UN experts are leading calls for the British government and royal family to investigate their historical links to transatlantic slavery and take steps toward restorative justice.
The Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian, apologised on Tuesday for the role the newspaper’s founders had in transatlantic slavery and announced a decade-long, multimillion-pound programme of restorative justice.
The independent academic research into the Guardian’s past and the programme of restorative justice have been welcomed by UN experts and campaigners, who have called for other institutions to follow suit.
Prof Verene A Shepherd, the chair of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination and director for the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, said: “I have read with interest that the owner of the Guardian has issued an apology for the role the newspaper’s founders had in the transatlantic trafficking in enslaved peoples and announced a decade-long programme of restorative justice.
“This is laudable; and my hope is that those who suffered the consequences of their past actions will benefit from the sums committed in a participatory, not a top down way.
“But although we have seen individuals and institutions stepping forward, admitting the wrongs of the past and offering reparation (albeit mostly in a top-down fashion) …the British state has refused to apologise to Africans and people of African descent for the role they played in the trafficking and chattel enslavement of millions of Africans in the Caribbean, simply uttering meaningless statements of regret, remorse, and deep sorrow, with a former UK PM even telling us to get over the past and move on.”
Shepherd, who is also vice-chair of the Caricom (Caribbean community) Reparation Commission and member of Jamaica National Council on Reparation, called on Britain to issue an apology and use the Caricom’s 10-point reparation action plan to begin to repair the wrongs of the past.
She added: “I also call on non-state actors in the UK to join with the people of Africa and the Caribbean to lobby their government and the royal family to pay reparation. While individuals and institutions cannot escape blame for their role in what is now recognised as a crime against humanity, it was the state that provided the scaffolding that encouraged and facilitated their involvement.”
Dominique Day, from the UN working group of experts on people of African descent, said: “Now is clearly the time for rigorous self-investigation and immediate steps toward restorative justice by British public and private entities. The only better time would have been any time before now. The legacy of systemic racism created by the trade and trafficking in enslaved Africans is undeniable in institutions and individual mindsets throughout Britain. For example, the enslavers and profiteers who crafted the media’s role as an indispensable public servant also cemented its role driving a culture of denial that perpetuates systemic racism until today.”
The Labour MP Clive Lewis, who called on Rishi Sunak to enter negotiations with Caribbean leaders on paying reparations for Britain’s role in slavery earlier this month, said it was time for British institutions as well as the British government to begin to take the steps needed for restorative justice.
He said: “I think the organic individual and institutional movement for apologies, reparations, but most importantly understanding and learning about our shared past, will create the political space for politicians and eventually the British state to step into. In other words the two are complementary. Of course, the end goal will always require the British state as only it has the collective political and fiscal capacity for a meaningful programme of lasting reparative justice.”
The actor and campaigner David Harewood said: “It’s important that those who benefited from this awful trade have the courage to join an open and difficult discussion with the descendants of those who were traded.
“This is long overdue and a real opportunity enlighten us all. I myself have been impressed and encouraged by the openness and willing of David Lascelles, the eighth earl of Harewood to engage with me on this very same and difficult subject. We both hope our combined honesty and determination will spark conversation and bring clarity to a dark past.”
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Miles Greenwood, the lead curator at the International Slavery Museum, said: “The International Slavery Museum welcomes this essential research which underpins the extent to which the transatlantic slavery played an intrinsic part in the wealth and development of so many cities, places, and industries at a tragic human cost – and how it continues to reverberate today. We have often said it makes for difficult discussions.
“Talking honestly about the past will ensure a more accurate representation of our history. Institutions and organisations cannot change their past, but research-driven work to acknowledge, contextualise and educate is crucial.”
Jamie Stone, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for culture, media and sport said: “Nothing can erase the appalling stain of slavery, but there is much good in unearthing the histories of the individuals upon which our current society is built.
“Through this research, the Guardian and the Scott Trust have discovered new names, new stories, and new lives, all of which were thought to have been absent from our records. And this is just the beginning.
“Working to improve public awareness of the history of transatlantic slavery and its lasting legacy, and investing to tackle the injustices that stem from it, is indeed a worthy cause.”
The Guardian’s founders and transatlantic slavery: what should it mean? Join the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, the historian David Olusoga, the lead researcher Dr Cassandra Gooptar, and the Cotton Capital editor Maya Wolfe-Robinson for a special event as they discuss the Guardian’s two-year investigation into its founders’ links to the cotton trade and enslaved people. Chaired by the Guardian journalist Joseph Harker. Register here to join on Thursday 30 March, 7pm BST (2pm EDT)
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