Kingston, Jamaica, 23 August 2021. Jamaican professor Verene A. Shepherd, social historian and Director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, participated today in the virtual panel on International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, organized by Casa de las Americas and the Cuban National Commission for UNESCO.
Professor Shepherd pointed out that current Caribbean populations becoming aware of the crimes committed through conquest, colonization, the forced relocation of Africans, slavery, emancipation without compensation and the continuous postcolonial damage has prompted the emergence of a lawsuit against ancient metropolises to obtain restorative justice. Quoting Sir Ellis Clarke, the first President of Trinidad and Tobago, she stated that “an administering power has no right to extract all that can be removed from a colony for centuries and, when it has been done, to release itself from its obligations. Justice demands that the country that has suffered the ravages of colonialism be repaired.”
The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, was established by the UNESCO General Conference to pay homage to the uprising that took place on August 23, 1791, led by men and women subjected to slavery in Saint-Domingue, the western part of the island of Hispaniola and inspired the proclamation of independence of Haiti. Every year UNESCO takes this occasion to highlight the fight against all forms of oppression and racism that exist today through the transmission of history. Today’s virtual academic panel provided an overview of the slave trade, its inclusion as a subject in Latin American novels; as well as the legacy of slavery and the search for justice and equity.
See her full speech here:
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