Jamaica Demands Reparations: Juneteenth Dispatch

When the British royal family’s extensive entourage penciled Jamaica into the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s itinerary for March of this year, it’s unlikely they envisioned the controversy that the visit would generate. That’s exactly what unfolded when they touched down in Kingston as part of a tour of the Caribbean that was intended to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70th anniversary on the throne. Dozens of protesters demanded not only an apology for the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, but reparations. Signs bore the words “Seh yuh sorry!” (patois for “Say you’re sorry!”) and protesters used a loudspeaker to read aloud 60 reasons they were demanding “apologies and reparations from Britain and its royal family.”

On the overcast morning of the royal touchdown, protesters gathered outside the British High Commission in the corporate district of the Jamaican capital. They used a megaphone to call out the reasons the royal family should make reparations, while some Rastafarian protesters sang traditional Nyabinghi songs and held protest signs. Cars honked in support. While this island nation is rich in culture, music and history, it is a “developing” country and its social safety net is lacking. Activists, in part, blame the royal family for amassing wealth through the historic labor of enslaved Jamaicans. “How can we be jubilant when you have refused to acknowledge that your wealth was based on taking from Jamaica? We want some recognition of who we are,” Danielle Archer, a spokesperson for the Advocates Network, the group that organized the protests, told OZY. While Jamaica has made great strides in improving its socioeconomics, roughly one in five citizens lives in poverty, according to the World Bank.

In an open letter to Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, the Advocates Network demanded an “apology and recognition and the need for atonement and reparations.” It was an effective strategy, if at the very least measured by the international attention and the conversation it sparked. The Prince was reportedly “deeply embarrassed” during a meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness. During the rather awkward encounter, Holness said Jamaica wants to be independent and deal with some “unresolved issues.”

According to the Advocates Network, these protests are the beginning of what they hope is a long conversation with their former colonial ruler to make amends for the past. The group of around a thousand Jamaicans and many civil-society groups are positioning the country for a “second independence.” That is, they want social and economic justice for the ravages of colonialism and the slave trade, which saw an estimated 600,000 people transported to Jamaica to work the sugar-cane fields. “We are strengthening our voices and strengthening advocacy to improve human rights,” Rosalea Hamilton, founding director of Jamaica’s Institute of Law and Economics, and the coordinator of the Advocates Network, told OZY.

Jamaica gained independence from Britain in 1962 but retains the Queen as head of state. This has been a rocky relationship. On a visit to Jamaica in 2015, then Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament it was time to “move on from the painful legacy of slavery,” much to the dismay of citizens. The U.K. government is also responsible for the Windrush scandal, in which the government deported or threatened to deport Commonwealth citizens of Caribbean heritage who arrived before 1971, many of whom had come to the U.K. as children. According to a recent poll, a majority of Jamaicans feel that it is time to cut ties with the monarchy.

“It is not business as usual here in Jamaica. There are crimes of humanity that need to be addressed. The creation of a republic and the essence of the concept of a republic is a government by the people,” Hamilton told OZY. In his meeting with Prince William, Prime Minister Holness was unabashed about sharing his perspective on his country’s future. “Jamaica is as you would see a country that is very proud ... and we’re moving on,” he said at that time. “And we intend ... to fulfill our true ambition of being an independent, fully developed and prosperous country.”

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Groups like the Advocates Network play an important role in reparatory justice, Dr. Carla Ferstman told OZY. A professor of international law at the University of Essex who studies reparations, Ferstman noted that it is the role of civil society to spur conversation and help initiate change. “I think reparations for historical wrongs is an important conversation that should definitely be happening in Jamaica,” she said. “It is difficult and complicated, and civil society networks can help to ensure that people are informed, help people to come together to express their views and ultimately to advocate for appropriate solutions.”

To date, the Advocates Network has raised its voice on issues of national importance, held protests and press conferences and garnered significant national and international coverage for its efforts. The group has launched a petition stating that “the Royal family and the British government perpetuated crimes against humanity and must immediately start a process of Reparatory Justice with a formal apology as clearly stated in our CARICOM 10-Point Plan.”

Jamaica’s plans to become a republic are now proceeding and the Prime Minister has instructed legal experts to investigate the logistics of doing so. Meanwhile, the government plans to petition the British government for reparations, which some estimate should be 7.6 billion British pounds. And Jamaica is just one of several countries severing ties with Britain. Under Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Barbados removed the Queen as head of state last November. Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica are already republics and several other countries have indicated their leanings toward independence. As Jamaica’s Culture Minister Olivia Grange told Reuters, “We are hoping for reparatory justice … to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced.”

How do you think former colonial powers should respond to calls for reparations?

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