THE EDITOR: Once again the reparations issue has been brought to the front burner by who else but Shabaka Kambon, the Caribbean Freedom Project and the Emancipation Support Committee.

However, this time they are not asking, they are demanding with full force. Who they are demanding reparations from is the trillion-dollar question. Is it the British monarchy, the present UK government or the white population of Great Britain?

It seems unfair and I dare say vindictive that the descendants of evil, cruel slave masters going back generations should have to pay for the iniquities of their forebears. I ask and wonder also, will the descendants of black African tribes who fought each other in their tribal wars and sold their captives to the masters who ran the transatlantic slave trade have to pay the reparations?

I assume Kambon and company have proper, detailed records of family trees of all those of African ethnicity in the Caribbean to differentiate who descended from slaves and who descended from African empires who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery. The entire procedure will obviously be highly complicated and open to corruption.

Perhaps white people should be demanding reparations too from their ancient slave masters. For example, the present-day Jews should demand reparations from the descendants of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. Then we the modern descendants of ancient Briton, Gaul (France), Germania (Germany) should demand reparations from the living descendants of the mighty Roman Empire. Surely we should not forget the Ottoman Empire and the Arab slave traders who enslaved millions in their time.

I could go on with many more examples in history. The entire scenario is a mind-blowing mess. Come on, it is about time that Kambon and his ilk emancipate themselves from mental, emotional and spiritual slavery.

SEXTON BLAKE

via e-mail

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