- Balliceaux will not develop into a touristic site
- Reparations must address the legacy of underdevelopment
The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) will put in place a process of full consultation for the development of Balliceaux.
This is according to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. He noted that the consultation will include the Garifuna in the Diaspora and here at home, to develop Balliceaux as a cultural, historic, memorial site to keep as part of our patrimony.
” This is something we can put upfront we need reparations to make Balliceaux in our own image and likeness, a cultural historic site for the purposes of memory and of our going forward, this going cost a lot of money, Balliceaux has no infrastructure…we need a good descent port…it’s a great cause,” Dr. Gonsalves said.
Thousands of Garifuna died on Balliceaux in an act of systematic genocide carried out by the British.
Additionally, Gonsalves says, this country’s claim for reparatory justice is powerful.
Gonsalves noted that given the peculiarities of the Vincentian experience, the case for reparations must go beyond a full apology to include addressing the legacies of underdevelopment caused by native genocide and slavery.
He explained that as a consequence of colonialism and slavery, “the people who owned this land, as a consequence of colonialism, was put the worst piece of land for Agricultural purposes and historically, the poverty in those communities has been the highest”.
Gonsalves said that despite the development of housing, education, healthcare and infrastructure over the past twenty years in those communities, “we still have pockets of poverty and poor housing, and we need reparations to deal with that.”
He said that is why the Caricom Ten Point Plan on Reparations, include not only a full apology but an Indigenous people’s development programme, educational programmes, technology funding for repatriation to Africa, establishment of cultural institutes, the development of public health, enhancing of cultural exchanges, the right to development through the use of technology and debt cancellation and monetary compensation.
St Vincent and the Grenadines led the regional call for reparations since 2013 and Gonsalves said he remains committed to the fight for reparations for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies.