IF someone had told me that, before last week, that the reparations movement could be the greatest movement of the 21st century, I probably wouldn’t have an iota of belief in that. But now, I really believe this and all it took was some perspective.

One of the greatest Caribbean thinkers (at least in my opinion), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles gave a lecture in Guyana recently on “Historical Realities for redress: The adequacy of relinquishing reservations and pursuing reparations.”
Now Sir Beckles is the chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) that was birthed in 2013. The body serves as a governing body to provide advice and coordinate the overall strategy, as well as national and regional activities to pursue reparations. The CARICOM action plan demands everything from a full and formal apology to monetary compensations to provisions that could help foster our social and economic development.
And reparations? Well, when you think of the word, think of repairing; it is the action of making amends for a wrong one, by providing payment or other assistance to those who have been wronged.Turning back the pages of history- the initial European exploration that led to indigenous genocide, enslavement and indentureship- you might have an inkling of what wrongs have to be made right.

During the 2017/2018 academic year, I was part of the first batch of CAPE History students to have studied the Caribbean Reparations movement. In fact, my Internal Assessment (IA) was based on this topic.
But that’s all good and well until you factor in that I was one of four students to study history, at this level, in my school. And what I can say without a shadow of a doubt is that many people do not know about the movement, and if they do know- they don’t seem to see the merits of it. This is also microcosmic of the wider lack of appreciation for our history, but that’s a rant for another time.
One of the many striking statements from the lecture was: “We are oftentimes caught at the crossroads of imaging things that we desire but we are trapped in the pragmatism of reality.”
You see, Sir Beckles was acknowledging that perhaps most Caribbean people believe that the region should just move and forget the atrocities of the past- forget our history. But as a people we ought to understand it’s more than just asking for handouts- it’s about pursuing social justice and growth while achieving economic growth.

The Caribbean is seen as part of the ‘developing world’. We’ve come to accept that and we have tried many different ways to develop ourselves. But consider the development of our former colonial masters- Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands- were because of us. Our underdevelopment fueled their development.
On the more social side, how many of our ancestors have suffered on these systems of control? How much of our cultural heritage has been lost because our people were seen as inferior?
And if that’s in the past, why do we continue to find ourselves working overtime to build our region? Why do we still struggle with our cultural identity? We want to improve; we want each citizen to live better lives. We want to celebrate our culture and diversity. Yet, we do not want to pursue reparations? That doesn’t add up.

I believe in reparations wholeheartedly. I know for a fact that there are a myriad of issues in the Caribbean that stagnate our growth, and most (if not all) of them stem from what we faced from the colonial rulers. I just never imagined how great this movement could be.
Enslavement in the Caribbean took about 300 years before it was abolished. In 1807, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished; in 1823, amelioration measures were enacted and by 1838, enslaved persons in the British Caribbean were freed. But decades later, in 1886, was the system of enslavement abolished in Cuba (part of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean).
Let’s say it took about 100 years to actually get through with wholly dismantling the system of enslavement. That excludes consideration for the racist systems that existed beyond enslavement, which, in some cases, have been perpetuated throughout the years.

Things take time. It will take time to organise ourselves and foster synergies. It will take time to show the previous colonial powers what they ought to give us back. And it will take time to make this a strong and great movement- maybe even the entire century. Sir Hilary Beckles said even if it takes 100 years, it has to happen.
But according to Sir Beckles, reparations is about ethics. And it is about social and economic growth- not one or the other, but both. It is also standing up as a point of human dignity.
“Reparations is not about standing on street corners and asking for handouts,” Sir Beckles said. “The reparations movement is the movement that will save humanity and the world.”