With the debate on ‘reparatory justice’ raging on, Reform UK has declared that it would not issue visas for the nationals of countries which demand slavery reparations if it were to form the next government.
Last month, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of a resolution which called for ‘reparatory justice’ – urging formal apologies, the restitution of cultural property, and compensation to address the perceived enduring legacies of the transatlantic slave trade.
Proposed by Ghana and supported by Nigeria – where the wealthy and powerful Asante and Yoruba elites benefited from the selling of slaves to European merchants – the UK abstained (with the United States, Argentina, and Israel being the only countries voting against the resolution). A total of 152 countries supported it.
While the risk of a visa-blocking arms race between the UK and fellow members of the Commonwealth is hugely undesirable and would badly damage the association’s image, the UK should adopt a tougher stance within global institutions such as the UN over the matter of slavery reparations.
It is true that Britain participated in slave-trading activities, but it most certainly played a pioneering humanitarian role in suppressing the transatlantic slave trade. It was the home of abolitionist campaigning, spearheaded by the leading Yorkshire-born philanthropist William Wilberforce.
The decades-long operation by the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron (also known as the Preventive Squadron) to intercept the more sophisticated and dynamic slave ships to liberate captured Africans headed for the Americas was incredibly costly - not only financially, but in terms of human loss.
It was a mission carried out under extremely challenging conditions, with many British sailors losing their lives in combat operations or because of tropical diseases.
Also, the claim that slave-trading and slavery were integral to colonial Britain’s economic development is a controversial one.
Most economic historians are of the view that its contribution was somewhere between marginal and modest. The UK continues to have one of the world’s largest economies, having a financial and cultural powerhouse in the shape of London – this has little to do with imperial wealth generated from slave-trading activities.
A visa-blocking arms race is a price worth paying to put an end to the insanity of reparations - Rakib Ehsan | Getty Images
There is also the argument that former parts of the British Empire, calling for ‘reparatory justice’ – many now being independent nation-states for decades – should take more responsibility if they are dissatisfied with their own level of economic advancement and social development.
Taking ownership of national failures is the more difficult thing to do, but improvements in the quality of internal governance could go a long way.
As argued in Policy Exchange’s One Family report, the UK – through international associations such as the Commonwealth – should shift the debate away from reparatory justice and towards a truly future-oriented agenda which focuses on strengthening trade and investment ties in the spirit of economic partnership.
Harnessing the strategic potential of international associations such as the Commonwealth in areas such as trade, education, healthcare and the environment would be more fruitful than the complicated and divisive matter of reparatory justice.
More generally, it is high time for the UK’s leaders to be more confident over its rich traditions of humanitarianism and moral sacrifice – they must represent mainstream sentiments by unapologetically advancing the view that Britain has, for all its flaws, done more good than harm in the world.
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