Caribbean nations are set to demand slavery reparation talks by forcing them onto the agenda of the forthcoming Commonwealth summit attended by the King. The Telegraph has more.
Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, is hosting a meeting of policymakers and campaigners this week to discuss plans to secure compensation for the slave trade.
Delegates at the conference confirmed on Thursday evening that Caribbean leaders would push reparations onto the agenda at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in November.
The event, in Antigua and Barbuda, is expected to be attended by the King. Andy Burnham may also attend.
The attempt by Caribbean nations will be the latest effort to exert pressure on Britain to offer compensation for slavery.
The plans were confirmed by Dr Carla Barnett, the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), an organisation of member states in the region.
She said Caricom nations were “preparing to advance reparations on the agenda of the upcoming 28th Commonwealth heads of government meeting”. Further diplomatic efforts would be made at the United Nations, she added, saying: “The advocacy and activism therefore continues.”
Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, the Chairman of the Caricom reparations commission, the lead advocacy body for the region, spoke at the conference.
He said the 21st century would be the “century of reparations”, and that any compensation deal had to be “transformative” and capable of undoing historic wealth extraction from the Caribbean.
Caricom’s attempt to use the Commonwealth summit to apply further diplomatic pressure comes after a previous attempt in 2024, when the issue dominated the conference despite not being on the agenda.
A statement made by the King at the conclusion of the summit touched on the “painful” issue of slavery. He stated that countries could commit to “learning the lessons” from that episode of history, but calls for reparations were not directly addressed.
The Caribbean leaders are seeking redress for centuries of British slavery across the region’s former island colonies, where enslaved Africans were put to work on sugar plantations.
Campaigners argue that compensation is owed for these historical actions as well as for Britain allegedly leaving the Caribbean nations ‘underdeveloped’ following emancipation in 1834.
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They want ‘reparations’ because apparently giving them the Caribbean wasn’t enough. Maybe they should compare property prices with those in Central Africa.
The British abolished slavery two hundred years ago. And of course all ex-slaves of the British still living should be given compensation by the former slave owners. My understanding is, though, that there are no former slaves of the British still living. Is it the view of the “Caribbean nations” that there are ex-slaves of the former British slave owners who are still alive? Is this what the madleft means when it claims that non-whites have “different ways of knowing”?