It’s not just about payment. It is about engaging in good faith with the descendants of enslaved people and addressing inequalities – to make a better future possible
All over North America and Europe, universities, businesses and other organisations are investigating their historical connections to slavery. Some of these institutions once owned plantations or enslaved people. Others were established or maintained through donations from enslavers or their descendants. When an institution uncovers such histories, a question arises: what should the institution do to address the wrongs of the past, wrongs with consequences that continue to be felt today?
Groups that advocate for reparations almost never seek only money … The social, the political and the economic are bound together and must be addressed together, creating the possibility of a better world.
After the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, British plantation owners were granted huge compensation for having their ‘property’ – enslaved people – taken from them.
Making clear the connections between the past and the low numbers of employees from minority ethnic backgrounds is central to the work of reparations. Without them, we can never have a full understanding of the consequences of slavery.
$100m
Amount pledged by Harvard University to carry out recommendations from its 2022 report into its links to slavery
Other countries, led by Britain, refused to issue a formal apology, fearing that to do so could result in a legal obligation to pay reparations. Regret was deemed a safer response.
Those who have suffered most from the brutality of slavery and colonialism should determine the restorative justice agenda.
A post-reparations society could encourage us to rethink the notion of happiness, one that is not based on instant and individual gratification but on collective achievement. It would be a society able to build a reconciled collective memory.
