The Editor, Sir:

Please permit me to share with your readers a rich, rewarding experience that I had on Thursday, February 15, at the Courtleigh Auditorium.

The occasion was a public lecture and book launch organised by the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee in association with the Office of Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in collaboration with Ian Randle Publishers.

The lecture was given by the author of the book African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Beyond the Silence and the Shame by Dr. Anne C. Bailey, assistant professor of History and African Studies at State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S.A.

Informative and instructive

The lecture was informative and instructive, as Dr. Bailey brings 'African voices' into the discussion about the enslavement of Africans brought to the West Indies. This broadens the discussion and throws newlight on the matter of reparation.

Among the many important points that Dr. Bailey made in her passionate delivery is a point that is often overlooked. Reparation is not only about money. Repairing the damage to our psyche is just as important, or even more important than any other form of compensation.

The lively panel discussion which ensued shows that Jamaicans have much to say about the effects of slavery. There were more comments than questions. Time was just not enough to ask all the questions. There is one question that I would love to ask. On the matter of reparation, given that some of us are part perpetrators and part victims in that we are descendants of both Europeans and Africans, what does reparation mean for us?

Congratulations

I must congratulate Dr. Bailey and wish her success with her book and thank the National Bicentenary Committee, the Office of Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy and Ian Randle Publishers for staging this event in commemorating the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic trade in africans and also in recognition of African-American History month. May we find peace in our hearts as we continue our journey on the path to recovery from a past that still keeps many of us in chains.

I am, etc.,

WINNIE ANDERSON-BROWN

winab@cwjamaica.com

Bagatelle District

Ashley P.A., Clarendon