The Fight for Historical Justice

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – For centuries, the devastating legacy of the genocide of indigenous people and the Transatlantic Slave Trade has left deep economic scars across our region.

Now, regional leaders say the long-standing underdevelopment rooted in colonial history can no longer be overlooked in today’s international diplomacy.

They’re calling for international frameworks that address these historic injustices and help correct the systemic inequalities that continue to affect the region.

At the forefront of this conversation is former Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves.


Dr. Ralph Gonsalves – Former Prime Minister, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

“The struggle for reparations has been ongoing since emancipation. It’s not a new thing. What has been brought to the center the stage in Caribbean. Since 2013. And it became a matter of international justice. When the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that the slave trade, and the enslavement of African bodies is the greatest crime against humanity.”

That momentum reached a major milestone in July 2013, when CARICOM heads of government formally established the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission.

The Commission was created to develop a regional framework calling on European nations to acknowledge their role in slavery and colonialism and to address the lasting consequences for Caribbean societies.

Dr. Ralph Gonsalves – Former Prime Minister, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

“CARICOM emphasizes that the rationales for its 10-point reparation plan is based on a historical context, which crimes against humanity were committed in the colonization of Africa and the Caribbean, that continue to cause pain and suffering to their Caribbean inhabitants. The evidence of all this is indisputable. In summer reform, the ten points plan, they fall in it’s full and formal apology…”

This diplomatic push seeks to address a bitter legacy dating back to the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

Historical records show that the British government paid 20 million pounds in compensation at the time, but not to the formerly enslaved.

Instead, the money went to slave owners to compensate them for the loss of what was then considered their property.

Dr. Gonsalves says that decision set the stage for a deep injustice, with compensation going to slave owners while the people who endured slavery received nothing.

Dr. Ralph Gonsalves – Former Prime Minister, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

“At emancipation, the wrong group, the enslavers, received reparations, not the enslaved. Forth, reparations are to repair the many sided contemporary legacies of underdevelopment, which are sourced to native genocide and enslavement of African bodies. In this regard, the present is the past. Together, the heirs of the enslavers and the enslaved require a mature conversation to arrive at an appropriate recompense and healing. Thus, to avoid a further desecration of the future.”