The Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission (ABRSC) is this year
celebrating its first decade of existence, noting that over that period it has been able
to achieve much.
Chairman of the ABRSC, Ambassador Dorbrene O’Marde said the quest for
reparations was started some twenty years ago. It was formalized through the
establishment by the government in 2013 of a national commission – so the
Commission claims a decade of formal journey.
He noted that at the beginning there were the voices of those who characterized the
movement as time-wasters, as pretenders, as foolish ones who did not understand
world politics – as wasters of government time and money – those voices are
somewhat stilled.
O’Marde noted that over the past decade the CARICOM Reparations Commission
– of which he serves as one of three vice-chairs – has ignited and led a global
demand for reparations to the peoples and countries of the Caribbean.
“The demand for reparations includes, as a precursor, an apology from those who
committed the crime of humanity against us. The apology serves as an admission
of guilt. The reparations demand also includes an agreement from the violators that
they repair to the best of their ability, the damage they have done to us – the
victims. We see this struggle as the most significant undertaking of African peoples
since enslavement and we say this, clearly knowledgeable of the defeat of slavery
and colonialism and apartheid,” he stated.
The ABRSC chair has reported that there is a sense the struggle is at an inflection
point. “Ours is not the first demand made to Europe for reparations – we estimate
that we are in the fifth wave of reparations struggles that began on the continent
even before the slave ship experience. But without doubt, it has been the most
successful of all waves,” he observed.
The movement, he noted, now sits central to a global human rights effort – one that
asserts the right to reparatory justice, the right to development that will lift all
Africans and their descendants from the disadvantaged positions they suffer to this
day as a legacy of Europe’s crimes.
“Within the last year, we have witnessed apologies from the Government of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, from the Church of England, from many universities
and colleges, from several businesses that made their fortunes through slavery, and
from a number of families – all of whom have accepted responsibility for the
crimes of their lineage. The further step of making repair through compensation
and restitution are now poised for negotiation,” he reported.
Ambassador O’Marde made the remarks during the welcome address on Monday
night at the annual Watch Night celebrations/Observations held at the Botanical
Gardens.
