Reparations Now!

Q. How much money are we asking for?
A: As stated above, money is not the main objective but certain payments need to be made, to build universities, roads, houses, and to transfer technology, etcetera. A special Committee is already working out details based upon the actual losses and what will get Africa and peoples of African descent moving again. Such payments will also relate to similar payments and other precedences of reparations such as those made to Kuwait, Israel etcetera.

Q. Is there any legal base to support the present demand?
A: Our case is based on morality and equity, but it is also supported in international law. There is a principle in law known as unjust enrichment: if one party becomes enriched as a result of a wrong done to another party, the law compels the former to make an adjustment to the latter. There are in various Conventions, such as the Geneva Convention, or the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations, clearly laid down prohibitions against a denial of human rights.

Q. Should the present generations be held responsible for the wrong doings of their ancestors?
A: We are not out to penalize the present generations who are descendants of slave-owners and slave-traders. What we put before the world is the fact that certain countries today and certain sections of the present generation are placed in a better position, economically, politically and socially, than the claimants, as a result of the unjust enrichment enjoyed by their ancestors at the expense of claimants.
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Facts on: REPARATIONS to AFRICA and AFRICANS in the Diaspora

Q. Is the aid already paid to Africa not enough to settle the claim?
A: Not at all.
Even if foreign aid is accepted as part of the returns from the Western world, the total investment is still only an infinitesimal part of the value of what they have extracted from Africa, and from the enforced labour of peoples of African descent.

Q. Some people have argued that slavery and colonialism have contributed to the development of Africans. Is this true?
A: This is palpably not true. Those who say that Africans who have advanced have done so because slavery put them in a "conducive atmosphere" to advance should visit the slave relics like the Isle of Goree, Elmina Castle, Badagry and other monuments to the infamous trade to understand how wrong they are. Those that advanced, as in the Caribbean, United States and elsewhere, did so by the will of God, and in spite of the slave conditions, certainly not because of them. The struggle of the black slaves is an epic worthy to be remembered. It is the story of a people who fought back under the most difficult conditions trying to climb the ladder of progress. Reparations is an attempt to give their descendants some assistance in climbing that ladder so as to reduce the odds against them. Struggle is a part of our culture and the ascent from slavery to our present position is a source of pride. The struggle continues.

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