The west’s wealth
is based on slavery. Reparations should be paid | Kehinde Andrews
If the countries and
companies that became rich by exploiting human flesh paid their debts, the
world would be a radically different and fairer place
Monday 28 August 2017 - The Guardian
The west is built on racism; and not in some
abstract or merely historical way. Genocide of over 80% of the natives of the
Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries paved the way for the enslavement of
millions of African people and the conquest of the world by European powers. At
one point Britain’s empire was so vast that it covered two-thirds of the globe,
so large that the sun never set on the dominion. The scientific, political and
industrial revolutions the British school system is so proud to proclaim, were
only possible because of the blood, toil and bounty exploited from the “darker
nations” from across the globe.
Colonialism left Africa, Asia and
the Caribbean underdeveloped, as the regions were used to develop the west
while holding back progress in what we now call the global south.
Any discussion of
progress in racial equality in Britain or the rest of the world has to
acknowledge the damage that the west has inflicted on the former colonies and
their descendants. Malcolm X explained that “if you stick a knife
in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, that’s not progress. If you
pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing
the wound that the blow made”. Instead of attempting to fix the damage, we are
completely unable to progress on issues of equality because countries such as
Britain “won’t even admit the knife is there”.
It is the height of
delusion to think that the impact of slavery ended with emancipation, or that empire
was absolved by the charade of independence being bestowed on the former
colonies. Descendants of enslaved Africans in the west find themselves subject
to steep racial inequalities in every area of social life and
are more likely to be killed by the state, as evidenced by the eruption of Black Lives Matter movements across the globe.
This year marks 70 years since the partition of India and the region is
still dealing with the consequences of British rule. The underdevelopment of
the African continent continues with corrupt trade policies and the domination
of the economy from the outside. One in 12 children dies in sub-Saharan Africa
before their fifth birthday, in large part because the continent continues to
be crippled by western “development”.
Make no mistake, the
knife is still planted firmly in our backs and it is time we not only removed
it, but healed the wound. The only way to do this is for reparations to be paid
to wipe out the unmistakable debt the west owes.
Reparations have been
routinely dismissed by British leaders, including David Cameron who told
Jamaica that it was best to “move on” rather than expect so much as an
apology. But as dismissive as Cameron was, there are plenty of precedents for
the repayment of historical and economic debts.
Reparations were paid out
by the British government after the abolition of slavery – albeit to the slave
owners. So great was the loss of wealth from the exploitation of human flesh
that the equivalent of £2bn was paid, which has now been tracked by researchers at UCL. In 1804,
Haitians had the audacity to carry out the only ever successful slave rebellion
and declared independence from France. One of their rewards was being forced to
pay 90m French francs, from 1825, with the final payment only being made in
1947. Slavery was clearly a lucrative endeavour and one for which those who
produced the wealth have never received any compensation.
It is not just
governments that owe a debt; some of the biggest institutions and corporations
built their wealth on slavery. Lloyds of London is one of Britain’s most
successful companies and its roots lie in insuring the merchant trade in the
17th century. The fact that this was the slave trade has already led to civil
action being taken by African Americans in New York. The church,
many of the biggest banks, much of the ironworks industry and port cities
gorged themselves on the profits from human flesh.
It is clear that it would
be just to pay reparations, and it is also possible to calculate the amount
that Britain and other nations owe. A lot of work has been done in the United
States to determine the damages owed to African Americans. The figure owed
comes to far more than the “forty acres and a mule” that were promised to
some African Americans who fought in the civil war. The latest calculations
from researchers estimates that for unpaid labour, taking into account interest
and inflation, African Americans are owed anywhere between $5.9tn and $14.2tn.
It would not be
prohibitively complicated to work out the debts owed by the western powers, or
the companies that enriched themselves off exploitation. The obviousness of the
issue is such that a federation of Caribbean countries (Caricom) is now demanding reparations, as is the Movement
for Black Lives in America and Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe.
In many ways the calls
for reparatory justice do not take go far enough. Caricom includes a demand to
cancel third world debt, and the Movement for Black Lives for free tuition for
African Americans. Both of these are examples of removing the knife from our
backs, rather than healing the wound. Third world debt was an unjust mechanism
for maintaining colonial economic control and; allowing free access to a deeply
problematic school system will not eradicate the impacts of centuries of
oppression. In order to have racial justice we need to hit the reset button and
have the west account for the wealth stolen and devastation caused. Nothing
short of a massive transfer of wealth from the developed to the underdeveloped
world, and to the descendants of slavery and colonialism in the west, can heal
the deep wounds inflicted.
"Real reparatory justice
would allow the developing world to build strong economies that could eradicate
global poverty"
We would need to perfect
the mechanism for delivering this wealth transfer. Many governments in the
developing world have as little interest in their native populations as the
colonial administrations did, and sharing the money between individuals is the
surest way to ensure that none of the issues are solved. But real reparatory
justice would allow the developing world to build strong, sustainable economies
that could eradicate global poverty. No one would need to live on less than a
dollar a day and children would not die by the second. Racial equality at home
would heal divisions between communities and absolve politicians from more
handwringing.
There’s even something in
it for the “little Englanders”. People are not risking their family’s lives
crossing deserts and the Mediterranean on makeshift boats because they crave
the British way of life. Migration to this bleary island would turn to a
trickle if people could make a decent life in their homelands.
Of course there would be
stark economic consequences for repaying this mountain of debt and no longer
exploiting the developing world. But it is time we admitted that society
currently works to benefit the few, and a rethink of how wealth is distributed
more generally is long overdue. A factory reset of the political and economic
consensus, in the form of reparations, would lead to a radically different and
potentially fairer world for all.
• Kehinde Andrews is
associate professor in sociology at Birmingham City University. His research
specialism is race and racism and is author of ‘Resisting Racism: Race,
Inequality and the Black Supplementary School Movement’ (2013) and co-editor of
‘Blackness in Britain’ (2016)
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