By Francis Quamina Farrier

IN Guyana and beyond – the United States included – there is a growing demand for Reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans. Victims of the African slave trade were made to give forced free labour to build up many lands- the United States of America, Canada, Brazil and others. Here in Guyana, emancipated Africans had to pay huge sums of money to buy many former plantations where they had given of their blood, sweat and tears for centuries. Villages such as Victoria, Beterverwagting and Plaisance on the East Coast Demerara, as well as Queenstown on the Essequibo Coast, were all bought by emancipated slaves who paid with monies which they had saved during their years as slaves. That money was earned from work during their few ‘free’ hours of enterprise such as poultry rearing and subsistence farming. Even in slavery, they viewed self-employment and entrepreneurship as worthy for self-development. Lands which should have been given to them at Emancipation as Reparations for centuries of forced free labour, they were made to pay exorbitant fees for. But they did anyway. However, their descendants are now rightfully demanding Reparations.

The irony is that the former slave owners were paid handsomely. Twenty million pounds sterling was paid to the former slave owners as Reparations by the British Government when it abolished slavery in 1834. Those former slave owners claimed that they had lost their “property” (the emancipated slaves) by the Act of the Abolition of Slavery and so were handsomely compensated. The good news is that on August 1, 2019, the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Glasgow in Scotland, have signed the first-ever agreement for slavery Reparations for slavery in the Caribbean. The amount is 20 million pounds sterling. It is the first such payment to benefit the descendants of African slaves in the Caribbean since emancipation over 180 years ago. The terms of that agreement are for the University of Glasgow to provide that 20 million pounds sterling to fund research to promote Development initiatives to be jointly undertaken with the UWI over the next two decades. But this is just a start. Reparations in Guyana are still a far way to materialise.

West across the Atlantic from Scotland to the United States of America, history reveals the broken promise by the authorities to give the freed slaves 40 acres of land and a mule. Even former slaves who fought in the American Civil War – the fierce Buffalo Soldiers who Bob Marley sang about – were not given any Reparations or even human or civil rights such as freedom to live where they so desired, attend schools of their choice, or be a dignified part of the extended American space for which they worked and helped to build without financial or other rewards.

The demand for Reparations is not exclusive to the descendants of enslaved Africans. While on a visit to New Zealand in April 1993, I saw some of the Reparations received by the indigenous Maori people of Aotearoa (the indigenous name for New Zealand), for their unfair sufferings brought about by British colonists. The Reparations received by the indigenous Maori People of New Zealand was paid in the form of libraries, radio and television stations, community parks, bridges, well-paved streets and sidewalks in Maori Communities and other community-based properties. I was interviewed on one of the Maori radio stations. No money was doled out to Maori individuals as Reparations.

After the Second World War ended in 1944, Germany and Italy were made to pay out Reparations to several nations and peoples who suffered at their hands because of that bloody and destructive war. The millions of Jews and their children who were victims of the Holocaust in which millions of Jews were systematically killed by the Nazi Regime in Germany, received Reparations. Germany also paid out US$23 billion to the Allied Forces. Italy paid out about US$125 million to Yugoslavia and US$25 million to Ethiopia in Reparations.

In the New York Times of June 21, 2019, a report by Adeel Hassan states, “A series of Public Events signalled the arrival of a new cultural movement, one in which Americans are ready to discuss past sins.” Those sins referred to by the journalist, are the many atrocities visited upon the enslaved Africans over the centuries, as well as the blood, sweat and tears of the enslaved who worked to enrich others while they received nothing in return. Here in Guyana, it is a historic fact that the hundreds of miles of canals dug by enslaved Africans was never addressed in the form of Reparations. Imagine Georgetown and the rest of the coastlands of Guyana without canals. One of the greatest sins suffered by the enslaved Africans in the USA was the breaking up of families. Just imagine a wife or a husband or parents and children being sold off to different slave owners and taken away in different directions, never to see each other again. Imagine the wailing; the emotional pain. That deep anguish which has had lasting negative effects on those enslaved Africans. While delivering a lecture in Georgetown in January, Sir Hillary Beckles related the story of a slave in the Caribbean who had escaped, but later returned because he had so missed being with his family.

One of the other sins committed by slave owners on the enslaved Africans was the suppression of their culture, and even the taking away of their African names. A personal experience was the occasion when I was asked by someone with a smirk, “But is how you got that name Quamina?” My immediate response was; “But is how you got that name Persaud?” Laughter of embarrassment resulted. The many sins during slavery in the western world are all part of the reasons for the intensifying demand for Reparations as the 21st century continues to unfold.

One of the greatest sins ever levelled unto a people for Reparations is that of the Haitians. After suffering the indignity and cruelty by the French slave masters, the Haitians were made to pay rReparations to the French. The very people who enslaved them demanded Reparations after their successful revolution, which resulted in Haiti becoming the first Black Republic in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti’s case was REPARATIONS IN REVERSE. If ever there was a people who the rest of the world should be sympathetic towards and respect, it is the Haitians. Notwithstanding the many setbacks, including devastating earthquakes; 300,000 were killed in the earthquake of January 12, 2010, many Haitians are high-achievers. Consider that it was a Haitian-born woman, the Rt. Hon. Michelle Jean, who served as the Governor General of Canada from 2005 to 2010. Could it be that some smaller nations are unable to see in Haitians what Canada has seen and benefited from? Some of us in Guyana are aware of the dedicated service of Haitian-born dentist, Dr. Jean who gave sterling service as head of the Cheddi Jagan Dental Clinic in Georgetown for many years. Many Haitians now in Guyana, are making sterling contributions to our country, even teaching French at Queen’s Collage. Others are self-employed.

In more recent times, celebrities have become involved in the demand for Reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans. In the United States, Hollywood actor, Danny Glover, who visited Guyana a few years ago, is one of the celebrities who is active with the American Reparations efforts. Guyanese-born International Superstar, Eddy Grant is also involved with the Reparations for Guyanese of African heritage. Barbados-born Sir Hilary Beckles, who is a Professor at the University of the West Indies (UWI), and who visited Guyana last January and addressed an audience at Herdmanston Lodge in Georgetown, is the principal individual who is spearheading the efforts for the African Caribbean peoples, and was successful with the University of Glasgow Reparations agreement.

As part of this feature, I sought the opinions of two Guyanese. New York-based College Professor, Dr. Lear Matthews, stated, “One view is that both dollars and community resources could be in the conversation. In addition, as you ponder these questions, think of the difference in perception of the issue by those in the (Caribbean) home country and those in the diaspora.” From Pennsylvania-based retired Army Officer Clairmont Griffith, I received the following comment: “I support projects and land distribution over a cash payout. The money offered would be spent and/or ‘sported’, and the recipients receiving the spent money were never a part of the idea or plan originally outlined by General William T. Sherman, who after the (American) Civil War in 1865, suggested 40 acres and a mule to our ancestors.”