Jamaica calls for reparatory justice at OAS session honouring victims of slavery

Jamaica’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) has called on member states to move beyond solemn remembrance and deliver concrete reparatory action, as hemispheric leaders gathered at the body’s headquarters on Wednesday to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Addressing a special meeting of the Permanent Council, Major General (Ret’d) Ambassador Antony Anderson, Jamaica’s permanent representative to the OAS, delivered a sweeping indictment of slavery’s enduring legacy – framing the transatlantic slave trade not as a distant historical footnote, but as the structural foundation of inequality that continues to shape the Americas.

The meeting was convened within the framework of the 9th Inter-American Week for People of African Descent in the Americas, under the theme: “Equality that inspires, freedom that transforms, and a hemisphere that leads.”

Anderson grounded his remarks in stark historical data, noting that approximately one million Africans were forcibly transported to Jamaica between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. By the early 1800s, the island had become one of the largest slave societies in the British Caribbean, with an enslaved population exceeding 300,000.

“These are not just numbers,” Anderson declared, “but human beings subjected to a system designed to extract labour, suppress identity, and deny dignity.”

Emancipation in 1838 brought legal freedom, but not equality. Anderson argued that the legacy of slavery remains structurally embedded in the present – evident in patterns of land ownership, persistent economic disparities, and enduring inequalities in access, opportunity and representation across the hemisphere.

“Emancipation could not be legal alone; it had to be psychological, social, and economic as well,” he said, citing the legacy of Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Earlier in the week, Jamaica hosted a formal reflection on the legacy of Marcus Mosiah Garvey – the country’s first national hero – whose philosophy of self-reliance, economic empowerment and Pan-African dignity was shaped by the historical experience of slavery and its aftermath.

TRUE EMANCIPATION

Anderson invoked Garvey’s central argument: that true emancipation could not be legal alone – it had to be psychological, social and economic.

“His vision extended beyond Jamaica,” Anderson noted, “and spoke to a broader hemispheric and global movement for dignity and self-determination among people of African descent.”

The framing was deliberate. In calling for reparatory justice, Jamaica was not invoking sentiment, but affirming a continuous intellectual tradition rooted in its own national history.

Jamaica’s statement drew a sharp distinction between remembrance and responsibility. Anderson called for equitable public policy, inclusive development, education reform, and what he described as “serious engagement with the question of reparatory justice” – language carrying pointed significance in hemispheric diplomatic circles.

The OAS, he argued, has a critical institutional role to play. Through initiatives such as the Inter-American Week for People of African Descent and its accompanying Plan of Action, the organisation has created a framework for dialogue. However, Anderson stressed that dialogue alone is insufficient – these mechanisms must be translated into tangible outcomes that materially improve the lives of Afro-descendant communities across the Americas.

He closed with a direct challenge to the diplomatic community: “Let us ensure that remembrance strengthens action, that recognition strengthens policy, and that the freedom for which our ancestors struggled is made more real in the lives of present and future generations.”