Panellist from the recent Barbados conference on Reparations for Slavery, Runoko Rashidi has defended his vote which contributed in the expulsion of all whites from the conference, saying they were not wanted.

He also fully supported the controversial Zimbabwean law which kicks white framers off ‘their land’ giving it to black settlers.

Rashidi was the guest speaker at the third annual Nile Valley Symposium in the University of Technology (UTECH) auditorium on Friday night. The conference entitled ‘Out of Africa’ also had students from other corporate area institutions visiting during the day sessions.

“That was a conference that needed to be for and by blacks. There is a role for white people in the struggle but they can do that among themselves, we did not need their help. Black people need to help themselves,” said Rashidi. The conference of reparations for slavery sought to develop a consolidated position on how to approach the issue of reparations for the enslavement of blacks and what to demand as justice.

The call for the removal of whites was prompted by the British delegation, which put the matter to vote, and won strong support from the Americans. Rashidi, a member of the American delegation who specialises in the protection of human rights of persecuted nationalities – arguably the leading authority on the African presence in Asia – alluded that a white presence would have influenced the content and the freedom in which panellists would have discussed the reparations agenda.

This view, however was not endorsed by the Caribbean delegations, including: Barbados, Cuba, Haiti, Martinique and Jamaica which either withdrew or expressed dissent.

Rashidi defended: “You in the Caribbean may see the world in a different way. You live with the perception of blacks being in the majority and influencing decisions but in the United States blacks are a minority and are not in positions of power and authority. We have to build our own position on the matter first. But it is a pity that the efforts of the conference got sidelined by the issue of the vote.”

Earlier, Rashidi responded to president Mugabe’s controversial law which forces white farmers to quit their land and make way for black settlers or face a fine and up to two years in prison. The law has been criticised by Commonwealth nations as racist.

“Everybody believes that the land has been taken from blacks by the white-man from the days of colonialism. If someone broke into your house and stole your stove, fridge and raped your children and then said that you must pay him back for the things that he stole is unjust and thus I support Mugabe in principle,” he continued.