By Melina Harris 

UNTIL justice is served for the peoples who have been victims of colonisation, both the colonisers and the previously colonised will continue to be haunted by the lasting legacy of oppression.

The conversation has been reignited by recent cases of police brutality and racism in the USA and other western nations but, we here, in the former colonies of old, also continue to live within a system created and maintained by the very slavers and colonisers who now hold themselves up as the protectors and defenders of democracy and human rights.

Details of the abuses which took place during colonial times continue to come to light as the descendants of the colonised and enslaved continue to seek justice for the wrongs of the past which continue to be perpetrated against the same group of people, to this day.

Thankfully, revelations are coming thick and fast and many are being enlightened to the vast number of families which profited from slavery and the continued prevalence of their businesses which were directly financed by slave money and which continue to operate today. Although it is now common knowledge that slave owners were compensated when the practice was abolished, very few are actually aware that many of the same families and businesses which were involved in slavery, continued to build on the back of the riches they accrued through the practice, allowing them to remain in places of influence and their businesses in operation for hundreds of years.

According to a database by University College London (UCL) which explores the legacy of British slave ownership, Lloyds of London, the world’s oldest insurance market and pub chain, Greene King, were noted as businesses who benefitted from slavery. Companies with links to Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Bank have also been mentioned. According to the UCL database the family of Simon Fraser, a founding subscriber of Lloyd’s of London, owned slaves on an estate in what is now Guyana. The company, which insured slave ships, has since responded in a statement noting that, “Lloyd’s has a long and rich history dating back over 330 years, but there are some aspects of our history that we are not proud of. In particular, we are sorry for the role played by the Lloyd’s market in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century slave trade. This was an appalling and shameful period of English history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred”.

Other western nations are also feeling the sting of the recent uprising in that many are now being forced to confront their colonial pasts as activists continue to highlight overt and covert forms of oppression, including police brutality and racism, faced by blacks and other ethnic minorities in these nations. France has seen some of the worst protests as activists highlight incidences of police brutality and systemic racism owing to France’s requirement that citizens adopt the history, culture and story of the Republic. Multiculturalism is seen as undesirable as France’s concept of national identity is based around the unity and equality of its citizens. State policies that single out one particular group – based on ethnicity, for example – are seen as damaging. Activists are arguing that racial disparities cannot be quantified adequately in this manner and therefore never adequately addressed.

Meanwhile, the recent arrest of Felicien Kabuga, one of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan Genocide, has highlighted the need for justice to be served, even if it has been delayed. The Rwandan Genocide is a direct result of Belgian’s colonial rule and the damaging policies they instilled, which continue to haunt the Rwandan people, to this day.

Rwanda had always been a multi-ethnic nation with numerous peoples living there together however, colonialism had a marked effect on the development of ethnic identities by way of a Belgian policy introduced as part of their control mechanism at the time. The various ethnic groups were pitted against each other with preferential treatment given to those of Hutu descent.

Mr. Kabuga played a crucial role in fostering and inciting ethnic conflict in Rwanda. The allegations are that he was the main financier of the ethnic Hutu extremists who murdered 800,000 people in 1994. He paid for the militias that carried out the killings and he founded the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines), a broadcaster which encouraged people to search out and kill anyone from the Tutsi ethnic group. Mr. Kabuga was indicted in 1997 on seven counts of genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, persecution and extermination.

After 26 years, Mr. Kabuga was arrested on the outskirts of Paris and was apparently living under a fake name. Through the efforts of the governments of Rwanda, Belgium, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the US, Europol and Interpol, the 84 year old will now answer for his crimes at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in the Hague. Felicien Kabuga was a symptom of colonial oppression and there are many others out there like him who must be brought to justice.

The former colonial nations must also answer for the crimes against humanity they themselves have committed. Where are the international tribunals for slavery? Why has the reparations debate never taken off the ground? Why is it so laughable that descendants of slaves would seek reparations from nations where the businesses that have directly profited from slavery continue to be in operation? We must have justice, delayed or otherwise, we must have justice.