WHITE PEOPLE whose families profited from the enslavement of Africans writing books and filming documentaries about their ‘journey’ were blasted by a leading campaign who warned the reparations movement would not be ‘hijacked’.

Aristocrats were seeking to profit from enslavement once again by presenting themselves as the preeminent voice of reparations as a ‘career move’, according to Esther Stanford-Xosei.

Her broadside came as a reparations conference session featuring the white ‘Heirs of Slavery’ group ended in acrimony, as community radio veteran and edutainer Kwaku Bonsu fumed about privileged individuals promoting themselves.

Earlier John Dower, a member of the Trevelyan family who profited from the forced labour of over 1,000 kidnapped Africans, was accused of ignoring pleas to erect a plaque honouring those stolen and brutalised people. 

The accusation by Gloria Daniel – a descendant of enslaved Africans – was denied by Dower who insisted it was a matter that needed to be discussed by his family first.

Heirs of Slavery was co-founded by former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan and seven others descendants of some of Britain’s most wealthiest slave owners. They back the call for reparatory justice. 

But descendants of enslaved African people say the movement cannot afford to be derailed by those “accepting tokenistic apologies as repair” and those seeking opportunities to “make themselves look good.”

Sis Stanford-Xosei, a renowned reparations campaigner, told The Voice that descendants of enslavers should not be allowed to “now claim centre stage in the narrative.” 

She asked: “How can a descendant of an enslaver speak for me and my lineage? It is only when you are still a captured people, will you allow that.”

Trevelyan made a donation of £100,000 to the people of Grenada, after she discovered her family owned more than 1,000 enslaved Africans at three plantations on the island.

The family say they received approximately £29,000 in compensation for their loss of “property” in 1834 – after slavery was ‘abolished’ and that is worth £2.7 million in today’s money.

But those figures are wildly inconsistent with what other slavers were paid per enslaved person. For instance, John Austin ‘owned’ 415 slaves, and got compensation of £20,511, which is calculated as nearly £17 million today.

Stanford-Xosei is the spokesperson for the Afrikan Emancipation Day March Committee, who have been organising an annual reparations march in London since 2014, and also the Coordinator General of ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide Campaign’ which takes its name from a Swahili word meaning annihilation.

She described reparations as a “sacred and ancestral cause” and any actions around it should be taken with the utmost respect.

Speaking about the Trevelyan’s, Stanford-Xosei said “the social capital the family have gained, far surpasses that money” which has been donated. 

She said the donation is an example of how the Trevelyan’s were trying to “wash themselves of the stains of history” and stressed “some of us won’t fall for it.” 

Those who are fully aware of their ancestors’ suffering would not be “accepting tokenistic apologies as repair.” 

Heirs of Slavery, which was formed in April this year, is made up of descendants of some of Britain’s most wealthiest slave owners including Charles Gladstone, who is descended from prime minister William Gladstone, David Lascelles, the 8^th Earl of Harewood, John Dower, another Trevelyan family member, and Alex Renton.  

Renton, a journalist and broadcaster, is descended from owners of enslaved people on both sides of his family. His maternal ancestors co-owned plantations and people in Jamaica and Tobago. 

At abolition, his ancestors shared £3,591 in “compensation”, which he says is approximately £2 million in today’s money. 

Renton insists that money is long gone and all his donations to the Caribbean come from his own earnings as a journalist and author.

Speaking to The Voice, he said: “Nobody on my mother’s side were enriched in 1836, at the end of enslavement at abolition, by that compensation money.”

“I think all of that money had disappeared by the end of the 19^th century. There’s nothing left of that money, physically, but I think there is privilege; that is something that has been inherited down the generations.”

Renton claims a lot of the compensation his ancestors received went into “debts” and his family’s wealth declined. 

When asked by The Voice about how much money he has given to the Caribbean in donations, Renton said he and some of his family have been giving “as much as we feel we can afford” for about five years, but declined to say how much.

There has been growing criticism that several members of the Heirs of Slavery group have not given any money, and believe that membership is enough.

Renton said he didn’t want to call his donations ‘reparations’ and said almost all of them are recurring, rather than one-offs, but he doesn’t know the grand total given so far. 

He told The Voice: “I have given what I was paid for my book and work around it, and a proportion of my annual earnings – several thousand a year.” 

He added: “The Tobago plantation never really succeeded and the French invaded Tobago in 1781 and seized it and the family never really got it back.” 

Renton believes greed and racism was at the heart of slavery. “They quite clearly saw the Africans as less than human beings.”

Renton said the Jamaican plantation his family once owned was situated near Morant Bay in St Thomas, and was a “successful sugar plantation” that had already been established for over 100 years by another owner. 

He said when his ancestors purchased it “there were 160 enslaved people on it and they held that until 1875.”

Renton said he was “horrified” to learn that his ancestor who got the compensation money, is “famous for building churches and schools for the poor, but built them in Scotland and not in Jamaica and was a senior member of the Church of Scotland.”

Renton researched and wrote a book in 2021 about his family’s links to slavery and said he doesn’t want to be in denial about his family’s history and also the on-going consequences of slavery.

“I think all of that money had disappeared by the end of the 19^th century. There’s nothing left of that money, physically, but I think there is privilege; that is something that has been inherited down the generations”

Alex Renton

Renton said since Heirs of Slavery launched, almost 100 people come forward with “serious enquiries” about their families links to slavery. 

He claimed the group has received hate mail and extreme online trolling from “white supremacists” who disagree with the idea of reparations. 

It was put to Renton that the Heirs of Slavery group had appeared in the mainstream media as “the face” of the reparations movement. 

He responded: “I would be horrified if it was in any way thought we were taking oxygen or detracting from the long struggle that has been going on for decades. That is absolutely not our purpose. 

“I hope what we are doing is offering allyship and enabling activists for reparations to be better heard.” 

He admitted the group are “still learning to be the best allies.” 

He added: “I feel really strongly and I think everyone else in the group also does, we shouldn’t be doing anything that is not directed and called for by people who are descended from the enslaved.

“It is not for us to say what reparations should look like, it’s for us to ask and learn. We are the last people who should be designing or having discussions about reparations.” 

Renton called on the British Government to engage in discussions about reparations and the long-standing legacy of slavery and colonialism.

The Brattle Report, published in June this year, calculated that Britain owes a staggering £18.6 trillion in reparations for its role in slavery. 

Dr Toyin Agbetu is a lecturer in Political, Decolonising and Social Anthropology at University College London (UCL), told The Voice: “I despair when I hear people of African heritage referring to it in compensatory terms. 

“I think that if we fall into the trap of thinking that reparations is just simply compensation – which still too many people do – then we don’t really understand the concept and there’s still much work to do internally as a community and legally on the matter.” 

Dr Agbetu refers to what happened during slavery using the Swahili term Maafa – which means “Great Disaster”.

This term is used to describe the historic and on-going effects of atrocities inflicted on African people. 

He said: “I use the term Maafa quite specifically because it refers not just to the Transatlantic enslavement phase but also refers to the colonial enslavement phase and the Saharan enslavement phase.”

“I am in support of reparations for Maafa, I think that it is long overdue,” he added.  

The Pan-Africanist expressed disappointment that “the ownership of the campaign has moved into a quasi-intellectual phase’” and at times felt “hijacked.” 

He said: “Some of the people involved mean well and I am not taking that away from them.

“But there is also this self-serving component which I am uncomfortable with and I think that a movement like reparations should always be led by African people.”

Reflecting on The Brattle Report and the fact that all of the key authors are not of African heritage, Dr Agbetu said “when you read the report and you see the images of everyone involved in it, there is a glaring omission.”

He said the middle class Black community who speak on reparations regularly must meet with activists and groups on the ground. 

In May, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rejected calls for the government to formally apologise or pay reparations for Britain’s role in slavery, when he was questioned by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy. 

Dr Agbetu said the constant rebuttals from the British government on the subject of reparations are not good enough and are an insult to the suffering and dehumanisation Black people have endured. 

“There is something very disappointing and morally repugnant about Britain having one of the most diverse governments – in ethnic terms – in its history for the longest while, yet still perpetuating and supporting colonial crimes during enslavement and times of Empire. 

“There’s something really disgusting about seeing African faces and Asian faces refusing to actually be ethical actors now they are positions of power.”