Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness called the king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth“global matriarch” and “close friend of Jamaica” after her death on September 8. While Holness’s statement of condolence may be emotional, he and many Jamaicans look forward to a time when the Caribbean island nation is free of its constitutional monarchy and a day when Britain formally apologizes and makes reparations for the work. Jamaica is just one of many former British colonies in the Caribbean seeking atonement for the enslavement of millions of people and the lasting legacy of that horrific era. Months before Charles became king, he spoke of his “personal grief” while attending a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, in June. Prince William, his son and now first in line to the throne, made a similar remark during visiting Jamaica in March. But expressions of regret are not apologies, say people fighting for reparations. “We’re tired of these old-fashioned platitudes that people say on the spur of the moment to make people feel good,” said Lisa Hanna, a Jamaican opposition MP and foreign relations critic. “It’s time they bent the arc of history toward some degree of justice and restorative justice.” He told CBC News that the monarchy and the British government must recognize that Britain committed “crimes against humanity” and gained “a significant portion of its wealth” by doing so. WATCHES | Queen Elizabeth’s complex legacy in Africa:
Queen Elizabeth’s complicated legacy in Africa
Queen Elizabeth’s death has sparked a series of mixed emotions in Africa, where centuries of British colonization have left a painful legacy. While some loved and admired her, others say her death should not hide the severe damage she suffered during her days of empire.
Royal heritage
The royal family’s links to slavery date back to 1562, during the early Elizabethan era, but it was under Charles II in the 1660s that the monarchy began funding the slave trade. It was a protected and is regulated business in the British Empire. Between that time and 1807, when Britain ended the slave trade, more than three million African men, women and children were kidnapped from their continent, transported across the Atlantic and forced to work on plantations in British territories in the Caribbean and America. About 400,000 are estimated to have died crossing the Atlantic Ocean. People demanding reparations for slavery protest outside the British High Commission during a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 22. (Ricardo Makyn/AFP/Getty Images) Britain officially abolished slavery in its empire in 1833, although the Abolition Act did not come into force until 1 August the following year. This date is now designated as Emancipation Day in former British colonies, including Canada. The British government of the time paid 20 million pounds — more than £1.7 billion (Cdn$2.75 billion) in today’s currency, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator — for free about 800,000 slaves throughout the Caribbean, as well as South Africa and Canada. A document about UK Treasury website he says it was “about 40 percent of the government’s total annual expenditure.” This money was not to compensate or support the slaves in their freedom, but to pay the slave owners for what was seen as their loss. If you were to put a price on how much Britain should pay in reparations, the amount paid to slave owners – adjusted for inflation – would be a starting point, said Niambi Hall-Campbell Dean, chair of the National Reparations Commission of Bahamas. But he explained how reparations are not necessarily about financial compensation. “We’re not really focused on a specific amount of money,” Hall-Campbell Dean said in an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens last week. “We recognize that there are areas of underdevelopment that were left because of colonization, in terms of education, health care, indigenous knowledge programs.” LISTEN | Why Elizabeth’s death may be a moment of transition for the Commonwealth: The Current19:14 Why Queen Elizabeth II’s death could be a transition moment for the Commonwealth While some in the Commonwealth are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, others are grappling with the violent legacy of British colonial rule – and questioning their country’s relationship with the new monarch, King Charles III. To discuss the mood in three Commonwealth countries, guest host Nahlah Ayed talks to Rosalea Hamilton, Coordinator of the Advocates Network in Jamaica. Bizeck Phiri, professor and historian at the University of Zambia. and Cindy McCreery, historian and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Repairing the past
The CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Compensation Committee. (CRC) was established in 2013 to seek reparations from Britain and other countries responsible for transatlantic slavery, including Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and France. The CRC consists of 12 member states, of which six still recognize the British monarch as head of state. Among the members is Barbados, which became a republic last year. The committee created one 10 point plan for restorative justice that includes a “full formal” apology, psychological rehabilitation for intergenerational trauma, debt cancellation, the establishment of museums and heritage institutions, and a repatriation program to resettle descendants of slaves who wish to return to their ancestral homelands. The emancipation statue symbolizing the breaking of the chains of slavery at the moment of emancipation is unveiled on November 16, 2021, in Bridgetown, Barbados, ahead of the removal of Queen Elizabeth as head of state, the transition to a republic and the shedding of colonialism her past. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The CRC also wants to see Britain help eradicate illiteracy in its former colonies and support an African literacy programme. For years, education in Barbados and other former colonies was influenced by colonialism, said Tara Inniss, a lecturer in history and philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, in Barbados. Inniss said her father, who was born in the 1940s, learned more about Britain and Europe at school than the history of Barbados or the Caribbean and the history of slavery and coming to terms with the past. He explained how people seeking redress need to be in a “position of power” and know everything that happened if they are to make a solid claim for compensation, but “more work is needed”. That starts with “substantial” education about slavery and colonization in primary and secondary schools, as well as a “kind of inquiry into our history”, Inniss said. “This is a process that we have to start in our lives on a daily basis. We have to pick up a history book, find out what our history is, and understand who is responsible for this history.” WATCHES | Caribbean Canadians have mixed feelings about the Queen’s legacy:
Caribbean Canadians share mixed feelings about Queen Elizabeth’s legacy
Caribbean Canadians have a range of complex feelings about the Queen herself and the legacy of British colonial rule.
Steps for Remedies
Inniss said she hopes there will come a time when reparations are made, but knows it will take time. The fight to end slavery began 50 years before the Abolition Act came into force, he explained. But the pursuit of reparations must also take place in Britain, he said. “The need for a formal apology will really lie, I think, in the voice of the British people saying this is something that needs to happen. I don’t know if the state itself will do it on its own.” Tara Inniss, a lecturer in history and philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, in Barbados, says she hopes there will come a time when reparations are made, but knows it will take time. (Submitted by Tara Inniss) Inniss sees it on a smaller scale, with British institutions and universities acknowledging the role slavery played in their past. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, recently agreed to apologize on the city’s role in the slave trade and on the implementation of other recommendations from the Heritage of Slavery and Colonialism Review. Among the 10 accepted recommendations is a plan to add historical context to plaques on statues and memorials to people “participating in the maintenance of the economy based on slavery.” Inniss also points out that in 2013, the UK paid financial reparations to Kenya, one of its former colonies. But the payments were not related to slavery but to victims of torture and abuse during the Mau Mau Rebellion. The anti-colonial rebellion began in 1952, the same year Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, and continued until Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963. A plaque explaining the street name’s links to the slave trade is displayed outside the World Museum in Liverpool, England. (Phil Noble/Reuters)
New era of Britain
Britain’s approach to reconciling its horrific past in the Caribbean is “ill-aligned with the current expectations of former colonies,” said Hannah, the Jamaican opposition MP. As Jamaica and other countries seek to follow the same path as Barbados in shedding their remaining colonial ties, he said, and with a new British monarch and prime minister — Liz Truss, who took office two days before the queen died Elizabeth — Britain “has an opportunity to redefine its role” and play an active role in the slavery reparations process. “If they don’t, we will watch these leaders walk backwards into the future, with their…
