Britain’s long arc of injustice

‘There is copious evidence linking Britain’s rise as an industrial superpower to the exploitation of enslaved Africans and the creation of an Atlantic trading system that channelled mind-numbing wealth to their society.’

THE RECENT revelation that the British Government deported hundreds of Caribbean nationals, many of whom migrated to the UK under the Nationality Act of 1948 as citizens of the Commonwealth, and were granted indefinite leave to remain, is, in the words of British MP David Lammy, “inhumane and cruel”. It is inhumane and cruel because the 492 Caribbean nationals who migrated on the Empire Windrush, and the thousands who travelled subsequently, went to aid Britain’s post-World War II development.

Many would have braved the unforgiving British winter working on the London Underground, the National Rail, building bridges, roads and other sectors that had been destroyed by German bombers. Through their labour, and their taxes, they helped to re-establish Britain as a global economic power.

Yet, despite all this, changes in UK law between 2012 and 2014 demanded that they prove that they had the right to remain in Britain. For the thousands who could not, they were denied access to life-saving welfare services such as the National Health Service (NHS). They lost their housing and the right work. In short, they were denied their human dignity. It was particularly painful to watch grown men and women who have worked hard to give their families a dignified existence, and who have escaped the poverty trap that British colonialism imposed on the people of Caribbean, being subjected to such degrading and dehumanising treatment.

NOTHING NEW

But why should we be surprised by this? What happened to the Windrush Generation is nothing new. It is part and parcel of the long arc of injustice towards Caribbean nationals and their African ancestors. Evidence must suffice.

Before Windrush, Britain was involved in the kidnapping, trafficking, and exploitation of more than 15 million African men, women, and children. This state-sanctioned capitalist venture resulted in the deaths of more than two million Africans crossing the Atlantic. Millions more died while on the journey to the African coast. Millions of Africans were physically and socially displaced, and millions carried psychological scars of abuse and racial terrorism to the Americas.

Exploitation, dehumanisation, brutalisation and, ultimately, death, was the reality of the plantation experience in the Caribbean.

To counter this, enslaved people fought the racist superstructure created by colonial Britain. Tacky, Nanny, Quamina, Bussa, Sam Sharpe, Col. Gardiner and the thousands of unsung freedom fighters paid the ultimate sacrifice in their quest to create a Caribbean civilisation based on equity, justice, and opportunities for all. And at every stage of their enslavement, enslaved people met the full and uncompromising force of the world’s most powerful military and slave-trading nation.

It was the late prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Williams, who argued in Capitalism and Slavery (1944), that it was the exploitation of black bodies that provided the impetus for Britain’s industrial advancement. There is copious evidence linking Britain’s rise as an industrial superpower to the exploitation of enslaved Africans and the creation of an Atlantic trading system that channelled mind-numbing wealth to their society. The benefits of this system of trade and exploitation to the wider British society are significant. Vast amounts of wealth generated from enslavement were invested and reinvested in railroads, ship building, insurance, the financial sector, the arts, the physical landscape, shopkeeping, and just about every conceivable facet of British society.

CHANCE TO MAKE AMENDS

In 1833, the British Parliament had the opportunity to make amends to the enslaved peoples throughout the Caribbean. However, enslavers (more than 100 of whom were members of the House of Commons) argued that the freeing of enslaved people by British legislation was a violation of their property rights, and they demanded compensation. Subsequently, enslavers received £20 million sterling, or £17 billion in today’s money, from the British government as compensation for the loss of their ‘property’.

Another sweetener given to British enslavers was the granting of Apprenticeship (where the period of enforced labour was extended for a fixed term of six years and estimated to cost a further £27 million sterling).

This money was reinvested throughout Britain and the empire. Such legacies are traceable to families and institutions in Britain today. Among those who have benefited are the ancestors of the former UK prime minister, David Cameron; former minister Douglas Hogg; authors Graham Greene and George Orwell; and poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Other prominent names that feature in the records include scions of one of the nation’s oldest banking families, the Barings, and the second Earl of Harewood, Henry Lascelles, an ancestor of the Queen of England’s cousin.

The 1833 act that should have emancipated enslaved people further solidified the racist interpretation of Africans and their descendants as ‘property’. No accompanying legislation was passed in 1833 to compensate the 850,000 enslaved people who suffered