SUPPORT FOR reparations has grown in the Black community and shrunk among white people, new figures have revealed.
In data shared exclusively with The Voice, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) interviewed over 2,000 Britons from diverse ethnic backgrounds about the UK’s role in race, colonialism and education.
The IPSO figures have found that there has been a jump in support from people from Black and mixed Black backgrounds, while white people are still less likely to support the movement for reparations.
Just 24% of white people said that they supported the UK government paying reparations to Black people living in Britain who are the descendants of former slaves, but 61% of Black people backed the move.
Black people also agreed that businesses and institutions which directly profited from slavery – many of them being high-street banks – should be made to pay compensation to people whose ancestors were slaves by 66%. However, only 24% of white people showed support for the cause.
Jendayi Serwah, co-chair of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee, told The Voice: “This country is really yet to face up to its past and really face up to what they call Great Britain and the sacrifice of other people and their lands, and their dignity and their humanity in order to make Britain great.”
She added: “Reparatory justice is about repairing and stopping the current harm and repairing the damage. It is not just about apologising and no amount of money can really rebuild our world.
“People need to go beyond this understanding that reparations equals compensation – it does not.”
Black people supported the quest for an apology by 61% compared to 33% of white people.
A further 18% of white people disagreed that descendants of enslaved Africans should be paid reparations, while 51% of Black people supported the idea.
The findings come after Richard Drax, the MP for South Dorset, was reported to have flown to the former colony Barbados for a meeting with the Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley about paying compensation after his slave-owning family’s dealings in the slave trade have racked up a £150m fortune.
The Tory MP will reportedly face legal action if fails to fork out the money.
The demands set out by the Bajan government are understood to be a historical first for an individual and for a British MP.
However, Ms Serwah believes that despite the seminal progress people need to understand the reparations movement is about much more than just money – or even a long-awaited apology.
She described the living descents of slaves as a “people who’ve lost the world”.
“When you talk about how we can ensure this never happens again [the genocide and displacement of Black people], you then have to understand what was lost and it wasn’t just income,” Ms Serwah previously told The Voice.
“People avoid really looking at what we as a people have lost and we’ve lost our peoplehood, we’ve have lost our identity, we’ve lost our culture, we’ve lost our language, we’ve lost our land. And we are still losing our land. We are still losing our resources.”
She added: “Reparatory justice is about repairing and stopping the current harm and repairing the damage. It is not just about apologising and no amount of money can really rebuild our world. People need to go beyond this understanding that reparations equals compensation – it does not. Even the five principles within international law that have been around since 2005 make that explicitly clear.”
The five principles state that reparations is firstly about restitution, the second one is rehabilitation, the third is the commonly known compensation, the fourth is satisfaction, and the fifth and final one is the guarantee of non-repetition.
Dr Adam Elliot-Cooper, a lecturer in Public and Social Policy at Queen Mary, the University of London, also echoed how the lack of understanding in Britain about reparations and its roots in colonialism came as no surprise. He told The Voice that he believes education is one of the reasons why ignorance around what the movement really means persists.
“Black people feel they learnt more in school about slavery and colonialism, perhaps partly because it was more meaningful to them. I think those kinds of classroom experiences, maybe [were more impactful] than it was for their white counterparts,” he says.
“I don’t think that is going to repair the damage of slavery and colonialism. I think to reduce the damage of slavery and colonialism to a figure, to a numerical amount of money, I think misunderstands the profound impact of slavery and colonialism.”
Mr Elliot-Cooper warned that the need for education couldn’t be used as a “silver bullet,” adding that political relations between the UK and the Caribbean was key.
The IPSO data showed that 62% of Britons reported having not been taught not very much or nothing at all about Britain’s colonial past in school, compared to 30% who say they were taught a great deal or fair amount.
Similarly, the research revealed a racial divide with just 8% of white pupils reporting that they had been taught a great deal about Britain’s role in colonisation compared to 17% of Black pupils.
Figures have also shown that 62% of respondents support teaching children in British secondary schools about Britain’s colonial activities and involvement in the slave trade and their impact on the world today, with just 9% opposing teaching about Britain’s hand in the slave trade and 8% opposing teaching about Britain’s colonial dealings.
However, the cause drew less support for these subjects being taught in primary school altogether with 14% opposing the move.
The figures stand in stark contrast to comments made by the former Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, who famously branded the teaching of race theories in British schools as “worrying” and left school children at risk of being “brainwashed”.
He went on to say that teachers should focus on “education not indoctrination”.
Trinh Tu, Managing Director of Public Affairs at IPSO UK, said: “There is clear support among Britons for more education about Britain’s involvement in colonial activities and the slave trade, and the impact of those activities on the world today.
“This education has been lacking – particularly among White respondents compared to those from Black/Mixed Black ethnic groups.”
“We also see differences in views when looking at attitudes towards history; while White ethnic groups are more likely to be proud of Britain’s involvement in creating the Commonwealth of Nations, Black/Mixed Black ethnic groups are more likely to be ashamed of Britain’s involvement in colonising other nations.
“This suggests that education can play an important role in unifying how we reflect on Britain’s past and its role in the future.”
Comments Form
10 Comments
I was really hurt in 2017, reading of the collusion of Her Majesty’s last five Prime Ministers, in agreeing to gift to the Jewish Board of Deputies and others, the colossal sum of £75m of public money, to mark and honour, and build a museum for their inter-war German oppression; an oppression not under the jurisdiction; influence or control of His Majesty’s Parliament.
I was really hurt as two years previously in 2015, Her Majesty’s Prime Minister David Cameron, displayed great temerity, whilst addressing the Parliament of Jamaica, and instructed the people of Jamaican to “move-on from the painful legacy of slavery” and forget any ideas of asking for an apology or reparations.
David Cameron’s family wealth was due to holding Africans as slaves in the Caribbean.
The Cameron family received a colossal sum when the English state purchased their African Slaves from the Cameron family in 1803.
It was purely for commercial reasons in 1803, that Parliament decided to prevent the Caucasian-nations of Europe, from purchasing Africans as slaves.
By preventing rival Caucasian European nations from purchasing Africans as slaves, England’s Sugar monopoly in the Caribbean was perpetually protected.
Ensuring the English sugar monopoly in the Caribbean was the only reason the Royal Navy was used to actively prevent the other nations of Europe from trading in Africans as slaves.
His Majesty’s Parliament did not end slavery in 1803, because Parliamentarians and the Anglican Bishops, cared for the welfare of the African Slaves of the Caribbean.
Parliament ended Slavery in 1803, because English Commercial interests saw an opportunity to capitalise on England’s Sugar monopoly in the Caribbean.
In 2015, England repaid in full, the colossal sum required to bribe His Majesty’s Slave-holders; by authorising the Treasury to purchase the African Slaves owned by His Majesty’s Subjects, as the best method to capitalise on the monopoly the English had on Caribbean Sugar production.
In 1803, forty percent of the national income of England was borrowed at interest, to purchase at market value, the African Caribbean Slaves owned by His Majesty’s Subjects.
The debt to the Treasury of purchasing all of the slaves owned by His Majesty’s Subjects required 211 years, until 2015, before the English Treasury had repaid in full the debt to Treasury of purchasing all the African Slaves owned by Her Majesty’s Subjects: The Anglican Bishops were the largest holders of Africans as Slaves in the English Caribbean.
Her Majesty Caribbean Slaveholders reported in April 1671, their arguments to the House of Lords for a stronger defence against their commercial and political rivals stating,
“the City of London’s Corporation, the Bank of England, Lloyd’s insurance – and a host of banking facilities – all thrived on the Atlantic trades.
So, too, did the industries which provided goods for exchange in Africa, equipped the slave plantations of the Americas, and processed and sold the imported slave grown produce (Sugar).”
In short, all the commerce of England benefited from the enormous sugar wealth created by centuries of savage and brutal unpaid labour of African slaves in the English Caribbean; a wealth that allowed England to become the first industrial nation.
Despite this massive and unparalleled forced financial contribution from African Slaves to the wealth; status and prestige of England; England’s last five Prime Ministers-in line with the great English public, do not think any form of financial reparation of any kind is due to the Caribbean nations; or descendant of England’s African-Caribbean Slaves.
Our lives still have very little value in the eyes of the English people: Parliament and corporate and public institutions; who are happy to give Ukraine £2b: to spend £800,000 “bailing -out” the colossally wealthy Banker, as occurred in 2008, and to spend unknown billions illegally destroying Iraq in 2003.
But today, there is no political will for reparations to help and assist the Caribbean Nations and African-heritage people; whose ancestors’ centuries of unpaid labour was the cornerstone of England’s wealth: prosperity, and global status of England, and the English.
Not clear from the article, what reparations would actually look like. Read one comment saying reparations is about repairing damage and another later on saying it’s unlikely to repair the damage. Not clear or not it’s about compensation, which is what a lot of people think it is. Missed education opportunity.
A lot of people will think it’s just about working out who should get money, giving them a lump sum and leaving it there (I hope not).
Reparations processes need to be explained in a clear and measured way. The emotion in talking about the past and present day frustrations, too often gets in the ways.
Frankly, there are enough stats to evidence the hardened imbalances (e.g. wealth gaps, opportunities, etc) that have been created by events of the last 500 years. Focus should now be on providing different institutions with clear, well explained and practical ways to address and mitigate those imbalances (i.e. repairing the damage).
Not clear from the article, what reparations would actually look like. Read one comment saying reparations is about repairing damage and another later on saying it’s unlikely to repair the damage. Not clear or not it’s about compensation, which is what a lot of people think it is. Missed education opportunity.
A lot of people will think it’s just about working out who should get money, giving them a lump sum and leaving it there (I hope not).
Reparations processes need to be explained in a clear and measured way. The emotion in talking about the past and present day frustrations, too often gets in the ways.
Frankly, there are enough stats to evidence the hardened imbalances (e.g. wealth gaps, opportunities, etc) that have been created by events over the last 500 years. Focus should now be on providing different institutions with clear, well explained, practical and sustainable ways to address and mitigate those imbalances (i.e. repairing the damage).
The compensation sums paid to the “slave masters” (hopefully suffering in hell) was mostly paid for by the British working class majority via taxes. The working class had no representation in parliament at that time. The “slave masters” controlled parliament and had to be paid off.
Personally I think development aid to poor or undeveloped countries is a better way of helping to mitigate the damages caused by slavery etc. I don’t see why one part of society( not responsible for slavery) should compensate another part. But any compensation should if paid go on the basis of current need rather than some historical evil.
Reparations do not require a white vote. Black people deserve ithe payout which is long overdue because of the legacy of slavery and inequality.
In 1833 Britain paid £20000000-40 percent of its national budget to end slavery. That’s enough.
What is demanded in reparations is astronomical. If paid it won’t go to the needy. It will be stolen by the corrupt politicians who are driving the campaign for reparations.
How about reparations to the descendants of the million plus white slaves who were captured and enslaved by the same Ottomon slavers who supplied the Atlantic slave trade? It was black and Arab slave traders who captured and sold black and white slaves in the markets of north Africa. Why is nobody asking them to pay reparations. Black people were sold by their own neighbours and families to the islamic slavers and only a small percentage of them were bought by the British and American plantation owners. At the same time the white working class of Britain were effectively enslaved in the coal mines, tin mines and cotton mills. Many died due to their working conditions and they had a life expectancy half that of a black plantation slave in the Caribbean. Where is the reparation for that injustice and where is the focus on the Black slave traders? The UK and the USA are the countries that ended slavery even though it still exists today across Africa and the Middle East.
I think working class people need to move beyond this idea of “I came from a poor family in the UK, why should I pay?”
I’m white and I too didn’t come from a family with much wealth. However because I grew up and lived in the UK I have gained access to our infrastructure, our education system. I eventually managed to go to Oxford University.
Even though I personally didn’t come from money I, like others have benefitted from the infrastructure and institutions available in Britain.
This ability to climb is not available to people from Jamaica and other Carribbean countries.
I think a lot of people are stuck on this idea that reparations should mean we should pay a lump sum to people in poor countries. As people have pointed out, this isn’t always the best use of money and won’t help the lives of people in the long run. There are alternatives.
– Formal apology to the Carribean nations for our involvement in the slave trade.
– Provide support to our ex colonies in the form of infrastructure projects that we fund. Schools, roads etc. Such that these nations can become self sufficient and not dependent on handouts from the first world.
– Visa free access for people in jamaica etc. to move to, live and study in the UK. After the farce that was the Windrush Scandal we owe the people of the Carribean better. The population of the Carribean isn’t that large. Any fears of being overrun by immigration are nonsense. So are fears of a lack of assimilation. We have a sizeable Carribean population in the UK and they fit in just fine.
This won’t be possible with every ex-colony but with Jamaica. Maybe even slightly larger countries such as Sierra Leone. It might be possible.
Slavery cost the British people Millions in compensation and cost in British lives and not one working class person benefitted from it. If the UK government agree to anything, it should be to seize assets from those that benefitted and NOT the UK tax paying working class. We also need to start debating reperations for british people enslaved by the Ottermans, we need a report to present to the Arab countries identifying the reperations due to the UK people, but we will not do this, we are to busy just pushing through life, doing the best we can.
Of sideways interest, are readers aware of the existence of anti-monarchy group Republic and would this of potential interest as a vehicle for pressure on reparations and education programmes on British legacy in slavery? https://www.republic.org.uk/.