Though it was not listed on the agenda, Reparations became a subject for discussion on the sideline of 39TH Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Montego Bay.

The National Museums of Jamaica – a division of the Institute of Jamaica, and Jamaica’s National Council on Reparation had seized the opportunity to mount an exhibition highlighting the reparation movement and implements used to torture slaves.
Steven Golding, the President of the Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Chairman of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, though acknowledging the move to establish a Caribbean Reparations Commission, said it is time for the region to up the ante.

The commission, created by CARICOM, is expected to establish the moral, ethical and legal case for the payment of Reparations by the Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions of those countries, to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialised system of chattel slavery. A 10-point Action Plan has been developed to guide the path to reconciliation, truth, and justice for the victims of slavery and their descendants.

Golding, who had used every opportunity to interact with the Heads of Government and Regional Leaders, told the Pepperpot Magazine that in recent months some interesting facts about slavery and the abolition of slavery were revealed.
Revelations

“The windrush situation is one, but as well as the fact that the British Treasury had tweeted out some months ago, it was just in 2015 that they had finally paid off the debt that they had created when they borrowed millions in cash to repay the former slave owners, the people who were forced in emancipation to free the enslaved Africans,” Stephen pointed out.

It was only in 2015, the British Government had cleared a debt created to “compensate” wealthy slave owners. In1833, the British Treasury pledged £20 million in order to reimburse the owners of slaves when slavery was abolished in Britain. It was just this year, that the British Treasury disclosed that it had taken British tax payers over 182 years to clear the debt.

“They were given compensation, so I mean that shows that it wasn’t a matter of humanity why Africans were freed and what made it worse [is that] all the generation of African descendants had moved to Britain and were paying taxes, had the burden of that payment shifted on them up until 2015,” the UNIA Chairman said as he became enraged about the situation.

Infuriating
He added: “Now this is something that should infuriate us as a people. Not only are you denying us our liberty, denying us our humanity but you are forcing the descendants of these enslaved Africans to pay for the freedom of their ancestor. We feel this time is the perfect time for CARICOM now to ramp up the reparations movement, to get serious with their approach to reparations whether through legal motion; whether through social action, we have to work together as a region.”

Exhibits of implements used to torture Africans slaves formed a major part of the exhibition. “The primary form of resistance was running away; literally running and the secondary form of resistance would be speaking the truth. A lot of our implements are about restricting people’s movement and stopping them from speaking,” Director of the National Museums Jamaica, Dr Jonathan Greenland summarised during a walkthrough of the exhibition.

Pointing to the first exhibit, Dr Greenland said the tongue restraint or metal helmets were usually “locked” on a slave’s face to prevent them from speaking. This, he said, was done in full view of the other slaves to set an example.

A bell, from a ship called HMS African Queen, was also among the exhibits. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, ships were used to transport Africans to the Caribbean, and the bell was used to indicate the time.

A branding iron, which was used for identification purposes, shackles or manacles and an Emancipation coin, which was minted to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Trafficking in Africans, were among items on display.
President David Granger, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley and CARICOM Secretary General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque were among the regional leaders that viewed the exhibits.