For a full transcript of this week’s episode on reparations, click here.
You might well have heard the word ‘reparations’, and have an awareness that it relates to righting wrongs around colonialism and slavery.
But what does the term actually mean? How do the aims of the reparations movement – which takes a wholescale approach to repairing a vast range of injustice meted out to African people – differ from more well-known racial justice campaigns such as Black Lives Matter? And what would real progress on reparations actually look like?
In the latest episode of the Cable’s new podcast People Just Do Something, your hosts Priyanka Raval and Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins get deep into these knotty questions with Jendayi Serwah. She’s a lifelong reparations campaigner raised in Bristol, now living in Ghana.
Over a fascinating hour of chat, Jendayi explains why it’s essential to consider reparations as going much broader than financial compensation, and why equalities agendas cannot begin to set right deep historical wrongs.
“Not all types of harm are economically accessible, and some things are priceless – you cannot put a value on the life of my ancestors and my people,” she says.
Can well-meaning campaigns and grants by powerful institutions and individuals do anything to advance the cause of reparatory justice? Who are the committed grassroots organisations that have managed to push the reparations agenda into public consciousness? How did Jendayi’s childhood in Bristol influence her journey into activism – and are the complex, holistic demands of reparations campaigners resonating with today’s young people?
Join Priyanka and Isaac as they round off the first season of People Just Do Something in thought-provoking style. And don’t worry, they’ll be back in November for a new run of episodes – providing they can keep a lid on their bickering.
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