Making a Case for Reparations

Introduction Reparations is one of the most misunderstood topics in recent years, and it is gradually becoming an area where even some angels fear to trend. There are now protagonists and antagonists of reparations all over the world, and it has divided people along racial lines. Most blacks want the payment of reparations to Africans and their descendant in the Diaspora because of the indescribable damages that have been done to the continent by the slave trade that took place over four hundred years ago. The late Chief M.K.O. Abiola belonged to this school of thought, but most whites regard such demands as frivolous, irrelevant and thus, should be ignored. In view of the above, I intend to define the concept of reparations, highlight some irreparable damages of the Atlantic slave trade, the consequences for the blacks, and provide an analysis of the contentions of the opponents of reparations. I shall then make a case for reparations, and conclude. It is interesting to note that when the Jews, Japanese, the North American Indians in Canada demanded and received reparations for the injuries inflicted on them, the world was positively silent, but the story was different when the blacks made similar demands. This is because the motives for these demands were misunderstood. The demand for reparations for blacks is not a phenomenon of the present century, and it was not originated by Africans and their descendants, but rather by William Wilberforce, a devoted Christian who made the first demand for reparations on behalf of Africans on the floor of the British Parliament when the slave trade had not been abolished in Britain. He made this demand in his final speech to his colleagues for the abolition of the slave trade, on the eve of his retirement from the British Parliament. The Concept of Reparations As stated above, the concept of reparations had been widely misunderstood, because the motive behind the demand had also been misunderstood, and misinterpreted. The word reparations is derived from the Latin word repare and it means to repair, and its present usage has not departed from its original meaning. Thus, reparations is simply a call or demand by the blacks of all nations and their descendant that participated and profited from the Atlantic slave trade that lasted for about four hundreds years, to repair or alleviate the legacies of underdevelopment, miseries, poverty and other problems associated with the trade in Africa and the Diaspora (these damages are enormous and the blacks are unable to carry out the repairs alone). Irreparable Damages: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade The trans-Atlantic slave trade has been described as one of the most inhuman events that has ever been recorded in human history; based on injustice, oppression, physical force, and slave owners who had the power of life and death over enslaved (Conrad 1986:22), a point was vividly highlighted by David Barry Gasper, when he said: ... when Antiga enslaved were executed for crimes, or when they were hunted down and killed as fugitives (by their owners), their owners were entitled to compensation from public funds after they had filed claims or petitions to the legislature (Gasper 1992 : 307). The unlimited powers of these slave owners in the peak of the slave trade resulted in the death of millions of black enslaved in America, and were once regarded economically as an important means of replenishing the working population on the plantations, and ideologically as a gratifying means of rescuing pagan souls for Christianity (Conrad 1983:3). Thus, it is also relevant to note that historians had not been able to record all the atrocities that were committed during the four decades of the slave trade which could be partly attributed to the fact that even when the slave trade had been officially abolished, some die-hard slave dealers still carried on with the trade because of the enormous profits they realized from this cruel business. …

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