The Voice | “Mere Apologies are not Enough”
Mere Apologies are not Enough
Campaigner Patrick Vernon calls for meaningful action, not just words, from descendants of Britain’s wealthy slave owners, following their recent public apology in Jamaica for their families’ ties to the Transatlantic slave trade.
Jamaicans call for reparations outside the British High Commission in March, 2022. Earlier this year members of the Heirs of Slavery group visited Jamaica to apologise for their families’ links to slavery (Pic: Getty)
“What’s important for these families that apologise, is to have a proper engagement process and co-creation around what is reparations based on the experiences either on the Caribbean islands or in the UK.”
‘One-sided’
He added: “There’s been a precedent where some of the process around reparations has been one-sided.”
“As more and more families apologise, this raises fundamental issues about other families and institutions in Britain who also have to take a pro-active approach in this as well.”
Vernon said the legacy of slavery includes prevalent global structural racism, which is part of “the hurt and harm we are still dealing with after 400 years.”
At a ceremony in July – known as Jubilee Night – which marks the anniversary of the emancipation of enslaved African people in the Caribbean – several members of the Heirs of Slavery group delivered short video messages of apologies, according to a news update in their third newsletter.
The group represented the Wedderburn, Harrison, Fergusson/Renton and Gladstone families.
In a video message, Robin Wedderburn revealed his ancestor John Wedderburn, inherited Prospect Estate in Jamaica, from his father, John Wedderburn of Spring Garden – who owned ten plantations.
He said: “John of Spring Garden became by the end of the 18th century the owner of ten plantations. Our ancestors were therefore involved in the terrible crime of human chattel enslavement. By any standard, this is a deeply shameful thing and the history of it all, utterly horrifying.”
He continued: “We five Wedderburns – Sarah, Harry, Alister, Susannah and I – want to acknowledge our historical links to enslavement and to make apology to the people of Jamaica.
“We declare ourselves committed to speaking out against any attempt to ignore or excuse this ghastly history and to do what we can to promote repair. We recognise that the effects of this evil persist today –deprivation of opportunity and prosperity, continuing racial prejudice and no doubt more.
‘Forgiving hand’
“For us to start offering you our hand in friendship would be ridiculous. Instead, we come to you with a big ask: that you might, in spite of the past, offer us your forgiving hand.”
Vernon warned that any proposals of reparations must be “meaningful” or they run the risk of being “very bitty.”
He said: “There needs to be more of a dialogue with diaspora communities, the role of CARICOM is important in all of this, but also our role, as campaigners, as reparationists in the UK to also play a key role in shaping the responses from these families and apologise in the way that is truly meaningful and impactful.”
A wreath-laying ceremony was attended by Laura Trevelyan, who has previously apologised to the people of Grenada for her family’s role in slavery on the Eastern Caribbean island.
Two descendants of the Malcolm family, Kate Thomas and Aidee Walker, travelled from New Zealand to be at the ceremony also and spoke to the crowd on stage.
Kate Thomas said: “In late 2022 my sister, Aidee Walker, did one of those popular DNA tests, which surprisingly indicated a connection to Nigeria. It encouraged us to explore our ancestors’ migration stories to New Zealand.
“We discovered that our 3rd great-grandfather, Neill Malcolm, had been born in Jamaica in 1825, and had emigrated to New Zealand from Britain in 1849, when he was twenty-four. Neill’s birth records state that he was ‘quattro or mulatto’.
“We learned that he had been born to John Malcolm and his housekeeper, Mary Johnson, and that John was the proprietor of Argyle Estate in Hanover Parish. John Malcolm was part of the Scottish Clan Malcolm, who over three generations and nearly 100 years had owned several plantations in Jamaica, worked by thousands of enslaved people”
Thomas a sixth-generation New Zealander, said she contacted Trevelyan for guidance, which led to an apology at Jamaica’s Emancipation Jubilee at Great Seville House on 31st July 2024.
‘First step’
She added: “This month also marked the 200th anniversary of an uprising on Argyle Estate, which had resulted in six enslaved people being executed for fighting for freedom.
“Any apology is always a positive step forward, but an apology must be linked to the issue of reparations. What’s important for these families that apologise, is to have a proper engagement process and co-creation around what is reparations based on”
Patrick Vernon OBE
“We never set out to make an apology. We debated who it would serve, and decided we would only apologise if it was meaningful to Jamaicans.
“But Professor Verene Shepherd, former Director of Reparations Research at the University of the West Indies, assured us that an apology was an important first step toward reparatory justice, and from then on we instinctively knew that it was a commitment we needed to make. It was a deeply profound experience, difficult to put into words.”
She said: “The apology marked the beginning of our journey, not the end. We will continue to educate ourselves about this deeply disturbing history, to support other families exploring acknowledgment or apology, and to work towards reparatory justice.”
Donation
In 2023, Trevelyan a former BBC reporter for over 30 years, left her job to join the growing movement for reparatory justice for the descendants of the Transatlantic slave trade in the Caribbean.
The Trevelyan family owned six sugar plantations and owned more than 1,000 enslaved Africans in Grenada and received approximately £34,000 in compensation for their loss of “property” in 1834, after slavery was abolished.
That sum is estimated to be worth £3m in today’s money.
Ms Trevelyan is to make a donation of £100,000 as a form of reparations for the people of Grenada, from her BBC pension.
She revealed to The Voice, she is open to making further donations to the Caribbean country where possible.
Her family is the first to pay reparations and issue a public apology for what their ancestors did, which she hopes will encourage “others to acknowledge their past” and inspire others to make “charitable donations – if they are in the position to.”
Heirs of Slavery is also urging Britain begin long-requested talks on reconciliation and reparative justice for the descendants of the 3.1m enslaved African people transported across the Atlantic by Britain.