The Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council (EADUMC) is proposing a Jamaica–Ethiopia pilot programme for the voluntary repatriation and resettlement of Rastafari and other members of the African diaspora.
The proposal is being presented at the Third CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations, which is being held in Barbados and ends today.
Developed with the Jamaica Rastafari Development Community, the proposed programme would address legal status, access to land, livelihoods, cultural reconnection, the movement of skills and technology, and the financing of resettlement.
It would link Jamaica and other CARICOM countries with the longstanding Rastafari community at Shashamane, Ethiopia, as well as diaspora groups in the United States and United Kingdom.
“Repatriation is the central implementation issue,” EADUMC said in its conference submission.
“The Third Conference can now establish the legal, institutional, financial and community-governance pathway needed to move from recognition to a measurable Jamaica–Ethiopia pilot.”
The organisation is asking the conference to refer the proposal to a technical meeting within 90 days and appoint a CARICOM official to coordinate its consideration.
It is also seeking the establishment of a CARICOM–African Union working group on repatriation, resettlement and what it describes as “brain circulation”. EADUMC wants Rastafari and repatriate communities to have permanent voting representation on that body.
The group further wants the pilot included in CARICOM’s proposed 2027–2031 reparations action plan and the Bridgetown Action Plan expected to emerge from the conference.
According to the release, the initial design and evidence-gathering phase would run for 12 months.
EADUMC said the initiative must be governed by transparent community mandates, free, prior and informed consent, independent financial oversight and measurable reporting. It also called for protection of Rastafari cultural and intellectual property and safeguards for affected communities.
The organisation said these provisions were intended to ensure that Rastafari communities participated as decision-makers and were not treated solely as cultural representatives.
The Caribbean Rastafari Union is expected to serve as a regional consultation mechanism. Paul “Ras Simba” Rock of Barbados is representing the proposal at the conference.
EADUMC said its framework builds on submissions made around the first two CARICOM reparations conferences, held in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2013 and Antigua and Barbuda in 2014.
The current conference is intended to advance the implementation of CARICOM’s revised Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice.
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