The call for compensation to descendants of slaves has been a passionate topic among the Afro-conscious for many years. Singer Moses I’s latest song, Reparation, addresses what is a sensitive issue.

Recently released, the single is co-produced by Livon Music and Ironstorm Productions.

Moses I says he has heard the cry for reparation since his youth in Papine, St Andrew, home to a militant Rastafarian community. He said talking is one thing, but working together to get former slave-trading countries like the United Kingdom to pay monies to descendants of the enslaved, is critical.

“ Reparation is ’bout I ‘n I freedom, but wi haffi stan’ up together. Is a difficult task if wi not united,” he told the Jamaica Observer’s Splash.

Moses I added that many Jamaicans are unaware of the evils of slavery and the prejudice black people faced after the British government declared Emancipation in 1838. He said the ignorant are willing to partake in political differences than seek reparation.

“Wi cyaan get liberation if wi a fight political war,” he stated.

Last July, leaders of the 12 countries that comprise the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) pledged their support for the regional reparations movement. Jamaica’s Culture minister, Olivia Grange, said, “Our ancestors, suffered the most degrading and inhumane treatment recorded in world history, the foundations upon which a global economic and socio-political system evolved, one that perpetually defames and disenfranchises people of African descent. We will relentlessly pursue justice and reparations in its varied forms.”

Moses I was born Anthony Singh and is of East Indian and Afro-Jamaican heritage. His career began in the late 1980s as a protégé of Augustus Pablo and Philip “Fatis” Burrell.

His first song, I Lift up my Eyes Onto The Hills, was produced by Stone Love Movements. Moses I is best known for the song, Crazy Look, a 1998 collaboration with Capleton.

Reparation is the lead single from his upcoming EP, also co-produced by Livon Music and Ironstorm Productions.