In response to cries for justice from former colonies at the Oct. 21-26 British Empire’s Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting, the U.K. Tory Party leader Robert Jenricks insisted that Britain’s former colonies “owe us a debt of gratitude for the inheritance we left them,” and that former colonies should be “thankful for the legacy of Empire,” according to the Daily Mail. The Guardian quoted Jenricks as saying: “The territories colonized by our empire were not advanced democracies. Many had been cruel, slave-trading powers. Some had never been independent. The British empire broke the long chain of violent tyranny as we came to introduce—gradually and imperfectly—Christian values.”
The week-long CHOGM event was chaired by King Charles III and nearly every former colony had a list of grievances against British imperial rule. Commonwealth leaders confronted the King and insisted that the “time has come” for discussions on the injustices, including Britain’s role in the international slave trade. The bloc of 21 Caribbean nations known as CARICOM proposed a 10-point reparation plan, including a formal apology, debt cancellation, technology transfer, assistance resolving the public health crisis, and illiteracy eradication. Representatives from Great Britain made every attempt to keep any issue of justice off the agenda, and the King tried to put the focus on climate change, environmental financing, and protecting the oceans (of course).
Britain was the largest slave-trading nation and participated in the slave trade for over 300 years. Leaders, such as St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves argue that the legacy of the slave trade continues to plague Caribbean countries. The British Commonwealth consists of 56 member nations and represents 2.7 billion people. The leaders of major CHOGM nations India and South Africa did not bother to attend the Samoa CHOGM, and chose instead to attend the Oct. 22-24 BRICS summit in Russia.
