Saint Lucia will take the reparations message to the rest of the Caribbean on August 17th, the anniversary of Marcus Garvey’s birthday, when one of its foremost scholars will deliver an inaugural lecture in an educational series to be launched at the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies.

The new Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Ambassador Dr. June Soomer will deliver a live public lecture on the topic The Reparations Movement: “A Collection of Racial Justice Activists Marching to the Beat of Their Own Drum.”

A former Saint Lucia Ambassador to CARICOM and the OECS, Dr Soomer is expected to draw the link between Slavery and Emancipation, Marcus Garvey and his struggle for Repatriation.

She is also expected to explain why it is important for Saint Lucians and all Caribbean people to support and carry on the CARICOM quest for Reparations for Britain, France and other European states for Slavery and Native Genocide in the Caribbean.

A former student and lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Ambassador Soomer was also responsible for Saint Lucia’s Regional Integration and Diaspora Affairs before being selected to head the Trinidad & Tobago-based ACS.

Dr Soomer, who has already taken up her new post, is also a former founding member of the Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee (NRC).
The Saint Lucia lecture will be the first by the prominent Saint Lucian lady envoy in her new post.