DISABUSE yourself of the Eurocentric notion that the August 28th, 1833 Slavery Abolition Act passed in the British Parliament was a cause for celebration for people of African descent.

This Act was brought into force on August 1st, 1834, but there was no significant basis, in retrospect, for unprecedented celebrations for those enslaved, this Act represented the ultimate perfection of economic injustice.

First of all, the system did not come to an end in the British Caribbean on August 1st 1834; this occurred until 1838. Only slaves under the age of 6 were freed, their older siblings and parents became unpaid Apprentices who remained slaves; I will not elect to say ‘partial freedom’ was granted.

The system endured in reality and spirit, even though the Emancipation Act sought to end the system by law and letter, this did not take full effect. The Emancipation Act was mere parliamentary pomp and high symbolism. Slave masters continued to perpetuate chattel slavery in its purest and beastly form. This is not the crux of my intervention but it is a worthy preface for what entails hereunder.

To the central point being adumbrated, all celebratory moods would have been rightly accorded to the planters. The Emancipation Act made clear provisions for the slave owners to receive the sum of twenty million pounds sterling (16.5 billion pounds sterling today); there was zero monetary compensation for slaves who toiled for 400 years in the unforgiving Caribbean sun. This compensation constituted 40% of Britain’s annual income and 5% of Great Britain’s GDP.

This was fiscal tyranny and add insult to historical injury, the proponents of this vile legislation had the temerity to argue that this Act was economic justice. The perpetuators of centuries of evil were rewarded by this Act. In fact, it gets more egregious; the British government had to borrow fifteen million pounds sterling pound from banker, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, to finance this unjust compensation; this money was repaid in 2015. This money was recommended by Commissioners of slave compensation, the ultimate perfection of a misnomer.

As I write, not a significant cent has been offered to Africans [for] their historical struggles; the idea of reparations has been largely rejected. While the humanitarians and British reformers hailed the Emancipation Act as the great humane gesture, a cursory critical examination would reveal that it was the ultimate perfection of economic injustice.