Reparations to Africa

by Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda E.; Lombardo, Anthony P.

• ISBN13: 9780812241013
• ISBN10: 0812241010
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-09
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

What is the just measure of Western obligations to Africa? As Africans and their supporters mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United States and Great Britain, the question becomes increasingly salient. Calls for reparations for the evils of slavery, as well as for past colonial and current economic and political abuses, can be heard across Africa and the African diaspora. Human rights scholar Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann examines these calls for redress inReparations to Africa. Her study analyzes the reparations movement from the perspectives of law, philosophy, political science, and sociology. While acknowledging the brutal background of the slave trade and colonialism, and the mistreatment of the peoples of Africa, Howard-Hassmann finds that the complexity of this history, along with facts of the contemporary situation, weakens the case for financial compensation, although she does recommend acknowledgment of, and apologies for, some actions. The book not only provides a bold reckoning of the root causes, both internal and external, of African underdevelopment and unrest but also suggests alternative means for restorative justice and examines the role that institutions such as the International Criminal Court can play. By including the voices of 74 African academics, diplomats, and activists interviewed by Howard-Hassmann and Anthony P. Lombardo,Reparations to Africamakes a valuable contribution to the reparations debate. In an emotionally and politically charged postcolonial environment, this book serves as a judicious guide to the search for economic justice for Africans today and into the future.

Author Biography

Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann is Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at Wilfrid Laurier University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is coeditor of The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past and Economic Rights in Canada and the United States, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Anthony P. Lombardo is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Reparations to Africa: A New Kind of Justice	p. 1
African Voices	p. 19
Genesis of the Reparations Movement	p. 26
The Social Movement for Reparations to Africa: Comparison to Holocaust Reparations	p. 42
Reparations for the Slave Trade: Law and Rhetoric	p. 60
Reparations for the Slave Trade: Historical Debates	p. 71
Reparations for Colonialism	p. 88
Neocolonialism and Globalization	p. 106
Postcolonial Relations, Postcolonial Crimes	p. 124
Remedies: Acknowledgment and Apologies	p. 139
Remedies: A Truth Commission for Africa?	p. 154
Remedies: Economic Rights and Universal Obligations	p. 167
Notes	p. 185
Bibliography	p. 219
Index	p. 241
Acknowledgments	p. 255
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