HR0292LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The Eighth Pan-African Congress Part 1 (8PAC1)is
3scheduled to be held in Harare, Zimbabwe in September 2023,
4and it will focus on the issues of a comprehensive diaspora
5citizen plan, the prospect of equal status within the African
6Union (AU) for the AU's 6th Region (the Diaspora), and the
7establishment of a headquarters for the 6th Region; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Illinois can be said to be home to the spirit of
9Pan-Africanism and modern repatriation to Africa with
10citizenship; and
 
11    WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln, a former Illinois
12Congressman, proposed a voluntary repatriation program that
13was passed by the U.S. Congress in separate acts in 1862; on
14July 16 of that year, an appropriation of an additional
15$500,000, or $15.8 million in 2021, was to be used in securing
16the right of return of free persons to the African continent;
17and
 
18    WHEREAS, In 1893, the Chicago Congress on Africa was held,
19which was attended by people of African heritage and lineage
20from both sides of the Atlantic and combined the intellectual
21with the ideological, religious, philosophical, and scientific
22to discuss the status of the global African population and

 

 

HR0292- 2 -LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1formulate an agenda facilitating policy for continental and
2diasporic Africans; the Chicago Congress led to the Atlanta
3Congress on Africa in 1895 and to the First Pan-African
4Congress in London, England five years later; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The First Pan-African Congress was organized in
6London by West Indian barrister Sylvester Williams in 1900,
7and the event featured notable African American historian
8W.E.B. Du Bois, Ph.D.; in addition, the event's preparatory
9meeting was attended by educator and author Booker T.
10Washington; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Dr. Du Bois went on to organize the next four
12congresses, which were Paris in 1919, London and Brussels in
131921, London and Lisbon in 1923, and New York in 1927; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The Great Depression paused the Pan-African
15Congress (PAC) from being held; the event resumed with the
16Fifth PAC in Manchester, England in 1945, and the subsequent
17PACs held were the Sixth PAC in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in
181974, the Seventh PAC in Kampala, Uganda in 1994, and the
19Eighth PAC in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2014; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Although the occurrences of PACs have been
21irregular and spontaneous, they have been the yardstick and
22the benchmark of the African agenda for Africans, both within

 

 

HR0292- 3 -LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1and without the African continent, and on the basis of mutual
2respect and cooperation towards African unity; through the PAC
3series, the ideal of a global humanity where African people
4are free and independent and protected from the scourges of
5exploitation, cultural hegemony, and anti-Africanness can be
6implemented; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The importance of engaging in positive
8relationships with African nations and the subsequent
9convening of the 8PAC1 represents the highest expression of
10the African-American and African liberation ideal; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Previous PACs have contributed to practical
12manifestations of the Pan-African project, giving way to the
13Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of
14West African States (ECOWAS), the Lagos Plan of Action, the
15Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC),
16and the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), all of which have led to
17greater developments in democracy throughout the African
18continent; and
 
19    WHEREAS, The nation's first municipally-funded reparations
20legislation for Black residents was achieved in Illinois by
21Robin Rue Simmons, former 5th Ward alderperson of the City of
22Evanston; and
 

 

 

HR0292- 4 -LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1    WHEREAS, The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations
2in America (NCOBRA) is the longest running, active
3organization championing the cause of reparations in the U.S.;
4the organization's national co-chair was previously Kamm
5Howard, an Illinois resident, who held the position from 2017
6to 2022, and whose involvement resulted in the City of Chicago
7Subcommittee on Reparations, making Illinois home to the first
8and second cities in America to establish a local governmental
9body to redress past harms against its Black citizens; Howard
10was also the primary writer of the first iteration of the
11Illinois African Descent Citizens Reparations Commission bill;
12and
 
13    WHEREAS, Siphiwe Baleka serves as coordinator of the
148PAC1, which was called by H.E. Ambassador Arikana
15Chihombori-Quao, M.D., founder and president of the African
16Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI); Baleka was born in
17Montgomery, Illinois and graduated from Oswego Community High
18School, and he has repatriated to his ancestral homeland of
19Guinea Bissau, becoming the first naturalized citizen under
20the country's Decade of Return Initiative; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Additionally of note is the fact that Robin Rue
22Simmons, Kamm Howard, and Siphiwe Baleka have all taken
23African ancestry DNA tests and discovered they are each
24descendants of the Balanta people of Guinea Bissau; they

 

 

HR0292- 5 -LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1subsequently traveled together to their ancestral homeland to
2launch the country's Decade of Return Initiative in 2021; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The spirit emanating from Illinois initiated both
4the first and latest PACs, and it has championed the recent
5Reparations movement's calls for further action; therefore, be
6it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
8HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
9we declare that the State of Illinois should take the lead on
10issues of Pan-Africanism, citizenship in Africa, and
11reparatory justice, and the State should additionally champion
12the Eighth Pan-African Congress Part 1 (8PAC1) and its agenda
13to develop a continental-wide diaspora citizenship plan,
14establish the African Diaspora as the 6th Region of the
15African Union (AU), and determine a permanent headquarters for
16the 6th Region; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to
18immediately, through its African Descent-Citizens Reparations
19Commission (ADCRC), provide matrilineal and patrilineal DNA
20testing through African ancestry to determine the ancestral
21lineages and territories of origin of its Black residents so
22that they can seek citizenship in their ancestral homelands,
23if so desired; and be it further
 

 

 

HR0292- 6 -LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

1    RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to
2become the first state to conduct a repatriation census in
3preparation for honoring President Abraham Lincoln's desire
4for voluntary repatriation with compensation; and be it
5further
 
6    RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to make
7conducting the repatriation census its immediate priority.