Minister of Tradition, Gender, Leisure, and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, reaffirmed the Jamaican Authorities’s unwavering dedication to in search of reparations for the enduring legacy of chattel enslavement suffered by African ancestors on the island’s plantations.
Impression of the transatlantic slave commerce
Addressing attendees on the Webster Memorial United Church in St. Andrew throughout a Sunday service on April 14, Minister Grange underscored the profound and lasting repercussions of the transatlantic slave commerce on Black communities.
She emphasised that modern challenges, together with the battle to finance schooling and healthcare, fight poverty and housing inequalities, deal with financial instability, and deal with the impacts of local weather change, are all deeply rooted within the historic trauma of enslavement.
Historic apology and requires motion
The church service additionally marked a pivotal second of acknowledgment and reconciliation, because the Moderator of the Meeting of the United Reform Church (URC), Reverend Tessa Henry-Robinson, issued a proper apology for the church’s historic complicity in slavery.
Expressing regret for the scars that proceed to afflict society and the lives of Black people, the apology acknowledged the church’s function in perpetuating the transatlantic slave commerce.
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Ministerial response and advocacy
In response to the apology, Minister Grange known as upon UK church buildings, particularly these represented in the course of the solemn event in Jamaica, to advocate for his or her authorities’s acknowledgment of culpability via formal apologies and collaborative efforts with Jamaica to discover avenues for reparations.
She highlighted the enduring affect of the church’s complicity in slavery, stressing its contribution to systemic racism, white supremacy, and discrimination that persist to this present day.
Charting a path ahead
Minister Grange mirrored on the paradox of enslaved peoples embracing the religions of their oppressors, noting the resilience of African spirituality inside these faiths.
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She urged for a collective reckoning with historical past, emphasizing the necessity to confront the violence and dehumanization of the previous with the intention to construct really peaceable and equitable societies.
