(Washington, DC, Monday, April 11, 2005) — Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen reported today that the delegation of Virgin Islanders who traveled to Denmark over the weekend for reparations talks concluded their meetings this morning with representatives of invited institutions and organizations in a town hall meeting. Christensen said that a descendent of Danish Governor General Peter von Scholten, who freed the slaves in the former Danish West Indies in 1848 attended the meetings.

“Reconciliation should be an opportunity for the Virgin Islands and Denmark to fully embrace our shared history,” said Delegate Christensen. “We feel that we have to acknowledge it and repair it,” she continued. “Neither side knows how to approach it and both sides have some trepidation about even opening up the discussion.” 

In Denmark at the invitation of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the group will join the Danes in a task force to explore reconciliation and reparations for slavery in the Danish West Indies (now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands). For the purposes of the task force, reparations have been defined as “education, restoration and reconciliation.”  Denmark owned the islands in the Caribbean for about 250 years, and was an active participant in the Atlantic slave trade during that time.  The islands were sold to the United States in 1917 for strategic economic and political reasons.

Delegate Christensen traveled to Denmark with two Virgin Islands legislators and members of the African Acaribbean Reparation and Reconciliation Alliance (ACCRA) headed by its president, Mr. Shelley Moorhead. Others in the delegation include Senator Raymond “Usie” Richards, the Secretary for Intergovernmental and Territorial Affairs of the 26th Legislature, Senator Terrance “Positive” Nelson, Dr. Carlyle Corbin, the Governor’s representative, Attorney Terrence Todman, Jr., Ethero Akinshegun, Precious Laurent, a student from the St. Croix Educational Complex and Moriel McClerkin, along as an observer.

Visits and meetings included the Danish Artists Council, the Danish Cultural Institute, the North Atlantic Colonies Foundation, the Danish Council for Built Heritage whose co-chair Ulla Lunn initiated the dialogue and the visit.  Lunn is also the Director of the Virgin Islands Danish Apprenticeship Initiative, where young Virgin Islanders are apprenticed in Denmark to learn traditional trades shared by both cultures.

The Virgin Islands Delegation will hold a press conference on their return to the United States to discuss the details of the trip.

Christensen said that figuring out a way for all sides to discuss slavery and its consequences is a worldwide dilemma. “We need to examine the sequelae of slavery so that we don’t adopt someone else’s language, our conversation has to be based on our (Virgin Islands) experience.”

“I think it has been a good trip,” said Delegate Christensen. “I sense that there is a desire on the part of at least the groups with whom we met to explore our history and to expand on the initiatives under way,” she said.  “Where the process goes beyond that, we are willing to wait and see.”

Delegate Christensen will return to Washington on Tuesday for the start of legislative business.