Dominique Doonquah | Reparation in review – 2020 in the spotlight

The reparation movement has a long genealogy. It started as a fight for freedom by those captured and sold into slavery in the Americas and subjected to unimaginable abuse by enslavers and continued on the heels of Emancipation as formally enslaved people sought justice for the atrocious crimes they had suffered under Western chattel slavery. Rather than assisting newly emancipated people with their transition to freedom, imperial powers instead chose to compensate enslavers for their “lost property” with Britain in 1833, paying out £20 million to enslavers (which is estimated to be £16.78 billion or USD$23 billion today), the largest reparation settlement of all the European countries. The amount increases by £25-£27 million if the four additional years of free labour called the Apprenticeship system (1834-38) are monetised.

Now, nearly two hundred years after Emancipation, we here in the Caribbean continue to experience the distorting and devastating consequences of indigenous genocide, African enslavement, and European colonialism. Poverty, environmental degradation, struggling health, and education systems are just a few of the challenges with which we are grappling as a result of Western imperialism in the region. The totality of the evil of European colonisation and the intractability of the issues with which it has left us, make us resolute in our convictions that the Caribbean has a right to reparation and that the imperial powers of Europe must answer to their awful crimes against humanity.

It was Zora Neale Hurston who said, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer”, and 2020 has certainly proven to be a traumatic year for African-descended people. The proliferation of the coronavirus across the globe, along with highly-publicised police murders (both at home and around the world), exposed and dramatised Black people’s vulnerability to premature death and the histories of enslavement and colonialism that produce this tragedy. If there was ever a question on the need for reparatory justice, 2020, in all its chaos and devastation, answers this question with a resounding yes.

In underscoring the urgency of the reparatory imperative, 2020’s global reckoning with race and racism spotlighted the movement for reparation and allowed for tremendous progress to be made. Statues of enslavers that had been looming over us for centuries were removed, forcefully or otherwise; investigations were launched to investigate the role of slavery in several storied institutions; long-overdue public acknowledgements and apologies were issued; and legislation was proposed and passed.

Memory and commemoration

Contestation over monuments, statues, and other commemorative iconography characterised this summer. After the brutal murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department, protests erupted around the world against racism and police brutality. Protesters often convened in city squares or other public spaces, throwing into sharp relief the incongruity between the violent legacies of slavery and colonisation and the way the architects of these systems have been publicly saluted. As a result, protesters frequently took it into their own hands to correct the historical record. Perhaps the most iconic of these rectifications was when Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol toppled the statue of infamous 17th-century trader of enslaved Africans, Edward Colston, and threw it into the river.

Statues of imperial monarchs, and US confederate generals received similar treatments in Belgium and the US. These civil demonstrations forced institutions to grapple with their own racist iconography. Universities, cities, and municipalities across the world have removed statues and renamed buildings and streets to de-platform agents of white supremacy. Of particular import to the Caribbean decolonisation process was Barbados’ historic removal of the statue of Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), a British admiral and ardent defender of slavery and colonialism, from Bridgetown’s main square in November. Needless to say, symbolic decolonisation is not a substitute for structural change and material compensation. Still, cultural monuments communicate the priorities of a nation and shape the way people experience a particular space. We are happy at the progress that has been made in this arena so far, and now, it is time for other Caribbean countries to follow. Indeed, in 2019, the CARICOM Reparation Commission had asked each National Committee to make iconographic decolonisation a 2020 imperative. Few have followed. Several Caribbean countries still display statues of Christopher Columbus and Queen Victoria, and Admiral George Rodney is still standing in Spanish Town Square in Jamaica.

Inquiry and uncovering

Beyond challenges being mounted to the superficial façades of white supremacy, there has also been movement to reconsider the less overt, but by no means less damaging, legacies of slavery. In 2019, several UK and US universities, like the University of Cambridge and Yale University, began examining their historical ties to slavery and a few, including Georgetown University and the Princeton Theological Seminary, even developed reparatory programmes. This year, financial institutions and preservation trusts have joined the increasing number of organisations that have acknowledged and are investigating their relationship to slavery and colonialism. Barclays, HSBC, and Lloyd’s are among the UK banks that have acknowledged the pivotal role profits from slavery have played in their operations and pledged to invest in anti-racism work. The UK’s national trust recently released a report revealing that one-third of their properties have links to slavery, and the Royal family will look into their residential homes’ connection to slavery. Of course, this relationship between colonial exploitation of the Americas and European wealth is not news to us here in the Caribbean. In his landmark book Capitalism and Slavery, the late Eric Williams established the centrality of slavery and the Caribbean to capital accumulation and the forging of modernity in Europe. Still, we recognise these institutions for taking an important first step, and while these piecemeal approaches to reparation cannot be a substitute for large-scale national redress, we look forward to advancing these initiatives in 2021.

Public endorsements and legislative gains

Most exciting has been the political and legislative traction that reparation has garnered this year. The Green Party of the UK announced its support for slavery reparation, becoming the first major national party to do so. In the United States, California signed a bill to establish a task force to study the State’s involvement in slavery and make recommendations for reparation. The law is the first of its kind in the United States, and we are hoping that this development will breathe new life into HR 40, the federal counterpart to the California bill.

The road ahead

As we draw near to the end of this difficult year, we take heart at the inroads we have made in the ongoing effort for decolonisation and reparation. We hold in our hearts our ancestors whose lives made possible the liberatory work in which we are engaged today. We think especially of the revolutionaries who fought with Sam Sharpe in the 1831-32 Emancipation War and were murdered for their activism; the 132 who were deliberately drowned on the journey of the slaver Zong from Ghana to Black River, Jamaica, and the 10 who jumped to their death rather than be pushed by the crew. It is in their honour that we continue to fight against the legacies of slavery and colonialism that obstruct justice and impede the flourishing of our people.

Dominique Doonquah is a researcher at The Centre for Reparation Research, University of the West Indies. Reparation Conversations is an initiative in collaboration with The Centre for Reparation Research. Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm.