– ACDA makes case for reparations

AFRO-GUYANESE paid floral tributes to their ancestors as they observed African Holocaust Day (MAAFA Day) on Wednesday.

For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, the United Nations (UN) has said, describing it as one of the darkest chapters in human history.

In fact, the African Holocaust is the greatest continuing tragedy the world has ever seen. It was also the most impacting social event in the history of humanity. It is a Holocaust which is constantly denied, mitigated and trivialised.

At a libation ceremony at the Seawall Bandstand in Georgetown, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA), joined with other African-centred organisations globally to observe African Holocaust Day under the theme: “Reparatory Justice for African Holocaust through Development.”

In his message, ACDA’s Director, Dr. Eric Phillips, called on his African brothers and sisters to know their history, positing that contrary to the history books, Africans were the first to have arrived in this part of the world.

He said “Luzia,” the skeleton which was found in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil in 1975, was proven to be an African woman who lived 12, 000 years ago, pointing out that the Indigenous peoples crossed the Bering Strait 10,000 years ago.

“We must stop saying that we were not the first people because we are…If we are going to demand reparatory justice, we have do it on the basis of truth and this is the truth,” Dr Phillips said.

The ACDA Director also rubbished the argument put forward by historians that only 15 million Africans were victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“Europeans keep telling us that 15 million people were brought to this part of the world. What they forget conveniently to tell us is that in the year 1650, both Europe and Africa had a 100 million people, and by 1850, 200 years later, Europe’s population grew from a 100 million to 265 million and Africa’s population shrunk from a 100 million to 95 million,” he explained.

According to him, 170 million Africans were affected. “Let us stop buying into this injustice of saying that only 15 million people were brought here. The numbers are a 170 million. They say it is 15 million, because they want to reduce the reparation they have to pay and we have fallen into that trap,” he contended.

Zooming in closer to home, Dr. Phillips said Africans laboured tremendously for the development of Guyana, and should be compensated.
“Of course you know what we did. We drove back the sea. We cleared 15, 000 square miles of Guyana or 18 per cent of Guyana. We humanised nine million acres of land. We installed 2.58 million miles of drainage. We built the seawalls and 2176 miles of river defence, and our ancestors dug a 100 million tons of earth with their bare hands and 450, 000 of them died doing that,” he pointed out.

He said the Indigenous Peoples were given reparation and so should Africans. “If they can get 13.8 per cent – and we blessed their hearts, it’s theirs – we who died in large numbers, 450, 000 of us, and who were enslaved for 200 years, shouldn’t we get 18 per cent of Guyana? That is justice.”

He said all Afro-Guyanese should join the movement for reparation. However, he said Afro-Guyanese must become self-reliant and create their own economy while demanding equality of access.

Director of the Museum of African Heritage, Jenny Daly, in offering brief remarks, said the crime committed against their African ancestors is an open wound.

“We cannot rest until there is justice. But there is a justice we can do for [our] self. Do not be dis-empowered, do not be uneducated and do not be economically weak, do not destroy family and do not disunite,” she encouraged.

“But every time we drop out of school, do crime, disrespect our history and our culture, we are doing an injustice to their memory. We are conforming to the legacy of slavery,” she added.

ACDA, in a statement, pointed out that on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus ventured into this part of the known world, starting the unbridled discrimination of indigenous peoples and cultures. According to ACDA, it was Columbus’s discovery that ushered in chattel slavery.