Subject: THE FOUR REPARATIONS OPTIONS

1. Reparations with Repatriation.

This option is for those African slave descendants who desire to
achieve
a settlement for slavery and its effects and who desire to relocate to
any friendly nation in the world. Though typically thought of as
"back-to-Africa" this choice, with settlement resources, could result
in
a move to any friendly nation on earth. A growing number of slave
descendants have alreday left, who were successful in forming their
own
social systems of mutual trust. But they left without Reparations and
are, in some cases, part of the current Reparations Movement. But for
those slave desecendanst who do not have a social system and to those
who
retort, "Well, if you don't like it here, just leave", the question
is,
leave with what? Reparations is a legal manner in which an African
slave
may have sufficient resources to Repatriate back to Africa or to any
friendly nation.

2. U.S. Citizenship with Reparations.

This option is for those African slave descendants in the U.S. who
believe that they can be treated as human beings in the U.S. if they
finally have a say in their legal status by choosing U.S. Citizenship
with Reparations. African slave descendants have existed under forced
so-called U.S. Citizenship, in which we had no say, since 1865. So
reaching a settlement and having a choice in one's U.S. Citizenship
could
be an exercise in self determination as opposed to, as it is, being
determined by others in the world's most extensive human atrocity with
no
Reparations/settlement for this crime against humanity as now
officially
determined at the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa.
Some
of us still think that fighting for Black Reparations is somehow
radical
or illegal. There are those who assert that even with choice and
Reparations, that Africans can never be respected as human beings in
the
U.S. This may very well be the case if African slave descendants
choosing
Reparations with U.S. Citizenship do not also form a social system of
mutual trust amongst themselves as do other ethnic groups do not exist
within a smoke screen of so-called freedom but utilize practical
infrastructures based upon their own social systems of mutual trust
within the domiannt socio-economic system. On the other hand, we will
have to form a social system of mutual trust (at least enough of
course)
in order to win Reparations. So, the social system will already be in
place for those who choose U.S. Citizenship by human mutuality with
Reparations, if they choose to utilize it. Self determination with
Reparations will also mean the legal end of U.S. Slavery.

3. Reparations with a Black or African Nation within the U.S. The
notion
of a sovereign Black or African Nation within the geographic confines
of
the U.S. is being pursued in a number of varieties, but generally
without
Reparations. The Washetaw, who won certain lands from the U.S. in
Louisiana, were seized. The Gullah/Geechee Nation seeks some form (s)
of
Reparations with a dual concept of sovereignty and U.S. Citizenship
for
those members of the Nation who so choose. The Republic of New Africa
seeks specific lands in the southern region of the U.S., with other
form
(s) of Reparations and has been a moving force behind NCOBRA from the
start. Yet there are those who question how sovereign such a Black or
African Nation could be within the geographic confines of the U.S.
Perhaps there is the need for an objective analysis of how well the
five
Sioux Nations winning Reparations from the U.S. are doing. On the
other
hand, Blacks have appeared to be the greatest threat to Europeans from
an
European or White viewpoint. Certain psychological and/or
anthropological
explanations have been put forth for this by Black scholars. It
certainly
depends on what those Africans choosing this option actually do
despite
any predispositions to the Black Nation imperative.

4. This is no informed option: Continued domination and enslavement
without knowing it in the U.S. and ultimate total destruction of any
sense of being a People at all. Annihilation. Or continued enslavement
with knowledge, which ends up as the same result, annihilation as a
People with the probable lack of any notion for the need to be a
People
any longer, while the dominant society has not abandoned its need for
peopleness at all, nor, for that matter, any other ethnic group. Being
the perfect slave.

Respectfully submitted,
Omowale Za
African Reparations Activist