The ACDA delegation to a conference on racism held in Barbados earlier this month chose to abstain on the controversial vote that non-black delegates should be expelled.
The African and African Descendants World Conference Against Racism attracted international attention be-cause of the successful move for the expulsions and the vote was condemned by the Barbados government.
Public Relations Officer of the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA) Violet Jean-Baptiste said last week based on a resolution which was put to the vote, she noted that the senior members of ACDA abstained from casting a vote but the youth membership voted in favour of the expulsion.
She said the British delegation, which travelled to the conference as a united front was the largest delegation and it exerted a lot of influence over other much smaller delegations.
The resolution to expel non-Blacks, she noted was moved by the British delegation, which according to its members went to the conference on the understanding that it was a conference for Africans and their descendants.
Asked how persons determined whether they were Africans or were of African descent, she said by affirmation.
Due to the expulsion, she noted that delegations such as those from South Africa and Zimbabwe, which sent both Whites and Blacks, ended up with half their delegates leaving before the conference had ended.
But she said while many persons at the meeting may have had mixed emotions about the resolution taken, it was not meant as a racist act but should have been seen as an attempt to have a working group in which Africans would not have felt inhibited discussing their concerns. She said it should have been respected in the same way a feminist group or women holding a meeting would wish to have their views respected by not including men in their discussions.
While Guyana did not officially send a delegation to the conference, she noted that ACDA, the Pan African Movement and the African Spiritual Council were represented at the five-day meeting.
There were some 600 African and African descendants from throughout the world.
The meeting was a follow up to the Third World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa.
Baptiste said in spite of the negative coverage by the international media much was achieved and a number of recommendations made including the establishment of an international think-tank and setting up global trading links among African people.
She said ACDA has joined the international campaign to demand reparations from former colonisers for crimes committed against Africans.
ACDA is also supporting the conference call to support the establishment of a ‘Reparation Desk’ at the CARICOM Secretariat.
On the issue of reparations, the conference acknowledged that the criminal conspirators encompassed all of Western Europe and its settler colonies in the Americas and the Pacific.
Initially, the focus for reparations will be on France, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The campaign will begin with France and its exploitation of Haiti in the 18th century, from which, Baptiste said Haiti’s economy is still suffering; Germany, for the genocide against the Herero people of Namibia; Belgium, for the massacre of 10 million Congolese during the reign of King Leopold and its role in the assassination of Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba; and the United Kingdom - for its leading role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery.
The campaign wants Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom to be prosecuted and to pay reparations. If any of the countries refuse to be accountable for their crimes against humanity, she said, there will be a campaign to bring them before the appropriate international body.
Other issues called for were judicial and penal reform where Africans seem to be at the “end of the bottom stick.” On health and environment, a decision was taken to mobilise Africans and non-Africans to work together in fighting the HIV/AIDS scourge.
There was strong representation on the issue of repatriation and the recognition and acceptance of Rastafarianism and African religions, a move which ACDA also supports.
Baptiste said the need to work closer with governments on the issue of repatriation was recognised.
She said it was felt there was need for a global approach to African governments to accept repatriation. Already a group out of the UK has a `half-way home’ (for the want of a better word) in Uganda where those seeking repatriation may live for a period of time to undergo deculturalisation of European values and to adapt to the African cultures and way of life.
Baptiste noted that the media, too, was singled out for some attention especially in relation to the terms used to describe African people. She said in the same way descendants of Indians or Chinese were addressed by their land of origin, descendants of Africans would like to be addressed in the same manner and not as ‘Negro’ - someone who could not be identified with land.
Other recommendations include the establishment of a skills data bank of African professionals, and seeking membership or observer status at the United Nations, the European Union human rights organisation, the African Union and CARICOM.