Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/2715/-1/133/
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HEARTICALLY YOURS: Remembering The African Holocaust by Ijahnya Christian
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August 23rd is a day designated by the United Nations for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. According to UNESCO’s Director General, Koichiro Matsuura, the observation is intended to make the slave trade “part of the world’s collective memory”, providing an opportunity for “common reflection” on the horrific historical phenomenon that continues to impact on Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and the world.
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Ijahnya Christian
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This present, Matsuura says, is “a present marred by racism and discrimination handed down from that tragic chapter in history” and therefore reflection on the history of the slave trade and its abolition must include the need for changed relations between the descendants of the main actors to create “new forms of citizenship” in societies that are increasingly becoming multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. August 23rd was chosen to help humanity remember the Haitian Revolution that began on the nights of August 22nd and August 23rd, 1791 and ended up as the most successful act and process of resistance on the part of the enslaved Africans, paving the way for the eventual abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the emacipation of the people who now comprise the bulwark of Caribbean society. But bulwark is a term I use advisedly because wherever I look, including right here in Anguilla, I still see a people enslaved.
The first sign is a real discomfort at any mention of Africa or blackness. Even this article is making some of you suck your teeth and ask why she Ijahnya (you people), keep talking about Africa when life in Anguilla so sweet. Life in Anguilla however, has an underbelly that we care not to see, so it may well be a case of ‘wha sweet in goat mout…’. I almost shed a tear last May when people became really anxious about a course from the International Black Summit that was held in Anguilla. It was Black Anguillians who questioned why the word Black had to be used and my almost tearful moment came at the response to the photograph in the Anguillian of His Excellency Governor Huckle interacting with some of the young people from the course. I am not sure if the Governor realized that in posing for that photograph, some Black Anguillians sighed with relief for he had, perhaps unwittingly, validated a process that included the word “Black”. It seems to me that what the United Nations wants us to remember, Anguillians would rather forget. My response was to write my annual calypso which I share with you below to express the kind of damage done by that crime against humanity for which there has still been not even an apology, never mind reparations from the Europe that continues to enjoy the legacy of man’s inhumanity to man.
Black in Me Bornin’ Lan’
I am African woman, in JAH creation plan
Mother civilization, is Africa lan
In the cradle of my womb is the origin of all man
Yet my people find it hard to say Black in dey bornin lan
We have a real situation, Alienation of our lan
All the best a’ we l’il island, endin’ up in foreign han
When I try to buy piece a lan’ today, the price I just cannot pay
We birthright gone yet we fraid to say, that we Black in we bornin lan
Oh we birthright gone yet we fraid to say that we Black in we bornin lan.
Any time an African man achieve, success beyond compare
Bet you life someone gon bring a charge, to put him in a snare
They didn’t get to jail Michael Jackson, so they went for Kofi Anan
An still my people find it hard, to say Black in dey bornin lan
We love our women and children, but abuse rampant right here
Dem slave plantation behaviours, we must urgently repair
When we fight for our reparations, I want you to understan
Is to make the day when we proud to say, that we Black in we bornin lan
Yes, we proud to say that we Black in we bornin lan
One day I am going to record all my calypsos and sell them to you but right now I urge a critical analysis of our situation, of our internal relations from a psychological and a sociological perspective. The process of reparations for the damage done requires not only self-repair but must also include a conversation between all the actors about that experience and the freedom to remember, that is the basis for corrective action and changed relations. We will see and hear, if we dare to look and listen, that Black people still behave differently in the presence of White people and it is the kind of difference that says to me we are still not free. If you don’t believe me just go to dinner at one of our leading hotels during the peak season. It also used to be obvious at our ports but nowadays I am seeing a more professional reception when visitors arrive. I still think that Anguilla missed a much-needed opportunity when we failed to even show interest in the UNESCO Slave Route Project. Maybe that could have helped us to confront our anxieties and change the way we teach our children about who we are, how we came to be here, why there is still so much abuse in our families and why the African continent is portrayed to us so negatively in the mainstream media. These are the connections yet to be made in Anguilla and hopefully one day we will use the Day of Rememberance as a day to move toward the necessary change.