Justice Delayed

Jun 10, 2013 Editorial

Last week in an historic out of court settlement, the British Government agreed to pay £20 million to some 5000 Kenyan citizens who had fought for independence of their country but had been tortured by the colonial government. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the British Government admitted they had tortured many of the 25,000 Mau Mau fighters detained during the State of Emergency they had declared in 1952. Mr. Hague averred that they did not condone “acts of inhumanity”.

“I would like to make clear now and for the first time, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, that we understand the pain and grievance felt by those who were involved in the events of the Emergency in Kenya. The British Government recognises that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration. The British Government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence. Torture and ill-treatment are abhorrent violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn.”

Most in Guyana have forgotten that the struggle for independence after WWII for many British colonies was not only the flowery speeches and firm handshakes that we hear about. The PAC, which was the precursor to the PPP, supported the cause of the Mau Mau, and the PPP cell that continued to monitor and give support to them included Forbes Burnham and Ashton Chase. What is most interesting in the delayed reparative justice done in the Mau Mau cause is that it was brought privately and not by the government.

In 2011, the British High Court in London had rejected the veterans’ claims that the British Government should accept the liabilities of the colonial regime. However, it permitted demands for compensation to proceed and this was appealed by the government. The decision of the British government to pay the veterans changes the entire situation, not only in relation to the claims of the Mau Maus but to claims for reparations made against the British government for what they did to Africans and their descendants, who they brought as slaves to the “New World”.

Millions were killed in their capture; their transportation across the Atlantic and on the plantations. Their labour contributed to the enrichment of Britain and to its development as an industrial nation that created an empire on which “the sun never set”. No one can deny that this was not genocide on a scale so colossal as to boggle the imagination. In this century, the Jews have pressed their case for reparative justice for the murder of five million of their people by the Nazis. They have been successful. After WWII, the allies, which included Britain, pressed for reparations against Germany. But in the case of reparations for slavery, Britain and the US have steadfastly denied the claims.

While those claims have been made by private groups since the late 19th century, in 1993, the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) officially took up the call in their Abuja declaration. But there was never much enthusiasm from official quarters in pressing the demands for reparations – primarily because these leaders wanted to pander to western countries to collect “aid”. In the 2001, UN Durban Conference against Racism, the Final Document declared: “We acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade… are a crime against humanity, and should always have been so, especially the transatlantic slave trade.” There is no statute of limitations against genocide.

Sadly however, the matter of reparations was again placed on the back burner. At the official celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the OAU (now the African Union -AU) last month, not a word was mentioned. But in the side conferences, it is to the credit of the Caribbean that Professor Hillary Beckles from UWI delivered a powerful lecture based on his book ‘Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide’. In detailing undisputed facts relating to the harms of slavery, he reiterated the necessary first step to securing reparations.

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Justice Delayed

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