HR0292 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0292 LRB103 32376 LAW 61790 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Eighth Pan-African Congress Part 1 (8PAC1)is scheduled to be held in Harare, Zimbabwe in September 2023, and it will focus on the issues of a comprehensive diaspora citizen plan, the prospect of equal status within the African Union (AU) for the AU's 6th Region (the Diaspora), and the establishment of a headquarters for the 6th Region; and

WHEREAS, Illinois can be said to be home to the spirit of Pan-Africanism and modern repatriation to Africa with citizenship; and

WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln, a former Illinois Congressman, proposed a voluntary repatriation program that was passed by the U.S. Congress in separate acts in 1862; on July 16 of that year, an appropriation of an additional $500,000, or $15.8 million in 2021, was to be used in securing the right of return of free persons to the African continent; and

WHEREAS, In 1893, the Chicago Congress on Africa was held, which was attended by people of African heritage and lineage from both sides of the Atlantic and combined the intellectual with the ideological, religious, philosophical, and scientific to discuss the status of the global African population and formulate an agenda facilitating policy for continental and diasporic Africans; the Chicago Congress led to the Atlanta Congress on Africa in 1895 and to the First Pan-African Congress in London, England five years later; and

WHEREAS, The First Pan-African Congress was organized in London by West Indian barrister Sylvester Williams in 1900, and the event featured notable African American historian W.E.B. Du Bois, Ph.D.; in addition, the event's preparatory meeting was attended by educator and author Booker T. Washington; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Du Bois went on to organize the next four congresses, which were Paris in 1919, London and Brussels in 1921, London and Lisbon in 1923, and New York in 1927; and

WHEREAS, The Great Depression paused the Pan-African Congress (PAC) from being held; the event resumed with the Fifth PAC in Manchester, England in 1945, and the subsequent PACs held were the Sixth PAC in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1974, the Seventh PAC in Kampala, Uganda in 1994, and the Eighth PAC in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2014; and

WHEREAS, Although the occurrences of PACs have been irregular and spontaneous, they have been the yardstick and the benchmark of the African agenda for Africans, both within and without the African continent, and on the basis of mutual respect and cooperation towards African unity; through the PAC series, the ideal of a global humanity where African people are free and independent and protected from the scourges of exploitation, cultural hegemony, and anti-Africanness can be implemented; and

WHEREAS, The importance of engaging in positive relationships with African nations and the subsequent convening of the 8PAC1 represents the highest expression of the African-American and African liberation ideal; and

WHEREAS, Previous PACs have contributed to practical manifestations of the Pan-African project, giving way to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Lagos Plan of Action, the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC), and the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), all of which have led to greater developments in democracy throughout the African continent; and

WHEREAS, The nation's first municipally-funded reparations legislation for Black residents was achieved in Illinois by Robin Rue Simmons, former 5th Ward alderperson of the City of Evanston; and

WHEREAS, The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (NCOBRA) is the longest running, active organization championing the cause of reparations in the U.S.; the organization's national co-chair was previously Kamm Howard, an Illinois resident, who held the position from 2017 to 2022, and whose involvement resulted in the City of Chicago Subcommittee on Reparations, making Illinois home to the first and second cities in America to establish a local governmental body to redress past harms against its Black citizens; Howard was also the primary writer of the first iteration of the Illinois African Descent Citizens Reparations Commission bill; and

WHEREAS, Siphiwe Baleka serves as coordinator of the 8PAC1, which was called by H.E. Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, M.D., founder and president of the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI); Baleka was born in Montgomery, Illinois and graduated from Oswego Community High School, and he has repatriated to his ancestral homeland of Guinea Bissau, becoming the first naturalized citizen under the country's Decade of Return Initiative; and

WHEREAS, Additionally of note is the fact that Robin Rue Simmons, Kamm Howard, and Siphiwe Baleka have all taken African ancestry DNA tests and discovered they are each descendants of the Balanta people of Guinea Bissau; they subsequently traveled together to their ancestral homeland to launch the country's Decade of Return Initiative in 2021; and

WHEREAS, The spirit emanating from Illinois initiated both the first and latest PACs, and it has championed the recent Reparations movement's calls for further action; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare that the State of Illinois should take the lead on issues of Pan-Africanism, citizenship in Africa, and reparatory justice, and the State should additionally champion the Eighth Pan-African Congress Part 1 (8PAC1) and its agenda to develop a continental-wide diaspora citizenship plan, establish the African Diaspora as the 6th Region of the African Union (AU), and determine a permanent headquarters for the 6th Region; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to immediately, through its African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission (ADCRC), provide matrilineal and patrilineal DNA testing through African ancestry to determine the ancestral lineages and territories of origin of its Black residents so that they can seek citizenship in their ancestral homelands, if so desired; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to become the first state to conduct a repatriation census in preparation for honoring President Abraham Lincoln's desire for voluntary repatriation with compensation; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call upon the State of Illinois to make conducting the repatriation census its immediate priority.