SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is pushing back hard against a claim by a former British government official that Britain’s former colonies should pay the country back for what she described as its historical contributions to them.
Mottley took to X late Thursday, calling the suggestion “asinine” and making clear where she stands: “I cannot believe we are being asked to respond to the suggestion that the descendants of the enslaved should pay for the machinery that oppressed them. The Caribbean does not owe Britain for slavery, for colonial extraction, or for laws that treated African people as chattel. We are not asking for charity. We are asking for justice, and history itself has already told the truth.”
The controversy was sparked by Suella Braverman — a former British Home Secretary and current member of the anti-immigration Reform UK party — who posted on X on July 3 that the British Empire “did so much good for the world.” Braverman made the comment in response to another parliamentarian who noted that Jamaica was planning to formally petition for reparations later this year.
“If the government is seriously thinking about this then former colonies should pay the British back for the considerable investment, effort and contribution that this country made which laid the foundations for many flourishing democracies today,” Braverman wrote.
Mottley’s response came in the wake of a meeting in St. Lucia where Caribbean leaders who belong to the regional trade bloc Caricom gathered this week to address several issues, including the topic of slavery reparations.
The Barbados prime minister also suggested that some British politicians may be using the issue as a distraction from problems at home. “Those who wish to speak on this matter should first take the time to read enough history to understand it,” she wrote. “The Caribbean will not be used as a prop for anyone’s politics.”
Last month, Mottley led a subcommittee of Caribbean leaders that unveiled a new slavery reparations manifesto at a reparations conference held in Ghana.
Under Mottley’s leadership, Barbados severed its ties with Queen Elizabeth II in November 2021, ending its status as a constitutional monarchy. The prime minister, who has also gained international recognition for her efforts on climate change, secured a third straight term in office in February.
The broader reparations debate has seen Britain maintain in recent years that it will not make financial amends, while Caribbean leaders have continued to push for a formal apology and measures such as debt cancellations.
The U.N. human rights chief has stated that an estimated 25 million to 30 million Africans were forcibly removed from their homelands for the purpose of slavery, with many sent to labor on plantations throughout the Caribbean and the Americas.
