The Jamaican government will petition King Charles III on Monday as the country seeks reparations for African ancestors who suffered under centuries of enslavement, the Culture Ministry said. The delegation, led by Culture Minister Olivia Grange, will ask the king, Jamaica's head of state, to refer three questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the island's highest court of appeal in London.

The three questions concern the legality of the transatlantic slave trade and Britain's potential obligation to provide reparations. Jamaica says this is the first time a Commonwealth country has used the legal route to pursue reparatory justice. Grange pointed to Britain's £20 million (€23.28 million) compensation payment to slave owners following the abolition of slavery in 1833.

"Up to 2015, Britain was paying the slave masters, because we were being considered property," Grange said. "The question really should be: if in modern times we're still paying back the slave masters for the property that was our people, our ancestors, for property that was because of the abolition of slavery, then why shouldn't we be pursuing some remedy at this time?"

Grange said Jamaica wanted the legal questions answered before deciding on its next steps. The Jamaican delegation will also meet British Museum officials to discuss the return of colonial-era artefacts. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the king has expressed his commitment to promoting greater understanding around the issue of slavery and finding ways to address historic wrongs.

While Caribbean nations have in recent years called for an apology and measures including debt relief, the British government has said it will not pay slavery reparations. The transatlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries involved Europeans (and later Americans) kidnapping, enslaving, and transporting millions of Africans to their colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean.

An estimated 12–15 million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic over four centuries, with about 10.7 million surviving the journey to the Americas. Up to 2 million died during the crossing. Haiti gained independence from France in 1804 after a successful slave revolt, but France forced the new state in 1825 to pay 150 million gold francs to former slaveholders as compensation for "lost property," threatening war if it refused.

It took Haiti more than a hundred years to settle the debt, plunging the Caribbean nation into a long-term cycle of poverty. The legacy of slavery remains a contentious issue. Earlier in March, when the United Nations General Assembly voted to recognize the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity," the United Kingdom and European Union member states abstained, while the United States, Israel, and Argentina voted against the resolution.

Source: www.dw.com