Greetings Signatories of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!’ Petition and other Supporters of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi!: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign (SMWeCGEC)

By now you probably would have heard that Bristol City Council passed a 'Atonement and Reparations' motion, what you may not know is that the motion is based on the Lambeth and Islington Council 'Reparations and Atonement' motions initiated by Green Party Councillor Cllr Scott Ainslie and also taken up by Cllr Caroline Russell in Islington; the text of which the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign co-produced. 

We salute the exemplary role of (Cllr) Cleo Lake who as a community activist involved in the Afrikan ConneXions Consortium (ACC), (the affinity network of the SMWeCGEC convened by Jendayi Serwah, which supports the interests of the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations (ISMAR) in Bristol), took the cause of the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice (APPCITARJ) to her local branch of the Green Party; for her to be supported as a councillor to propose it as a key part of the motion to Bristol City Council. 

The Bristol motion received support from Mayor, Marvin Rees and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Asher Craig who actively  participated, as Afrikan Heritage Community (AHC) members, in broadening the process and widening engagement with a clear stance of facilitating ground-up grassroots community-led development of Afrikan Reparations work in Bristol. It is this collaborative approach; unifying Afrikan Heritage Community activists with Afrikan Heritage Community publicly elected officials in Bristol that made it possible for the Bristol motion to go further that even what has so far been adopted in London.

The Bristol motion has gone further in meeting the demand of the ISMAR to highlight the APPCITARJ and the role of Afrikan Heritage Communities as a leading force in driving what ought to be a glocal Pan-Afrikan reparatory justice process accordingly the Bristol motion included these two key points:

2.     Support Afrikan Heritage Community (AHC) organisations in Bristol to galvanise support for the emerging Bristol AHC led ‘Reparations Plan’ from, and in collaboration with, wider stakeholders including institutions, city strategic leaders, corporate leaders, key strategic programmes/initiatives and cross-party politicians.

4.     Recognise that reparative justice should be driven by Afrikan Heritage Communities experiences, voices and perspectives to ensure that advocacy messages not only reflect but also respond to the real needs of the community in order to recognise inequalities.

You can read our article about the glocal significance of the Bristol motion below.

You may also be interested to read the following news report about this historic development: 
‘History is made’ as Bristol passes slavery reparations motion 

Until next time!

‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign International Steering Committee Spearhead Team (ISC-SMWeCGEC)