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The Killeen/Texas Garifuna, Belizeans Newsletter: Issue No. 003-2001 – December 2001
Racism Meeting Produces Compromise on Reparations By: Joseph R. Flores Durban, South Africa -
African leaders at the World Conference on Racism in September of this year
asked for Western countries to apologize for the destruction caused by
colonialism and slavery but were divided on calls for reparations. An apology would recognize the wrong that was committed against Africans and constitute a promise that such an atrocity would never happen again, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said. With an apology, “the issue of reparations cease to be a rational option,” he said during his formal address to the conference The conference was marked by controversy over how to deal with the legacy of slavery and colonialism as well as efforts to condemn Israel. As Arab leaders met separately, several African heads of state addressed the conference on the issue of slavery and reparations. And in a rousing speech frequently interrupted by applause, Fidel Castro called directly on the United States to pay reparations for slavery. “After the purely formal slavery emancipation, African-Americans were subjected during 100 more years to the harshest racial discrimination, and many of its features still persist,” Castro said. “Cuba speaks of reparations, and supports this idea as an unavoidable moral duty to the victims of racism.” Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Rodrigues Peres called for voluntary reparations and financial support for Africa. But Obasanjo said reparations could split Africa from black people living in “the Diaspora,” and an apology would suffice. “Apology is intrinsic in the healing process,” he said. On September 3, the United States and Israel pulled out of the conference, denouncing efforts to condemn Israel in the meeting’s proposed declaration. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had remained in Washington and was not part of the U.S. delegation, denounced the draft declaration’s “hateful language.” The World Conference Against Racism ended as tumultuously as it began, with a declaration and program of action that was immediately cited as groundbreaking and momentous, hurtful and disastrous, and everything in between. The eight-day U.N. meeting went into a ninth day when compromises on the two dominant issues – the Middle East conflict and the legacy of slavery – failed to materialize. In the end, the Conference
delegates did rewrite the conference program’s language on slavery, dropping
items that called for a formal apology from former slave-holding nations and
opting for a collective statement of regret and aid for Africa.
feature address symposia in connection with
the second gathering of
indigenous peoples of the Caribbean august 29 to september 5,
1993 Dr. joseph palacio resident tutor, u.w.i.,
belize held at the invitation of the
ministry of culture of the republic of trinidad and tobago to commemorate 1993,
the united nations declared year of indigenous poples. introduction First I express my own heartfelt gratitude to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for staging this Second Gathering of the Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean as aftermath to CARIFESTA V and in commemoration of 1993, the United Nations declared Year of Indigenous Peoples. I am also grateful to the Santa Rosa Carib community for their hospitality and wish them all success as they celebrate the 234th Annual Santa Rosa de Arima Festival. The Garifuna – Truly
indigenous to the Caribbean Today I speak to you as representative of the proud Garifuna Nation. That nation numbers about 200,000 and is found in the Central American countries of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as in the Diaspora throughout North America. The Garifuna are unique in being both Amerindian and African, and being equally proud of these two distinct roots. We are happy to use the occasion of this Second Gathering to demonstrate to you some traits of our culture, which we share with our brothers and sisters throughout this subregion. The ancestors of the Garifuna were here before Columbus came. By being able to trace our blood ties to the Arawaks and Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, the Garifuna are truly indigenous to the Caribbean. Being indigenous to the Caribbean means having lived here, mixed with the other races who subsequently arrived, and contributing to the cultural blending which makes this one of the richest areas in the world. One cannot talk about the indigenous in the Caribbean without referring to the beginning, as well as to continuity. The Amerindian peoples that are today found in our countries are the result of such mixtures either among the Amerindians themselves and/or with other races. It certainly does not mean being ‘pure’, as we are all mixed biologically as well as culturally. It does not mean that we have taken a conscious decision to portray the Amerindian part of us, a part that remains pervasive among thousands of the people of the Caribbean, but has deliberately been laid to rest over the years as something insignificant. The Garifuna also demonstrate the values of survival, recognition, and reparation that together form the theme for this Gathering. We survived the wicked genocide that the Europeans inflicted upon the aboriginal peoples of the New World. We escaped from the slavery to which both the Amerindians and Africans we brutally subjected. We did so by living out culture – eating the roots of the cassava plant whose leaves adorn the logo of this Gathering. Cassava bread or ‘ereba’, as we call it in our language, is still a main staple in our diet, and we brought some to share with you from Belize. Our determination to earn the recognition of the British as the first true inhabitants of the abundantly fertile island of St. Vincent led to the bitter Carib Wars, and our eventual exile to Central America in 1797. The struggle for recognition as a people lasted throughout the colonial period in Belize, and today remains a problem during the post-independence era.
It is however; on
reparation, the third item on the theme of this Gathering, that I would like to
place some emphasis in this address.
The dictionary meaning of reparation is the act of making amends,
offering expiation, of giving satisfaction for the wrong or injury, sometimes
done or given as amends or satisfaction. Reparation assumes
several things - that the people claiming amends are proactive; that they work
collectively; that they have a plan of action; and that they are determined to
enter into no go negotiations with the powers that be to acquire their just
objectives. In short, it is a political
process, where there is flexing of muscles; engaging in give and take; and
being vigilant to secure what is yours. Through the
National Garifuna Council of Belize, the Garifuna brothers and sisters who are
here with us for this Second Gathering engaged in a sort of reparation to be
able to come. Firstly, the National
Garifuna Council of Belize was determined to be represented here, because we
did not share sufficiently with aboriginal peoples in the First Gathering
during CARIFESTA last year. To show how
determined we were, each member offered to pay most of the airfare from Belize
to Miami and return. In other words, we
put our money where our mouth is, and it made it easier for those with the
resources – the airlines and the Government of Belize – to facilitate us. We had a plan of action; we did our
negotiations; and we were able to reach here. The example that I
have just given is no doubt repeated constantly in other parts of the Caribbean
as aboriginal people reclaim what is rightfully theirs – to get a well here; a
health post there; secondary school scholarships; a football field for the
village; and a passport and foreign exchange to attend a conference overseas;
etc, etc. Many of these cases are,
however, episodic. The effort comes to
an end when the specific objective is achieved. But reparation
means this and much more. It means
being proactive, forming a powerful collectivity, and being strong enough to
engage the powers that be in negotiations to acquire what is rightly
yours. If you will allow me, I will
describe what I have found to be obstacles for reparation. Here I bring to bear my years of experience
in helping with the mobilization of aboriginal peoples at both the practical
and academic levels in Belize, as well as the Caribbean subregion The first obstacle
is we – the very aboriginal people themselves.
We lack a positive appreciation of our own culture. We are quick to place it in opposition to
western culture. Our language is now
good enough; so we do not use it in speaking to our children. Our religious rituals are not good enough;
so we allow them to fall by the wayside in favor of Christianity. We allow our
oral history, folklores, herbal cures to wither and die. Most of us are truly trying to downplay our
roots, to be able to pass for what we really are not. The biggest challenge facing those of us who want to revive the
culture is the inability to generate a strong collective action among our own
people. The massive inertia among the
region’s aboriginal peoples for the protection and conservation of their own
culture is totally scandalous! So, who else can
we turn to for direction? It is
certainly not the NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). I do not know of an NGO working in our
countries whose main objective is to generate our comprehensive community
development on a sustained basis. On
the other hand, I know of several NGOs who will use the cause of aboriginal
peoples to further their own programs.
By and large, the NGOs are the latter day Columbuses, seeking to
discover new Indians for their own selfish aims. What about the
umbrella organizations that the aboriginal peoples themselves have formed? There are examples in Dominica, Guyana and
Belize. The genuine leaders of these
organizations are martyrs. They preside
over groups with lots of in-fighting, an inability to penetrate large parts of
the aboriginal community, no funding, and a tendency to splinter into even
smaller factions. The regional umbrella
organization the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (COIP), which the
National Garifuna Council of Belize, among others helped form in St. Vincent in
1987, has fallen into the same pattern.
Apart from a handful of individuals, nobody knows what is happening to
the COIP at this time. If the people
themselves are not organized (and do not seem organizable), what is the
Government going to do about it? As you
would expect, the governments of today has become adept in playing politics
among the aboriginal peoples. Leaders
are played one against the other; the same thing is done for communities and
even districts. Quite simply, to the
politicians, aboriginal peoples are first and foremost voters, who can be
bought for a cheap price. All of our
governments have not extended to the aboriginal peoples the right to full
self-expression, as peoples in their own right. When we exert such demands, the governments is quick to say that
they will not tolerate apartheid. They
do not stop to analyze what are the limits of their obligations to people who
have had primordial rights to these islands, and the surrounding mainland,
centuries before the Europeans came. In
their own narrow-minded intransigence, our governments have fallen behind
internationally accepted conventions, in dealing with aboriginal peoples. This has happened like pouring water on
duck’s backs – with no second thought whatsoever.
Our governments
have not agreed to the culturally pluralist framework with policies allowing,
for example, the teaching of aboriginal languages in schools. Mexico, Costa Rica, and even Guatemala – as
repressive as that country has been – have adopted such conventions. Among Central American countries, Panama has
probably gone furthest in honoring the autonomy of it aboriginal peoples. The English speaking Caribbean countries –
if they could come to terms with their own chauvinism – could learn a great
deal from Panama on aboriginal issues. Who then are our
friends in the struggle for reparation?
We have friend and sympathizers in the United Nations and the OAS. We have support from the World Council of
Indigenous Peoples (WCIP), of which we are members. We have established lasting bonds with international NGOs, like
Cultural Survival, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Inter-American
Federation (IAF) in Washington DC. We
have strong fellowship with aboriginal brothers and sisters throughout Canada,
the United States of America, Latin America, Australia, New Guinea and New
Zealand. We can receive a great deal of
international support through the powerful environmental movements, which has
recognized the wisdom of peoples who have lived in harmony with their ecology
for centuries. Closer to home,
the UWI (University of the West Indians), through its School of Continuing
Studies, has been a veritable mother to us.
The strongest endorsement we have received through the CARICOM
(Caribbean Community) came from the West Indian Commission Report. Laureen Pierre and myself had the honor of
collaborating to do background work for the West Indian Commission. It was probably the first time that
aboriginal persons were involved in studying their own people for a major
regional report. Most of all, we have
strong and powerful support from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago Ministry
of Culture, especially Efebo Wilkenson, Eintou Springer, Robin Cross and
several others. There are other CARICIM
countries with larger proportions of aboriginal populations, but only Trinidad
and Tobago has had the vision and empathy, to convoke such a Gathering as
this. I am told that the reason why Hurricane
Brett did not touch Trinidad and Tobago is that God was born here. The spirits of our ancestors will make sure
that Trinidad and Tobago get even more blessings for having staged this Second
Gathering. At the end of the
day, only we can take charge of the momentum that this Gathering has
generated. My objective in this address
has been to outline what I regard as major impediments that obstruct our tasks
of reparation. I doing so, I have left
no holes barred, and may have even taken our dirty linen out for public
view. I have done this because I am
convinced that we are at a moment of major crisis. Besides, as First Nations, the extent to which we handle this
crisis will provide inspiration to others in the region, who look to us for
leadership in their own struggle to reclaim peoplehood. Thank you very
much. This article
was initially in the website GARIFUNA-WORLD.COM, which no longer exist. It was retyped from a hardcopy in my
possession and included in this final Newsletter from Killeen/Texas, for
continued availability to the Garifuna…Joseph R. Flores
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