Tweet
Dear Editor,
The Rastafari Nation in Jamaica commends the appointment of Libyan President Muammar Khaddafi as chairman of the African Union (AU). President Khaddafi has shown himself a committed African leader eager to implement new methods of solving Africa's economic, social and national problems.
The Rastafari nation especially commends the African Union chairman for his proposal to the AU that its sovereign countries work to achieve the "United States of Africa" and to include the African diaspora, and especially the Caribbean nations, as part of the African Union.
This proposal is a recommendation that has been made by the Rastafari nation for several decades, since the inauguration of the original Organisation of African Unity now replaced by the AU. Rastafari have repeatedly pointed out that Africans in the diaspora deserve a voice in this Parliament of African nations and we are happy that the AU president has made this an official declaration.
We urge the Jamaican Government to endorse this proposal, both to the African Union and especially to Caricom, so that we descendants of enslaved Africans may join in this important step forward to unite the majority population of the Caribbean with its African ancestral homelands.
We also petition the government to invite the African Union chairman to be a guest of the government and people of Jamaica at Emancipation and Independence.
As the Government of Jamaica celebrates Jamaica's connections with Spain, we want to see equal focus given to the hopes of those whose presence outside the African continent is an unwelcome result of those connections with Europe. We cannot ignore the history of Spain's conquest of this island, the genocide of the native Taino population and the start of the trade in enslaved Africans.
This history can never be erased from memory, nor hidden behind the high walls of expensive investments that offer a new kind of enslavement to the African-descended population. We must not forget our black holocaust and our ancestors who lost their lives fighting against the cruelties of slavery in the defence of the children of Ethiopia/Africa in the Western diaspora.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Sizzla Kalonji</span>
40 August Town Road
Kingston 7
[email protected]
Comment