Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley yesterday dismissed suggestions in the UK that former colonial powers are owed compensation rather than accountability for slavery.
Responding to a question at the close of the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in St Lucia, Mottley sharply rebuked recent remarks by former United Kingdom Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who argued that Caribbean countries should compensate Britain rather than seek reparations.
“I’m not sure that you want me to reply to things that really are asinine,” Mottley said in answer to a journalist’s question, adding that the notion that Caribbean nations should compensate Britain for “oppressing us, enslaving us and treating us as chattel” ignored history.
“We’re not asking for charity. We’re asking to ensure that justice can be done,” she said.
She recalled that Britain had readily compensated slave owners when slavery was abolished in 1834 while those who had been enslaved received nothing.
“In 1834, the British Parliament did not need to be persuaded… with respect to the loss of property because we were chattel,” she said, referring to the £20 million paid to slave owners.
Mottley urged those making such statements to better understand the historical record before commenting.
“I would like to advise that those who have not yet read sufficient to understand the history, do so before making comments that really do not reflect well on them,” she said.
She maintained that the reparations movement had grown beyond the Caribbean, pointing to support expressed by the United Nations, Ghana, Pope Leo XIV, French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s King Charles III, who has acknowledged that reparations is “a conversation whose time has come.”
“I have no doubt that there are British parliamentarians who want to distract people from the domestic politics of the United Kingdom at this point in time, but the Caribbean should not be used as a prop in those circumstances,” she said.
Her comments came after CARICOM leaders reaffirmed support for the Caribbean’s 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice and agreed to strengthen cooperation with the African Union ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year. Leaders also endorsed a series of initiatives, including a major regional reparations conference to be hosted in Barbados and the unveiling of the Newton and Steele burial ground memorial.
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