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Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with Caribbean activism for slavery reparations focusing on transnational mobility and discourses of Jamaican leaders. It focuses on how they link the internal Jamaican situation to global responsibility by addressing policies of governments and international institutions.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with Caribbean activism for slavery reparations focusing on transnational mobility and discourses of Jamaican leaders. Claims for reparation for the long-term damages caused by the enslavement of Africans within the transatlantic trade and by centuries of plantation slavery in the Americas have a long traceable history. They became globally more visible and strong after the UN declaration of Durban 2001 that condemned slavery as a crime against humanity and by the current agenda of CARICOM Reparations Commission that appeals to European governments to take responsibility for historical injustices and to engage in measures of reparations. The paper analyzes the pivotal role of Jamaican activism within the Caribbean and even global struggle. Based on empirical research and interviews with the members of the Jamaican National Council on Reparation it traces their trajectories, local and transnational networks, campaigns and arguments in favor of reparations. The paper focuses on transnational mobility as integral part of local activism that links the internal situation in Jamaica to global political responsibilities and addresses respective policies of Jamaican and British governments as well as international institutions. The paper finally emphasizes how the reparations agenda urges local and global audiences and stakeholders to initiate public debates about the re-negotiation of the history of slavery in relation to present (in)justice - not only as a regional prospect for the Caribbean, but as a entangled history between the Caribbean and Europe.