The missing emancipation package

Emancipation celebrations in St Vincent and the Grenadines were again low-keyed this year, continuing the relative lukewarm approach over the years. For all intents and purposes the August 1 holiday still remains fundamentally the traditional August Monday holiday. The big exception was in North Leeward, where there were organised activities linking our culture, heritage and tourism opportunities. Nuff respect to the organisers!{{more}}

It is a real pity that Emancipation should be such an ‘under the radar’ affair here, particularly because the ULP Government had positively responded to calls from civil society organisations to restore August 1 as a public holiday to commemorate Emancipation. Previous to that, the holiday was celebrated on the first Monday in August and had degenerated into just another fun-filled holiday. Yet, neither we in civil society nor the Government itself have made sufficient efforts to organise activities suitable for such a momentous occasion. It is similar to our failure to lift the National Heroes Day to a fitting level.

Though the inadequacy of activities in our country was not unique to the rest of the Caribbean, in spite of our common history of slavery, all is not lost in the region. In Trinidad and Tobago for instance, Emancipation Day is still a big affair with a host of activities, including a traditional march from the spot where the Emancipation Declaration was first read, to the Queen’s Park Savannah. There is an active National Emancipation Committee funded by both Government and private sector contributions. It must be remembered that Indians make up the majority of the population there, including the composition of the Government. Yet, in SVG, with an overwhelmingly black population, we cannot get our act together and organise national activities appropriate to commemorate this significant milestone in our history. Shame on us all!

Emancipation 2013 should have had particular emphasis throughout the Caribbean. Only last month, CARICOM Heads of Government, meeting in the 34th Regular Summit in Port of Spain, unanimously agreed – all 15 of them – to jointly seek reparations for slavery and the genocide of indigenous peoples of the region by European colonisers, slave traders and slave owners. In keeping with this joint approach, the Heads agreed to each ensure the setting up of National Reparations Committees and to establish a Regional Reparations Commission.

Now, reparations are the missing part of the Emancipation package. When the slaves were freed, it was the former slave owners, not the slaves, who received compensation in the sum of 20 million pounds sterling, calculated by some sources to be the equivalent of 200 billion pounds today. Nobody even as much said sorry for the enslavement and dehumanisation, nobody expressed remorse for the slaughter of the native peoples and the cycle of underdevelopment that colonialism and slavery ushered in the Caribbean.

Over the years there have been many calls for reparations, from Pan Africanists, from the Black Power and Rastafarian movements, and from progressive voices and intellectuals. But this is the first time that our political leaders have had the courage to respond positively and take up the mantle. Our own Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves must take some of the credit, but we must also acknowledge the roles played by the leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Hon Baldwin Spencer and Barbados, Hon Freundel Stuart, as well as progressive intellectuals such as Professor Hilary Beckles.

Regrettably, there has been some public criticism of the decision of the leaders. Media reports state that the Pan Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe has dismissed the decisions of the CARICOM Heads. A statement from that organisation condemned the leaders for their “top-down approach”, saying that reparations claims must be a “bottom-up” affair. While it is true that the grand pronouncements of the Heads, by itself will not bring about success in the reparations claim, we must be careful not to allow ourselves to be divided on the issue.

In this, it is instructive to read the remarks of the chairman of T&T’s Emancipation Committee, the respected Khafra Kambon, a veteran campaigner since the sixties. Bro Kambon said that his organisation supported the CARICOM call “100 per cent”. He explained that the Heads were acting on a “feeling from the ground” and that they need “immense, continued support to make reparations a reality”. He went on to say:

“Because this was a decision made by governments, doesn’t mean that their agreement on it has to be condemned. We think that the most critical thing now is for it to get that grassroots support. This effort cannot be left to the governments alone. It is up to the people who are concerned about reparations to show the governments their support. There will be pressure on CARICOM to compromise or abandon this cause and to avoid that there has to be a mass movement”.

These words of wisdom from the respected elder ought to be absorbed by us all. CARICOM Governments will no doubt find themselves subjected to all kinds of pressures, externally and internally, to “go soft” on the reparations call. It is therefore imperative that they devote time and resources towards mobilising the Caribbean people to show overwhelming support for the demand. In this, a grand opportunity was missed on the Emancipation Day immediately following their historic decision.

Nevertheless, all is not lost. Every effort must be made to ensure that the relevant Reparations Committees are set up at the national level. The Pan Afrikan Coalition is right in saying that we must work from the bottom, but both approaches, that and the initiative of the Heads are not mutually exclusive. We must step forward, not draw back and criticize, and where our leaders show weakness, we must insist that they stand up to their historic responsibility. It is our fight, collectively.

Renwick Rose is a community activist

and social com-mentator.