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A People's Historical Journey to Self Determination & Decolonization

The Ay Ay Islands, (f.k.a.) The Danish West Indies, (n.k.a.) Virgin Islands of the United States

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8 U.S. Code § 1406 - Persons living in and born in the Virgin Islands

(a) The following persons and their children born subsequent to January 17, 1917, and prior to February 25,1927, are declared to be citizens of the United States as of February 25, 1927:

(1)        All former Danish citizens who, on January 17, 1917, resided in the Virgin Islands of the United States, and were residing in those islands or in the United States or Puerto Rico on February 25, 1927, and who did not make the declaration required to preserve their Danish citizenship by article 6 of the treaty entered into on August 4, 1916, between the United States and Denmark, or who, having made such a declaration have heretofore renounced or may hereafter renounce it by a declaration before a court of record;

(2)        All natives of the Virgin Islands of the United States who, on January 17, 1917, resided in those islands, and were residing in those islands or in the United States or Puerto Rico on February 25, 1927, and who were not on February 25, 1927, citizens or subjects of any foreign country;

(3)        All natives of the Virgin Islands of the United States who, on January 17, 1917, resided in the United States, and were residing in those islands on February 25, 1927, and who were not on February 25, 1927, citizens or subjects of any foreign country; and

(4)        All natives of the Virgin Islands of the United States who, on June 28, 1932, were residing in continental United States, the Virgin Islands of the United States, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, or any other insular possession or territory of the United States, and who, on June 28, 1932, were not citizens or subjects of any foreign country, regardless of their place of residence on January 17, 1917.

(b)        All persons born in the Virgin Islands of the United States on or after January 17, 1917, and prior to February 25, 1927, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are declared to be citizens of the United States as of February 25, 1927; and all persons born in those islands on or after February 25, 1927, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are declared to be citizens of the United States at birth.

(June 27, 1952, ch. 477, title III, ch. 1, § 306, 66 Stat. 237.)

 

In the Spirit of Maat we pursue Restorative Justice

Maat

Maat (also known as Ma'at, Mayet or Maae't) is the Egyptian Goddess symbolizing cosmic order, truth, justice, morality, harmony, stability and balance. Depicted as a woman wearing an ostrich feather on the head, and holding an ankh in one hand and a scepter in the other, the Goddess is said to be the daughter of Sun God, Ra and the consort of the Moon God, Thoth. Maat was revered even by the Gods.

The Goddess is symbolically represented by an Ostrich Feather. It is a strong Egyptian belief that after death, the dead are judged in the Hall of Maat, where their conscience (heart) is weighed against the feather. A heart heavier than the feather denoted a life of wicked deeds and such a soul would be devoured by Goddess Ammit, while balanced scales indicated an honorable life and such a soul would be welcomed by God Osiris.

 

Reparation Talk

Virgin Islanders have not thoroughly exercised their rights as stipulated by the “Treaties & Resolutions” to accomplishing Self-Determination/Decolonization.  Reparations are an important path on this journey to Self-Determination of the Virgin Islands which includes our history prior to the Transfer of 1917. Our Reparations movement has been started by ACRRA and will continue by participating in dialogue with Virgin Islanders and others in the Diaspora. Your comments may be submitted to info@aphj2sd.com.

Definition of Reparation

  1. 1a :  a repairing or keeping in repair b reparations pluralrepairs
  2. 2a :  the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury b :  something done or given as amends or satisfaction
  3. 3 :  the payment of damages :  indemnification; specifically :  compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation —usually used in plural

Shelley Moorhead - African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance

U.S. Virgin Islands Reparations Movement (ACRRA) http://acrra.blogspot.com/

 

Reparatory Justice

Reparatory Justice

Hilary Beckles speaks for the Caribbean

“Enslavement and genocide of African peoples were the defining sources for the last rash of exploited labour that was forcefully dragged to the cane fields and plantations of the Caribbean to make not them, but their masters, rich and powerful. In preserving our patrimony, we should not only resent this, but more critically, continue to do everything in our power to rid ourselves of the viler consequences of that history.” Full speech http://www.africaspeaks.com/reasoning/index.php?topic=9562.0

 

Reparations for Native Genocide And Slavery

Reparations for Native Genocide And Slavery

CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice

The   Plan outlines “the path to reconciliation and justice for victims of crimes against humanity and their descendants”. It calls for:

  • A full formal apology, as opposed to “statements of regrets” that some nations have issued.
  • Repatriation, pointing out the legal right of the descendants of more than 10 million Africans, who were stolen from their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as the enslaved chattel and property, to return to their homeland.
  • An Indigenous Peoples Development Programme to rehabilitate survivors.
  •  Cultural Institutions through which the stories of victims and their descendants can be told. 
  • Attention to be paid to the “Public Health Crisis” in the Caribbean. The Caribbean has the “highest incidence of chronic diseases which stems from the nutritional experience, emotional brutality and overall stress profiles associated with slavery, genocide and apartheid”.
  • Eradicating illiteracy, as the Black and Indigenous communities were left in a state of illiteracy, particularly by the British.
  • An African Knowledge Programme to teach people of African descent about their roots;
  • Psychological Rehabilitation for healing and repair of African descendants’ populations.
  • Technology Transfer for greater access to the world’s science and technology culture
  •  Debt Cancellation to address the “fiscal entrapment” that faces Caribbean governments that emerged from slavery and colonialism.

http://caricom.org/reparations-for-native-genocide-and-slavery

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a grouping of   twenty countries: fifteen Member States  and five  Associate Members. It is home to  approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% of whom are under the age of 30,  and from the main ethnic groups of Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese and Portuguese. The Community is multi-lingual; with English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch  and  variations of these, as well as African and Indian expressions.

http://caricom.org/about-caricom/who-we-are/

 

African Americans & Reparations

Amidst this phenomenon African Americans have renewed their call for reparations for the legally sanctioned harms of slavery and Jim Crow oppression. These renewed claims have gained momentum, per-haps more so than at any time since Reconstruction-when Congress and the President sought to confiscate Southern land and provide freed slaves with forty acres and a mule.'  The Florida legislature recently approved reparations for survivors and descendants of the 1923 Rosewood massacre."

The African American victims of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment received reparations and a presidential apology in1997.12 http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/35347/Yamamoto_40BCLRev477.pdf?sequence=1

 

Reparation Beneficiaries

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-to-pay-772-million-euros-in-reparations-to-holocaust-survivors-a-902528.html

Holocaust Restitution: German Reparations

“On Sept. 20, 1945, three months after the end of World War II, Chaim Weizmann, on behalf of the Jewish Agency, submitted to the governments of the US, USSR, UK, and France, a memorandum demanding reparations, restitution, and indemnification due to the Jewish people from Germany for its involvement in the Holocaust. He appealed to the Allied Powers to include this claim in their own negotiations for reparations with Germany, in view of the "mass murder, the human suffering, the annihilation of spiritual, intellectual, and creative forces, which are without parallel in the history of mankind."

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/german-holocaust-reparations

From Wrong To Right: A U.S. Apology For Japanese Internment

Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.

https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/japanese-relocation-order.pdf

“In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act to compensate more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The legislation offered a formal apology and paid out $20,000 in compensation to each surviving victim. The law won congressional approval only after a decade-long campaign by the Japanese-American community.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/09/210138278/japanese-internment-redress

The Real Proclamation (Voice against the 2017 Centennial Celebration)

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The IAHRS is made up of two bodies: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, Commission, or Inter-American Commission), whose headquarters are located in Washington, D.C, United States of America, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court, Inter-American Court, or Tribunal), whose headquarters are in San José, Costa Rica..

More information @ http://corteidh.or.cr/index.php/en/about-us/how-to-access-the-inter-american-system/denuncias-consultas

Deadline 21st march 2017 with Shelly Moorhead on Reparations