Reparations for Whom? Bridging the Gap Between Caribbean Advocacy and Public Expectations

The Caribbean reparations movement may be speaking on behalf of millions of descendants of slavery—but are we sure it is speaking with them?

There is a disconnect between what many people believe reparations to be and what advocates for reparations are trying to achieve. I believe there is a general lack of interest in reparations among Jamaicans. Ask what reparations means to them and many would probably say, “getting money.” Yet the formal institutions leading the reparations movement are not, broadly speaking, seeking direct cash payments to individuals.

What the formal movement is seeking

The CARICOM Reparations Commission’s Ten-Point Plan advances a much broader programme. Its proposals include a full formal apology, repatriation, public-health support, educational and cultural initiatives, debt cancellation and greater regional integration. I encourage you to read and share the Commission’s plan.

Formal reparations movements take a restorative-justice approach. Their focus is on acknowledging and repairing the continuing harm experienced by descendants of enslaved people, rather than simply issuing a financial payout—the kind Britain once made to former slave owners.

Do the priorities resonate?

I wonder, however, to what extent people across the Caribbean relate to this restorative-justice approach. Do we care about receiving a formal apology? How many Caribbean people want to return to Africa? Do Caribbean nationals believe that we need psychological rehabilitation? Do they believe Britain should support “the need for greater Caribbean integration designed to enable the coming together of the fragmented community”?

I ask these questions not to be facetious, but to interrogate the voices and motivations driving the Caribbean reparations movement. The points are noble, but I would argue that many Caribbean nationals neither relate to nor prioritise several of the issues raised in the plan.

Equally, how many Jamaicans care about a formal legal declaration on whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was lawful under English law, whether it violated international law, and whether Britain now has a legal duty to provide redress?

If there is a disconnect between what formal reparations movements are seeking and what the descendants of slavery want, then who are the reparations for?

Whose voice shapes the agenda?

Whose voice determines the talking points and the approaches taken to the institutions where the decisions really matter—for example, the UK Government?

I can accept that the Ten-Point Plan may reflect many different voices. I can also accept that, on the surface, Caribbean nationals would broadly support several of its themes. We do want better public-health systems. We would support African-Caribbean exchange programmes. We do need to eradicate illiteracy.

But do Caribbean nationals expect Europe to facilitate those outcomes? Do we believe Europe is responsible for our present-day literacy or debt problems? Are these the issues we want Europe to address—if we want European governments involved at all?

The case for restorative justice

That, of course, is the logic of the restorative-justice approach. The Ten-Point Plan argues that many disadvantages faced by Caribbean societies today are directly connected to the region’s stunted development under slavery and colonialism—and that the governments and institutions responsible have an obligation to help repair the resulting harm.

The question is not whether those harms existed or whether their effects continue. The question is whether the movement has built a sufficiently broad public mandate around what repair should look like.

A reparations agenda can be historically justified and institutionally sophisticated while still failing to connect with the people in whose name it speaks. Closing that gap will require more than explaining the Ten-Point Plan. It will require listening: asking Caribbean people what justice means to them, which forms of repair they value and how they want their priorities represented.