Third Oral Statement to the 10th Session Working Group on Minorities, March 2004
Speaker: Ms. Raushana Karriem
Agenda Item 3 a Afrodescendants
Organization - National Commission For Reparations
Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Working Group, NGO’s and observers, I am privileged to be appearing before this distinguished panel of experts, to speak in concert for the support of the practical realization of the Declaration on the Rights of Minorities.
I am Raushana Karriem, Senior Commissioner of the National Commission for Reparations, Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. For the past 32 years, I have been active in seeking justice for Afrodescendants.
The legacies of plantation slavery still haunt Afrodescendants in the Americas. When released from chattel slavery, Afrodescendants in North America were released penniless, naked, ignorant, hungry and landless, unlike their counterparts in Jamaica, Haiti, etc. Today after over 100 years of menial emancipation, Afrodescendants are often seen in the same pititable condition.
During slavery our human rights were systematically destroyed. After our kidnap and capture, we were separated from our various tribes and put with others, so as to insure we would not to be able to communicate with each other. The mother tongue of the Afrodescendant was lost forever, which is essential to one’s identity.
After reaching the shores of the Americas, husbands, wives, children, mothers and fathers were sold to different owners and bred like animals to produce strong workers, who were again sold to the highest bidder at the whim or convenience of their masters.. This was deliberately done, and resulted in the destruction of black ancestral culture and religion, which the Afrodescendant will never regain. Thus, Afrodescendants have the distinction of being the only people on earth who can never hope to find their specific ancestral roots, language, culture or religion. It is lost to us forever.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states that every human being on earth is entitled to these human rights. The Working Group on Minorities should be commended for their attention and input into these centuries old and present day injustices that still plague Afrodescendants. The cry for justice by Afro descendants has now been reverberated around the world, and is being heard by the people of the world. The Working Group on Minorities have provided this forum.
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