Centre for Reparation Research furthers the cause of justice

The Centre for Reparation Research (CRR) became operational in 2017. It conducts research into the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade in Africans and European colonialism, in the hopes of bringing transformational justice to the region and societies affected by the trade. It supports the efforts of groups seeking to foster public awareness on the cruel and unjust systems that have left a legacy of disenfranchisement, and works closely with groups at the community, national, regional and international levels to advocate for reparation. There is particular focus on CARICOM's Reparatory Justice programme.

Keynote speaker, Ms. Samia Nkrumah, daughter of the late President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah with Professor Verene Shepherd during the launch of the Centre for Reparations Research at The UWI.

The CRR has hosted several conferences since its inception, welcoming speakers from throughout the African Diaspora. At the event held in October 2017, academics from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America were active participants. This was followed by two seminars in March 2018 and September 2018, at which the guest speakers were Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France from France and Prof. Brian Meeks from Brown University in the USA, respectively.

The Centre also seized opportunities to spread its message overseas by attending international events. Professor Verene Shepherd, social historian and Director of The CRR, presented at the Reparations Issues Forum at the 47th Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in Washington DC in September 2017.

There, she updated the forum on the establishment of the CRR, the first of its kind in the academy. In her capacity as a Vice-Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) and Co-Chair of the National Council on Reparation in Jamaica, Professor Shepherd also reported on the reparatory justice movement in the region and the strategy being pursued by the CARICOM Reparations Commission through its Ten Point Action Plan.