Salome Agbaroji: Rebalancing Justice and Dignity for Victims of Slavery

The Atrocity of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

• 🌍 The International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade serves to honor those who suffered and died, and to raise awareness about racism and prejudice.
• 💔 The transatlantic slave trade involved the kidnapping, commodification, and brutalization of 15 million Africans, alongside systemic sexual violence and other heinous practices.
• 🧠 The speaker highlights the peculiar and sinister motivation behind this atrocity: the assumption of ownership over another human being, meeting difference with disdain, and writing it into law to uphold an artificial hierarchy of human life.

The Struggle for Narrative and Identity

• ✊ The white supremacist motivation aimed to claim and control not only the black body but also the black narrative.
• 🗣️ As a poet, the speaker understands the transformative power of narrative and storytelling, using her words to empower and uplift marginalized narratives.
• 🏛️ Weaving a true black narrative involves confronting realities like viewing African art in European museums and reading African history written by colonizers who painted Africans as uncivilized.
• 📚 The suppression of accurate histories and the banning of books contribute to willful ignorance that perpetuates oppressive systems.

The Middle Passage to Racial Justice

• 🚢 We are currently in the "middle passage" of the path towards racial justice, a turbulent space where suffering is hidden.
• ⚖️ State-sponsored systems like segregation, gentrification, and housing discrimination insidiously contribute to racial disparities.
• 💼 Discrimination in the labor force deems black individuals unqualified based on skin color, normalizing the assumption of incompetence of black workers.

Reclaiming Personhood and Demanding Reparations

• 🌟 The speaker urges the nurturing of a global community where Afro descendants can reclaim their personhood and narratives, turning the phrase "You're mine" to signify self-ownership.
• 💖 The value of African nations and diasporic communities lies in their culture, innovations, resilience, and humanity, not just their labor.
• 🤝 Member states that have not formally acknowledged their role in the transatlantic slave trade are urged to acknowledge their ethical debt and offer remorse, not just historical acknowledgment.
• 💰 Reparatory justice systems are essential, requiring support for educational programs on true African history, the return of stolen goods, and aligning financial actions with moral stances.
• 📈 The speaker calls for reflection on what nations have done to rebalance the scales of justice and what more can be done to achieve a future of dignity and justice.