"The book presents an arguable case that at the relevant time slavery was illegal....a prima facie case for the illegality of slavery, notwithstanding the difference in the practice followed in the colonies....My thanks to Ms. Wittmann, particularly for the wealth of material she has unearthed." - Patrick Robinson, (Former President) Judge of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
"Dr. Nora Wittmann...has written a brilliant work of deeply researched scholarship....The book is particularly valuable in refuting the arguments commonly advanced against the payment of reparations....Most significantly, she rebuts the argument that 'slavery was legal at the time'....In all that I have read on the subject, this argument has never been presented with such wide-ranging and convincing research....Dr. Wittmann is to be highly praised for the huge contribution to the raising of consciousness...through her work on this eloquent, readable and scholarly book." - Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, lawyer in Jamaica and the UK, legal pioneer for slavery reparations.
Slavery Reparations Time Is Now breaks important ground on the matter of reparations for transatlantic slavery and European colonialism. It charts the international legal determinates of the matter in detail, as never done before, and should be part of every home library and of our children’s curricula.
Slavery Reparations Time Is Now pertinently retraces the anchorage of the legal entitlement to reparations within a historical international law perspective, exposing simultaneously the intrinsic link between the necessity of comprehensive reparations and solutions to other major problems that threaten human survival on Earth, such as nuclear and industrial pollution, wars and contemporary forced labor. By proving clearly, based on in-depth research, that the practice of transatlantic slavery was illegal throughout the time it was perpetrated, the book topples the dominant legal and political opinion that aims to deny the right to reparations on grounds that “slavery” would have been “legal” at that time. Yet, although argued totally contrary to the hegemonic opinion,
Slavery Reparations Time Is Now has been welcomed as making a solid case for transatlantic slavery reparations by erudite experts on the matter, such as Patrick Robinson (former President Judge of the UN Tribunal for Ex-Yugoslavia), Hilary Beckles, Verene Shepherd and Anthony Gifford.Recent years have seen a continuous upsurge of the global movement for reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism. In response, the powers-that-be are mounting multiple strategies to confuse the public about reparations. It is therefore crucial that the people get their knowledge right about what is legally due. Sticking to international law, reparations have to be economic, educational, historic, and structural. This profound historico-legal analysis provides the ammunition for the final blow to the hegemonic lie that there would be no legal base for slavery reparations, and is presented in a readable way that lay people without legal formation can easily relate to.
Yet, although this book clarifies the legal appropriateness of reparations, it is the people who will at last have to take reparations. A passionate and scientifically solid call for justice, Slavery Reparations Time Is Now provides guidance to get there, also addressing the role of popular culture movements such as hip-hop and reggae, and highlighting the fact that icons such as Tupac Shakur were advocating reparations. Only when comprehensive reparation is effectuated for transatlantic slavery can the planet get in balance again and humanity live.Slavery Reparations Time Is Now also contains never-before published comments on reparations by Ayi Kwei Armah.
NORA WITTMANN, Ph.D., is an international lawyer, writer and fashion designer. She received her masters in law and social anthropology as well as her Ph.D. in international law from the University of Vienna and a degree in international law from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Paris, a program she enrolled with the specific aim of sharpening her skills to be able to work for global African reparations. She is regularly invited to partake at conferences and events on the subject of reparations, such as in Jamaica, France and Belgium, and has published articles in the New African and in hip-hop magazines. Slavery Reparations Time Is Now is her first book.
