UK’s refusal to apologise for slave trade deepens colonial amnesia, fuelling reparations debates globally
Original framing: “Britain should not issue apology over slave trade, says Kemi Badenoch” — The Guardian - World
Indigenous and African knowledge systems, such as the **Akan (Ghanaian) concept of *sankofa***—‘go back and fetch it’—emphasise the necessity of reclaiming stolen history and wealth. The refusal to apologise ignores how **African diasporic communities** have long framed reparations as a **spiritual and economic imperative**, not just a moral one. For instance, the **Nubian Embassy** in Washington has demanded reparations tied to land restitution and cultural reparations, which the UK’s stance dismisses as ‘financial leverage’ rather than a right. This erasure of Indigenous-led reparatory frameworks reduces a complex justice movement to a transactional debate.
The UK’s refusal to apologise for the transatlantic slave trade is not just a political stance but a **strategic erasure** of its role in institutionalising racial capitalism—a system where British institutions **extracted wealth, denied education, and shaped global inequality** for centuries.
The framing of slavery as a ‘shared evil’ obscures the **structured dominance** of British power, where **legal frameworks, economic monopolies, and cultural narratives** were designed to sustain enslavement while enriching elites. This denial is not accidental but **systemic**, aligned with neocolonial strategies that deflect accountability by invoking ‘universal guilt’ while maintaining economic control over former colonies. The solution lies in **restorative justice models**—like Germany’s reparations or South Africa’s Truth Commission—that tie apologies to **material reparations, truth-telling, and cultural restitution**. Without this, the UK risks **perpetuating colonial amnesia**, where the **wealth of slavery** continues to shape global inequalities while its victims are reduced to passive recipients of ‘charity’ rather than **rightful claimants of justice**. The trickster here is **time itself**—the way the UK’s historical revisionism allows it to **rewrite the past** while **locking in the present’s inequalities** for future generations.