‘Repatriation’ proposal before CARICOM reparations conference

A proposal for a Jamaica-Ethiopia pilot programme to help Rastafarians, among other Caribbean people, resettle in Africa is to be presented at the Third CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations in Barbados on Thursday.

As the conference unfolds, advocates are viewing Barbados as the starting point for a new era of physical return to Africa, almost four centuries after the transatlantic slave trade began when their enslaved ancestors were brought here to work on sugar plantations.

The Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council (EADUMC) and its regional partners are presenting a step-by-step framework to make repatriation a reality. Their primary goal is to move the long-held Rastafari vision of returning to Africa from a distant dream to an official, government-backed policy for reparatory justice.