Reparations and Emancipation go hand-in-hand – Dr Phillips

By Gomatie Gangadin

With just weeks to go before Guyana and other former British West Indian colonies observe Emancipation Day, Guyana Reparations Committee Chairman, Dr Eric Phillips says that reparations from former enslaving nations are the last salvation of freed Africans.

Speaking to Guyana Times International in an interview on Monday, Phillips said Emancipation will soon be celebrated but if the true freedom and spirit of the occasion are to be felt by Africans, then reparations is a must. “The theme for this year’s Emancipation celebrations is “Reparations: Broken Chains, Golden Dreams” signifying an acknowledgement of the Caricom Reparations Initiative which President Donald Ramotar has supported with the rest of Caricom Heads of states. In 1838, some 84,035 enslaved Africans were freed in Guyana. The chains of slavery were broken, but the freed Africans were not given a cent. Their Golden Dreams were deferred and still remain deferred to this day,” he said.

Africans in Guyana before and even after Emancipation were the most productive workers in the entire Caribbean. It was the reason why the British owners were paid 4.38 million pounds, roughly a quarter of the 20 million pounds paid to all owners and equivalent today to 200 million pounds. Even though Guyana had 1/7 of the freed Africans in the British West Indies and together with Trinidad produced 26 per cent of all the sugar in the hemisphere at that time, the enslaved did not receive any compensation or benefits.

According to Dr Phillips, reparations will ensure that the dreams of black youths become a reality.

Extreme conditions

“For over 200 years (1623-1834/8) they worked in Guyana. They worked free under extreme conditions and hardships to build Guyana. History has recorded that (Guyanese) Africans “had driven back the sea and had cleared, drained and reclaimed thousands of square miles of forest and swamps. In short, many of the fields on which the sugar estates are now based were cleared, drained, and irrigated by African labour forces. Most of the plantations now turned into villages and cities were built by unpaid African labour,” Dr Phillips related.

He revealed that in the process of building these plantations, research has shown that Africans installed 2,580,000 miles of drainage canals, trenches and inter-bed drains; 3500 miles of dams, roads and footpaths; and 2176 miles of sea and river defence. The Venn Commission also reported that “to build the coastal plantation alone, a value of 100,000,000 tonnes of earth had to be moved by the hands of African slaves”.

Dr Phillips said Emancipation celebrations thus far have been incomplete without reparations and they will never be complete until reparations are made. “Reparations and Emancipation go hand in hand.

Reparations are about “repairing a harm done”. The harm of cruelty, the harm of stripping away of another human being’s culture, his human rights. One is not emancipated if one is not given the ability to enjoy the rights described in the Universal Declaration of Rights. Real Emancipation will be achieved by reparations,” the Chairman of the Guyana Reparations Committee related.

Fundamental change

He articulated that the payment of reparations will fundamentally change the meaning of Emancipation. It would mean that justice was finally served and received by Africans in Guyana and in the West Indies.

“Slavery was a crime against humanity according to the United Nations. Justice demands that the perpetrator pay reparations. The lack of reparations since Emancipation has been another crime not addressed,” he impassionedly declared.

In the Caribbean, material conditions were no better after slavery than during it.  At Emancipation in 1838, enslaved Africans who arrived with nothing were left with nothing.

Plantation owners charged for food and housing, things which were formerly free. Shops were set up on estates that more than recouped any wages the slaves were paid, forcing them into debt.  The Government imposed taxes on ex-slaves.  Free blacks found themselves increasingly unemployed and marginalised in post-slavery Caribbean society.

“The end of slavery did not bring about equality for freed blacks in British colonies. Emancipated Africans faced competition for jobs from increased mechanisation as well as the influx of indentured labourers so they became more marginalised in society,” he noted.

Inequality, racism and the introduction of the system of indenture led again to a number of revolts, particularly in those colonies where slave uprisings had previously been strongest: Jamaica, Barbados and Demerara.

With reparations, Africans would be able to have better control of their economic well-being. Their social and psychological well-being would also be improved if their economic well-being is improved.

“All other races were compensated after slavery: Indentured servants received a salary and land. Amerindians received 13 per cent of Guyana at Independence. Africans who toiled and died in the thousands to build Guyana … have received nothing. Today the lack of a reparations payment translates into what former President [Cheddi] Jagan stated: “Africans are at the bottom of the ladder.”

It has been calculated that if freed Africans were paid the lowest of wages after Emancipation, the 660,000 plus freed Africans in the Caribbean would have earned 7.5 trillion pounds before Independence. Reparations would make Emancipation true “freedom”.

“Slavery annihilated Africa, African culture, African family structures, African institutions, African commerce, African growth, African history, African pride and African economic development. Reparations would close the wounds caused by the criminal enterprise named chattel slavery. Although racism was created to justify slavery, it still impacts Africans today in Guyana and globally,” Dr Phillips stated.

Phillips further noted that Reparations will create an atmosphere where racism would be addressed in a more enlightened manner since this is another form of denying freedom to Africans.

Reparation is the process of repairing the consequences of crimes committed, and the attempt to reasonably remove debilitating effects of such crimes upon victims and their descendants. International law provides that the economic and social system referred to as chattel slavery – the legal denial of persons’ rights to human identity and the control over their bodies – was and is a crime against humanity subject to reparatory justice.