SAN JUAN – Actor and activist Danny Glover endorsed Jamaican demands for reparations for slavery during a visit to Kingston this week, National Commission on Reparations Chairperson Verene Shepherd told EFE on Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Glover’s visit is part of the “continuing efforts to have those who have big voices to help energize the movement” in the island, Shepherd said.

In comments Tuesday before the reparations commission and senior officials, including Foreign Minister Arnold Nicholson, the outspoken U.S. artist called for using the International Decade for People of African Descent, which ends in 2024, to raise awareness about the reparations issue.

“When we talk about reparations we are taking in our ancestors’ stories … to understand what our ancestors had to do to get us to this point, it only encourages us and reinforces what we have to do to take the next step,” Glover said, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Glover also urged a joining of forces between the reparations movement and the Black Lives Matter campaign in the U.S., Shepherd said.

Known for his roles in the “Lethal Weapon” films and “The Color Purple,” Glover was invited to the University of West Indies by Vice Chancellor Hilary Beckles, who chairs the Caribbean Community Reparation Commission.

CARICOM has already agreed upon a 10-point program on reparations that includes asking Europe for an official apology and debt forgiveness.

CARICOM comprises Antigua and Barbuda; the Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Haiti; Jamaica; Montserrat; St. Lucia; St. Kitts and Nevis; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; and Trinidad and Tobago.

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