Jamaica announce 20-member reparations council

The group will serve a term of three years and is chaired by veteran attorney-at-law Laleta Davis-Mattis, who will have noted attorney and Pan-Africanist Bert Samuels as her deputy.

Council — which is within the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport — is tasked with formulating strategies to claim, secure and dispense reparations due to the people of Jamaica for the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The body includes a diverse membership that possesses the requisite skills to advance the arguments of reparation for the people of Jamaica.  

“The members are drawn from the legal fraternity, academia, the Rastafari community, civil society, the church and the public sector,” a statement from Minister Olivia Grange noted.

The members are: Laleta Davis-Mattis (Chairperson), Bert Samuels (Deputy Chairman), Prof. Verene Shepherd, Frank Phipps, QC, Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, Dr. Jahlani Niaah, Prof. Rupert Lewis, Steven Golding, Dr. Michael Barnett. Prof. Clinton Hutton, Donald Roberts, Michael Holgate, Ras Lanceroy Ho-Shing, Vivian Crawford, Jo-Anne Archibald, Pastor Bruce A. Fletcher, Rev. Dr. Stephen Jennings, Dr. Winsome Gordon, Lorraine Williams Tafari, Dr. Tamika Peart.

The council will also advise the government on matters related to reparatory justice, the ministry said.

The period of service officially began July 29, 2019 and will end on July 28, 2022.