St. Vincent Prime Minister Gonsalves calls on CARICOM to seek reparations for slavery

St. Vincent Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is calling on Caribbean countries to establish a regional reparations committee, pledging to spend the rest of his life seeking compensation from the British for land, genocide against the Garifuna, and slavery.

Gonsalves revealed that his cabinet will soon name its reparations committee. “But we want to see not only a reparations committee for St. Vincent but we want to see a Caribbean wide reparations committee involving other Caribbean countries. Jamaica has one, Antigua & Barbuda has one, Barbados has recently set up one,” Gonsalves said as the island observed National Heroes Day on Thursday.

Gonsalves, who turns 67 in August, noted that the average lifespan of a Vincentian male is 74 years. “I have seven more years, to talk like this, with the help of Almighty God, and to demand a proper historical recompense for genocide, for the land, and for African slavery and for us to reclaim our history,” he said at the Wreath-Laying Ceremony in honor of National Hero Joseph Chatoyer.

Gonsalves reaffirmed the position of his government as stated at the United Nations and other fora that it is making a case and a claim for reparation from the British.

“I want to say that the quantification of what we are owed as reparations that quantification has to be complete with the appropriate technical work.” -(CMC)