AFRE, CARICOM, and the Afrodescendant Nation Hold a United Nations Side Meeting For
Afrodescendants
By
Amira Karriem
In preparation for the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, being held In Geneva, Switzerland , April 16-19th 2024, a Side Meeting was ,facilitated by Dr. Tauheedah Bronner which took place on April 13, 2024, among several group leaders. These also included the Honorable Silis Muhammad, Monarch of the Afrodescendant Nation, Harriet Abubakr, Attorney, Ishmael Abdul-Salaam, CEO of All for Reparations and Emancipation (AFRE), Ajani Mukkaram, Board Member of AFRE, Eric Philips, VC of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and Ida Lawrence of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE).
The Honorable Silis Muhammad has been a longstanding and steadfast proponent of Black people and reparations. Upon one of his first trips during an intervention that he gave the United Nations asked him if there were other members of the African diaspora who believed as he did with regards to wanting reparations. Many were invited. Among those he invited was Minister Louis Farrakhan, who declined. Shortly after his invitation, coincidentally, the Million Man March was created.
Attorney Harriet Abubakr, Esq., and Lead Attorney for the Afrodescendant nation, mentioned that she was asked by the Honorable Silis Muhammad in 1989 to begin legal efforts to connect us to the international arena, through the United Nations. She traveled with her husband, the Honorable Silis Muhammad, several times and spoke on our behalf. What she noticed was that there were several people of African descent with diverse backgrounds that should be included in our efforts for reparations, not just the African American. Through several visits to the Geneva, Chile, and Honduras many friends and collaborations were made that eventually helped form the Working Group of Reparations in the UN.
Ida Lawrence, a sympathizer to the cause of African Americans, and the founder of CURE, met with Silis Muhammad and asked what she could do to support the cause of Black people in America. He asked her to create an NGO and consequently navigate us within the UN to those places where we were stopped or halted and guide us to people who could advance the cause of reparations. Within 5 years the NGO was formed and a forum established through the working group.
Ishmael Abdul-Salaam has traveled to Geneva with the Honorable Silis Muhammad, Harriet
Abubakr, Ida Lawrence, on occasion to speak and support the efforts of reparations in the United Nations. He is now returning as the leader of AFRE to further our cause at the upcoming meeting with the support of other national and international leaders.
Ajani Mukarram, has been a supporter and orator who has spoken during several of the UN meetings . During his visit to Santiago, Chile he heard the plight of different Indigenous groups, some who spoke Spanish and he heard them already declaring themselves Afrodescendants as early as December of 2000. These were evidence that many in the international arena were well aware of the work that the Honorable Silis Muhammad had been doing.
Dr. Akilah Mukarram, President of the Afrodescendant nation, reiterated the losses that we as Afrodescendants suffer as a people. Our language, culture, dignity, name, religion was stripped from us, and we were forced to assimilate into American culture and accept Christianity as our religion. We were treated worse than the slave master’s dog. These were the reasons she advocates for reparations today.
Eric Phillips, VC of CARICOM, gave a preview of his speech that he will be delivering at the UN. He mentioned that “Africans and Afrodescendants have suffered the world’s first nuclear bomb called chattel slavery. That a “debt is owed to Africans and the global Afrodescendant nation due to the exploitation of African sovereignty and Afrodescendants under the guise of the sanctity of contracts and international law.”
Dr. Tauheedah Bronner, a doctor of Naturopathic medicine and holistic primary care medicine named several of the long-term effects of plantation slavery with regards to its effect on our physical, mental, and emotional health. She said that the Afrodescendant population has higher rates of chronic and avoidable diseases. Also, the disparities with regard to access to healthcare and the effects of generational trauma on our health are still present today. For example, we have a disproportionately elevated level of Type II diabetes, hypertension and heart disease that can all be attributed to being forced to eat the worst type of foods.
The meeting ended with final recommendations that the UN live up to its creed and provide human rights for everyone everywhere and that our voice be heard. The Honorable Silis Muhammad mentioned that if the Lost Found Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan could come together, he believed that they could be the voice of Afrodescendants in America. Ida Lawrence recommended that another decade of a working group or panel could be established and fully funded by the UN, establishing a permanent place on the agenda.