Acrra Overview

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Overview

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INSTITUTING REPAIR

Fort Frederik, built on the island of St. Croix by the Kingdom of Denmark, served as a military fortification, a jail, and a holding facility for enslaved Africans.

Durban 2001 - Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations addresses the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa

An artist's rendition of the Danish-Norwegian Slave Ship "Friedensborg" enslaving Africans in Ghana destined for the Danish West Indies

All over the world at the beginning of the twentyfirst century, nations and cultures are struggling to heal from, memorialize, adjudicate, or at least understand and explain traumatic pasts. Throughout modern history, human exploitation slavery, caste systems and other forms of official discrimination, war and genocidal violence - have left untold scars on individuals and whole societies. In the year 2001, the United Nations declared “that slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, were appalling tragedies in the history of humanity not only because of their abhorrent barbarism but also in terms of their magnitude, organized nature and especially their negation of the essence of the victims." Opening the book on long ignored North-South conflict issues, the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) signaled a new era of world repair with the acknowledgment that "slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so.” The UN declaration provides international, legal impetus for enslaved peoples, their descendants, entire societies, and nations to pursue restitution from those responsible for the atrocious institution. Crimes against humanity carry no statute of limitations. What obligation does the present owe the past? Who or what decides the nature of repair for past wrongs? When historical knowledge, the obligation to remember, and the obligation to seek retrospective justice meet, how is this process of redressing historical wrongs applicable in the modern-day relationship between former slaver and enslaved?

P.O. BOX 8027 / CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX / U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00823 TEL: 340.332.6110 / EMAIL: [email protected] / FAX: 270.721.6551

ACRRA Overview

An artist's illustration of Africans enslaved aboard ship destined for the Americas

Page 2 of 5

Impregnated with a vision for a New Humanity, the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) has accepted the mandate to institute repair of the descendants of the many millions of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. Caribbean reconciliation with Africa and both former and existing European colonial powers is of paramount concern in the process leading unto reparations. When ACRRA embarked upon the task of broadening the international reparations movement to encompass collective repair, its founders were certain it would serve as a working, 21st century model for how yesteryear's colonizers and those colonized could progress past former tribulations to cultivate relationships allowing future generations to heal and flourish. In November 2004, ACRRA launched a pilot project aimed at addressing the many historically unresolved, slavery-related issues which exist between the peoples and nations of the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. The history and relationship shared by Denmark and the U.S. Virgin Islands, a former colony, served to provide the perfect environment to initiate repair.

ACRRA press conference held in the office of USVI Senator Usie Richards.

"Transfer Day" - U.S. government officials hand Danish plenipotentiary a diplomatic settlement warrant in the amount of $25 million in gold for the purchase of the Danish West Indies and its inhabitants. L-R: Secretary Daniels (U.S.), Admiral Oliver (U.S. Navy), Minister Constantine Brun (Denmark), U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing and Secretary McAdoo (U.S. Treasury) – March 31, 1917, Washington, D.C.

History records that from 1666 to 1917, the Kingdom of Denmark owned and occupied the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix - the now U.S. Virgin Islands. For 175 years Denmark enslaved over 200,000 African men, women, and children, transporting them to the Danish West Indies through the horror of the middle passage and forcing them to endure the remainder of their lives as chattel, bound to the brutality of harsh plantation labor with no accompanying wages. However, half those displaced by Denmark and destined for the islands' shores were not as fortunate. More than 100,000 Africans perished during the dreadful journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, still un-repaired by the sale of the Danish West Indies in 1916 to the United States of America, today's African Virgin Islanders are yet to recover from the cultural, sociopolitical and socioeconomic underdevelopment imposed by the eras of Danish slavery and colonization. The treaty between the U.S. and Denmark governing the cession of the Danish West Indies distinguishes between “citizens” as Danes and “inhabitants” as African descendants and

P.O. BOX 8027 / CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX / U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00823 TEL: 340.332.6110 / EMAIL: [email protected] / FAX: 270.721.6551

ACRRA Overview

African laborers cutting cane in the Danish West Indies on the island of St. Croix

Page 3 of 5

demonstrates no consultation with the latter. This neglect of the African/ex-slave population's inalienable right to self-determination during the transfer of the islands remains an international human rights violation of the worst sort. With the institution of slavery ending in the Danish colony in 1848 and in the United States in 1863, how then are the sale, purchase, and/or cession of more than 100,000 “free” people justified generations later? Which nation is responsible for repair? Who must bear the inevitable burden of decolonization? These questions and many other long-lasting handicaps predominate and today impede the growth, development, and sustainability of Virgin Islands society. But, as time would tell, none would escape slavery’s effects. Not only would African and Caribbean societies be negatively affected, but no Dane, no slaver, colonizer, nor their descendants no one would escape the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade having their humanity intact and unimpaired.

Finn Andersen - Secretary General of the Danish Cultural Institute is presented with gifts from the Virgin Islands by ACRRA president Shelley Moorhead April 2005.

Just as African Virgin Islanders were to inherit a legacy of human tragedy, concurrently, society in Denmark would also be impaired and continuing national acts of racism would mar Danish humanity and characterize the state for centuries. Today, Danish media and human rights organizations openly report racist political agendas commonly known in the state to restrict minority access to such things as employment, housing, education, health care, and goods and services. Contemporary incidents of racist violence and other expressions of Danish xenophobia and intolerance towards people of color are without question related to the inhumane, brutal, and discriminatory practices carried out during Denmark’s 250 year history in the now U.S. Virgin Islands, such as is officially documented in the 1733 Gardelin Code of the Danish West Indies. How then might this long-running, culturedestructive crime against humanity be redressed? The answers would become evident as the process of restoration begun.

L-R: U.S. Virgin Islands Senator Usie Richards, ACRRA president Shelley Moorhead, Virgin Islands Danish Apprenticeship (VIDA) Program Director Ulla Lunn, and Moriel McClerklin of the International Fund for a New Humanity meet in Denmark April 2005

In April 2005, coordinated by Ms. Ulla Lunn, Director of the Virgin Islands Danish Apprenticeship (VIDA) Program, a delegation of Virgin Islands leaders traveled to Denmark to discuss with Danish officials the issue of reparations. Headed by ACRRA president Shelley

P.O. BOX 8027 / CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX / U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00823 TEL: 340.332.6110 / EMAIL: [email protected] / FAX: 270.721.6551

ACRRA Overview

Official Virgin Islands delegation to Denmark - April 2005

L-R: Mogens Lykketoft - Member of Danish Parliament; Dr. Carlyle Corbin - U.S. Virgin Islands Minister of State of for External Affairs; Shelley Moorhead - President of ACRRA; Atty. Terence Todman, Jr.; and Dr. Donna M. Christensen U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen to discuss reconciliation.

Morten Kjaerum, Executive Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights speaks with Moriel McClerklin, Executive Director of the International Fund for a New Humanity, and ACRRA president Shelley Moorhead - Copenhagen, April 2005

U.S. Virgin Islands Senator Terrence "Positive" Nelson advocating for reparations

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Moorhead, the delegation was made up of the United States Virgin Islands Congresswoman Dr. Donna M. Christensen, Minister of State for External Affairs (Office of the Governor) Dr. Carlyle Corbin, Legislators - Senator Usie Richards and Senator Terrence “Positive” Nelson, Attorney Terence Todman, Jr., and Clinical Psychiatrist Dr. Etherero Akinshegun. Precious Laurent, a junior at the St. Croix Educational Complex accompanied the team to Denmark as a youth observer. Also attending, from Dimona, Israel was Dr. Moriel McClerkin, executive director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. / SCLC - Ben Ammi Institute for a New Humanity, an organization dedicated to international conflict resolution and the implementation of peace and reconciliation formulas throughout the world. H.E. Terence A. Todman, U.S. Career Ambassador (ret) serves ACRRA as chief advisor, and as former U.S. envoy to Denmark, Todman was instrumental in opening many doors for the delegation. As projected, the Virgin Islands / Denmark example is charting unprecedented social evolution and leading the way for renewed relationships throughout Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the world. The talks in Denmark have resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding which establishes an International Virgin Islands / Denmark Joint Reparations Task Force co-chaired by ACRRA and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The agreement is the first between the Danes and Virgin Islanders which directly acknowledges the cruelty of 250 years of slavery and colonization. The effects of the document, however, are far more reaching. It is the first accord of its kind between organizations in Europe and the Caribbean directly acknowledging that descendants of enslaved Africans “have suffered economic, psychological, social and emotional harm” as a result of the European institution of African slavery. On May 4th, 2005, working with Virgin Islands senators, ACRRA and the Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands made history when a landmark resolution passed into law in the former Danish West Indies became the first of its kind by a former Caribbean slave colony, whereby present day African descendants have organized to condemn the institution of slavery and seek reparations from a former European slave trading nation.

P.O. BOX 8027 / CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX / U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00823 TEL: 340.332.6110 / EMAIL: [email protected] / FAX: 270.721.6551

ACRRA Overview

Page 5 of 5

On June 16th, 2005, ACRRA journeyed to New York to introduce to the United Nations a new, 21st century paradigm for repair and reconciliation between international colonial powers and those victimized by colonization.

L-R: ACRRA president Shelley Moorhead, Dr. Mamadou Lamine Diallo - Director of Cabinet of the African Union, H.E. Prince Immanuel - African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, and Dr. Jinmi Adisa - Director of Diaspora Affairs for the African Union meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia August 2005

In August 2005, ACRRA accepted an invitation by His Excellency, Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, “to dialogue and explore concrete modalities for advancing the African Union initiative and the cause of Africans in a global context.” On August 16th, 2005, Shelley Moorhead met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with Dr. Mamadou Lamine Diallo, the AU's Director of Cabinet, to plan the implementation of new strategies for the repair of the Global African Diaspora and to discuss the establishment of a Caribbean Desk for Africa's premier governing body in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In September of 2005, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Associated Schools Project and the Danish Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Network collaborated to invite ACRRA’s president to tour high schools in Denmark and lecture on the legacy of the Danish slave trade and the need for modernday solutions to historical problems.

Danish highschool students gather to learn about Virgin Islands Reparations Initiatives in September 2005.

ACRRA leads official Virgin Islands delegation to the Republic of Ghana in July-Aug 2006. Delegation shown here with H.E. John Kufuor - President of Ghana.

Additionally, and in an effort to reconnect Virgin Islanders with their African homeland, ACRRA on September 25th, 2005, hosted the Honorable Jake O. Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasoran Relations for the Republic of Ghana. A senior cabinet official of President John Kufuor's administration, Obetsebi-Lamptey toured the Virgin Islands to urge descendants of Africans imprisoned in Ghana and enslaved in the Danish West Indies to reestablish ties to Africa and become involved in the development and modernization of the land of the forebears. In July 2006, ACRRA again led a delegation of Virgin Islands leaders to Ghana on yet another mission of historic reconciliation. Bolstered with the charter of a historic legislative resolution, the introduction of a new reparations paradigm to the United Nations and the African Union, and coupled with having forged a path to renewed Caribbean ties with Africa, ACRRA has but only sown seeds of repair and reconciliation having in sight the vision of harvesting our collective humanity.

P.O. BOX 8027 / CHRISTIANSTED, ST. CROIX / U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS 00823 TEL: 340.332.6110 / EMAIL: [email protected] / FAX: 270.721.6551

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