attacked more than 200 schools in gaza with at least 53 schools totally destroyed. by july, all 19 gaza universities had suffered severe damage with 80% of university buildings destroyed and 103 academics killed. by march, more than 100 mosks had been destroyed. as of august 18, israely attacks destroyed or damaged more than... half of gaza's homes and damaged 80% of commercial facilities, 85% of school buildings, 65% of road networks and 65% of crop land in the strip. now, with 333 days of such devastating war, the world is beginning to realize that this is not just a war, but rather it's a systematic campaign of annihilation. that

will continue as long as western powers support the occupying regime.

as the world honors, people of african descent, will western powers pay reparations for the millions of african people they sold into slavery and for other colonial era injustices inflicted on africa? despite all the adversities, the people of african descent in the diaspora are rising with their breathried in africa, with all available potentials, will africans take their rightful place in global affairs? and for more on honoring people of african descent, we have contacted lena plat, the co-author of ants will come and tell me a chronicle of the ben family in gayana. history: well, i thank you

for giving me the opportunity to address these issues which are not being addressed adequately and properly in the western press, also joining us in this discussion today is veteran journalist, he is a former press secretary of the prime minister of santa lucia and the chairman of the country's national reparations committee. i'm glad to be here to be able to... we share with you of whatever we can, this is africa today and mubar kenya, stay with us, the international day for people of african descent is celebrated. every year on august

31st. through this observance, the united nations says it aims to promote the extraordinary contributions of the african diaspora around the world and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against people of african descent. around 200 million people identifying themselves as being of african descent live in the americans. many millions more live in other parts of the world outside the african continent, so... so how did such a large number of africans end up in the americas? in the 360 years between 1500 and the end of the slave trade in the 1860s, over 12 million africans were possibly taken to the americans by european slave traders. the evil transatlantic slave trade is considered as one of the darkest chapters in our human history. now the major atlantic slave trading nations in order of trade volume are portugal, brit. spain, france, the

netherlands, the united states and denmark. north america and europe's rise to riches was built on the blood, sweat, toil and death of. slaved people, now they are growing calls by people of african descent for reparations of a slavery. for instance, the university of west indies estimates the united kingdom owes 18.8 trillion pounds in compensation to the caribbean island for hundreds of years of exploitation, will western powers pay compensation for the millions of african people they sold into slavery and for other colonial era injustices in africa? honoring people of african descent. for centuries, africans inside africa and the people of african descent in the diaspora have waged struggle against enslavement, colonization, settler colonialism, neocolonization,

apartite, segregation and other evils. the following is part of a speech by marco mex, the famous african-american civil rights activist in 1964. on the struggle for emancipation, one of the first things that the independent african nations did was to form an organization called the organization of african unity, the purpose of our organization of afro-american unity, which has the same aim and objective to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the... independence of people of african descent here in the western hemisphere and first here in the united states and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary. the international day for

people of african descent, also honors at the rich contributions of people of african descent. sir celebrate the richness of their diverse cultures and reinforce commitments to end racism and all forms of racial discrimination. now let's start off with lina pratt, what in your opinion is the importance of this day and how has it impacted on people of african descent? well, it's a very important day for people of african descent all over the world, particularly in countries like in the carib. and south america where the slaves were brought to from africa, and the day is usually marked by lot of celebrations, very colorful, vibrant celebrations with lot of music, lot of drumming, lot of dancing in particular,

because it's a celebration of the fact that their four bears, their four fathers and four mothers actually successfully fought to liberate. their race from slavery and it's very important because it is the idea that emancipation and emancipation proclamation of i think it was august the 1st was somehow um awarded or given as some sort of benevolent gesture by the slave owners and the british in the case of my country is entirely erroneous. the year 2024 marks the end of the international decade for people of african descent. the un secretary general says while some progress has been made at legislative, policy and institutional levels, people of african descent continue to suffer intersectional and compounded forms of racial

discrimination, marginalization and exclusion. let's now bring in albusquet. now, what in your opinion needs to be done. uh to end inequalities and ensure the full empowerment of people of african descent. it's important to recognize that what we are doing through the first united nations decade, 10 years is to begin to reverse, if not fully reverse hopefully, the decade, the centuries of colonialism that for... slavery and of course that is not achievable overnight, but if we look at the history of efforts to decolonize and now to seek reparations for slavery and dative genocide,

we cannot but conclude that this is the first time in the history of mankind of humankind that we can see reparations, people of ' can descent can see operations on the horizon, it's a distant horizon, but we are a stage where we are talking about sums where countries. and empires built on the backs of slavery are bordering on apologizing and offering royal apologies. we're a stage where the vatican which authorized the doctrine of necessity that allowed for the eradication of people of natural descent. the first people native people. of countries around the world in the name of christianity, that doctrine

has now been revoked, so in such a sense, every achievement that is reported is a plus, and from the establishment of the decade for people of african descent to the stage now where we are seeking second decade, the... current president of the un general assembly, dennis francis, who is a diplomat from trinidad and tobago, says the victims of the transatlantic slave trade were not merely robbed of their physical freedom, but of their identity and dignity. in their memory, we still feel the painful brutality they endured in their struggle for freedom. i also take this moment to pay omage to the countless so... who perished on the harrowing journey of the middle passage, the desolate

graveyard of the atlantic. these millions of people, humans, like any one of us, were not merely robbed of their physical freedom, but their identity and dignity. the transatlantic slave trade, one of the most. crimes against humanity that spanned over four centuries, introduced an abominable and abhorant system of slavery that was not only commercialized, but was racialized. the evil slave trade in africa was followed by colonialism in societies already devastated by slave trade. these twin evils by europeans impacted negatively on the development of africa. well, the impact was was stating on the one hand in that there's a very famous book

written by a countryman of mine now deceas name walter rodney entitled how europe underdeveloped africa, which can also be said for the colonies, which is that the period of colonization following on the liberation of the slaves was characterized by massive looting of the resources of the... those nations, the looting of gold, the looting of silver, the looting of all kinds of raw materials which were extracted using the labor of the people who had been just freeed, but because they had no land and no place to go and no industry and so on, they ended up working for the same interests in a policy of looting the resources of those colonies and those resources being transferred to britain in particular and of course france and

holland and so on, and as a result this process got so unbearable that beginning in the 1950s, well actually earlier, if we think of india, although india was not an african nation, but particularly starting in the african countries and in the caribbean in the 60s, the 1960s, you had big fights for independence, for the colonies to become independent sovereign nation states. a global movement to seek reparations for slavery was initiated during a summit in ghana last year. the african union has partnered with caribbean countries to form a united front to persuade north american and european governments to pay for historical mass crimes. many have expressed optimism about reparations. movement: the issue of reparations, it is 10 years ago in july of

2014, that the caribbean community heads of government, 14 carricum leaders, representing former colonies mainly of britain but also of france and of the netherlands, are called together on brussels for a meeting to discuss preparations for slavery and native genocide. brussels has never replied until today, 10 years later, but certainly there has... been quite a lot of movement from the standpoint that the blueprint preparations that was put together by the caribbean community 10 years ago has now been basically adopted by the national afro-american reparations commission which has given the great philip to the

reparations movement in the united states particularly in the last election and hopefully um it will come up before november. the 2023 accra reparations conference was organized by the african union and the government of ghana. now during the november conference, ghana's president nana akufu ador called for a united front with african leaders on demands for reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonial era damages. let's take a listen. no amount of money can restore. the damage caused by the transatlantic slave trade and its consequences, which will span many centuries, but surely this is matter that the world must confront and can no longer ignore. now this for elina plat, do you support proposals to form an international tribunal to seek

reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonial era atrocities? fellowus? prophically speaking and morally speaking, frankly, i'm of the opinion that to attempt to put a price on compensating or attempting compensate the descendants, not the actual people, but the descendants, two or three or more generations removed - from the people who actually suffered under slavery, that it actually reduces and um... uh degrades not just the the humanity of the slaves because you're essentially saying like the slaveholders did that they're worth a certain price, the way they were sold for a certain price on the auction block, but you're also i think saying or what's implied is that paying

out a bunch of money or whatever somehow will..." be enough and can be enough, sufficient to recompense for this terrible terrible atrocity that went on for centuries. i think that reparations should represent an effort by the global south to work together to achieve through collaboration. with developed nations and achieve access to advanced modern technology so that these nations which were kept deliberately backward and force backwardness by the imf and the world bank and so on, that that could be eradicated because these new nations will be

given access to modern technologies, modern energy technologies, including for example, fusion power, thanks lot, lina plat for that very interesting perspective, we now take a short break before we continue our discussion on honoring people of african descent, stay with us, africans rising. africa's pre-colonial history showed the existence of several rich civilizations. the people of african descent have contributed significantly to global history. however, much of it has been denied or undervalued by westerners. africans in the diaspora still

face challenges, particularly racial discrimination by the same people who ensled them. in the united states. people of african descent continue to face institutionalized discrimination and oppression that impeeds their progress. for instance, the rate of fetal police shootings in the us shows large differences based on ethnicity among americans of african descent, the rate of fetal police shootings between 2015 and august 2024 stood at 6.2 per million of the population per year, while for white americans the rate stood at only 2.4. police shootings per million of the population per year, now despite all these adversities, africans and people of african descent continue to contribute to the world. in areas of science, technology and innovation, the african continent is also rising and rejecting neocolonialism and exploitation by western powers. africa possesses a

significant share of global mineral reserves, including 92% of platinium, 56% of cobalt, 54% of manganese and 36% of chromium. as the world moves away from fossil fuels, rising demand for these minerals used to produce renewable energy. technologies holds the potential to lift some of africa's poorest people out of slavery. now with these great potentials, will africans take their rightful place in global affairs? a un report issued last year notes that people of african descent around the world continue to be victims of systematic racial discrimination and receive racialized attacks. fc camelb, the chairperson of the united nations permanent forum on people of african descent says the legacies of slavery are still alive, the legacies of colonialism and is living and apartate are still alive today, having real

impact in the life of millions of people of african descent around the world, it makes them as more exposed to violence and death a result of encounters with law enforcement of... show: now, despite all the challenges they face, the people of african descent have definitely contributed to the development of societies in which they currently living. now uh, this for you, mr. bosquet, can you give us examples of the contribution of people of african descent in their societies? certainly, people of african descent uh have made and continue to make their particular contributions. in areas of culture, sports, etc., but certainly also in science, and i has recently looking at 100 inventions by

people of african descent in the united states that they could not have sought representation and copyright for, and were therefore copyrighted by either their masters or mistresses who owned them as chatter property or by persons who simply copied and registered them for the simple reason that people of african descent did not have equal rights, although they were citizens, although they were born in the united states, they certainly were not treated as equal citizens as most will do now, now institutionalized police. brutality in the us against african-americans ignited the black lives matter movement. now this for miss plat, what is the states of racism facing people of

african descent, particularly in the united states and is the situation getting better or worse? the situation in the united states in general, i think is getting worse, but it's not getting worse because of direct. racism the sort that took place in the 1960s and 50s and so on before reverend dr. martin luther king came along, it is largely taking place because of economic policies, economic policies that are increasingly dividing the working population fighting to get scarce jobs, scarce resources, scarce. services and access to education, which they can't in many cases afford, because it is, the price is too high and the kinds of opportunities that used

to be offered are no longer there. after suffering the ravages of slave trade and colonialism, africa is now victim of neocolonial control over most parts of the continent economic, political, military and cultural sectors. however, we have seen young people across africa rising to eject neocolonialists in their countries. historically, i have always had concerns about spontaneous protests that result in regime change from the standpoint that they are not planned, and whereas historically you have examples of unplanned protest resulting in positive change. i think the there is also a historical counterbalance, where as a result of the spontaneity, the leadership that has emerged has not necessarily kept up

with the expectations of the spontaneous movement that created it. history was made on september 7, 2021, when the inaugural caribbean community, carricom, africa union summit was held under the theme unity across continents and oceans, opportunities for deepening integration. the jamaican prime minister addressed the summit strengthened common bonds between the people of the two regions. the common historical experiences between africa. and the caribbean have been enriched by cultural, economic and political affinities. the summit came after the declaration by the african union of the diaspora as a sixth region of africa. this declaration is expected to improve the status of people of african descent, particularly in the americas. i think very significantly it will improve the dignity and the sense. of um

realizing the sovereignty and the brotherhood between the nations of caricam ibero america and africa and most importantly it it has already i think started the process of looking at ways to have transatlantic flights of airplanes instead of having to go to london or paris and then come back down to to you know some african country, if you want to go to uganda, you got to travel to britain or to london and then take a plane from london back down to uganda and that kind of arrangement that's been going on for so long, what's in play is that these countries with national airlines and including working with national currencies can now have trade, all

kinds of changes across the atlantic without having to go up to the north and then coming back down. well, we have lot more to discuss, but unfortunately our time is over. i'd like to thank our guest today, alb and for their incisive analysis on honoring people of african descent in the diaspora. that's it for this week's edition of africa today, it's always great having you watch the show, you can watch this episode and all our previous shows on our website pressedv.ir from me mubar kenya, it's goodbye for now.

crisis, devastating wars, terrorism. the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, genocide of palestinians unabated.

the headlines israeli occupation forces kill more than 40 palestinians in the gaza strip in the past. 24 hours. hamas warns the tel aviv regime that the only way for the safe return of the israeli captives is to stop the genocidal war. and heavy clashes are reported between israeli forces and palestinian resistance fighters and