More questions than answers – A case for reparation?

Tue Jul 16, 2013

Editor: The issue of reparation for slavery is on the front burner in Caribbean discourse. Some political leaders, academics and columnists have all thrown their weight behind such restitution penitence in the form of monetized compensation.

Such a din for reparation by some Caribbean Governments raises many portentous issues which can have antecedent ramifications.{{more}}

The call for reparation attaches a monetary value to enslavement and genocide. It also raises the ethicality of attaching such a value to human lives. Hence, there are a plethora of questions that one can ask. Who are to be compensated in such a scheme? Is it the descendants of enslaved Africans or the present day Government of countries where slavery was entrenched? In all fairness, such an act of reparation will have to include other countries such as the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which also suffered the ravages of slavery.

Any admission of guilt by the European colonizing powers in the affirmative – in the form of reparation – will undoubtedly open a Pandora’s box for other exploited people to claim such compensation. Do the creole population of Mauritius or the indigenous or native people of the Fiji Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and other South American countries have legitimate cases for reparation also? By all accounts, their fore-parents also suffered brutally at the hands of the European colonizers.

African people and Governments on the continent may also have a legitimate case for reparation. West Africa may have suffered the worst case of ethnic cleansing and depopulation in the history of humanity. So, one can beg the question, what about reparation for the decimation and destruction of these tribal communities by the uprooting of millions of their inhabitants, transshipped to the “West” to work as enslaved workers on plantations?

Can a historical case be made for reparation based on a precedent set for the Jews by the Nazi’s in Europe? Putting such a watershed settlement into perspective, it can be argued that it was quite easier to pay reparation to the Jews after WWII, because of the time and space in question – when those crimes were perpetrated.

The Jews were virtually exterminated in Europe over a six-year period (1939-45). This act of genocide was confined to a few specific countries, where record keeping was more advanced and accurate. No one for sure is certain as to how many Africans were transshipped through the middle passage. And how does one arrive at a monetary value for such atonement? The talk that someone has arrived at a figure of US$20 billion as just compensation seems quite interesting.

Can we accept the fact, however abhorrent, that the mass movement of people (forced or voluntary) to the new world was a sordid phase in human development and settlement? In many regards, those today calling for reparation would not have been in existence to make such a case. This in no way absolves slavery from being morally reprehensible. The result of this historic but odious act is that the United States and Brazil today have more people than any country in Europe or Africa.

The recently held 34th CARICOM inter-governmental session in Trinidad and Tobago has adopted a resolution for a case to be made for reparations. This can be questioned as to why the urgency now?

The action by Caribbean Governments to seek reparation can be construed as a vile attempt by these Governments to extort money from the rich world through the contrition of historical guilt, in times of economic hardship, brought about by their mismanagement of their economies, resulting in a wanton decline in economic output, high debt to GDP ratios, poverty, crime, prostitution and simply an unsustainable economic base for these islands, since achieving independence.

If the case for reparation does succeed, it will be foolhardy to believe that the Europeans will pass such compensation over to Caribbean Governments, given their poor history of governance and their reckless and profligate ways in how they spend money, sometimes in ways only to remain in power, rather than prudent economic rationality.

One can surmise no amount of reparation can be too much, given the reckless nature of these governments in the way they spend taxpayers hard-earned money. It is beyond comprehension that school-children in one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean and during the height of a global economic recession were given a bonus of EC$6,000,000 just before a referendum. Not even Trinidad and Tobago with its oil revenue would indulge in such economic madness.

Again, a one-off payment of reparation would only produce a false sense of the feel-good factor in the short run, which at some point in time must be depleted. Isn’t it is more apt for such compensation to be in the form of preferential treatment and development assistance over a considerable length of time? It can be argued that we have been getting such from the “European Union” already. A necessary safeguard and lifeline for small states that perpetually lack a comparative and competitive advantage relative to bigger countries on earth? Or won’t it be better for these islands be pushing for a total debt write-off as a reparation?

Given the poor governance by our political leaders, wouldn’t it be better for the Europeans to put such reparations in a “trust fund” to be managed independently from the preying and wasteful ways of our Caribbean leaders, because we all know it is only the fortunate or privileged and well connected few who will reap or rape such reparation from our foreparents’ blood, sweat and tears?

Nilio Gumbs