African Holocaust Day

Afro-Guyanese pay floral tributes to their ancestors whose bones were scattered across the Atlantic Ocean during the Transatlantic Slave Trade

ACDA makes case for reparations

AFRO-GUYANESE paid floral tributes to their ancestors as they observed African Holocaust Day (MAAFA Day) on Wednesday.

For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, the United Nations (UN) has said, describing it as one of the darkest chapters in human history.

In fact, the African Holocaust is the greatest continuing tragedy the world has ever seen. It was also the most impacting social event in the history of humanity. It is a Holocaust which is constantly denied, mitigated and trivialised.

At a libation ceremony at the Seawall Bandstand in Georgetown, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA), joined with other African-centred organisations globally to observe African Holocaust Day under the theme: “Reparatory Justice for African Holocaust through Development.”

In his message, ACDA’s Director, Dr. Eric Phillips, called on his African brothers and sisters to know their history, positing that contrary to the history books, Africans were the first to have arrived in this part of the world.

He said “Luzia,” the skeleton which was found in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil in 1975, was proven to be an African woman who lived 12, 000 years ago, pointing out that the Indigenous peoples crossed the Bering Strait 10,000 years ago.
“We must stop saying that we were not the first people because we are…If we are going to demand reparatory justice, we have do it on the basis of truth and this is the truth,” Dr Phillips said.
The ACDA Director also rubbished the argument put forward by historians that only 15 million Africans were victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
“Europeans keep telling us that 15 million people were brought to this part of the world. What they forget conveniently to tell us is that in the year 1650, both Europe and Africa had a 100 million people, and by 1850, 200 years later, Europe’s population grew from a 100 million to 265 million and Africa’s population shrunk from a 100 million to 95 million,” he explained.

Kabaka smiling in his decomposed corpse!