President of Guyana demands slavery reparations ahead of apology from plantation owner descendants

Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali arrives for the South American Summit at Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Irfaan Ali has on Thursday, Aug 24, 2023, lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders and said those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to today’s generations.

 (AP Photo/Gustavo Moreno, File)

Bert Wilkinson
The Associated Press
Published Aug. 24, 2023

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA -

Guyana president Irfaan Ali on Thursday lashed out at the descendants of European slave traders, saying those who profited from the cruel, trans-Atlantic slave trade should offer to pay reparations to today's generations.
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The leader of the South American country also proposed that those involved in the slave trade be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.

Ali spoke ahead of Friday's planned formal apology in Guyana by the descendants of Scottish 19th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone, saying the apology should also include issues of compensation and reparative justice.

The president said that while he welcomed plans by the family to acknowledge what he called the sins of the past, it also implies "an acknowledgement of the cruel nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana and an act of contrition that paves the way for justice. The Gladstone family has admitted that it benefited from African enslavement and indentureship on the Demerara and other plantations owned by its patriarch, John Gladstone."

Gladstone was the father of 19th-century British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and received more than 100,000 pounds in compensation for hundreds of slaves.

The Gladstone family could not be immediately reached for comment.

Six members of the family are scheduled to arrive in the English-speaking nation later Thursday to participate in a brief ceremony at the University of Guyana on Friday, where they will formally apologize for the role John Gladstone played in what was then British Guiana.

Traveling with them is supposed to be former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan, whose family earlier this year apologized to slave descendants in Grenada because her ancestors owned hundreds of slaves in that eastern Caribbean island.

Absentee plantation owner Gladstone, who owned more than 2,500 slaves in Guyana and Jamaica, never set foot in Guyana or in the neighboring West Indian islands, but was in charge when the renowned 1823 slave rebellion erupted on his plantation at Success Village on Guyana's east coast, about seven miles from the capital of Georgetown.

Historical records show that hundreds of revolting slaves were killed and their heads chopped off and lined on poles all the way to the capital as a reminder to others nursing similar ambitions as colonizers snuffed the two-day rebellion.

Making his case for reparations, Ali noted that demands by members of a Caribbean trade bloc for reparation payments have intensified. He argued that "reparations (are) a commitment to righting historical wrongs. The trans-Atlantic slave trade and African enslavement were an affront to humanity itself. The heinousness of this crime against humanity demands that we seek to right these wrongs"

Caricom nations, including Guyana, already have hired a British law firm to examine their case for financial compensation from Britain and other European nations. The trade bloc has said it was advised that its case is strong and should be pursued.

"The descendants of John Gladstone must now also outline their plan of action in line with the Caricom plan for reparatory justice for slavery and indentureship," Ali said.

The plan includes a formal apology and investment of billions in education, health, infrastructure and cultural revitalization to ensure that "future generations are unshackled from the chains of history."

A handful of nations have apologized for their role in slavery, including the Netherlands.

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https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/capatlism_and_slavery.pdf

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Gladstone heirs to apologise for both  slavery, indentureship – UG, Reparations Committee

John Gladstone (Photograph: Alamy)
By Stabroek News August 25, 2023

The University of Guyana and the Guyana Reparations Committee yesterday clarified that the apology they helped negotiate with the heirs of slave owner John Gladstone includes slavery and indentureship since he was integrally involved in both.

In an earlier release, the University had indicated that Gladstone owned plantations and managed several others not owned by him. Quamina and his son John, who led the 1823 uprisings, which are being commemorated this month were enslaved on Gladstone plantations amongst thousands of others. The university itself is founded on plantation lands upon which part of the uprising occurred, the UG release said.

Gladstone family urged to pay slavery reparations to Jamaica

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IMAGE SOURCE,UNIVERSITY OF GUYANA

Image caption,

Charlie Gladstone read an apology to the people of Guyana on behalf of his family

By Joshua Nevett

BBC News

The descendants of former Prime Minister William Gladstone are facing calls to pay reparations to Jamaica for an ancestor's role in slavery.

The Gladstone family apologised for its slaveholding past in Guyana and pledged to fund research into slavery and other projects at a ceremony on Friday.

But the family has been accused of failing to acknowledge the case for paying slavery reparations in Jamaica.

The family told the BBC: "At the moment we are solely focused on Guyana."

"There is a huge amount to do here [in Guyana]," the Gladstones said.

John Gladstone - the father of William Gladstone, one of the UK's most revered prime ministers - was one of the largest slave owners in the British West Indies.

The University of London's (UCL) Legacies of British Slavery database shows John Gladstone owned or held mortgages over 2,508 enslaved Africans in Guyana and Jamaica in the 19th Century.

He was paid more than £100,000 in compensation after the British Parliament passed a law to abolish slavery in most British colonies in 1833, receiving £15,052 for 806 enslaved people in Jamaica.

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Reading the family's apology to Guyana, Charlie Gladstone, the great-great-grandson of William Gladstone, condemned slavery as "a crime against humanity" and acknowledged "slavery's continuing impact on the daily lives of many".

He said the family supported a 10-point reparations plan proposed by Caribbean nations.

But there was no mention of John Gladstone's slave ownership in Jamaica at the ceremony in Guyana on Friday, nor in the family's statement announcing their intention to apologise and make donations last week.

John Gladstone owned "significant properties" in Jamaica, said Verene Shepherd, director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies.

She said the Gladstone family "must come to the scene of the crime and apologise to the people who live in those neighbourhoods".

The Jamaican academic and professor of social history urged the Gladstone family to "commit to reparations, as they're doing in Guyana".

Reparations are broadly recognised as compensation given for something that was deemed wrong or unfair, and can take many forms.

Last week, the Gladstones said they would aim to donate £100,000 to the University of Guyana's International Institute for Migration and Diaspora Studies, which was launched on Friday.

In Guyana, the family also pledged funding "to assist various projects in Guyana" and UCL's Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery for five years.

Prof Shepherd said: "Now that we realise that we've been ignored, I think Jamaica should make an approach."

The BBC has been told that Jamaica's National Council on Reparations is discussing the Gladstone case and considering what action to take.

The council has not had any contact with the Gladstone family to date.

Reparations approach

John Gladstone was a Scottish merchant who made a fortune from his ownership of sugar plantations and enslaved workers in the decade before abolition.

His prominent involvement in the industry shaped the political career and legacy of his son, William Gladstone, whose attitude towards slavery changed over his life.

In his first speech to Parliament, the Liberal prime minister defended the rights of plantation owners, but later branded slavery the "foulest crime" in history.

IMAGE SOURCE,HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

William Gladstone was Liberal prime minister on four occasions in the 19th Century

The Gladstones are the latest British descendants of slave owners to attempt to atone for the actions of their ancestors in recent years.

The family's historic link to slavery came into sharper focus during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Since then, some members of the family have joined the Heirs of Slavery, a group of British people whose families profited from the transatlantic slave trade and want to make amends.

Other members include former BBC journalist Laura Trevelyan and her family, who apologised to Grenada and promised £100,000 in reparations in February this year.

In an interview with the BBC earlier this week, United Nations Judge Patrick Robinson said he had "some scepticism about these families".

He said the reparations paid should be based on the number of slaves John Gladstone owned and the extent to which the family benefited from this economically.

He said he would be willing to ask for a calculation from the Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm that produced a report on the reparations states owe for their involvement in slavery.

"If it's not to be seen as a tokenistic exercise, if it is to be taken seriously, they must ascertain the reparations that are owed," Mr Robinson said.

The Brattle Group Report, which was co-authored by Mr Robinson, said the UK should pay $24tn (£18.8tn) for its slavery involvement in 14 countries.

The Gladstones should undertake a similar calculation to "demonstrate how much is really owed", said Robert Beckford, professor of climate and social justice at the University of Winchester.

The professor said that rather than giving money to a university for further research, he would have "preferred them to talk to community organisers or reparations groups, to explore what is the best way forward".

Although he welcomed the Gladstone apology in Guyana, he said the failure to acknowledge Jamaica hinted at "an unwillingness to face up to the full brutal, bestial horror of chattel slavery" in the country.