Reparations for Slavery and Native Genocide took centre stage at the 51st Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Conference in Saint Lucia on Monday (July 6), through a special Forum held on the fringes of the twice-yearly parley.
The ‘Caribbean Conference on the Manifesto for Enlightenment, Socio-Economic Reparatory Justice Reporting and Sustainable Development’ was organized by the Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee (NRC) and the CARICOM Secretariat, with local and regional support.
It featured presentations by University of the West Indies (UWI) Vice Chancellor and Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) Sir Hilary Beckles, former St. Vincent & The Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and Executive Director of the Development Bank for Resilient Prosperity (DBRP) Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, among others.
The main presentations addressed the revised CARICOM 10-Point Plan (TPP) for Reparatory Justice, a series of joint reports being undertaken for governments by NRCs and The Repair Campaign (TRC) and on Reparations Financing for Sustainable Development.
TRC’s Jamaica-based Sheba Thomas-Gifford spoke on the Joint NRC-TRC Reports and Geneva-trained Saint Lucian Intellectual Property lawyer Kimani Goddard presented on ‘An Equitable Knowledge, Intellectual Property and Innovation Economy for the 21st Century’.
The much-publicised hybrid event started with the 12-year-old music video hit ‘Reparations’ by veteran local calypsonian Herb Black, which set the pace for Saint Lucia NRC Founding Member, Ambassador Dr. June Soomer, to present welcoming remarks putting the combined theme into broader and common perspectives.
Sir Hilary offered several reasons why People of African Descent across the world have embraced CARICOM’s Reparations drive and gave graphic historical and contemporary evidence of why Reparations is the biggest human rights issue of the 21st Century — and one that European governments are realising simply won’t go away.
The veteran Caribbean academic and politician in Dr. Gonsalves spoke as an Elder and Advisor to the TRC and explained why and how the Joint Reports will help government and NRCs work better together nationally and regionally.
Dr. Leon, whose DBRP is also called ‘The Nature Bank’, challenged advocates to rethink how they assess debts, as their counting mechanisms were designed to perpetuate revolving cycles of similar demands in the future, if nations keep failing to give value to assets like Life, Productivity and Nature.
Sir Hilary recalled cruelties associated with designation of enslaved Black Women as ‘property’, how their children were also ‘owned’ at birth and their mothers became virtual slave factories.
He also noted that recent Caribbean engagements with Africa now see CARICOM-AU unity on the TPP as a reversal from the past to a new present, interpreted as sons and daughters who left centuries ago now returning and reconnecting to join hands, hearts and minds, on the common reparations journey.
Saint Lucia NRC Members present included former Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy, Ambassador Soomer, Head of the UWI Global Campus (Saint Lucia) Lesley Crane-Mitchell, President of the Iyanola Council for Improvement of Rastafari (ICAR) Aaron Alexander and NRC Chair Earl Bousquet.
Also present were UWI Chancellor Dodridge Miller, Deputy CARICOM Secretary General Armstrong Alexis, Barbados Ambassador to CARICOM David Commissiong, Ambassador in Barbados PM’s Office Lolita Applewaite, CEO of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) Rodinald Soomer and TRC Caribbean Director Frank O’Carroll.
Venezuela and Palestine were represented by their respective ambassadors to Saint Lucia and CARICOM, Leiff Escalona and Linda Sobeh Ali, their causes each attracting solidarity applauses from the audience.
Feedback from the event has been entirely positive, highlighting the new phases and trends in the continuing struggle for reparations for what’s now been ultimately truly designated as ‘The Gravest Crime Against Humanity’ by the UN, at its March 25 General Assembly,
The Reparations tide is growing stronger and those swimming against it are resisting on all fronts, but the world has awoken to the call for those who committed the gravest crime against humanity to atone – and in full.
This is seen, for example, in the fact that support in Britain for a conversation on reparations has grown from 21% in 2013 to 51% in 2025, while reparations is on the legislative agenda in many US states.
India is also seeking reparations for induced indentureship, indigenous people everywhere are standing up for their rights — and Africa and the Caribbean are building stronger and longer bridges in the age of the Second Decade for People of African Descent.
The recent three youth parliamentary debates in St. Kitts & Nevis and Saint Lucia revealed that centuries-old legislation still adorns Caribbean law books—like the 1661 Barbados Slave Code, that’s still on the books in Bridgetown, described as ‘An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes’ and thereby defining them as chattel property.
CARICOM’s leaders will have to take decisions at this Saint Lucia Summit relating to Reparations on the eve of Emancipation Month in August, AU-CARICOM Day (September 7) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda in November, to be followed by the Third Caribbean Reparations Conference in Barbados (also in November).
The Leaders recently reaffirmed their commitment to support for the Caribbean’s Rastafari Movement, which was an early bridge for the region’s reconnection with Africa – and with General Elections due in the UK before the year ends, thanks to the advocacy for reparations across the British Commonwealth, more Caribbean citizens are adding their voices to the growing demands for reparations for over-four centuries of Native Genocide, Slavery and Indentureship.
Monday’s Forum opened eyes everywhere, participants expressing pleasure at having attended and online followers posting positive comments about the related topics they never read at school or ever heard of.
Many quietly and openly expressed broken-hearted feelings, while others described the event as a learning exercise on a new journey in their own quests for knowledge.
As such, the NRCs, CRC, TRC – and the Reparations Movement globally – are sailing, faster now than ever, along the river of no return!