The Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) is an international umbrella organization created by and for Africans and people of African descent. The GAC's ultimate goals are to justly redistribute global resources and resist continued oppression; it seeks to accomplish these goals by demanding reparations for the exploitation of people of African heritage, supporting policies to combat institutional racism, and working for recognition and respect for Africans and people of African descent.
The GAC has defined reperation and restitution as:
:"the process of self-repair, healing and restoring of a people injured because of their group identity, and the violation of their fundamental human rights by individuals, corporation, religious and other institutions, governments and other entities."
[Washington, Teresa N., "The African World in Dialogue: An Appeal to Action!" Oya's Tornado (2016), p. 130,]
(retrieved 23 April 2024)
The GAC was organized in October 2002
[Bracks, Lean'tin, "African American Almanac: 400 Years of Black Excellence." (The Multicultural History & Heroes Collection). Ed. 2., ]Visible Ink Press
Visible Ink Press, LLC is a publisher of popular reference works. Its headquarters are in Canton Charter Township, Michigan in Metro Detroit. It was founded in 1989 as an imprint of Gale and later spun-off as an independent company in 2000. The H ...
(2023), p. 34,
(retrieved 23 April 2024) in Bridgetown,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
and is a direct outgrowth of the African-African Descendants Caucus (AADC) formed before the 2001 United Nations World Conference on Racism (UNWCAR). After the UNWCAR there was no follow-up on the part of those designated to continue the work of the AADC begun during the preparatory conferences (PREPCOMS) leading up to the UNWCAR. Organized by attorney Roger Wareham, the AADC became the leading voice of Africans throughout the world during the UNWCAR. The AADC was instrumental in getting the
Transatlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
declared "a
crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the c ...
", and opened the door for a direct, legal assault on nations and corporations that benefited from the
trans-Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
.
The GAC continues the AADC's work and is now organized in 35 nations,
and is "the largest
Pan-African
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
Black Nationalist
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...
group in the world."
Its constitutional convention, held in October 2004 in
Paramaribo
Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...
, Suriname, ratified a document considered by many to codify the direction in which the Pan-African movement should move during the 21st century.
References
{{reflist
External links
Official website
Pan-Africanist organizations in the Caribbean
Political organisations based in Barbados