As the International Year for People of African Descent draws to a close, reparation for slavery seems to be the only way to improve relations between Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. An apology from the former colonies would be a start towards achieving justice, building goodwill and peace in the world and promoting high ethical standards.  By Dr. Verene Shepherd*

There was dismay at the absence of some key States from the historic event marking the International Year for People of African Descent at the United Nations on September 22. The UN General Assembly held a high-level meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action at the historic 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Disappointed
But the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (formed in the wake of the conference to monitor the implementation of the declaration), was deeply disappointed that at least 14 States boycotted the high level commemorative event: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Some of these were the very States that needed to be engaged in dialogue with people of African descent in order to address the travesties of history. In the case of the Caribbean - Britain, Denmark, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Norway participated in the colonisation of the region and/or participated in the transatlantic slave trade at some stage between the 15th and 19th centuries.

As a result of their actions, the indigenous peoples were practically decimated, the land resources of the region were appropriated, and millions of enslaved black people were forcefully relocated from Africa to work the land they had turned into plantations. In the process, they subjected African men, women and children to the most inhumane forms of exploitation along all points of the slave route.

Royal fruits
The fruits of the labour of indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans helped to develop Europe, but Africa, the Caribbean and many parts of Latin America remained undeveloped. The slave trade and slavery were not only individual, private enterprises. They were sanctioned by states.
In the case of the Commonwealth Caribbean, we recall that the English gave Royal patronage to slavery through the establishment of the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, which, after five years of operation, was recapitalised and incorporated into the Royal African Company in 1663. The RAC was chaired by the Duke of York, nephew to the then King; and members of the royal family were prominent investors.

British MP Diane Abbott reminded her colleagues in March 2007 that 15 Lord Mayors, 25 sheriffs and 38 aldermen were also shareholders in the RAC; and it is estimated that in 1776, 40 members of the British parliament were making their money from investments in the Caribbean.
The Anglican Bishops of London were also major enslavers in Barbados. But there has been a tendency to disconnect the history of Britain's grand participation in the slave trade and slavery from its present government, even though it is believed that the profits from that participation gave Britain a head start in economic development and the evidence of that development is still obvious in the country’s infrastructure.

Respectful remedy
However, as Professor Hilary Beckles pointed out in his lectures on reparation, “an injustice without a remedy is abhorrent to the spirit of justice.” The current fractured state of global relations has its roots deeply embedded in the historic wrongs committed against, perhaps, as high as 75% of the world’s peoples who experienced human rights violation under colonialism. Redressing such historic wrongs could surely help to heal many of the wounds of the past, bring about a level of reconciliation and advance the project of globalisation in all its positive possibilities?

Reparation for slavery is a means of achieving justice, building goodwill and peace in the world and promoting high ethical standards. For what is more unethical than the refusal of those who perpetrated the crime of slavery to apologise for such a crime; to make amends for a past wrong; to pay reparation and remove an obstacle to improved Caribbean, African and European relations?
Surely the fight against historical injustices is as important as the fight against current ones? So those who participated in this crime need to apologise unreservedly and not resort to linguistic obfuscation that mimics apologies, and negotiate with the representatives of victims a respectful reparation package.

Clear precedent
There is clear precedent. Professor Chinweizu noted in his plenary address at the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations held in Nigeria in 1993 that perhaps the most famous case of reparations was that paid by the German state to the Jews in territories controlled by Hitler's Germany, and to individuals to indemnify them for persecution. In the initial phase, these included $2 billion to make amends to victims of Nazi persecution; $952 million in personal indemnities; $35.70 per month per inmate of concentration camps; pensions for the survivors of victims; $820 m on to Israel to resettle 50,000 Jewish emigrants from lands formerly controlled by Hitler. All that was just the beginning.
Other, and largely undisclosed, payments followed. And even in 1992, the World Jewish Congress in New York announced that the newly unified Germany would pay compensation, totaling $63 million for 1993, to 50,000 Jews who suffered Nazi persecution but had not been paid reparations because they lived in East Germany. Reparations have also been paid to First Nation People in the USA and Canada; Japanese-Americans, Koreans and Japanese-Canadians.

Perhaps the most blatant example of historic reparation was that of Haiti where under an 1825 ‘agreement’ Haiti was forced to pay 150 M gold French francs (about US$21 billion in today’s money, according to deposed President Aristide) to France in exchange for recognising it as a sovereign nation, thereby ending the 21 year isolation from the international community it had faced for its ‘audacity’ in taking its freedom.
The second historic reparation case occurred in 1834, when at Emancipation enslavers argued that the freeing of enslaved people by British legislation was a violation of their property rights and demanded compensation. Britain paid £20,000,000 as compensation – over 1 billion pounds in today’s money.

Making amends
But even as we call on those who trespassed against our ancestors and continue to trespass against their descendants to make amends, Caribbean and African states also need to make amends to people discriminated against at various points in their history. The dreadlocked, Afro-centric-attired Rastafarians who revere His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie the 1st come to mind; for they live in societies where difference is viewed hierarchically rather than in an egalitarian manner.
The plight of many of these victims demonstrates that racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance remain stubborn features of the global landscape. But the late Bob Marley, that revolutionary icon, using the philosophy of Haile Selassie long cautioned: “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; everywhere is war.”

* Verene Shepherd is Professor, social history, University of the West Indies (UWI)