In support of Reparation

Less than two months after Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments gave the green light to pursue reparation for the slave trade, St. Vincent and the Grenadines will host the first ever Regional Conference on Reparations 15th September. Noted Caribbean academics, Sir Hilary Beckles and Professor Verene Shepherd, as well as famed Jamaican reggae artiste, Bunny Wailer, are among those who will make presentations at the three-day conference. Presentations will also be made by the chairpersons of the various national reparation committees. The conference is the first major event on reparations following the decision by regional leaders at their summit in Trinidad and Tobago in July to agree to the establishment of a national reparations committee in each member state with the chair of each committee sitting on a CARICOM Reparations Commission. Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago were identified to provide political oversight to the committee. Barbados Culture, Sports and Youth Minister, Stephen Lashley, said the meeting in St. Viuncent and the Grenadines will provide regional participants with an opportunity to discuss reparations, and “to establish commonalities for the commensurate compensation for the atrocities perpetrated against people of African descent”

Courtesy: www.cananewsonline.com