The Debt Has Not Been Paid, the Accounts Have Not Been Settled

Abstract

The purpose of this address is first of all to sensitize all progressive thinkers on the issue of reparations. Secondly, it is to bring you up to date on what the Organization of African Unity has done and to assist you in working out strategies for carrying out the mandate of the Group of Eminent Persons, that I would refer to later. Once you accept that the mass kidnap and enslavement of Africans was the most wicked criminal enterprise in recorded human history; and that no compensation has been paid to any of the sufferers by the perpetrators, and that the consequences continue to be massive both in terms of the enrichment of the descendants of the perpetrators and in terms of the impoverishment of the Africans, then the justice for claim for reparation is established beyond any reasonable doubt. Our claim, which is still outstanding, is supported in law and exemplified by several precedents. The law of unjust enrichment provides the basis on international law for claim against those who have gained by the unlawful oppression of another.