- President of Guyana Calls for Posthumous Charges
- Reparations Demand for Descendants of Slaveholders
- Gladstone Family Arrives in Guyana for Apology and Reparation
As the Gladstone family repents in Guyana, the South American leader insists that slaveholder descendants pay today’s generations.
Ahead of a formal apology by the descendants of a British slave proprietor, the Guyana’s president has called for those involved in the slave trade to be charged posthumously with crimes against humanity.
The transatlantic slave trade’s beneficiaries owe reparations to today’s generations, according to President Irfaan Ali.
Mr. Ali, who has previously demanded an apology from the United Kingdom for its role in the slave trade, made his remarks as six members of the Gladstone family were scheduled to travel to Guyana to formally apologize on behalf of Scottish 19th-century sugar and coffee plantation owner John Gladstone.
He was the father of former British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, and although he never visited South America or the surrounding West Indian islands, he owned over 2,500 slaves in Guyana and Jamaica.
Gladstone was in command when the 1823 slave revolt began on his Success Village plantation in eastern Guyana.
According to historical records, hundreds of slaves were slain. Their heads were chopped and put on poles along the Georgetown highway to remind other slaves.
In 1833, when slavery was abolished, Gladstone received more than £100,000 in compensation.
Mr. Ali has also requested that the family’s contrition address issues of reparation and restitution.
The president stated that while he applauds the family’s decision to acknowledge the past, it also signifies “an acknowledgment of the brutal nature of African enslavement and indentureship in Guyana and an act of contrition that paves the way for justice.”
“The Gladstone family has admitted that it benefited from African enslavement and indentureship on the Demerara and other plantations owned by its patriarch, John Gladstone,” he continued.
Mr. Ali argued, in support of reparations, that “reparations are a commitment to rectifying historical wrongs.”
“The transatlantic slave trade and the enslavement of Africans were an affront to humanity itself,” he stated. The heinousness of this offense against humanity necessitates that we seek redress.
Caricom’s 15 members have recruited a British law firm to investigate their reimbursement claim from Britain and other European nations.
“The descendants of John Gladstone must now outline their plan of action by the Caricom… plan for reparative justice for slavery and indentureship,” said Mr. Ali.
The current plan includes an apology as well as investments in health, infrastructure, education, and cultural revitalization to ensure that “future generations are liberated from the shackles of history.
The Gladstones will apologize at the opening of the International Institute for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the University of Guyana, which they are reportedly assisting to fund with a £100,000 grant.
