Revisiting reparations and decolonisation

I had a most encouraging and very heartening evening on Tuesday of this week when I participated in the online virtual launch of, (could you believe it?), my first publications, a three slim-volume series. After the initial disappointment and somewhat embarrassing attempt two weeks ago, ruined by a technical glitch, you would imagine the nervousness in approaching this repair job.

It turned out to be a big success, thanks to the technical expertise of two of my support team, US-based Atiba Weza and the indefatigable Clare Keizer, of SEARCHLIGHT fame. My eternal thanks to them, the rest of my support team, and the ever-faithful army of progressives who kept on offering me their solidarity.

One of the booklets in this initial series is entitled “We Grandparents’ Back Pay- a Struggle for Reparatory Justice”, and with a number of developments in this area globally, it is fitting that I devote some space to this in this column. Readers would be aware that an official campaign for reparations for slavery, native genocide and colonialism has been launched, with a great deal of fanfare, by the Caribbean community, including a high-powered Reparations Committee.

In recent months though, except for a few noted examples, it would seem to many that the reparations train has slowed somewhat. However, to arrive at this conclusion would be an error. Reparations is not an action-packed movie, designed to grab attention every few minutes. It is a long and protracted exercise which has been waged for more than two centuries now. Patient, constructive and mass educational and organisational work is necessary on a consistent basis.

High-profile events are certainly useful, but they must be based on the daily grind of our people as a whole. Just in case there are those among us who are losing sight of the reparations train, let me highlight a few issues which indicate that the train is not at a standstill.

We can begin with one of the most horrible experiences foisted on African people in the exercise of colonial plunder. That is in the second largest country in Africa, the 11th in size in the world, today’s Democratic Republic of Congo. The infamous Berlin Conference of 1884 had divided the world between the major colonial powers, giving them the right to do as they please and use whatever methods they deemed appropriate to enrich themselves at the expense of the colonial, non-white peoples. Even small, hitherto insignificant countries like Belgium got their piece of the pie, the wealth and influence deriving from colonial plunder, contributing to Belgium today hosting the seat of European government, the European Union, in Brussels.

A Belgian king, Leopold 11, became the sole owner of this huge mineral-rich territory and proceeded to use the most horrendous methods to enrich himself. These included an inhuman system whereby Congolese men were forced to collect ivory for him, killing elephants in the process. Those who failed to do so had their limbs brutally cut off.

Ivory, and the plunder of multiple valuable minerals in the Congo explain why all over Belgium there are monuments displaying the gold from Africa, including in the so-called “Royal” palaces. There is no doubt that Belgium as a whole benefitted, and fittingly, reparations claims have been laid at its doors.

Earlier this week, the Belgian Courts ordered the Belgian state to pay reparations for one of its most reprehensible acts. Five women of mixed race, African mothers and- you guessed it, white fathers who did not shoulder their responsibility, had taken to court to enforce their reparations claim. The Court found that Belgium had a “plan to systematically search for and abduct children born to black mothers and white fathers”. These were taken to state-organised “orphanages” where they suffered terrible abuse. Racism would not allow them to admit that “civilised” white men were engaging in sexual acts with supposed “uncivilised savages”.

The Court ruled that the policy of the Belgian state was “a crime against humanity” and that the kidnappings represented “an inhuman act of persecution”. Five years ago, the Belgian state itself made a public apology and the Catholic church which facilitated those dreadful “orphanages” also apologised. So do not think that, despite the stubborn refusal to collectively accept responsibility for slavery and genocide, the claim for reparations is dead.

Indeed, it would be interesting to hear what Prime Minister Gonsalves, one of the region’s strongest advocates of reparations, would say following his scheduled meetings with British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy next week. Lammy, like some prominent black British Parliamentarians, have tried to dismiss reparations claims.

Interestingly, it is not just people of African descent who are advancing their claims. In North America, both Canada and the USA, the Catholic Church, and state institutions, have come under fire for their role in the establishment of degrading and racist “orphanages” where indigenous children were hidden from public view and suffered horrific abuse, including sexual abuse of both girls and boys alike.

And in both New Zealand and Australia, where native people were brutally oppressed and driven from their lands, the struggle has now reached even their Parliaments. More on this next week.

• Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.