It is time to face the legacies of British injustice – and take action.

MJR exposes a root cause of violent crime in the capital.

The publicity surrounding the rising incidences of knife crime on the streets of London, which has brought about the tragic deaths of 50 (mostly young) people since the start of the year, has led to much questioning and heart-searching about causes.

The Movement for Justice and Reconciliation (MJR) believes that these are rooted in the legacies of the past. In 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship around the UK to bring this legacy to the attention of the public.

Unacknowledged Injustice

While not condoning or excusing knife crimes, MJR wants the general public to be aware that these events are not isolated, and that they cannot be simply explained away as ‘criminality’. For them to be dealt with, they and their mostly young perpetrators need to be understood: and that means looking into context.

We believe this context includes issues of historic cultural legacy, where particular pre-dispositions or mind-sets have been passed down through the generations unseen.

Chair of MJR, Rev Alton Bell, said: “An increasing body of academic research is showing that certain negative behavioural symptoms manifesting in modern society can be traced back in our history to the twin oppressions of colonial slavery and industrial exploitation. These symptoms can include violence such as is being currently witnessed on our streets.”

In 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship around the UK to bring the legacy of slavery to the attention of the public.

Wide-Reaching Implications

For those of our communities descended from slaves these legacy issues can include personal problems with identity and belonging but, importantly, the legacy problem is also far more wide-reaching, even systemic.

The racist attitudes – structural, organisational and personal – with which our wider society struggles, and which result in black people being far more likely to be poor or in the prison system, can also be shown to be part of this legacy. The fact that it remains largely unacknowledged, let alone addressed, is a massive injustice.

MJR trustee Paul Keeble said: “Our historical amnesia about the exploitation of African slaves that helped make this country rich, has been an attempt to sweep an injustice under the carpet, but it has just left a huge lump that we keep tripping over as a society. Until we admit it is there and seek to address it, these legacy-related tragedies will continue. We cannot simply ‘move on’.”

Raising Public Awareness

In an attempt to bring the issues of legacy to wider public attention, in the summer of 2019 MJR will be sailing a replica slave-ship, called the ‘Zong’, to a number of key ports with associations with the slave trade.

Through on-board and dockside exhibitions, MJR will seek to inform people about the brutality of slavery and the human cost of the Industrial Revolution that has benefitted us all.

Notes

1. The Movement for Justice and Reconciliation is a registered charity, no. 1161441. More information on the MJR website, or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
   
2. The original ‘Zong’ was infamous for the owners claiming on their insurance for the loss of ‘property’ after 133 slaves were thrown overboard when the ship had apparently got into difficulties.
   
3. The 2019 Zong tour schedule is currently being finalised and is subject to confirmation of funding. Ports of call being prepared include Plymouth, Scilly Isles, Bristol, Ilfracombe, Liverpool, Manchester, Whitehaven, Lancaster.

Clifford Hill takes a look at David Cameron's recent negotiations with Jamaica in the light of Britain's history of slavery and oppression.

David Cameron's visit to Jamaica, where he refused to discuss reparations but offered £25 million towards building a new prison, has not been well received. Bruce Golding, former Prime Minister, described the offer as 'incomprehensible'¹ and urged Jamaica's Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, to reject the offer. He added that Britain is a rich country whereas Jamaica is a poor country and the offer of £25 million would only cover 40% of the total, leaving Jamaica to find 60% of the cost of building the prison. Jamaica would also have to pay to support the men convicted in British courts but deported to Jamaica.

David Cameron said that the agreement would mean "Jamaican criminals are sent back home to serve their sentences, saving the British taxpayer millions of pounds but still ensuring justice is done."²

But what kind of justice is this? The whole deal is weighted in Britain's favour. Even the £25 million on offer will be taken out of Britain's aid budget, which is supposed to be used for alleviating poverty and distress. But this is typical of Britain's cavalier attitude to justice in the Caribbean for more than 400 years. It was back in 1562 that Sir John Hawkins began the British slave trade, taking the first 300 captive Africans across to the Americas. The Spanish had been involved in this trade for many years but the British soon overtook them as the leading European slaving nation.

David Cameron's offer is typical of Britain's cavalier attitude to justice, suffered by the Caribbean for more than 400 years.

Slavery in Britain

Some slaves were brought to Britain, prompting the first Race Relations Act in British history - not in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II in 1962, but during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1596. It was worded thus:

Her Majesty understanding that there are of late divers blackamoores brought into this realme, of which kinde of people there are alreadie too manie, consideringe howe God hath blessed this land with great increase of people of our owne nation...These kinde of people should be sent forth of the lande. (Acts of the Privy Council, 11 July 1596)³

It was said that the stench of an approaching a slave ship could be smelt in Kingston Jamaica two days before its arrival. The monstrous inhumanity of the Atlantic crossing that could take up to 3 months when facing contrary winds was followed by the unspeakable cruelty facing the Africans on the slave plantations of the Caribbean islands – all to feed the insatiable appetite for sugar in Britain. By 1800, some two thirds of the British economy was in some way dependent upon slavery and most Members of both Houses of Parliament were involved in the trade or plantation ownership.

After Emancipation

Even the Act of Emancipation in 1833 was laced with grotesque injustice for the Africans. The British Government paid £20 million to the 46,000 owners of slaves in Britain for the loss of their 'property'– that is £17 billion in today's money – but not a single penny to the Africans themselves who had suffered centuries of cruelty, oppression, loss of freedom, identity, culture, language and personal dignity.

Even their African names were taken from them which is why Caribbeans all have the names of their former British owners today: part of the legacy of slavery they still bear.

Even the Emancipation Act was laced with grotesque injustice, compensating slave owners but leaving former slaves with nothing. Today, our Prime Minister refuses to even discuss the subject.

'Modern' Britain

But our Prime Minister refuses even to discuss reparations. In fact, during an address to the Jamaican Parliament, Mr Cameron suggested that slavery is now in the distant past and it is time to move on. Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has since published an open letter to Downing Street requesting a formal apology for Britain's history of slavery in Jamaica, and describing Mr Cameron's 'noble intentions' as being 'jarred' by this offensive suggestion.⁴ Political commentator Don Rojas has suggested that the Holocaust would never be talked about so glibly, and that Mr Cameron's remarks constitute "an insult to the entire Caribbean and black people around the world."⁵

Sir Hilary Beckles, academic and Chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission, even challenged David Cameron about his own family history of plantation ownership, saying: "You are more than a prime minister. You are a grandson of the Jamaican soil who has been privileged and enriched by your forebears' sins of the enslavement of our ancestors".⁶

Investment Needed

I have lived and worked among African Caribbeans for much of my life and I know that what most of them would like is not the distribution of a pot of money, but for Britain to lead the way in investing in the future of the Caribbean Islands by stimulating the economy; helping small businesses; promoting education; founding a university with educational grants for bright students. In fact, Jamaican actor Danny Glover, a keen activist in the reparations movement, responded to Mr Cameron's offer with "keep your prison, give us schools, give us infrastructure, not prisons".⁷

David Cameron's comments that it is time to move on from our history of slavery have been considered offensive and have triggered strong reactions from many prominent Jamaicans.

This is the way we could help to compensate for the gross injustice the islands have suffered for hundreds of years. This would be the most effective way of expressing our remorse for the way our forebears built the cities of London, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, as well as the great country houses of the rich - on the proceeds of slavery. But to offer to help build a prison is to rub salt in the wounds of those whose lives we destroyed: it is adding insult to injury.

References

1 British Prison Deal to Further Burden Taxpayers - Golding, The Gleaner, Sunday 4 October 2015.

2 UK signs deal to send Jamaican prisoners home, press release, Prime Minister's Office, 30 September 2015.

3 An open letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Lord Mayor and Alderman of London, 11 July 1596, Acts of the Privy Council of England, vol 26 (1596–97), ed. John Roche Dasent (His Majesty's Stationery Office, London: Mackie, 1902), p16–7.

4 PJ Slams David Cameron...Are We Not Worthy? He Asks. The Gleaner, Thursday 8 October 2015.

5 Poyser, A. Cameron is Ignorant, says Danny Glover - American actor/activist calls for discussions on reparations to continue, The Gleaner, Tuesday 6 October 2015.

6 Beckles, H. Open Letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, The Gleaner, Monday 28 September 2015.

7 See note 5