Last Saturday's Million for Reparations March in Washington DC served to spotlight the struggle for reparations by descendants of African slaves in America, writes Gamal Nkrumah The world learnt about last Saturday's, 17 August, Million for Reparation March in Washington DC through snippets in the international media. Even though it failed to generate major headlines, the rally was a momentous occasion. "Just as the 1963 March on Washington marked the consolidation of efforts to obtain human rights for Africans in America, the Million for Reparation March will be viewed as the event that focused the world community on the struggle for reparations," Ray Winbush the director of the Race Relations Institute at the historically black Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Lawyers, physicians, the elderly, men, women, children, writers, scholars, politicians and preachers voiced their strong support for the reparations movement," said Winbush who also participated in the Washington march. Winbush added that he had not seen such great participation by the younger African-American community since the Civil Rights era. He described the march as a Pan-African gathering as people from around the world, especially Europe and Africa flew in especially for the event. Significantly, the rally was held on the birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey the Jamaican Pan-African polemicist, who inspired many in the Pan-African and anti-colonial movements in the early and mid-twentieth century. His speeches most often focused on economic empowerment of communities throughout the African diaspora. As a part of these efforts Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), established the first black owned newspaper to be nationally distributed in the US, and created a trans- Atlantic shipping and cruise-line company. By the early 1920s Garvey had a mass following in the Black and urban communities in the US. However, he was frequently targeted by US and British authorities. UNIA and Garveyism were brought to an early death, with his repeated incarceration, and the calculated vilification and character assassination which he suffered in the press. Sadly, the great leader died in abject poverty in London, and his remains were hurriedly interred, and are now proudly laid to rest in a Jamaican national memorial. As last Saturday's Washington rally revealed, Pan- Africanism has devoted advocates throughout the black world. Africans and people of African descent around the world are returning to the ideas of African unity and black solidarity throughout the diaspora. It is important to note that this new interest in Pan- Africanism and unity in the diaspora is quickly falling prey to the same weaknesses that killed the original movement. Economic empowerment is a message that rings especially strong in today's world. And the Pan-African movement, which has its root in the United States and the Caribbean, preaches economic empowerment as one of its tenets. Even as the Pan- Africanist movement finds its message regaining popularity, the movement is disintegrating into politically insignificant and mutually antagonistic fragments. The march was intended to stop this trend. The organisers of the march consciously attempted to galvanise the politically disparate young blacks in the US. Reparations have emerged as a rallying call. The A-APRP, the National United Black Front, the 12 December Movement, the Nation of Islam, and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), the largest and oldest African American organisation in the US, have spearheaded the push for reparations and recognising the sacrifices of Africans in the creation of the US. However, it must be noted that many high-profile African American leaders closely associated with the US political establishment shied away from the Washington rally. Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were conspicuously absent. It is understandable that Sharpton is keeping his distance from the reparations issue, as he is making a run for the US presidency. "Although this did not stop individuals such as Representative Conyers of Michigan and Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia", noted Roy Walker of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) as he commended those two members of Congress for their efforts in support of the march. So what is the political significance of thousands of African Americans converging on Capitol Hill to support the campaign for reparations for the descendants of slaves? One reason such a vocal show of support for the movement was needed, is a bill calling for a study on reparations and the effects of slavery on African American communities. This bill has consistently been rejected by the House of Representatives. Since 1989, Representative John Conyers has embarked on a thankless campaign to introduce a bill urging a serious debate on reparations. Needless to say, Conyers crusade has systematically fallen on deaf ears. Conyers urged the crowd to press Congress to take action, "Only Congress can do what we want done." "Reparations is a timely and just demand. One way to think of this fight is to put it in historical perspective. Slave labour produced the surplus necessary to launch the economy based in industrial production. The profits were locked in through inheritance and the continuation of corporations who benefited from slavery. Now at the end of the industrial system and the beginning of the information age, if no correction is made there will never be justice -- catch up and fair play. In the 21st century we (must) clear up the evils of the 19th century so the 21st century will be different from the 20th," exclaimed Abdul Alkalimat, director of the Africana Studies department at the University of Toledo, Ohio. "It is our contention that millions of black people in America support the idea of reparations for black people and thousands... were in Washington," Conrad Worril, national chairman of the National Black United Front said. Other African American leaders, such as the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who are more in touch with the political pulse of black America's grassroots organisations, attempted to make political capital out of the Washington rally. "It seems that America owes black people a lot for what we have endured. We cannot settle for some little token. We need millions of acres of land so that black people can build," Farrakhan told the crowds. A number of legal action lawsuits have been started against transnational corporations and private companies that once exploited slave labour. And, a separate case against the US government is expected to be filed later this year. African American activists fighting for reparations were especially enthused because three years ago, the US government consented to pay compensation to 20,000 black farmers for years of discrimination by the US department of Agriculture. It was unquestionably the largest US civil rights settlement to date with a likely payment of $2 billion. Reparations, African American activists argue, is essentially about repairing the damage done to the descendants of slaves. The impoverishment and social degradation of the descendants of African slaves continues to this day. The stark disparities between black and white in the US today are largely a result of the 250 years of enslavement of blacks by America's white elite. People of African descent still suffer today from racism. This racism was borne from the institution of slavery. Slavery has its roots in colonialism and imperialism. The economic and social relationships that became prevalent in colonialism and slavery have propagated themselves in the post-colonial and eras of political independence by neocolonialism. Slavery was officially abolished in the US in 1865, but its impact has long outlasted the diabolical system itself. The main beneficiaries of reparations ought to be the poorest and most socially marginalised from the African Americans who are the obvious descendants of the approximately eight million Africans enslaved from 1619 to 1865. This community is the descendant slaves in both a biological and figurative sense of the word descendant. "Enslavement was a crime against humanity that has remained unpunished for nearly six centuries and this rally focused attention on the need for a global public education campaign about the horrific crimes against my people," Winbush explained. According to Winbush Africans of all origins in the US are becoming united around the issue of reparations. "Like Garveyism it will force Africans all over the world to examine how the economic, psychological and cultural exploitation of our ancestors have a common link and therefore require a common strategy to advance our interests and address our concerns." "If nothing else, the march serves as a valuable political education function," Roy Walker, a Pan-African historian associated with the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) told the Weekly. "Psychologically and socially it provides a vehicle for confronting the inhumanity visited upon African people in the US (throughout history), and as such addresses the ongoing class exploitation and race oppression that is the hallmark of the US society."
