King Charles III, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Foreign Minister Ed Miliband all agree that some kind of remorse from the United Kingdom over the about two centuries of trade in slaves would not be out of order. Lasting from the 17th century to the 19th century, Britain alone accounted for the shipment of about 3.2m slaves, a significant number of whom died in transit.
While Britain waffles over the horrendous trade in human cargoes, insisting that no financial compensation would be paid, the Netherlands have offered formal apologies through Prime Minister Mark Rutte in December 2022 and their king in July 2023. The Dutch have also gone ahead to vote over 200m euros to deal with issues related to slavery but stopped just short of paying reparations.
While the UK has admitted the horrors of slavery, they are yet to issue a formal apology and have insisted that no compensation would accompany the apology when it comes. The 2027 edition of CHOGM is, however, expected to offer the UK the chance to determine exactly how far they would go.
Leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, raised eyebrows with her even more conservative views on slavery and the need for either an apology or reparation, or both. She agreed that “…slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated (and that) we should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain’s leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade.” And she argued further: “If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?”
Stakeholders condemn trafficking, slavery
But denouncing calls for reparation, she ended her intervention unglamorously by saying: “There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born.
And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain.” Obviously, far more than any routine apology or reparation, Africans blighted by slave trade for about two centuries need heartfelt remorse. No such meaningful apology has been issued either from the more conciliating Dutch or the dilatory British.
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