CARICOM describes slavery as ‘a scar 400 years deep’

Camillo Gonsalves. Credit: www.svg-un.org

UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have described the slave trade as a “scar 400 years deep” as the international community on Friday concluded a week of activities commemorating the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Speaking on behalf of the regional integration grouping at a special commemorative meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, St. Vincent and the Grenadines UN Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves also described the slave trade “a festering sore on the conscience of humanity.”

He said it was “a brutalisation of the psyche of a people so violent and enduring that it has created a shared cultural memory of the trauma.

““(The) collective memory lives so vividly in the souls of those who have died that it is bequeathed to those of us who live today and to those yet unborn,” Gonsalves said, adding “this day also stands as a rebuke to those who profited, those who ignored, and those who justified the horrors of slavery and the slave trade.

“Today, we honour, we remember, and we shall never forget,” the diplomat said, calling on the international community to contribute to the UN trust fund that has been established for erecting a permanent memorial, at the UN, in memory of the victims of the slave trade.

In his address, Gonsalvess paid special tribute to Haiti, calling it “the first nation to break the shackles of subjugation and the enduring seat of our Caribbean strength and pride.

“As our Haitian brothers and sisters confront the catastrophe of recent earthquakes, we have no doubt that, with the help of the international community, they will triumph, as they have triumphed over all prior adversities,” he said.

In addition, the envoy reflected on “the memory of the indigenous peoples of our region – the Arawak, the Kalinago and the Garifuna inhabitants – whose tales of extermination through disease and genocide are also entwined with our own redemption song.”

The UN’s week of activities also included a briefing for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and a videoconference involving more than 500 students from Ghana, Gambia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Cuba, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

“This is a great opportunity to share with your fellow students the diversity and similarities of peoples of African descent, and the spirit of African culture,” said Kiyo Akasaka, UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.

“History has shown us that culture is one of the most poignant and powerful ways in which slaves and their descendents have overcome the cruel legacy of slavery,” added Akasaka, underscoring this year’s theme, “Expressing Our Freedom through Culture.”

In a message marking the occasion, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that slavery has “mutated and re-emerged” in modern forms – including debt bondage, the sale of children, and the trafficking of women and girls for sex.

“We must create a climate in which such abuse and cruelty are inconceivable,” Ban said.

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4 Comments

  1. Prophet2
    March 31, 2010

    Communism is modern slavery, take Cuba for example, you have two white brothers who have taken away the freedom of our black brothers and sisters for half a century. Free my people.

  2. Cesare Bonventre
    March 30, 2010

    Slavery still exists today in so-called Industrialized nations

    Although the slavery is very much “civilized” in appearance

    By deskilling labor & putting small third world countries on an economic periphery, slavery continues by virtue of extraordinary working endeavors with little return

    AND the fact banking oligarchs run nearly all Western Countries through the IMF & World Bank

    Most European & American state aid is interlocked into the International Bank of Settlements, which is tied to World Bank, which is tied into the IMF, which is like all things: Tied into Goldman Sachs!

    AIG is run by Edley of Goldman Sachs!

    All roads lead to: Goldman Sachs!

    Most European & American lives are dictated to by a bunch of arbitrage wielding sycophants & sociopathic criminals who profit by destroying the system!

  3. Dominica Lover
    March 30, 2010

    We must never forget, and we should tell our children, but we must give them the pride, which our forefathers brought with them, and the fortitude with which they fought for Freedom, and then we must not sell ourselves short, or sell ourselves into economic slavery.

  4. LCM
    March 30, 2010

    Instead of the Queens baton passing through on Commonwealth day or should i say colonialism day. we should all as caribbean people have a day to remember Slavery and the struggles our forefathers went through to obtain there freedom.

    Even if we let it go/forgive we must never forget the many heros like Tousaint L’Overture and the “freedom fighters” (Note not rebels) of th Morant Bay rebellion and other such uprising in the Caribbean.

    Poverty in Haiti is directly linked to Slavery even today.

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