David Comissiong | |
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Born | David Andre Comissiong 1960 (age 63–64) |
Education | Harrison College |
Alma mater | University of the West Indies at Cave Hill; Hugh Wooding Law School |
Occupation(s) | Attorney and political activist |
Children | 2 |
Part of the Politics series on |
Pan-Africanism |
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David Comissiong (born 1960) [1] is a Vincentian-born political activist, founder of the Clement Payne Movement, and former head of the Barbadian government's Commission for Pan-African affairs. [2] He is a frequent critic of globalization and United States hegemony. [3] One of the key Pan-Africanists in Caribbean politics, Comissiong is the Barbados Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). [4] [5]
David Andre Comissiong was born in 1960 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His father was a Methodist minister "served in eight different Caribbean territories", and when Comissiong at the age of six moved to Trinidad, where he undertook primary education, before relocating with his family to Barbados in 1971. [5] He attended Harrison College in Barbados, and went on to study at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill (Barbados), then at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad & Tobago, where he was admitted to the bar in 1984. [6]
He starred in the multi-award-winning documentary 500 Years Later (2005), which featured Maulana Karenga, Muhammed Shareef, Francis Cress Welsin, Kimani Nehusi, Paul Robeson Jr, Nelson George, and many others. [7]
Comissiong is the author of the 2013 book It's the Healing of the Nation: The Case For Reparations In An Era of Recession and Re-colonisation. [8] He is also the author of Marching Down the Wide Streets of Tomorrow: Emancipation Essays and Speeches, published in 2008.
An attorney by profession, he is married with two daughters.
Since 2018, Comissiong has served as Ambassador of Barbados to CARICOM. [5] [9] [10]
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region next to North America and north of South America, and is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands. It lies on the boundary of the South American and Caribbean plates. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.
Owen Seymour Arthur was a Barbadian politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Barbados from 6 September 1994 to 15 January 2008. He is the longest-serving Barbadian prime minister to date. He also served as Leader of the Opposition from 1 August 1993 to 6 September 1994 and from 23 October 2010 to 21 February 2013.
The Clement Payne Movement (CPM) is a left-wing Barbados-based political party named in honour of a Trinidad-born man who led a 1937 uprising in Barbados. The Clement Payne Movement is generally seen by most Barbadians as more leftist in ideology when compared with either the more moderate Barbados Labour Party (BLP) or Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, KA, PC was a Barbadian politician. He served as the fourth prime minister of Barbados from 1987 to 1994, and later served as Barbados' first resident ambassador in Beijing, China, from 2010 to 2013.
Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent as well as around the world. The organization was replaced by the African Union on 9 July 2002, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados is a key Barbadian government agency responsible for regulating, maintaining, and developing Barbados's external relations and the nature of trading with foreign countries. The Ministry is also responsible for the country's representation at the United Nations and advises other Ministries and State authorities when the latter have dealings with foreign governments or institutions. It is based on Culloden Road, in the nation's capital Bridgetown.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the nation of Barbados.
George William Lamming OCC was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for In the Castle of My Skin, his 1953 debut novel. He also held academic posts, including as a distinguished visiting professor at Duke University and a visiting professor in the Africana Studies Department of Brown University, and lectured extensively worldwide.
This article deals with the diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and international relations of Barbados.
The Caribbean, is a subregion in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south, it comprises numerous islands, cays, islets, reefs, and banks. It includes the Lucayan Archipelago, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles of the West Indies; the Quintana Roo islands and Belizean islands of the Yucatán Peninsula; and the Bay Islands, Miskito Cays, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, and Corn Islands of Central America. It also includes the coastal areas on the continental mainland of the Americas bordering the region from the Yucatán Peninsula in North America through Central America to the Guianas in South America.
Barbados–Guyana relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Barbados and Guyana. The former maintains non-resident diplomatic representation from Bridgetown, while Guyana which prior had a High Commissioner to Barbados appointed its first resident Consul-General, Michael Brotherson to Bridgetown in January 2012.
Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago formally established diplomatic relations on Barbados' national date of independence, 30 November 1966. Barbados maintains non-resident representation to Port of Spain, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago maintains non-resident representation to Bridgetown. Both countries are members of many shared organisations, including the Association of Caribbean States, the Commonwealth of Nations, CARICOM, CARIFORUM, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
Foreign relations between Barbados and Japan were formally established on 29 August 1967. Japan is accredited to Barbados from its embassy in Bridgetown (Barbados) and an honorary consulate in the parish of Saint George. Barbados is represented in Japan through a non-resident ambassador in Bridgetown. Japan's new Ambassador for Barbados, Mitsuhiko Okada had announced a new direct embassy to Barbados would be established located in Bridgetown in February 2016.
Julian Ernest Chetvynde Rogers MBE is a Caribbean broadcaster and journalist. He has worked as broadcast manager, TV and radio host and producer, publisher, trainer, lecturer, media consultant and public relations professional. Involved since the 1970s with the building of national radio stations notably in Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, and Antigua & Barbuda, and part of "the original team set up to 'revolutionise' the media industry in Trinidad & Tobago with the rebranding of the Trinidad and Tobago Television Company (TTT) into CNMG", he has been called "the Caribbean man" and has established a reputation as one of the region's most respected media practitioners. His characteristic style as a broadcaster is to conduct biting interviews; one commentator refers to "the persistent journalistic exploits of a resurgent, sharp-witted and emphatic Julian Rogers".
Reparations for slavery refers to providing benefits to victims of slavery and/or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. Reparations can take many forms, including practical and financial assistance to the descendants of enslaved people, acknowledgements or apologies to peoples or nations negatively affected by slavery, or honouring the memories of people who were enslaved by naming things after them. Victims of slavery can refer past slavery or ongoing slavery in the 21st century.
Andaiye, born Sandra Williams, was a Guyanese social, political, and gender rights activist, who has been described as "a transformative figure in the region's political struggle, particularly in the late 1970s, '80s and '90s".
The Global Reparation Fund is a fund established by the African Union and Caricom that seeks reparations for slavery from their former European colonial powers. It was established in 2023.