Kamm Howard and Siphiwe Baleka at the Accra Reparations Conference, November 2023
In July of 2022, Balanta B’urassa History & Genealogy Society Members Siphiwe Baleka and Kamm Howard had the following email exchange discussing reparations and a plebiscite for self determination in the United States:
From: Balanta Society <balantasociety@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: Update - Plebiscite Re: Urgent Vote: The People's Struggle
A key to any plebiscite and successful international legal assistance in recognizing the "right to self determination" will be establishing the colonial status and "trust territory" of the historic five-state territory identified by the RNA. To assist in this we could use the federal Indian trust responsibility. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs,
“Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution vests Congress, and by extension the Executive and Judicial branches of our government, with the authority to engage in relations with the tribes, thereby firmly placing tribes within the constitutional fabric of our nation. When the governmental authority of tribes was first challenged in the 1830's, U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall articulated the fundamental principle that has guided the evolution of federal Indian law to the present: That tribes possess a nationhood status and retain inherent powers of self-government."
Previously, we had no status as "tribes" since American ethnocide severed our ancestral links and replaced our natural ethnic/tribal status with the dehumanized "black/negro" status designation that fell outside the tribal trust responsibility and international law.
Now, with the advent of DNA testing and the ability to re-establish ancestral/ethnic/tribal identity, new pathways towards nationhood status can be pursued. This is addressed in Agenda Item 1 of the Agenda for Black America's Restoration and Self Determination which is to identify the ancestral lineage of every person claiming to be the descendant of slaves. This has also been adopted by the Illinois House of Representatives through Resolution 292. This can be accomplished through a federally subsidized, 4-year college training program in applied genealogy producing 2.1 million graduates employed as professional genealogists over the next 15 years in the Lineage Restoration Workers Project. With both DNA-testing paid for through the project and genealogy documentation, all New Afrikans will be able to identify and claim their "tribal" heritage - i.e Balanta in America or Mende in America, etc. Having identified the original tribal and national identities, a tribal plebiscite could be conducted where each tribe could vote on whether it wanted a tribal trust relationship similar to the Indian land reservations in the US, or if they wanted to become part of the Republic of New Afrika or return to their original tribal homeland.
In any event, it is yet another legal strategy that could result in legal obligations of the US government.
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From: N'COBRA Chicago <ncobrachicago@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: Reparations Leaders Successful Vatican Meeting
Thank you all. Please share and study the Presentment. This is the model going forward - identifying crimes/harms, detailing the legacy from those crimes, and indicating the reparations needed to address the legacy. Crimes, Injuries, Repair. The Kamm-Durban Model
Kamm
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From: Balanta Society <balantasociety@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: Reparations Leaders Successful Vatican Meeting
To: N'COBRA Chicago <ncobrachicago@gmail.com>
Brother Kamm,
Regarding this: "This is the model going forward - identifying crimes/harms, detailing the legacy from those crimes, and indicating the reparations needed to address the legacy." - do we not also need to add something like "initiating international legal proceedings" if we are saying that the guilty parties have a moral and legal obligation? If we have identified specific violations of international law, what are the specific steps needed to initiate legal proceedings in international forums? Whose responsibility is it to answer such questions? For example, suppose down the road the Vatican refuses to provide satisfactory remedy - what then?
How do you hold the Vatican, a party to the Geneva Convention, responsible for its role in the total war/war crimes/crimes against humanity if not by taking them before the World Court/the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN)....
As the wealthy Nigerian businessman, Chief Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola, who was later elected President of Nigeria said in a speech delivered in London in 1992: “It is international law which compels Nigeria to pay her debts to western banks and financial institutions: it is international law which must now demand that the western nations pay us what they have owed us for six centuries.”
I think we need to do more than just identify which international laws were violated - we need to know exactly what we must do to enforce international law (if possible), or at least the exact steps needed to bring litigation. This is what Malcolm X was attempting to do - enter the World Court. How do we do that? Where are we in the process? If it requires a UN member state to initiate the case, which UN Member state are we consulting about this like Malcolm was consulting with Kenya? IF no state is willing to initiate a case, how do we get a specialized agency at the UN to request an advisory opinion from the court? What exactly is the process??? Why haven't we done this already???
Anyway, this is what your great work has provoked me to think about!
Congratulations again.
Siphiwe
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From: N'COBRA Chicago <ncobrachicago@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 4:56 AM
Subject: Re: Reparations Leaders Successful Vatican Meeting
To: Balanta Society <balantasociety@gmail.com>
All great questions, Siphiwe. What I did not mention in that model, which is the model for a presentment to the criminal entity, is the mechanism I put forward several years ago called Reparations Enforcement. It speaks exactly to the questions you raise. Who enforces our international/divine lega/humanl right to be repaired? Only states can go to the the World Court, as you stated. However, through education, mobilization and direct action, we have the ability to be the enforcers. We also must do as you suggest, get state parties to take upon the cause. This cannot be done in isolation. When we saw Zimbabwe and Brazil jump out there after Durban, both were neutralized, punished and coopted by right-wing/ neo-colonial forces of the West.
The major necessity for us now is wide-spread education and then synchronized implementation. That is why the Presentment must be translated in all the colonial languages we speak. We are 1 billion strong. We have to have instruments and actions to mobilize a critical mass to achieve our desired ends. All that you are thinking of is relevant and once we develop the answers, we have to find ways to operationalize the answers.
We are assembling minds to first come up with the answers, while we must spread the presentment. Please let me know what resources are need for you to translate the Presentment into Portugese to distribute in Guinea Bissau, Angola, Mozambiqiue and Brazil?
Kamm
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From: N'COBRA Chicago <ncobrachicago@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: Reparations Leaders Successful Vatican Meeting
To: Balanta Society <balantasociety@gmail.com>
Brother Siphiwe, your thinking is always on a high level. I would like for us to continue this conversation in a separate thread. The Chair of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent is with the Global Circle. We also have a representative with the AU involved also. Before reaching out to anyone, we need to develop a list of contacts and needs. It would be best to assess in a comprehensive manner than individually.
As far as the translation, you determine which route the Balanta Society wants to take. We will get the resources to make it happen.
Here is the 2014-15 document on Reparations Enforcement
Kamm
