HomeOld_PostsJamaicans demand apology and reparations from Cameron

Jamaicans demand apology and reparations from Cameron

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RECENTLY, the British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where his visit was overshadowed by a demand of a public apology from the PM on the role played by Britain in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which saw millions of Africans, especially from West Africa, kidnapped and forcibly shipped to the West Indies and America in shackles as slaves.
A member of Jamaica’s National Commission on Reparations, Bert Samuels, said of David Cameron’s ancestral history: “His lineage has been traced and his forefathers were slave-owners and benefitted from slavery. When slavery was banned, they were compensated.
“We were left out because of racism.”
Bert demanded the PM to “atone, apologise, personally and on behalf of his country” for slavery.
However, the PM refused to apologise publicly or commit to the payment of reparations to Jamaica, stating that, “he wanted to focus on the future and how the United Kingdom could help to spur economic growth across Jamaica”, according to No 10 spokeswoman.
Acknowledging that ‘these wounds run deep’, the PM chose to remind the Jamaicans about the role played by Britain in abolishing and wiping slavery ‘off the face of our planet’.
Rather, Cameron, said the UK would give £300 million in aid to the Caribbean islands for infrastructural development and building a £25 million prison in Jamaica for the 300 Jamaican citizens in UK jails.
According to the BBC, there are about 600 Jamaican nationals in UK prisons who cannot be deported to the Caribbean island because of poor prison conditions in the country.
“More than 300 existing offenders are expected to be sent back under the Jamaica prison scheme, which covers those sentenced to at least four years who have 18 months or more left to serve in custody.
“Currently they cannot be sent to Jamaica because of fears that jail conditions in the country would allow a successful challenge under human rights law.” – (BBC).
But most Jamaicans, including former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, were angered by PM Cameron’s refusal to make a public apology on Britain’s involvement in the enslavement of Africans.
In an open letter to PM David Cameron dated October 8 2015, former Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, part of the letter reads:
Prime Minister,
The most noble intentions (referring to the aid) were jarred by those portions of your address which asserted that slavery was a long time ago, in the historical past and “as friends we can move on together to build for the future”.
Your host, The Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller, in her gracious welcome referred to the difficult issue of reparation which should be discussed in “a spirit of mutual respect, openness and understanding as we seek to actively engage the UK on that matter.”
You chose instead to throw down the gauntlet.
Mere acknowledgment of its horror will not suffice.
It was and still a most heinous crime against humanity – a stain which cannot be removed by the passage of time.
Those who perished in the Middle Passage and the fatal victims on the sugar plantations were the victims of genocide.
This is a crime in accordance with international law.
The attempt to trivialise and diminish the significance of 300 years of British enslavement of Africans and the trade in their bodies reflect continued ethnic targeting of our ancestors and their progeny for discriminatory treatment in both the annals of history and in the present.
There are people in Jamaica today whose great-grandparents were part of the slavery system and the memory of slavery still lingers in these households and communities.
The scars of this oppression are still alive in the minds and hearts of a million Jamaicans.
How can we simply forget and move on to the future?
If there is no explicit admission of guilt now, when will be the proper time?
You argue that Britain abolished the slave system and the credit for this resonates in the British Parliament today and shows British compassion and diplomacy.
Where is the prior confession that Britain fashioned, legalised, perpetuated and prospered from the slave trade?
In the open letter to PM David Cameron, P. J. Patterson reminds the British Prime Minister that the Jamaicans had tried to free themselves three years before the British abolished the slave trade.
He reminds the British PM that those Jamaicans who led the quest to end slavery were rounded up and killed by the British army.
“The British army destroyed these freedom fighters and executed their leaders,” he wrote.
Mr Patterson also reminds PM David Cameron that when the Jamaican peasants tried to occupy Crown lands to ‘survive widespread hunger’ in 1865, they were massacred by a British army.
Mr Patterson condemns the British PM’s hypocrisy and inconsistent foreign policy when he reminds him that: “Recently you urged your own nation to keep the memory of the Jewish experience alive in memorials and education curricula.
“We urge you to do the same for the black experience which remains before us all.
“We all want to move on, but with justice and equality.”
Recently there have been calls from many former colonies, demanding that they be compensated for the economic and human losses encountered during British colonialism.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article, published in The Patriot about how some Indians feel that Britain should pay them reparations.
In 2012, a British High Court ruled in favour of three elderly Kenyans who suffered torture during the Mau Mau rebellion.
“Three elderly Kenyans have won an historic legal victory over the British government after the high court gave them permission to claim damages for the grave abuses they suffered when imprisoned during the Mau Mau rebellion.
“The court rejected the government’s claim that too much time had elapsed for there to be a fair trial, just as it threw out an earlier claim that the Mau Mau veterans should be suing the Kenyan government, not the British,” (The Guardian October 5 2012).
Although the Jamaicans, and Caribbean countries, have been calling for reparations for many years, the victory of the Mau Mau victims may have given them hope.
Some Jamaicans believe that even if the UK may not wish to pay any reparations to the Caribbean islands (former British colonies), all they want is a public apology from some high office.
But that may not happen during our lifetime; maybe never!

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