LIVE: Reparations for slavery: if not now, when? Global South Thinkers
Justice has still not reached the "greatest crime against humanity", even after hundreds of years.
Ismail Akwei is joined by Mia McMorris, a researcher at the Centre for Reparation Research and Lavender Namdiero of the African Futures Lab to discuss how it can be achieved, when and by whom.
The issue is about much more than money, according to the panelists. Namdiero said a payout on its own would only be a sticking plaster. Institutions like the IMF and World Bank need to be reformed to give more influence to Global South nations, she said.
"The important question is not what might be owed but what needs to be changed so the conditions that allowed slavery to happen no longer exist," she stated.
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Some of the legacies of slavery are even less obvious. In some countries, constitutions ban noise making. But drumming and singing have always formed important parts of African cultures that slavery sought to erase.
Education systems which teach the benefits of colonialism also ensure that the legacy of slavery continues to cause harm today, Namdiero said.
But it's also important that financing must be a part of the discussion.
"Debt relief is a major concern we have to look at the fact that almost immediately after independence when all of the wealth had been sucked out of Africa and the Caribbean they are shoving IMF deals on us," McCorris said.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
