English
Français
Dr Velma McClymont is a Black British woman writer, community activist, international speaker and former higher education lecturer in Caribbean Studies. She has been speaking on reparations since 2014 when she called out Scotland’s leading historian, Professor Sir Tom Devine (University of Edinburgh) at the Briggait in Glasgow during the 2014 Olympics for his public refusal to discuss reparations.
- Fellow of the African Forum Scotland;
- Patron of Decolonising the Archives, London;
- Patron of Hope and Smiles charity, Kenya;
- Ambassador for Peace, Universal Peace Federation;
- Member of Eco-Conscious Citizens, Ghana;
- Patron of Enfield Caribbean Connexions, UK;
- Patron of Diaspora Movement Matters, Dublin.
- Member of 21Days Brazil Solidarity C.
- Member of Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) uk
- On 17 October 2015, she gave a talk on 'The History of Migration and Immigration in Relation to the Current European Immigration Crisis' in Glasgow.
- After the murder of George Floyd and reports of Covid-19’s impact on Black communities in UK and USA, she was a guest speaker at a Black Lives Matter Zoom event in Southern Ireland, organised by Diaspora Movement Matters.
- In June 2020, she set up a Black women writers’ support group that meets monthly to discuss the TTEA in the British Caribbean, colonisation, systemic racism and reparations.
- She recently set up a women’s discussion forum, called WomanzVue, to address the many issues impacting on the lives of women of African descent (website under construction). Sister Esther Stanford-Xosei was there to launch this forum with a very informative talk on reparations. On 1 Oct 2020, Velma launched WomanzVue Black History Month with Professor Verene Shepherd who presented on 'The Contributions of African Women to the Building of Modern Britain'. This also included Professor Tony Leiba giving a talk on 'the impact of racism on mental health and well-being' as part of repairing the self.
Reparatory justice means repairing or healing the harm done to the Black psyche under enslavement and colonialism; financial compensation in the form of 'unpaid wages' for centuries of economic exploitation of the Black body; and addressing systemic racism against people of African descent (in health, employment, education, housing, policing and criminal justice system).
Thanks to Black Lives Matter, there has been a resurgence of interest in African/Caribbean and Black British history. As a writer/poet, Dr McClymont has added her voice to the reparations debate/cry. See her protest poems on the Journey to Justice’s website.