The Churches’ Reparations Action Forum (CRAF) says it will be pushing for more than an apology amid a visit of 10 United Kingdom delegations from various church denominations in the UK to the island to issue an official apology for the role played by the church in the enslavement of Africans.

One of the denominations will issue an apology on Sunday (April 14), at the Webster Memorial Church on Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston at 4:00 pm.

Reverend Collin Cowan, from the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Island and a principal officer of CRAF in an interview with Our Today said an apology is a starting point, however,

“We are pushing for much more than an apology, we believe that the apology is the starting point but that an apology without reparation would be comminate but the angle at which CRAF is coming at it is that the transatlantic trade in Africans destroyed in the first instance the relationship between and among the people of God and the environment that God has created to house us and that in the first instance therefore we need to repair the broken relationship. Once we have come to an appreciation that relationships have been broken and need to be mended. We have to apologise for what we have done to break that and then we have to ask what are the impacts the legacies of that broken relation,” he said.

The areas of concern he noted include education, healthcare, mental well-being, land distribution and others.

“We feel that the reparation should lead to repairing the social infrastructure that has also been damaged on account of the Transatlantic [slave] trade. When we talk about education for example we are saying that even the way we have been educated they have robbed us of our ability to think, to read history in a particular kind of way to analyze it and an account of which we ourselves have become slaves. Bob Marley talks about the need to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, that kind of reversal with non-education has to become part of what we do,” he noted.

“We are talking about land redistribution, in fact, some of the churches including the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands which I belong [are] making the case that we should return lands and build free villages and encourage other churches to do so and that the reparation funds should work towards subdivision of land titles and so on so that persons can benefit,” Cowan added.

Pastor Bruce Fletcher, convenor of CRAF shared that the denomination which will be issuing the official apology on Sunday has already committed to reparation funds.

“One team, the denomination that is going to give an apology, and that apology was first delivered in 2022 outside of Jamaica but they are now bringing it here. They have already committed to reparation funds, the others who are here are still in the process and they have come to learn and get information so that their apology is not in a vacuum. They are open to going more but they are coming to learn first before they give an apology and to go beyond that,” he said.

Fletcher shared that during a visit of the principals of the CRAF to the United Kingdom in June 2023, other churches signalled financial reparations as well.

“We are pushing beyond apology but I think for us it is not just about money, but is about repair which includes financial aspects and others. Our end goal includes reconciliation and how we treat one and another. I would say it is more than an apology, we are looking and I would say it is more than the church is giving,” Fletcher added.

During the 12-day visit to the island, the delegation will meet government officials, hold conversations with heads of various churches, the National Council on Reparation, civic leaders and interest groups.

They will also visit various communities and special historic sites.

The group is expected to leave the island on April 22.