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[align=center]African Crossroads – Rendezvous of victory [/align]
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http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/363009663986508.php[/align]
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Published on: 4/2/07.



by Ikael Tafari






The principle of reparations should be upheld, advocated and promoted through the establishment of a fund to facilitate material compensation to countries which were victimised, and by the pursuit of national and international policies to confront and eradicate the legacies of slavery. – Prime Minister Owen Arthur



TWO SUNDAYS AGO, on a cold March afternoon, in the Holy Trinity Church where Hull's most famous son, the great abolitionist William Wilberforce, was baptised, Prime Minister Owen Arthur delivered an address of historic proportions on the occasion of the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the British Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Using the Wilberforce Lecture as an international platform, the Prime Minister offered a sharp sweeping survey of the cancerous legacy of European racism and black underdevelopment embedded in the current global social and economic landscape, formally issuing a call for African reparations – the first head of government, I believe, to do so.

His speech was impeccable in its sense of balance – compelling moral vision matched by emphasis on a concrete outcome. Ever since the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which denounced the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as 'a crime against humanity', the reparations movement [particularly in the United States] has been steadily gaining momentum. But no clear-cut practical formula for addressing the problem in terms that would bring both the countries of the former enslavers and those of the former enslaved to the table has yet emerged. Perhaps this is because the debate is dominated by radical activists, with ideology and emotion largely prevailing over strategy and negotiation.

However, while expectations in the black world after 500 years of oppression are necessarily high, politics is the art of the possible, and as a practising politician, the Prime Minister gave the issue a new, more moderate slant – one that has something vital to offer both sides of the racial divide.

Locating the enduring Britain-Caribbean relationship within the context of a global society presently obsessed with hegemonic dreams of power, Mr Arthur appealed to today's world leaders to take the full force of idealism as a potent factor in international affairs. In fact, he identified idealism as the finest strand in the Wilberforce tapestry of moral protest. He was also very strong in his praise for the black martyrs who paid the utmost price for the freedom of their race.

Avoiding the pitfall of rehashing a catalogue of irreconcilable differences and unpardonable sins, Mr Arthur unveiled a vision of the Caribbean as the first truly global civilisation.

The history of our region, he noted, was shot through from the beginning with interracial perspectives – albeit emerging from the crucible of slavery and indentureship – that place us "closer to the ideal of the multiracial society than any country in the modern world". We are therefore well positioned to lead the way beyond the dead end of race supremacy – if we can re-fashion the exploitative relationship that persists between us and our former British colonisers.

The Prime Minister did not let the occasion pass without presenting his proposal for the first building block in this "new partnership of principle" between the Caribbean and Britain. He envisages a William Wilberforce Educational Fund to: (1) finance annual scholarships at British universities for dozens of students from CARICOM; (2) sponsor visiting British lectureships at the University of the West Indies (UWI); (3) underwrite teacher and student exchanges between African universities and UWI;
and (4) establish a joint British-Caribbean Centre for Multi-Racial Studies at UWI.

This August, the Commission for Pan-African Affairs will seek to follow through on the Prime Minister's guidelines by staging a global dialogue on: The Slave Trade, Reconciliation And Social Justice. Prominent spokespersons – black and white – from around the world will examine the validity of the charge that the transatlantic slave trade and slavery were crimes against humanity, and chart the path to a partnership for progress between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

The conference will host a donors' confab, inviting a number of multilateral and international agencies, as well as organisations like the African Union, the European Union, CARICOM and the Organisation of American States, to fund and mentor several strategic large-scale developmental projects over the next three years, including the establishment of direct air and sea links between Africa, Barbados and the Americas.As the Prime Minister indicated at the climax of his address, "there is a place for all at the rendezvous of victory".

* Dr Ikael Tafari is director of the Commission for Pan-African Affairs.

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