BARBADOS’ Prime Minister has criticised reparations packages which have been put forward without any input from the Caribbean or descendants of enslaved people.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley referenced the Church of England’s £100 million reparations fund for its role in the Transatlantic slave trade and said the church failed to have a conversation about what would be appropriate for reparations.
Mottley described the lack of inclusion as “unacceptable.”
In March this year, the Church of England announced that Black-led organisations would be the beneficiaries of a £100 million fund aimed at addressing the church’s role in slavery.
While delivering a keynote speech at the Open Society Foundations United Nations Summit in New York last week, Mottley said: “When the Church of England commissioned the study on Queen Anne’s Bounty and determined that they would give reparations of £100 million it is a step in the right direction.”
But she also added the reparations offer “ignored the agency of us and they never stopped to ask us or have a conversation with us, as to what is appropriate.”
“That is unacceptable.”
The church’s investment fund is called the Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice and will invest the money following recommendations in a report from the Church Commissioners, the financial arm of the Church of England.
Mottley emphasised that conversations with Caribbean leaders and descendants of those were enslaved are imperative.
She added: “The conversation gives us the dignity of agency, which has been deprived of us by the actions of the Church of England.”
Trillions owed
She said: “The numbers have been looked at and studied by many persons and the figures suggest a minimum of $5 trillion dollars, 4.9 to be precise, is what it would be if we were to be similarly compensated across the board today.”
Mottley said reparations could be paid over a period of time, so that people living in European countries are not deprived of a future.
According to the Brattle Report, Britain owes a staggering £18.6 trillion in reparations – over five times the country’s annual gross domestic product.
The calculation of money owed to the Caribbean and the Americas was made by academics for the prestigious University of the West Indies.
The Brattle Report takes into account loss of liberty, forgone earnings, deprivation and mental pain and anguish during slavery.
And intergenerational trauma, loss of heritage, differences in life expectancy, unemployment and income disparity after emancipation.
Justice for our ancestors
The Barbadian leader has been very vocal about the need for reparations and the long-lasting and ever-present legacy of slavery across the Caribbean.
In March 2022, she delivered a powerful the speech at an address to Ghana during its 65th independence celebrations at the Cape Coast Stadium, where she called for greater links between the two countries.
“And I therefore hope, that we shall have the support of Africa in these difficult and complex conversations that regrettably have led to the extraction of wealth for centuries from our nations in the Americas.”
In August 2023, Mottley called for those who were enslaved across the Caribbean to be honoured and remembered and encouraged the Caribbean community to “commit to seeking justice” for their ancestors.
In a statement shared on X, she wrote: “Today, Emancipation Day, may we never forget the hardships our ancestors faced under slavery and in the fight for freedom.
“The struggle for total emancipation is not yet over.
“So let us lift up our ancestors’ legacy, and commit to seeking justice and reparations for our people.”