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THE PRIME Minister’s call for reparations for slavery on Monday continues this country’s longstanding policy position on this issue.
However, just as Dr Rowley has urged the second in line to the British throne, Prince William, to do more than just talk, so too should he and Caricom countries take active steps to reach a unified position.
It was in this country, at the 34th Regular Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in July 2013, that member states agreed to set up national-level reparations committees as feeder organisations into a regional commission.
In November 2013, this country began establishing its National Committee on Reparations, though its members only received instruments of appointment in 2014 – almost a year later.
The regional entity that was envisioned was eventually established. But at times, the Caricom Reparations Commission has appeared at odds with the efforts of individual nation states. For instance, there does not appear as yet to be consensus as to what forms of reparation are to be sought.
The commission views reparation as involving ten main points, beginning with the issuing of full formal apologies and ending with debt cancellation.
But some national efforts have explicitly called for monetary compensation. For example, in 2021 Jamaican government officials made moves to ask Britain to pay billions, matching the “compensation” paid to white slave owners at emancipation.
In 2015, British Prime Minister David Cameron replied to similar efforts by acknowledging slavery’s “painful legacy.” But, visiting the Jamaican Parliament, he had the audacity to tell Jamaicans he hoped all could “move on.”
Such a flippant, ignorant and condescending dismissal would be harder to imagine today, as evident by the far more sensitively phrased response of Prince William last Thursday.
The royals, however, do not control Britain’s purse strings. Another UK prime minister might agree with Mr Cameron, though perhaps not publicly.
But the issue is now mustering support at the highest levels across the region, encouraged by a slightly more humane response from an heir to the throne of the country that introduced slavery and the consequent immeasurable cruelty, suffering and misery into the English-speaking Caribbean. There should be a concerted effort to use existing bodies to speak with one voice and take meaningful decisions on what follow-up should occur. Legal approaches have long been contemplated, but diplomacy also has a role to play.
At the same time, despite reluctance or disharmony at the level of nation states, some civic-minded institutions such as UK universities have done their own audits and determined how they can make their own reparations for profiting from Caribbean slavery, be it through scholarships or monetary donations.
With the devastating consequences of empire being made increasingly evident by regional and British historians, Caricom should strike while the iron is hot.
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