declare
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: that chattel slavery was the gravest crime ever committed in
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: the history of the human species. And so we are
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: now at a unique moment. Our view is that the
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: case for reparatory justice has begun. made. It's made. The
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: United Nations is the court. They have said the case
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: is made. The guilt is clear. The responsibility let the
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: negotiations begin. That is what the United Nations has said.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: Let the negotiations begin. And this is where we are
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: in this region with CARICOM and the African Union coming together,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: building a global network of nations and communities and leaders
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: who believe in justice. And they're all saying, let the
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: negotiations begin. So here we are with the revised 10-point plan.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: that began as a document to mobilize the people of
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: the Caribbean. And what we now have is a document
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: that has mobilized the world. It has mobilized the world.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: So this is a document of the 21st century. And
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: as we look deep into it, we're looking forward to
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: an intergenerational conversation that hopefully will leave this human family
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: in a better position than at any other time in
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: the past. Hilary Brown, who we cannot contain, has insisted
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: that In wrapping up my 40-minute speech, which was meant
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: to be 10, I shall present these documents to my
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: distinguished colleagues. And I will not ask His Royal Highness
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: and Queen Grace to come up here. I will come
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: to you. I will also ask our distinguished Secretary General
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: to allow me to come to you and present one
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: of these, and also to Trevor Prescott, representing the Prime Minister,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: a stalwart, a lifelong stalwart of this struggle. So I
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: will come and present these to you. So thank you
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: very much, ladies and gentlemen.