Dear Editor,
In my research on the African Muslims in Guyana during the period of slavery, I stumbled across several publications on the compensation awarded to the former slave owners in the colony. It was a deplorable injustice, to say the least, when the kidnapped Africans were exploited, raped and murdered for about 400 years, at the end of which they received no compensation or restitution.
Their freedom was denied, their labour and families were appropriated, and when they were granted their freedom they were left to build their lives without any financial support or recognition of their years in bondage. This blatant injustice laid the foundation for moral outrage and continue to energize debates to right historical wrongs and to offer some form of reparations to the descendants of slaves.
The British government paid £20 million in compensation to former slave owners, including the British, Scottish, Irish, Dutch and a few other nationals from other European countries who still owned slaves in Guyana at the time of the payout. The former plantation owners of Guyana received a total of approximately £4.3 million as compensation for the loss of almost 83,000 of their slave property. This included compensation to the colored off springs of the white slave owners.
The compensation the slave owners and their families received provided them with the financial power to invest in industrial and land development, manufacturing, railway expansion in Europe (especially Britain), planned cities as well as other economic and financial areas. This development provided the recipients with the opportunity to multiply their wealth over several generations, very few if any declared bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, while the monetary windfall enriched the slave owners, which enabled them to retain their “white” privileges, the former slaves and their descendants faced institutionalized racism and disenfranchisement in every sector of society, especially in the USA and Europe. This pattern of disadvantage and exclusion continue to influence social structures and debates about [in]justice to this day, the economic effects of the payout also continue to shape European societies.
On 25th March 2026, on the occasion of the annual observance of the United Nations International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, introduced a resolution (A/80/L.48) on the reparations of slavery and to declare the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. While 58 countries took part in the drafting of the resolution, only two CARICOM countries participated in the process – Barbados and St. Kitts-Nevis, although Guyana did vote in favour of the resolution.
The resolution received 123 votes in favour. Three countries – Argentina, Israel and the United States – voted against while 52 countries abstained, which included the United Kingdom and member countries of the European Union (the countries that benefitted the most from the proceeds of slavery and the slave trade). The United Kingdom chose to compensate former slave owners but not the enslaved people themselves, simply because they claimed “lost” property after the abolition of chattel enslavement.
In fact, many British politicians, (including Robert Jenrick, a member of the Tory Party) are of the view that their former colonies instead owe the British a debt of gratitude for the inheritance the British left them. The former colonies should be proud and grateful that they were colonized by the British and the legacy they left them. Jenrick claimed that the British empire brought democratic institutions to those colonies and therefore should not demand reparations and does not deserve compensation. The United States, on the other hand, response to the resolution was that the “US does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.”
The compensation to slave owners “scandal” remains a powerful reminder of how societies can fail to deliver true justice. It highlights the need for honest remembrance, open dialogue, and concrete steps to address historical wrongs. As debates over reparations and racial justice continue, history challenges us to confront legacies of inequality and to demand a more equitable future.
On a side note, out of the £20 million compensation money, the British government raised £15 million through a public loan via a syndicated group of financiers headed by the British-German banker, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the British banking dynasty; and Moses Montefiore who was also a banker and a philanthropist.
Both Rothschild and Montefiore were Jews, Montefiore visited Palestine seven times during his lifetime. Montefiore and one of Nathan Mayer Rothschild’s nephews – Edmond James Rothschild – were two of the forces behind the creation of Israel following WWI, which resulted in the country’s establishment after WWII. During the 19th century, both Rothschild and Montefiore purchased hundreds of thousands of acres of Palestinian land to resettle European Jews, when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire. The creation of Israel has an uncanny link to the proceeds of slavery.
The £15 million loan was only repaid in full in 2015, part of the principal and interest, through taxation, was paid by the descendants (including many Guyanese) of the former slaves living in Britain which helped to pay off the loan.
Just my two cents.