This group wants reparations TO Africa (much of it in cancellation of third world debt) , not to the descendents of slaves. While you can argue that the descendants of slaves may not deserve an economic windfall, I think it is fair that we compensate the nations whose capital reserves (human capital reserves that is) were plundered at a time when human labor costs was one incredibly important to the development of a nation. I think the cancellation of third world debts (which opens another whole can of worms thread) is a pretty fair way to pay back this debt and maybe allow us to move forward. I think their 777 trillion figure is obviously laughable, but they are including damages and pain and suffering for colonialism there too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/424984.stm
he West is being asked to pay Africa $777 thousand billion within five years in reparation for enslaving Africans while colonising the continent.
Co-Chairperson Debra Kofie: We feel the figure is very fair
The African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, meeting in Accra for its first international conference, also called for all international debt owed by Africa to be "unconditionally cancelled''.
The Accra Declaration issued at the conference says that money will be demanded from ''all those nations of Western Europe and the Americas and institutions, who participated and benefited from the slave trade and colonialism''.
Repatriation and reparation
The conference, co-chaired by Dr Hamet Maulana and Mrs Debra Kofie, announced plans to set up an international team of lawyers from Africa and the diaspora to pursue all legal means to collect the money.
The group will also be contacting the International Court of Justice, as well as the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity for assistance.
Mrs Kofie told the BBC the reparation figure was based on the number of human lives lost to Africa during the slave-trade, as well as an assessment of the worth of the gold, diamonds and other minerals taken from the continent during colonial rule.
She says Africa's turn has come. "We are the only group that have not received reparations. The Jewish people have received reparations. The native Americans have received reparations. The Korean comfort women and so-on and so forth," she said.
The declaration added that all those in the diaspora, who want to return and settle in Africa, should be allowed to do so and that those who enslaved and colonised Africa should provide seaworthy vessels and aircraft for such repatriation.
Between 1450 and 1850, it is estimated that at least 12 million Africans and probably many more were shipped from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean, primarily to colonies in North America, South America, and the West Indies.
The United States has never formally apologised for its participation in the slave trade.
A further 20 million slaves are estimated to have been exported to other parts of the world, in particular the Middle East and North Africa, over a similar time period.
Contrary to widespread belief, slavery is still practised in some parts of Africa, including Sudan and West Africa.
