Vatican City, July 18, 2022 - Balanta B’urassa History & Genealogy Society in America (BBHAGSIA) members and reparations advocates traveled to Vatican City on Monday to discuss the Catholic Church's role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and chart a path toward healing.
According to the press release issued by the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), a delegation of global reparations leaders under the umbrella of the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, was received by Bishop Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council of Culture, along with his assistant, in a formal meeting at the Vatican on July 18, 2022.
BBHAGSIA members Kamm Howard, former National Co-Chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) and Director of Reparations United, and Robin Rue Simmons, former Alderwoman of the 5th Ward in Evanstan, IL and Founder and Executive Director of FirstRepair both traveled to Rome with the delegation. Other members of the delegation included Dr Ron Daniels, convenor of National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), Dr. Amara Enyia, strategist for the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the 1619 Project. The delegation delivered a Presentment (see below to read the entire document) outlining the “harms and offenses of the Church, the legacy resulting from those harms and offenses and reparations measures that are needed for full repair and healing.”
Not pictured: Robin Rue Simmons
According to the PRESENTMENT TO THE HOLY SEE IN FURTHERANCE OF REPARATIONS,
“Beginning in the 1400s, Portuguese monarchs petitioned the Popes of the Holy Roman Catholic Church to endorse and support their plans for territorial expansion into Africa. In response to these royal petitions, many Pontiffs, the persons claiming authority to be the representatives of Jesus Christ on earth, issued papal bulls, official public decrees, that authorized war on Africa and endorsed and supported the transatlantic trafficking and perpetual enslavement of African men, women, and children.”
The PRESENTMENT then goes on to detail the historical record that affirms that the Roman Catholic Church santioned, through the use of Apostolic edicts known as “Papal Bulls”, the destruction of African kingdoms, the plunder of African wealth, and resources, total war on African people, and the perpetual enslavemenent of Africans and their descendants. “These Bulls and others”, states the PRESENTMENT, “provided the justification for the trafficking and enslavement of Black African human beings, as well as European imperialism and colonization in Africa—all in the name of Jesus Christ.'‘
The document concludes by stating,
“Compelled by international law, customs, and norms regarding redress for total war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and encouraged by the words and spirit of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, in which Pope Francis calls for a deepened sense of our shared humanity, we seek full reparations and healing for people of African ancestry…. Consequently, from all the above, the Holy Roman Catholic Church has a profound moral and legal obligation of full reparations.”
It is the legal obligation stemming from Pope Nicholas V’s Dum Diversas declaration of total war against African people that BBHAGSIA President Siphiwe Baleka has been emphasizing in various international forums and working committees directed at members of the African Union and especially to the Republic of Guinea Bissau. The legal argument was laid out in TOWARDS A RIGHT TO RETURN & CITIZENSHIP POLICY FOR DESCENDENTS OF PEOPLE TAKEN FROM TERRITORIES IN AFRICA DURING THE TRANSATLANTIC TRAFFICKING AND ENSLAVEMENT OF AFRICAN PEOPLE: CASE STUDY GUINEA BISSAU which was a source document for the PRESENTMENT and which you can read in its entirety here.
It should be recalled that both Kamm Howard and Robin Rue Simmons returned to their Balanta ancestral homeland of Guinea Bissau in June of 2021 as part of the second group of the Decade of Return Initiative created and launched by BBHAGSIA President Siphiwe Baleka.
Robin, Siphiwe, Kamm and Amilcar Cabral
Robin (second from left) and Kamm (3rd from left behind Robin) meeting the Commander of Guinea Bissau’s armed forces.
To learn more about Kamm Howard and Robin Rue Simmon’s reparations work watch this
Documentary featuring Balanta descendants and BBHAGSIA members Kamm Howard and Robin Rue Simmons
