Jamaica Wants $10.6 Billion in Reparations From Britain for Atlantic Slave Trade

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By ShaCamree Gowdy Published: July 26, 2021

Jamaica Wants $10.6 Billion in Reparations From Britain for Atlantic Slave Trade

Workers clean graffiti from a statue of Belgium's King Leopold II in Brussels on Thursday, June 11, 2020, that was targeted by protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration. The protests sweeping the world after George Floyd's death in the U.S. have added fuel to a movement to confront Europe's role in the slave trade and its colonial past. Leopold is increasingly seen as a stain on the nation where he reigned from 1865 to 1909. Demonstrators want him removed from public view. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

By: ShaCamree Gowdy

Jamaica is seeking $10.6 billion in reparations from the United Kingdom, the former British territory that was the epicenter of the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, when Africans were kidnapped, enslaved and forced to work on various plantations.

“We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced,” Olivia Grange, minister of Sports, Youth and Culture, told Reuters’ Kate Chappell. “Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labour to the benefit of the British Empire.”

The amount is an estimate by Jamaican lawmaker Mike Henry of how much slave owners were reimbursed when slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1834, freeing over 800,000 enslaved Africans.

Britain acquired Jamaica from Spain in 1655 and it remained a British colony for more than 300 years, per Chappell.

The petition will be delivered to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, but it must first be accepted by Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations and then evaluated by the attorney general and several legal teams.

Atlanta Black Star’s Niara Savage reported that around 600,000 Africans were sent to the Caribbean nation and exploited in appalling conditions, while money was funneled to wealthy plantation owners in the UK.