BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Former Jamaica prime minister Percival. J Patterson is calling on the chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Committee to obtain the best legal advice to determine through international law the appropriate compensation the Caribbean is entitled to for centuries of slavery.
“I think it has reached the stage where it is now for the CARICOM Reparations Committee that your chair to obtain the authoritative legal opinion of senior counsel as to what is the most competent judicial body for the application to be made which will determine the liability which European nations and the damages we are entitled to receive,” Patterson said.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley chairs the Committee. Like Patterson, they participated in an Emancipation Conversation Roundtable Discussion titled “Three Legends, Three Perspectives, One Conversation: Reparations and Beyond” on Thursday night.
The panel includes St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, and Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Patterson said that there is a need for pursuing reparatory justice at the diplomatic level, recalling the success achieved with the European Union when the African, Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) group a partnership, leading to beneficial agreements, including the Cotonou Agreement that formed the basis of socio-economic cooperation with Europe.
“We also have to avail ourselves of battering on diplomatic doors in Europe. I say this because I am reminded of the success that we achieved with the European Union in the 70s, when Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific forged a single indivisible partnership, fully equipped with the technical expertise to obtain a satisfactory outcome that is reflected in the Lome and subsequent Cotonou agreements,” Patterson told the audience during his virtual presentation.
He said that achieving full reparatory justice requires more than prayers and expressions of piety, adding that unity of purpose and joint efforts by African and Caribbean nations are essential.
Patterson highlighted the influential role Obasanjo played in Africa, expressing the need for his engagement in finding solutions to address inequities and imbalances.
“We have to have unity of purpose and the execution of a single pursuit by Africa and the Caribbean nations.“We have to get him to engage with us, and he knows I am always available to work with him as we try to find how we will eradicate the inequities and imbalances in every available forum and institution to which we belong.”
Patterson criticized the British government for failing to acknowledge the need for reparations for the atrocities committed against the Caribbean’s African ancestors.
“The government of the United Kingdom, who are the primary progenitors of the slave trade for the Caribbean and the rulers of the empire, are persisting in stubborn denial. However, we still have to insist that reparation is essential to address the wrongs we have suffered.”
Criticism for London also came from Gonsalves, even as he urged a conciliatory approach to encourage the UK administration to support the cause.
Gonsalves said the reparations movement is not merely about financial compensation but also addresses historical legacies of underdevelopment linked to native genocide and the enslavement of African people.
He highlighted the importance of educating people within the British government, sharing a report of UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments on slavery in opposition to reparations.
While Gonsalves recommended four books for her to read, emphasizing the need for meaningful conversations rather than confrontation, he remained adamant that he supports a conciliatory means of getting London to support the initiative.
But he reminded the audience that the reparations movement was not merely about money but of repairing the historical legacies of underdevelopment directly linked to native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies.
That is the crux of the matter,” he said, noting, “CARICOM has put forward a 10-point plan. In the case of the English-speaking Caribbean, we have to educate persons within the British government.
“I saw a report that the Home Secretary, who is a woman of Indian descent, saying the British don’t have any reason to have any sense of remorse about slavery, they should be praised for freeing people…freeing the slaves,” he noted while recommending four books which she should read – Black Jacobins, Capitalism and Slavery, Slaves Who Abolished Slavery, and Britain’s Black Debt.
“To avoid desecration of the future, we have to put this item on the agenda for serious conversation, as King Charles, then Prince Charles, advocated in Kigali in his opening speech for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference.
“We are not having a confrontation with anybody. You will not find me outside Downing Street [prime minister’s official residence] with a placard. I want to have a conversation with the people who live at Number 10 Downing Street,” he said.
In addition to the CARICOM Reparations Commission, Prime Minister Gonsalves suggested the establishment of the first African Union-CARICOM Summit and the African Union-CARICOM Commission, aiming for an Africa-Brazil-Caribbean Diaspora Commission.
He said that with a population of 209 million, more than half of African descent, Brazil is the largest black nation outside Africa and the second largest in the world behind Nigeria.
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