TORONTO -- Jamaica is preparing to ask Britain to be compensated for years of slavery and their involvement in displacing hundreds of thousands of Africans to the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries.
But the push for reparations by Caribbean nations isn鈥檛 new, says one historian. It鈥檚 been an ongoing collective effort over the last decade.
鈥淭he reparations movement has been active for quite some time and it's really been spearheaded by , which is the Caribbean Community made up of 15 member states, most of whom were former British colonies,鈥� Camille Hernandez-Ramdwar, associate professor of Caribbean Studies at Ryerson University, told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Friday.
The movement aims to compensate not only people of African descent who were displaced as a result of the slave trade but Indigenous populations.
鈥淚n terms of the reparations movement, as it has been defined by CARICOM, it's not just for people of African descent, it's also for indigenous genocide,鈥� she said.
The (CRC) was formed in 2013 to "establish the moral, ethical and legal case for the payment of Reparations by the Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions of those countries, to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialized system of chattel Slavery," according to to commission's website.
During the slave trade millions of Africans were taken from their homeland, according to the National Library of Jamaica. Some 600,000 Africans were taken to Jamaica between 1533 and 1807 when the Abolition Bill passed in the British House of Lords.
When slavery was abolished reparations were paid out, but to slave owners to compensate them for lost 鈥減roperty.鈥� The Slave Compensation Commission paid out nearly C$35 million of British taxpayer dollars to slave owners in 1834, according to University College London, which would total about C$24.5 billion today. The Slave Compensation Act was being paid by British taxpayers until 2015, according to information accessed through a submitted to Her Majesty鈥檚 Treasury in 2018.
鈥淭he fact that those 200 years of free labour that Britain received during slavery, meant that not only Britain, but many nations in Europe were able to develop. There were two industrial revolutions,鈥� Hernandez-Ramdwar said.
鈥淎nd meanwhile, people of African descent, enslaved Africans and their descendants have continued to suffer the consequences of underdevelopment, of unemployment, of trauma.鈥�
Hernandz-Ramdwar says that Jamaica鈥檚 push forward may be born out of frustration with a slow movement.
鈥淧art of it is impatience with the lack of action that has been happening with what CARICOM presented back in 2015 which is, there's really been no movement on this whatsoever,鈥� she said.
CTVNews.ca reached out to the CRC for a request for comment on Commission鈥檚 goals and Jamaica鈥檚 independent petition but had not received a response by the time of publication.
In Jamaica, the movement is being led by a member of parliament, Minister Mike Henry, but it鈥檚 more complicated than suing for compensation.
鈥淚t's complicated because Jamaica is not a Republic, it is still ruled by the Queen,鈥� Hernandz-Ramdwar said. 鈥淛amaica can鈥檛 really sue the Queen.鈥�
鈥淭hey're saying they're going to deliver this petition to the Queen and probably to the government as well, but whether or not that's really going to go anywhere is questionable.鈥�
