The campaign to establish a permanent United Nations (UN)?memorial to and in remembrance of victims of slavery and of the Transatlantic Slave Trade will gather more steam and move a step closer to achieving its historic goal.
The initiative is being led by the Caribbean and Africa in general and Jamaica in particular and it has triggered a question that’s often asked in and out of Barbados.
Incidentally, it is also asked at the UN, albeit in private conversation and not in any public forum. The question: why keep reminding the world about the tragedy of slavery, a horrendous act of inhumanity that was fuelled by international greed?
Raise the issue with Sir Hilary Beckles, principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, and chances are he will cite chapter and verse about the brutality of slavery in Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean. The outstanding historian would also explain why people should never forget about it.
Raymond Wolfe, Jamaica’s UN ambassador, had a forceful ready answer to the question the other day when he addressed the General Assembly.
“It is interesting that the question continues to be asked as to why we remind the world about this tragic past when there is a need to look at the future and address contemporary forms of slavery,” said Wolfe.
“We cannot forget the legacies of racism, racial discrimination, bigotry and hatred that continue to manifest themselves in many parts of the world today as a direct result of the lot of our ancestors, who were forced to live, suffer and die under the system of slavery which lasted for more than 400 years.” But Wolfe didn’t stop there.
“We submit that slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, one of the gravest crimes against humanity, has not yet met the threshold of acknowledgement and redemption,” he added.
The memorial initiative is being financed by a trust fund that has reached BDS$2 048 650. Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Slovenia, Finland, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Israel, Oman, Belgium and Azerbaijan are among the countries that have added their names to the list of donors.
In addition, the Memorial Committee headed by Wolfe is overseeing the project and has launched a website, www.unslavememorial.org. It has signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding which allows UNESCO to undertake the first phase of an international design competition for the memorial this year.
Corporations, social services organizations and individuals in Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean can certainly make contributions to the trust, sure in the knowledge that it will be funds well spent.