Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain’s involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition.
The poll, released to coincide with Tuesday’s UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was commissioned by the Repair Campaign, which is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects.
The sample of more than 2,000 people representative of the UK population found 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers.
It also found 89% were unaware British merchants had enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years and that 75% did not know it was after 2000 that British taxpayers finished paying off the money borrowed by UK government in 1833 – equivalent to 40% of the government’s total annual expenditure at the time – to compensate enslavers for their “loss of property”.
Nonetheless, the survey found support for some form of reparations is growing, with 63% now agreeing that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology, up 4% from last year’s poll, while support for financial reparations has also increased, with 40% now in favour. Ninety per cent of those in favour of financial reparations said they should be directed toward long-term education, health and infrastructure projects.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan Reparations, said she was “not surprised” about the lack of understanding about the scale of slavery, and that reparative justice also required education.
“People point to reparations and think merely in financial terms, but one of the most important things is correcting the record – because until people learn what happened there will not be that widespread, public will to make reparation possible,” she said.
The Labour government has said the UK will not pay cash reparations, but is working with Caribbean partners on issues such as security, growth and climate change.
Ribeiro-Addy said there had to be a “willingness to listen” from the UK government, which is yet to make a formal apology for slavery, faced with a “large chunk of the world” that was unified on the need for reparative justice. “For us not to listen is disgraceful and could have consequences of its own,” she added.
Walker Syachalinga, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, which is investigating claims against institutions, companies and families, said of the survey’s findings: “They speak to what has been a feature of English law and commerce – this idea of offshoring the more unpalatable aspects of our history while retaining the benefits.”
Denis O’Brien, Repair Campaign’s founder, said the poll showed “heartening” growth in public support for an apology and reparations, but also “how little people in Britain really know about the country’s past.”
Dr Hilary Brown, a programme manager at Caricom Secretariat, said: “Our shared humanity demands justice for the horrific crimes committed. Addressing the knowledge gap in the UK on the country’s history of trading and enslaving Africans is urgent.”