ECHO reporter Patrick Graham reflects on calls for reparations and the legacy of slavery today
Today, ECHO reporter Patrick Graham asks key questions about what we are remembering and what issues are involved in this memory.
When Audrey says “abolish human exploitation once and for all”, to me this means the systems that are in place that allow for individuals and nations to be exploited too. From slavery there came colonisation which saw an exploitation of natural resources and people that continues to this day. Western systems and nations continue to increase and sustain their wealth from their resources, although not through physical slavery, but mental and economic slavery.
On the question of slavery ending many years ago, should we forget about it as it's the past and can't be changed? It is the past - and history can’t be changed - but lessons must be learned and the wrongs that still exist, must be stamped out. Only those who wish to gaslight from the real and obvious impact and legacy that people suffer today from the slave trade will delude themselves, and anyone who will listen, to such calls that this is a fair comparison.
"For example if we’re talking about repair, we’re not going to be repairing something that happened 200 years ago, we’re actually repairing something that's going on now. The banking systems, all of that as well, but it would just focus on racism as it's endemic. "What kind of press do we need? Is our press being educative and is it transforming lives and society by the way it presents the world?
For me part of this history the UN says needs looking at has to be why slavery was so wrong, and as much as it may make some people uncomfortable, talk about it with the gory details. It’s history which cannot be changed, but needs to be understood to the best of our ability. In the fight against slavery the enslaved themselves played a massive role with constant rebellions. The most notable gave rise to the remembrance day when Saint Domingue rose up on August 23 1791 against French rule.
After abolition in 1834, tens of thousands of people applied for compensation for the loss of their property and that loan taken, which must be emphasied was only paid off in 2015. Following the revelation of this, the then Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron refused to formally apologise for Britain's role in slavery during a visit to Jamaica.
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