Jamaica was once an important base for the slave trade. For this, the Caribbean state could now demand billions in compensation from Great Britain.
A petition is currently a hotly debated topic in Jamaica: The Caribbean state is planning to claim billions from Great Britain. The money is intended to compensate Jamaica for the suffering of the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The petition was initiated by the well-known Labor politician Mike Henry on the island. It calls for a reparation sum of 7.6 billion pounds, according to several media outlets. The former British colony has been independent since 1962, but Jamaica is still part of the Commonwealth. Officially, Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state of the island state.
“It is high time to make amends,” said Jamaica’s Minister of Culture Olivia Grange, quoted by ITV. “Our African ancestors were dragged from their homeland by force,” emphasized the Labor politician. The people would have had to endure unimaginable atrocities to do forced labor for the British Empire.
Jamaica played a key role in the slave trade under British rule
Jamaica played a key role in the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to official estimates, 600,000 people were displaced from Africa to the island during this period, first by the Spanish and then by the British. The island also served as a transshipment point for the slave laborers who had to do hard physical labor, especially in agriculture, throughout the Caribbean.
It is still unclear how much money Jamaica will officially demand from Great Britain and whether these reparation demands have any prospect of success. Minister Grange did not want to comment on the final amount of the claim. The addressee will then be the Queen, it is said in the media.
Labor politician Henry comes to the sum of 7.6 billion pounds by means of a historical calculation. According to him, after the abolition of slavery, the former slave owners received this amount of compensation. According to the news agency Reuters, Great Britain had to take out an immensely high loan for it at the time – the interest was only paid in full in 2015.
“I demand that the slaves get the same amount as the slave owners,” said Henry. All his life he has been fighting the consequences of slavery, with which the victims were dehumanized, said the 86-year-old politician. He hopes with that Money to compensate the descendants of the slaves – in Jamaica this is the majority of the population living there today.
Millions of people from Africa have been abducted for forced labor
Britain had banned the slave trade in 1807, but this type of forced labor did not end in the Americas until 1834 when it was banned completely.
According to calculations by the United Nations, around 15 million people fell victim to slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the Caribbean, for example, people from Africa toiled on cotton or banana plantations.
Swell: ,
See in the video In June 2020, protesters in Bristol overturned a statue of a slave trader and thrown it into the harbor basin. As a replacement, the statue of Jen Reid was later placed on the base – but without permission.
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