Prior to being kidnapped in Africa and brought to North America in shackles and chains, Africans were in possession of their original names, religion, culture, history, language and their identity-- their Human Rights!

During slavery, their Human Rights were extinguished. Extinguished means to stub out, put out or to smother.  Eviscerated. It means remove the guts from a person. Now if you remove the guts from a person, is that person still alive? If you extinguished the existence of a person, by so doing is that person still alive?

The institution of slavery resulted in the extinguishment of millions of Africans’ (slaves) Human Rights.  It removed their names, religion, culture, history, language and their identity.  It psychologically destroyed them and their descendants, generation after generation, up to this very day.  That means all of their memory, all of their history, all of their culture, all of their music, all of their dialect; their mother tongue was taken from them.

Regardless of their social-economic status today, they are dead to the knowledge of themselves.  Can the institution of slavery be considered a weapon of mass destruction?  It did remove our forefathers' names, religion, culture, history, language, and their identity. That means they are a dead people psychologically. We concluded that the institution of slavery was a weapon of mass destruction.  During slavery, our forefathers were not even considered human beings; they were considered the property of the slave masters.

Their human rights were totally removed.  What about the slave descendants living today? Has anyone ever restored their Human Rights?  Unfortunately, 35 million Afro-Descendants in the U.S. are under the impression that they have Human Rights.  How can they be in possession of their Human Rights when their Human Rights were taken during slavery?  How can Afro- Descendants have Human Rights when no one ever restored them?

In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.  Prior to 1964, Afro- Descendants were denied their civil rights.  They could not eat in white owned restaurants nor sleep in white hotels.  Today, Afro- Descendants still do not have Human Rights. Am I right or am I wrong?

Civil rights come under the jurisdiction of the United States. Human rights come under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. Dr. Martin Luther King knew we had no Human Rights; instead he fought for Civil rights.  The references below confirm that Dr. King, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X knew that Afro Descendants had no Human Rights.

Evidence

1. "Following the Civil War, millions returned to a new form of slavery, once again imprisoned on plantations, devoid of Human Rights and plunged into searing poverty generation after generation,"

Where Do We Go From Here? Page 125, written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2. "It is true that the history of our treatment by the devil slave-master practically made our parents and our selves less than human beings. This is why I teach that the main rights we should seek first are human rights." Fall of America, page 216 by Elijah Muhammad

3. "The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being.  Our common goal is to obtain the human rights that America has been denying us.  We can never get Civil Rights in America until our human rights are first restored.  We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans." Racism: the Cancer that is Destroying America, appeared in Egyptian Gazette 8/25/64 quoted by Malcolm X

4. "We African Americans want to be restored, and recognized, and this is a form of reparations which can be examined and defined more completely in a forum.  We are lost from our origins in Africa. Four hundred years of slavery, coupled with forced breeding between slaves and the slave masters, produced a people who have lost more than their independent character.  It produced a people whose children are lost from their identity: mother tongue, religion and culture.  We African Americans, who are the victims of slavery, will not mortgage the future of our generations to come." Statement by Silis Muhammad before the Plenary Session of the World Conference Against Racism, September 2001

Neither Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King Jr., nor Malcolm X restored our Human Rights during their life-time.  Can you name an Afro-Descendant leader living today who is working to restore our Human Rights at the United Nations?  What power is preventing Black leaders from going to the United Nations to establish our Human Rights?  What power is preventing them from going to the United Nations to obtain reparations?  Silis Muhammad is the international reparations leader.  He has spoken to various diverse bodies at the UN.  The record shows that he has made 23 trips to Geneva, Switzerland in the last 12 years.

There are reparations activists, historians, and political scientists in the United States.  However, Silis Muhammad is the only leader, to my knowledge, who has been working consistently to restore our Human Rights internationally.  He is doing exactly what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad talked about; "seek human rights first."

Fifty-four years ago, 23 Jewish organizations came together in New York to learn how to negotiate with Germany for reparations for Jewish Holocaust survivors.  The Parliament of Germany paid the victims of the Holocaust over $47 billion in reparations payments.  The Jewish leaders worked in the best interest of the Jewish people.  Aren't Black leaders intelligent too, shouldn't they unify and work in the best interest of Afro Descendants?

In 2004, Silis Muhammad pledged and raised $30,000 to help the United Nations Working Group on Minorities put on a Seminar in South America, so that Afro-Descendant leaders can discuss the burning issue of Human Rights and reparations.

If 23 Jewish organizations can unify and learn how to negotiate with Germany for reparations, why can't Black leaders unify and learn how to negotiate with the United States for reparations?  Since the record show that the majority of white Democrats and Republicans oppose reparations, why don't Black leaders unify and demand reparations?

Congressman John Conyers, Democrat-Michigan, introduced the H.R. 40 Reparations Study Bill in Congress in 1989.  The proposed bill is to study the effects that slavery has had on the American society.  The bill has been reintroduced in every session of Congress for the past 15 years.  Each time, it's set aside until the next session of Congress.

It has been concluded that Silis Muhammad is right; Black leaders should unite in support of the international movement to officially recognize, restore Human Rights and make reparation to all Afro-Descendants throughout the Americas Region and Slavery Diaspora.  We should be mentally prepared to challenge the Black Conservatives who try to undermine the reparations issue.  The facts show that they are limited in their knowledge of Human Rights and reparations.

"Usually (his) their knowledge is limited to right here, in America, and he sees himself as an American in the American context which keeps him in the role of a minority.  Now when it comes to the international arena, he can't see it. He is not interested in a role on the international stage.  He only wants a minority role in America."

The End of White World Supremacy, page 92 by Malcolm X

*This article written by Min. Najee Muhammad

(202) 388-0095

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