This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed his desire to engage in discussions with Commonwealth leaders regarding current challenges, particularly climate change, rather than focusing on the past. Despite Downing Street’s insistence that the issue of reparatory justice for the transatlantic slave trade is not on the agenda for the upcoming summit of 56 Commonwealth countries in Samoa, diplomatic sources reveal ongoing negotiations to initiate a meaningful conversation on the topic. Frederick Mitchell, the foreign minister of the Bahamas, emphasized the importance of addressing reparatory justice for slavery through various means such as financial reparations, debt relief, and educational programs. The draft summit communique acknowledges the need for a truthful and respectful conversation on reparatory justice, despite initial resistance from the UK. Diplomats anticipate that reparatory justice will be a central focus of the next Commonwealth summit in two years. Commonwealth leaders, including King Charles and Queen Camilla, have been engaged in various activities during the lead-up to the summit. Despite growing calls for the UK to apologize and provide reparations for its historical role in the slave trade, the UK government maintains that reparations are not on the agenda for the summit. Sir Keir Starmer, the first sitting prime minister to visit a Pacific island nation, emphasized the importance of addressing current challenges, such as climate change, with Commonwealth leaders. PA Media
“That’s where I’m going to put my focus – rather than what will end up being very, very long endless discussions about reparations on the past.
“Of course, slavery is abhorrent to everybody; the trade and the practice, there’s no question about that. But I think from my point of view… I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past.”
King Charles arrived in Samoa for a four-day visit on Wednesday and is due to formally open the summit.
On a visit to Kenya last year, the King expressed the “greatest sorrow and regret” over the “wrongdoings” of the colonial era, but stopped short of issuing an apology, which would have required the agreement of ministers.
Some non-Caribbean countries are not unsympathetic towards the British position and want the summit to focus more on existing challenges – such as climate change, which is adversely affecting many Commonwealth countries, about half of whom are small island states.
But Caribbean countries seem determined to keep pressing the issue.
All three candidates hoping to be elected this weekend as the next secretary general of the Commonwealth – Shirley Botchwey of Ghana, Joshua Setipa of Lesotho and Mamadou Tangara of Gambia – have made clear they support reparatory justice.
The British government and the monarchy were prominent participants in the centuries-long slave trade from 1500, alongside other European nations, with millions of Africans forced to work on plantations.
Britain also had a key role in ending the trade through Parliament’s passage of a law to abolish slavery in 1833.