Touted as the story that
will torment America's soul, the film that brutally portrays the horrors of
slavery threatens to reignite racial tensions- “12 Years A Slave” won best
picture at the 86th Academy Awards. We grew up watching the exploits of the WI team led by Clive
Lloyd, batting giants Isaac Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes….
Roberts, Holding, Garner, Marshall … Croft, Ambrose, Patterson, Walsh, Bishop
and more………… the team unitedly called
West Indies – but representative of more Nations that dominated the Cricket
world for decades.
Roberts, Holding Croft Garner...
The West
Indies is a region of the Caribbean Basin and North Atlantic Ocean consisting of many islands. Going by Worldatlas.com, the Caribbean, long
referred to as the West Indies, includes more than 7,000 islands; of those, 13
are independent island countries. WI
mainly comprises of : Bahamas (north); Greater Antilles (central) & Lesser
Antilles (southeast). The Greater
Antilles include the island countries of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic (Hispaniola), and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles are the much
smaller islands to the southeast, and they are divided into two groups, the Leeward Islands and Windward
Islands.
Indians were
the first inhabitants, and then, in 1492, the explorer Christopher Columbus
became the first European to arrive at the islands. Columbus called these
islands the Indies because he thought he had finally reached Asia …… sadly,
across the Caribbean, slaves from Africa were imported in great numbers to work
the sugar and tobacco plantations. By
then the indigenous populations of the islands were in severe decline as
exposure to disease and brutal genocide wiped out much of their number. Great
military powers continually fought for control of the islands, and finally, a
blended mix of African and European cultures and languages transformed this
large group of islands and its peoples into one of the premier tourist
destinations on the planet. One would be
imbued with sadness when seeing slavery even in films ~ ‘Amistad’ ~ a
historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg based on the true
story of an uprising in 1839 by newly captured African slaves
that took place aboard the ship La Amistad off the coast of Cuba, the
subsequent voyage to the Northeastern United States, and the legal battle that
followed their capture by a U.S. revenue cutter, is one. The film begins in the
depths of the schooner La Amistad, a slave-ship carrying captured West Africans
into slavery and is a touching story of the travails of the humans who were
traded as slaves those days.
Now comes the news that
14 Caribbean nations are suing the
governments of the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands for reparations
over what the plaintiffs say is the lingering legacy of the Atlantic slave trade.
In a speech Friday at United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister of Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said the European nations must pay
for their deeds. “The awful legacy of these crimes against humanity – a legacy
which exists today in our Caribbean – ought to be repaired for the
developmental benefit of our Caribbean societies and all our peoples,”
Gonsalves said. “The European nations must partner in a focused, especial way
with us to execute this repairing.” The lawsuits – which are likely to amount
to a lengthy battle – are being brought by The Caribbean Community, or Caricom,
a regional organization that focuses mostly on issues such as economic
integration. They will be brought to the U.N.'s International Court of Justice,
based in The Hague in the Netherlands. It is not immediately clear when court
proceedings will begin.
The countries will focus
on Britain for its role in slavery in the English-speaking Caribbean, France
for slavery in Haiti and the Netherlands for Suriname, a Caricom member and
former Dutch colony on the northeastern edge of South America. They
reportedly have hired British law firm
Leigh Day, which waged a successful fight for compensation for hundreds of
Kenyans who were tortured by the British colonial government as they fought for
the liberation of their country during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s and
1960s. It is stated that the first step
will be to seek a negotiated settlement with the governments of France, Britain
and the Netherlands along the lines of the British agreement in June to issue a
statement of regret and award compensation of about $21.5 million to the
surviving Kenyans.
Britain is sued by 14
Caribbean nations for the 'damage' it did through slavery – even though country
was first in the world to abolish the trade…
more than 150 years after Europe abolished slavery, the Caricom
coalition meets in St Vincent today to discuss claim for reparations. Caricom
has not specified how much money they are seeking but senior officials have
pointed out that Britain paid slave owners £20 million when it abolished
slavery in 1833, which sum would be the equivalent of £200 billion of
date. It is claimed that 'Over ten million Africans were stolen from
their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as the enslaved
chattels and property of Europeans,' the claim says. 'The transatlantic slave
trade is the largest forced migration in human history and has no parallel in
terms of man's inhumanity to man.' This
trade in enchained bodies was a highly successful commercial business for the
nations of Europe. The lives of millions of men, women and children were
destroyed in the search of profit. Over ten million Africans were imported into
the Caribbean during the 400 years of slavery. At the end of slavery in the
late 19th century, less than two million remained. The chronic health condition
of Caribbean blacks constitutes the greatest financial risk to sustainability
in the region. Daily Mail reports that Britain currently contributes about
£15million a year in aid to the Caribbean through Department for International
Development in a drive to further develop 'wealth creation'. The subject of
reparations has simmered in the Caribbean for many years and opinions are
divided. Some see reparations as delayed justice, while others see it as an
empty claim and a distraction from modern social problems in Caribbean
societies.
'The
transatlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history and
has no parallel in terms of man's inhumanity to man. This trade in enchained
bodies was a highly successful commercial business for the nations of Europe'.
Their stories make a traumatic reading - slaves laboured mainly in sugar and
coffee plantations and were forced to work around the clock in the fields
during harvest. It is stated that by the
18th century, European traders would sail to the west coast of Africa with
manufactured goods which they exchanged for people captured by African traders.
The European merchants would then cross the Atlantic with ships full of slaves
on the notorious 'Middle Passage'. Conditions were so torrid that many of the
captors, who often had barely any space to move, did not survive the journey.
For those who did survive, conditions did not improve much; they were to toil on
plantations across the modern-day United States, the Caribbean and South
American nations such as Brazil, producing crops including sugar, coffee and
tobacco for consumption back in Europe. Happy that the inhuman form was
abolished many decades back
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
10th March 2014.
Cricket photo : Cricinfo.com... other 2 photos courtesy : www.dailymail.co.uk
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