Dr. Robert Allen was in the right place at the right time when he came to Bermuda to celebrate his 60th birthday just over a week ago.

As a presenter at a conference on African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998, he was excited to see the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference going on right here in Bermuda at the Southampton Princess during his visit.

The only drawback was he couldn't get a ticket, after being told the event was sold out! "I was disappointed, yes, on the other hand I was able to make some contact with people who were there so I can get good reports on what happened," said Dr. Allen earlier this week.

"I was on leave this semester so I wasn't on campus and it (information on Diaspora) probably came through the campus student department. I did not know it was taking place and when I arrived and found out about it was already overbooked.

"In a way I was glad to hear that, because there had been one report when I first arrived that said there had been some concern there might not be much of a turnout. There was some success which is good, even though I couldn't get in."

He added: "Those linkages between different nations... it is important to strengthen those ties because we share a similar history and we share similar struggles although the particular form of struggle is different in each community. The basic struggle against discrimination and exploitation as black people is a common thread to all our different experiences. The history of our efforts to build communities despite that is also a common theme."

Dr. Allen has enjoyed learning about Bermuda's culture and past.

"I have enjoyed travelling around Bermuda and looking at the black churches and going to the sights," he said.

"I was at Joseph Rainey's house at Tucker House and learned about him and his contributions. Here is a man who represents the personification of Diaspora, a black man in the United States who escapes from slavery, comes to Bermuda and builds a life here as a barber.

"Then after slavery he goes back to the United States and becomes the first black man in the US Congress. That's the essence of the Diaspora.

You can look at people like Marcus Garvey and CLR James who are from the West Indies and go to the United States or England and get involved in the struggles in the black community and transform things. We have a long, rich history of this interaction between communities and nations that help to strengthen and advance our international struggle."

Dr. Allen was intrigued to learn that the per capita expenditure of pupils here in the public schools is $11,000, twice, he says, that is spent in the US.

"The average per capita expenditure of pupils in the United States is $6,000 and in my state, California, it is $5,000. New Jersey has the highest, $10,000, but the average here is a little over $11,000. That tells me that the Government is putting the money into educating the next generation and that's a great thing to see."

During that same Diaspora Conference in 1998, Dr. Allen also presented a paper entitled: "Past Due: The Quest for African American Reparations".

So who pays and how much?

"The US Government pays," he suggests. "But I don't argue for monetary payments, I argue for the return of value. If we were deprived of education then every black child in the United States should have the right to a free education through college.

"If we were deprived of our health then black seniors, in particular, and children should have the right to free healthcare. If we were deprived of housing then the Federal Government should see that loans are available to black applicants who want to buy a house."

He added: "We know now that we are still being discriminated against in the buying of houses, let's end that and say that the Federal Government will guarantee loans for black people who want to buy a house."

He says the Government should be held responsible for the reparations because "the Federal Government supported slavery".

"It was institutionalised by the US Government. Slavery existed in the south, it's true, but the national Government always supported that institution even though it may not have existed in some of the northern States.

"The US Constitution declares a prohibition against ending the slave trade, although they managed to avoid the use of the word slavery. What they say is...'the importation of such persons as any of the States shall desire may not be prohibited for 20 years'.

"Some people will say it was only in the southern States but it was a national institution because the US Constitution recognised it and the US Supreme Court endorsed it up until the Civil War."

Dr. Allen referred to the case of a slave by the name of Dred Scott who sued for his freedom when he was moved from a slave State to a free State.

"He had been held as a slave in Missouri, a slave State, and was transported to Wisconsin, a free State, and sued for freedom on the grounds that his residence in Wisconsin made him free," said Dr. Allen.

"It goes all the way to the US Supreme Court who says `no, you are property, and the fact that US property was transported from one state to another does not change your status as property'.

"That, in effect, extended slavery even to the free States. Then Slavery ends but discrimination continues, supported by the Federal Courts, until 1954.

"So, from the Colonial days up until 1954, the Federal Government supported, through its laws and through the courts, discrimination against black people. That discrimination had the effect of depriving people of their property, lives, income, education and that has a value.

"The Federal Government was the institution that not only allowed this to happen but in fact enforced it. Therefore a claim against the Federal Government is `past due' as I called the article."