While acknowledging the significance of an apology for African enslavement, President Irfaan Ali has stated that it is but a first step towards achieving comprehensive reparative justice, as the legacy of slavery extends far beyond the confines of historical memory.
This remark formed part of President Ali’s statement at the receipt of an apology from the Gladstone family for its involvement in the African enslavement. According to a statement by the Office of the President yesterday, Ali welcomed the descendants of British slave owner, John Gladstone as the first steps in the process of reparative justice, while explaining that such an apology is an “implicit” acknowledgement of the cruel nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana and as such, is an act of contrition that paves the way for justice.
“The apology offered by the descendants of John Gladstone underscores their willingness to confront their family’s dark past and to acknowledge the immense pain, suffering and indignities inflicted upon innocent persons through their family’s actions.”
Ali also reminded that in his 2023 Emancipation Day address, he had called on those who were complicit in and who profited from the trade in captive Africans and African enslavement to offer just reparations. He noted that the Gladstone family’s admission that they were beneficiaries of wealth generated by African enslavement and indentureship on the Demerara and other plantations owned by its patriarch, John Gladstone, and as such, have agreed to undertake certain actions. He also suggested that the apology include issues of compensation, and reparative justice.
“I therefore propose that the intended apology include issues of compensation, reparative justice, and those involved to be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.”
John Gladstone
President Ali also touched on the history of the family patriarch. He noted that John Gladstone was an absentee owner of plantations in Jamaica and Guyana. He was also Chairman of the Liverpool West India Association, one of the most important groups defending the interests of West Indian plantation owners, and throughout his life, he was a champion of the institution of slavery. His interests and acquisitions included at one time or the other, plantations at Belmonte, Coverden, Hampton Court, Industry, Met-en-Meer-Zorg, Success, Vreed-en-Hoop, Vreedenstein and Wales.
At the time of abolition, Gladstone received handsome compensation while the freed Africans received nothing.
After the end of the apprenticeship period, he anticipated a collapse in African field labour, and along with other planters, helped to pioneer the use of Indian indentured labour in British Guiana, introducing a new form of servitude to the colony. However, serious abuses of Indian indentured immigrants on Gladstone’s Vreed-en-Hoop plantation were uncovered by a member of the Anti-Slavery Society.
Reparations
The President made the observation that in recent years, the demands for reparations for African enslavement and indentureship have intensified. He said that the call for reparations is not intended to promote or leverage shame or guilt over the slave trade and slavery. “It is not extortion. Instead, the demand for reparations is a commitment to righting historical wrongs.”
The transatlantic slave trade and African enslavement, he added, were an affront to humanity itself. He referenced the Durban Declaration of 2001 of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which acknowledged that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so.
“The heinousness of this crime against humanity demands that we seek to right these wrongs. Yet, we face a push-back when it comes to recompense for this crime – something that does not accord with the fundamental underpinnings of justice.”
However, Ali pointed out that there is another important reason why the Caribbean is demanding reparations. And this reason, he stated, is about a legacy of slavery that still haunts the region. He explained that colonialism, including slavery, created economic structures characterised by a high dependency on a few crops and sectors. The focus of the colonial economies was on the production of these cash crops for export to Europe, therefore, the labour-intensive nature of plantation agriculture meant that the vast majority of people were engaged in agricultural work.
“The legacy of a predominantly agrarian economy based on plantation agriculture has had a lasting impact, as lack of sufficient diversification has made the region’s economies more vulnerable to external shocks and highly dependent on external markets”, he said.
The Head of State made mention of sociologists who have argued that the high levels of interpersonal, institutional and societal violence which being experienced in the Caribbean are a legacy of colonialism. During the colonial era, persons were subjected to extreme physical violence and brutality which was also used as tools of control and perpetuated an environment of fear.
Therefore, he reasoned, the call for reparations is an essential response to right a historical wrong and mitigate the enduring legacy of slavery. Reparations, he averred, are aimed at ensuring a reckoning for the greatest crime against humanity and addressing the multifaceted inheritance of slavery. He also spoke of the Caribbean Reparations Committee’s ten-point plan for reparations.
“The Caribbean Reparations Committee’s ten-point plan for reparations offers a roadmap toward dismantling the barriers that persist. It calls inter alia for an unconditional apology and investment in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and cultural revitalization – an investment not only in the present but also in the future, ensuring future generations are unshackled from the chains of history.”
“While acknowledging the historical atrocities of slavery and offering an apology is undeniably significant, it constitutes just the initial step on the path towards achieving comprehensive reparative justice for African enslavement. An acknowledgement and apology serve as a moral reckoning, validating the pain and suffering inflicted on generations past. However, the multifaceted legacy of slavery extends far beyond the confines of historical memory,” Ali added
As such, he called on the descendants of John Gladstone to outline their plan of action in line with the Caricom ten-point plan for “Reparatory Justice” for slavery and indentureship.
