NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas National Reparations Committee is co-hosting a panel discussion on race to commemorate the International Day of People of African Descent.
The BNRC is staging the event alongside the Bahamas Member of the UN Permanent Forum for People of African Descent and Equality Bahamas.
Director of Equality Bahamas Alicia Wallace said: “Working toward social justice and the realization of human rights for all people requires attention to identity, privilege, and power. Racism still exists. To end it, we have to be able and willing to recognize, name, and rebuke it and demand reparations.”
She added: “It is critical that we face our reality as Afro-Caribbean people and drive the movement for racial justice forward.”
Titled “Race 101”, the panel discussion will be moderated by Executive Director of Hands for Hunger, Keisha Ellis, and feature Xan XI Bethel, Writer, Activist, and Academic; Garvin Lightbourne, Law and History scholar, Pan Africanist; Pastor Dr. Cleveland Eneas III, Pastor of the Holy Qubtic Church of The Black Messiah; and Dr. Indira Martin, a Bahamian biomedical scientist.
Gaynell Curry, an Independent Expert Member of the UN Permanent Forum for People of African Descent will be on hand to discuss the importance of the day and the work the UN is doing in this regard.
According to a release, the discussion will cover the contributions of the African Diaspora as well as what needs to be done to further eradicate racism and intolerance.
The event will be held at the National Arts Gallery of The Bahamas this Wednesday, August 31 at 6pm.
“The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing the day to honor the contributions of the African Diaspora for the first time last December,” read the joint statement.
“The move took place exactly 101 years after Marcus Garvey led discussions at the UNIA Convention that resulted in the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of The World being promulgated.
“But the work doesn’t end there,” the release read.
Dr. Niambi Hall-Campbell Dean, BNRC chair of the Reparations Committee said this event is for all Bahamians.
“As we near the UN designated Decade for the People of African Descent, our goal is to highlight why the UN deemed these issues as important globally and to bring awareness to the ways in which these issues affect us locally. This event is for all,” Hall-Campbell Dean said.
The statement added: “Around 200 million people identify themselves as being of African descent. International Day for People of African Descent seeks to promote the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world. As well as eliminating all forms of discrimination against people of African descent.”
