𝗖𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗔𝗥𝗔 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 | 𝟰 𝗢𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝟭𝟵𝟴𝟰 On October 4, 1984, Captain Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso and Chairman of the National Council of the Revolution, addressed the 39th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Among the most powerful passages of his speech was a forceful indictment of the transatlantic slave trade, European colonial exploitation and the economic inequalities inherited by Africa and its diaspora. Sankara was supporting an initiative introduced by Antigua and Barbuda to mark the 150th anniversary of emancipation in the British Empire. The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 had taken effect on 1 August 1834. However, in most British Caribbean colonies, formerly enslaved people were forced into an apprenticeship system that kept them working for their former enslavers. Full emancipation came in 1838. Sankara argued that the anniversary should confront the enormous human cost of slavery and recognise Africa's contribution to the wealth of the modern world. The proposed UN commemoration was subsequently supported by a draft resolution sponsored by Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Mauritius, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, under the theme “Mankind's larger freedom.” Its consideration was repeatedly deferred, and the initiative never developed into the sustained international reckoning its sponsors had sought. The reparations debate, however, continues. In 2014, CARICOM governments accepted the Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme, a ten-point framework calling for measures including formal apologies, investment in education and public health, cultural restoration and debt cancellation. #thomassankara #burkinafaso #africanhistory #BlackHistory #africandiaspora - @kavaziofficial