Colombia’s first Black female Vice President and slavery reparations advocate, Francia Marquez, has called on former colonial powers to atone for their past and pay slavery reparations.
Per Reuters, Marquez, 43, touched on the topic of reparations during her opening speech at a United Nations forum in New York on Monday. Marquez in her speech advocated for the establishment of a global reparations fund.
Marquez said the fund would be channeled toward assisting with tackling the issues caused by slavery and colonialism. “Colonial states, states that fostered… that form of domination based on the definition of race have to assume the responsibility of restoring the human dignity of people of African descent,” she previously told the news outlet.
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Between the 15th and 19th centuries, ships from Europe forcefully transported over 10 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean and sold them into slavery. At least 250,000 enslaved Africans were reportedly taken to Colombia.
Marquez said that the effects of slavery still linger in her home country as many Afro-Colombians are without basic amenities including health, housing, and higher education. “We continue to experience the damage and consequences of that system,” she stated.
The calls for former colonial powers to pay slavery reparations have in recent times been re-echoed by many leaders of African and Caribbean countries. People not in favor of the initiative state that current states and institutions should not be made to atone for its past sins.
But advocates argue that former colonial powers continue to reap from the fruits of slavery, adding that issues including systemic and structural racism need to be tackled.
Per the UN Web TV, the theme for the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) is, “Africa and people of African descent: United for reparatory justice in the age of Artificial Intelligence.”
The forum, which is taking place from 14 to 17 April, will focus on the digital age and reparations, Reuters reported. The forum highlights that emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI) could amplify systemic racism.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is also a reparations advocate, stressed that it was important for AI to be void of bias.
“Even AI, which holds such promise for humanity, too often mirrors and amplifies the same inequalities and racial biases that have plagued us for centuries,” Guterres said.
