Gordon Robinson | Apologies for slavery

So the owner of The Guardian issued a sincere apology for the newspaper’s founders’ role in transatlantic slavery.

This wasn’t caprice. It came after extensive research into links between founder John Edward Taylor and slavery. According to The Guardian, research, commissioned in 2020 by current owner the Scott Trust, “revealed that Taylor, and at least nine of his 11 backers, had links to slavery, principally through the textile industry. Taylor had multiple links through cotton manufacturing firm Oakden & Taylor, and cotton merchant company Shuttleworth, Taylor & Co, which imported vast amounts of raw cotton produced by enslaved people.”

Additionally, Sir George Philips, an early financier, co-owned Success sugar plantation in Hanover, Jamaica. In 1835, Philips unsuccessfully claimed compensation from the British government for loss of “property” namely 108 slaves. But his partner was awarded £1,904, 19s (shillings) 10d (pence) conservatively valued, at today’s money, at £200,000.

So this apology isn’t based on the offender’s (or the offenders’ successors’) view of right or wrong. It’s based on independent research; identifies the wrong done; and admits blame. Scott Trust has acknowledged its current success is, in large part, due to inhumane atrocities with which its founders were associated. It also announced a £10m+ n investment fund with millions dedicated specifically to descendant communities linked to The Guardian’s founders’ misdeeds.

This brings me to today’s issue namely reparations. I applaud the Scott Trust for its implicit acknowledgement that slavery’s inhumanity wasn’t committed against any Government but against individuals and their communities. This has been my bugbear in the “reparations” conversation. If “reparations” mean huge payments to Caribbean Governments I remain opposed.

It’s particularly ironic that some “reparationists” want payments made to governments which currently parrot the British Governance system which enslaved and dehumanized us. Until we restructure inherited systems of colonial governance to embody government by the people for the people, payment of government to government reparations is illusory sophistry.

Recently, I was asked for my views on the current trend of activity on reparations (e.g. Laura Trevelyan; the Dutch King; Cambridge University) recognizing and apologizing for their role in slavery. I declined public comment as my views were what I described as “complex” but this was a portion of my reply:

“I will say to you my approach to the issue is more spiritual than material. I believe Reparations for Slavery have already been ‘paid’; are continuing to be ‘paid’; and will forever continue to be ‘paid’. Most of the advocates for reparations to whom I’ve listened seem focussed on some sort of cash payment by former slave masters or governments that facilitated their ignominious actions. In the event that view holds sway, I prefer to focus on fixing our Governance structures so that, when the payment comes, it cannot be turned into a political slush fund.

“But my concerns are even more fundamental. I don’t believe reparations are owed to any Government. I believe slavery was a deliberate inhuman brutal subjugation of INDIVIDUALS and it’s to them and their descendants that compensation is due. So, even if the eventual reparations are government to government I’d prefer them in the form of infrastructure for and education of the mighty race than in any cash payment. As a tiny example, I’d like to see Visa restrictions lifted by UK and descendants of slaves be given unlimited access to that ‘empire’s’ educational and economic opportunities built on the labour of slaves.”

So I welcomed Scott Trust’s apology directed “to the affected communities…and surviving descendants of the enslaved for the part The Guardian and its founders had in this crime against humanity.” The Trust also apologized for early editorial positions that effectively supported enslaved people’s exploitation.

This brings me to another incident I believe influenced The Guardian’s mindset change. In 2008, Jamaican journalist, Barbara Blake-Hannah, wrote a letter to The Guardian admonishing the paper for its careless approach to black history in British Journalism. The Guardian’s report (January 2021) of that 2008 letter began:

“‘I must put history right,’ she wrote explaining that a poster issued by the paper was incorrect. It contained….the common misconception Trevor McDonald was the first Black person to report the news on British TV after he joined ITN in 1973 and Moira Stuart, on BBC News from 1981, was the first Black woman. In fact, said Blake-Hannah, an author, film-maker and former Jamaican senator, in 1968 she was one of three Thames Television on-camera reporters for the current affairs programme Today ….”

Barbara’s letter and a recent follow-up interview, chronicled the persistent instances of racist abuse she suffered until pressure from Windrush-shocked white Britain, including the notorious Enoch “Rivers of Blood” Powell, resulted in her removal from the air. I’m convinced her brave 2008 rebuke (or maybe a recent review of it) helped to drive The Guardian’s about face.

I’ve fond memories of Barbara Blake-Hannah. Eons ago (late 1980s/early 1990s) I often submitted letters to the editor. One such letter was prompted by Wilmot Perkins’ haranguing of Bob Marley who he’d regularly dismiss as a “hooligan”. His justification for the insult was a superficial repetition of Bob’s lyrics “I want to disturb my neighbour” and “I feel like bombing a church.” The latter lyric was self-explanatory as the lyric immediately following was “when you know the preacher is lying” but Motty never got around to a full quote.

Regarding the “disturb my neighbour” lyric I believed I knew the correct context. I wrote explaining from my perspective of once living at Maryfield Apartments (an elite gated community where my mother resided as a job perk). I’d often hear murmurings from fellow residents regarding their disappointment at the “dutty rasta bwoy” allowed to move in next door. Then, one day (Bob hadn’t yet soundproofed his studio), the following floated in the air to me on my patio “Dem a go tired fi see mi face....” I was convinced the song was a musical response to the malicious mutterings. The day my letter was published somebody called me at office and introduced herself as Barbara Blake-Hannah. The caller said “I don’t know you but I had to call because I’ve spent lots of time at Bob’s house. I can confirm you are correct.”

Recently I received a note from her (I hadn’t heard from her since that 30 year old call) to say she enjoyed my column on Devon House. I told her the story and said “I hope it was really you because I’ve NEVER forgotten that kindness.” She confirmed that it was her. Barbara Blake-Hannah has spent a multi-faceted life devoted to activism against racism and promotion of spiritual livity especially in accordance with Rasta philosophy. I expect The Guardian to acknowledge her input in its new direction.

That new direction includes:

• support of projects in Jamaica after consultation with reparations experts and community groups;

• raising awareness of transatlantic slavery and its legacies;

• media diversity;

• further academic research;

• increasing the scope and ambition of The Guardian’s reporting;

• The Scott Trust to fund a new global fellowship programme for mid-career Black journalists and expand The Guardian Foundation’s training bursary scheme;

• Guardian to expand its reporting of Black communities in UK, USA, Caribbean, South America and Africa, with plans to create 12 new journalism roles at The Guardian and launch new editorial formats to better serve Black audiences

These. Are. Real. Reparations!

Scott Trust commissioned research, completed in 2022, specifically identified some of the slaves connected to Guardian funders including from the Spanish Wells plantation on Hilton Head Island, USA; a plantation in Charleston, South Carolina; and Success Plantation, Jamaica.

Records from Success plantation noted a slave named Granville as a freedom fighter persecuted for his involvement in Jamaica’s Baptist war (1831-32). The Guardian researchers report “He was one of 60,000 enslaved Jamaicans to take part in the uprising. Also known as the Christmas rebellion, it was one of the largest by enslaved people in the West Indies and played an important role in the abolition of British slavery.”

Get this. Britain did NOT voluntarily “abolish slavery”. They were forced to abandon slavery by enslaved freedom fighters. Proof of THAT pudding is in the eating, by former slave masters, of “reparations” paid for compulsory separation from their “property”.

On March 28, Guardian Editor-in-Chief, Katharine Viner, wrote: “We are facing up to, and apologizing for, the fact that our founder and those who funded him drew their wealth from a crime against humanity.”

NOTHING about the experience of slavery; atrocities by slave masters; and dehumanization of human beings as slaves is suitable for humour.

Of. Any. Kind!

THAT, without more, would be disrespect for which apology is due.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com