Greetings Friends, Comrades,
Been a long time, but I am still here. As actors and activists in the International Community prepare for the Durban Review Conference in Geneva,later this month.I would like to reflect on the possible meaning of WCAR for the ongoing tragedy in the DRC, one among many tragedies on the continent. In my opinion, the major implication is that the dehumanization of African people has been the most profound legacy, of the crime against humanity that is called slavery. I agree that the roots of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and other forms of slavery are economic. But the fruits of slavery has been the dehumanization of African people everywhere. This history lives in the prevailing global structure, that allows the denial of human rights to individual sons and daughters of Africa, much as larger communities and states of Africa are subject to abuse, that would not and should not be tolerated anywhere else. This signals to me that the legacy of the crime of slavery is to define human worth, a categorization of humanity that buries the African today so deep, that we can be slaughtered and arouse as much concern as the culling of wild animals.
The death of almost six million souls, and counting, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a profound and obscene expression of that legacy, in which the worth of African life is reduced to a spectacle, horrific but still a side-show. The terror of rape as part of the war on African people, makes the point that,that most essential human right to life, to dream of, or to contribute the future by being able to bear children for one's own self determination does not apply. The paradigm is rooted in the terror of slavery and it's associated institutions that built the global economy, with Africans, being sacrificed on the altar of the global economy.
Hence my conclusion that the situation in the DRC, should fall squarely on the agenda in Geneva, as an appreciation of that ongoing legacy of slavery. We understand the shrill cries of those found guilty, that there should be no suggestion of "linkage" of slavery to the current conditions, as it would further indite and lay bare the lies about the roots of their economic and military dominance. The crimes against humanity, evident not only in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, but also in the so called Congo Free State of Leopold, these crimes continue today for the same reasons, to advance the economic interests of the dominant global cultures at the expense of the humanity of African people. Reparations must not be hush money or some cynical attempt at sympathy for "lesser" people. The goal of reparations has to be that of restoration. The restoration of the human rights and dignity of all people, in essence changing their relationship to power, power wrought at the expense of Africans and their ancestors. Reparations must facilitate the empowerment of the everyday people to access and exercise their human rights, well being and dignity and full confessions by the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity
