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Govt. to publish a document,”100 Discussion Points on Reparations” for public discourse

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, yesterday launched a campaign to petition King Charles III of England in its fight for reparations for chattel slavery. 

In making the announcement during her Sectoral Debate presentation in parliament yesterday, portfolio Minister, Olivia Grange, disclosed that Jamaica deliberately intends to petition King Charles on September 6, an historic day, where on this date in 1781, the Zong Slave ship departed West Africa for Jamaica with 442 enslaved Africans. Throughout the journey, the ship ran into trouble, and the captain kept throwing enslaved Africans overboard in order to claim insurance for loss of cargo. 

Some 140 enslaved Africans were killed when the ship finally arrived in Black River on December 21, 1781. The government erected a monument to the murdered Africans in Black River, where the ship docked. Interestingly, Minister Grange pointed out that when hurricane Melissa devastated the town, it was the only monument standing, as if to remind the administration of its duty to seek reparatory justice. 

Details of the petition

The petition to the King will request that he refer to the Privy Council—the final appellate Court of Jamaica—three questions related to the criminal nature of the transatlantic trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans in Jamaica. 

The three questions relate to:

a) whether the forced transportation of African people from their homelands to Jamaica and their subsequent enslavement in Jamaica were lawful because such unauthorised removal and enslavement was contrary to the fundamental principles of the common law;

b) whether the forced transportation and subsequent enslavement of people of African descent up until 1838 constituted crimes against humanity under international law, for which the UK bears responsibility; 

c) in light of the said actions/illegalities, whether the UK is under an obligation to provide a remedy to the Jamaican people for the unlawful transportation and enslavement of African people in Jamaica under British rule up until 1838 and for the continuing consequences of the same.

Full support of CARICOM

“This request is made to His Majesty the King in his capacity as Head of State of Jamaica and from whom we expect protection. We have the full support of CARICOM in the execution of this action. The enslavement of our ancestors lasted over three hundred years before, by their own sustained effort, they were able to remove the shackles of enslavement,” Grange advised.

She highlighted that when the ancestors achieved their emancipation in 1834, the planters were compensated for the loss of ‘property’ where England calculated the cost to the planters of losing their so-called ‘property’ at 47 million pounds. England was only able to finance up to 20 million Pounds in compensation through a loan that was finally settled in 2015, and decided to impose a period of apprenticeship to offset the additional cost of 27 million Pounds. 

This apprenticeship system meant that the newly emancipated Africans were forced to provide years of additional free labour to the planters, thereby literally paying their enslavers for their freedom.

Informing public support

The minister is inviting every Jamaican to join the conversation and the movement for reparatory justice on behalf of the ancestors. In an effort to improve public awareness on the matter of reparations, the ministry will, in short order, publish a document titled “100 Discussion Points on Reparations, contributed by three members of the National Council on Reparations (NCR): Dr. Jahlani Niaah, Professor Clinton Hutton and Dr Michael Barnett. 

The aim is to fill the gap in knowledge and guide our deliberations at this strategic moment. 

According to her, “the NCR has developed a programme for the integration of reparatory justice and the history of our people into the curriculum of schools at every level of education. It is about developing content, teaching methodologies and approaches to integrating reparatory justice and the history of our people into all subjects. We look forward to sharing our approach with the Ministry of Education, Youth, Skills and Information.”