Brixton town centre roads closed for Slavery Reparation and pollution campaigners march tomorrow

Slavery reparations and climate change campaigners will join forces to demonstrate through Brixton tomorrow.

From 7am on Saturday 1st of August Extinction Rebellion will join in support of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations Rebellion Groundings to block Brixton Road from Max Roach Park to Windrush Square.

The coalition of groups will occupy the area for the day demanding holistic reparations.

Among the participants are musician, journalist, author, activist and poet Akala plus Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee, Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network (XRISN), Rhodes Must Fall Oxford, and A Tribe Named Athari, will occupy the area for the day demanding holistic reparations, including planet repairs.

This is the 6th year that reparations focused protests have been held on Afrikan Emancipation Day. Previously they have taken the form of a march. This year the coalition of groups will occupy central Brixton.

Spokesperson for XRISN, Stop the Maangamizi and The Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee, Esther Stanford-Xosei, said: “As organisers we are inviting members of our communities and the wider public to join us in a show of strength and solidarity in locking-down Brixton because we are not being heard in our people’s demand for the UK Government to establish the All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice and commit to holistic reparations. 

“We have pursued legal means over the past six years and been ignored. It is clear that the government will not act without compulsion and so we have taken the decision to engage in peaceful civil disobedience.”

The theme for the Reparations Rebellion Groundings taking place on Saturday is – ‘Uniting to Stop the Maangamizi for Our Very Survival: Planet Repairs Now!’. Maangamizi is a Kiswahili term for ‘Afrikan Hellacaust’ or ecocide and genocide, popularised in the song ‘Maangamizi’. It takes place on Emancipation Day, commemorated in the Caribbean and some parts of Africa marking the passing of the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act, which came into force on 1 August 1834.

The organisers want the protest to cut air pollution in Brixton for “a space for the community to come together without a detrimental impact to their health”. Studies have shown that those from poor and BAME communities in the UK suffer the worst effects of deadly air pollution. [2] Brixton will be transformed into a public action-learning space featuring a number of arts focused reparations conscientisation activities.

There will be 7 Reparations Rebellion Grounding Spaces: [3]

1. Movement of Movements Internationalist Solidarity Grounding with the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement

2. Community & Planetary Wellbeing Grounding Space

3. Reparations Actions Speakers Corner Grounding Space

4. Maatubuntujamaa Political Economy Grounding Space

5. Arts & Culture Grounding Space

6. Family Grounding Space

7. Women in Resistance & Rebellion Grounding Space

The Reparations Rebellion Groundings will also feature the SANKOFASAFARINTA Pan-Afrikan Internationalist Solidarity Street Exhibition.

The event aims to promote the necessity of stopping the genocide and ecocide of African people. Speakers will highlight the relevance of reparatory and environmental justice, planet repairs and pollution disproportionately impacting Africa and developing countries.