“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed"
– Bantu Steve Biko
The African Reparations Claim
Four Reasons We Demand Reparations:
One: The African holocaust against African people was the most brutal occurrence of crimes and genocide against humanity. Conservative estimates by the United Nations put the numbers of Africans that were killed in the millions.
Two: The period of time, since 1441 when two Portuguese sea captains captured twelve Africans and took them to Cabo Branco as slaves. This was 579 years ago and Africans are still under this same colonial influence those two captains started.
Three: The psychological, social, spiritual, physical, and mental impact the genocide and slavery the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery has had on African people.
Four: The intergenerational impact that it has had from the Africans who were enslaved. Which were carried or passed on to their subsequent generations.
For these four reasons, we Africans charge genocide and demand restitution in the form of reparations.
In November of 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) organized the first tribunal for reparations in New York City and launched a worldwide reparations movement. The Party formed the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO) and held reparations tribunals throughout the United States, for twelve years. The Party proclaimed, “Reparations Now—an idea whose time has come! ….. Turning the reparations demand into a reality by taking it out of the straitjacket of purely legal and legislative approaches and making it a household word!
As Chairman Omali Yeshitela stated in the July 1982 Burning Spear newspaper, “We can target U.S. imperialism in a way which will spread the struggle of the peoples of the world to the very center of imperialism itself. The world tribunal will offer the peoples of the world an opportunity to strike back at U.S. imperialism from within, to contribute to the development of a revolutionary process within the U.S., which will be capable of eradicating the scourge of U.S. imperialism from the face of the earth."
The reparations demand is in our Party’s Working Platform. Point 11 states, “We want the U.S. and the international European ruling class and states to repay Africa and African people for centuries of genocide, oppression, and enslavement of our people. We believe that the U.S. and European civilization were born from, and are presently maintained by, the horrendous theft of human and material resources from Africa and its people.”
We believe that this theft is responsible for the present underdevelopment of Africa and her people and the political servitude, material impoverishment, and cultural discontinuity and disintegration of African people throughout the world. We believe that we are owed reparations for everything that we’ve suffered from and everything that has been taken from us!
The Party mandated the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) with the task of continuing to demand reparations from the U.S. and all European Colonizers and to help the African working class understand that reparations are OWED TO THEM. Reparations is a revolutionary demand and can only be made by the African working class. The demand for reparations must transform the African community and therefore can only be defined by the African working class.
This campaign has a deep significance for African people as a whole and can help resolve some of the problems that stand in the way of African unity. We believe that Africa and African people are due reparations as well as economic compensation and trillions of dollars which must be paid to the African working class. This campaign is also the force to usher in a social movement that will lead our communities to transition to revolutionary politics instead of accepting the reformist promises fed to us by the ruling class and neocolonial politicians. The reparations certificate is a process to collect a debt owed and rooted in self-determination, to the African working class. The goal of the Reparations Certificate Subcommittee is to make sure all Africans around the world sign this certificate and demand their reparations. It’s my Reparations and I want it now!!
Sign the reparations certificate today!!
Go to inpdum.org and click on the REPARATIONS CAMPAIGN tab and sign the African Reparations Claim!!