Reparations
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
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As the Royals toured the Caribbean, people took to the streets to ramp up the demand for reparations for slavery.
If you join the call, together we can ensure the descendants and communities of enslaved people finally get justice.
A,
Is it enough to express ‘profound sorrow’ for an ‘appalling atrocity’ that you benefited from? Prince William may think it is, but for many in countries like Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas, it just doesn’t cut it.
As William and Kate tour the Caribbean, they were greeted with calls for justice, and that amends be made for the legacy of slavery. Will you join?
Campaigners in Kingston staged a protest demanding reparations when the Royal tour arrived in Jamaica. The Prime Minister of Barbados -- the world’s newest... republic -- is writing again to European countries on behalf of the Caribbean Community in an attempt to finally resolve the issue.
The Bahamas National Reparations Committee issued the same request ahead of the Duke and Duchess’s arrival there.
If enough of us come together to support those demands, we can tip the scales in favour of making long-overdue amends for the crime against humanity of slavery.
Join the global call for European nations to make amends for slavery and colonialism.
The British Royal family hopes that William and Kate touring the Caribbean islands will head off moves by other nations there to follow Barbados’s lead in removing the Queen as the head of state.
But instead it's helped us imagine what a better world it would be if instead of clinging to the social orders of the past, a process of reconciliation was started.
Atoning for the harm that colonialism and slavery did, means that the global community can come together on an equal footing to solve the problems facing humanity.
The Duke and Duchess's tour coincides with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This year, let’s do more than remember the victims and deliver justice to their descendants and communities.
Call on European Governments to commit to reparations.
The demand for reparations isn’t new, but has been called for by enslaved and freed people themselves since the 18th century. CARICOM, the community of Caribbean nations, agreed a ten point plan for reparatory justice eight years ago.
Indeed, European nations know how to deliver reparations as they’ve done it before. The problem was the wrong people benefitted. Slave owners were compensated on abolition -- allowing them to invest in businesses, buildings and infrastructure, while formerly enslaved people got nothing and their communities were impoverished.
What reparations will look like exactly will be different in different places, but to begin with there must be an apology for the crimes that have been committed, and a commitment to take responsibility for those crimes.
After that it’s about supporting the provision of societal benefits that enslaving and colonising nations were able to provide for themselves from the wealth extracted from countries like those in the Caribbean.
It could start with cancelling monetary debt rather than continuing to extract wealth, so that money can instead be put to public healthcare and education.
Nobody holds descendants of slave traders, slave owners and colonialists responsible for their ancestor’s actions. But the fact remains that the foundation of wealth, corporate power and inequality today is built on this legacy, and it’s high time to make amends for that.
Let’s be the generation that puts things right.
Thanks for all that you do,
Sondhya and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
I did not ‘snub’ Kate Middleton. But Jamaica needs more than royal regrets over slavery, The Guardian, 24 March 2022
Royal rebuff. Pro-reparation demonstrators take stand for slavery pain, The Gleaner, 23 March 2022
Prince William expresses 'profound sorrow' over slavery in Jamaica speech, BBC, 24 March 2022
Prince William and Kate face more protests in Bahamas, Independent, 24 March 2022
After that disastrous royal tour, is the sun finally setting on the Commonwealth realms?, The Guardian
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