The Final Call

USVI reparations group returns from Denmark ready to act

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ST. CROIX, USVI- (Caribbean Net News) - In recent months, additional Caribbean government representatives and reparations activists have continued to organize around the issue of reparations for slavery and crimes against humanity.

The leaders of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana respectively, have all made formal reparations claims against European nations responsible for slavery.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is no exception to this growing movement. In fact, as previously reported by Caribbean Net News, the Virgin Islanders began working with the Danes on a reparations model in 2005.

In April 2005, Virgin Islands leaders and elected officials traveled to Denmark as a part of a delegation organized by the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) to draft an historic Memorandum of Understanding with the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The agreement became the first to recognize that “the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands suffered economic, psychological, social and emotional harm during the period of slavery in the Danish West Indies,” and led to the establishment of the Joint Virgin Islands / Denmark Reparations Task Force.

On May 4, 2005, the 26th Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands passed resolution #26-0045, historic legislation drafted by Senator Celestino White and Senator Usie Richards, the first of its kind to “Condemn the institution of slavery and seek reparations from Denmark.”

On May 25, 2005, the legislature hosted its first reparations conference to discuss the repair of a humanity left un-intact by 175 years of Danish slavery.

In June, after increased discussion, ACRRA again returned from Denmark with another agreement and a strategy for government to government dialogue on the matter.

On the issue of government to government dialogue, ACRRA Vice-President Kendall Petersen says “the governments of the Caribbean are ready, the government of Ghana is ready, the Danish government is now also ready to talk, and so we must now know where our Virgin Islands leaders stand.”

Reporting on the meetings in Denmark, ACRRA President Shelley Moorhead says that, “after having met with task force representatives in Denmark, I am thoroughly convinced that there is a readiness in Copenhagen for another official visit from the USVI Government, and that the time has now come for government to government discussion on the matter.”

During the visit to Denmark, Mr. Moorhead was accompanied by History, Culture, and Tradition Foundation Vice-President, Duane Howell, who participated in the meetings with members of the task force representing some 16 NGOs, groups, organizations that came together to further the Virgin Islands reparations initiative.

While abroad, Mr. Moorhead also visited Norway where he was invited to lecture on reparations at the Oslo University College and to discuss to what extent Norway and the West should be held accountable for consequences stemming from the slave trade and colonization that Africans were subjected to.

For 200 years, Norway was a part of a double monarchy known then as Denmark-Norway and were in large part responsible for the enslavement of Africans brought to the now U.S. Virgin Islands.

The details of the new Memorandum of Understanding reached this May in Copenhagen, the timeframe for the 2nd official reparations mission to Denmark, and the strategy for government to government dialogue was scheduled to be discussed at a Community Briefing on June 19 in Frederiksted on St. Croix.