The legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and its ongoing impact on the lives of Black people in the United States and beyond continues to be felt. According to Saidiya Hartman, author of Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, the afterlife of slavery persists through structural forces that have engineered outcomes, including skewed life chances, limited access to healthcare and education, premature death, incarceration, and impoverishment. These issues were brought to the forefront 25 years ago at the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
The Durban Conference, which took place in 2001, was a historic event where the international community came together to discuss issues of racism, xenophobia, and related intolerances. The conference led to a consensus that slavery and the slave trade are crimes against humanity, and that Africans and people of African descent, Asians and people of Asian descent, and indigenous peoples were victims of these acts and continue to be victims of their consequences. The conference sparked discussions on reparations, with many calling for compensation for the historical injustices faced by these communities.
The December 12th Movement (D12) and the National Black United Front (NBUF) played a crucial role in organizing and mobilizing over 400 Black people, known as the Durban 400, to travel to the 2001 World Conference in Durban, South Africa. The D12, led by figures such as Malcolm X, had long advocated for a human rights approach to addressing racism, rather than a civil rights approach. This approach emphasized the need to bring the issue of racism before the international community, specifically the United Nations, to hold countries accountable for their human rights violations.
Attorney Roger Wareham of the December 12th Movement explained that since 1989, the organization had been involved in the United Nations human rights arena, trying to continue the legacy of Malcolm X and place the struggle for Black rights in the international arena. The D12 and NBUF waged a public campaign to engage and organize Black communities around the country, holding community forums and identifying three key demands to be made in Durban: declaring the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, acknowledging the economic roots of racism, and ensuring that compensation (reparations) is due.
The Durban 400, comprised of Black working-class people, joined African, Latino, Asian, and indigenous peoples on the global stage, bonded together by the legacies of racism, slavery, apartheid, and colonialism. Their experiences with racism informed their goal of crafting a plan to address the multiple areas negatively impacted by racism. They came to Durban to change the narrative, reject the notion of forgetting the past, and expose the linkage of their poverty and economic disparities to their respective colonial histories.
Viola Plummer, Chair of the December 12th Movement, emphasized the need for leadership and direction from those who have been the victims of the longest sustained assault on a people's humanity in history. The Durban conference exposed the contradictions for the Western world, which was faced with demands from Africans and people of African descent. The conference highlighted the widening gaps between the developing and developed worlds, a colonial past that profited from free slave labor, and the exploitation and theft of natural resources and land.
Twenty-five years after the Durban Conference, the fight for reparations continues, with concerns about who will safeguard the interests of those seeking justice. As the international community reflects on the progress made since Durban, many are left wondering what needs to be done to move forward and ensure that the rights of marginalized communities are protected. The legacy of the Durban Conference serves as a reminder of the need for continued activism and advocacy for human rights and reparations.
Key points
- The 2001 Durban Conference against Racism sparked discussions on reparations for historical injustices faced by Africans and people of African descent.
- The December 12th Movement and the National Black United Front played a crucial role in organizing and mobilizing Black people to attend the conference and demand reparations.
- Twenty-five years after the conference, concerns remain about who will safeguard the interests of those seeking justice and reparations for historical injustices.
