[WCAR] Re: Follow up to WCAR scheduled for Barbados

[***Originally posted on the "antiracism@icare.to" listserv, Mod.***]

Race Conference Concludes With A Flourish

By Herb  Boyd
TBWT National Editor
Article Dated 10/6/2002

Bridgetown, Barbados --It ended as it had begun. The same rousing fanfare
and pomp that had greeted the participants to the African and African
Descendants World Conference Against Racism here a week before resonated
once more as the delegates filed from the Sherbourne Center and back to
their respective communities.

Between this beginning and end there was a score of scintillating moments
that ran the gamut of emotions. From the very inception there was a moving
invocation from the Rev. Aaron Larrier, the event's president, who
observed that if you turned the map of Barbados upside down it mirrored
Africa. "Rather than calling Barbados 'Little England,'" he said, "we
should call it 'Little Africa.'" Then the first female Attorney General of
Barbados, Mia Mottley, offered an extended welcome that touched on a
number of controversial points that would surface as the conference
progressed, particularly the issue of race and color.

Zimbabwean representative Sabelo Sibamda electrified the audience during
one of the plenary sessions, passionately recounting and correcting the
broad misconceptions about his country's current crisis on the question of
land reform. It contained all the conviction and insight of an earlier
report from a psychologist who in her presentation carefully delineated
the terrible consequences of post-traumatic slave disorder.

All of these compelling moments were almost overshadowed by a resolution
that passed asking all non-Africans to leave the conference. It may not
have been a defining moment for a conference already beset with financial
and ideological problems, but it certainly consumed a lot of time and
created an unnecessary amount of turmoil and stress. Two days after the
resolution was introduced by a member of the British contingent, the issue
continued to be a source of tension and endless debate. And many feel it
may have a lasting impact and negatively affect future endeavors.

David Comissiong, the Director of the Commission on Pan-African Affairs in
Barbados is more sanguine about the aftermath of the proceedings. "The
decision to exclude non-Africans only applies to this conference," he
explained. "It doesn't mean the new organization, which we hope to forge
from this conference, will entertain such an exclusionary procedure as
part of its policy. This issue may present a problem to some of the
institutional bodies, but at the level of the people's organization, I
don't think it will present a problem."

The departure of the Cuban delegation was particularly disturbing,
Comissiong continued since he had personally worked so hard to develop
strong fraternal relations with the country. "But as we form the new
organization out of this conference, they have expressed an interest in
working with us and we are hopeful about that eventuality." He noted there
were more than 650 people registered for the conference and fewer than 15
had departed, including members of the South African and Zimbabwean
delegations.

Among the disgruntled delegates remaining was Dr. Lily Golden, a member of
the Russian delegation. Dr. Golden said she had traveled more than 4,000
miles to attend the conference in order to deliver a message about the
spread of racism in her homeland and parts of Eastern Europe. "But when I
arrived I was met with more racism," she lamented. "This is very upsetting
and the decision must be changed."

During several impromptu meetings with Comissiong, Dr. Jewel Crawford and
other members of the Central Organizing Committee, Dr. Golden tried to
offer "a way out…a way to save face," she said. "Since the resolution was
not on the agenda, it can be retracted. This is not the policy of the
Barbados government or the United Nations. This conference is very
important for the future of Africans from all over the world and we cannot
make mistakes."

"We took the resolution and placed it before the body and they voted in
favor of removing the non-Africans; it was a democratic procedure and the
will of the people," said Dr. Crawford, chair of the Central Organizing
Committee. "We wanted to have a family talk. We know that we have been
traumatized by racism and we wanted to have our own meeting. Every group
of the world is free to talk among themselves, and why shouldn't we have
the same opportunity. We dared to struggle and dared to win, and we did
it."

Beyond the ejection of whites were important findings of the various
working groups that included reports on globalization, reparations,
decolonization, labor, media, health, youth programs, religion and
spirituality, education and economics, and gender-based issues. Each of
the working groups was asked to submit a list of priorities, new programs,
barriers to achieving recommendations, funding proposals, and regional
caucuses, among other requisites.

"People will be going back to their communities and organizing locally and
regionally," Dr. Crawford said. "There will be conferences on a regular
basis. And we will start working to pull the programs and projects
together. "

Dr. Crawford said that the end result of the conference would be the
drafting of the "Bridgetown Protocols," and the formation of a new
organization to carry on the process that began in Durban, South Africa
last year. "The plan is to structure a new organization to further empower
us as we move to gather the funds to finance the various programs and
projects. We will also put in place new leadership."

Does she hope to be part of that new leadership? "If it's the will of the
people," she smiled.

The will of the people, at least that of the majority of delegates who
attended the weeklong affair, was that despite the clamor around the
resolution to eject whites, the conference had done a good of job of
extending the spirit of Durban and achieving most of the intended goals.

As for the next major conference, the third leg, many feel it should occur
in Washington, D.C. or in London, which would symbolically complete the
triangular aspect of the so-called TransAtlantic slave trade.



Copyright © 2002  The Black World Today.
All Rights Reserved.




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