Colleagues in the International Network of Scholars and Activists for Afrikan Reparations (INOSAAR) have been collaborating with the campaign founded by the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE) and the Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC). The livestream video of a recent roundtable discussion featuring RACE.ED’s Nicola Frith is available to view from INOSAAR.
The recording is part of a broader conversation, and also relates to a fringe event hosted by Greens of Colour as part of the Green Party Annual Conference in October 2020. This was followed by a workshop to prepare party members and elected officials to vote on a historical motion committing the Green Party to seeking reparatory justice for the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Afrikans.
On the final day of their Autumn Conference, members overwhelmingly voted in favour of the motion. Proposed by Green Councillors Cleo Lake (Bristol) and Scott Ainslie (Lambeth), and supported by the Greens of Colour and the Young Greens, the motion will see the Green Party call on Parliament to establish an All-Party Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.
At the root of this motion lies the work of some of the UK’s foremost reparations scholar-activists: Esther Stanford-Xosei and Kofi Mawuli Klu, co-vice chairs of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE).
Since 2001, PARCOE has been leading different reparative initiatives, including the Stop the Maangamizi Campaign and its petition, which has gained over 20,000 paper and online signatures. PARCOE have long been working to put the voices of grassroots and Afrikan Heritage Communities at the centre of the struggle for reparations.
The INOSAAR helped prepare the motion by writing the background paper and accreditation materials, as well as fielding members questions in the weeks building-up to the vote.
The Green Party, PARCOE, Stop the Maangamizi and the INOSAAR will be working together over the coming months to help counsellors prepare to take this motion forward at local levels, targeting in particular cities linked to the trans-oceanic trafficking and enslavement of Afrikan peoples.
