WHILE THE United Nations’ declaration of a decade for those of African descent is admirable, caution must still be taken to ensure everything is above board, said chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee in Trinidad, Khafra Kambon.
In giving the feature address at the recent launch of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent, he said: “I have tremendous respect for the UN but anytime the UN could agree unanimously on something, some questions must be asked because we are talking about almost 200 counties – which include former enslavers and colonisers, some of which are still trying to exploit and control our lives and whereas they have to use violence to maintain that control, they still do it. So we must ask ‘do Africans really have that many friends?’” he said.
Kambon said such countries still refused to consider the issue of reparations yet had appeared to vote for the decade. He also said many countries had refused to mind the UN when it made a recent call for $1 billion to be raised in order to fight Ebola in Africa, saying only around $100 000 was actually raised “by the same ‘friends’ who voted for the decade”.
“That is why, when you have such widespread support for a decade that is supposed to liberate you from ‘friends’ of that nature, you have to make sure that you take charge of that decade and not that same group of ‘friends’,” he said.
Kambon said he was also “slightly” uncomfortable with the declaration on a whole and wished the world was one where such a thing was not even necessary.
“What is the subliminal aspect of a decade for people of African descent? We are a group of human beings, descended from the first people on the face of the earth. We have around 600 years of a very bad experience and to me, I feel funny to be of the first people on earth and hear people saying there was a decade for me. There have been decades for endangered species and for desertification and almost every time, the problem gets worse. I am not a helpless creature and I don’t want anything that puts me psychologically into a mode of helplessness.
“How could you have 50 something African states with the most natural resources in the entire world, how could we need a decade? So there is a kind of message inside of what we have to turn into a positive thing,” he said.
Despite his reservations, Kambon acknowledged the decade as a positive step, although he said even the wording did not sit quite right with him.
“It is our interest, our business and we have to pursue it, not just for people of African descent but for all Africans, on both the continent and in the diaspora. Let’s make this – the UN gave us something so we are free to reword it a little bit, even if only informally – a decade for the African people, globally,” he said.
Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley said he too appreciated the UN’s efforts but wished to remind all interested parties such work had already began in Barbados.
Even so, Lashley said the decade was a way to redouble their efforts, such as with the reinvigoration of the Commission for Pan African Affairs and working more closely with civil society organisations such as the Pan African Coalition of Organizations.
“Mentally and economically, there is quite a bit of work to be done in the development and empowerment of our people. Let us together make good use of the opportunities afforded us to do so; let us together remember the mandate given to us by our ancestors; let us put our hands to the plough and move Barbados forward as we acknowledge the significant contributions of our elders and our ancestors towards the path of development,” he said. (CA)
