Commenting on the recent renewed debate about reparations for colonisation and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that came out of Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer’s attendance at the Commonwealth summit, Conservative Party leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick claimed the former colonies owed the UK a “debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them”.
His remarks have been widely criticised. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations said: “These comments are deeply offensive and an obnoxious distortion of history. Enslavement and colonialism were not ‘gifts’ but imposed systems that brutally exploited people, extracted wealth, and dismantled societies, all for the benefit of Britain. To suggest that former colonies should be ‘grateful’ for such unimaginable harm disregards the legacy of these injustices and the long-term impact they still have on many nations today.”
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a lawyer and activist, described Mr Jenrick as a “political illiterate”, adding: “Britain would be nothing without colonised African and Asian nations.”
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Reviewing the actual history, commentator Sean O’Grady, said: “In most of the empire… the British did not spend much time on building democratic institutions, and economic development was for the benefit of the mother country; a cheap source of food, raw materials and indeed troops in two world wars. Many colonies had been “independent” in the sense of not being dominated by anyone, and even if they were it doesn’t make it OK for the Europeans to take over. Their borders were defined by the people who lived there, and not by arbitrary lines on maps drawn by statesmen at international conferences in Europe. The scramble for Africa, in particular, left many future independent states politically unstable and economically unviable as a result of decisions made in London, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon and Madrid. By the time the British were forced out of their imperial possessions, many of these nations were poorly prepared for self-rule and some, notably British India, Ireland and Palestine, were partitioned with long-lasting consequences.”
