T&T OUT OF SLAVERY REPARATIONS

TRINIDAD and Tobago is the odd man out as the Caribbean is making headway in obtaining reparations for the evil of chattel slavery.

T&T does not even have a constituted Reparations Committee, while Guyana has received an apology from descendants of former slave owners.

The family of a former owner of slaves and plantations in Grenada recently made payments to the current generation of bonded workers.

There is also agitation for reparations in Jamaica.

But while the matter is being actively pursued across the Caribbean, the administration of Dr. Keith Rowley has made no recent effort to acquire compensation for the offspring of slaves.

In fact, Rowley fumbled in May when he was quizzed on the subject in Parliament by opposition member Rodney Charles.

The Prime Minister admitted that it “has been a long time since I have had any interaction” with the Reparations Committee.

Aiyegoro Ome, former Chair of the Committee, accused Rowley of “disrespect (to) the ongoing movement toward reparations for African enslavement and native genocide.”

Ome said: “This is not the first time that the PM has been dismissive on the matter of reparations.”

He said the Government’s approach is at odds with that of Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Grenada and Suriname.

Ome said the Government is also ignoring the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent, which is due to end in 2025.

Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali recently demanded that the beneficiaries of slavery should make reparations to today’s generation.

Ali also called for those involved in the trade to be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.

The descendants of 19^th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone have apologised for the action of their forebearer.

Charles Gladstone said: “It is with deep shame and regret that we acknowledge our ancestors’ involvement in this crime and with heartfelt sincerity we apologise to the descendants of the enslaved in Guyana.”

Ali said the apology implies “an acknowledgement of the cruel nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana and an act of contrition that paves the way for justice.”

He stated that the trans-Atlantic slave trade and African enslavement were “an affront to humanity itself.”

Gladstone, an absentee plantation owner, had more than 2,500 slaves in Guyana and Jamaica.

In 1823, when slaves revolted in Success Village, Guyana, hundreds were killed, with their heads chopped off and lined on poles to Georgetown as a warning to others.

In Jamaica, Verene Shepherd, Director of the Centre for Reparations Research at The University of the West Indies, said the Gladstone family “must come to the scene of the crime and apologise to the people who live in those neighbourhoods.”

Ms. Shepherd urged the Gladstone family to “commit to reparations, as they are doing in Guyana.”

Gladstone and other slave owners were paid compensation by the British authorities when the trade was abolished in 1833.

Earlier this year, a British family apologised to Grenadians and made payments for slavery on the island.

Laura Trevelyan, a descendant of the former Grenadian slave-owning, said: “It seems that the momentum for the global reparations movement is being led by the Caribbean and its intellectuals.”

But there has not been any advocacy by the Rowley Government, and the only recent statement by the Prime Minister was that had written to Britain’s King Charles and received no reply.

There is a Caricom Reparations Committee, which has not reported any progress.

Ome and others in the local reparations movement have not spoken out lately.

Khafra Kambon’s Emancipation Support Committee has also not commented in the midst of the current surge in regional and international activities.