ON the occasion of African Holocaust Memorial Day [Maafa], I join with my African brothers and sisters in the African Diaspora across the world, but more particularly with all Guyanese of African descent, who today reflect on the intense violence and mass murder inflicted on African peoples, the complete appropriation of their lands, the undermining of their societies and the prolonged period of persecution and suffering that characterised this moral atrocity. Around 1441, a Portuguese trader carried, among his cargo, ten captive Africans, to Europe. A few years later, Pope Eugene IV accepted a gift of captive Africans whom he sold at a grand profit. The news of this profitable venture encouraged Portuguese traders to include captive Africans among their cargo. This was the beginning of the iniquitous trade in captive Africans. In time, the numbers grew into the thousands; and with the colonization of the Americas, and the introduction of the plantation system, these numbers grew into millions. These captive Africans were consigned to slavery on the New World plantations; and while slavery of any form is horrendous, plantation slavery was especially horrific.
This horrendous movement of the African people is the greatest continuing human tragedy the world has ever known. It is also the most impacting social event in the history of humanity: not only in terms of scale, but also in terms of legacy and horror. It is the African Holocaust which is constantly denied, mitigated and trivialized.
This Holocaust reduced humans with culture and history to a people invisible from historical contribution, mere labour units, commodities to be traded. From this Holocaust, the modern racial-social hierarchy was born, which continues to govern the lives of every living human where race continues to confer (or obstruct) privilege and opportunity.
In 2007, on the occasion of the 200 anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Captive Africans, we committed ourselves to addressing the sensitive issues of the trade, captivity and human abuse which characterised the system of plantation slavery, by ensuring that the dastardly experience is never forgotten, not just by the affected section of our nation, but by all Guyanese, since in the words of the late national poet, Martin Carter, we are all involved.
Earlier this year, on the occasion of the launch of International Year for People of African Descent, we again committed ourselves to zealously pursue, both within the region, at the level of CARICOM, and at all international fora, the case for reparations. The first world has found it prudent to offer effusive apologies; now they must be persuaded, and if necessary pressured to honour their obligation.
On this occasion of African Holocaust Day [Maafa], as we gather by the waters of the Atlantic to mourn the tragedy of those who succumbed to the ravishes of enslavement, and celebrate the triumph of a people up from slavery, it is fitting that we, as a nation, seize on this moment to reflect on the pain, the suffering and the sacrifice of our ancestors. But even as we revisit the horror and share in the pain, trials and tribulations of the past, we should commit ourselves to a collective resolve to consolidate the gains of freedom, to live in the future, and together create a society in which all are equal and all can share equally.