Public health crisis has links to slavery

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - THE African-descended population in the Caribbean has the highest incidence in the world of chronic diseases, in the forms of hypertension and type two diabetes. This pandemic is the direct result of the nutritional experience, physical and emotional brutality and overall stress profile associated with slavery, genocide and apartheid.

This is the information contained in a document entitled the “Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme: A Ten-Point Plan of Action”, which was outlined by Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, as he spoke at a press briefing convened yesterday, to give an update on the work of the Commission.

Making reference to Point 5 of the Action Plan, Professor Beckles remarked that “there is at the moment an epidemic of chronic diseases that is sweeping through the Black population of the Caribbean”.