EMANCIPATION 2013: WHO WILL PAY REPARATIONS FOR MY SOUL?
By N Oji Mzilikazi
Originally published in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 23, Number 16 August 8, 2013
…The Hon. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania (Republican) initiated the move for reparation. On March 19, 1867, in a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives, Stevens declared that no Southern state should be readmitted into the union until the ex-slaves were treated equally both in law and in practice.
Stevens introduced the Reparation Bill: Taking land away from plantation owners and giving the former slaves; each adult male or head of family forty acres of land, with $100 to build a dwelling. Thus, the “40 acres and a mule” that African Americans speak about, believe is their rightful due…
…Colonialism and African enslavement set in motion crimes against humanity, and its repercussions are still in play today…
Justice is yet to be served. To quote Bob Marley: “Mi no know how me an dem a work it out.” But reparations have to be worked out. Someone has to pay reparations for my soul.