MAY 2023 THE VOICE |
11
News Feature
Momentum for reparations MP praises ex-BBC aristocrat for “putting her money where her mouth is” on reparations for slavery. By Leah Mahon
R
EPARATIONS IS not a movement for the “woke” Left, but instead a national effort that the whole of Britain needs to be a part of, a leading MP has said. Clive Lewis, who is vice chair of the Afrikan Reparations AllParty Parliamentary Group, has urged Rishi Sunak and other Tory MPs to acknowledge the devastating legacy of slavery in the Caribbean and for Britain to confront its colonial past. The MP for Norwich South, right, told The Voice he is clear about wanting to see the Prime Minister enter into negotiations with Caribbean leaders. “There is a change taking place at the moment in the fact that this has come on the political agenda partly through the work of Laura Trevelyan and her family. “Partly now, because the King has also made comments and apologies, which is a critical part of the whole kind of reparations campaign,” he said. “Now, do I think that’s going to result in Rishi Sunak paying tens of millions of pounds to the Caribbean? No, but we have to remember, there’s likely to be a general election and a possible change of government.” “There’s nothing wrong with people being aware of the world around them and aware of history as it actually is, as opposed to the stories that some people in countries tell themselves.” The Labour MP continued to praise the efforts of ex-BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan who donated more than £100,000 to Grenada and issued an apology after her aristocratic family were discovered to have owned over 1,000 African slaves on plantations. Chairman of Grenada National Reparations Commission (GNRC), Arley Gill, said other European families, governments and institutions should take note of the gesture. Mr Lewis, whose own family comes from Grenada, said the now full-time slavery reparations campaigner put her own BBC pension
into the compensation when she simply could have said “good luck” to those supporting the movement. He added: “Whatever people think of what Laura has done, whether they think it’s tokenism, as far as I’m concerned, she’s put her money where her mouth is. “There’s nothing on this [movement] for decades, despite Black people campaigning, and all of a sudden, the right white person comes along and says something, and everyone’s interested, and I get that. But that’s not the attitude we should take. The attitude we should take is this is actually strengthening our argument.” The CARICOM’s ten-point reparations first launched in 2013 has been guiding the Caribbean’s calls for reparatory justice, however, Mr Lewis says that as the movement gains momentum he understands there are “disparate voices” on what reparations actually look like. In recent months, there has been backlash from institutions who have attempted to make up for their role in slavery without involving the descendants affected by the decision. The Church of England apologised for their part in the slave
STRUGGLE GOES ON: Extinction Rebellion environmental activists march through the City of London to protest against the companies and institutions that profited from the slave trade (photo: Getty Images)
trade and promised to invest £100m to “right their wrongs,” although the sum was not classified as reparations many reparations experts and fellow Caribbeans criticised the move.
PORTRAIT
Actor David Harewood, whose family hail from Barbados, agreed to have a commissioned portrait of himself hung in Harewood House in North Yorkshire in the family home of aristocrats who once enslaved his ancestors. Many hit back at the decision and argued the stately home should be given to the awardwinning actor instead.
Mr Lewis said that in pushing the movement forward supporters needed to challenge “imperial attitude” from institutions who leave out communities directly impacted by the slave trade. The reparations supporter added reparations look different for islands across the Caribbean who have their own individual stories of slavery, including former colonies in South America. David Denny, General Secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration in Barbados, said the reparations movement has galvanised since the summer of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and when
Barbados became a republic. “There are different conditions and different relationships. I could speak more directly to what we in the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, we are demanding reparation from MP Richard Drax,” he said. “We feel reparations should have been paid not to any one institution, but that it should be used to develop a very poor and powerless working class in Barbados, specifically in St George. “Things like schools can be upgraded, polyclinics can be upgraded to become hospitals with a lot of technical support. Infrastructure in relation to rules RAISING AWARENESS: King Charles is shown The World Reimagined Globes on a visit to Leeds – the globes transform how we understand the Transatlantic slave trade; left, exBBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, whose aristocratic family owned over 1,000 slaves, donated more than £100,000 to Grenada (photos: Getty Images)
can be upgraded, poor people’s houses, upgraded, academic scholarships can be offered to people, especially to the very poor communities in Barbados.” Mr Lewis said he is working closely with fellow Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy on the Afrikan Reparations APPG as the movement builds momentum, adding the group could consider setting up a separate division for Caribbean reparations specifically.
CONNECTIONS
As the definition of what reparations actually is becomes clearer, Mr Lewis is also building connections with the CARICOM and other islands in the Caribbean, including the island of his own heritage, Grenada. “My dad’s over the moon that I’m picking up and running with this [the reparations movement]. My family is very proud that I’m doing this, it’s an opportunity that if it wasn’t for him and the family that came over here, to give me the opportunities and chance to end up in this place to then do that then I wouldn’t be able to do this. “Whilst many of my brothers and sisters haven’t had the same opportunities that I have had, part of the process of being here is to put down the ladder and bring up as many people as possible and challenge this country on the issue of reparations and apology as part of that process.”
