THE Guyana Reparations Committee has launched “The Guyana Reparations Story”, a compilation of four books in a single collection called “undisputable.”

The volume puts together the missing pieces of slavery in Guyana and makes a case for reparative justice. It will be available at Austin’s Book Store from Monday.
Guyana Reparations Committee Chairman Eric Philips, who is a member of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, said the book has been in the making for the last three years when members met for conversations and oral presentations on slavery and reparations, in keeping with the mandate of CARICOM Reparations Committee.

President Granger earlier this year spoke about reparations and his speech was published in a booklet titled “Crime without punishment – The Caribbean case for reparative justice.”
It noted that the crime of slavery needs to be addressed through reparations.
Committee Vice-Chairman Jonathan Adams, said oral traditions and an extensive range of books available were compiled to produce “Undisputable.”
The question of when did Africans arrive here as enslaved people, was raised and Adams said, “We found that date to be 1621.”

The first part of the book titled “In the beginning,” speaks about Africa being the birthplace of all human beings, ‘the cradle of humanity’ and about the discovery of the skeleton of a woman named ‘Lucia.’
Book two, presented by Philips, deals with “Africa before Chattel Slavery” and presents examples of African life, significance and accomplishments. African civilisation with examples of trade and how Africans contributed to the beginning of Mathematics and online technology are covered.

Book Three “The African Guyanese Holocaust,” notes that Guyana was built on the blood of over 450,000 Guyanese African slaves in the genocide during the slave trade, slavery and slave rebellions. “At Emancipation in 1838, there were only 800,000 freed Africans compared to the 5.5 million that were shipped to the British colonies… Enslaved Africans in Guyana worked in brutal and inhumane conditions and were forced to toil without pay, often times working while being starved,” the book stated.

Book Four of the collection titled, “The African Guyanese Reparations Claim,” lists several claims for reparation, and states it is “the process of repairing the consequences of crimes committed, and the attempt to reasonably remove debilitating effects of such crimes upon victims and their descendants.
“If there was no Indentureship, Africans and Amerindians would have owned 100 per cent of Guyana at Independence. This would have been natural justice. Amerindians, because they were here when Europeans arrived in the 1600s. Africans, because of the 200-plus years of blood, sweat, tears and free labour to build Guyana and to enrich Europeans,” Phillips said.

This chapter speaks about reparation payments made to others who suffered in the world and lists unpaid contributions of enslaved Africans towards building Guyana.
Africans in Guyana cleared, drained and reclaimed 15,000 square miles of forest and swamps by unpaid labour, equivalent to 18 per cent of Guyana’s 83,000 square miles.
As a result, the committee said just as the Amerindians in Guyana were given 13 per cent of Guyana, African’s must at least be given the 18 per cent which they were forced to clear using bucket and shovel.
Several other claims are also highlighted in the book.
The Indisputable will also be distributed free of cost to youths throughout Guyana.