(BPRW) JUNETEENTH SHOULD BE AN IMPETUS TO HEAL FROM LEGACIES OF ENSLAVEMENT, SAYS THE GLOBAL CIRCLE FOR REPARATIONS AND HEALING

(Black PR Wire) In anticipation of this year’s observance of Juneteenth, the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing today released a Declaration urging all Global Africans (Africans on the Continent and across the Diaspora) to focus intently on healing.

The Centering Healing Declaration calls on Africans everywhere to join in the quest for freedom from the most powerful and longest-lasting impacts of enslavement and colonization: the profound, unmeasured and untreated, injuries resulting from generations of assaults on the bodies, minds, and spirits of Africans and People of African Descent.

The Declaration is the outcome of a groundbreaking Summit convened in Accra, Ghana, by the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing (GCRH), co-organized by the African Union (AU) and Justice and Repair and hosted by the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF). Summit participants included representatives from the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, South America, and Europe. They came together inspired by the African Union Theme of the Year for 2025 – “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations,” and they were united by a shared resolve to build an infrastructure for healing across Global Africa as an indispensable element of reparations.    

The Declaration shares basic insights to guide the work of global healing, including:

1) Centuries of anti-Blackness have resulted in the same kinds of unhealed behaviors across the continent and the diaspora. By “unhealed” behaviors, we mean the negative conditioned responses developed as a result of anti-Blackness—behaviors such as persistent difficulties in trusting one another, and the tendencies to center the values and perspectives of non-Africans and to adopt individualistic values to guide behavior. These are behaviors that all too often undermine our health and well-being, our relationships with one another, and our ability to work together effectively in pursuit of our common interests, including in the current struggle for reparations. By “healed” behaviors, we mean healthy responses developed as a result of African-centered healing processes designed to undo the effects of centuries of anti-Blackness and to prevent future harm;

2) We cannot move forward unless and until we move collectively beyond unhealed to healed behaviors; and

3) Trust among African people has been profoundly undermined. Trust-building is essential for healing.

The Declaration also outlines a plan of action for building the infrastructure for global healing, including:

1) Building a global movement for freedom from the false hierarchy of human value and the lie of white superiority and black inferiority, the root causes of the dehumanization of African people and the underdevelopment of Black communities worldwide;

2) Establishing a vibrant global community of practice dedicated to helping Africans and people of African Descent heal; and

3) Urging the Heads of State and Government of the African Union to join with the African citizenry and people of African Descent and civil society globally in this international agenda for centering healing as a pathway for reparatory justice, for the attainment of the African Union Theme of the Year for 2025 – “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent.”

To join the movement for healing across Global Africa, visit https://gcrh.org/who-we-are/

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