The University of the West Indies (UWI) held another successful Dame Eugenia Charles Memorial Lecture on Thursday 6, February. This year’s topic was “Upgrading to first-class: The role and contributions of Dominican women in the Caribbean Reparations Movement.
”The Secretary-General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Chair of the Open Campus Council and one of the founding members of the Reparations Committee, Dr. June Soomer, was the featured speaker.Dr. Soomer said, “Women have been fighting for reparations from the very beginning of enslavement. We did it in many different ways…We have been fighting for that upgrade… and race has always been a determining factor in how women are treated”.
Dr. Sommer referenced an occasion when she was at a meeting and someone commented on the number of women ambassadors, however, she felt that black women were few and so the progress women are experiencing worldwide must also touch the black community on a much grander scale.
Dr. Soomer also said that the call for reparations must never leave out the indigenous women as they were dehumanized and made almost nameless and faceless in society.
According to Dr.Soomer for a country to move forward, its women must not be oppressed.
Chairing the programme was the Director of the UWI Open Campus, Dr. Francis O. Severin, Chairman of the Reparations Committe, Dr. Damien Dublin, and Head of UWI Open Campus, Dominica, Ms. Kimone Joseph.
