Barbados Unveils Manifesto for Slavery Reparations from Colonial Powers

Ekhbary News Agency | 15 May 2024

Barbados's Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, has unveiled a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders, robustly asserting the "moral, ethical, and legal case" for reparations due to the profound damage inflicted by centuries of enslavement. Mottley presented this document at a "historic" conference in Ghana, aiming to advance the global push for reparatory justice. This initiative follows a landmark United Nations resolution that unequivocally declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

New Dimensions in Reparations Demands

The manifesto updates the Caribbean Community (Caricom)'s established 10-point plan for reparations from former colonial powers, introducing critical new considerations. It highlights the disproportionate impact of slavery on girls and women, including a specific call for compensation for gender-based violence. Data suggests women comprised approximately 30% of the estimated 20 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic, with at least 1.2 million enslaved women enduring sexual violence. Mottley underscored this point, stating that "the compensation for gender-based violence and assault on family" is "no different from the compensation that has been awarded to other nationalities such as the Japanese."

Interconnected Justice: Climate and Indigenous Rights

A draft of the document, seen by the Guardian, firmly links climate justice with slavery reparations, describing them as "inextricably linked." It also stresses the urgent need for a plan to support Indigenous people, who were present in the Caribbean upon European arrival and subsequently subjected to genocides. It goes without saying that the document, though still awaiting final endorsement from Caribbean governments, explicitly demands monetary compensation, alongside other forms of repair like a full and formal apology, and provisions for education and training, from Britain and other European nations. Caricom's manifesto clearly articulates its demands for financial redress from "enslaving nations, monarchies, churches, institutions, corporations and families, for loss of life and uncompensated labour, loss of liberty, personal injury, mental pain and anguish and gender-based violence, for the victims of Indigenous genocide, the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement of Africans, which constitute grave crimes against humanity." While it does not specify an exact monetary sum, it frames the plan as "a collective vision for an approach to the pursuit of reparatory justice."