A test for reparations debate

Slave shackles on display at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opened in 2016. Photo taken from travelandleisure.com -
Slave shackles on display at Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opened in 2016. Photo taken from travelandleisure.com -

The question of reparations for slavery has been around for a while now, but the tabling of a motion in Belize this week by government officials there seeking to put forward a legal case to the UK calling for action is potentially significant.

The motion – which has unanimous backing in the Belize legislature – calls for the determination of whether the UK is, as a matter of law, liable for the enslavement of African people in Belize under British colonial rule.

The implications for the Commonwealth could be far-ranging.

Some may feel the notion of reparations outlandish, especially given the scope of the violation entailed by slavery, the amount of time that has passed, and the complexity of how ill-gotten capital has effectively laundered itself over centuries (to the extent that conservative commentators on both sides of the Atlantic refuse to acknowledge today’s wealth is linked to yesterday’s outrages).

But there is actually a long history of reparations throughout the ages.

War reparations – involving a defeated party paying an indemnity – are a common practice. Such was done from ancient times right up to World War I, when Germany agreed to pay huge sums but had its debts cancelled.

Ironically, when the time came in World War II, it was Germany who extracted payments from occupied countries. Even later, Holocaust survivors were paid reparations after Germany’s defeat.

As recently as 1991, Iraq agreed to pay reparations after the Gulf War, involving hundreds of billions in compensation claims for its invasion of Kuwait right up to 2019.

Perversely, after Haiti won its freedom in the 18th century, a massive indemnity was slapped on it by France, claiming loss of property – namely slaves. Indeed, once slavery came to an end, former slave owners all over the world were paid “reparations.”

There is actually a history of successful instances of reparations being paid to former slaves documented by historians in the US, involving payments as far back as 1783, when Belinda Sutton, originally from Ghana, then sold into slavery as a child in Massachusetts, successfully petitioned for a pension.

Reparations need not involve only the payment of money. They can be done through other means, such as scholarships, waiving of fees, systemic measures to counter injustices, land deals and symbolic acts of contrition.

Belize’s action comes at a time when the reparations debate potentially takes on new urgency, given the widening inequalities between the global north and the global south forged by covid19 and climate change.

After the global reckoning around race in 2020, whether this motion reignites the conversation about reparations as a whole will be a telling indicator of the extent to which the “new normal” has or has not changed when it comes to race.

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"A test for reparations debate"

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