海角大神

Kim Howard made her way to the Barbados National Archive last month in search of family history 鈥� and answers. Delicately paging through fragile tomes in the sparsely decorated, coral-stone former sanitarium, she found herself face to face with a document naming her enslaved great-great-great-grandfather: Cato, 5.聽

The record was from 1796, so Cato would have been about 9 years old, says the marketing professional, who remembers wondering why it had him listed as 5.聽

Then it hit her: 鈥淭his 9-year-old, my relative, was valued at 拢5,鈥� she says.聽

The West Indies were home to hundreds of years of a brutal system of enslaved labor, which funded the European Industrial Revolution and much of its subsequent wealth and development. More than 65% of enslaved Africans in the Americas worked on plantations in the Caribbean. Referred to as 鈥淟ittle England,鈥� tiny Barbados was one of the most valuable British colonies, where it enslaved an estimated half-million people who were used to plant, grow, cut, and process sugar cane 鈥� white gold. It 鈥減erfected鈥� reliance on slave labor for plantation crops by instituting one of the first slave labor codes, a legal framework England exported to its colonies, including the United States.

Nearly 200 years since emancipation and 60 since independence from England, Barbados has emerged as a leading voice for reparations for slavery. Activists and academics feel their work has finally gained traction: This year alone, the Church of England and University of Glasgow issued formal apologies and pledged monetary reparations for their role in the transatlantic slave trade. Descendants of those who profited from enslavement are advocating governmental reparations and setting an example for making individual amends. One family publicly apologized and pledged 拢100,000 鈥� about $125,000 鈥� to nearby Grenada in February. And since Barbados鈥� move to become a republic in 2021, no longer recognizing the British monarchy as symbolic head of state, there鈥檚 renewed pressure on the crown to take a formal stand. At the ceremony in Barbados, then-Prince Charles became the first of the royal family to formally lament the 鈥渁ppalling atrocity of slavery.鈥�

Still, the reparations conversation doesn鈥檛 come easily for many Barbadians.

鈥淚 feel torn and mixed up,鈥� says Ms. Howard, who moderates a Barbadian genealogy Facebook group. 鈥淲as there an injustice done? Absolutely. Do we have examples in history where people wrongly done by got reparations? Yes.

鈥淢y question is, what would it look like?鈥� she adds.聽

Unlike in the U.S., where discussions trip over putting a price tag on what鈥檚 owed to individuals, the emphasis here is on the communal. As part of the Caribbean Community, a 15-state organization, Barbados has called for a 鈥渇ull and formal apology鈥� from European governments. And it鈥檚 put the monetary emphasis on investments that would benefit the entire, majority-Black population, regardless of an individual鈥檚 links to enslaved people or enslavers. That includes areas from public health and education to technology and infrastructure. The approach says much about the structures of inequality and racism that endure.

鈥淥ur story is the story of resistance,鈥� says David Comissiong, Barbados鈥� ambassador to the Caribbean Community and deputy chair of the regional reparations task force. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done tremendous things with what little was left to us. But at the same time, because of that history, that hundreds of years of looting and plundering of resources, there are material gaps in our state of physical development that need to be corrected.聽

鈥淭his is the era of reparations,鈥� he adds.

Meaningful connections

Barbados has made a name for itself, creating a national reparations task force in 2012 and participating in the Caribbean Community鈥檚 groundbreaking 2014 reparations plan. It landed in the international spotlight recently for calls targeting wealthy Britons for individual reparations 鈥� like movie star Benedict Cumberbatch and conservative member of Parliament Richard Drax, whose family still runs its 17th-century plantation here.聽

Reparations are millennia old, created as a way of ending conflict between clans by paying blood money, says Luke Moffett, an expert on reparations and human rights law at Queen鈥檚 University Belfast in Northern Ireland. 鈥淚t was a way of settling the past and not letting it fester.鈥澛�

In the modern context, reparations are largely political. When the public does get directly involved, it can carry its own form of healing, says Dr. Moffett: 鈥淐itizen involvement can help chart a way forward rather than being burdened with the past.鈥澛�

In Barbados you don鈥檛 have to look far to see structural injustices carried forward since slavery 鈥� from an overstretched public health system to the changing climate that鈥檚 brought longer hurricane seasons and sargassum seaweed. Officials here directly link these repercussions of global warming to actions of industrialized nations, like former colonizers.聽

While governments chip away at calls for reparations from Europe, 鈥渨e as individuals can seek self-reparations 鈥� through genealogy and the reconstitution of families, reconnecting with our history, repairing trauma,鈥� says Pedro Welch, a historian. He built a home on the sliver of land miraculously purchased and passed down by his formerly enslaved great-great-great-grandfather, John Thomas Brewster. Dr. Welch gestures to a mammee apple tree that he suspects could have been there since Brewster鈥檚 first taste of freedom.聽

On a recent, breezy evening, a pounding African-drum beat seeps out of the Haynesville Youth Club rehearsal space where young girls stand three lines deep. Their dance instructor calls out, 鈥淭ell yourself, 鈥業 am important. I have purpose.鈥欌�澛�

The girls understand: They tuck their bottoms, push back their shoulders, and stand tall in first position. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 fake it. You have to believe it,鈥� he continues, calling on the group to move into second position while young boys sit along the wall banging out the unconventional ballet soundtrack.

These are all lessons meant to go far beyond biweekly classes, addressing negative stereotypes that persist around African culture and descendance, particularly in low-income zones, like this one. This community center used to be a police outpost, with a bird鈥檚-eye view to surveil the community of candybox-colored single-family homes. 聽

鈥淭he legacy of the Barbadian people is that of our ancestors. The very fact that, with all they were facing, they fought back, stood up and resisted slavery and all the horrors: They were resilient people,鈥� says Rodney Grant, a member of Barbados鈥� reparations task force. 鈥淭hese were some of the things they passed on to us 鈥� the people who then, when they were free to form a government, even though still under colonial rule, did so with pure resilience. It was the same energy to fight back, create something from nothing.鈥�

The youth club and other grassroots groups on the island work to empower and unite communities through academics, entrepreneurship, culture, and the arts.聽

鈥淯sing arts, sports, and culture as a means to transform society is another way of emancipating people. This is a form of repair,鈥� says Sophia Greaves-Broome, CEO of the Pinelands Creative Workshop, a聽community-development organization. 鈥淸Local] reparations are already underway.鈥�

Damian, the father of one of the young dancers, waits outside. He wants his daughter to feel proud of where she comes from. 鈥淚nformation is passed down through culture. Whether it鈥檚 drumming or dance, there are always traces of slavery in that,鈥� he says, asking that his last name not be used.聽

He firmly favors reparations. But he works in the service industry and fears that his mostly white clients could be offended by the idea. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how whites think about reparations,鈥� he says, though he acknowledges the term is better understood here now than even a decade ago.聽

Barbados is 96% Black or multiracial; 2.7% of the population identifies as white.

Giving a history of Barbados to a group of Black and white foreigners on a recent morning, a tour guide in downtown Bridgetown said that 鈥渟he wanted to be sure to mention鈥� it wasn鈥檛 just Europeans participating in the slave trade, but Africans as well. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to offend anyone,鈥� she later explained. 鈥淸Reparation] sounds nice, but we鈥檙e so [racially] mixed on the island, I don鈥檛 see how it would be fair.鈥�

For Justin Went, a young Black businessperson, slavery ended too long ago to keep bringing it up and asking people 鈥渨ho had nothing to do with it鈥� to repent.聽

鈥淏lacks built Barbados,鈥� says Kazziah, a school monitor who declined to give her last name. 鈥淏ut today I think we鈥檙e too busy trying to make ends meet to really think much about getting reparations for what was taken,鈥� she says, sipping spiced sorrel at a sunset picnic.

Making the 鈥渁sk鈥� mainstream 聽

Part of the work of Barbados鈥� reparations committee is to make the topic more familiar and mainstream. It鈥檚 a work in progress, say members of the committee, past and present. But even before the town hall meetings, TV specials, and social media campaigns, there was the need to talk more openly about the history of slavery itself.

鈥淒iscussing the past means we remember what happened to our people,鈥� says Dr. Welch, a previous chair of Barbados鈥� reparations task force. 鈥淭here was a time when our people were considered inferior, and some of our older Barbadians aren鈥檛 too interested in bringing up that past.鈥澛�

As a British colony, Barbados created the first slave laws, which codified violence against enslaved people, defining them as chattel property. Slavery legally ended in British colonies in 1834, but an 鈥渁pprenticeship鈥� program, which said enslaved people had to learn to be free citizens, meant they weren鈥檛 fully emancipated until 1838. Structural limitations persisted, universal suffrage wasn鈥檛 introduced until 1950, and it wasn鈥檛 until 1980 that renters on plantation outskirts were able to purchase land.

Following emancipation, Britain raised funds to pay enslavers for their 鈥渓ost property鈥� (freed slaves), a tab of billions of pounds in today鈥檚 currency, which the British government only finished paying in 2015.聽

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to look very hard to see we are only recently emerging from the shadows of the enslavement period,鈥� Dr. Welch, the historian, says.

On a sweltering afternoon, historian Kevin Farmer dribbles rum on the sacred grounds of the Newton burial site, paying respects to 600 enslaved Barbadians interred here. A sun-crisped, grass hill near Bridgetown, it鈥檚 the only slave burial site discovered in Barbados. Experts have identified family plots and individuals interred with personal objects, like jewelry and earthenware that pin personal details to a population deliberately stripped of its humanity.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 allowed us to knit back together some of the understanding and intimacy slavery erased,鈥� says Mr. Farmer, deputy director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society. 鈥淭o know where we鈥檙e going, we need to understand the past.鈥澛�

How slavery is taught in schools has changed dramatically, moving away from the narrative of European 鈥渄iscovery鈥� and cash crops to one that includes chronicles of local slave rebellions and resistance. The increased awareness has led to tangible shifts, like the removal of a statue of Lord Horatio Nelson in 2020, which stood in Bridgetown鈥檚 National Heroes Square for two centuries. He was a pro-slavery British war hero.聽

A new monument designed to take its place celebrates the breaking of slavery鈥檚 shackles, reunification of families after emancipation, and national heroes who represent Barbadian resilience and resistance.聽

Hugh Holder and Vincent Jones 鈥� designers of the new work 鈥� hope the project sparks conversations.聽

鈥淲e want every Barbadian to see themselves in the monument. But like any country,聽Barbados is constantly changing,鈥� says Mr. Jones. 鈥淭here were generations of people who put up with the Nelson statue and didn鈥檛 see anything wrong with it.鈥澛�

Starting a bigger process聽

At dusk on a recent Friday, Ms. Howard cautiously walks a gravel road on the Chapel Plantation, part of present-day Carrington Estates Ltd. Thanks to historical documents, she knows her great-great-great-grandfather Cato toiled here when he was 9 years old. When she thinks about her聽enslaved relatives like Cato, she doesn鈥檛 let her mind wander too far into how they suffered. That part鈥檚 a given.

鈥淲as he a nice man? Was he kind to his wife and kids?鈥� she asks. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have the answers to those questions. What did he look like?鈥�

Identifying ancestors and piecing together their stories has made her more aware of the possibility of reparations. A genuine apology for enslavement would be a start, but investment is important, too, she says: 鈥淚t could go toward another university or funding for a series of schools, or simply a way to provide better training for teachers.聽

鈥淚t would be a good, just way to help everyone.鈥�

This story was produced as part of a special Monitor series exploring the reparations debate, in the United States and around the world.聽Explore more.