9.13.22 Tuesday: Sojourner Truth

With the death of Queen Elizabeth and the succession of her eldest son, Charles III, there are new calls from former and present-day British colonies for Britain to make amends by paying reparations, issuing apologies, returning stolen artifacts and breaking with the British monarchy as did the island nation of Barbados in the fall of 2021. Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1952 when more than a quarter of the world’s population were under British rule–according to NPR that was more than 700 million people. The old saying went: the sun never set on the British Empire, which included countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific and the Caribbean. And British imperial power was known for slavery, massacres and other violence and theft. The resulting suffering was felt around the world, even as the royal family accumulated great wealth, much of that wealth is secret. Even the crown jewels of the late queen were stolen from India and South Africa. Today we focus on the colonial impact and legacy of Britain, and demands for reparations and other forms of reparatory justice. Our guests are: Coumba Toure, Coordinator for Africans Rising for peace justice and dignity based in Dakar, David Comissiong David Comissiong, attorney, writer and political activist and Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and active in the Caribbean Pan African Network; and Sungu Oyoo a writer and organizer at Kongamano La Mapinduzi, a political movement in Kenya. Oyoo is also part of MWAMKO, a vanguard of a way of thinking that aspires to another order of being and doing within the African continent and her dispersed diaspora.