The Empire Pays Back

Writer: Tony Snow

Introduction | Slave-owner compensation | Legacy of slavery | Apologies | Profit and loss

Apologies

The late Bernie Grant MP campaigned tireless for reparations by the British Government. For Bernie Grant, the starting point in the healing process lay with the wrongdoers of Europe acknowledging their crimes. British Prime Ministers have consistently stopped short of issuing such an apology and none has shown the fortitude of the Whig Government led by Lord Grenville, who started the political process to end slavery two centuries ago. Needing to win over the traditionally anti-abolitionists in The House of Lords for the abolition of slavery bill to be passed Grenville launched into an impassioned speech arguing that the slave trade was 'contrary to the principles of justice, humanity and sound policy'.

In more recent times, the late Pope John Paul II set an encouraging example when he recognised the collusion of Catholic Church in the Transatlantic slave trade. While visiting the slave dungeons of Goree in Senegal in 1992, he said: 'From this African sanctuary of black pain, we implore forgiveness from Heaven'.

The concept that reparations are payable where a crime against humanity has been committed by one people against another is well established in international law. Germany paid reparations to Israel for the crimes of the Nazi Holocaust. Indeed, the very creation of the State of Israel can be seen as a massive act of reparation for centuries of dispossession and persecution directed against Jews.

Meanwhile, 10 years ago, Japan apologised to the victims of its wartime atrocities citing its 'mistaken national policy of colonial rule and aggression' during the Second World War. The US also made an apology and restitution for the internment of Japanese Americans during that period.

The media and politicians continually stirred up agitation against Jewish immigrants in the 1890s. They claimed that Jews were living in overcrowded unsanitary conditions, spreading disease, undermining sexual mores, undercutting British workers' wages and spreading political subversion.

Going further back into history, the Queen, personally signed the Royal Assent to the Waikato Raupatu Claims Settlement Bill which saw the New Zealand Government pay substantial compensation in land and money for the seizure of Maori lands by British settlers in 1863. The Queen apologised for the crime and recognised a long-standing grievance of the Maori people.

Profit and loss >