Britain continues to resist Commonwealth calls for reparations for slavery

Commonwealth countries are pushing to negotiate reparations for slavery, but Britain, despite years of reflection on its colonial past, remains opposed to financial compensation, according to officials and analysts.

“I think some segments of British society may be willing to talk about reparations, but there are other sections, the majority, who are completely against it,” Sascha Auerbach, director of the Institute for the Study of Slavery at the University of Nottingham, told Agence France. -Press (AFP).

Meeting last week at a summit in Samoa, the 56 Commonwealth members said “the time has come” for talks on the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, in a landmark declaration that raised the prospect of future reparations.

African, Caribbean and Pacific countries want Britain – and other colonial powers – to apologize for slavery and other ills of colonization and begin negotiations for reparations.

Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, rejected both requests, saying he wanted to “look forward” rather than have “very long, endless discussions about reparations” that touched on the past.

“I think he is concerned that the country is not ready to have this conversation,” said Alan Lester, a historian at the University of Sussex, noting that any talk of restorative justice in the months after far-right riots rocked England is seen as politically risky.

The issue is controversial. Representatives of the centre-left Labor Party, which came to power in July, have long been open to debate, but the Conservatives have categorically rejected it.

Robert Jenrick, one of the candidates to become the new Tory leader, said that criticism of the British Empire is unpatriotic.

He recently wrote that “the territories colonized by our empire were not developed democracies.”

“Many of them were cruel slave trading powers. Some have never been independent. The British Empire broke a long chain of cruel tyranny when we came to introduce – gradually and imperfectly – Christian values,” he added.

While Britain expressed remorse for slavery in general terms, London rejected the idea of paying financial reparations, which would likely come at a huge price.

A 2023 report co-authored by UN judge Patrick Robinson concluded that Britain likely owes more than £18 trillion ($23.16 trillion) for its involvement in slavery in 14 countries.

This figure took into account unpaid slave wages, injuries caused, and damages caused to their descendants.

The Commonwealth countries have not yet announced their figures.

“It is very unlikely that countries would ask for such a figure,” historian Leicester told AFP.

Auerbach suspects that money is not the “primary goal” of these countries. “What they want is recognition and accountability,” he said.

Opponents in Britain say a public apology could open the door to legal action against the country. Auerbach notes that the government and king of the Netherlands apologized for slavery last year and have yet to be sued.

For its part, the British royal family has not yet apologized.

However, King Charles III, during a visit to Kenya last year, expressed his “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over the “heinous and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans” during colonial rule.

“This is a sensitive topic. I would say that the monarchy has managed this debate very skillfully,” Professor Pauline MacLaran of Royal Holloway, University of London, told AFP.

Other British institutions have apologized or admitted their mistakes, including the Church of England, which formally apologized in 2020.

The National Trust, which protects cultural heritage sites, published a report that year detailing the links between dozens of sites it manages and the slave trade.

Earlier this year, the esteemed Royal Academy of Arts held an exhibition about how British art was associated with slavery for the first time in its more than two centuries of existence.

“At least we are having this conversation in the Anglo-Saxon world, which is not the case in Spain or France,” Auerbach said.