Britain’s Black Death: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Genocide by Hillary McD Beckles (review)

Over the past three decades or so, there have been a number of organizations, associations, countries, regions and conferences on reparations for African slavery in the Americas. However, the call for reparations was uncoordinated and fragmented among the aforementioned institutions and agencies. Not until the UN conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa in 2001 that a sound platform for reparations became a serious issue. Government officials, delegates, activists, representatives as well as academicians from world over, including Africa, Caribbean and Europe, attended this conference. Various positions for and against reparations were discussed and debated. Professor Beckles’ book builds on this conference and intensifies the call for reparation in the British Caribbean, home to a majority of Africans. Beckles presents a compelling case for reparation in which he argues that Britain and other European slave regimes should take responsibility, apologize, and pay reparation for three centuries of African enslavement in the Caribbean. Beckles uses international law as well as morality and argues impressively that African enslavement in the Caribbean was a crime against humanity. He posits further that the link between slavery and the continuous harm and hurt of the descendant of Africans is still prevalent in the Caribbean.

While Beckles’ case for reparation is impressive, one is forced to ask the questions whether the call for reparation will receive support and whether former slave regimes in Europe and in North America will answer in the affirmative. Caribbean countries have wholeheartedly supported reparation through CARICOM. Most African countries have followed the position of Caribbean countries but some have rejected the idea on the basis that there are pressing issues to be dealt with in Africa. Some African countries have taken a neutral position on reparation. United States, former slave regimes of Europe and the European Union have rejected reparation. They stated that they will not apologize nor pay reparations for African slavery in the Americas because slavery was legal institution and therefore they should not be held accountable for a situation occurred a long time ago. They argued also that slavery was too remote for any recuperative strategy. Furthermore, “Officials of the British state have also suggested that even if one accepts that a crime against of humanity has been committed, the challenge of meeting reparation case is impossible owing both to enormity of the slavery system and to the impossibility of crafting a reparatory response that would be meaningful and would bring closure to the case” (p. 167). The United States condemned African slavery but refused to accept one nation holding another financially liable for a historic situation that happened a long time ago. Britain offered a statement of regret and deep sorrow but refused to apologize or pay reparation for African slavery in the Americas. What is sad and disappointing when reading the conversations for and against reparation is that the delegates who represented and spoke on behalf of former slave regimes (United States and Britain) were of African descendents. For example, Colin Powell, the US secretary of state and Condoleeza Rice, a national security advisor, spoke against reparation.

Beckles’ contribution is not so much that he shows that former slave regimes would be reluctant to apologize or pay reparation. This is expected because to apologize for slavery would mean guilt and subsequent financial compensation which amounts to 7.5 trillion pounds. Is this possible? Beckles has done remarkably well to first have contemporary leaders of former slave regimes to recognize and respond to the horrors of slavery, and second, to mobilize and internationalize the call for reparation. The call for reparation like slavery joins the newest common thread that binds Africa and the African Diaspora largely due to Beckles’s book. One suspects that the call for reparation is here to stay and perhaps someday it will be decided in the international court of justice. Meanwhile, the book will be useful to professionals, researchers, and to the descendants of...