Submitted by Ras Jahaziel
CAN REAL REPARATIONS BE ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT DECOLONIZING THE AFRICAN MIND?
It is easy for the victim of Chattel Slavery to get excited at the prospect of getting righteous reparations from those that robbed …
REAL REPARATIONS
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DRAX DEFIANT TASK FORCE PLANS CAMPAIGN TO PRESSURE PLANTATION OWNER
By Emmanuel JosephBarbados is set to escalate its campaign for reparations against Richard Drax, the British Conservative MP and owner of Drax Hall plantation, as negotiations remain stalled over the St George estate where African ancestors suffered centuries of brutal enslavement.
The National Task Force on Reparations (NTFR) also plans to launch a public education initiative about the plantation’s history of slavery, aiming to pressure Drax into acknowledging his family’s role in the slave trade and negotiating compensation.
Early last year, Prime Minister Mia Mottley backed away from the government’s planned compulsory acquisition at Drax Hall for housing, paving the way for a negotiated payout of reparations by Drax for the purchase of 53 acres of the plantation which he owns.
Drax was initially set to receive some $7.5 million from the land sale.
Critics of the acquisition suggested the government should confiscate the property as reparations rather than enriching the pockets of Drax, a descendant of Colonel Henry Drax who introduced sugar cultivation to Barbados within a decade of settlement.
On Wednesday, the deputy chairman of the NTFR, Ambassador David Comissiong, lamented that Drax has so far been unwilling to negotiate a settlement.
“The government is pursuing a reparations claim against Mr Drax. To my knowledge, no consideration is being given to purchasing that plantation, period. Suffice to say that Mr Drax has been intransigent. Mr Drax, so far, has rebuffed all efforts to approach him about discussing a reparations settlement. That is where the matter is right now,” Ambassador Comissiong told Barbados TODAY.
“I am hoping that in this new year, this is a matter that the National Task Force on Reparations will take up in a very serious manner. So, I will in fact be going to propose to the Task Force on Reparations, that we as an institution take control of this matter and take it forward from there.”
The deputy chair disclosed that the NTFR has sought to engage the plantation owner through several contacts in the United Kingdom, but he has refused to budge.
“Through some contacts in the UK, we have made some overtures to Mr Drax; but as I said, he has remained intransigent. So, we have to go back to the drawing board in terms of how do we pursue a campaign to bring Mr Drax to the negotiating table in a spirit of moral conscience and adhering to the tenets of legality as they relate to reparations,” he said.
“We are not suggesting that we can pursue a legal claim against Mr Drax as an individual. We are not suggesting that. But there is a legal logic to reparations, to acknowledging where a crime has been committed and following legal precepts in calculating what kind of compensation should be paid.”
Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), suggested that Drax take a leaf out of the books of aristocratic families such as the Trevelyans who travelled to Grenada and publicly apologised for their ownership of more than 1 000 enslaved Africans; and the Gladstones, who owned enslaved Africans in the British West Indies, and in 2023, apologised for their role in the slave trade.
“We are asking Mr Drax to have that same moral conscience and behave in a similar manner,” he said.
Comissiong revealed that part of the campaign of the reparations task force this year will be to educate Barbadians about Drax Hall’s role in slavery in Barbados.
He said: “I have already secured the rights for a very good publication about the history of Drax Hall and the Drax family. I will be proposing this to the task force, that we engage ourselves in a serious campaign of educating the Barbadian people about the plantation, [and] about the role the family played in the history of enslavement in Barbados.
“But the whole purpose and intention is to bring Mr Drax to the negotiating table… to bring Mr Drax to acknowledge what is pellucidly clear — that, one, his family was involved in the crime of enslavement, and two, his family benefited financially from that crime of enslavement, and that a significant portion of the current wealth of the family, and of Mr Drax himself, was generated by that criminal process of the enslavement of the ancestors of the Barbadian people.”
Comissiong stressed that a way must be found to get Drax to admit these facts and, thereafter, be able to sit down and negotiate some form of compensation.
Prime Minister Mottley is adamant that while Barbados will aggressively pursue reparations through advocacy, it has no intention of breaching the Constitution by taking up anyone’s land without paying them.
She said that having already met with Drax, and although not happy with the pace at which talks have been progressing, she believed the focus should be on pushing for a reasonable settlement for reparations.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb -
‘FOR REAL’
TEMPLE YARD REDEVELOPMENT TO BEGIN THIS YEAR, OFFICIALS VOW
By Sheria BrathwaiteThe long-awaited redevelopment of Temple Yard, a long-time craft and cultural hub in The City, is set to begin this year, but some vendors have expressed uncertainty about their future in the revamped space, Barbados TODAY has learned.
While officials promise transparency and inclusivity, concerns persist among artisans regarding relocation and guarantees of their return.
Communications consultant Joy-Ann Haigh, spokeswoman for Barbados Tourism Investment Inc. (BTI), disclosed that construction would begin sometime this year.
She could not provide any dates. Haigh said there were a few kinks to sort out before the area could be secured, hoarding erected, and the Urban Development Corporation could take over the site to upgrade the craft centre where the artisans sell handcrafted leather goods, furniture, local produce and other items.
In 2019, ahead of the island’s 53rd year of independence, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that her administration wanted to “remove every stain of discrimination against Barbadians”, especially the Rastafarian community. She said she wanted to foster the spirit of inclusiveness and fairness and proposed the redevelopment of the cultural space located in Cheapside, The City.
Temple Yard had fallen into a dilapidated state over the past several years, with most, if not all of the stalls looking run down.
Last year, ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June, the artisans were informed that they would be relocated. On December 18 and 19, the majority of them were moved.
Robert Maloney, spokesman of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors, and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN), which has been involved in the consultations about the improved Temple Yard, complained that the vendors who were not moved were unsure of their next move and overall, they wanted assurance in writing that they would get the opportunity to have the first option of selecting stalls when the redevelopment was completed.
“We wish that the process could be a little more transparent where the persons that are a part of that community should be given assurance that after completion of the construction, they would be relocated to one of the new stalls,” he said.
“So there are a couple of discrepancies going on where some of the vendors feel somewhat discriminated against. But we are waiting to see how things unfold because we are being promised that upon completion, a person would be given first choice. But that is word of mouth, a lot of the vendors would rather they had something in writing.”
Additionally, Maloney said, vendors who have not been included in the move to Pelican have not received any reassurance about their future, leaving them uncertain about the prospects for their businesses.
“Some vendors feel discriminated against as certain charges are being brought against them saying that they are not active and they don’t ply certain businesses,” he said.
He added that the vendors who were not relocated were also out of the loop about how the development project was progressing.
But Haigh denied the claims that the artisans were being left out of consultations.
She explained that a survey was done before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which found that there were about 24 legitimate artisans operating at Temple Yard.
About 15 of them were relocated to the Pelican Craft Centre and the others opted to wait until the redevelopment was completed and decided to ply their trade elsewhere, she said. Haigh said consultations were carried out with everyone.
She told Barbados TODAY: “We would have done our due diligence in terms of having meetings with all the artisans, longstanding artisans who had a legitimate claim and those who did not. There are some claims that are being investigated but we informed them that they will have the opportunity to apply for a space at the new Temple Yard and have to indicate what they are proposing to sell. However, during our investigations, we realised that there were some structures that were empty for a long time and we had no evidence that products of any kind were being sold.”
According to the BTI spokesperson, ahead of construction, the artisans would be formally informed of timelines and dates.
“We are currently in the process of deconstructing stalls; some people wanted to remove the stalls themselves and those who needed assistance, we offered it. Some people also opted to relocate on their own and those who could not were offered assistance,” she said.
Haigh explained that after the deconstruction was completed, which she said she did not envision would take a long time, the area would be secured, hoarding would be erected and construction would begin. Some of the artisans, she added, wanted to reuse some of the material from the stalls and it was given to them.
Haigh added that if artisans were experiencing any challenges or had any queries they should reach out to her or Barry Atherley, citizens engagement officer in the Prime Minister’s Office. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb -
https://youtu.be/YKN2ZsmyU44?si=XjbsM9hhqwuXddo_
Of course, there could not be a Trump unless he’s as racist as can be!
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Malcolm X : Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Enemies…
In America Black Celebs are selling out and abandoning the Black Community and singing for Trump.It is to time to listen carefully to the lyrics of #Malcolm-X (again) especially after he left the Nation of Islam and started speaking for himself instead of Elijah Muhammad.
Do you know of any contingency plan for action?
“No. I know of none. But I don’t think if you go and study the history of oppressed people usually their initial action is not a plan, usually it is the reaction on the part of a few and everybody gets right on with it.”Malcolm X No Sellout
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