UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to hearing calls for an apology for Britain’s role in transatlantic enslavement, breaking with the positions of his predecessors. He has ruled out financial reparations but supports discussions on debt restructuring, a priority for the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the African Union. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has described apologies as a distraction.
King Charles is expected to address Britain’s role in the slave trade at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, speaking with what the article describes as “unflinching honesty” and “sincere sorrow.” Historian Olivette Otele argues that the debate should go beyond political disagreement to examine why Britain struggles to recognise the harms of its colonial past.
Otele says Britain celebrates its historical conquests and wealth from colonial products such as cotton while often failing to acknowledge the damage caused to people whose lands it occupied and to the descendants of Africans who were trafficked and enslaved. She argues that refusing to apologise and work towards reparatory justice risks damaging relationships with Caribbean countries and the wider Commonwealth, which comprises 56 countries and represents about a third of the world’s population.
For Otele, repair is not limited to financial compensation. It could include education, climate justice, addressing health inequalities and returning cultural heritage. She points to laws that restrict some British museums from permanently returning objects, arguing that Parliament could discuss changes to the British Museum Act 1963 and the National Heritage Act 1983. She also describes Burnham’s pledge of £40 million for Caribbean projects as a step towards dialogue on climate justice.
Otele says a lack of public understanding about how the trafficking of Africans shaped British institutions has contributed to resistance to apologies and reparations. The trade, she writes, helped make Britain wealthy and reinforced racist hierarchies whose effects continue in present-day debates about identity and belonging.
The article cites organisational development consultant Tracie Jolliff, who says harms against Black people have been subject to “collective amnesia” and that racism continues to shape how descendants of enslaved Africans are treated. Otele also refers to former Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, who argues that individuals are not responsible for their ancestors’ actions, but that people inherit institutions and the advantages those institutions confer.
Otele points to the compensation paid to enslavers after the Abolition Act 1833: the debt was not fully repaid until 2015. She argues that British taxpayers, including Black communities disadvantaged by systemic racism, helped meet that bill. In her view, it is the government that should apologise for using public money to compensate people who profited from slavery.
She calls on the government to work with families whose ancestors received compensation, as well as institutions including the Church of England, Lloyd’s of London and universities, to develop a restorative justice plan.
Sources: The Guardian Politics.