Orville Taylor | Ghana leads with UN resolution

India and China said “Yes!” Only 330 million live in the US. In Israel there are around 10 million inhabitants. Abstaining is not the same as voting “No!” although in certain elections, it could count as a negative.

President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama, pushed a UN resolution with the backing of the African Union to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as ‘the gravest crime against humanity.’ Stating, “This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice… a safeguard against forgetting.” An overwhelming 123 nations voted yes, 52 abstained, the US, Israel and Argentina voted, “No!”

Sometimes, because of the complexity of an issue, a country may simply not find it prudent to give an affirmative vote. On the other hand, a negative vote is very clear and sends a powerful message to others, who may be affected, whether directly or emotionally by the decision.

In regard to international relations and politics, for all the influence that Israel has, it is not independent or powerful enough by itself, and were it not for the massive support of the US in every sense, including backing it when almost every other country in the world is saying it is carrying out major crimes and human rights violations, it would be so isolated and vulnerable that its very existence could be threatened. Note however, every one of America’s allies in the Gulf region, including those being peppered by Iran, voted “Yes!”

This war initiated against Iran, has almost no international support and most Americans disapprove of their government’s handling of it. Wars are expensive economically and politically, even if one ‘wins.’ Given the lack of international approval, the US risks alienating its friends. Argentina, which has its own experience with a black population that became invisible, is not a major world player, except in football. Thus, its vote is of little significance; no disrespect to the 47 million people there. It is not even a major military power. Ask the historians about the 1982 ill-fated campaign to take control of the Malvinas, which the British call the Falklands.

Britain’s response was swift and decisive, routing the Argentinians.

Anyway, American blacks are the second largest population of descendants of survivors of the ‘gravest crime’, numbering some 40 million. Slavery in America was abolished fewer than 100 years before Jamaica’s independence. America’s Republican Party, was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. It was such an important issue, that around a million Americans died in a bloody civil was over its abolition.

America is currently fighting wars on too many front, and the mortal battle with Iran beside Israel, is facing a lukewarm response and support from its NATO allies and the European Union (EU) on the whole, acting ensemble. Influential Germany and Spain already not supportive of the War, abstained but did come out against the resolution. Germany has called the attacks on Iran “illegal”

According to American Ambassador Dan Negrea the resolution was, “highly problematic in countless respects.” Moreover, The US “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.”

A very unwise statement. During the apartheid period in South Africa and Rhodesia, it was lawful to discriminate based on race. In this changing world where historic atrocities are coming to the fore, there is the need to acknowledge wrong before going forward. Even if one does not support reparations, the recognition of the ‘crime’ is imperative.

By Negrea’s logic given that slavery was not illegal under existing legislation at that time we could hardly excuse its repugnance. His response will not resound well with black electors. His party thought that the laws which legitimised slavery were wrong. Using a similar argument about legality, segregation in the US was supported by legislation. An evil legislature will always pass laws with permit crimes against humanity. Any law student or cursory reader of law, knows that, that ‘good law’ does not mean that the ‘law is good.’

No one should forget that the 1935 Nuremberg Laws; the Reich Citizenship Law and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which set the framework for the holocaust, by first ripping citizenship from Jews, were statutes on the books approved by an elected legislature. For the record, fundamental human rights conventions are binding on all nations, even if not ratified.

America itself must undergo its own healing process as it confronts its past version of apartheid, recriminations after the civil war and reconstruction. Facing midterm elections in a short while, the animus created by this negative vote, could resonate negatively among racial minorities.

Globally, America has not yet fully felt the impact of this war that Israel began with Iran. That effect is likely to significantly shake its dominant position in the world economy, especially if Iran continues to do what it has been doing. Just as America’s president now realises that he needs NATO and the EU, despite saying he didn’t earlier; losing African support could be critical.

Africa with 1.3 billion black inhabitant have no negative history with Russia or China as colonial or neo-colonial powers. Neither does it have any narrative about assassination or overthrow of their leaders, freedom fighters or nationalists. Wounds from the 1960s to 1980s heal like keloid among black Africans, and acupuncture works. Moreover, growing beliefs of American threats to invade Nigeria will only increase antipathy towards America, in an epoch when enemies are geographically mobile.

The resolution does not commit any nation to raise a shovel; however it must call a spade.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.