Reprations: All You Need To Know

CNEWS - Canada: UN Suggests Canada Pay Reparations March 2004

Ready for Reparations?
Toronto, Ontario-CANADA: 02-10-01
By: Norman (Otis) Richmond
From: The Black World Today

Back in 1969, the now deceased Roebuck Pops Staples and his children, the Staple Singers, sang When Will We Be Paid (For The Work We Did). Many advocates of reparations for people of African descent are using this as a theme song for the growing movement.

The question of reparations for people of African origin is international nature and in scope. The trade of African people involved three continents: Africa, Europe and the Americas. The Portuguese led the way when they landed in West Africa in 1415 and began the trade in human flesh. The Spanish, Dutch, English, French, Germans and Belgians later joined them. In 1884/1885 these same European powers carved up Africa like a turkey. The mineral rich Congo was claimed the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium. It was Capitalism at its finest in this particular individual.

King Leopold II of Belgium King Leopold

The issue of reparations has caught on like wildfire. Students in Canada have threatened to sue for reparations; musicians are calling for them in song. Lawsuits are being discussed in the United States and the issue is actually being discussed in city councils in the United States. William Brown the host of the popular Radio show Black, My Story, on CHRY-FM at York University has called for reparations from the Canadian government. King Cosmos, a Toronto calypsonian has included the song Reparations on his new CD, Fire. King Cosmos says, Remember, back in 1834, they said Africans were now free. But Europe and America slammed the vault made sure we had no money.

Slavery was ended by each European power at different times. The English, as King Cosmos pointed out, ended slavery in 1834. The Spanish gave up Puerto Rico in 1873 and Cuba in 1886, the French in 1848, the Dutch in 1863 and the Portuguese let Brazil go in 1888.

The question is not a new one. It did not begin with African American nationalist groups like the Republic of New Afrika, or the New African People’s Organization, nor did it originate with Audley Queen Mother Moore (early leader of reparations movement in the United States), Elijah Muhammad, William Patterson (the author of We Charge Genocide), or Marcus Garvey. It did not begin with the Euro American campaign promises made to African people, which were never honored. Reparations are a well-established principle of international law, which has been recognized and practiced by the United States.

The November 2000 issue of Harper’s magazine featured an outstanding article about reparations for American Blacks. The piece ‘Slave Reparation$: An Ideas Whose Time Has Come?’ was a forum with Willie E. Gray, Alexander J. Pires Jr., Richard F. Scruggs, Dennis C. Sweet III and Jack Hitt.

These are all high power attorneys who’ve gotten results for their work. For example, Gray won a $500 million judgment against The Loewen Group Inc., the world’s largest funeral home and cemetery operators. Pires won a $1 billion settlement for Black farmers in their discrimination case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scruggs won the historic $368.5 billion settlement for the states in their suit against tobacco companies in 1997. Sweet won a $400 million settlement in the 2000 fen-phen diet-drug case against American Home Products Corporations.

Many critics have said that reparations for African people are doomed to failure. But with lawyers like Gray, Pires, Scruggs and Sweet on the case for the race many are hopeful. As Hitt points out in Harper’s, After all, class-action lawyers have ridden to the rescue of those forced into slave labor in Germany and prostitution in Korea.

Will African people be justly compensated? As Bob Marley says, Time will tell.