SSP Diaries | The matter of reparations

IN SCHOOL, we learnt of our discovery and subsequent colonisation by a number of European nations, the chief of which was the British. Caribbean history, as explained, then chronicled the escapades of Christopher Columbus and, in later years, the slave trade and plantation system, the engine of our colonisers that enriched the nations of the colonisers.

History also allowed us to understand the levels of cruelty suffered under the plantation system by our ancestors, who survived the Atlantic Passage to be enslaved, providing forced labour, humiliated beyond comprehension, as was the case in the ‘breeding colonies’ and typical of most plantations where slaves were ‘possessions’ and not people. We were taught the hardships endured, broken families, rapes, wanton killings, and the life of servitude the enslaved were subjected to without thought for compensation or mercy.

Our ancestors suffered in the process of making the coloniser rich. The wealth gained from them remains the economic foundations of many a European country today. Although we studied Caribbean history per se, we did so with a particular focus then, and that was to ensure that we passed examinations and, ironically, these exams were set by our past colonisers’ systems which controlled our education at the time.

So, although there were cries of injustices, indoctrination and the continuation of colonial rule, even after gaining independence, many of us were still not ‘conscious’ enough to understand the great tragedy of slavery, especially the psychological impact that continues to inhibit individual and collective advancement today, not only in our region but globally.

The cry for reparations for atrocities suffered under slavery is not a new one, but one that has taken on new significance and urgency in recent times. For most of us, the significance of this call did not sink home until some time after leaving high school or after exposures at the tertiary-education level. It was then that I certainly began to have an appreciation for its relevance, having been able to fully connect all the dots allowing one to have a much greater understanding or degree of consciousness regarding the impact of slavery, its dehumanisation of some societies (the enslaved and sources of the enslaved), and the enrichment of others, namely the European colonisers.

Countries and societies were literally robbed of their wealth, forcibly and otherwise, the spoils from which they used to create many a developed country in our world today. Africa is a case in point. It has suffered immensely, not only in the trading of our brothers and sisters but also the loss of significant artefacts which have adorned many museums in the northern hemisphere, and which continue to earn great sums for those nations illegally possessing same. The Caribbean, in the minds of the British, has outlived its usefulness and been duly discarded.

DEMAND FOR REPARATION

The demand for reparations is based upon solid ground, but I think it needs a different approach. In the Caribbean, the momentum is slowly gaining strength with the voices of academia, politicians and the public growing stronger each day. From the political perspective, or that of our democratic leaders, there are consistent calls from prime ministers Mottley, Gonsalves, and former Prime Minister Rowley. One doesn’t hear enough from Prime Minister Holness on this subject, even though one of his ministers has been very vocal in recent times. Academia, in the form of The University of the West Indies, is and has remained the strongest element of society demanding that the injustice of slavery be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The effort, regionally and internationally so far, has come out of individual countries seeking reparations from previous colonisers. This allows the British, for example, to allegedly adopt the position on India’s demands as follows: ‘Historical grievances should not be settled through modern financial claims, arguing that current aid and trade relations are a form of reconciliation’. (Mayowa J M ACIB, www.linkedin.com). Seriously grievous and important matters can easily be reduced to the ridiculous if the approach is incorrect.

Using Great Britain as an example, all aggrieved and likeminded nations need to come together and speak as one in making the collective claim for reparations in money or kind. The principle is no different from that which is being advocated today to stop the atrocities being committed by Israel on the Palestinians in Gaza. The more there is an international outcry with the possibility of punitive or other actions, the more there is a likelihood of the colonisers owning up to their responsibilities.

The colonisation of one state by another continues to be at the root of most conflicts and hardships across Africa, the Caribbean, in the Middle East, and elsewhere today. Caribbean politicians must stop paying lip service to the problem and develop a unified approach to the matter which needs to be addressed with urgency. Reparation claims cannot be viewed as a political tool, it’s a historical wrong to be made as humanly right as is possible in today’s world. It must serve as a lesson to so-called powerful nations that the subjugation of one nation by another will not be tolerated, and will have serious consequences.

We spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and there are others who spoke with us. This helped to bring about desired changes in that country. We can do the same by ensuring the unity of CARICOM on the matter, and their leading of the charge to get others onboard doing the same, simultaneously.

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