Reparation of Caribbean Blacks to be addressed in lecture

Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 21, 2012 (SKNIS): The issue of the Reparation of Caribbean Blacks for the inhumanity of slaves will be addressed in the final UNESCO Slave Route Project Lecture which takes place Tuesday, February 28, at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

The upcoming discussion entitled “Demystifying the Reparations Debate” will feature Michael “Miguel” Lorne, a Jamaican lawyer and activist who has represented Caribbean Blacks in several Reparation claims. During an interview with the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service (SKNIS), Ras Dabo Penny noted that he had met Mr. Lorne several decades ago and knew that he was a reputable presenter for the Reparation Lecture.

“I know he has become famous for taking a case to the Privy Council in trying to extract Reparations from the British Government, so I know he is a man who has been through the process and knows the process well,” Penny expressed. “I could recall that in 1998 in Barbados we came up with a figure that was owed to us collectively as a people.”

Ras Dabo also gave a personal definition for Reparation.

“Well Reparation is the compensation for wrongs done to our people,” Penny emphasized. “You see the Jews got Reparations for the Germans and the Japanese got Reparations for what the Americans did to them. The Americans paid the Indians, some who live in Alaska and other places, but blacks have been denied their full rights to Reparations by a system that is in place to deny us such. And we think that it’s within our rights to continue to struggle for some form of compensation for what we endured for 400years of chattel slavery.”

Lloyd Lazar in his capacity as the Chairperson of the mentioned UNESCO Subcommittee, explained why the overall theme of “Reconciling the Past to Move into the Future with Confidence” was chosen for the activities of the UNESCO Slave Route Project.

“We have been targeting our young people because we feel it is very significant for them to feel confident about themselves,” Lazar stressed. “Earlier the Subcommittee had a presenter from the Congo [Ngombulu Ya Sangui Ya MinaBantu Lascony]. He presented at the UWI Open Campus and also in Nevis as well and he tried to instill confidence in terms of positivity and abilities.”