Reparatory justice has been a long and persistent conversation that has been championed by community activists, scholars and national leaders. Usually, the conversation meeting calls for reparations has been one of hostility and denial. The period spanning African enslavement was/is seen as far removed from modern-day concerns. Surely, a dehumanizing system that lasted over 400 years, stripped millions of their homes, names and culture, plundered countries and changed the trajectory of the economy will have absolutely no impact on the descendants of those once enslaved. Right?
Black people across the world are today dealing not only with transgenerational trauma that affects them mentally, and which has immense impacts on their familial relationships and cultural dynamics, but also contend with structural systems that are founded on inequality and anti-Blackness. High rates of imprisonment, poverty rates and “broken” families are not endemic to Blackness but have deeply rooted connections with the legacy of enslavement and colonialist expansion.
A study done by the Transatlantic Chattel Slavery (TCS) found that trillions of dollars of reparations are owed to nations affected by slavery, with the total harm estimated from enslavement to be between US$100 trillion and US$131 trillion. Reparations for this harm are fitting given that empires were built on the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans and its profitability to slavers was unmatched by any other industry at the time. A piece of this is seen in the fact that white slavers in 1774 were 52 times wealthier than the average white person in England and Wales, demonstrating the unmatched wealth that slavery amassed for its perpetrators.
It is important to note that it was not humanitarianism that brought about the end of slavery. White power-holders did not suddenly develop a moral conscience when it came to the brutality meted out against Black people across the colonies. It was simply becoming too expensive for them to maintain given frequent uprisings, and a decline in profits from the major industries their labour was used to maintain. This economic decline resulted in the passage of the staggered Abolition Act across several colonies, and the implementation of the Apprenticeship system that allowed slavers to continue earning from African labour as they “transitioned” toward full emancipation. While the enslaved were not compensated following emancipation for the wrongs done against them, slavers were paid handsomely for their loss of income, further expanding their wealth that has facilitated generations of white privilege and fragility.
2023 has been interesting so far though. Suddenly, there seems to be a rush to atone for the sins of the father in highly publicised speeches and promises of donations. Contrition for slavery has been forthcoming from Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who apologised for the Netherlands’ involvement in the inhumane system and its present-day impacts. A government-commissioned study reported that the Dutch Royal Family made a profit of about $600 million in modern terms from Dutch colonies in 1675-1770. The descendants of former UK Prime Minister William Gladstone had also apologised for their family’s role in the slave trade in Jamaica, and the descendants of the John Treveleyan family did the same in Grenada, with both providing reparatory sums funding research, paltry in comparison to the economic excess they benefited from. Last month, Guyana itself was targeted by white guilt and atonement as the Gladstone family, descendants of slaver John Gladstone apologized for their family’s role in the slave trade and pledged £100, 000 to the University of Guyana.
The Gladstone family travelled to Guyana and I could not help but look at it against Prince Harry’s visit here in 2016. Prince Harry was on a tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the crown and was greeted in Guyana with much fanfare and furore. When a small band of protesters (myself included) demanded reparations, the response towards that was one of hostility, wondering what Prince Harry had to do with the sins of the monarchy he represented. The Gladstone family however was greeted at the airport with a protest action, with demonstrators demanding more reparations. The message however seemed to be muddled, as there were also those who were asking why Indigenous peoples were not receiving reparations.
The mobilisation of “whataboutism” was misplaced and unfortunate. It demonstrated the general lack of collectivist approaches towards systemic issues impacting specific groups. It rang like a manifestation of anti-Blackness, which is not usually acknowledged in Guyana but which has its foundations in our history. Indigenous populations across the colonies were decimated by the excess of colonialism given their non-immunity to diseases, land theft and enslavement facilitated by colonists. Due to their declining population, inability to cope with the forced labour, and an inclination towards suicide in droves, enslavers set their sights on Africa, beginning the TransAtlantic slave trade whose horrors lasted over four hundred years. Indige-nous peoples under this new system would often serve as the catchers of runaway slaves to be brought to punishment, i.e. degradation, dismemberment and death, setting the foundation for anti-Black beliefs and biases within the demographic.
It is of course not an oppression Olympics, as all minoritized populations existing within neocolonial societies are battling against the excesses and ramifications of colonial capitalism. Today, Indigenous populations by Western standards remain the poorest population in Guyana and continue to deal with the erasure of their culture, land theft, and colonial paternalism. There have also been some murmurings surrounding the need for reparatory justice for Indentureship. Indentured servants hailing from India, China and Portugal would replace enslaved Africans on the plantations following the abolition of slavery. They were brought to these shores through deception relating to: the journey, the wages they were to be paid and their capacity to return home. Many were blatantly kidnapped and forced into signing contracts they did not understand. Indentureship bore several similarities with the system of enslavement but they are incomparable in terms of scale, time it lasted, atrocity against humans, or revenues they facilitated for colonial empires.
African enslavement has shaped much of modern society and continues to marginalize the descendants of those who laboured under its heinous system. The apologies and funds committed to date from leaders and families who have benefited from slavery are a good first step, but they are nowhere close to the reparations needed to truly even the scales of power and opportunity in former colonies such as ours.
