Black Britons ‘ought to be paid slavery reparations’, Sir Lenny Henry says

Every black individual in Britain should be paid slavery reparations, Sir Lenny Henry has argued.

The 67-year-old comedian and racism advocate has previously argued that as much as £18trillion should be given to the Caribbean nations by Britain in acknowledgment of its historic role in the slave trade.

But Sir Lenny – who has co-written a book on the subject, The Big Payback – has also outlined the reasons why black people living in Britain and not just the states should also receive compensation.

The Caribbean nations of Jamaica, Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis and Barbados, which were under British control, connected Britain to Western Africa and the Americas and formed a key part of the triangular slave trade between the countries and Britain.

They grew in population from a few thousand in the mid-17th Century to 18,000 in the 1680s – with slaves making up more than half of the total.

Britain prohibited trade in slaves in its empire in 1807 but did not formally abolish the practice of slavery until 1834.

To compensate slave owners, the British government took out a £20million loan – a very large sum at the time – and only finished paying off the ensuing interest payments in 2015.

In his forthcoming book, co-authored with TV executive and charity boss Marcus Walker, Sir Lenny puts forward the argument that all black British people should receive reparations.

Every black individual in Britain should be paid slavery reparations, Sir Lenny Henry argues in his forthcoming book

In one section they write, ‘we personally deserve money for the effects of slavery’, arguing that it directly led to racism and black people being treated unfavourably in Britain, The Daily Telegraph reported.

They add that ‘the reason we have racism today and also why black British people are grossly over-represented in the prison population’, as well as higher levels of unemployment, is ‘all because of the transatlantic slave trade.’

The pair argue that the reparations are not only justly deserved but also are a necessity for ‘ridding the world of racism’.

According to the latest figures, the majority of Britain’s 2.4 million black population are of African descent.

More than 15 million people were shackled into the transatlantic slave trade, according to the United Nations. 

The transatlantic slave trade was a triangular route from Europe to Africa, to the Americas and back to Europe.

Merchants exported goods to Africa in return for enslaved Africans, gold, ivory and spices. The ships then headed across to the American colonies, where the slaves were sold for sugar, tobacco, cotton and other produce.

Once in the colonies, the slaves worked on plantations and inside the homes of Europeans as cleaners, cooks or other household domestics. 

The products were then brought back to Europe, benefiting British citizens and producing profit for businesses based in Britain. 

Slaves were victim to an oppressive regime that exploited labour to make profit for wealthy landowners. They were bought and sold as property and often lived under horrendous conditions.

In 1672 the Royal Africa Company was formed and held the monopoly on the British slave trade. Jamaica became one of the busiest markets and African slaves soon outnumbered Europeans five to one. 

The gold it supplied to the Royal Mint was named the guinea, after the West African country from which the gold was taken.